reconstructed a bridge over the creek, three miles teenth Massachusetts regiments, the Third Newoutside the town, for the transportation of their York cavalry and twenty-three pieces of artillery, artillery to the opposite bank. I also learned, had already left by land for Washington, N. Č. from information gathered on the spot, that an and two gunboats and seven transports were waitimmediate attack was to have been made on the ing to take the balance of the expedition to the place; but upon hearing of my advance from same place. The troops taken by the fleet were the Fifth Massachusetts, five companies of the Washington, and seeing the danger of their capture, they beat a precipitate and hasty retreat. Twenty-third Massachusetts, eight of the TwenThe navy under command of Com. Davenport, ty-fourth Massachusetts, six of the Twenty-fifth senior officer, coöperated heartily with me during Massachusetts, eight of the Twenty-seventh Masthe whole time, by sending five gunboats to Ham-sachusetts, Fifth Rhode Island, eight companies ilton, and their placing four boat-howitzers, with of the Twenty-fifth New-Jersey, and the Tenth Connecticut. their crews, at my disposal. I desire to mention particularly the efficient conduct of Colonel Stevenson, commanding the Second brigade, and Colonel Potter, of the First North-Carolina Union volunteers. I recommend that Colonel Stevenson, for his efficient services on this march, and in the affair at Little Creek and Rawls's Mills, as well as previous services at the battles of Roanoke and New bern, be promoted to the rank of Brigadier-General, to date from November third, 1862. I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient J. G. FOSTER, Major-General Commanding. servant. BOSTON " TRANSCRIPT" ACCOUNT. } CAMP OF THE FIFTH MASSACHUSETTS Regiment, NEWBERN, N. C., Nov. 13, 1862. The Fifth Massachusetts regiment, since it left Boston on the twenty second of October, has endured a greater share of the hardships of war than usually falls to the lot of new regiments. During the brief time which it has been absent from Massachusetts, it has sailed over one thousand miles in crowded transports, marched one hundred and seven miles over wretched roads and in all varieties of weather, from burning heat to extreme cold and snow, camping without tents for more than a week; has five times taken three days' rations in their haversacks, and has smelt the smoke of battle, though not brought immediately under the enemy's fire. The fleet sailed at nine o'clock on the morning of the thirtieth October, and passing down the river Neuse into Pamlico Sound, arrived at Washington, at the entrance of Tar River, on the afternoon of the thirty-first, after a pleasant passage. Here a marine battery of four pieces were added to the artillery force. The departure of the army from Washington was delayed twenty-four hours by the non-arrival of the force marching overland, and it was not until the morning of November second that the whole expedition set out for the interior, in three brigades, under Colonels Amory, Stevenson and Lee. The Fifth Massachusetts was in Col. Lee's brigade, the Forty-fourth was in that of Colonel Stevenson. The Twenty-third Massachusetts was commanded by Major Chambers. Major-General Foster commanded the expedition in person. The column took up the march toward Williamston, twenty-five miles distant, Gen. Stevenson's brigade at the head, and the New-York cavalry thrown out in advance. Skirmishers were sent out to the right and left, as the army proceeded. When nine miles from Washington a small rebel camp was found, from which the enemy had hastily fled, after burning such of their equipments as they could not conveniently take with them. Our route lay through a level country, the soil sandy, intermixed with a light loam, extremely difficult to march on. An unbroken forest of pines, seeming almost interminable, lay on either side. In some places the road was covered with water a foot deep, for a great distance. The day was extremely warm, and our progress was necessarily slow, many of the troops, both of the old and new regiments, falling out of the ranks from exhaustion. The regiment had been but two days in camp here, and was still subsisting on the rations served out on board the steamer Mississippi, when orders were received from Major-General Foster to prepare to depart immediately upon an important expedition. Many of the necessary equipments had not yet been distributed to the men, nor had the arrangements for cooking been At four P.M., when within six miles of Wilperfected; but within twelve hours from the time liamston, cannonading and musket-firing was of receiving the order, guns, ammunition, and heard in the advance, and it was soon ascertained three days' rations had been supplied to the that a body of seven hundred rebels, with two troops, and they were ready to leave camp at artillery pieces, had made a stand in a very comfour o'clock on the morning of Thursday, Octo-manding position on the opposite bank of a small ber thirtieth. Twenty-five men of each company creek, at a place called Old Ford. The marine were detailed to remain at Newbern as a campguard. On reaching the wharf where we were to embark, it became evident that the expedition was one of considerable magnitude, and that about six thousand troops of all arms were to take part in it, the greater part of whom were of Massachusetts regiments. The Forty-fourth and Seven battery and the New-York battery opened upon them, and the Forty-fourth Massachusetts, supported by the Twenty-fourth Massachusetts, charged across the stream, and the rebel position was speedily carried, the marine battery losing one man killed, James King, of Chicago; and the Forty-fourth Massachusetts two men, Charles Morse and Rollins. The rebel loss could not be ascertained, as they removed all the bodies of their dead except one. sweet potatoes was found for the subsistence of the troops and horses. Here the whole encampment could be taken in at one view, and the scene at night, when more than one hundred camp-fires were lighted, over an area of several The rebels retreated to rifle-pits at Rawls's Mills, one mile distant, from which they were speedily driven out-our troops losing but one man, Thomas Peterson, of the Twenty-fourth-hundred acres, was brilliantly grand. when the main body of our army crossed the stream on a foot-bridge, constructed for the purpose, and encamped for the night in a corn-field, near the deserted rifle-pits, without tents (having brought none with them) at two o'clock on the morning of the third, after a march of twenty miles and a tedious service of twenty-two hours. The army resumed its march after five hours' rest, the weather being extremely hot and trying to the troops. The country through which we passed was more undulating and diversified than on the first day, and large fields of cotton, corn, and sweet potatoes were seen along the route. Our brigade, composed of the Fifth and Twentyseventh Massachusetts and the Ninth New-Jersey, led the advance. A fight was expected at Williamston, but when the army approached the town it was found to be evacuated by the rebel forces and deserted by most of its inhabitants. Five Federal gunboats were lying in front of the town, ready to cooperate with the army in the reduction of a strong rebel fort at Rainbow Bluff, on the Roanoke River, near Hamilton, twelve miles farther on. Guards were stationed at the tenanted houses, and our troops were quartered in the deserted dwellings for rest and refreshment. Resuming its march in the afternoon, our army encamped for the night in a field five miles beyond Williamston, and on moving again on the morning of the fourth, proceeded without opposition to within two miles of Hamilton, when it was obliged to halt two hours to repair a bridge destroyed by the retreating foe. This being done, the army entered Hamilton, finding the town almost entirely deserted, the rebels having evacuated it and removed their cannon from the fort at Rainbow Bluff. Our army camped in the rear of the town, and foragers were sent into the place to procure supplies. Some of the troops, in violation of the orders of General Foster, wantonly destroyed property which they could not use or carry away, and many of the deserted houses were set on fire and destroyed, presenting a sad spectacle of the ravages of war, as our army marched out of the town during the evening, its way lighted by the glare of the conflagration. This destruction of property would not have occurred had the inhabitants remained, for no occupied houses were damaged; but the fears of the citizens were aroused by the retreating rebels, who, as they passed through the town, reported that our army would shell it, and thus induced the unfortunate people to leave it, taking their valuable movable goods, and leaving their dwellings exposed to the torches of soldiers who treat as rebels all those who will not remain in their homes and accept Federal protection. The next day, November fifth, our advanced guard came up with the enemy's cavalry, when within seven miles of Tarboro, and a small force of cavalry and infantry were stationed for the purpose of deceiving the enemy, while the main body of our troops, taking another and more circuitous route, marched within four miles of Tarboro, with the view of capturing three rebel regiments known to have been stationed there, and of cutting the important railroad connections, at that place. But our delay at Washington had given the enemy time to concentrate his troops, and the whistles of reenforcing rebel trains were heard through the night, while our scouts came in on the morning of the sixth and reported the confederates fifteen thousand to twenty thousand strong at Tarboro. They had skirmished with the enemy's advanced guard during the night, and lost one man of the New-York cavalry. Three miles beyond Hamilton our army encamped on a large plantation owned by a rebel, where an abundance of pigs, poultry, corn and VOL. VI.-Doc. 13 Under these circumstances, and in view of the effect of an impending rain-storm on the roads, our army commenced retiring toward Hamilton, which we reached at five P.M. on the sixth, after a laborious march of fifteen miles, through almost constant rain, and over roads in a condition utterly inconceivable to those unacquainted with the wretchedness of Southern thoroughfares in rainy weather. For a great part of the distance the road had the appearance of an immense mortar-bed, through which our troops waded, sometimes knee-deep, and the artillery and cavalry horses wallowed and floundered as in a sea. Sometimes the mud had the adhesiveness of wax, and acted on our boots with the effect of a bootjack. After a night's rest and abundant meals from the supplies brought in by our foragers, we resumed our march on the morning of the seventh, amid snow and sleet, over roads yet unsettled, toward Williamston, thirteen miles distant, which we reached at four P.M., quartering as before in the deserted houses, and remaining till the morning of the ninth for much needed rest. While remaining at Williamston our troops cut down the whipping-post, and burned the jail, in which over thirty Union prisoners had been confined until the arrival of our troops, when they were tied to the rear of baggage-wagons, and compelled to follow the retreating rebels. On the ninth we marched eighteen miles from Williamston to within four miles of Plymouth, on the Roanoke River, at the head of Albemarle Sound. On the tenth our camp was moved to within one mile of Plymouth, and on the eleventh the troops commenced embarking for Newbern, via Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds and the river Neuse, arriving at this place late last evening. The results of the expedition are the opening of the Roanoke River for gunboats beyond Hamilton; an important diversion in favor of other Federal projects, by compelling the enemy to concentrate troops at Tarboro; the capture of several prisoners, a large number of horses and supplies; and the release from bondage of several hundred slaves, whose masters ran away from them at our approach, leaving the dusky contrabands to welcome us with fervent gratitude, and to join us at our departure. Too much praise cannot be given to the new troops who courageously endured the tedious marches of the expedition, through sultry heats as well as cold and sleet, camping under inclement skies without shelter, and bravely undergoing all the hardships of forced marches and short rations. Old troops, who have served through this and former wars, declare that they have never before had so rough and tedious a campaign, and you will not be surprised to learn that the army reached Plymouth on its return with greatly diminished numbers. As a specimen of the whole, (for new and old regiments suffered nearly alike,) I will cite the Fifth Massachusetts regiment, which left Newbern with seven hundred and sixty-eight men, and after leaving fifty in garrison at Washington, returned to Plymouth with less than four hundred and seventy-five men. The Forty-fourth Massachusetts was called to endure even more than the Fifth, they having marched from Newbern to Washington while our regiment was proceeding to the same destination by water. Two companies of the Forty-fourth were also engaged in the night scouting and skirmishing near Tarboro. The regiment acquitted itself creditably in the actions at Old Ford and Rawls's Mills. The troops who fell out on the march were left on board the gunboats at Williamston and Hamilton. Two deaths from exhaustion occurred on board the boats, but I have not been able to learn the names of the deceased. Surgeon Ingalls and Assistant-Surgeon Hoyt, of the Fifth, were untiring in their exertions to promote the comfort of the troops, and have won the grateful esteem of the men by their kind attentions during the long march. The expedition was a bold movement on the 'part of Gen. Foster, and will convince the enemy that they have a foe in this quarter who is not disposed to remain inactive while they are carrying out their plans, and that it will not be safe for them to send their forces north if they desire to retain their hold on North-Carolina. Doc. 43. PRESCOTT. EXPEDITION TO GREENBRIAR, VA. CAPTAIN GILMORE'S REPORT. CAMP SOMERVILLE, VA., November 12, 1862. Brigadier-General Crook, Commanding Kanawha Division: SIR: I herewith submit a report of my expedition into Greenbriar County. On the ninth instant, proceeding agreeably to orders, I bivouacked three miles beyond Gauley River; on the morning I marched all day with out interruption, but learned that Gen. Jenkins with two thousand five hundred men, in addition to Col. Dunn's force, occupied the country before me, stationed as follows: Col. Dunn's command between Lewisburgh and Frankfort; the Fourteenth regular Virginia cavalry at Williamsburgh; one regiment cavalry at Meadow Bluffs, pasturing horses, with a battalion of four hundred cavalry on the wilderness road as guard; a small force at White Sulphur, and Gen. Jenkins with the remainder of his command on Muddy Creek, eight miles from Lewisburgh. I, however, pushed forward until within three miles of Williamsburgh, where I came upon a wagon train belonging to General Jenkins's command. They were encamped for the night, intending to load with wheat the following day. I surrounded and captured the whole, consisting of prisoners and property as follows: Nine prisoners, namely, J. L. Evans, captain and acting assistant commissary; Wm. L. Evans, wagonmaster; two wagoners, (enlisted men ;) three wagoners, (citizens;) two negro wagoners, and two citizens who were pressed and interested with the grain. The property taken was as follows: Seven wagons, twenty-three horses, four mules, and twenty-four set of harness. After setting fire to and destroying the wagons and the grain, with the building it was stored in, I set out on my return, meeting Capt. Smith with his command on Cherry River, ten miles from Gauley River ford. I arrived in this camp with the above prisoners and property at five o'clock P.M. on the eleventh instant. I found the roads very bad, impassable for wagons. Grain was very scarce; could procure but two feeds for my horse while I was gone. The grain destroyed was about two hundrep and fifty-six bushels of wheat. I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, G. W. GILMORE, Captain Commanding Kanawha Division. P.S.-One of the citizens taken, Thomas C. McClintock, has heretofore taken the oath, and is the man who bought up the wheat. G. W. G. Doc. 44. MESSAGE OF GOVERNOR BROWN. EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, MILLEDGEVILLE, Nov. 13, 1862. To the General Assembly : I COMMUNICATE herewith a copy of a letter received on yesterday, from Col. Henry H. Floyd, commanding the militia of Camden County, informing me that on the fourth day of this month three companies of negroes were landed in St. Mary's, who, after insulting the few ladies remaining there, and taking every thing they could lay their hands upon, retired to their gunboats without the slightest molestation. On the same day, all the salt-works in the county were destroyed, except two, which, by this time, have capacity to turn out twenty-five or thirty bushels per day. Unless protection is afforded, these must soon share the same fate. The people on the coast possess large numbers of cattle, hogs, and other stock. The enemy leave their gunboats, kill and carry off stock without opposition. The colonel asks for an order to call out the militia for three to six months, and says he can muster about thirty or forty. Adjoining counties upon the coast could add to the number enough to make a considerable force, who are well acquainted with all the localities, and could, on that account, act more effectively against the enemy than the like number of men taken from any other part of the State. It cannot be denied that the State owes it to her citizens, so long as she claims their allegiance, to afford them all the protection in her power. The Constitution of this State having invested me for the time with the chief command of her militia, I should, under ordinary circumstances, have had no hesitation in issuing an order calling out the whole militia of the county, and of the adjoining counties if necessary, to protect our citizens, and especially the women, against the outrages of invasion, robbery, and insult by negroes. ing the command of her entire militia when she is invaded, and her people are left without other sufficient protection, nor by removing her obligation to protect her citizens, and thereby forfeiting their allegiance. Placed as I am in this embarrassing condition, when helpless innocence calls upon this State for protection, and when the Constitution of this State and the confederate States seem to point clearly to the path of duty upon the one hand, but when the acts of Congress and the decision of our own Supreme Court, rendered under heavy outside pressure, and, if not ex parte, under the most peculiar circumstances; when the counsel on both sides, who had brought the case before the Court, agreed that in their individual opinions the decision should be as it was made, I deem it my duty to submit the question to the General Assembly, who, as a coordinate branch of the government, represent the sovereign people of the State, and to ask your advice and direction in the premises. If you should hold that the Governor no longer has the right to command the militia of the State for the protection of her people, it only remains for me to inform the people of Camden and the ladies of St. Mary's that, while the State collects taxes and requires them to bear other public burdens, she withdraws her protection from them, and leaves them to the mercy of negro invaders, who may insult and plunder them at pleasure. Should you hold, on the contrary, that the Governor still has the command of the militia of the State, and that she has the right to use her own militia for the protection of our homes, I shall not hesitate to call them forth and so hold them in service as long as the coast is invaded and our people are subject to the insult, robbery, and merciless cruelty of the enemy. Under the acts of the confederate Congress and the late decision of our Supreme Court, the authority to command the militia of the State, even for the protection of our mothers and wives, our sisters and daughters, against the brutality of our own slaves in a state of insurrection, seems to be denied to the Governor; as each man composing the militia of the State, except the officers, is declared to be subject to the command of the President without the consent of the Executive of the State. It follows, therefore, that if the Governor should order out the militia in this pressing emergency, which admits of no delay, to protect those citizens of Georgia to whom no protection is afforded by the Confederacy, the President may countermand the order, and compel each person so called out to leave the State and go to the utmost part of the Confederacy, to pro-adopted: tect those who are not citizens of this State. The State has reserved to herself the right under the Constitution to "engage in war" when "actually invaded," and to "keep troops" while she is in vaded. That authority which has the right to take from her this power, without which no State can exist, has the power to destroy her. I believe it is admitted, however, by high authority in this State, that the creature has no power to destroy the creator, the child no power to destroy the parent, and the parent no right to commit suicide. If this be true, the confederate government, which is admitted to be the creature of the States, can certainly have no power to deny to the States, which are the creators, the use of their own militia to protect their own inhabitants against the invasions of the enemy, and the unbridled, savage cruelty of their slaves, in actual insurrection; nor can that government, as the child, destroy the parent by paralyzing her right arm when raised to ward off a blow struck at her very vitals; nor, indeed, can the parent, which is the State, commit suicide by surrender JOSEPH E. BROWN. Mr. King offered the following, which was Resolved, That the Governor be, and he is hereby authorized to call out such parts of the militia as he may think necessary to protect the citizens of Camden County, and other counties on the coast similarly exposed, against the invasion being made by companies of negroes, sent by the abolitionists to make raids upon our citizens, and to continue them in service as long as the emergency may require. Doc. 45. FIGHT NEAR FAYETTEVILLE, VA. NEW-YORK "TRIBUNE" ACCOUNT. ON THE FRONT, NEAR WARRENTON JUNCTION, •} ONWARD is still the order of the day, we having, as our part of the great movement now going forward, come to this place to-day, from our last night's camp near Fayetteville. (In speaking of "we" and " our," I refer to the movements of the Ninth army corps, under General Wilcox, to which I am, pro tem., attached.) The rebels now got five guns in position, three of them being twenty-pound Parrotts, and a hail of shot and shell flew over the heads of the train, the troops having got beyond range. An attack of the enemy upon the baggage-training assisted toward the close of the engagement of the First and Second brigades (Generals Na- by two or more guns of Captain Romer's battery, gice and Ferrero) of Sturgis's division, yesterday L, Second New-York artillery. forenoon, which resulted in the death of Lieutenant Howard McIlvain, of Durell's battery, and which came very near resulting in the destruction or capture of a portion of the train, has been already partially described to you by another correspondent. Being personally in the midst of the engagement, from its commencement to its close, I have waited till now to gather together all the particulars of a rather warm skirmish, which at one time threatened to become a really serious affair. Captain Plato, seeing the danger to which his wagons were exposed, many of them containing ammunition, turned back that portion which had not reached the turn, and they moved to their destination over the more difficult but less dangerous road. ard McIlvain was struck by a shell, which carried away his arm, side, thigh, and his hip, laying open his entrails, and causing one of the most fearful wounds ever recorded. Captain Durell's battery, occupying an exceedThe First and Second brigades broke camp at ingly exposed position, withstood for something about seven o'clock A.M. yesterday, to move from like an hour the fire from the heavy twentythe camp at White Sulphur Springs to the neigh-pound guns. Early in the fight Lieutenant Howborhood of Fayetteville, then and still occupied by General Doubleday, of Franklin's corps. There was a choice of two roads, one of which led back from the Rappahannock, and was therefore safe from the shot and shell of the enemy, while the other- the most direct route and considerably more convenient for the transportation of the wagon-trains passed the Spring and the ruined hotel mentioned in my last letter, and, approaching the river, turned to the left at a sharp angle in plain view of, and but a trifling distance from the large mansion upon a hillside on the other bank of the stream, now rendered somewhat famous as the scene of the capture of Lieutenant-Colonel Carruth and Adjutant Wales, of the Thirty-fifth Massachusetts regiment, an account of which I have already sent you. The road as it approaches the river exposes a column of troops or trains of wagons passing over it to a dangerous enfilading fire from the hill, where the house is situated, and after the turn is made, troops and trains moving away to the left, are in range from the hill for some distance, till they are finally protected by hills, rising upon either side of the river, behind which the road winds. The two brigades had been for some time in motion, and a portion of the train, under charge of Captain Plato, Division Quartermaster, had passed the dangerous turn in the road, when our cavalry were seen skirmishing with the rebels in the neighborhood of the house on the opposite hill. Finally, our cavalry seeing the departure of the troops, formed in a solid square, and retired toward the river at the point where the ruins of the bridge crossing the stream was guarded by the Thirty-fifth Massachusetts regiment. At the same moment the rebel cavalry emerged from the wood in the rear of the house, formed in a hollow square, protecting two pieces of artillery, which were planted by the house. A moment more, and a twenty-pound rifled shell from a Parrott gun came whizzing along over the line of wagons approaching the river, exploding in unpleasant proximity to the train. Captain Durell, battery A, One Hundred and Fourth Pennsylvania artillery, immediately took up position, and opened as soon as possible, be The brave and unfortunate young man lay in most horrible agony, raving from pain a great portion of the time, from the moment of receiving his wound till eight o'clock this morning, when he was relieved from his sufferings by death. He said to a friend, as he lay writhing in agony, that he was not afraid to die; he only wished that death might come soon to rid him of the dreadful pain he suffered. The deceased was from Reading, Pennsylvania, and had been in service since the opening of the war, having served with Captain Durell in the three months' volunteers. In September, 1861, the present Durell's battery was sworn into the service of the United States, and has since been constantly employed. All who have come in contact with Lieutenant McIlvain pronounce him a young man of remarkable promise and most excellent qualties, social and otherwise, and one who would have made a noteworthy mark in the world had he been spared. He is universally lamented in this corps, with which he had been connected since the eleventh of last August, and Captain Durell mourns in him his best and most trustworthy officer, which is saying nothing defogatory to the other brave men in his command. While Captain Plato-to return to the attackwas turning back that portion of his train which had not yet reached the turn in the road, he observed a squadron of our cavalry crossing the river in retreat, leaving the bridge to be defended only by the Thirty-fifth Massachusetts regiment, in case of an attempt on the part of the emeny to cross and attack us in the rear. He immediately rode up to the officer in command and ordered him back. "By whose authority ?" inquired the officer. "Ey authority of General Sturgis," replied Captain Plato. "But there will be a shell here in a moment!" said the officer. "I know that," replied Captain Plato, "and it's for that reason you are wanted here!" The cavalry turned back. The next moment the expected shell - the first one of the fight — passed over the train, and a short time afterward occurred the very charge anticipated by Captain |