The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1862-05-21
the UPPER PAMUNKEY RIVER.
Our Army Correspondence.

Our Army Correspondence.
WHITE HOUSE,, PAxuNKEY RIVER, May II, 1852.
Navigation Opened 10 White House-TAe Burned Gun.
boats and Bridoes-sumken Vessels In Chanma-Ra-
RACES Of Guerillas-Horible Atrocities williamsburg
Neos-Recouery Of the Dead, dc.
To leave Baltimore at dusk Friday and TO be located
in the advance Of the grand army, eighty i've miles
from Fortress Monroe and twenty miles from Rich
mond by dusk Saturday Is an experience that your
correspondent mperfscty realize. Tho mail steam.
boats leave the fortress at eleven o'clock, and reach
White House at six p. NJ As came up to-day the whole
river was filed with craft. They make continuous line
from Old Point the mouth Of York river and tho mass
and spars that environ Yorktown and Gloucester romnd
one Of scene the North East rivers AT West Point
Is array Of shipping scarcely loss formidable,
and the windnss Of the ntsrmnaby crooked Pamunkey
arc marked for leagues bysas smokestacks and mass
The landings and wharvss besisged by naboats and
sloops, and zouaves may be hosting forage and
commissary stores up the red bus at turn Of tho
vessel.
aud opening up occasional vistas Of whoahclds and
moadoys with Virginia farmhouses and negro quarters
on the hops. Many Of the houses tho river banks
appear aSpa majority hsVs aeso
pearance and tho only signs Of life are
na ba ro .ne
their perch on the sill, or groups OF negroes who sun
themselves the piazza ana rush out 70 the Drink 20
gaze and grin at the passing steamers we see occasoua
residences not unworthy Il Old manorial or baronal
times and these attended, at little distance, by ne
gro quarters Of logs, built In row and provided with
mud chmneys, built against their gables Indeed, fow
Of Northern navisabe rivers are so uniformly pic
turcsque and varied. =
We parsed two rebel gxnboats that had been half
pIoted aud burned the stocks The charred elbows
and ribs we're commentaries upon the ruin effected
by secession. West Point Is simply a tongue or
spit land dividing the h.,srony from the nt ramnkey
aud wharf that makes out into the Panunkcy shows
the former terminus Of the railroad from Richopd The
rails do not appear 10 have been mosrcd water bat
tory erected on scale comme.sras with tho whole Of
the rebel cafthworks, is the sole evidence Of war.
Below Cunbcrlond--a co!ecicn Of huts and wharf
number Of schooners had been sunk across the river
and, with tho aid Of an island In the middle, con
stitute pretty rigid blockade Steamboats, can
pas 'n,ous' steering carefully out sa'ns ,h
sunken masts only be disccrned above the water,
and II must have taken much tmc and labor to place the
boats in line and sink the Our vessels can DO counted
by above and below this blockade. and at Cum
berand tho masts are ko forest Pontoon RATS on
constitute of tho scenery being grouped
In some places to the number or scores The river could
have been defended readily and masked batteries
planted upon tho hickcts Of the high bluffs could have
| been used aith deadly eht u
"White House, is simply whito house; hut tho high
banks Uttered with wagons tents, horses and forage
Vessels and crowd the shore, and just above,
where railroad used TO cross the river, the mbers
OF blackened and broken bridge attest the fight o.
| the rebels.
-Four OF our gunboats, mounting nvc guns each lie
here although tho river is not more than one hundred
and fifty yards wide, with channel but thirteen feet
deep. Liaht draught boats can ascend thirty miles
rurthor The shrubbery Is dense and clusters Of wild
flowers peep out the empowering leaves and trees
Il IL little odd feel that occupy the site q tho
rebel General headquarters who was located here
only th days ago The few remaining residents point
out tho late footprints Of rebel cavalry and infantry
The whole peninsula here and elsewhere is swarming
with guerillas who rob and murder without restraint
prowling camps and lurking In the edges OF
woods sock opportunity 70 shoot down stragglers
| both civil and military.
The artist OF an illustrated paper started from York
by a company Of cavalry some little distance from the
former place. and told that II dangerous 70 proceed