The Local news. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1861-1862, 1861-12-21
GENERAL NEWS.

GEN ETA N w ..
Since August last there have been, in
the U. S. army, $50 promotions and $50 ap.
p'intments, in addition to 60 brigadier gene
rails Of volunteer brigades. the whole num-
Der of these being about 10. Among the
destinations is James Shields, of California,
to be brigadier general. The appointm ents
as aids-de.camp to Major Gen. Mcclellan
number 80. Tbirty.one officers have been
retired, under the law upon that subject.
The sum of $l5O,0O0 has been voted in thu
U. s. Congress to complete the defences of
Washington.
A distressing scene was witnessed in New
York on Wednesday. Some two hundred
poor women, said to be soldiers wives, as
sembled. and after denouncing the city au-
thorities for neglecting to provide for their
relief, marched down in body to the City
Hall, stopping at the Fourth Avenue Relief
Office, to demand food and fuel. Arrived at
the City Hall, Mayor Wood came out and
spoke few kind words, assuring them that
bill for their relief was now in the hands
of the comptroller, and only awaited his sig
nature. The women next proceeded to visit
the comptroller, one of whose clerks inform
ed them that 90 relief could be extended to
them before the first of January. The crowd,
after expressing their disappointment, went
to the houses of some of the city aldermen.
One women called at the residence of Alder
man Frowert, with three children, and ap-
piled for assistance, but on the servant in
forming them that nothing could be done,
she coolly went away, leaving the children
In the hall.
The Washington correspondent of the Bal
timore Sun says slaves and slavery is now
just az much rung in the hallsof Congress
as it was prior to the first act of secession.
There is good reason for believing that from
Difference to the feelings, interests and rights
of citizens of the border slave States, Mr..
Lincoln deprecates and condemns the recent
abolition moves 10 Congress- but how is it
supposed that the representatives of such
States can cordially support the administra.
ton when so many, if not majority of Nor
thern members exhaust the vocabulary of
harsh epithets in condemnation of an insti-
tuition for whose establishment the North is
us much responsible as the South, and which
cannot be destroyed upon current abolition
ideas, without upturning society ITSELF"
Gen. jackson, it is said, has been promo
ted to the command of the entire valley of
Virginia, and that he has FIVE regiments on
the neck, opposite Williamsport, with fifteen
guns.
The Washington Republican says 1.-THE
imbroglio over the affair Of Mason and Sill
dell, is only symptom of disease, not the
disease itself. The hostility of the British
Government existed before their capture,
and would have been manifested, if that
event had not happened.
Information from the Upper Potomac
states that Gen. Banks, instead of one, sent
to Wllliamsport, five regiments, and snbse-
quently more. The ARTILLERY duep at the
Point of Rocks lasted but a short time, and
but few were killed or wounded.
Contributions for the sufferers by the late
great fire at Charleston are coming in from
all the Southern States.
Gen. Halleck, in Missouri, is levying con-
tribut;ons for the benefit Of the refugee
Union men, upon the Secessionsts.
The amphitheatre, at the fair grounds, in
Louisville, KY, was burned down, on Thurs.
day. A regiment was encamped there, and
in the excitement lieutenant was accident
ly killed by soldier.
The hog trade in Cincinnati is much de-
pressed, by the news from England, and pri-
ces are coming down.
Proof is said to have been obtained of the
forgery of the will of the late Senator Brod-
erick, of California, by persons in New
York.
Gen. Mccall in his official dispatches,
praises the conduct of his troops at the fight
at Dranesville on Friday. The brigade of