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my, and deprives the commander of our own forces of all the advantages which arise from the secrecy of concentration and surprise-advantages which are constantly enjoyed by the rebels, whose press never appears to BETRAY them."

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 invito 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 I 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. Ile 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 compensate 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.

-Cincinnati Press

Doc. 198.
"CONFEDERATE" ACT,

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

D. B. PHILLIPS, C. S. N., Med. Dir. of forces under Gen. H. A. WISE.

require, not to exceed, in all, four storekeepers, | ity. Our brigade was encamped at Locust who shall, previous to entering on duty, give Lane, not less than five miles from the scene of bonds with good and sufficient security, in such action. sums as the Secretary of War may direct, fully to account for all moneys and public property which they may receive.

Doc. 200.

GOV. ANDREW'S PROCLAMATION.

EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT,
BOSTON, Aug. 20, 1861.

To the Citizen-Soldiers of Massachusetts:Again, in a moment of public danger, your country calls you to the post where the heroic soldiers of April hastened with generous alac

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 Presi-rity and sublime devotion. dent be also authorized to appoint two or more Two regiments encamped at Lynnfield, two master armorers, with a salary not to exceed at Dedham, and one at Worcester, are yet infifteen hundred dollars per annum, with allow-completely recruited. ances 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.

SEC. 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.

Doc. 199.

SKIRMISH AT HAWK'S NEST, VA.,
AUGUST 20, 1861.

A CORRESPONDENT of the Richmond Enquirer states the following in reference to this affair: Gentlemen: In your issue of to-day I note the subjoined Yankee telegraphic despatch :

"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."

They will march immediately. Whether few or many, they will march,-armed, uniformed, and equipped,-on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday of the present week.

dred men; the Eighteenth four hundred; the The Seventeenth regiment needs two hunNineteenth three hundred and fifty; the Twenhundred men, in order to fill their ranks to the tieth five hundred; and the Twenty-first two maximum number allowed by law.

Duty,

Citizen-Soldiers of Massachusetts! and devotion, call for your brave hearts and honor, the dearest sentiments of patriotic love unconquerable arms! JOHN A. ANDREW,

Governor and Commander-in-Chief.

Doc. 201.

GEN. MCCLELLAN'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 Shenandoah, 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 adjutantgeneral; 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. Macomb, 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 U. S. A.

Doc. 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 Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Andrew G. Curtin, Governor of the said Commonwealth, A Proclamation to the freemen of the Common-threats, nor fabrications, nor intimidations sufwealth of Pennsylvania:

Washington is again believed to be in danger. The President has made an earnest appeal 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 VIRGINIA, CLARKSBURG, Aug. 20, 1861. To the Loyal Inhabitants of Western Virginia: You are the vast majority of the people. If the principle of self-government is to be respected, you have a right to stand in the position you have assumed, faithful to the Constitution and laws of Virginia, as they were before the ordinance of secession.

The Confederates have determined at all

By these and other atrocious falsehoods they alarmed you, and led many honest and unsuspecting citizens to vote for secession. Neither

ficed to carry Western Virginia against the interest and wishes of its people, into the arms of secession.

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 the United States, they reply you shall join the it up. You say you wish to remain citizens of 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 expelled from the soil.

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, tain. dignity, and honor of Missouri.

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 Secessionism or Unionism.

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 Western Virginia; it is an invitation to the Southern Confederates to come in and subdue you, and proclaims that there can be no law nor right until this is done.

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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.

This victory frees a large portion of the State from the powers of the invaders, and restores it to the protection of its army. It consequently becomes my duty to assure you that it is my 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 whatever may have been his sympathies in the the arbitrary force which domineered over you, present unhappy struggle, if he has not taken an to restore that law and order of which you active part in the cruel warfare, which has been have been robbed, and to maintain your right waged against the good people of this State, by to govern yourselves under the Constitution the ruthless enemies whom we have just deand laws of the United States. feated.

To put an end to the savage war waged by individuals, who, without warrant of military authority, lurk in the bushes and waylay messengers, 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. ROSECRANS, Brig.-Gen. Commanding A. O. W. V.

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I therefore invite all good citizens to return to their homes and the practice of their ordinary avocations, with the full assurance that they, their families, their homes, and their property shall be carefully protected. I, at the same time, warn all evil-disposed persons, who may support the usurpations of any one claiming to be provisional or temporary Governor of Missouri, or who shall in any other way give aid or comfort to the enemy, that they will be held as enemies, and treated accordingly. STERLING PRICE,

Maj. Gen. Commanding M. S. G.

Doc. 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, PROCLAMATION OF STERLING PRICE. and the officers and soldiers of his brave com

Doc. 204.

JEFFERSON CITY, August 20.

mand, 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.

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RICHMOND DISPATCH NARRATIVE.

MCDOWELL, HIGHLAND COUNTY, July 23d, 1861. I HAVE no doubt you have received various and numerous reports of the movements of the troops of General Garnett's command since I last wrote you, and I now merely write to give a true and accurate statement of the retreat and death of General Garnett—a statement which I defy any one to question, and to which those high in authority will willingly subscribe. I would have given you the particulars before, but having hard and severe duty to perform, I

was not able to do so.

We had been skirmishing with the enemy a week at Laurel Hill, when, on Thursday evening, 11th July, we received an order from Gen. Garnett to prepare provisions for a two days' march, shortly after which we were directed to strike our tents, and took up our line of march for Beverly, a distance of sixteen miles, which place we came within three miles of, when we found that a very formidable blockade had been erected, which we could not pass, and, therefore, had to march back on the route we had previously come, to a road that led to the northeast, towards St. George, in Tucker County, which we entered early in the morning. (Here I would state, in the way of parenthesis, that it was the object of General G. to form a connection with Colonels Pegram and Heck, who were stationed at Rich Mountain, and move on Cheat Mountain, via Huttonsville; but the enemy, it seems, cut us off, and got between the two commands, and had our small force almost completely surrounded.) Thus, you will see, our command, composed of four companies of cavalry, Captain Shoemaker's

Danville Artillery, Colonel William B. Taliaferro's Twenty-third regiment, Colonel Jackson's regiment, Colonel Fulkerson's Thirty-sev enth regiment, and the Georgia regiment, Col. Ramsey, and a small battalion under Colonel Hansborough, all under the immediate charge of General Garnett, was forced to take the only route left us. We had proceeded on the road mentioned above for thirty-six miles, without eating or sleeping, except a short halt about mid-day, until Saturday morning, when our cavalry came rapidly to the rear division, and informed us of the rapid approach of the enemy. Not being in a condition to stand an engagement, our little army moved on, but had not gone far before a halt was ordered, and the Georgia regiment, which had hitherto been in the advance, was directed to make a stand against the advance guard of the enemy, which they did, taking a position in a low meadow, just across Cheat River, a portion of the command taking to the woods for the purpose of an ambuscade. The enemy advanced on them and gave them battle, without, however, killing any one; but they succeeded in cutting off from the main body six companies, who have since made their way through the mountain and joined their command.

The retreat was then continued, and now our sufferings commenced in earnest. Col. Taliaferro had command of the rear division nearly the whole retreat, and had to sustain the hardest part of the work, the balance of the force being far in advance.

We kept on in this way until we had come to Carrick's Ford of the Cheat River, where we found that our wagons had become stalled and overturned in the river, and where they had to be left at the mercy of the enemy.

Lieut. Lanier's Washington Artillery and Colonel Taliaferro's Twenty-third regiment had no sooner crossed than they were ordered to give the enemy battle, and our forces were marched in double-quick time to meet the Yankees. We soon took our position, and had hardly taken it, when the advance of the enemy came upon us. Col. Taliaferro gave the command orders to fire, when Lieut. Lanier and the Twenty-third opened on them, and for ah hour raked them down like chaff, and twice they were forced to retreat; but having so many troops, they were soon reinforced, not, however, until they had lost over three hundred and fifty killed, and how many wounded we are unable to say. Our loss in this engagement was fourteen killed and about twenty wounded. So anxious were our troops to keep up the fire, that Col. T. had to give the command orders to retire several times before he could get the troops to leave the field.

After this engagement, we had to doublequick it for four miles before we came up with the remainder of the army. Immediately after this battle, and in a half mile of it, General Garnett in person was on the river bank, and halted the regiment, and detached the sharp

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