Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1862-01-24
LETTER FR0M THE COEFEDER-
ATE CAPITAL.

Correspondence Of She Memphis Appeal
The Burnside Eca-Ramor Concerning It'll
Sets tho Tar Ri0g Oh Fjrc-Erpected ai Wl-
miHgtoa bit not Seen Hero-Georgeto,on, SOua,
Carolina, its Pre5a5te Observation-Disclosures
Ted StoPpags Of Gus ia Hs C.y-Departuro ct
Yankee Pris0aers-Jaales Lyons, Esq, on The
Release Of acknowledgements Resignation
and its Effect at tie North.
RICHMOND, January Il, 1862.
We are as yet wholly without information as
to the point to be attacked by the Burnside feet
1t is not ascending the noble James. Some
~facetous gentleman reported yesterday that it had
set fire to Tar river and that this ancient stream
was burping as fercely as its highly combusti-
bic name would seem readily enoughto suggest.
Your correspondent does not know whether this
report was originally put in circulation by +" Mr..
Smith, Of the War Department The story ran
night before Ia. that Wilmington was to be
attacked, but the only telegram which reached
US yesterday from that quarter was to say that
there was nothing to be said-only a heavy sea
and a thick fog. 1t was a repetition of the as
surance given by the Governor of Tlbury Fort
in Sheridan's Critic
"The Spanish feet thou caust not sae-because
It is not yet in sightl"
Though the purposes of the new armada, like
its ships, are all in a fog just now, there is rea-
son to believe that Georgetown, South Carolina,
is its place of destination. Bafled thus far in
their attempts upon Charleston from the side of
Port Royal, and desiring above all things else to
destroy that accused city whose harbor
they have wantonly endeavored to close up for
all time-the Yankees are probably meditating
an advance, upon it from the other direction. If
l am right in this surmise, we shall hear Of
an entrance into Windsor bay by tomorrow at
the latest.
Some CONSERVATION was created a day Or two
ago in this city by the announcsmsnt-not that
Mcclellan was coming here to celebrate the 2ed OF
February, but-that there was danger Of the sup
plyof gas being cut off entirely in a very short
time. 1 mentioned, o weeks since, that the
street lamps were regularly extinguished by the
watchmen at midnight, and people VINO keep late
hours were compelled to grope their way home in
darkness. The fear now is that we shall not be
able to light a burner, neither in the streets nor
in our dwellings. The trouble is a want of tiles
in the retort chambers. Hitherto, thatI IS to say,
in the old United States, under Yankee domina-
ton, the city authorities were in the habit Of
procuring their tiles for the city gas works from.
New England, Of course. Since the war, it has
been discovered that the article can be obtained,
of quite as good manufacture and Of quite as
reasonable terms, at a large pottery Of kavlin
clay in Edgefeld district, South Carolina, within
four miles of Augusta, Georgia. At the same
establishment, besides many objects of rare
beauty and elegance, ~rivaling Wedgwood and
Minton, Of British celebrity, they make the very
best and cheapest Geographic insulators that can
be procured in America. Our superintendent of
city gas works has a contract with this company
for retOrt tiles, which should have been received
before this time, and las dispatched a messen-
ger to South Carolina to hurry them up. It is
to be hoped he viii succeed in bis mission. fer
there are not candles enough in Richmond to
last a fortnight, and as for oil it has all been
bought up for mechanical purposes. the lubrica-
tiOn Of machinery, exc etc, months ago
One hundred and sixty Yankee prisoners were
sent of this morning BY the steamer No-lhanp
ton and a flag Of truceto Newport News. They
were liberated on parol, aud ia the hope and be-
lief that a like number of Confederate prisoners
now held by lincoln will be released and formal
ly exchanged for them. Many Of these Yankees
have been in the tobacco factories since Manas-
sas fight, and their mutilated bodies bear witness
of the Workmanship of the southern volunteer.
The release Of Hurlbut having given rise to
some severe animadversions upon Governor
Letcher, James Lyons, Esq, recently Commits
sioner Of the Confederate States for the examine
ton of suspicious persons, has published a card,
assuming with bis Characteristic generosity, the
blame Of Hurlbut's discharge, if blame
should attach to any one therefor. Mr.. Lyons
declares that with the strongest prepossessions
against the prisoner, in consequences of his well
known article in the EdiaJug RsriaC, he was
unable to find anything that warranted the ar
and long detention in Jail, but that on the
contrary, the most satisfactory evidence was Of
forded him that HurIbut was not now obnoxious
to suspicion and ought to be discharged. The
recent prisoner yet remains in the city and has
been recognized by some of our most loyal peo-
pie, but there rs a story in circulation about him,
which, if true, ought to procure for him another
and severer sort of punishment than what he has
undergone.
The resignation of Cameron shows the inpc-
ious necessity Old Abe Is under to propitiate
he Kentuckians by declining to make the war
Crusade against slavery. What effect it viii
AVE upon the Beecher-C ever-Sa party of
he North, remains to be seen. Possibly there
viii be an outcTy against running up a debt Of
seventeen hundred millions Of dollars for a war
.gainst the South which after al is not to wipe
'ut forever " the sum Of all villainies."
We have mildar weather to-day, but mud and
out OF doors. DIXIE.