escaping across the river, and spreading the astounding intelligence, and soon after a squad of troopers appeared in the distance on the opposite bank. The people south of the river did not believe the story told by the fugitives. One man rode with his servant down to the river-bank to see for himself. The servant seized upon the opportunity to ride into our lines. He was not pursued. A planter sent a son mounted on a valuable horse to ascertain the news-believing the force to be Stuart's cavalry. The boy asked an officer if the Yankees had been whipped, and was told that they had. He expressed his satisfaction and was about leaving, when the officer told him he wanted a horse, his own was jaded. An exchange was speedily made. The boy was evidently somewhat puzzled at this summary proceeding, but thought it all right no doubt, as it was Stuart's cavalry, and he rode off to tell his father the news. A negro who manifested some joyful emotion upon hearing that the Yankees were coming, was severely whipped by his master just below Columbia, a few hours before we reached the spot. The negro, upon being released, reiterated his former expression, and an attempt was made to whip him again. But he escaped, jumped into the river and was drowned. The old negro preacher on the plantation where the above occurred, told me that his master "cursed de Yankees cause dey made 'im loss a fifteenhundred-dollar nigger." In the canal at Columbia were found several boats loaded for Richmond with baled hay and commissary stores, all bearing the stencil mark of C. S. A. Another boat from Lynchburgh arrived during the day. The torch was applied to the boats; bridges across the canal — of which there were several—and a large quantity of medical and commissary goods found in a warehouse, were either burned or thrown into the river. The bank of the canal was cut at several points within five miles, and the locks destroyed. At Columbia the canal crosses the James River in a massive stone aqueduct. No one seems to have known of this structure; at all events nothing was brought along to secure its destruction. The engineer of the command, and Major Beaumont and Captain Thomas, of the First NewJersey cavalry, each made special effort to destroy this structure. There was no blasting tools to be had; several kegs of blasting powder, however, were found in a store-house, and three of the kegs were confined in a cask, and the cask filled with pressed earth. The water in the aqueduct being eight feet deep, it was designed to sink this machine over one of the piers and destroy the same upon the Maillefort plan of blasting rocks under water. Every thing was arranged and the cask was being lowered into the canal by means of a rope, when, unfortunately, the rope broke, and the cask could not be recovered again within the time prudence dictated that absence from the place would be desirable. Several negroes, who followed that night, allege that two rebel regiments, with eight pieces of artillery, entered the place within two hours after Colonel Wyndham evacuated it. At about four o'clock P.M., the detachment marched down the canal bank for about five miles, forded Byrd Creek, and taking the Fredricksburgh pike so far as it went in the right direction, arrived at Thompson's Four Corners at ten o'clock the same night. This command during the day captured several hundred horses, and was followed into camp by a drove of negroes. The movements of General Gregg's command upon the Fredericksburgh and Richmond Railroad at Ashland and vicinity; that of Colonel Kilpatrick and Colonel Davis, upon the Virginia Central road, between the South-Anna and Richmond, and the destruction of all the pike bridges on the South-Anna, of trains of cars, of commissary stores and depots, have been referred to in a previous letter. Each of these detachments captured a large number of horses, and destroyed immense amounts of property in use by or ready for the agents of the rebellion. Sunday and nearly all day Monday, General Buford's command was stationed near Shannon Hill, and a detachment under Captain Drummond was sent to destroy the canal and bridge near Cedar Point, which work was most effectually accomplished. Sunday night, the third, it is believed both Hampton and Lee's brigades were encamped within two miles of General Buford. On the morning of the fourth, a picket, consisting of sixty men, commanded by Lieut. Stoddard, of the Fifth cavalry, was attacked. Fifteen of our men were captured. Among the number missing are two officers, supposed to have been captured. Tuesday the fifth, the whole of the command concentrated near Yanceyville, and during the day divine service was held in the St. James's church at that place. The Rev. O. A. Brickman, Chaplain First Maryland' cavalry, officiated, and a patriotic and fervent prayer was offered by Major C. H. Russell, of the same regiment. In the afternoon the retrograde movement was commenced. General Buford's division made a circuit, passing near Gordonsville. General Gregg's division crossed the South-Anna at Yanceyville, and on Friday morning, May eighth, the whole force reached Kelly's Ford in safety. On Thursday, just after crossing Raccoon Ford, General Stoneman sent Lieutenant Sumner, of his staff, as bearer of despatches to Gen. Hooker, with whom he had not communicated since the twenty-ninth ultimo. Taking with him an escort of sixteen men, Lieutenant Sumner went to the Germanna bridge, with a view to reaching, if possible, United States Ford. The result of the battle near Fredericksburgh was not then known. Information obtained from residents near Germanna bridge satisfied Lieutenant Sumner that it would not be prudent to go further in that direction. He accordingly proceeded to Richards's Ford, and with great difficulty succeeded in crossing in safety. The escort being unable to ford the river, moved back five miles to a farm-house, where they stopped for the night, and next morning overtook General Stoneman at Kelly's Ford. Not an armed rebel was seen by this party. To sum up- General Stoneman moved about within the enemy's lines at will for nine days, with a force not exceeding five thousand men; disabled every line of communication between the army of the Rappahannock and the rebel capital, and the canal through which more than one half of their supplies are received - so that, in the opinion of competent judges, neither line, provided the rebels have every facility for the work, can be repaired in less than four weeks; destroyed millions of dollars' worth of commissary stores, and other supplies; obstructed travel upon the main pikes, by destroying all bridges over large streams; gave the citizens of ten counties, namely, Culpeper, Spottsylvania, Orange, Hanover, Henrico, Louisa, Goochland, Fluvanna, King William, and New-Kent, an opportunity to see for themselves that not only are the Yankee soldiers confident and in good spirits, but are really human beings and not inhuman savages, as represented by the Richmond chivalry; captured hundreds of horses, and above all met the one great objection made to the Emancipation Proclamation, so far as the counties visited are concerned, by letting the colored population know that they are free, and weakening the producing class in rebeldom by the removal of hundreds of able-bodied men, and sowing the seed of demoralization among the rest, so that the laboring class, in fact as well as theory, becomes a dangerous element. All this has been accomplished by the raid of General Stoneman, with the loss, probably, of less than one hundred men, all told-only two of whom were killed. As an offset to this loss, our troops killed a number of rebels, and captured between one and two hundred pris oners. In the counties visited there were but few rebels found at home, except the very old and the very young. In nine days' travel I did not see fifty able-bodied men who were not in some way connected with the army. Nearly every branch of business is at a standstill. The shelves in stores are almost everywhere empty; the shop of the artisan is abandoned and in ruins. The people who are to be seen passively submit to all that emanates from Richmond without a. murmur; they are for the most part simple-minded, and ignorant of all that is transpiring in the great threatre about them. An intelligent-looking man in Columbia laughed heartily when told that Union troops occupied New-Orleans-Jeff Davis would let them know it were such the fact; and I could not find a man who would admit that the confederates had ever been beaten in a single engagement. These people do not even read the Richmond papers, and about all the information they do obtain is what is passed about in the primitive style, from mouth to mouth. Before this raid they believed that the Union soldiers were any thing but civilized beings, and were stricken with terror when their approach was heralded. Of six churches seen in one day, in only one had there been religious services held within The fear of famine was everywhere expressed; the government seizes upon every thing that can go to sustain the army, leaving those who are not in the army to shift as best they can. Many have provisions concealed to avoid the searching eyes of the government agents. Through the agency of negroes, large quantities of provisions thus hid away were brought to light for the benefit of Union soldiers. The farmer's fold is regularly culled of all marketable sheep, swine, and beeves, and what is left behind is not fit for the butcher's stall. The larder of the largest planters contains little else than bacon and corn-meal. The wheat crop, now coming forward, is immense-in fact, little else has been put in the ground. The rich valleys of the James and Rapidan Rivers are vast wheat-fields—more, in fact, than can be gathered, unless the army is turned to this work. The negroes are not numerous enough for the task, even were they not in a fair way of being so thoroughly demoralized as to refuse to work unless paid in "greenbacks." The negroes everywhere have an idea-how it got into their heads they cannot exactly tell, but it is there that the Yankee troops were their friends, notwithstanding the contrary assertion of their masters, whom from infancy they have been taught to obey. They everywhere crowded upon our columns and begged to be permitted to go along, and not unfrequently brought one or more horses with them as a sort of bribe. They pointed out where valuable horses were concealed, gave information as to the movements of confederate troops, and at several places sat up all night to bake corn cakes for the Yankees, and for which they asked no remuneration. Some of them were so overjoyed at the sight of our soldiers that they gave vent to their feelings in prayer, thanking Jesus fervently for sending us. E. A. PAUL. -New-York Times. At an early hour yesterday morning several six months. One half at least of the dwelling-persons reached the city who were on the ambu houses are unoccupied, and fast going to decay. VOL. VI.-Doc. 39 lance train at the time of its capture by the Yan men of his cavalry battalion, who on Sunday started to Hanover Junction, returned to this city by the Mechanicsville turnpike. From one of the men we learned the adventures of the company during their brief absence from the city. On their way to the Junction, when three miles on this side of Ashland, they met on the mountain road a considerable body of Yankee cavalry. Major Wrenn at once drew up his men in line of battle, but the enemy showing no disposition to make an attack, he advanced upon him. A skirmish at long-range ensued, in which forty or fifty kees on Sunday evening. From one of them we obtained some particulars of the affair. As the train neared the hotel at Ashland, a couple of shots were fired at the engine, which was at once stopped. The Yankees were the Twelfth Illinois regiment, five hundred strong, and commanded by a Colonel Davis, who said he was originally from King George County, Virginia, and claimed kin with President Davis. By order of the Colonel the engine was uncoupled and burned. All the sick and wounded and passengers were then paroled. No interference was made with private proper-shots were fired on each side. One Yankee was ty. Just as the train was first hailed by the seen to fall from the saddle. No one was struck Yankee cavalry, several persons who were in the on our side. Major Wrenn, finding the enemy's back car, among them a bearer of despatches force superior to his own, fell back slowly toward from General Lee, jumped off and succeeded in Richmond. During the night, General Pryor rode escaping, and are supposed to have made their out from the city alone, and joined Major Wrenn. way to our forces at the South-Anna, or to Hano- The men remained in the saddle all night, falling ver Junction. The Yankee Colonel was disposed back slowly, and watching the enemy. At five to be very chatty. He said he knew the country o'clock this morning the retreating party came around about Ashland like a book, that he had in sight of the Brooke bridge, on the Brooke turnfox-hunted over it many a time. The privates pike, three miles from the city, when, to their surwere not so complacent; they seemed rather un-prise, they found it occupied by a detachment of easy, fearing surprise. One of them was heard several hundred Yankees. Seeing his retreat in to ask another how he liked the country. The that direction cut off, and the Yankees pressing fellow said he didn't like it altogether: he feared on his rear, Major Wrenn wheeled his column to it was unhealthy to people from so far north. the left, and made across the country for the The Yankee horses were first-rate, and all in good Meadow Bridges, which, on nearing, he discovered order. The sick and wounded on the train were to be also in the possession of the enemy. Withimmediately taken into the houses of the resi-out loss of time he bore still further east, and by dents of Ashland and the vicinity, and attended by the ladies. The only property destroyed by the raid-makers was the engine of the ambulance train, an old engine lying at Ashland, and some two hundred yards of the railroad track. At eight o'clock A.M., a courier reported at headquarters that the Yankee cavalry, to the number of five thousand, were at Warwick's farm, five miles from that city. About the same time another courier brought information that the enemy had appeared at Hungary Station, a station ten miles up the Fredericksburgh Railroad. These announcements, of course, produced some excitement, though persons who had had any experience of couriers' stories received the accounts with many grains of allowance. All, however, believed that the Yankees, a part or a whole of the same who had been at Ashland on the day before, were in the vicinity of the city, with the design, not of attacking the capital, but of inflicting still further damage upon our railway communication with the army of Northern Virginia. At seven o'clock A.M. a telegraphist had been sent, with an engine and tender, up the Central road to repair the wires. Upon the receipt of the above news, much uneasiness was felt for the safety of the above party. About eleven o'clock, a youth who had ridden in from Atice's, brought information that the engine had been captured by the Yankees at the railroad bridge over the Chickahominy, five miles north of this city, a locality made memorable by the fact that near here, on the twenty-sixth of June, 1862, General A. P. Hill begun the great battle of Richmond. Between eleven and twelve o'clock yesterday morning, Major John F. Wrenn, with about eighty dint of urging his jaded horses to their utmost, was enabled to reach and cross in safety the Mechanicsville bridge, from which point access to the city was unobstructed. General Pryor and Major Wrenn at once repaired to the camp of the battalion at the old fair grounds, and set about collecting fresh horses with which to resume the field. Between one and two o'clook P.M., John L. Phillips and James Crone, the telegraph operator and engineer, who had started out in the morning to repair the wires on the Central Railroad, returned to this city on foot. They give the following account of their expedition: They left the city at seven o'clock A.M., with an engine and tender, having with them two negro firemen. They proceeded as far as Peake's, eighteen miles from Richmond, without seeing any signs of the enemy. At this place they were met by a section master of the road, who informed them that the Yankees were at Hanover Court-House, where they had staid all night. Upon the receipt of this information they immediately reversed the engine and started to return. On nearing the bridge over the Chickahominy the engineer discovered the Yankees employed in burning that structure. Leaving the free negroes to shift for themselves, Crone and Phillips leaped from the engine and plunged into the dense under-growth of Chickahominy swamp. The Yankees pursued them a short distance, and gave up the chase. They then made the negroes put a full head of steam on the engine, and run it into the stream over the broken span of the bridge. Having done all the damage they conveniently could to the bridge and railroad, they robbed one of negroes of his hat and silver watch, and, leaving behind them a couple of horses that were too much jaded to keep up with their hasty movements, took up their departure in an easterly direction. The negroes jumped upon the horses and rode into town. The nearest approach to this city ever made by hostile Yankee was accomplished on yesterday morning. When McClellan beleaguered the capital of the Confederacy twelve months ago, and "On to Richmond!" was the watchword of his numberless legions, five miles was the least distance ever between him and the object of his hopes and ambition. But on yesterday morning, at nine o'clock, three hundred Yankee cavalry visited the farm of Mr. John B. Young, on the Brooke turnpike, two miles from the corporate limits. Their stay, it is true, was brief, but they enjoyed one of the finest views of the spires and house-tops of the city, and were rewarded by the acquisition of three fine horses, which they stole from Mr. Young. One of the horses they took from a buggy standing before the door. The first intimation Mr. Young had of the proximity of an enemy, three blue-coats galloped up to his house from the rear and began to put a halter on his buggy-horse. He stepped out of the house and asked the man what he was doing. The fellow replied that he was about to take that horse by "orders from headquarters." Then the truth that the individual before him was a live Yankee, for the first time flashed across his mind. He at once concluded that General Lee must have been defeated, and that Hooker was marching on Richmond. Having secured the horses, the Yankees rejoined the main body, who were drawn up in line on the pike in front of the house. The Yankees were in much terror, evidently expecting every moment to be pounced upon by the rebel forces. The first explanation Mr. Young received of this sudden apparition of Yankees upon his peaceful premises was from a regiment of our troops sent in pursuit of the enemy. for enrolling and calling out the national forces and for other purposes," which was approved on the third day of March last, and Whereas, It is recited in the said act that there now exists in the United States an insurrection and rebellion against the authority thereof, and it is, under the Constitution of the United States, the duty of the Government to suppress insurrection and rebellion, to guarantee to each State a republican form of government, and to preserve the public tranquillity, and Whereas, For these high purposes a military force is indispensable, to raise and support which all persons ought willingly to contribute; and Whereas, No service can be more praiseworthy and honorable than that which is rendered for the maintenance of the Constitution and the Union, and the consequent preservation of the Government; and Whereas, For the reasons thus recited, it was enacted by the said statute that all able-bodied male citizens of the United States and persons of foreign birth, who shall have declared on oath their intentions to become citizens, under and in pursuance of the laws thereof, between the ages of twenty and forty-five years, with certain exceptions not necessary to be here mentioned, are declared to constitute the national forces, and shall be liable to perform military duty in the service of the United States, when called out by the President for that purpose; and 'Whereas, It is claimed, and in behalf of persons of foreign birth within the ages specified in said act who have heretofore declared on oath their intentions to become citizens under and in pursuance of the laws of the United States, and who have not exercised the right of suffrage or any other political franchise under the laws of the United States, or of any of the States thereof, are not absolutely precluded by their aforesaid declaration of intention from renouncing their purpose to become citizens, and that, on the contrary, such persons under treaties or the law of nations, retain a right to renounce that purpose and to forego the privilege of citizenship and residence within the United States under the obligations imposed by the aforesaid act of Congress. General Winder, attended by one of his aids, was out on the Brooke pike yesterday morning making a reconnoissance, when he narrowly escaped capture by the Yankee freebooters. He saw approaching him a body of cavalry; mistaking them for Wrenn's battalion, he was on the Now, therefore, to avoid all misapprehensions point of riding up to them, when his aid discov- concerning the liability of persons concerned to ered their nationality. The General and his aid perform the service required by such enactment, galloped on leisurely, soon leaving the jaded cat- and to give it full effect, I do hereby order and tle of the Yankees out of sight. This was the proclaim that no plea of alienage will be received same party who visited Mr. Young's farm. A or allowed to exempt from the obligations imposlieutenant, James Brown, who had been on a visited by the aforesaid act of Congress, any person to Mr. Paleskes, a few miles up the pike, had a short time before been arrested and paroled by them after being robbed of his horse. Doc. 189. CONSCRIPTION PROCLAMATION. BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A PROCLAMATION. Whereas, The Congress of the United States at its last session enacted a law entitled, "An act of foreign birth who shall have declared, on oath, his intention to become a citizen of the United States under the laws thereof, and who shall be found within the United States at any time during the continuance of the present insurrection and rebellion, at or after the expiration of the sixty-five days from the date of this proclamation, nor shall such plea of alienage be allowed in any favor of any such person who has so as aforesaid declared his intention to become a citizen of the United States, and shall have exercised at any time the right of suffrage or any other political franchise within the United States, under the laws thereof, or under the laws of any of the several States. In witness whereof I have hereunto set my seal and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. Done at the city of Washington, this eighth day of May, in the year of our Lord 1863, and of the independence of the United States the eighty-seventh. ABRAHAM LINCOLN. By the President, WM. H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. Doc. 190. THE BATTLE AT RAYMOND, MISS. CINCINNATI "COMMERCIAL " ACCOUNT. RAYMOND, MISS., May 13, 1863. THE battle fought yesterday within three miles of the town of Raymond, Mississippi, ought to be called the battle of Farnden's Creek, from the stream near which it commenced, and whose banks last evening bore witness to the dreadful struggle, by the number of dead and wounded that lay strewn along them. 66 As a battle, the engagement of yesterday is, of course, not entitled to rank with such bloody contests as Shiloh and Donelson, but many who participated in it, and some who witnessed it, agree in pronouncing it, what an officer called it this morning, one of the heaviest small battles of the war.' I was attempting to narrate the leading events of the day this morning, but had made only a very little progress when the special messenger, on whom I relied for the transmission of my letter to Milliken's Bend, compelled me to close, as he was about to start for the river, and could not wait on me even half an hour. Skirmishing commenced early in the morning. Our cavalry advance exchanged shots with the enemy soon after daylight. The rebels had their cavalry thrown out several miles from their main body, as is their invariable custom in the SouthWest, and one which we might imitate with great advantage to ourselves. At about nine o'clock, Captain Foster, in command of our advance cavalry, came back from the front to meet General McPherson, to whom he communicated the condition of affairs, giving it as his opinion that there was a body of rebel infantry ahead, which it would be dangerous for cavalry to attempt to penetrate. After pretty heavy firing by the cavalry, in which the Second Illinois lost two killed and several wounded, the Twentieth Ohio, Colonel Force commanding, was ordered to advance in line of battle across a couple of fields toward some heavy timber, where it was supposed the rebels had their infantry force. Shortly afterward the Seventy-eighth and Sixty-eighth Ohio and Thirtieth Illinois were ordered forward in a similar manner. These regiments constituted the Second brigade of Geneeral Logan's division. The Twentieth Ohio kept steadily on its way forward, followed by the other regiments of the Second brigade. As they approached the woods the rebels sought to check their advance by a heavy fire from the timber, but our men stood their ground nobly, contending against the almost concealed foe at great disadvantage, never yielding an inch, but pressing steadily forward. General Logan, on ascertaining the condition of affairs in his front, sent word to the First and Third brigades of his division to close up their ranks and push forward as rapidly as possible. Meantime the Second brigade was holding its own against a vastly superior force. It was soon reenforced by the brigades under Generals John E. Smith and John D. Stevenson. Shortly after the opening of the fight, Captain De Golyer's battery, Eighth Michigan, was ordered to the front, and took a commanding position for the purpose of dislodging the enemy from the woods, the infantry having proven itself inadequate to the task. The James rifled guns of De Golyer's battery opened and commenced pouring a heavy fire of shell into the rebel columns. The enemy now, for the first time, opened artillery upon us. His aim was good, succeeding in making our infantry change position. But his purpose was to silence the Eighth Michigan battery, and he failed in that. Finding it impossible to silence the guns with artillery, the rebels attempted a charge upon the battery. A regiment of men essayed the hazardous undertaking. While they were removing a fence, preparatory to making the decisive dash, the battery opened on them. Our men fired two shells into their midst, both of which burst among them, killing and wounding a large number, and causing the entire column to fall back in disorder. At their inglorious withdrawal, our infantry sent up a few rousing cheers, which had the effect of accelerating the speed of the fugitives, and inspiring our whole command with a new zeal and determination to press forward to a victory of which they felt certain, even when the fortunes of the day seemed to turn against them. The rebels, defeated in their attempt to capture our battery, found themselves compelled to fall back to a position immediately in the rear of Farnden's Creek. There was but a few inches depth of water in the creek, and its very abrupt, deep banks rendered it more favorable to them than the best rifle-pits they could have dug. General McPherson had no sooner ascertained their new position than he ordered an advance upon it. General Dennis's brigade had the lead, and his brave men went forward with a will. General Smith's brigade supported them. A large open field lay between them and the enemy, and to march across it, exposed to the fire of an ambushed foe, was their dreadful task assigned. Not a man flinched, not a soldier evineed a spirit of fear or reluctance. Forward they went, unmindful of the galling fire in their front. When within good range, they opened on the rebels, and a more terrible conflict than that which followed, for more than five minutes, has seldom occurred between two opposing forces of |