The Local news. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1861-1862, 1861-12-17
GENERAL NEWS.

made. II.
Two or three U. S. steamboats, on the Po-
tomac. in passing the batteries, en- Saturday,
were fred at, and the fire returned. We
have no accounts of any damage being done.
The proposed general plan for an ex
change of prisoners, it is said, does not in
clude what is called political prisoners"
or settle the difficulties concerning priva-
teersmen.
It is denied that there has been any cor
respondence between Capt Griffin and Col.
Berry. U. S. A., relative to Griffn's Battery
at Bull Run.
The deaths Of number of soldiers in the
camps in and around Washington, are re-
ported every week in the papers of that city
It is said that the U. S. Navy Department
is not disposed to censure Capt. Palmer, be-
cause he could not prevent the departure of
the Confederate privateer Sumter from the
harbor of St. Thomas.
Some Of the Northern papers occupy
three or four columns with the details of the
military execution of Johnston, near this
place, last Friday.
Browns Hotel" in Washington, has
been sold to Andrew Potts, Cornelius Wen
doll, and Thomas j. Fisher. 1t will, after
the LIST of January, be under the charge Of
Mr.. Potts.
The U. S. Supreme Court has appointed
j. s. Black, of Penn, late Attorney Gene
raj of the United States,) to be the Reporter
OF the Court, vice Howard, resigned. The
Office ia a lucrative one
Capt. Wilkes has been serenaded in Wash.
ington, and returned his thanks. 1t is said
that 'serenading" in Washington is getting
to be ''bore" even to the recipients of the
honor.
Mr.. Charles w. Elliott has presented
sword to Lieut.. Tompkns, u S. A., for the
charge he made at Fairfax Court House. on
the 3lst of May"
Sensational paragraphs flying rumors-
unauthorized eports-incorrect statements
continue to be 'staple articles" in most
OF the newspapers. 1t takes a column one
day to contradict what was published in
column the day before.
The steamer Constitution, from Boston,
with two regiments, arrived at Shipping
Island on the 81, and with the assistance of
two small steamers which had been captured
by the Federals. landed her troops, and has
returned to Fortress Monroe.
A resolution for expelling MIR. Bright, of
Indiana, from the Senate, is before that
body-founded principally on the ground
that he 3D. gave some man (who had gun
or cannon for which he wanted patent)
"a letter of introduction to the President OF
the Confederate States" Mr.. Bright says
he is a Union man, but he frankly declared
himself opposed to the coercive policy of the
government.
Gen. Sumner, U. S. A., was considerably
injured on Saturday last, by being thrown
from his horse.
SO FOUNDER -semi,steel gun, forged by
the Franklin Forge, of New York, was ia
ken to Staten Island for trial proof, last
week, when, at the ninth round, it burst.
and upon examination it was discovered
that, to ever up some defects in the base of
the bore, an entire false chamber had been
made. aud so nicely fitted in the qua as TO
defy the most minute detection, until the
gun broke.
Robert Sleight, foreman of the work on
the dome of the Capitol in Washington, on
Saturday fell from the dome, distance Of
sixty feet, upon the roof of the old doom. in.
jurlng himself-it is thought mortally.
Experiments have been made during the
last few days, under the direction of Col.
Murphy, of the New York Fifteenth, in
throwing pontoon bridge across the East.
ern Branch of the Potomac, Just above the
Navy Yard
1t is said that an examination of the bodv
of the man executed by the military near
this place last week, showed that none of
the balls passed through the body, though
fired at only six PAGES distance. This was
EXPLAINED upon the theory that the halls in