she did not attempt to comply with the requirements of the order.

9

James River as far as the eye can reach; seeing The rebel soldiers and negroes were at work army fighting under the old flag would have held all these, and knowing how long and bravely an on their entrenchments until one o'clock in the them-I almost wonder at the cowardly tactics morning, when their rear-guard ordered the work of the braggart rebels, and more than ever realto cease and the march for Williamsburgh to be ize the baseness and hopelessness of their cause. taken up. In the house of Mrs. Nelson, where Gen. Magruder had slept the night before the allels and batteries had gone up day after day, Our environments were all complete. Our parevacuation, I found several open letters lying un-night after night, within point-blank range of the folded on a table. Two were addressed to Gen. enemy, and under unceasingly vexatious fire. McClellan, one to the first Yankee who come, Our more than a hundred siege-guns and mortars one to Abe Lincoln. One of those to Gen. Mc- were placed and ready for the reduction of the Clellan reads as follows: walls opposing us. The bombardment would

GENERAL MCCLELLAN: You will be surprised The rebels knew that we were ready; they must have commenced at sunrise to-morrow morning. to hear of our departure at this stage of the either fight a desperate, decisive battle, or surgame, leaving you in possession of this worth-render ignominiously the strongest defence of less town; but the fact is, McClellan, we have Richmond. They have chosen the latter alternaother engagements to attend to, and we can't wait any longer. Our boys are getting sick of this damned place, and the hospital likewise; so, good-by for a little while. Adjutant TERRY, C.S.A.M.

The retreat of the rebels appears to have been precipitate. They commenced carrying all but their guns back to Williamsburgh four days ago. Wagons have been engaged in transporting their ammunition, provisions, and camp equipage for nearly a week past. Their sick and wounded, numbering over two thousand five hundred, were sent to Richmond ten days ago. The rebel council of war was held in Mrs. Nelson's house, at Yorktown, on Tuesday and Wednesday last. Jeff. Davis and two members of his Cabinet, Gens. Lee, Magruder, and nine other generals were present. The debates were warm and exciting; but finally it was resolved to evacuate. The generals entrusted with the orders of evacuation kept it a profound secret from the officers

and men.

ANOTHER ACCOUNT.

YORKTOWN, 10 A.M., Sunday morning, May 4. Another skedaddle. Yorktown and the peninsula defences are ours. Evacuated by the enemy at two o'clock this morning, and entered at sunrise by the trench-detail of the Federal army. My associate rides back to the camps to send you the first brief news by the ten o'clock boat to Old Point. I remain in the enemy's recent lines to examine their formidable works, and, if possible, become the discoverer of the redoubtable "last ditch."

For three weeks these fortresses and intrenchments have checked our march to Richmond, but only that they might the more surely, cheaply, and expeditiously fall into our hands. I look around at this village of Yorktown, now a broad and frowning fortress, covering hundreds of acres, twice as large as Fortress Monroe, big enough to inclose twenty of our own elaborate works on the Potomac heights; I see a bastioned and traversed flank-work, one fourth its size, and but a hundred rods to the west; I gaze from the further angle of the latter, and a chain of rifle-pits, redoubts, gabionades, and what not, stretches toward the

tive; and, if we experience a certain disappointment in not being able at once, and at any loss of life, to end this weary contest, it cannot be doubted that the general Southern public, deludwill be exasperated beyond measure by this last ed into a belief that the peninsula would be held, exposure of their leaders.

phase deprives of interest, detailing the latest asLast night I wrote a letter, which the new pects and probabilities of the siege. The symptom which has made our officers, from the outset, half distrust the promise of the rebels to fight us, has been the worrisome and vicious, rather than vigorous and systematic, manner of their firing. They have popped away at our trenches and camps in the former style, exposing every one to the chance, without much danger, of being hit ed our engineering-which has been more rapidly by their shells. They have not seriously retardexecuted than as much work by any previous army. Right in their teeth our hardy thousands have built fifteen earthworks and thrown up parallels of miles in length.

But yesterday we had a suspicious symptom. loon, and in the evening the display of Major In the afternoon the ascent of Prof. Lowe's balMyers's signal lights, gave them certain ranges, and they began to pour in all sorts of projectiles from their three principal works. (Food and forage have been so limited here that we had accepted the first hospitable invitation to mess and bed received. Owing to this fact, my residence for the past two days has been in rather an exposed location, where a friend, connected with army, had been directed to pitch his tent and what may be called the "scientific corps" of the await orders. This spot was near the junction of the cross-fire poured in last night. The shells burst in and over a ravine behind us; sometimes in a field in front. No amount of experience can render people entirely comfortable within such nocturnal surroundings. A huge cloud, hanging over the rebel works, deflected the sound to the forest, and every discharge rang and echoed with a thousand thunders.) ing such a row to-night?" was the question under "For what are they raisdiscussion. Dispute ran high whether it was to cover a retreat or to use their newly acquired

knowledge of the location of some of our camps. Just then an indiscriminate mass of ammunitionwagons, which had been bearing shells to our outworks, under cover of the night, came rolling with great tumult into our field. The mules were stampeding, frightened by the enemy's heavy fire. All thought, for a moment, that the rebels were making a sortie, and that some of our field-batteries were taking a "safer position." Then came the discovery of the reality, and much | joking, but just as many shells. For several hours the rebels fired two-minute guns. At last we got out of patience, and opened some heavy replies. After ten minutes-at about two A.M.— not another rebel shot was heard. Then deserters came in, declaring that the rear-guard of the foe had evacuated, and was pushing for Williamsburgh.

road,) where we had already unearthed several sunken bombs and suspected others were concealed. I thought some casualty would occur, and watched the progress of the long column. The cavalry passed in by fours, and the last company had reached the gate when-another explo sion, a dead horse, and badly mutilated rider. "Send for an ambulance." 66 Lay the man by the roadside." Attention, company! Forward by fours!” Another explosion inside the great fortress, not five minutes since-and they are even now carrying a poor groaning fellow in front of the rebel tent in which I am writing.

Well, we have the works, the deserted towna village of twenty houses-heaps of shot and shell, forty spiked guns in one work alone, and thirty-one more in the residual aggregate. Your correspondents have taken hasty outlines of the In two hours it was daylight. Lowe and Gen- Yorktown intrenchments, and will try to send you eral Heintzelman made a hurried balloon ascen- them copied on an engineer's map of the lines, sion, and confirmed the report of the deserters. with our batteries and approaches carefully disNext Colonel Sam. Black, Sixty-second Pennsyl-played. There is no humbug nor Quaker-gun vania, Colonel Gove, Twenty-second Massachu- business about these last-captured rebel works. setts, and Captain Boughton, Thirteenth New-Magruder has done his best with them, and has York, with their trench details, all led by General Jameson, general of the trenches, advanced as skirmishers, at their own risk, and clambered the parapets of Yorktown. Colonel Sam. Black and General Jameson were the first men in, and unfurled the Stars and Stripes upon the great waterangle, whose huge gun, now exploded, gave us so much trouble a week ago.

I think the Press brigade, as usual, was the next corps to enter the rebel lines.

I

By eight A.M. the whole army, east and west, was in hot pursuit of the retreating rebels. learn thus much of the left wing, and am myself now writing in the Yorktown works, while Gen. | Fitz-John Porter's division, from the right wing, is pouring through the gates and on beyond the fortresses, by the Williamsburgh river road. It is preceded by the McClellan dragoons and Sixth cavalry, with a large artillery force. It will not be surprising if we yet have a battle on the peninsula. It will surprise us if we do not make many prisoners, as the deserting stay-behinds report the enemy somewhat demoralized, and that many of the Irish and Kentucky soldiers have taken to the woods.

One hundred thousand men have occupied the whole line opposed to us. Eight thousand staid at Yorktown alone until two o'clock this morning, then left post haste, spiking all the guns which they could not remove, and burying percussion torpedoes in the various approaches and gateways. I had scarce entered the fort second from the river when a frightful explosion took place, where a group of men were standing in the quadrangle. One of the New-York Thirty-eighth (which regiment, Col. J. H. Ward, first occupied this stronghold) men had trodden on the spring of an infernal rebel machine. Two soldiers were killed, I think, and others wounded. Just afterward the McClellan dragoons came on, leading the van of the army. They pressed up toward the main entrance of the rebel rifle-pit, (across the Williamsburgh

been a year in doing it. Our deathful and visible means for reducing the line have alone made the rebels abandon it without striking a blow-at no loss of life to an army which would, nevertheless, have possessed it at any loss. Unequalled by any previous rebel earthworks as are the walls of Yorktown, I do not believe their defenders could have endured three days of the general bombardment which was to have commenced so soon.

Writing, as you see, in haste to push on with the rest, I will this morning give you only the outline features of Yorktown. An immense earth wall, fifteen feet at the parapet and twenty at the base, completely invests the land boundaries of the place, reaching from the river-bank below to the river-shore above. This wall is eighteen feet in height, from the bottom of a ditch eleven feet high and twelve feet wide. It has transverses, bomb-proofs, etc., well distributed throughout. It is over a mile in total length, and Yorktown is forever henceforth a fortress, lacking only casemates to make it very secure. On the water side are three batteries, mounting plenty of heavy guns, of which only a dozen or so remain. High in the village are the old works of 1781. Through the plains on the southern approach deep gorges form natural moats; and across the York River lies Gloucester Point, with a scanty rear-guard just hurrying from its supporting works, and a yellow flag still fluttering from its hospital.

To conclude, for I must end and forward these hurried pages:

I. Will the rebels make a stand at an interior line of peninsula defences?

Deserters say they will not; that they are afraid of McDowell's advance, and are hastening to unite with their Gordonsville columns; that the failure of Forts Jackson and St. Philip to sink our gunboats in the Mississippi has opened their eyes to the admirable shrewdness of McClellan in essay. ing the peninsula.

Per contra. Read the curious addresses which

jugated, is not Arkansas as she entered the confederate government. Nor will she remain Arkansas a confederate State, desolated as a wilderness; her children fleeing from the wrath to come, will build them a new ark and launch it on

ity, safety and rest. Be of good cheer, my countrymen, there is still a balm in Gilead, the good Samaritan will be found. Strike now and ever for your homes and liberty, against all men who invade the one or dispute the other. The despotic power of the North, which seeks now to crush you, contains in its own creation ripe seeds for its early destruction.

upon to perform militia duty who has not resided within the State two months, except in cases of invasion, in which case they are subject as other citizens, and subject to the same penalties." Further, the law provides: "Judges of the supreme and circuit courts, secretary, auditor and treas-new waters, seeking a haven somewhere, of equalurer of the State, clerks of the supreme and circuit courts, postmasters, post-riders, ferrymen on public roads, all licensed preachers of the Gospel of every denomination, and justices of the peace, shall be exempt from performing military duty, except in cases of insurrection and invasion." Hence it will be seen, by the law above quoted, that all men found in the State, between the ages of eighteen and forty-five, if physically able, may be called to the field now, the State being invaded. The State, always sovereign, is sovereign yet, in her reserved rights, one of which is to defend her own soil-her own governmenther own people, and to put every one, between certain ages, found in her borders, into the field, if necessary to do it. This is the law, State and national, and if it were not, the people in their potential power, would make it so.

ca.

By your authority and sanction, your representatives in convention assembled at the capital in May last, severed the State of Arkansas from the United States of America, upon the doctrine of State sovereignty, from which grew up the confederate States. This, in the retrospect, may be viewed no less a political right than a moral and political virtue. Looking to our happiness, and the transmission of republican liberty for the present age and future generations, an alliance was formed with the confederate States of AmeriIn the support of this government no star in the galaxy has shed a brighter lustre than Arkansas. No people have evinced more valor or a more self-sacrificing spirit, than hers in upholding confederate nationality. Every doorway is stained with the blood of her children, every roof is a house of mourning, and her altars are consecrated to benedictions for the dead and lost in battle. The flower of her youth, the pride of her manhood have without stint been lavished for the maintenance and support of the Confederation. She has done this because of her generous confidence, that when the evil hour came upon her, the national ensign, the confederate flag, would be found floating from her battlements, defying the invader and giving succor to her people.

Untoward events have placed her beyond the pale of protection much impaired, though not incapable of resistance, she will strike a blow for liberty, and continue to be free; if left to her fate she will carve a new destiny rather than be subjugated. It was for liberty she struck, and not for subordination to any created secondary power North or South. Her best friends are her natural allies, nearest at home, who will pulsate when she bleeds, whose utmost hope is not beyond her existence. If the arteries of the confederate heart do not permeate beyond the east bank of the Mississippi, let Southern Missourians, Arkansians, Texans, and the great West know it and prepare for the future. Arkansas lost, abandoned, sub

Stand out like men and resist that power, until the hallowed light shed by Southern States rights Democratic liberty shall throw its light back upon the very North itself, from the Rio Grande of the South to the Lake of the Woods; and westward to the Pacific. The God of nations has not decreed, I think, that tyrant hands shall stay the progress of civil and religious liberty upon this continent. The right of the people to govern is an admitted truism. Their capacity to do so is not a fable; but "the price of liberty is eternal vigilance;" be jealous of encroachments, mindful of your public servants. Take the Constitution of your State as your political text-book, and regard the defence of your homes and firesides as a duty you owe to God and humanity, and all will be well.

Correlative with these views, it is by the Military Board of the State of Arkansas deemed essential for the public safety, that four thousand five hundred men be called as volunteers from the militia of the State, to be organized into companies, battalions and regiments, as directed by ordinances of the State Convention, to serve for twelve months in State service unless sooner discharged. The companies not to contain less than sixty-four nor more than ninety-six men, exclusive of commissioned officers. Twenty companies of cavalry will be received, and thirty companies of infantry, with the right, on the part of the authorities, to assign one or more of the infantry companies for artillery service. Each volunteer must furnish his own gun, which will be valued and paid for by the State, or a certain amount paid for it monthly by the government for its use, as the State may ultimately determine.

Companies organizing south of the Arkansas River will rendezvous at Little Rock, unless other instruction are given. Those organizing north of the river will be advised of the proper point to rendezvous by applying to the Military Board for orders. Transportation, subsistence, etc., etc., will be supplied upon application, for organized companies; no company will be esteemed organized until a descriptive list is filed with the Military Board, showing the requisite number of men; certificates of election for company officers should accompany the descriptive list. Any commis sioned officers of the State may hold and certify to company elections. Able-bodied men, sixteen years and upwards, may be received into service. If the requisite number of men is not made up by