have been augmented. All the wounded, all the prisoners, and all the unnecessary impedimenta of the army of the Potomac, have been sent away by General Grant. The passing week may be expected to be filled with important events.

June 6, 1864. The result of the operations of the last week is that, in the west, General Canby has gathered in and so disposed of the forces which constituted General Banks' expeditionary force as to secure important strategic points, and prepare an aggressive movement of considerable importance.

General Sherman writes us yesterday afternoon, from the vicinity of Dallas, as follows: that "the enemy, discovering us moving round his right flank, abandoned his position last night and marched off. McPherson is moving to-day for Ackworth, Thomas on the direct Marietta road, and Schofield on his right. It has been raining hard for three days, and the roads are heavy. An examination of the enemy's abandoned line of works here shows an immense line of works, which I have turned with less loss to ourselves than we have inflicted upon them."

There has been much manoeuvring by the armies in front of Richmond, attended with battles in which we have lost seven thousand five hundred men, and inflicted equal injury upon the enemy. General Grant's headquarters are at Cold Harbor. His line stretches from Bethesda church, on the Tolopotomy, to Cold Harbor. Assaults are made, first by the one party and then by the other, thus far always leaving our line unbroken and perhaps a little advanced, while the enemy, though repulsed in all their attacks, yet retain the exterior line of their defences of Richmond. The communications of General Grant with his new base on the Pamunkey are perfect. Abundant supplies are conveyed to him, with reinforcements equal to the great waste which unavoidably occurs in the army of the Potomac. The obstinacy exhibited by the two parties has not been surpassed in the whole course of the

war.

We have, as yet, no advices of the movement recently instituted in the valley of the Shenandoah.

Congress has passed the currency bill, and thus disposed of — I think in a manner which will be satisfactory - the very troublesome conflict between the new national banking system and the old one of state banks.

June 14, 1864. We receive mingled news of successes and reverses in desultory military movements beyond the Mississippi, but nothing has occurred there to change the attitude we held at the date of my last review of the campaign.

John Morgan, with what was practically a guerilla mounted band, lately passed over the border from Virginia into Kentucky and committed some depredations in the interior of that state, of no great significance. He was hotly pursued from the start by General Burbridge, and was finally defeated near Cynthiana, with the dispersion of his forces.

General Hunter, with his flying column, met and defeated the enemy in a pitched battle at Piedmont, and then seized and occupied Staunton, in the valley of Virginia. He made important captures there of prisoners, arms, ordnance, and military stores. At the date of our last advices he had effected a union of the forces under his immediate command with the detachments under command of General Crook and General Averill, who have very thoroughly broken up the chief military communications of the enemy in that part of the country. We learn that on the one hand General Sheridan, with a considerable cavalry force, has gone out to meet and strengthen General Hunter, while Breckenridge, with some insurgent levies, has gone to resist Hunter's attempt to effect a junction with the army of the Potomac in front of Richmond. The very severe but heroic battle which was fought on the 3d of June at Cold Harbor resulted in satisfying Lieutenant-General Grant that Richmond could not be entered directly from that point without unnecessary waste of military power; he therefore immediately began his preparations to seize a new and better position, and at the same time effect a junction with the forces yet remaining under command of Major-General Butler on the south bank of the James River. The movement began on the evening of the 12th, and we are now anxiously waiting for information of the result.

June 20, 1864. No significant military event has occurred in the region beyond the Mississippi since my last notice of the campaign. A considerable force which was sent out by General Washburn, under command of General Sturgis, encountered the insurgents, led by Forrest, and was repulsed and routed. This reverse excited apprehensions here for the safety of General Sherman's communications. Later information assures us that, although the de

feat of Sturgis was complete, yet the losses were greatly exaggerated. General Sherman, on hearing of it, promptly assured us that he had taken adequate measures to guard against any serious embarrassments which might otherwise result from that unfortunate occurrence. During the last week we were kept well apprised by General Sherman of his own position, and the uncertain attitude of his opponent, Johnston. Last night General Sherman announced that Johnston had again retreated, and that our whole army are pursuing the insurgents as far as the Chattahoochee River, where we understand Johnston will probably make a new stand for the defence of Atlanta. We have heard from General Hunter's flying column only through the insurgent papers at Petersburg and Richmond. From these reports we infer that he is still operating, either against Charlottesville or against Lynchburg. The insurgents claim to have defeated Sheridan's cavalry on the Virginia and Tennessee railroad, near Gordonsville, with severe loss, but this is erroneous; he obtained a victory, with substantial fruits, in the engagement in which he is reported to have been beaten. But afterwards, on arriving at Gordonsville, he found that place too well defended by an infantry force to be carried by assault; he therefore retired, and when he was last heard from was at West Point, on the York River, it is supposed in communication with General Grant. You will read in the newspapers Lieutenant-General Grant's modest but clear account of his success in transferring the army of the Potomac, without any loss, from its position in front and within fifty yards of the enemy on the north bank of the Chickahominy, across that river, and also across the James River, to the south bank of the James, below Petersburg, at the same time reinforcing General Butler at Bermuda Hundred. The movement, as I before wrote you, began on the evening of the 12th instant, and was entirely completed on the 15th. Immediately upon obtaining his new position, Lieutenant-General Grant began a series of assaults against Petersburg. The place was found strongly defended. Some of the outer intrenchments have been carried, with a considerable capture of prisoners and guns, and these defences are still held; yet the enemy has not been displaced from Petersburg. It is understood that Lee has strongly reinforced Beauregard, who defends Petersburg, and that he has recovered the railroad which connects that place with Richmond, and which at one time fell into the hands of General

Butler. Some of the prisoners state that they have just arrived from Tennessee, and this fact implies that Lee has been reinforced from Johnston's army; but the evidences of it are not conclusive. I do not know that I could say more to render the military situation intelligible; but, in view of the discredit with which all accounts of our operations are met in Europe, I may not improperly add that our commanding generals, and all our military authorities, regard the progress which the armies have made with satisfaction.

June 28, 1864. - Lieutenant-General Grant having, as it is believed, safely and firmly established himself before Petersburg, and having made all prudent attempts to carry the town by assault, his operations there have now become simply strategic. He has already destroyed all the railroad and river communications of Petersburg and Richmond. It is not true that General Hunter has been defeated; on the contrary, it is satisfactorily known that his operations have been successful.

We have news from Major-General Sherman that he met a repulse, with a loss of three or four thousand men, in a general assault yesterday upon the enemy's line in the Keewan Mountains.

Perhaps I could in no better way relieve you of any apprehensions concerning the safety of our two great armies than by stating the fact that, notwithstanding the vicissitudes of battle, not only are our supplies and material regularly furnished to both armies in their advanced positions, but the headquarters of each are in direct and immediate telegraphic communication with this capital.

July 4, 1864. — After a session of seven months Congress will adjourn at noon to-day. It has in the main responded to the calls of the President for men and money to continue operations indispensa ble to suppress the insurrection. Theoretically, larger revenues ought to have been levied than those which Congress has imposed ; but, practically, those revenues are expected to satisfy the conditions upon which the public credit can be permanently established. The debates have been as loyal and harmonious as could reasonably have been expected in the legislative assembly of a confederate republic, in a great civil war. Congress has not confined itself to military measures. It has provided for carrying on the work upon the Capitol and other public buildings, for establishing steam mail communications with Brazil, for encouraging immigration, for prosecuting the construction of the inter-oceanic continental railroad, and has

given its sanction to the preparation for building an inter-continental or world's telegraph line across Behring Straits in connection with Great Britain and Russia.

General Sherman surprised us yesterday with the agreeable information that he has flanked the insurgent forces on Kenesaw Mountain, and advanced to Marietta on the way towards Atlanta.

During the last week, Lieutenant-General Grant's operations upon the communications of the insurgent army now at Petersburg and Richmond have been eminently successful. I am desirous, in my correspondence, to give you only facts, not anticipations.

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You will read in the papers of a rebel raid at Martinsburg, threatening the Baltimore and Ohio railroad. The movement is not fully developed, but no serious embarrassment to our operations is apprehended from it.

So, also, you will see accounts of insurgent movements on the Mississippi and Red rivers. I am satisfied that our military authorities have in hand counter operations which promise us the needful security for Sherman's base on the Mississippi.

Upon a careful review of the whole field, the prospects of this great campaign are regarded as auspicious.

July 8, 1864. We are informed of the destruction of the pirate ship Alabama by the Kearsarge in an engagement off Cherbourg on the 19th June last. This event has given great satisfaction to the government, and it appreciates and commends the bravery and skill displayed by Captain Winslow and the officers and crew under his command.

Several incidents of the transaction seem to demand immediate attention. The first is, that this government disapproves the proceeding of Captain Winslow in paroling and discharging the pirates who fell into his hands in that brilliant naval engagement, and in order to guard against injurious inferences which might result from that error if it were overlooked, you are instructed to make the fact of this disapprobation and censure known to her Majesty's government, and to state at the same time that this government, adhering to declarations heretofore made, does not recognize the Alabama as a ship-of-war of a lawful belligerent power.

Secondly, the presence and the proceedings of a British yacht, the Deerhound, at the battle, require explanation. On reading the statements which have reached this government, it seems impossible