A more fatal order for the place, the interests well furnished with the results of long years of of the people, and the Government, could not toil, to find a refuge among strangers, without a have been made. Every body was taken by sur-bed to sleep on, or a chair- with nothing but prise, and every body was exasperated, save per- what they have on their persons. And this cruel haps a few who feared the negro soldiers would wrong is not the result of necessity, because all achieve a reputation. Was Gen. Hunter crazy? the furniture could have been taken, and though Why occupy the place at all, if not prepared to the boat would have been crowded, every article hold it? Why come and embarrass the people, brought on board could have remained without and hazard the lives and property of defenceless serious inconvenience, and would have made inhabitants thus wantonly? These and a thou- many poor women and children comfortable in sand similar questions were suggested, and bitter their involuntary exile. It is now abandoned to expressions and deep-felt curses were uttered destruction, and its owners to want and sufferagainst fickle, capricious, and incompetent if not ing. Col. Montgomery and Col. Rust both did all faithless commanders. But there was no alterna- that could be done to mitigate the evils of the tive; the order must be obeyed instanter. In occasion, and I regret that unnecessary suffering the midst of the harvest of patriotic hopes we should be thus inflicted, and Cot. Higginson was were compelled to abandon all, and thus render the last person from whom I expected it. the expedition a blight and a curse, rather than a blessing and a means of strength to the Union cause. To add to the wanton cruelty of the enterprise, some of the soldiery were allowed to set fire to the town in various places; and now, as we leave, it is in a blaze. This last act of vandalism, I regret to say, was mostly perpetrated by the soldiers of the Eighth Maine-in some instances by the sanction of subordinate officers; but it is due to Colonel Rust to say that every thing he could do was done to protect the property and the people. One company of the black regiment were also implicated in firing one block; but they did it under the sanction, if not approval, of a white lieutenant. We are now leaving with such articles of value as can be most easily removed, and such of the citizens as have become so compromised by our presence as to render it certain that they would not be spared by the rebels. And here I regret to be compelled to record acts of injustice and cruelty on the part of an officer for whom I have heretofore had the highest regard, and for whose character and reputation I had conceived the best opinion. At best there must be on such occasions much personal suffering and distress. Families suddenly compelled to abandon their homes and find refuge among strangers, must suffer under the best administration of affairs. Of this I do not speak. General Hunter sent sufficient transportation, as was supposed, for all who wished to leave with their personal effects. The steamer Convoy is under special charge of Colonel Higginson, of the First South-Carolina; it was loaded with Government property acquired by the troops, and such furniture as could well be taken on boardbeds, bedding, and necessary articles for the comfort of the refugees, as they had time to get away. Col. Higginson comes on board and orders the upper deck to be cleared, claiming that he must have the room for his black soldiers. The order was carried out amid the tears and protestations of defenceless and unprotected women and children, and even the last mattress of one old lady with a family of three persons, was thrown off and abandoned, and she was coolly told she could "sleep on the ground, as the soldiers do." This family now go forth from a comfortable home, If Gen. Hunter had desired to do the State of Florida and the cause of freedom and Union in the South the greatest injury-if he wished to paralyze the patriotism and destroy the loyalty of this people, and blight the hopes of the State, he could not have adopted a course more certain of success than the one he has adopted from the first in regard to this State. This is now the third time that the people have been cheated and the loyal sentiment placed at the mercy of the common enemy. Now this place the best and most flourishing town in East-Florida, and the only place whose citizens and property-holders were generally loyal - has been irretrievably ruined, and its people scattered abroad without homes or means of present subsistence. Many loyal citizens further up the river, being assured of protection, have rendered service, and so identified themselves with the Union cause as to outlaw them with the rebels, and are now abandoned to their tender mercies. God save the country and the cause where such things are done in its name and by its friends! Nothing could have been more satisfactory than the conduct of the black soldiers, as a general thing. No white soldier could do better, and if left here and increased by such accessions as they could have secured, they would have gradually obtained session of the State, and acquired a reputation that would have been a terror to Southern rebels and Northern copperheads. pos The troops are now all embarked, with fourteen rebel prisoners and the trophies of war, and such of the citizens as can find place, on board the steamers Delaware, Boston, John Adams, and Convoy, and propellers General Meigs and Tilley, and we leave this devoted place a third time, and now in ruins, as the reward of the fidelity of its citizens to the flag which has been unfurled over them but to embarrass and ruin them. You will undoubtedly receive the official report of the expedition by the same mail which takes this, and I have no time for its details now. NEW-YORK "TRIBUNE" ACCOUNT. JACKSONVILLE, FLA., March 28, 1863. Jacksonville is in ruins. That beautiful city, which has been for so many years a favorite resort for invalids from the North, has to-day been burnt to the ground, and, what is sad to record, by the soldiers of the National army. Scarcely a mansion, a cottage, a negro-hut, or a warehouse remains. The long lines of magnificent oaks, green and beautiful, with the thickest foliage, the orange groves perfuming the air with their blossoms, the sycamores, the old century plants adorning every garden, the palmetto and bayonet trees, ever tropical in verdure, the rose and the jessamine all that at this season, indeed, I might say through all seasons, has made Jacksonville a little Eden, has been burnt, and scorched, and crisped, if not entirely consumed to ashes, by the devouring flames. I am now writing on the deck of the fine transport-ship the Boston. Three gunboats-the Paul Jones, the Norwich, and the John Adams—are lying out in the river, with guns shotted, ready to fire the moment a rebel appears in sight. The transport vessels-the Boston, the Delavan, the General Meigs, the Tillie, and the Cossack-are at the wharves, filled with troops. All are on board, except about two hundred of the Sixth Connecticut, who are on picket-duty. Three blank shots from the Paul Jones have just been fired, as a signal for them to come in. From this upper deck the scene presented to the spectator is one of the most fearful magnificence. On every side, from every quarter of the city, dense clouds of black smoke and flames are bursting through the mansions and warehouses. A fine south wind is blowing immense blazing cinders right into the heart of the city. The beautiful Spanish moss, drooping so gracefully from the long avenues of splendid old oaks, has caught fire, and as far as the eye can reach through these once pleasant streets, nothing but sheets of flames can be seen, running up with the rapidity of lightning to the tops of the trees, and then darting off to the smallest branches. The whole city, mansions, warehouses, trees, shrubbery, and orange-groves; all that refined taste and art through many years have made beautiful and attractive, are being lapped up and devoured by the howling, fiery blast. One solitary woman, a horse tied to a fence between two fires, and a lean, half-starved dog, are the only living inhabitants to be seen on the streets. Fifty families, most of them professing Union sentiments, have been taken on board of the transports and provided with such accommodations as the tubs will afford. Some of them have been able to save a bed and a few chairs, but most of them have nothing in the world but the clothes upon their backs. Is not this war-vindictive, unrelenting war? Have we not gotten up to the European standard? Yesterday the beautiful little cottage used as the Catholic parsonage, together with the church, was fired by some of the soldiers, and in a short time burned to the ground. Before the flames had fairly reached the church, the soldiers burst open the doors and commenced sacking it of every thing of value. The organ was in a moment torn to strips, and almost every soldier who came out seemed to be celebrating the occasion by blowing through an organ-pipe. To-day the same spectacle has been repeated, only upon a much grander scale. There must have been some understanding among the incendiaries with regard to the conflagration. At eight o'clock the flames burst from several buildings in different parts of the city, and at a later hour still more were fired. The wind then rose to a stiff gale, and the torch of the incendiary became unnecessary to increase the fire. The only mansions of any value left standing as we move down the river, are the elegant mansions of Col. Sanderson and Judge Burritt, both rebels of the deepest dye. Why so much property, known to belong to Union men, should have been destroyed, and the mansions of these notorious rebels left standing, it is hard to understand. It gives me pleasure to report that the negro troops took no part whatever in the perpetration of this vandalism. They had nothing whatever to do with it, and were simply silent spectators of the splendid but sad spectacle. The Sixth Connecticut charged it upon the Eighth Maine, and the Eighth Maine hurled it back upon the Sixth Connecticut. After the fires in different parts of the city had broken out, Colonel Rust ordered every man to be shot who should be found applying the torch; but the order came too late. The provost-marshal and his guard could not shoot or arrest the wind. No human power could stay its ravages. Six o'clock P.M.-Mouth of the St. John's.A fierce north-east storm is raging upon the ocean. Gunboats and transports are lying here in safety, waiting until it abates. Again we are witnessing a conflagration. Some of the soldiers have gone ashore and fired a fine steam saw-mill at May Port Mills, said to belong to a Union man in Maine. Much indignation is expressed on board. The white soldiers again are the criminals. The blacks have not been off their transports. April 1st. We arrived in this harbor early this morning, after a splendid run of fourteen hours from the mouth of the St. John's. Below I give you a list of the families we brought with us, whose dwellings were burnt, and who are now utterly destitute. Many of them, before the war, lived in luxury and independence. Now they are subsisting upon the rations of the commissary department. Gen. Saxton has set apart several of the largest mansions in this city for their occupation until their friends at the North can come to their assistance. The following is the list of families referred to above: Mrs. Divees and family, Mrs. Cole and family, Mrs. Wallace, Mrs. Dunbar, Miss Jordan of the Crespo House, Dr. Emery and son, Mrs. Poetting, Mrs. Hague and family, Mrs. Poinsett, Miss Poinsett, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas, Mrs. Church, Mr. and Mrs. Gower, Mrs. Curvick, Mrs. M. Leonardy and family, Mrs. R. Leonardy and family, Mrs. Shaddock and daughter, Mrs. Foster, Mr. and Mrs. Syprel and family. Doc. 149. NEW-ORLEANS "ERA" ACCOUNT. BRASHEAR CITY, Monday, March 30. LAST Saturday morning, while sitting at a table in the cabin of the gunboat Diana, writing out my notes to send by the morning train, the engine-whistle sounded. Gathering up my papers, I asked Captain Peterson, who stood beside me, if he was going to make a trip that day? He replied he was only going to ship some coal, and not do picket-duty as usual, and that he would be quiet for two or three days at least. It appears that Capt. Peterson received orders on Saturday morning to take on board two companies of infantry and make a reconnoissance to find whether the enemy had received reënforcements of infantry. He was to go no further than a point where a bayou from Grand Lake unites with the Atchafalaya, west of Pattersonville. But he was not contented with simply fulfilling the letter of his commands; and hence, with a zeal which unfortunately proved fatal to him, he determined to carry his observations into the very midst of the enemy's stronghold. Proceeding cautiously along the bayou until within half a mile of Pattersonville, on the upper side, four of the rebel cavalry suddenly came within range, and galloped along the levee road. A shell was fired at them from the Diana without effect. They continued retreating until they reached the main body of cavalry, consisting of several companies, which had remained concealed by a sugar-house. Upon discovering this force, instantly every gun of the Diana was brought to bear upon the enemy, shot and shell being poured into their ranks with perceptible effect. Several companies of rebel infantry now joined the cavalry, and they formed in line of battle, and kept up a sharp firing upon our men. Accordingly these pieces were abandoned, and from that time all firing ceased on board the Diana. The men could only lie flat on the decks and receive the shots of the enemy, whose firing completely riddled the upper decks of the boat. The wooden bulwarks were knocked to splinters, which flew in every direction, proving more destructive than the balls of the enemy. The third shot fired by the rebels cut the tillerropes of the Diana, and left her helpless in the current. This damage was not repaired for some time, the boat meanwhile floating down, stern foremost, toward the enemy, who, from the short distance of sixty feet, raked her with round shot from stem to stern. All the deck officers in command were either killed or wounded. The boilerdeck was torn in pieces by the shot, shell, and grape, poured into it by the enemy. When the boat changed position, the enemy's cannon were moved so that they might be worked with the greatest effect. Mr. Hall, officer of the deck, was shot in the forehead, and went below, saying to the men: "Boys, fight it out till the last." All the ship's officers armed themselves with muskets during the action, and used them constantly. The gunboat Calhoun went up from Brashear City to Pattersonville yesterday noon, under a flag of truce, to secure the bodies of the killed, carry provisions to the wounded, and, if possible, secure the parole of the prisoners. The Calhoun returned during the evening, bringing the bodies of Captain Peterson, Master's Mate Dolliver, and all the privates of the two companies of infantry, and the sailors of the Diana. All the officers were retained, and, with the exception of Lieutenant Allen, sent to New-Iberia. Lieutenant Allen is at the house of Dr. Grant, at Pattersonville. The paroled men report that they were very kindly treated during their short imprisonment. They were kept in a guard-house While all attention from the gunboat was di- thatched with palmetto leaves, and fed on corn rected to this force of infantry and cavalry, a bat-bread and salt meat. Every attention was paid tery of four brass field-pieces was suddenly hurried into a neighboring corn-field, at no greater distance than twenty yards from the boat, whence a most active cannonading was at once commenced. It was at this moment that Captain Peterson, while standing on the deck on the starboard side of the pilot-house, giving orders to his men, received a ball in his breast, which prostrated him to the deck. His only words were: "I am a dead man." He never spoke again. Hardly had Capt. Peterson fallen, when a ball struck Master's Mate Mr. Dolliver, who was standing at his post working one of the Dahlgren cannon. He was killed almost instantly. By this time it became evident that the object of the enemy was to pick off our men from the large guns. Mr. Mumford, having charge of the Parrott gun in the bow, had been killed, and a perfect hailstorm of bullets was showered upon those who were stationed forward. to the wounded by the women of Pattersonville. Every thing in their power to bestow was freely given, although they said that there was not a barrel of flour in the place to make a dish of gruel from. They promised to cook the articles sent up to the wounded, and see that they were provided for. Colonel Gray was in command of the post. Ninety-nine of our men were paroled. Their names have not yet been sent in to the AdjutantGeneral's office. There are several companies of Arizonian and Camanche Indians at the rebel camp. They are filthy and ragged, armed with every kind of weapon, and nearly all drunk when the Calhoun was at Pattersonville. The Diana has been sent to Franklin. HORATIUS. Doc. 150. of ammunition, store, and transport steam and sailing vessels. The scene, relieved by the rising OCCUPATION OF COLES'S ISLAND, S. C. sun crimsoning the sky, was one of peculiar in A NATIONAL ACCOUNT. NINE MILES FROM CHARLESTON, March 28, 1863. terest and grandeur. At half-past seven o'clock A.M. the Expounder passed the outer buoy of Port Royal harbor, was headed on a north-eastern course, (Charlestonward.) The distance from Port Royal to Coles's Island is estimated at forty-five miles. The steamer Belvidere, with stores and artillery for the expedition, followed in the rear of the Expounder. As the tide in Stono Inlet bar would not serve until noon, no attempt was made to put the Expounder at her full speed. She was therefore kept under easy steam. The course pursued was along the coast line of South-Carolina, in full sight of land, and six miles distant therefrom. A monotonous line of tall pines and palmetto trees was all that repaid the spectator. THE initiatory movement toward the rebel stronghold, Charleston, South-Carolina, has been commenced. The pioneer corps of the grand expedition--the One Hundredth New-York volunteers, Col. G. B. Dandy, (Brevet Major, United States army)-took undisputed possession of Coles's Island, nine miles from Charleston, this morning. I write this letter from their camp. There is no secrecy attached to this movement, and the facts I shall record cannot operate prejudicially to any subsequent movements. I presume the main facts of the movement will be chronicled in the rebel newspapers, and thoroughly discussed at rebel breakfast-tables several days After getting well on our journey, the Expoundere this letter reaches New-York. The discovery er was the subject of a sea-swell, not violent, but of America by Columbus; the landing of the it imparted such a motion to the vessel as would Pilgrims at Plymouth, are prominent facts of produce a nausea to those persons not accustomed American history; the initiatory movement of to the sea. This number among the One Hunmovements, and the grand movement of the great dredth New-York was pretty large, and as a conexpedition which is to reduce the hotbed of se- sequence there were not a few cases of "casting cession, will be prominent facts of the contem-up Jonah" on the Expounder. poraneous history of the present rebellion, and will hereafter occupy a prominent part in the future standard history of the United States. The defeat or success of this expedition will have a preponderating influence, one way or the other, in the closing of the present war. The One Hundredth regiment, which came from North-Carolina in February last, is a portion of the Eighteenth army corps. From their arrival in the Department of the South, until they embarked for the expedition to this place, they have been encamped at St. Helena Island, Port Royal harbor. Pursuant to orders from General Hunter, they embarked from that place on Monday, the twenty-fourth instant, on board the steamer Expounder, Captain Deering. As they marched from the camp to the vessel, they were the recipients of the cheers of their comrades in arms. The good-byes and God-speeds were hearty. The regiment, after its embarkation, was conveyed to Hilton Head, six miles distant, where they disembarked, and exchanged their fire-arms for the new Austrian rifle. This work occupied nearly the entire day, and it was nearly dark before the regiment reëmbarked. The Expounder transport then returned to her anchorage off St. Helena Island, where she remained for the night. En route down the coast the steamships Ericsson and S. R. Spaulding, proceeding in opposite directions to us, were successively passed, the former from New-York bound for Port Royal towing a nondescript looking raft. The Spaulding had troops on board. At half-past eleven o'clock the Expounder and Belvidere arrived off Stono Inlet. From this point, looking landward, the gunboats Pawnee and Commodore McDonough, doing blockade duty there, were plainly seen. From the deck of the Expounder the spires of the churches in Charleston, and the Union blockading fleet off Charleston were distinctly seen. The magnetic bearing of Charleston from Stono Inlet is northeast by east, twelve miles distant. By the time our mosquito expedition reached Stono, the wind had freshened and there was a brisk sea flowing. The breakers were dashing over the shoals at the mouth of the inlet. The Expounder had a government pilot on board who pretended to know the channel into Stono Inlet, but when his capacity was put to the test, as we approached the outer buoy, he displayed so much hesitation and nervousness that Captain Deering thought the risk too great, both to his vessel and those on board, to run the risk of intrusting his vessel in the hands of such a man. He therefore ordered the union-jack to be hoisted to the masthead, the usual signal for a pilot. This met a At daylight on the morning of Wednesday, the prompt response from the gunboat Pawnee in twenty-sixth instant, the Expounder weighed an- Stono River, and shortly afterward the gunboat chor and started for her destination. The sky Commodore McDonough was steaming down the was clear, with a fresh north-east wind blowing. harbor, coming to our assistance. She approached Leaving the anchorage off St. Helena, we steamed one point about half-way down the channel, withdown Port Royal harbor seaward, passing en route in three miles of the Expounder, when she stopthe old line-of-battle ship Vermont, the frigate ped. A small boat, manned by sailors and under and flag-ship Wabash, the iron-clad fleet of gun-a naval officer was sent from her to our assistboats, a half-a-dozen wooden ones, and hundreds ance. They at first attempted to run their boat, On Tuesday, the twenty-fifth instant, a southeast gale, accompanied by rain and fog, prevailed, so that it was injudicious to move on that day. At eight o'clock, on Thursday morning, the twenty-seventh instant, the Expounder and the Belvidere weighed anchor, took their departure from Edisto, and proceeded once more to Stono Inlet. The weather was delightful, and the heavy wind which prevailed the day previous, had subsided. Both vessels arrived at the inlet before high-water, and were obliged to lay off and on until the tide should serve. We were well repaid for the delay, as we had the gratification of seeing the iron ram Keokuk pass us, en route from Fortress Monroe for Hilton Head. This double-turreted monster looked formidable. but the current was too strong for them, where-are now deserted, and the lands lying waste for upon they set sail and beat out the channel. It want of cultivation. The landscape from Edisto seemed, as I watched the progress of the little Inlet, is one well worthy of the pencil and easel boat, that she would be momentarily engulfed of the limner. in the heavy sea-swell then prevailing. By the time the McDonough's boat reached us, the tide had been ebbing an hour and a half, and the stage of water there on Stono bar was so low as not to admit its crossing by either the Expounder or Belvidere. It was therefore deemed advisable by Captain Deering to postpone the attempt until high-water the next day. As the wind was blowing quite fresh, it was thought advisable to make a harbor for the night at Edisto Inlet, twelve miles distant, the entrance to which is practicable at all tides for vessels drawing less than twelve feet of water. This was accomplished by four P.M. As we entered Edisto Inlet we met, going in, a fleet of four iron-clad gunboats, and in tow of a steamer, namely, the United States, Locust Point, Cahawba, and the gunboat Connemaugh. In addition to these were several colliers and store vessels. Preceding this fleet in Edisto Inlet were the gunboats South-Carolina and Flam-motive power was unable to extricate her. Capt. beau and three schooner mortar-boats. The consolidation of these two fleets made quite an imposing appearance, doubtless stimulating the nerves of the rebels in that vicinity, and particularly the rebel pickets on Botany Bay, Seabrook, and Edisto Islands, many of whom were in sight when the fleet entered the harbor. While waiting for the tide to serve, the Government pilot on the Expounder made a small boat survey of Stono Bar. After he returned, which was about noon, the Expounder was got under weigh; but immediately after passing the first buoy, she grounded on a shoal, from which her Deering, of the Expounder, immediately ordered the ensign to be set, union down, as a signal of distress. This was answered promptly by the ranking naval officer in Stono River, who immediately sent the gunboat Commodore McDonough to our assistance. Soundings were taken, to ascertain the position of the Expounder, when it was discovered that the shoal was a fulcrum on which the steamer was resting, a position by no means safe nor desirable. As the tide receded, our position became more precarious, and the breakers by which we were surrounded were intense and dangerous. Before the arrival of suc From the anchorage of the Expounder in Edisto Inlet, half-a-mile distant, on Bohicksett Creek, I could distinctly see the deserted but beautiful town, Rockville. Its inhabitants, being of the secession "persuasion," had gone Dixieward. The town has a neat church, with an immense spire; a large cotton-ginning establishment, stores, post-cor from the navy, long hawsers of the Belvidere office, dwelling-houses, and the usual concomitants of a first-class town. Some of the dwellinghouses are neat, capacious, and apparently comfortable. The town in many respects wears the air of a Yankee town. The architecture of the buildings seems to indicate that at one time a live Yankee from Massachusetts had settled there. As I said before, the place is uninhabited, except by a few superannuated negroes, male and female. The rebels have a picket station there, and the town is frequently visited by rebel scouting-parties. The view of the surrounding country, from Edisto Inlet, is sublime. The soil is of unexampled natural fertility, out of which can be raised almost any kind of a crop. From Edisto, the eye can describe a semicircle of territory from twelve to fifteen miles in extent. The topography of the land is of an undulatory character. The arable cultivated lands bear such a harmonious proportion to the palmetto and pine woods, as to make the scenery preeminently interesting. Through the opens on the small eminences, here and there are seen the palatial residences of the old planters. Many of these houses have observatories on them, which give them an unique and lofty appearance. Near the planters' houses are seen the negro villages. Most of these villages and Expounder were spliced, (the former vessel had not at this time attempted to cross the bar,) but the efforts of the former vessel to relieve the latter, were unavailing. The power of both was nil. The wind was freshening all the time, so that it blew a little gale; the Expounder was surrounded by a surf-swell, which seemed to threaten the lives of those on board, should the gale increase. The Expounder had boats enough only for a few hundred, so that our position was critical. The gunboat McDonough, having a distance of eight miles to come from her anchorage to where the Expounder was on shore, some time elapsed after the time we made our signal of distress, before she reached us. When she came to our assistance, she run a hawser to us, and attempted to pull the Expounder off the shoal. After tugging for an hour or two, and parting several hawsers, the McDonough herself went ashore on the edge of the channel. Shortly after this, a loud report was heard all over the Expounder. It was subsequently discovered that the hog-frame, or, to make it more plain to the reader, the large semicircular frame, seen over the decks of our large river steamers, had broken in twain. Captain Deering immediately ordered the troops to go aft, and the cargo, on the for |