twenty-two hundred strong, in every direction. it and the one lately emanating from Jeff. Da One hundred and fifty prisoners were taken, with most of the rebels' wagons, tents, baggage, horses, &c. A train of seventy wagons, well loaded for Price's rebel army, was captured.-(Doc. 231.) December 18.-Three companies of the Cameron Dragoons, under Major S. E. Smith, commanded respectively by Capt. Wilson, Company F; Lieut. Stetson, Company H; and Lieut. Hess, Company C, went on a scout on the roads leading to Fairfax Court House and Hunter's Mills, Va. When within a mile and a half of Fairfax, these three officers, with eight privates, as an advance guard, encountered an equal number of the rebel cavalry. Instantly they gave chase, but the rebels fled, seeking the cover of a wood near by. In the chase they passed through an orchard, when one of the rebels dismounted under an apple tree, and, with his carbine, a five-shooter, rested against a tree and fired three shots at Major Smith. Fortunately none of them took effect. After vainly endeavoring to draw the rebels from the wood, the party rejoined the main body under the direction of the major, and rode to Vienna, and thence to Hunter's Mills. When near the latter place, Capt. Wilson and Lieut. Stetson discovered a rebel who was endeavoring to make his escape. They dashed off after him and soon returned into camp with him as a prisoner. When introduced to Gen. Hancock, the latter said: "Ah! Vollin, I am glad to see you-we have been looking for you for some time past." He is said to be a spy, and a most notorious picket murderer.-Philadelphia Press, December 20. vis-much to its disadvantage, the English newspapers contend. The point made of the President's silence relative to the Trent affair is that it is indicative of immediate war-the exceptions to this view being few. It appears to be difficult for the English press to accept any other solution of the Trent difficulty but that of war. The Observer, the Ministerial organ, says that England wishes for peace, but that she will gain by war, as it will enable her to rectify her American frontiers, open the ports of the South, and give a lesson to the United States. A rumor was current that the blocking up of Charleston harbor with stone was likely to lead to difficulty; that England's warlike preparations would continue lin view thereof, and that her demands did not end with the surrender of Mason and Slidell. The war preparations in England continue unabated. In France the view of the President's Message was somewhat similar to that held in England. The general opinion appeared to be that war was inevitable. A circular has been sent by the Emperor to the European Powers, declaring that the arrest of Mason and Slidell is contrary to principles regarded as essential to the security of neutral flags, and stating that the French Government deemed it necessary to submit this opinion to the Cabinet at Washington, in order to determine it to make concessions which the French Government deemed indispensable. —A DETACHMENT of Gen. Pope's forces, under command of Col. J. C. Davis and Major Marshall, surprised a rebel camp at Millford, a little north of Warrensburgh, Mo., this afternoon, and, surrounding the enemy, forced them to surrender. Thirteen hundred prisoners, including three colonels, seventeen captains, one thousand stand of arms, one thousand horses, sixty-five wagons, and a large quantity of tents, baggage, and supplies were captured. The Nationals lost two killed and eight wounded.— (Doc. 231.) --THE United States Marshal Hiram Dunn arrested at St. Albans, Vt., Mrs. Meyer, the wife of a German Jew residing in New York, who had been acting as a messenger between the rebels who congregate in Montreal and the South. She was extremely violent for a few minutes, but found it best to put up with what could not be avoided, and submitted to an examination of her person and trunk by some -A RECONNOITRING expedition, under comladies. The result was the discovery of a pack-mand of Commander Drayton, U. S. N., left age of letters containing important treasonable Port Royal, S. C., on the 16th inst., and the correspondence.-Burlington Free Press. next day sailed up the North Edisto River, S. -THE English journals of this day contain C. On Edisto Island fortifications were discovcomments upon the Message of President Lin-ered, which, on landing, were found to be decoln to Congress. The document is generally serted. The expedition then sailed up a small attacked, and comparisons are drawn between creek to the town of Rockville, S. C., from which, at about a mile's distance, was a rebel camp. This camp was unoccupied, and over forty tents were taken possession of, the most valuable part of the camp equipage having been removed by negroes. This morning the expedition ran down to the South Edisto, S. C., and, proceeding up the river, found on Edisto Island some deserted fortifications-the guns having been removed. The expedition then anchored in the North Edisto again.-(Doc. 232.) | -THE Common Council of New Haven, Ct., this evening passed resolutions requesting the Governor of the State to cause the immediate construction of fortifications at New Haven harbor. The Governor had authority from the Legislature to establish a depot of arms and ammunition at New Haven. December 19.-Maj. Frank R. Bloom, of Macon, Ga., Aide to Gen. Henry R. Jackson, died to-night of pneumonia, at that place. He distinguished himself at Sewall's Point and at Greenbrier, Va., and was possessed of all the generous qualities and greatness of soul which characterize the true patriot and soldier; and in the community in which he lived no man was more beloved or had more devoted friends. -Richmond Dispatch, Dec. 27. -CAPTAIN RICKETTS, First Artillery U. S. A., who was wounded and captured at the battle of Bull Run, arrived at Washington, released on parole, accompanied by his wife. where about a hundred and fifty rebels were secreted, and drove them out, killing and wounding many. -THE British ship Cheshire, of Liverpool, Eng., Capt. Craig, from Liverpool Oct. 10th, and Belfast 19th, via Savannah Bar 6th inst., arrived at New York in charge of a prize crew, and in command of Prizemaster Heath, of the U. S. steamer Augusta, Capt. Parrot. The Cheshire was discovered on the 6th inst. off Tybee Island, in six fathoms water, and, upon being boarded, it was found that she had cleared for Nassau, N. P., and that her cargo consisted of coffee, salt, and army blankets, which was deemed very suspicious. Upon her captain being questioned as to why, if he was bound to Nassau, he should be found in that locality, he replied that he had received instructions at Liverpool to speak the blockading squadron, "but for what purpose it was not made known." Not deeming it safe to allow her to proceed, and as the replies were not satisfactory, she was towed to Charleston by the U. S. steamer Augusta, Capt. Parrot, a prize crew put on board, and then sent to New York. —ABOUT nine o'clock to-night a rebel band, called "Moccasin Rangers," entered and took possession of the town of Ripley, Jackson Co., Va. The inhabitants were defenceless, their arms having been locked up in the jail by a man who had been recruiting in the town for the United States army. The rangers, after robbing the town, decamped with their booty. -C. J. FAULKNER arrived at Richmond, Va., this evening. He was met at the depot by Governor Letcher, the mayor of the city, and a large concourse, with music, and escorted through a portion of the city, when the crowd increased to thousands. The ladies from the windows and crowded balconies saluted the procession with smiles and waving handkerchiefs, and cheers from the thronged sidewalks greeted the procession along the route to the City Hall. Mayor Mayo introduced Mr. Faulk -AT ten o'clock this morning a rebel battery of three guns, flanked with about two hundred infantry, suddenly commenced shelling the en--(Doc. 233.) campment of Col. Geary's Pennsylvania regiment, near Point of Rocks, Md. About twenty shells, well aimed, fell in the midst of the encampment the first within a few feet of Lieut.Col. De Korponay, commanding. The six companies in camp were well deployed and entrenched. The Twenty-eighth regiment opened fire with two guns-the first shot disabling one of the rebel guns, and the second falling in the centre. The Union battery then advanced and poured a continuous fire into them, silencing all their guns and driving back a fourth one rein-ner, when he made a speech, detailing his capforcing. The rebels were driven from their position in full retreat. Fourteen of them were killed, and many wounded. The Nationals did not lose a man. The engagement lasted a half hour. After the rout of the rebels their victors turned their guns on some houses near an old furnace, on the Virginia side of the Potomac, tivity, imprisonment, and position on parole, and referred to the position of England and the United States. He said if Lincoln recedes from the present status in the Mason and Slidell affair, the furious Abolition sentiment would overwhelm him, and if he does not they will be involved in a war with Eng land. Mr. Faulkner said he was a fellow pris- |ing Colonel Mulligan and his command for their oner in Fort Warren with Messrs. Mason and heroic defence of Lexington, Mo., and authorizSlidell, and said they never wavered, but felt ing the Twenty-third regiment of Illinois, to inconfident that England would protect them and scribe on their colors the name "Lexington." her flag. Governor Letcher made a few re-GENERAL BURNSIDE arrived at Annapolis, marks, welcoming Mr. Faulkner to Virginia, Md., this evening to take command of the expeand the immense crowd dispersed.-Fredericks-dition destined for the North Carolina coast. burg (Va.) Recorder, Dec. 23. -TO-NIGHT the office of The St. Croix Herald, St. Stephens, was broken into, and a large quantity of type, and other material, destroyed. The editor's opposition to secession was the cause of the outrage.-N. Y. Tribune, Dec. 21. -THE Memphis Appeal of this day says that "property to the amount of two million five hundred thousand dollars has been already confiscated by the receivers, and this is only about one-half the amount of Northern property in our midst. Some reports have already been made of real estate, and many others are to be made. The cost of taking the floating battery up the Mississippi was one hundred and twenty thousand dollars.-The Mississippi Legislature have a plan under consideration to advance to planters twenty-five dollars per bale on cotton." -THE Eleventh and four companies of the Third Iowa regiments, which went up the Missouri River from Jefferson City on the 14th, returned to-day with property valued at five thousand dollars, and seven prisoners. Among the property taken were one hundred and seventy-two kegs of powder, which were intended for the rebel General Price.-N. Y. Commercial, Dec. 27. -Tнs night a party of the Connecticut Fifth regiment and some of the men of Lieut. Rickett's battery crossed the Potomac in a skiff, and burnt the mill at Dam No. 5, which had been occupied by the rebels as a stronghold. They captured some guns, tools for breaking up the canal dam, blankets, etc. -A BILL passed the Mississippi Legislature, providing that the banks should receive State Treasury notes in payment of debts, and that the notes of the banks should be receivable for all public dues except the Confederate war tax. December 20.—George W. Jones, late United States Minister to Bogota, was arrested at New York on a charge of treason, and sent to Fort Lafayette.-New York World, Dec. 21. -IN the House of Representatives at Washington, D. C., a resolution was adopted, thank -SEVEN hundred regulars of the force surrendered to the rebels in Texas by Major Lynde, passed through Rochester, N. Y., destined for Rome and Syracuse, whence they went to Sackett's Harbor and Oswego, to garrison the forts at those places. -AN engagement took place to-day near Drainesville, on the Leesburg turnpike, Va., between a foraging party under command of Brig.-Gen. E. O. C. Ord, (consisting of his brigade, a regiment of rifles, a battery of light artillery, and two squadrons of cavalry,) and four regiments of rebel infantry, with a sixgun battery, commanded by Gen. Stuart. The rebels were completely routed, lost many killed and taken prisoners. The National loss was seven killed and sixty wounded.-(Doc. 234.) -THE Ninety-first regiment of New York volunteers, under the command of Colonel Van Zandt, left Albany for the seat of war. -AT Washington, Mr. Lovejoy offered in the House of Representatives a resolution directing the Committee on the Judiciary to report a bill for the confiscation of all rebel property whatever, and for the liberation of the slaves, who should be protected from recapture by their masters. The resolution was laid aside by a majority of two. -A PARTY of rebels from Gen. Price's army destroyed about one hundred miles of the Missouri Railroad. Commencing eight miles south of Hudson, they burned the bridge, wood-piles, water-tanks, ties, tore up the rails for miles, bent them, and destroyed the telegraph line. This was continued to Warrenton, where the work of destruction ceased.--National Intelligencer, Dec. 24. -THE London Times of this date, in noting the departure of the transports Adriatic and Parana with troops for Canada, holds the following language: "As the Adriatic moved out of dock, the large shields on her paddle-boxes, emblazoned with the Stars and Stripes, reminded everybody of the remarkable coincidence that an American-built steamer, and until within a | ning half a dozen times under the very noses few months the property of American owners, of the Yankee cruisers.-Charleston Mercury, should be one of the first employed in the trans- | Dec. 21. port of British troops to the northern part of the American continent, to operate, probably, against the country in which she was built. "On the two vessels leaving the docks, the volunteer band took up a position on the extreme end of the jetty, and as the Adriatic slowly moved past, they played the appropriate airs 'I Wish I Was in Dixie,' and 'The British Grenadiers,' followed by 'Cheer, Boys, Cheer,' and 'Should Auld Acquaintance be Forgot,' as the Parana passed, in each case closing with 'God Save the Queen,' after which several parting rounds of enthusiastic cheers were exchanged between the multitude of spectators on shore and the gallant fellows on board the vessels." -MAJOR MCKEE, with one hundred and three men of Col. Bishop's command, encountered and repulsed four hundred rebels four miles south of Hudson, Mo., and killed ten, and took seventeen prisoners and thirty horses. Five of the National troops were slightly wounded. The rebels had attacked a stock train, captured all the stock, and held the railroad men as prisoners. They were in the act of unloading the stock, when the train, stock, and men were rescued. -YESTERDAY morning the stone fleet of sixteen old whalers arrived off Charleston Harbor, S. C. In the afternoon, one of the lightest draught was sunk on the right of the main ship channel; during the night four more were sunk, and to-day the remainder, eleven in number, were made to complete the work. All the vessels but one, which was reserved for a pyrotechnic display, were dismantled, and deprived of masts, rigging and every thing but the hulls. The sinking of the fleet was under the direction of Captain Charles H. Davis, U. S. N., who, by his able and scientific management of the work, effectually closed the main ship channel of Charleston Harbor.-(Doc. 235.) -THE brave little steamer Theodora, which has won for her name so prominent a place in the history of the Confederate States, is still "bobbing around" on the high seas. A despatch from Thos. J. Lockwood announces that he has arrived safe, "as usual," in the flourishing Confederate seaport of ——, after paying a flying visit to several foreign lands, and run -THIS afternoon, Richard Gatewood, a private soldier of the First Kentucky regiment, was executed at Charleston, Va., for the combined crimes of desertion, mutinous conduct, and a murderous assault upon a sentinel while on duty.-Cincinnati Gazette, Jan. 1, 1862. December 21.-The Kentucky House of Rep resentatives, by a vote of sixty-nine to eleven, concurred in the Senate's amendment to the bill reported by the House Committee on Federal Relations, thanking the President for his modifications of General Fremont's proclamation and Secretary Cameron's report, and requesting the President to dismiss Secretary Cameron from the Cabinet. At Baltimore, Md., this morning, the deputy provost-marshal overhauled the steamer George Weems, as she was about leaving for the Patuxent River landings, and arrested a man named W. T. Wilson, an Englishman, who had secreted in his clothing, and in a bladder in his hat, a quantity of morphine and quinine. He also arrested a man named Hanna, of Chester County, Pa., formerly of California. Both were supposed to be rebel agents. THIS morning a little before daylight, the pickets at Stump Neck, on the Potomac River, saw a boat with a man in it approaching from the Virginia shore. They concealed themselves till the man landed, when they arrested him. He brought with him a number of letters, which were taken charge of and conveyed, with the prisoner, to General Hooker's head-quarters. Another man was waiting with a horse, upon which to convey the mail-bag. He was also arrested and the horse seized. Early this morning, as the U. S. gunboat Resolute was on her way down the Potomac, from Washington, some pickets of rebel cavalry were seen at Holland Point, near the White House. Acting Master Tole, in command, fired a few shells among them, scattering the rebels in all directions. A number of them ran out of a house, near which their horses were picketed, and rode off as fast as they could. A boat's crew was then sent on shore in charge of acting master's mate J. L. Plunkett. On their way they saw some women and children busily leaving the houses. On entering, the building was found to be deserted, but there were traces of recent occupation by cavalry.-N. Y. Herald, I out with orders to gather such fuel as they December 23. -CHARLES ANDERSON, brother of General Robert Anderson, addressed a large audience at Cooper Institute, New York, this evening. The cause of the rebellion he attributed to the check received by men in their greedy pursuit of political power. -THE Southern papers of this date are filled with articles expressive of delight at the prospect of a war between England and the United States, in reference to the seizure of Messrs. Mason and Slidell. December 22.-The rebel commissary and ordnance stores at Nashville, Tenn., were destroyed by fire to-night. The loss was estimated at nearly a million dollars. -PART of the prisoners captured by General Pope at Black Water, passed through Otterville, Mo. Among them were Colonel Magoffin, brother of Governor Magoffin, of Kentucky; Colonel Robinson, who had command of the rebel force at Black Water, and who was in the battles of Dug Springs, Wilson's Creek and Lexington; Colonel Alexander, who said he fought in all the battles; Lieutenant-Colonel Robinson, Major Harris, Dr. Smith, one of the wealthiest men and largest slaveholders in Missouri, who had done every thing in his power to aid and comfort the rebels; McKean, sheriff of Benton County, who, it is said, by misrepresentations, gained admittance into one of the Federal camps, made a diagram of it and left that night (when the rebels made an attack and killed sixteen or seventeen of our men ;) Dr. Moore, of Syracuse, and many others, who had gained notoriety by their zeal and labors in the secession army.-N. Y. Commercial, December 24. -AT Richmond, Va., the citizen volunteers, under Captain T. M. Ladd, who offered to escort the one hundred and seventy-five Yankee prisoners who were to be sent South, assembled on the Capitol square, near the Bell House, and after being formed into line and manoeuvred for some time, were conducted to the Arsenal, where they were furnished with muskets, balls, and powder for the occasion that called them into being.-Richmond Dispatch, December 23. -A SLIGHT Skirmish occurred this morning at Newmarket Bridge, near Newport News, Va. About eight o'clock, four companies were sent could easily remove. A march of twenty minutes soon discovered the presence of the rebels, who consisted of cavalry, supported by infantry. Seeing no chance of successfully competing with such a force, they retreated in good order toward their works; but, being reinforced by Col. Max Weber's New York infantry, again advanced, when a sharp engagement took place. The rebel infantry discharged several volleys at the Federals, but at such distance that only five of Col. Weber's command were wounded. At two o'clock in the afternoon both parties retired.—(Doc. 237.) -AN account of various hostile operations between the rebel and National forces on opposite banks of the Potomac, near Williamsport, Md., was published to-day.—(Doc. 236.) -AT St. Louis, Mo., Gen. Halleck issued an order, in which he says that any one caught in the act of burning bridges and destroying railroads and telegraphs, will be immediately shot, and that any one accused of the crime will be tried by a military commission, and if found guilty, suffer death. Where injuries are done to railroads and telegraph lines, the commanding officer nearest the post will immediately impress into service, for repairing damages, the slaves of all secessionists in the vicinity, and if necessary, the secessionists themselves and their property. Any pretended Union men having information of the intended attempts to destroy such roads and lines, or other guilty parties who do not communicate such intention to the proper authorities and give aid and assistance in punishing, will be regarded as particeps criminis and tried accordingly. Hereafter towns and counties in which such destruction of property takes place will be made to pay the expenses of all repairs, unless it shall be shown that the people of such towns and counties could not have prevented it on account of the superior force of the enemy. December 23.-The prize schooner Charity, captured off Hatteras Inlet, N. C., on the 17th of December, by the steamer Stars and Stripes, was wrecked off Hempstead, L. I. She had been placed in charge of Captain George Ashbury, to be taken to the port of New York.—N. Y. Times, December 29. -A FIGHT Occurred at Joseph Coerson's house, in Perry County, Ky., between one hun |