New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1862-02-12
NUMBER 2S9

~
-*' NUMBER 299.
LATEST TELEGRApHlC INTELLIGENCE
DISPATCHED TO THE NEW ORLEANS CRESCENT /
--'------ ---'-----------es s- 4es1t a tr VA
s4- From Memphis.
bIEupHIs, Feb. I1.-There has been heavy loss |
Of steamboats, On the Tennessee river in consequence
Of the invasion. Phe gunboats Lexington, Cone.
etoga and Sam Orr, with 170e pounds Of powder
and two submarine batteries, set fire to eight
steamers ten miles above Tennessee river bridge,
on Friday and Saturday. |
The Appleton, Belle and Lynn Boyd were burnt
by the Confedratea at the mouth Of Duck river.
The Sam Kirkman, Julius Smith and Time, the
latter having one hundred thousand dollars worth
Of Government stores on board, were abandoned
and burnt at Florence on Saturday.
The Dunbar was sunk in Cypress Creek, and at
Eastport Confederate ganboat, repairing, was
sunk. The Cerro Gordo and salIie Ward were the
only boats captured by the Federals, and the Robb
is the only boat that escaped. 8 -ssf - Z
The Yankees took 10000 pounds of Confederate
salt pork at Florence but refused to touch private
property, even cotton 5s.st.,..4
The passenger trains have resumed on the
Charleston Road. 5ssssr ~ 10
j. It is reported the Federals are concentrating in
large force in the vicinity of Paris, where there
are 1860 Confederate cavalry. -
The Tennessee river bridge is not burned u is
at Fort Donelson on Saturday. Nothing heard,
via Nashville, from Fort Donelson.
One General, two Captains, two ientenants and
seventy five privates were captured at Fort Henry,
twenty-five dead bodies, were found in the fort
Yankee. The Federals have abandoned Fort
Henry, and are fortifyipg Angelo, opposite.
Fort henry is inundated and caving in on both
sides. -. E.1s
+ The Federals threaten to take possession of the
Memphis and Ohio Railroad in two weeks, and
have easy access to Memphis.
The military excitement is growing warm. A
public meeting was held here on yesterday to Or
ganize for defence. 3-s.. -ss,t.gs 81 g
From Norfolk .....;-s
NORFOLK, Feb. 10.--A courier arrived at 4
o'clock this afternoon with the in diligence that
Elizabeth City was burned this morning bv the in
habitants. During the eontagration the Federals
landed q large force. $500.
All our gnnboats, excepting one, have been cap
tured by the enemy.
Gen. Wise has not yet arrived. Ha HaA -Ss2a5Sa
---%@@1.-%.------- I'll n {&S
' . From the London Times, January iii 5sg sa.5s
Letter from Capt. semmes, Of the Sumter.
| Toihe Editor of the Times ;ssR szr Eg's54EeE !
| SIR-Permit me, through the medium of your
columns, to say a word to the civilized world, in
| defense Of my ship, against the scnrTillous and
| cowardly attack made upon her by Mr.. Gideon
| of the Northern fragment of what was formerly
known as the United States Of America. That
/ gentleman Cor by courtesy must call him such,
from the high official position which he occupies1
! used the following language in his recent annual
report to the President aud Congress of what re-
mains Of the old Confederacy: .sa. A q.
i" Itwas natural that apprehension should prevail
in regard to armed cruisers commissioned ex.
pressly by the rebel leaders to depredate upon
our commerce. This robbery of merchants and
others engaged in peaceful and lawful pursuits By
raj conduct of those who have violated law and
moral obligations to crafty inordinate ambition.
Our. extended commerce presented inducements
for private warfare, yet but few of our misguided
purpose of plunder, though thereto invited, and
those few have been in constant fight to escape
the avenging power Of onr yigilant naval forces. .
g Such Of these cruisers az elnded the blockade
and capture, were soon wrecked, beached OF sunk
with the exception of one, the steamer Sumter,
which by some fatality was permitted to pass the
Brooklyn, then blockadng one OF the passes Of the
Mississippi, and after brief and feeble chase By
Il the latter was allowed to proceed on her piretica
voyage. An investigation of this whole occur
renee was ordered by the Department. Soon the
Niagara and the Powhatan, from the Gulf squad
0wed en" Il in gGseqs M s SetSt tss
boilers and machinery, under her energetic com
mander, tracking the piratical craft as far as Ma
4 renhaml. ss. *.e-..z-.-. -. -
The keystone State, Richmond, Iroquois, ani
San Jacnto, were also in search Of her at different
points and periods. Although piratical rover
without license from any recognized or acknoWt
edged Government, and ayowedly engaged in rob
:, berry and plunder of our citizens regret to say
this vessel has been received and her wants sup
piled, against the remonstrance Of our Consuls by
public authorities in many foreign ports where hel
character was we'll known 5ss..-.ss ~
The closing paragraph Of the above elegant ex
4 tract from an American state paper seems to show
that. although it was penned ostensibly agains
myself, it was, in fact, leyeled at those European
States to be lawful belligerehts in the war whcl
had been forcedupon them. On no other supposi
tion could it charge me with 8 robbery" on til.
, high seas, and with being :. pHatical rover
pirate is hosts hu1laf5 genefiS and may be seiZet
and summarily dealt with by any and all the ma
tons of the earth; but the fact is these officers
the detunct Federal Union are so blinded by thei
venom against the South that they have no {longe
the power to distinguish between them. 7.
Mr.. Welles, also, in imitation of the dirty ami
mendacious press of the Yankee States, calls me
J privateer. He knows better than this. He know
that pryateer is 9 vessel that bears letter 9
marque, and that am cruising under no such let
= ter. He knows that have been regularly CON
nlissioned as ship of war of the Confederat
States. If he and his deluded associates insist upo
calling the citizens Of the Confederate States rel
, part of the old Yankee concern, then he migt
characterize me as rebel manof-war. But if
am this, SO were all the ships of the American co
!. onies commissioned by the Virginian, Georg
: Washington.
2 Mr.. Weles tells the President and Congress tina
u by ''some fatality" ran the blockade of Nel
. Orleans, and that he has ordered the Whole af1a
! to be Investigated. With the blind rage of bal
Il fed madman (quens Deus yuK pe,dee elc.,) he wi
5 no doubt endeavor to crush the harmless and in
: offensive commander of the Brooklyn, who, poo
u man. no doubt did his best. He says, also, that
l. has had six of his largest and fastest steamers
pursuit OF me, and that the commander Of one 4
them was so energetic as to perform the wonderfy
:. feat of tracking as far as Marenham, in Brazi
y This, suppose, is one Of those daring acts-th
y officer being in command Of heavy frigate7
! u which called forth the panegyric Of the Yanke
!. Navy, which we find in subsequent part of Nj
h officer goes on to remark: ITO the patriot
!. various scenes of naval action, had served unde
8 them, the Department and the Government iustl
= owe an acknowledgment even more earnest an
emphatic than that which they owe to his clerks.
!, Oh! for James to portray. these hscenes (
naval action" confined to predatory warfare Q
u the Potomac river, directed chiefly against wome
= and children; to the capture Of q sand.bag ba
y terry at Hatteras to the mastery movement {
"a the great Dupont, the t'greatest naval commando
.e of the age,'' in Yankee hyperbole, who not onl
II knows how to use gunpowder, but, with Yanke
- thrift to turn honest penny by selling it to tt
u Government; and to the pursuit Of the piratics
f.-