The western Democrat. [volume] (Charlotte, N.C.) 1852-1870, 1865-01-31
FROM WILMINGTON.
From the Wilmington Journal.

We are really unable to IND any thfnS new HON
below Occasionally heavy Smelling is heard from
the sea- This is said to occur at.each time the
enemy relieves his pickets, hose relative positions
towards ours does not appear TO be much changed
for many days. The enemy has succeeded in get
ting no iron cads into the riveAShat We know of II
was said that there sixteen or seventeen Light
boats in the river and it was even surmlsed tina,
the enemy had transferred transferring a
large portion of his force to the West side of the
river with the view Of turning works at Fort
Anderson, or of taking them IN the rear so as tc
allow of the passage of his gunboats. This was
only a surnIise.
We do not think it as at all likely that the enc.
my's land forces have re-embarked and gone off
We will be woefully mistaken if we lay that fat
,erng JUNCTION to our souls, we think. There is in
all likelihood at least eleven thousand of them
there yet, if not more. 1t is true they have stop
ped block ade- running, and thus accomplished one
part OF their object but there three railroads
and large river here yet, of which they probably
seek the control Besides, the moral effect is in.
complete without the capture of the town, which
| we think, they are bound to attempt.
The enemy wants to make this influence com.
plete, SO far as Legislature now in session is
coucerped He no doubt thinks that by alternate
mepaces and blandis hments, he may procure such
action as will cause the State TO drift from he1
sentia to US that be should not succeed. Even
SHOULD Wilmington fall and her people be scatter
ed abroad or reduced to poverty and ruin, Will
min gton is the State far less is it the Coufede
racy. Now is not the time for North Carolina 10
falter now is the time for her to show of what she
is capable-of what stuff she is made. Such at
least, is our view-such is our voice. North Car
DINA cannot now honorably fater or fall back.
She is o Confederate State. She is pledged to her
Confederate sisters. Can she, at such time aban-
don them and seek safety in submission? We ask
our legslators-our rulers Of all kinds-our people,
yea, the very strangers within gates, to put
this question to emselves-look it fairly In the
face and answer it without blinking evasion.
We ask no more and have no doubt about what
the answer will be.
No matter how We may question the policy OF
some of our civil military authorities, honor
compels Us to sustain them in times like these
when the people are mutually pledged to each 9TH
er and 10 their chosen leaders. We cannot but
think it productive of good when there is full
understanding between the people aud the author
tiles. Injustice is most frequently done to the lat
ter, especially by the press on account of the i'm
possibility of obtaining correct information, owing
to a somewhat unaccountable reticence, which, SO
far as we can see, can do no good and may do
The latest dispatch from Sugar Loaf reports all
quiet
NORTHERN ITEMS.
Northern papers Of the Goth, state that Wall
street was excited on the l9th by the report that
Blair had returned to Richmond with programme
from Lincoln in favor of commissioners to meet at
City Point. Everybody who had anything to sell
was selling at sacrifice, in many cases under the
conviction that the war was about over.
The n Y Herald says: 1t is said that the rebels
have new and very formidable lam nearly com
pleted up the Roanoke River in North Carolina,
which they design 10 shortly move down that
stream simultaneously with the descent of the
Neuse River by the one which they have at Kin
ston, and it is probably intended that while the
latter makes an attack on he Union forces at New
BERN the former shall attempt to regain possession
of Plymouth Efforts are being made by our forces
at the latter place to raise the sunken Albenlarle,
and if this endeavor should succeed, it is thought
that with her and light draught monitor, which
is expected to arrive the rebel attack can be easily
repulsed.
Genera! Ord having been placed at the head
of the army of the James, be. has been
succeeded in the command of the twenty fourth
corps by Major General John Gibbon, lately COM
mauding the second division of the second corps
THE WAR IN KENTUcKy.-The New York
News, of a recent date, says:
"The Confederate General Lyons raid through
Kentucky has been concluded. From Western
Tennessee he crossed the Cumberland and moved
through Christian county to Hopkirsrille The
suppressIoDs of the Administration leave us in the
dark as to bis further movements through the
State, but we now learn that he has made juno
ton with Hood by way of McMinnvile and Tul-
lahoma. Conscflpting troopers and appropriating
horses as he went, he must therefore have made q
circuit through one-haf of the State of Kentucky;
and in his threatening movement toward the gaps
of the Cumberland Mountains must have led to
the hasty retreat from Virginia in which Burbridge
Yankee) abandoned his artillery. Few raids of
the war appear to have been crowled with such
complete and such important successes.
The movement of Lyon into Western Kentucky
appears, however, to have taken the form of per-
manent result. Guerillas appear to have sprung
up along its track as fire starts out in the Heavens
in the wake-of comet. Colonel Taylor, of the
Confederate service, holds part of Central Ken
lucky. His headquarters on the Ohio, at
Greensboro His troops hold that river for seventy
or eighty miles, and occupy on its banks the i'm
portaDt towns of Hawsvlle and Henderson This
war in the rear is growing into great significance
shall assume dimensions which, will make, as it has
already done in Virginia, operations based on lines
of communication through that State an absolute
mpossibility.
par Fred. Douglass runaway negro, who lief.
Maryland some years ago, and has been pet of
certain strong minded abolition women of the
North-nlade speech the other day, in New York,
which " nd To