The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1865-03-09
THE WIS.

All still continues quiet on the line,
ABOUT Petersburg and Richmond. TIL.
heavy rains Of yesterday have again
rendered the ground unfit for the move
ment of artillery.
Tho enemy, on the LIST instant, again
occupied Suffolk with fifteen hundred O,
two Thousand troops, mostly negroes.
A COMMERCIAL TRANSACTION.
For some days past parties in this city
have been sending large quantities Of
manufactured tobacco hence to Frede-
ricksburg. Report said that this to-
bacco was to be traded with the yam.
KEGS for bacon, and that General Single
ton was the prime mover in the arrange
ment, this being the business that
brought him again to Richmond. It was
transported to Hamilton's crossing bv
rail, and thence hauled to Fredericks.
burg, five miles distant, in wagons. The
Yankees were expected to come up in
vessels to Fredericksburg, bring bacon,
and carry off the tobacco.
On Monday last, two hundred thousand
pounds of tobacco had been sent up the
Fredericksburg railroad, forty thousand
pounds of which had been hauled to
fredericksburg and stored in a ware.
house on the Rappahannock, convenient
for Shipping, and the other hundred and
sixty thousand pounds was in thirty. one
box railroad cars at Hamilton's crossing.
The enemy came up to Fredericksburg
in gunboats on Monday night, but
brought no bacon that we have been able
to hear Of: Their first step was 10 send
a party of cavalry to Hamilton's crossing
who set fire to and destroyed all the cars
and all the tobacco there. This party
also burnt the bridge over the Massapo-
max creek, short distance this side of
Hamilton's crossing.
There are two reports as to what was
done with the tobacco in Fredericks.
burg-onc, that the enemy carried it
off; the other, that they set fire to the
warehouse and destroyed both house and
tobacco. 1t is ascertained that they
burned the wagons give in number) en-
ployed in hauling the tobacco from Ham
ilton's to Fredericksburg, and carried off
the teams. So ends one of the most
brilliant schemes of our latter>day
spectators. The only thing to be se~
riously regretted about the business is
the loss by the Fredericksburg Railroad
Company of the thirty-one valuable
freight cars. We presume the company
would not have risked its property by
leaving it at so exposed point as Hamil-
toms crossing unless they had felt salts
fed that some understanding had been
come ito with the enemy that it would
not be molested.
The common report was, that the
enemy would interfere neither with the
road nor the tobacco while this bacon
tobacco traffic was going on. The whole
thing seemed ridiculous enough, it must
be admitted; but there can, at the pre-
sent time, be no report so absurd as not
to find believers. The loss of the to.
bacco is small matter. There is much
more of the article still left in Richmond
than either Government or people know
what to do with.
THE NEGRO SOLDIER BILL.
House bill to increase the military
force of the Confederate States by put
ting negroes into the army was passed by
the Senate yesterday by a majority OF
one, with an amendment limiting the
per centage of negroes between eighteen
and forty~6ve tina shall be taken in each
State.
EW STORE-Having taken the
~ store formerly occupied by L. Harvey & Co..
Cary street. below Thirteenth, can offer every
thing 10 the GROCERY LINE, at Wholesale and
retail: