Richmond daily Whig. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1842-1861, 1861-06-13
AFFAIRS At HARPraA IrrRY.

APPROACH OF ykDkk+L 1koofs-husc AID SisHuo-
Jkpp DAVIS coMisd-THx POTOMAC A GRAND JULrP-
cRlSoLISE nADE UsErUL-NEAfLIs
As we find Il difficult II not impossible to obtain news
direct from Hapers Ferry have take such reach
es us In roundabout way. volunteer writes from
that place under date Of the 30h ut to the Louisville
Courier letter. from which We extract the following
We still remain here In a very passive STATE quietly
awaiting the approach Of the enemy. From all iadica-
lions the Northern troops are coming upon by
era different approaches hoping to surround and pre-
vent our being reinforced This place accessible from
the North and South by the Baltimore and Ohio rail
road both ends Of which are in possession OF Lincoln
The railroad from Washington to Loudoun county comes
WITHIN twenty miles OF FROM the southwest, and that
/, held by the enemy. From Chsmbersburg, Pa Bagers
tovn and Frederick Nd, are but short distance,
and at each of these points the Northern troops are or
will be- concentrated in large numbers. Our only route
of communication with the Outside world 10 in western
direction through Winchester and the Manassas juno
ton and towards the latter place the federal troops are
rapidly advancing. Should they succeed in obtaining
possession Of that important point we shall be complete
" hemmed 10; but know no better place to re-enact
Thermopylm than Harper's Ferry.
Despite the rapid approach OF momentous crisis 10
our desnies continue to erjoy ourselves Ours ia
not humdrum existence by any means We have
Amusement In abundance, simple though it be; but then
our tastes are plain and unambous At night there can
be heard from section of the camp the gentle breath Of
music Now from brass baud that recalls US TO home
breeze concluding with the inevitable I'D Iie, that
have learned admire since il needs must be that we
keep step to that music when the day of battle arrives.
Then there songs and the plaintve accompaniment
of the guitar to Annie Laurie and other blessed melodies
thrice blessed because they are twned about our To-
permost hearts with fond memories OF the past.
But chief recreation, in the few hours allotted
to rest ia fishing. Almost every man in the camp has
become an admircr of Iziak Walton and the piscsto
rll art of the gentle old angler is next to Hirdees
Tactics, our study and delight spent few hours
most pleasantly the other evening with Lieut.. Rogers
and Senator Pennybsker, cropping through the river
sand for muscles wherewith to bait our hooks, and
then seated upon the huge rocks that overhang the
Shenandoah, fuging our lines into the deep pools
where perch suckers surf<h and sonetoters do most
abound.
Judge peterborough arrived here yesterday from
Montgomery, where he has been in attendance upon
the sttDgs Of the Confederate Congress one of the
delegates from Virginia. He brought US good news, TO
the effect tia. President Davis would visit US in few
days. You may well suppose that there will be
grand time when the glorious hero and statesman ar
ryes.
Major Whiting, the engineer in charge OF the forti-
fcatOns and defensive works here has suspended ope-
rations until General Davis examines our means OF de-
fence. In the construction of the batteries that ST.
fenced Fort SUMTER Msjor Whiting acted as Chief En-
gineer under Gen. Beauregsrd.
The Potomac was observed the other morning to have
very peculiar hue 1t rather saDguinery, and OF
battle had been fought to crimson the tide,
the cause mex picable. Eventually it ascer.
tanned that the qusremaste by order Of General John.
son had poured into the river the contents Of over one
hundred casks of liquor which had been coD6scaed
from the poison dealers in town. All day long the Po-
tomsc, fringed as it is with mint immense ju-
lep, only lacking the sweetenIpg to render it COM
plete
Yesterday two ladies reached here from Baltimore.
One of them sttiIed herself in two full suits Of uniform
over which she wore her appropriate female garb while
the other lady concealed beneath her crinone twenty
five thousand percussion caps which Of nestmabe
vaule to US just now.
The only sickness at the post is ccnfced to the MIS-
siasppans, among whom there hundred and
fifty Of measles