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for learning the business of piloting.

nia cavalry, and the First New-York Mounted officers shall give every opportunity and facility Rifles, for their effective assistance in completing our escape from the rebel Libby Prison at Richmond and the lines of pickets and bloodhounds of the rebel army; and also for the many acts of kindness so gracefully tendered us in our present need.

"We desire, also, in common with every loyal heart in the Union, to tender to Major-General Butler our high appreciation of his prompt and extensive efforts to aid our comrades, who are yet in the rebel lines, attempting to elude their vigilance, and make good their escape from that prison of refined cruelty and slow death."

2d. In order to prevent extortion, now practised upon the Government by parties whose licenses are derived from, and who are protected by it, pilots shall be divided, under the directions of the United States Supervising Inspectors, into classes termed first and second, and the rates of piloting on the Mississippi and its tributaries above Memphis, shall be for pilots of the first class, not exceeding two hundred and fifty dollars per month and subsistence, and in the trade below Memphis, three hundred dollars per month, and for single trips less than ten days, not exThis is signed by the following officers, who ceeding fifteen dollars per day while actually in are all at this time in this city: William B. Mc- service. And the rates for pilots of the second Creery, Colonel Twenty-first Michigan infantry; class, not exceeding two hundred dollars per W. P. Kendrick, Colonel West-Tennessee cav-month and subsistence above Memphis, and two alry; Alexander Theobald Von Wizel, Lieuten- hundred and fifty dollars per month below Memant-Colonel Seventy-fourth regiment Pennsylva- phis; and for single trips less than ten days, not nia volunteer infantry; J. F. Boyd, Lieutenant- exceeding twelve dollars and a half per day while Colonel and Quartermaster of volunteers; T. S. actually in service. West, Lieutenant-Colonel Twenty-fourth Wisconsin volunteer infantry; H. C. Hobert, Lieutenant-Colonel Twenty-first Wisconsin volunteer infantry; J. P. Collins, Major Twentieth Indiana infantry; G. R. Fitzsimmons, Major Thirtieth Indiana volunteers; J. F. Gallaher, Captain company B, Second Ohio volunteer infantry; Matt. Boyd, Captain, Seventy-third Indiana; A. G. Hamilton, Captain company A, Twelfth Kentucky cavalry; I. N. Johnston, Captain company II, Sixth Kentucky volunteer infantry; W. S. B. Randall, Captain company C, Second Ohio infantry; Michael Gallagher, Čaptain, Third New-Jersey cavalry; Morton Tower, Captain, Thirteenth Massachusetts volunteers; T. J. Jones, Captain, First Kentucky infantry; S. C. Bose, Captain, Fourth Missouri cavalry; T. Clark, Captain, Seventy-eighth Illinois infantry; Albert Wallber, First Lieutenant, Twenty-sixth Wisconsin; John C. Fislar, First Lieutenant, Seventh Indiana battery; William Reynolds, First Lieutenant, Seventy-third Indiana volunteers; James M. Wells, Lieutenant company F, Eighth Michigan volunteer cavalry; L. P. Williams, Lieutenant, Seventy-second Indiana volunteers; N. J. McKeen, Lieutenant company H, Twenty-first Illinois.

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I. THE great demand for pilots having rendered this branch of business an unreasonable monopoly, whereby great extortion is practised, to the detriment of the service, it is therefore ordered:

1st. That on and after the twentieth day of February, every boat doing business on the Mississippi and its tributaries shall at all times carry at least one steersman, who shall have a certificate of the local board under the direction of the Supervising Inspector, to whom pilots and other

3d. When it is inconvenient to procure two good pilots on each boat, such boats may take one good pilot and one steersman; and in cases where boats are proceeding together and cannot conveniently secure pilots for all, they may proceed with good steersmen, providing the leading boat or boats have good and safe pilots, in which case they will file with the post commander at the place of departure satisfactory evidence that they could not conveniently procure two good pilots.

4th. The masters or owners of boats are prohibited from directly or indirectly paying or seeking to induce pilots to change boats by offering rates above those fixed herein.

5th. Any violation or evasion of this order, or any refusal to perform service when called upon, or any neglect of pilots or other officers to furnish all the opportunities and facilities to steersmen for learning the business of piloting, shall be regarded as a military offence, and punished, on conviction by a military commission, by confinement in a military prison not exceeding (60) sixty days, or a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars, or both.

II. For the greater protection of transports from danger of loss by fire, it is ordered:

1st. That every steamboat navigating the waters of this military division, (except ferry-boats and boats lying up for repairs,) shall at all times keep a watch of at least four men on every boat, two of whom shall be at all times on duty-one on the boiler, one on the main decks, and continually passing over their respective decks until relieved; and all boats lying up for repairs shall keep a like watch of at least three men. Said watchmen to be carefully selected and registered as such on the portage book.

2d. That every steamboat shall, at all times, except when actually storing freight in, or discharging it from the hold, or in other cases of actual necessity, keep the hatches and scuttles securely closed and locked, the key to be kept by the captain or first mate, who shall be held

responsible for the same, and without whose permission no person shall be permitted to go into the hold, and who shall also, at all times when the hold is open, place an extra watch therein.

3d. That every boat shall keep at least one barrel of water on each fore and each after-guard, and four barrels on the hurricane-deck; also three dozen buckets; and shall keep its hose constantly attached to its pump and ready for instant service.

4th. No candles or open lights shall be allowed in the hold or state-rooms of any boats.

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ana, is the town of Vidalia, where a force of men, under command of Colonel B. G. Far rar, Second Mississippi artillery of A. D. is stationed. On the evening of the fifth, the Colonel received reliable information that a large force of the enemy from Harrisonburgh, distant thirtyfive miles, was advancing to attack him. They were then reported at Crosse Bayou, seventeen miles out. Sending notice to Captain Grier, of the gunboat Benton, that the enemy was approaching, the Colonel brought over a twelvepounder howitzer attached to his regiment, and 5th. That from and after the issuing of this throwing up a breastwork of cotton-bales, made order, no skiffs or small row-boats shall be permit- ready for a sharp fight. Cavalry were sent out ted to ply in the harbors of Louisville, Cairo, or to watch the enemy, and hovering around his adMemphis; but every boat, except those belong-vance gradually fell back toward Vidalia. ing to steamboats, shall be taken to such place as the post commander shall direct, and there be kept, except in cases where special permission to the contrary shall be given by the provost-marshal; and that the small boats of all steamers shall be kept on deck, or properly drawn out of

water.

6th. That the officers of steamboats shall, according to their proper authority, be held strictly accountable for the enforcement of this order on their several boats, and for extraordinary care and watchfulness.

On

the morning of the seventh, messengers brought in word of their steady advance, and at two P.M. they were seen moving out of the woods two miles from our advance, in line of battle, a heavy force of skirmishers being within seven hundred yards of us. From the wood to the river an unbroken flat offered a magnificent field of battle. Over a thousand strong, with three battle-flags in their advance, their flanks covered with cavalry, on they came in gallant style. But suddenly the howitzer opened on them, the gunboats obtained the range, and the bursting shell throwing their 7th. The quartermaster's department and post ranks into confusion, they withdrew to the shelcommanders are charged with the general execu-ter of the friendly timber. tion of this order, and will detail, if necessary, such men as secret police to accompany transports navigating the rivers as may be deemed necessary, and will also at once arrest any person, and seize any boat, failing to comply with this order, and the boat to be turned over to the Quartermaster's Department for the public service, the offender to be tried and punished by military law.

By order of Major-General U. S. Grant. T. S. BOWERS,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

Doc. 76.

FIGHT AT VIDALIA, LA.

NATCHEZ, MISS., February 16, 1864.

In the mean time, two battalions of the Second Mississippi artillery, of African descent, Lieutenant-Colonel H. A. McCaleb commanding, had been brought over from Natchez, (the other battalion having been left to serve the heavy guns in the fort.) Taking post across the field, in rear of a narrow ditch which crossed it, they awaited the attack. To prevent a flank movement, the Thirtieth Missouri, company A, Second Mississippi artillery A. D., and one company of the Seventh Louisiana A. D., were drawn up on the left, near the river, and one battalion of the Second artillery was changed from the first position to prevent a similar movement on the right. Rendered more cautious by this check, the enemy came on more steadily, marching directly against our centre, where one battalion of the Second artillery A. D., under Lieutenant-Colonel McCaleb, held position. Having lost the use of our howitzer from the breaking of its carriage, the advance of the enemy was unchecked; their men, with arms at a support, seemed to expect an easy victory. Allowing them to approach within six hundred yards of our line, Colonel Farrar ordered the centre battalion of the Second Mississippi artillery A. D. to advance. This they did in splendid style, and in unbroken line the black soldiers, yelling as they advanced, took up their new position at the double-quick; when within three hundred yards of the enemy, they were halted, and pouring a tremendous volley among them, checked their advance. Halting, wavering, despite the efforts of their officers, who But on Sunday, the seventh instant, the mo- could be seen in front endeavoring to rally and notony of garrison-duty was very summarily encourage their men, as volley after volley was broken in upon. Opposite Natchez, in Louisi-poured into them, the enemy turned, and taking

SINCE my last communication, nothing noteworthy has occurred here, except the capture of Captain Call and twenty-six of the Twenty-ninth Illinois infantry, of which you have probably heard before the present time.

Captain Call was guarding a cotton-train; his men, strung along the length of it, were attacked by a large force of rebel cavalry, part of an escort to a supply-train on its way from above Mobile to Jackson or Brandon, it is reported, and after a sharp fight the Captain, the Quartermaster's Sergeant of the regiment, and twenty-six men were gobbled up. So much for guarding cotton for Jews. Who ordered the Captain out? is now the question.

with them the most of their wounded, commenced hands, and eight prisoners, and how many a rapid retreat. The Twenty-ninth Illinois, Col- wounded were taken off in their ambulances it onel L. Kent, now came up on the double-quick, is impossible to say. not being able to cross the river sooner. They were ordered forward in pursuit, trying, if possible, to cut off retreat by the Trinity road. Darkness and an intervening gully prevented this.

Colonel Farrar having been peremptorily ordered to act strictly on the defensive, called off his troops from the pursuit, and the Twenty-ninth recrossed the river the same night.

Sending out a reconnoissance the next morning, under Lieutenant-Colonel Schadt, of the Thirtieth Missouri, it was found that the enemy had never halted in his flight until ten miles from the field of battle, and that they were then in full and rapid retreat toward Trinity or Harrisonburgh.

A negro at whose house General Polignac staid, represents him as saying, that he was very much disappointed at the failure of the rebels on this side to cooperate with him; that the plan had been well laid, and all means taken to insure an attack on both Natchez and Vidalia at once; that he considered himself fortunate in coming off so easily, and that he fully expected to capture or drive into the river every Yankee at Vidalia. If the attack had been simultaneous, they would have “caught a tartar," for Colonel Johnson, commanding here, contemplating such a move, had made all arrangements to meet it.

Doc. 77.

ACE.

Thus again has the black soldier of the Republic vindicated his manhood and added new The forces of the enemy were Texan troops, glory to our flag. He has proved his value as General (or Prince) Polignac's brigade, consist- one of our nation's defenders, and developed a ing of the Seventeenth consolidated Texas, Col-new element of strength. Will not his slanderers onel Taylor, three Texan regiments, Colonels Al- soon acknowledge that "a nigger will fight"? exander, Stephens, and Hopp, and one battalion Louisiana cavalry, Major Caldwell. The fight was plainly visible from the bluffs of Natchezevery movement of the enemy, every change of our men could be distinctly seen, and the male and female citizens of this loyal city, who had PROCLAMATION OF GOVERNOR WATTS. lined the banks to see "their brave boys drive the Yankees and niggers into the river," had the satisfaction of seeing one thousand "Southrons," with a reserve of five hundred more to fall back on, foiled, whipped, and driven by about one hundred and fifty Yankees and four hundred and fifty negroes, for but five companies of the Second Mississippi artillery of A. D., one hundred and fifty of the Thirtieth Missouri, and one company of the Seventh Louisiana A. D. were engaged, the other companies being held in reserve, and the Twenty-ninth Illinois coming on the field after the enemy had started in retreat.

EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT OF ALABAMA,
MONTGOMERY, Feb. 6, 1864.

To the People of Alabama :

}

THE recent action of Congress has deprived the State of much of the materials of the secondclass militia. It is important to the defence of the State that Alabama shall have more troops subject to the call of her Commander-in-Chief. We have within the State the materials for an efficient army. It needs nothing but the spirit, the prompt and willing spirit, to fight as men ought to fight, to guard our firesides and drive the hireling Yankee from our borders. We are threatened with raids into the heart of the State.

Too much praise cannot be given to Colonel Farrar, who contended so successfully against overwhelming numbers, personally directing his As your Executive Chief, I call upon the midgun and leading the men in every advance. Lieu- dle-aged, the young men and boys, to organize tenant-Colonel McCaleb, mounted on a large into companies at once, and report, without degray horse, was a mark for all the enemy's sharp lay, that they are organized and ready. I cannot shooters, but as cool as on parade, he directed suppose that Alabamians will wait to be drafted the movements of his men. This is the first ac- into the service. The enthusiastic reënlistment tion the Second Mississippi artillery has been in, of our veteran troops in the Virginia and Tenthe regiment only being mustered on the twen-nessee armies has caused a thrill of joyful hope tieth of January; but veterans could not have to animate the hearts of even the croaking and acted better, and the only trouble the officers had was to keep the men back. It is useless to speak of the Thirtieth Missouri; the bloody fields of Chickasaw, Arkansas Post, and Vicksburgh are their guarantees. If the Twenty-ninth Illinois was not in the fight, it certainly was not their fault, for men never showed more eagerness to be engaged.

Strange as it may seem, incredible as it appears to those who witnessed the rapid and incessant firing, not a man on our side was touched.

The enemy lost six killed, ten wounded in our

despondent. If these battle-scarred heroes, who for three years have carried their lives in their hands, ready to be sacrificed in defence of their homes and liberty, are willing to battle on while the feet of a hated foe press on our soil, shall we at home be laggards in the race of glory? I trust no such damning stigma shall rest upon the honored name of Alabama.

I confidently expect a hearty, prompt, and noble response to this call.

The rolls of companies will be reported to the
Adjutant-General.
T. H. WATTS,

Governor of Alabama

Doc. 78.

REBEL BARBARITIES.

EXECUTIONS IN NORTH-CAROLINA.

BEAUFORT, NORTH-CAROLINA, March 9, 1864. THE unknown martyrs of this war are many. The madness of rebel leaders and the ferocity of the numerous guerrilla bands who hover about the advancing armies of freedom, are not more noteworthy than the sublime but silent devotion with which hundreds of Southern men are continually yielding their lives, after passing through the ordeal of every form of torture the most devilish ingenuity can invent, as evidence to the existence, in the Southern States, of a wide-spread loyalty to the Constitution and the Union, which neither scourgings, starvation, bloodhounds, nor the gallows can ever eradicate.

An illustration of this, recently furnished in North-Carolina, upon a scale which, in times less tragic than our own, would have caused every heart on the continent to thrill with painful sympathy, but which, amidst the glare of great events, may be unnoted, or, at best, only recorded in a brief paragraph.

plexioned, blue-eyed child, an orphan, enlisted in Beaufort by the writer of these lines, out of pure compassion for his destitute state; another, a robust man, Amos Amyett, was tortured for fifteen minutes before the ill-adjusted rope could strangle him to death.

Those twenty-four corpses, swinging between heaven and earth, all that remains of as many brave and loyal North-Carolinians, are not to be forgotten, nor the lessons they teach to be lightly passed over by the rich and prosperous people of the North. The rank and file of the Second regiment, North-Carolina Union volunteers, is composed of native North-Carolinians, every one of whom is threatened with the fate of these twenty-four, if captured; and that that is no improbable contingency, may be gathered from the fact that although the regiment has only been a few months in existence, and up to this time has not been fully organized, detachments from it have, on several occasions, rendered services of sufficient importance to be recognized in General Orders. The men of the regiment fight with a halter around their necks, not because many of them are refugees from the rebel conscription, and Union men who have taken the When the attack was made on Newbern, on first opportunity to leave the rebel army, but the second of February last, company F, of the because every citizen of North-Carolina, taken in Second regiment North-Carolina Union volun- arms against the Confederacy, is declared by a teers, was stationed at Beach Grove, the extreme statute of that State to be a traitor, and death is outpost from Newbern. When it became evident the decreed penalty of his offence. Hiding for that the position could not be held against the mouths in swamps and thickets, and enduring overwhelming force of rebels, which was rapidly perils and hardships that are almost incredible, approaching, the men of this company, having these men, (or such of them as are not murdered the certainty of an ignominious death before by the guerrillas,) gaunt with hunger and clad them if they should be captured, proposed to the in rags, at last reach our lines. Here they can officer in command to pilot the force at the out- find abundant and profitable employment as mepost in safety to Newbern, by paths through the chanics and laborers; but they are burning for woods known only to themselves. But unfortu- the emancipation of their State and the rescue of nately, they were temporarily in charge of offi- their families from the horrors of the rebel descers not belonging to their own regiment, who potism; and they enlist, without the lure of were either ignorant of the blood-thirsty charac-large bounties, in the service of the United States, ter of the enemy, or too timid to fight to the which, on its part, guarantees them, or should do death, if fight were deemed impracticable. Had so, the same protection afforded to soldiers of these men been commanded by officers of their the loyal States. Many of them have now own regiment, they all would have escaped, or, been four months in the service, and have never as preferable to their inevitable doom if taken received one cent of pay or bounty. This was prisoners, would have found a more honorable the case with the twenty-four hung at Kinston; death on the field. As it was, they were sternly not a man of them had ever received a dollar forbidden to leave the ranks, and, without a shot from the United States. being fired, or the stipulation secured that they should be treated as prisoners of war, they were surrendered; nineteen out of seventy only escaping. Of the fifty-one prisoners, twenty-four were immediately hung by order of the rebel General Pickett. On the scaffold at Kinston, these twenty-four heroes met their fate with true courage.

In the presence of the rebel forces, and surrounded by the people of their own State, they avowed their entire devotion to the Union. After receiving the consolation of religion, one of their number stepped forward, and, in a firm and clear voice, declared that he and his companions died, as they had lived, "Union men." One of the victims was a little drummer-boy, named Joey Neal, only fourteen years of age, a fair com

But the saddest fact of all is, that a much larger proportion of them than is usual in Northern regiments, have large and helpless families dependent upon them, and these, when the father is killed in action, or murdered after being captured, are left to suffer. In North-Carolina, there is no "Freedmen's Aid Society" to foster the destitute families of the "poor white man,” who not only escapes from a worse than African bondage, but, despite the threat of the gallows, takes up arms for the Union.

Here, there is no beneficent State Government, as in New-York and Massachusetts, to provide "State aid" for the families, and to furnish additional bounties for recruits. When the NorthCarolina refugee and his family arrive within the

fort.

Union lines, without a crust of bread or a change ing not only the protection of our flag, but a of garments, the father enlists, and receives the place among its vindicators, would fill a volume. Government ration for himself and family. Be- To those who share the perils of these men, longing to one company of eighty men, there are (for the rebels have declared their intention to thirty families; of these, two are still outside our hang officers as well as privates if captured,) and lines, with small prospects of ever rejoining their whose hearts are stung to madness by the cruel kindred; and twenty families, comprising eighty- fate of comrades, brutally murdered, and again seven persons, forty-seven of them under the agonized by the woe-begone countenances of age of fourteen, are with the company in Beau- widows and orphans, there are two questions, which day and night, with haunting solicitude, Before the war these were, of their class, well-press themselves upon the attention. Any disto-do people, owning a little land, a few cattle, paragements of the thorough loyalty of the regi and some household stuff, but now having ment, or its bravery, deserve only scorn for rescarcely any thing beyond the Government ply. Rough in appearance, without banners or ration. They are generally, almost univer- regimental music, partly drilled, and not thorsally, illiterate, to a degree inconceivable to a oughly disciplined, as it is, the Kinston gallows Northern mind; on an average, not more than testifies that it is still a regiment fearfully in one out of eight can read or write. They have earnest. A LINE OFFICER suffered more than the negro from the blighting influence of slavery, and they know it; hence they are willing to take up arms, and if any one doubts their thorough loyalty, let him be referred to the heroism with which the twenty-four stood undaunted beneath the Kinston gallows.

in Second Regiment N. C. U. V.

Doc. 79.

ATTACK ON "FREEMAN'S BAND.”
LIEUTENANT-COLONEL STEPHENS'S REPORT.
HEADQUARTERS DETACHMENT ELEVENTH CAVALRY,

MISSOURI VOLUNTEERS, BATESVILLE, ARKANSAS,
February 10, 1864.

CAPTAIN: I have the honor to report that, in obedience to a special order issued from the Headquarters District of East-Arkansas, dated February seventh, 1864, I moved the same day with a detachment of the Eleventh Missouri cavalry and First Nebraska cavalry, consisting of four officers and sixty-four men, of the Eleventh Missouri cavalry, and Captain T. J. Majors and forty men, of the First Nebraska cavalry, together with eight men of the Fourth Arkansas infantry, to attack the camp of Colonel Freeman, then supposed to be encamped on the Smithville road, about twenty-five miles from this point. On my arrival at the point designated, I found that the camp had broken up, and that Colonel Freeman had moved with his command northwardly. I then, upon consultation with Captain Majors, determined to follow him, and attack him wherever I might find him. In accordance with this determination, I moved the command through Smithville to a point on Spring River, known as the Widow Marshall's, where I received the first definite information of the whereabouts of the enemy's forces, he having left that point the same day, and moved up Spring River, westwardly, to a point known as Morgan's Mill, near the mouth of Martin's Creek.

Two specimens, out of many, may serve to show something of the hardships to which their patriotism exposes these people. A man who, in times of peace, was a prosperous mechanic, (a machinist,) having been pressed into the rebel service, managed to make his escape from Wilmington, and at Newbern enlisted in the Second regiment. After a few weeks, he contrived to convey the information to his wife, who resided some twenty-six miles beyond the lines, and she, leaving every thing but a little extra clothing, and some provisions, took her child, only eight months old, in her arms, and, fleeing for her life, pursued her way through forests and swamps for forty-eight hours. It was in the month of December last, and during the most severe storm of the winter, that this poor woman waded through partly frozen creeks, eating little, gathering all her available clothing about her infant, and at night afraid to kindle a fire, lest its light might betray her, sinking down exhausted on the wet earth to rest. At last she was almost in sight of our outposts, when, crossing an open field, she was discovered by a party of Fox's guerrillas, and made a prisoner. She was kept, during two days, in an old log house; every article of her own and her child's clothing, except what they wore, were destroyed; threats were made, food was sparingly given; but this brave woman again, and successfully, attempted her escape, and is now with her husband. On another occasion, one of the men, since enlisted, was Finding that the men were fatigued, and that seized by the guerrillas of Hyde County, and my horses were not in a condition to attack his when his wife remonstrated with them, they dis- camp that night, I halted the command and encharged a musket, loaded with buckshot, at her, camped. Early the next morning, the command wounding her so seriously, that she is crippled took up its line of march up both sides of Spring for life; and, not content with this atrocity, they River, the detachment of the First Nebraska cavdeliberately fired at one of the children, a young alry, under Captain Majors, moving up the south girl, wounding her in the neck. Both mother side of the river to a point known as the farm of and daughter are now in Beaufort. Almost the Widow Crawford's; with the remaining por every private in the regiment has some similar tion of the command, consisting of the Fourth experience to narrate, and their perils, in seek-Arkansas infantry and Eleventh Missouri cav

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