Important order of General Meade--Arrangement
for Holding on to volunteers whose
time has expired.
The Washington Star, of Friday evening, has the following important announcement, showing that there is, and is to be, trouble in the Army of the Potomac with the expired enlistment men. It is because of this that Burnside has gone to Grant, in stead of undertaking his independent expedition up the Peninsula.
The Star says: ‘ As the time is approaching when a number of the regiments belonging to the Army of the Potomac are to be discharged from the military service of the United States, by reason of the expiration of the term of service for which they were mustered into said service, Major Gen. Meade has announced to such troops that the War Department has decided that the term of service of a regiment is to be computed from the date of muster into the service of the United States, without reference to the date of enrollment or any service rendered a State.
’ The Commanding General will, however, at all times, be glad to receive and forward, for the consideration of the proper authorities, any respectful communication touching the term of service of a regiment, when such term appears to be involved in doubt.
The Commanding General, in making this announcement, expresses the hope that regiments which may be discharged will cheerfully acquiesce in the decision of the Government with regard to their term of service, and that no organized bodies of individuals, after having borne an unsullied reputation during all the eventful scenes which have marked their connection with the army of the Potomac, will suffer the honorable fame they have won by their gallantry and good conduct to be tarnished in the closing hours of their service by acts of insubordination, which, if ventured upon by any, will be promptly suppressed, and can only terminate in the speedy and certain punishment of the offending parties.
The Red river defeat.
A correspondent of the St. Louis Democrat, writing from the steamer Polar Star, in Red river, April 15th, makes a very clear statement of the Yankee defeat, with the exception of repeating the lie about the second day's fight. The Polar Star had on board paroled Confederate prisoners from New Orleans, and was halted from the bank by the Confederates. The writer says:‘ The rebels boarded us, and having been in the fight were of course posted, and spread the news among the prisoners, who were all old acquaintances and friends, and it seemed for a time that Pandemonium was broken loose. Such a babel of tongues and such shouting and yelling. I never heard. Our poor guards' faces were greatly elongated, but we were unmolested for the rest of the day, and anchored at Grand Ecore for the night.--The next day I went over to see the boys, who frankly admitted being whipped, and say they lost about five thousand killed, wounded, and prisoners; two hundred wagons, several horses, and twenty-two pieces of cannon, on Friday.
’ On Saturday they recaptured ten pieces of cannon and took fifteen hundred prisoners, but did not however, retake their wagons. They were obliged to leave their wounded in charge of the surgeons and fall back to Grand Ecore for supplies.
Instead of being disheartened the boys are in excellent spirits, and determined to put the matter through next time. A force of five thousand was sent up to assist the fleet, which reached Grand Ecore riddled with shot and shell yet not materially injured. They had to fight their way through with a loss of several killed and wounded; but Porter was with them, and backed by his iron-clads, they fought their way stubbornly, step by step, and got in without the loss of a boat.
Had the rebels been alive to the importance of this prize, and sent a force large enough to capture the fleet, or even to destroy it, Banks would have been in an awful condition.
The Federals Hurrying the Garrison troops to
the front.
The movement towards garrisoning the defences of the harbor of New York has commenced by the order of Gen. Sandford to the 4th artillery, New York National Guard, to turn out for thirty days duty on the 4th of May. The fort to which this regiment is to be assigned is not yet made known.
A telegram from Washington says: ‘ the rapidity with which the bill reported by the Military Committee this afternoon, appropriating $25,00,000 for the pay, arming, equipping, and transportation of the volunteers called out by the President for one hundred days, passed the House, under a suspension of the rules, was a conclusive evidence that a large majority were satisfied of the wisdom and expediency of the measure. There was very little opposition manifested, and that was completely overwhelmed by the preponderance of sentiment in its favor.
’ Three new regiments have been organized by Wisconsin, and are en route for the front. The 36th and 37th have been assigned to Burnside's corps, and the 38th to the second army corps.
The Veteran Reserves organized at New Orleans have been ordered to Washington.
A Characteristic article from the Herald--
Grant's estimate of the Virginia campaign.
The New York Herald contains the following bluster, which is a sample of that being generally resorted to by the Yankee papers on the eve of the Virginia campaign: ‘ We may not hear for several days to come, but we may hear at any moment, that the most tremendous and decisive of all the battles of the war has been commenced in that awful graveyard of Union and rebel armies, the blood-stained hills and plains of old Virginia. From sources apparently well informed, we learn that the army of Gen. Lee, within the last thirty days, has been swelled from forty-five thousand to ninety thousand men, and that they are nearly all veterans.--What the forces of Gen. Grant are in the aggregate we cannot conjecture; but we are assured that they are amply sufficient for the work before them, and that their active and vigilant leader is thoroughly prepared to receive the enemy while perfecting his arrangements for a movement upon his works.
’ We are gratified to state that nothing appears to be known of Gen. Grant's plans and combinations by any individual except himself. The rebel journals at Richmond, for the first time during the war, are sorely puzzled to comprehend the real designs of the directing mind of the Union armies.
The prestige of Gen. Lee., and his veteran army has become the last hope and the last reliance of Jeff. Davis and his followers. In the present exhausted condition of the rebellions States, with all their able-bodied men in the field, and with all their scanty materials of subsistence subject to forced contributions, the moral effect of the defeat of Lee will be a speedy collapse of the rebellion. On the other hand while a victory over Gen. Grant, in Virginia, may revive the sinking fortunes of Davis, nothing else will save him beyond the summer's campaign. Hence we cannot doubt that he has resolved to stake his Confederacy upon the defence of Richmond, and that his struggle to maintain it will be the most desperate and sanguinary of all the struggles of the war.
We are entirely satisfied that this is the estimate which Gen. Grant has made of this Virginia campaign; that he does not underrate the enemy's strength and their desperate energy in collecting all their available forces, and that he has made his dispositions for a successful conflict with the largest army that Davis can muster in Virginia without absolutely abandoning his base of supplies in Georgia, with an easy confidence, therefore, in the final result of this Virginia campaign, a confidence which could not entertain while the army of the Potomac was subject to the manipulations of the old blundering Washington directory — with that unqualified and unquestioning confidence which is felt by the public at large in the success of Gen. Grant, we await the issue of the grand impending struggle.
Dismissal of Admiral Wilkes.
Admiral Wilkes has been dismissed by court martial from the United States service. Among the queer things uncovered by the Wilkes court martial is the successful endeavor of Sanford, the Yankee Minister at Brussels, to have the war-frigate Vanderbilt used to collect a claim of his against a South American State of $150,000. Commodore Wilkes says in his defence:‘ On the 15th of May I received a dispatch from the American Minister at Brussels, saying he had been advised by the Secretary of the Navy in regard to a visit to Laguayra by one of my squadron, and adding, "I hope that you or one of your squadron will be able at an early day to touch at Laguayra, or I fear that your intervention will come too late for any practical results."
’ In another place the Commodore says:
‘ I proceeded to Caraccus, put myself in communication with the proper authorities, accomplished the object of my visit by securing the payment of $150,000 due to our citizens.
’
The West Virginia Representation in the Yankee
Congress.
In the Yankee House, last week, Mr. Davis called up the report of the committee on declaring B. M. Kitchen not entitled to a seat as a representative from the seventh district of Virginia: The committee say in their report they cannot justify themselves; there has been such freedom of elections as to warrant the conclusion that Mr. Kitchen is the choice of the loyal voters of the entire district. A greater portion failed to participate in it for the reason that they were held under the power of the rebel army. Practically the 7th Congressional district of Virginia, the scene of some of the fiercest and bloodiest conflicts of arms in the whole war, is still a battle ground.
Mr. Smith, (Ky,) of minority of the committee, contended there was prime facte evidence that Mr. Kitchen was the choice of his district.
Mr. Whaley (W. Va.) briefly contended that, as
the people were taxed, and furnished troops, they should be represented here.
Mr. Dawes supported the views of the majority, mentioning as a fact that the Virginia district bordering on this capital has been so far under the control of the enemy since July, 1861, that it is impossible to hold a Congressional election therein. The committee desired to set a precedent not only as to Mr. Kitchen, but as to all others under similar circumstances.
The House adopted the resolution declaring Mr. Kitchen not entitled to a seat.
Butler razed.
The New York Herald has the following paragraph which shows that Butler has razed down to the level of a sort of Shyster General, for cross examining Confederates suspected of having cash:Gen. Grant, it appears, in a short visit to Fortress Monroe, found out the true vocation for Gen. Butler, and has accordingly razed him to the civil and uncivil duties of chief of police and military magistrate of the Peninsular Department. In this role he is unsurpassed, and in defining the laws of loyalty, chapter and verse, to canning secessionists, intractable rebels in crinoline, negro claimants and other injured admirers of Jeff Davis, Gen. Butler will be in all his glory. He luxuriates in the skinning of a doubtful character who stakes his case upon the chances of slipping through the loopholes of the law, and, as a strict constructionist he plays with a Southern expounder as a cat plays with a mouse.
Dan Sickles on the war — the Rebs have no
property.
Dan Sickles, who is noted in verse as having "killed a man," made a speech in Detroit the other day on the war. It will be seen that Dan's ideas of the right of property are of the loosest character: ‘ But some one says this war is unconstitutional; that it is unconstitutional to keep the country together. But, as it was not unconstitutional to form the Union, why should it be unconstitutional to maintain it? Why, the Union was tore in force, and it is absurd to say it cannot be maintained by force. But some one says that it is impossible that a people fighting on their own soil should be conquered. I deny that it is their soil any more than it is mine or yours. They have forfeited by their conduct all right and title to it. But look at Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky, Western Virginia, etc. These are my answers to people who speak of impossibilities. From the beginning our course has been steadily onward, and so it will go on — We must and shall succeed. Nor is the day of our triumph far distant. I believe the issues will culminate in this campaign. I believe if the Presidential election were three years off there would be no rebels in the field to-day. They are hoping for a change of Administration, but it is a vain hope.--Our cost has been too great. Compromise is no longer possible. Had the South remained in the Union I would have gone as far as any man for a compromise. Now I am against any and every compromise. I am for the unconditional, absolute surrender of the South to the Union. I trust if I ever meet you again, fellow-citizens, it will be when peace shall smile once more upon us, when you of the West and us of the North, as ever one people, shall go on, realizing that career of power, of honor, of beneficence, which has so signalized us hitherto. I hope we shall be the citizens of a Republic forever, absolutely and totally free.
’ The remarks of the speaker were frequently interrupted with applause. When he spoke of closing there were loud cries of "Go on!" "Go on!" But his feeble state of health and the chilliness of the weather prevented his speaking longer.
