The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1865-01-17
LATER FROM TIE NORTH.


We have received New York dates Of
Saturday, the 14th instant. Gold was
quoted 1t 21912.
RrrrIFRs REPORT OF THE WILMINGTON
rArIuRE-GRANTs INSTRUcTIoNs-THE
REASONS FOR UNDERTAKING THE BxPE-
DTTION.
The papers publish General Buffers
report Of his expedition to Wilmington
In full. The New York Tribune But
lers advocate) gives the following sum-
mary Of the points made in it:
It will be remembered that the naval
preparations for this expedition were in
progress for ct least two months, and it
is to be presumed that when General
Grant ordered the land force to rendez-
vous at Fortress Monroe, with ten days
coal and water, it was with the under
standing that the naval force was ready
to proceed. On the 9th of December,
then, General Butler reported to Adni-
raj Porter that all was in readiness on
his part The Admiral, however, was
not. ready, and General Butler was
compelled to wait through Saturday,
the 10th, Sunday, the 18th, and
Monday, the 10Th. Here the first
three days were wasted before the
naval force was ready to move on the
l3th.ssadd even then it would be COM
PEELED to put iato Beaufort for ammuni-
ton for the monitors, probably because
those vessels could not carry it any
greater distance than from that place to
New inlet. This, Of course, involved
still farther delay, and General Butler,
that he might give the naval force start
of thirty-six hours, steamed up the
james to deceive the rebels as to his
probable destination, and on the 14tb,
"Wednesday, put to sea. But even then
he had not given Admiral Porter time
enough. On the evening of the 10Th he
arrived at New inlet, near Fort Fisher:
where he waited three days longer, in
fine weather and with smooth sea, the
10th, 18th and 18th, before the feet ap-
pearod. Thus nine days had elapsed
since, by order of General Grant, he had
reported that the land forces were in
readiness to proceed-nine precious days
lost because the naval authorities had
failed to complete their preparations at
the appointed time. This inexcusable
delay and dilatoriness, of course, in
vQlved still further postponement. The
coal and water, provided for ten days.
ample had the whole expedition started
at tho appointed time,-were now ex-
hausted, and the transports, by Admiral
Porter's advice, put into Beaufort to
recruit. The weather, moreover, had
changed. For three days it blew gale
and it was not till the oath that the
troops could be again brought to the
place Of rendezvous for the combined
attack. That they would be there at that
time, Admiral Porter was duly informed
the day before but he fer whom every
body also had waited so long could wait
for nobody, and he prematurely, though
harmlessly, blew into the air half mill
lion worth of gunpowder, before which
tho walls Of Fort Fisher were to have
fallen. He was confident, however, that
he had silenceo its guns but he, never
theless, declined to take his ships abAe
the fort to protect the landing of the
troops and prevent reinforcements being
serat to the enemy, lest he should en-
counter toTpedoes. But the attack was
commenced, only to prove that the fort
was uninjured; that it was fully man.
ned; that two brigades of Hoke's divi.
SION (whose strength was well known to
General Butler) were within two miles of
our rear; that the rest of that division
was On the march from Wilmington, and
that thus, outside Of the fort, there was
larger force opposed to General Butler
than his own. To proceed in the attack,
according to his judgment and that 6f
his officers, would only be useless sac
rifce Of his men, and General Butler
there5ore ordered his force to be rc-em>
barked.
Such, il brief is the whole story
When the army first arrived off Viii
mington, there were, as deserters and
prisoneTs declared, and as General Grant
knew when he ordered the expedition to
start less than four, hundred men in
Fort Fisher, and less than one thousand
within twenty miles. Had the expedi.
ton started according to the plan laid
out md not been delayed three days At
F0Etress Monroe, or had the feet been
pvssent whom the land forces first reached
Nsw Inlet and three days mora not been
lost RoEf Rebex would have been an
eo hat delay gers the en-
.9 11tnforce il and General
buy xasted thu part Of ! humane
49, pgudant oolnuander in then with
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