not the slightest doubt, they are strangers. | mander of the world, to whom belongeth pow- Doo. 196. mend to Thy Gracious protection the persons of Thy servants, for whom our prayers are especially desired and who are enlisted in the Army of the United States, and the whole army in which they serve. Let Thy fatherly hand, we beseech Thee, be over them. Let Thy Holy Spirit ever be with them, and shield them by thy merciful Providence in the discharge of their duty, that, passing through all temptations and perils, they may return to their homes to enjoy the fruit of their toils, in the restoration of peace and the establishment of order and To the Clergy and Laity of the Diocese of New tranquillity amongst us. Protect and bless, O Jersey :Lord, all the members of their households; asBELOVED BRETHREN: A proclamation by the suage their fears, encourage their hearts, and President of the United States of America, issu- comfort them with Thy grace and heavenly ed at the request of a joint cominittee of both benediction under any afflictions Thou shalt see Houses of Congress, appoints the last Thurs-fit to lay upon them. And grant that those day in September next as a day of humiliation, prayer, and fasting for all the people of this BISHOP ODENHEIMER'S PASTORAL nation. That this great fast may be duly observed by law, order, and peace; and that in His time and Affectionately, your Bishop, WILLIAM HENRY ODENHEIMER. After the collect for Ash-Wednesday, shall "O most mighty God, terrible in Thy judgments, and wonderful in Thy doings toward the children of men, we, Thy sinful creatures here assembled before Thee, do, in behalf of all the people of this land, humbly confess our sins, personal and National, which have brought down Thy heavy judgments upon us. Thy servants, and all of us, being duly impressed with a sense of thy goodness toward us in the past, may have cause to bless Thy name for the continuance of Thy mercies to us, and may ever express our thankfulness by a holy trust in Thee and obedience to Thy laws, through Jesus Christ our Lord." Doc. 197. GEN. HURLBURT'S ORDER. To the Mayor and Authorities of the City of liver up to the military authorities of this Bri- If the guilty persons are not delivered up as required, and within the time herein specified, the whole Brigade will be moved into your county, and contributions levied to the amount of ten thousand dollars ($10,000) on Marion County, and five thousand dollars ($5,000) on the City of Palmyra. By order of Brig.-Gen. S. A. HURLBURT. Under directions of Brig.-Gen. JOHN POPE, commanding in North Missouri. S. M. PRESTON, Assistant Adjutant-General. Doo. 1971. TREASON OF THE NEWSPAPERS. GENERAL W. S. ROSECRANS, Commanding the "We acknowledge, O Lord, our wickedness and the iniquity of our fathers, for we have sinned against Thee. Do not abhor us, for Thy Name's sake; but be merciful unto Thy people, whom thou hast redeemed, and be not angry with us forever. Pardon us, O gracious God, for Thy mercy's sake, and restore order, tran-Army of Occupation in Western Virginia, in a quillity, and fraternal unity amongst us, through the merits of Thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen." General Order, bearing date the 20th inst., "invites the aid of the press to prevent the enemy from learning through it the position, strength, and movements of the troops under his command." "Such information," he con"Oh, Almighty God, the Sovereign Com-tinues, "is of the greatest service to the ene ¶ After the General Thanksgiving, shall be said the following Prayer: General Rosecrans is an humorist. He invites the tongue of rumor, the trumpet of common fame, the very embodiment of gossip, the thing which is nothing if not clamorous, to aid him in holding its peace--invites it. Why does he not go forth into some of the valleys in the vicinity of his camp, and invite the echoes that inhabit the neighboring hill-sides to be kind enough to intermit their performances? We can imagine them replying to his solicitations: If we cease to tattle, what are we? Who will know that we exist? How shall we know it ourselves? How can we? Are we not vox preterea nihil? Take away the voice, and what remains? General Rosecrans invites. It is time he did something more than invite. He and his superiors and predecessors should have commanded, and enforced obedience, from the day that active operations began. Except the rebellion itself, there has been no engine of mischief to our cause, that will bear a comparison to the newspaper press. We have put ourselves to trouble about spies, arrested men that looked suspicious, and let them go again; had visions of individuals seeking the rebel posts with letters written in cipher in their pockets, or women with plans of camps hidden away in their stockings, while a thousand newspapers from Boston to St. Louis have been each doing the work of an hundred spies-furnishing daily to the enemy the latest possible information of every movement, the size and position of every regiment and detachment, and the actual or probable policy and designs of its commanding officers. It could not but have been apparent to every man of military capacity that the war could not be carried on in the face of this minute and persistent espionage; that it was the occasion of perpetual loss and danger; that, in fact, it was placing not only each column, but the cause of the Government in daily jeopardy. What have the rebels wanted of spies, when they could find daily in the columns of a New York, Philadelphia, or Cincinnati newspaper more reliable intelligence of the very things they wanted to know than hundreds of spies could collect and transmit? Yet these things have been tolerated; nay, they have been encouraged. Every officer from Commanding General to Corporal, has seemed to think it desirable to have the correspondent of a newspaper at his elbow, to sing his praises, put him right with the public, and be the convenient vehicle to transmit to the world a knowledge of his exploits. The very Commander-in-Chief of the army invites the editor of a New York journal to dinner, and develops to him the entire plan of a campaign, which, on the next day, makes its appearance in print, semi-editorially and semi-officially, without any suspicion of breach of confidence in the relator. These things are profitable to the newspapers that have embarked in it. It is enterprise; and enterprise always meets with reward. The people want news more than they want victories. They can excuse, nay, reward, the newspaper which betrays as a matter of business, while they have nothing but bottled up vengeance for one that happens to differ from them in matter of opinion. We confess that we have sometimes lost all solicitude as to the fate or existence of petty spies and informers, retail dealers in smuggled butter, revolvers, percussion, and quinine, while this huge system of giving aid and comfort to the enemy has been going on, not only unrebuked, but encouraged and applauded. General Rosecrans closes his order with a pregnant fact. They do these things differently in secessiondom. The rebels know betterhave more conscience-more love for the cause in which they are engaged. Their press "never appears to betray them." BETRAY is the word. General Rosecrans puts it upon the right ground. He calls treason, treason. It is treason on the part of the Government in permitting it-on the part of every officer that tolerates it-on the part of every newspaper that embarks in it. Fifty millions of dollars would not compensato for the loss that has accrued from this practice, to-day. It has retarded the progress of our arms, given daily encouragement to the insurrection, constantly served to inform the rebel leaders where to strike and when to retreat, and has, in the simple fact that it has been permitted, done more to discourage friends of the Government, and throw a doubt upon its ability to come up to the mighty task that lies before it, than any other circumstance that can be mentioned. Doc. 198. -Cincinnati Press. "CONFEDERATE" АОТ, INCREASING THE ARTILLERY CORPS. A bill entitled an Act to increase the Corps of Artillery and for other purposes. The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That there be added to the Corps of Artillery, Confederate States Army, one lieutenant-colonel and two majors, with the pay and allowances authorized by existing laws for their grades respectively. SEC. 2. That the President be, and he is hereby authorized to appoint, in addition to the storekeepers authorized by the fifth section of the Act of May sixteen, eighteen hundred and sixty-one, "for the establishment and organization of the army of the Confederate States," as many military storekeepers of ordnance, with the pay and allowances of a captain of infantry, as the safe keeping of the public property may require, not to exceed, in all, four storekeepers, |ity. Our brigade was encamped at Locust SEC. 3. That the President be, and he is hereby authorized, whenever, in his judgment, the interests of the service may require it, and when officers of the army cannot be assigned to these duties, to appoint one or more superintendents of armories for the fabrication of small-arms, whose salary shall not exceed two thousand five hundred dollars per annum, with allowance for quarters and fuel, at the rate fixed for a major in the army. And that the President be also authorized to appoint two or more master armorers, with a salary not to exceed fifteen hundred dollars per annum, with allowances of quarters and fuel at the rate fixed for a captain in the army. SEO. 4. That during the existing war, the President may, as commander-in-chief of the forces, appoint, at his discretion, for his personal staff, two aides-de-camp, with the rank, pay, and allowances of a colonel of cavalry. SEO. 5. That hereafter there shall be allowed one additional sergeant in each company in the Confederate States, making in all five sergeants for each company, who shall receive the same pay and allowances as provided by existing laws for that grade. Doo. 199. SKIRMISH AT HAWK'S NEST, VA., A CORRESPONDENT of the Richmond Enquirer CINCINNATI, August 22, 1861. "A skirmish occurred at Hawk's Nest, in the Kanawha Valley, eight miles beyond, on the 20th. The Confederates, some four thousand strong, advanced to where the Eleventh Ohio regiment had erected barricades, and were driven back with a loss of fifty killed and a number wounded and taken prisoners. Our loss was only two slightly wounded and one missing. Our forces captured quite a number of horses and equipments." Doo. 200. GEN. MOCLELLAN'S STAFF. HEAD-QUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, WASHINGTON, Aug. 20, 1861. IN compliance with General Order No. 15, of August 17, 1861, from the head-quarters of the army, I hereby assume command of the Army of the Potomac, comprising the troops serving in the former departments of Washington and Northeastern Virginia, in the Valley of the Shenandoahı, and in the States of Maryland and Delaware. The organization of the command into divisions and brigades will be announced hereafter. The following-named officers are attached to the staff of the Army of the Potomac : Major S. Williams, assistant adjutant-general; Captain Alex. V. Colburn, assistant adjutant. general; Col. R. B. Marcy, inspector-general; Col. T. M. Key, aide-de-camp; Capt. N. B. Swetzer, First Cavalry, aide-de-camp; Captain Edward McK. Hudson, Fourteenth infantry, aide-de-camp; Captain L. A. Williams, Tenth infantry, aide-de-camp; Major A. J. Myers, sig I have just returned from General Wise's command, having left there on the night of the 20th, and after the skirmish was over. Our forces consisted of parts of three cavalry companies, amounting to about one hundred men, and the enemy numbered at least six hundred. Colonel Croghan, of our brigade, drove the enemy back to Hawk's Nest, taking two prison-nal officer; Major Stewart Van Vleit, chief ers, and doing other damage not known at the time of my departure. Our loss was one killed and three wounded. General Wise was present during the action, and as cool and self-possessed as though no enemy were in the vicin quartermaster; Captain H. F. Clarke, chief commissary; Surgeon C. S. Tripler, medical director; Major J. G. Barnard, chief engineer; Major J. M. Macoinb, chief topographical engineer; Captain Charles P. Kingsbury, chief of Ordnance; Brig.-Gen. George Stoneham, Volunteer service, chief of Cavalry; Brig.-Gen. W. S. Barry, Volunteer service, chief of Artillery. GEORGE B. MCCLELLAN, Maj.-General Ú. 8. A. Doo. 202. hazards to destroy the Government which, for eighty years, has defended our rights, and given us a name among the nations. Contrary to your interests and your wishes, they have brought war upon your soil. Their tools and dupes told you you must vote for secession as the only means to insure peace; that unless you did so, hordes of abolitionists would overrun you, plunder your property, steal your slaves, seize upon your lands, and hang all those who opposed them. PROCLAMATION OF GOV. CURTIN. Pennsylvania ss., A. G. Curtin, Governor :In the name and by the authority of the By these and other atrocious falsehoods they Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Andrew G. alarmed you, and led many honest and unsusCurtin, Governor of the said Commonwealth, pecting citizens to vote for secession. Neither A Proclamation to the freemen of the Common- threats, nor fabrications, nor intimidations sufwealth of Pennsylvania:ficed to carry Western Virginia against the inWashington is again believed to be in dan-terest and wishes of its people, into the arms ger. The President has made an earnest appeal of secession. for all the men that can be furnished to be sent forward without delay. If Pennsylvania now puts forth her strength, the hords of hungry rebels may be swept down to the latitudes where they belong. If she falters, the seat of tumults, disorder, and rapine may be transferred to her own soil. Let every man so act that he will not be ashamed to look at his mother, his wife, or sisters. In this emergency it devolves upon me to call upon all commanders of companies to report immediately to the head-quarters of the Commonwealth, at Harrisburg, that means may be provided for their immediate transportation, with the men under their commands. The three-months volunteers, whose discharge has so weakened the army, are urged by every consideration of feeling, duty, and patriotism, to resume their arms at the call of their country, and aid the other men of Pennsylvania in quelling the traitors. Given under my hand and the great seal of the State, at Harrisburg, this 20th day of August, in the year of our Lord 1861, and of the Commonwealth the eighty-sixth. ELI SLIFER, Secretary of the Commonwealth. Doc. 203. ADDRESS OF GENERAL ROSECRANS. TO THE PEOPLE OF WESTERN VIRGINIA. IN consequence of the perversions of the Disunionists in Western Virginia, and to satisfy constant application for information upon points discussed in the premises, Gen. Rosecrans issued the following proclamation: HEAD-QUARTERS ARMY OF OCCUPATION, WESTERN Enraged that you dared to disobey their behests, Eastern Virginians, who had been accustomed to rule you and count your votes, and ambitious recreants from among yourselves, disappointed that you would not make good their promises, have conspired to tie you to the desperate fortunes of the Confederacy, or drive you from your homes. Between submission to them and subjugation or expulsion, they leave you no alternative. You say you do not wish to destroy the old Government, under which you have lived so long and peacefully; they say you shall break it up. You say you wish to remain citizens of the United States, they reply you shall join the Southern Confederacy, to which the Richmond junta has transferred you, and to carry their will, their Jenkins, Wise, Jackson, and other conspirators proclaim upon your soil a relentless and neighborhood war; their misguided and unprincipled followers re-echo their cry, threatening fire and sword, hanging and expulsion, to all who oppose their arbitrary designs. They have set neighbor against neighbor, and friend against friend; they have introduced among you warfare only known among savages. In violation of the laws of nations and humanity, they have proclaimed that private citizens may and ought to make war. Under this bloody code, peaceful citizens, unarmed travellers, and single soldiers have been shot down, and even the wounded and defenceless have been killed; scalping their victims is all that is wanting to make their warfare like that which, seventy or eighty years ago, was waged by the Indians against the white race on this very ground. You have no alternative left you but to unite as one man in the defence of your homes, for the restoration of law and order, or be subjugated or ex To the Loyal Inhabitants of Western Virginia:-pelled from the soil. The Confederates have determined at all I therefore earnestly exhort you to take the most prompt and vigorous measures to put a stop to neighborhood and private wars; you must remember that the laws are suspended in Eastern Virginia, which has transferred itself to the Southern Confederacy. The old Constitution and laws of Virginia are only in force in Western Virginia. These laws you must main- | sides, and for the maintenance of the rights, Let every citizen, without reference to past political opinions, unite with his neighbors to keep those laws in operation, and thus prevent the country from being desolated by plunder and violence, whether committed in the naine of Secessionisin or Unionism. It is kept in the field for these purposes alone, and to aid in accomplishing them, our gallant Southern brethren have come into our State with these. We have just achieved a glorious victory over the foe, and scattered far and wide the well-appointed army which the usurper at Washington has been more than six months gathering for your subjugation and enslavement. I conjure all those who have hitherto advocated the doctrine of secessionism, as a political opinion, to consider that now its advocacy means war against the peace and interests of This victory frees a large portion of the State Western Virginia; it is an invitation to the from the powers of the invaders, and restores Southern Confederates to come in and subdue it to the protection of its army. It consequentyou, and proclaims that there can be no lawly becomes my duty to assure you that it is my nor right until this is done. firm determination to protect every peaceable My mission among you is that of a fellow-citizen in the full enjoyment of all his right, citizen, charged by the Government to expel the arbitrary force which domineered over you, to restore that law and order of which you have been robbed, and to maintain your right to govern yourselves under the Constitution and laws of the United States. whatever may have been his sympathies in the present unhappy struggle, if he has not taken an activo part in the cruel warfare, which has been waged against the good people of this State, by the ruthless enemies whom we have just defeated. To put an end to the savage war waged by I therefore invite all good citizens to return individuals, who, without warrant of military to their homes and the practice of their ordiauthority, lurk in the bushes and waylay mes-nary avocations, with the full assurance that sengers, or shoot sentries, I shall be obliged to hold the neighborhood in which these outrages are committed as responsible, and, unless they raise the hue and cry and pursue the offenders, deal with them as accessories to the crime. Unarmed and peaceful citizens shall be protected, the rights of private property respected, and only those who are found enemies of the Government of the United States, and the peace of Western Virginia, will be disturbed. Of these I shall require absolute certainty that they will do no mischief. Put a stop to needless arrests and the spread of malicious reports. Let each town and district choose five of its most reliable and energetic citizens a Committee of Public Safety, to act in concert with the civil and military authorities, and be responsible for the preservation of peace and good order. Citizens of Western Virginia, your fate is mainly in your own hands. If you allow yourselves to be trampled under foot by hordes of disturbers, plunderers, and murderers, your land will become a desolation. If you stand firm for law and order, and maintain your rights, you may dwell together peacefully and happily as in former days. W. S. ROSEORANS, Brig.-Gen. Commanding A. O. W. v. Doo. 204. JEFFERSON CITY, August 20. they, their families, their homes, and their Maj.-Gen. Commanding M. 8. G. Doo. 205. CONFEDERATE THANKS TO GEN. M'CULLOCH AND HIS COMMAND. THE following resolution was introduced into the rebel Congress on the 21st of August by Mr. Ochiltree, of Texas, and was passed unanimously: WHEREAS, It has pleased Almighty God to vouchsafe to the arms of the Confederate States another glorious and important victory in a portion of the country where a reverse would have been disastrous, by exposing the families of the good people of the State of Missouri to the unbridled license of the brutal soldiery of an unscrupulous enemy; therefore, be it Resolved by the Congress of the Confederate States, That the thanks of Congress are cordially tendered to Brig.-Gen. Ben. McCulloch, and the officers and soldiers of his brave command, for their gallant conduct in defeating, after a battle of six and a half hours, a force of THE following proclamation has been re- the enemy equal in numbers, and greatly supeceived here: To the People of Missouri : Fellow-citizens: The army under my command has been organized under the laws of the State for the protection of your homes and fire rior in all their appointments, thus proving that a right cause nerves the hearts and strengthens the arms of the Southern people, fighting, as they are, for their liberty, their homes, and friends, against an unholy despotism. 1 |