The news.
The city was full of rumors yesterday morning, to the effect that an armistice of ninety days had been agreed upon between the Confederate and United States; and some went so far as to state that white flags were flying from the hostile lines below Richmond. These stories were the offspring of idle fancies. So far from there being an armistice between the belligerents, there was more of active war yesterday on the lines below here than there has been since last November. Our rams and small wooden boats started down the river, at an early hour, with the design, it is supposed, of damaging the Yankee pontoon bridges near Deep Bottom, their shipping, and, if fortune favored, their store-houses at Bermuda Hundred and City Point.No official intelligence has, as far as we have been able to learn, been received from the expedition; but the unofficial reports which reach us, and which we believe are, in the main, correct, are most unfavorable. It seems that all went smoothly with the expedition until the obstructions were reached which the enemy sunk in Trent's reach last summer. In attempting to pass them, the Drewry — a very small boat, carrying two guns — got aground and was opened upon by the enemy's batteries; a 100-pound shot penetrated her magazine and blew her up. Of the rest of the fleet, the Fredericksburg alone passed the obstructions, and she soon put back, it being thought unwise for her to proceed alone. We have not been able to learn whether the expedition was then given up, or whether the attempt to carry it out was subsequently renewed. Constant cannonading was heard in the direction of Dutch gap during the morning. It is said we suffered no casualties by the blowing up of the Drewry, she, we presume, being abandoned before she was struck.
There was a report yesterday morning, which found believers, that we had recaptured Fort Harrison. We have no reason to believe that any advance was made during the day by our land forces, though we think it likely our mortars shelled the fort for a time.
It is astonishing how difficult a matter it is to ascertain the truth of what occurs on our lines, eight miles from the city. One would suppose that after four years of war our system of communication should be more perfect; that the War Office should be able at any time to give information of what is transpiring on the lines nearest the city, and to correct false reports. But this is so far from being the case, that we have constantly to look to the New York papers for news from Dutch gap and its neighborhood.
Mr. F. P. Blair was still in the city last evening. He arrived here on Saturday evening, dined with the President on Sunday, and has had several interviews with him since. What has transpired during these interviews is positively not known, the President having not even made any communication to his Cabinet on the subject. We must await Mr. Blair's return to the North, and then scan the New York Tribune for the facts. Mr. Blair will probably leave by the flag-of-truce boat which goes down the river this morning.
The Confederate Senate, on yesterday, transferred to the secret calendar the House bill to provide more effectually for the reduction and redemption of the currency.
