The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1861-11-15
NOTES OF THE REBELLION.
NEWPORT NEWS.

nerClt writes: rev OUTSIDERS are aware
of the inherent strength of the works thrown
up with such skill and maintained with such
tact by Gen. Phelps. The riAed cannon at
this post are among the best in the service.
They are so ranged as to sweep the land as
we'll as sea approach. The enemy ap-
preaching from the interior through the
woods must cross an open area where they
must be all exposed, while our men would
be protected behind ample ramparts. The
shell thrown over our ranks would strike
the enemy in front, while the shipping would
follow suit on their rear. There can be no
such things as mask ed batteries here,
Gen, Phelps has richly entitled himself
to the thanks OF the country not only in
the care he gives to the quarters of his post,
but for his perseverance in his attempts to
keep out that worst foe OF the soldier and
sailor, the intoxicating cup. Many home
will bless him for it.
THE DRY ToRTUGAs.
One of the refractory members OF the
New York Thirteenth regiment, writes
home from Fort Jefferson, Florida, that
the Dry Tortugas Island is about one mile
in circumference, and that they are
building brick fort upon it. They have
already placed in position ninety~two guns.
When completed, it will accommodate three
hundred and seventy guns. The writer says
that he never was in better health, and has
plenty to eat--the delicacies being cocoa
nuts, lemons, sc. He likes his situation
very much, and had rather be dragging the
guns about the fort and wheeling sand than
be soldering in Virginia.
COLONEL WILSON'S REPORT
Colonel Wilson, or, as he is more iamil~
iarly known, " Billy" Wilson has made an
official report of bis conflict with the enemy
on Santa Rosa Island, and it must be said
that it is curious production. Wilson, it
should be remembered, has not enjoyed the
advantages Of West Point education be
has had few opportunities of learning either
the graces or the rules of literary compost
ton; he is as rough in his style as in bis
manners his knack at fighting is better
than his knack at writing, and quite possi>
oily it is so because he has had greater ex-
perience in the former line than in the lat
ter. He fought none the worse for the
want of grammar and rhetoric when the
rebels drove him out of his bed at an I'M
reasonably early hour, while his rude ard
straightforward account of the fray is quite
as clear ard instructive and far more anus
ing than more metbodical documents He
tells Gen. Arthur that his new clothes
were all destroyed" that the enemy's war
cry was Death to Wilson," and that l." five
thousand dollars reward /" was offered for his
own head; but he congratulates himself on
two facts-namely, that his commission
is safe and that bis Z" men have smelt gun
powder, and now they are all right"
Then be makes this little statement:
They are exhibiting my hair and head in
Pensacola the reward is already claimed
also an old flag which | nailed to the flagstaff
on the Fourth Of July, which has been hanging
there ever since; nothing left, however, but
the stars. The ladies have cut it up in pieces,
and have it pinned on their bosom as trophy
Every one has my sword and uniform in PEN
sacoa. | must have had a large quantity of
hair, plenty of swords and uniforms. They say
if | was TO be taken alive was to be put in a
cage and exhibited.
The report concludes with these ierky
and suggestive sentences, which sound very
oddly in au official paper, but nevertheless
tell the whole story:
We lay upon our arms every night. I have
slept but very little this week. don't feel
well. | have got the diarrhea. We will want
eight hundred uniforms. Your obedent SER
want WILLIAM WILSON,
Colonel Commanding.
Medical assistance should at once be
furnished, for he is evidently in a bad way
though we should not advise the rebels to be
encouraged by that fact to make another
attempt to capture him and his men.
LOYAL SPEECH FROM EX-GOVERNOR THOMAS,
OF MARYLAND.
Ex-Governor Francis Thomas, of Mary
land, delivered strong Union speech at
mass meeting in Baltimore this week. He
is reported to have spoken as follows:
In heart and soul he was Marylander he
was law abiding man, and under the laws of
the Union he was not afraid to unfold his views
upon the subject of slavery, and would not be
awed into silence from any quarter. In all
controversies about slavery the South has al
ways been the aggressor. Not the masses of
the South. but the demagogues who have con-
stantly kept infamed the minds of the people
of the South.
Stephens, the rebel Vice President. once ad.
mitted that slavery was an institution of evil
tendency. and should not be established in
places where it did not exist. Regarding this
question, the speaker stood upon the same
platform as Clay espOused he stood where the
democratic party stood in 1852. He did not
entertain a feeling of Partially for President
Lincoln or his Cabinet, but he upheld them be.
cause they are law-abidiDg men. The question
had been asked, why the northern section of
the United States increased more rapidly than
the South. 1t is answered by the fact that the
whole tide of emigration sets towards the
North, where the emigrant seeks section
where all laboriDg classes are free.
RQf arrtn To mi 4l,ac bod