We have received from the signal corps officer, a copy of the New York Herald, of Monday last, the 1st inst. The following is a summary of the news:
Lincoln's draft Consolidated
--500,000 men called for — the Real Call being for 200,000.Lincoln has issued the following call for troops:
Executive Mansion, Washington, Feb. 1st, 1864.
Ordered, that a draft for 500,000 men to serve for three years or during the war be made on the 10th day of March next, for the military service of the United States, crediting and deducting therefrom so many as may have been enlisted or drafted into the service prior to the 1st day of March and not heretofore credited.
The Herald says:
‘ "The new order is but a consolidation of the two calls previously issued for 300,000 men, nearly half of whom were obtained by volunteering and re-enlistments, and which number, as well as those enlisted up to the 1st of March next, will be credited. Therefore the call virtually demands only two hundred thousand men. If the enlistment of soldiers is properly and vigorously advanced, there will be no need of any draft to fill the quota demanded by Mr. Lincoln."
’ Upon this announcement the Herald has a characteristic article about having "peace from Maine to the Rio Grande," and then "getting with England and France."
Capture of a Yankee army train — severe fight in Hardy county, Va.
The following dispatch is telegraphed to the New York papers.
Headq'rs Dep't Western Virginia,
On Thursday night a train of about eighty wagons was sent out from New Creek, heavily laden with commissary stores for the garrison at Petersburg, and accompanying the train was an escort of 800 men, being detachments from the 23d Illinois, (Irish Brigade,) 4th Virginia cavalry, 2d Maryland, 1st and 14th Virginia infantry, and 100 of the Ringgold cavalry battalion, the whole under command of Col. J. W. Snyder.
Nothing unusual occurred until the train got about three miles south of Williamsport, when it was suddenly set upon at different points by open and concocted forces of the enemy.
Although somewhat surprised by the suddenness of the attack, the guard at once formed and deployed for action. Then it was that a hard fight ensued, commencing at 3 o'clock in the afternoon and lasting for over four hours, at the expiration of which time it was found that we had about eighty in killed and wounded, rank and file. The enemy's loss is said to be about one hundred.
In the early part of the fight the rebels opened fire from four pieces of artillery. The superiority of the enemy's strength — there being in all about 2,000 men — also gave them an advantage in out flanking movements, and the enemy exercised his ingenuity simultaneously to operate on the front, rear, and flanks of Col. Snyder's command.
The enemy, however, completely failed of his object, which seemed to be to try to surround, and if possible to capture, the whole party. Several times the rebel lines were broken, and several times the rebel charges were repulsed.
At last, as night closed, the superior numbers of the rebels, and not their good fighting qualities, gained them a success.
At one time the train was in a fair way of being entirely saved; but owing to the excitable skedaddling propensities of some few of the teamsters, and the effect of their conduct on others, a kind of panic was the result. A portion of the train was saved notwithstanding the above mentioned misfortunes. On hearing of the engagement, Colonel Mulligan at once sent reinforcements to Colonel Snyder.
A later dispatch than the above says that the command of Col. Thoburn, which comprised the garrison at Petersburg, had succeeded in making their escape by a mountain road, passing between two of our columns, with all their trains, guns, &c. The dispatch says that the next morning Gen. Early shelled the evacuated fortifications.
A dispatch from Washington states that dispatches had been received at the Yankee War Department, from Gen. Kelly, confirming the capture of the trains above alluded to.
From East Tennessee.
The latest dispatch from Knoxville announces that the rebels had captured and driven off 800 head of cattle. Longstreet has "changed his front," and occupied the rich Valley of the Tennessee, upon which the Union army depended for subsistence.
Miscellaneous.
Andy Johnson has appointed the 5th of March for holding an election for State officers in Tennessee.The Kentucky Legislature has adjourned without electing an U. S. Senator.
A soldier at Mattoon, Ind., attempted to make a citizen take the oath on the 30th ult., and on his refusal shot him dead. Great excitement was created by the act.
Judge Murphy, of Fort Smith, has been elected "Provisional Governor" of Arkansas, by the "Convention" of that State.
Gold was quoted in New York on Saturday, at 157 ⅞.
