Confederacy, describing tbo state of society in 
Richmond as terrible. The demoralization 
among all classes is extraordinary. This same 
demoralization Is said to exist in Mobile. A 
proposition was made in the rebel Congress to 
conscript negroes as soldiers, but it was ■vigor¬ 
ously opposed by the members from Georgia, 
North and South Carolina. Lincoln’s amnesty 
proclamation has been suppressed as much as 
possible among the people and soldiers for fear 
they would accept it and abandon the rebel 
cause. It was believed that a large majority of 
the troops, if left to themselves, would lay 
down their arms and accept the terms proposed. 
Mississippi.— Bishop Polk commands the 
Department of Mississippi in place of Gen. 
Johnston, whose reception by the citizens of 
Atlanta on his assumption of the command of the 
army was very imposing, while their denuncia¬ 
tions of Bragg were very hitter. Bragg’s array 
is completely demoralized and scattered through¬ 
out the country, deserting in large numbers. 
The intention of the rebel government, is to 
concentrate all the force possible at that point to 
cheek the advance of Grant, and drive him hack 
if possible. 
The number of troops west of the Mississippi 
is estimated at 30,000. General S. D. Lee com¬ 
mands. The cavalry has 17,000—5,000 under 
Ferguson at Okolona, and 5,500 at Oxford. Two 
regiments of Port Hudson prisoners have been 
declared exchanged, and supplied with arms. 
Lee’s headquarters were at Brandon, Miss. 
Immense quantities of corn are lying along 
the railroad from the Alabama line. 
sixty-two rebel prisoners were sent from 
3Iemphis on the 18th, to be exchanged for some 
of our troops taken in Forrest’s raid. 
Gen. Sherman has gone to Vicksburg. 
A k Kansas. — Gen. McNeill arrived at St, 
Louis on the 15th, from Fort Smith, Ark., 
under orders of the department headquarters to 
act as witness in the case of Wm. U. Stricken, 
late Provost Marshal for N. E. Missouri. Gen. 
McNeill reports the rebels in Arkansas as suffer¬ 
ing severely from the cold weather, which ex¬ 
tended throughout the South. 
Gen. Kirby Smith, commanding the Missis¬ 
sippi Department, had ordered a march, and the 
Arkansians and Missourians refused to go fur¬ 
ther South. Deserters in large numbers were 
coming into the Federal lines, acknowledging 
that the rebellion was hopelessly lost. 
The Memphis Bulletin authoritatively contra¬ 
dicts the reports of recent rebel successes in 
Arkansas. The capture of Pine Bluff, the 
attack on Little Rock, railroad obstructions of 
tracks,capture of a train, and destruction of boats 
by guerrillas, turn out to be fictitious. 
Kansas. — Maj.-Gen. Curtis arrived at Lea¬ 
venworth on the lGtli, and will assume the com¬ 
mand of the Department at once. 
on the beach, when all were captured by rebel 
caval ry. The Dane was about TOO tons burt lien, 
and a side-wheel steamer. She was totally de¬ 
stroyed. The cargo was apparently not large. 
The Dane was chased sixty miles. The Ariel 
remains at the scene of destruction to ascertain 
something about the captured officers and men. 
The gunboat Huron has captured an Anglo- 
rebel schooner from Nassau, with salt, in Duboy 
Sound, Ga. 
One thousand five hundred persons in New- 
bern have taken the oath annexed to the Presi¬ 
dent's Amnesty Proclamation. 
The Times, a new loyal paper, in Newbern, 
says the people of the State are ripe for revolt, 
against the Richmond government. The leaders 
of the movement advocate separate sovereignty, 
though boldly avowing a return to the Union 
preferable to the present, state of affairs in Dixie. 
The Raleigh Standard says, people in the 
extreme western counties of North Carolina 
have been deprived of all mail facilities, on the 
ground of disloyalty to the Confederate Govern¬ 
ment. 
The Tribune's Morris Island correspondent 
says the rebels have iu Charleston harbor two 
iron-clad steamers, close imitations of the New 
Ironsides and the Dunderberg. 
Charleston takes fire and burns apace from 
the effect of the bombardment. The fires are 
always ted and burn hours at a time. Last 
Sunday they burned eight hours. 
In one mass of obstructions hauled away from 
the beach at Morris Island are sixteen bars of 
iron rails. The obstructions having been 
removed by natural causes, nothing now pre¬ 
vents the taking of Charleston when the Admi¬ 
ral wills it. 
In a postcript the correspondent adds: The 
rebels have three iron-dads building at charles¬ 
ton. two of them on the Dunderberg plan. 
Jan. 1st the United States steamer Nipsic 
destroyed a schooner laden with turpentine at 
Merrill's Inlet, 60 miles north of Charleston. 
The N. Y. Herald's Folly Island correspondent 
says: Col. Bill’s experiments to obviate the 
explosion of Greek fire shells till the proper 
moment, have succeeded. It is not improbable 
that a persistent bombardment will soon be 
opened. None doubt our ability to destroy the 
city whenever we desire. 
While the various rebel commands near our 
lines are fast being depleted by desertion, it is 
a remarkable fact that the 1st Loyal N. C. regi¬ 
ment lias, so far, lost only one by desertion: 
and the 2d regiment not one. 
Jam 1st was celebrated by the colored people 
of Eastern North Carolina with ceremonies at 
Beaufort. 
List of New Advertisements, 
the land reverts to the United States on failure 
to comply with the terms of the law.” 
A Washington paper says there are large 
numbers of women now in that city who are 
suffering from extreme poverty—women who 
came tic re to visit their sons, brothers or hus¬ 
bands in the army, to recover the remains of 
those who have died, to obtain employment or 
the money due their relatives, hut have not the 
means to take them home again. 
A Partner Wanted—Box 3,014, Chicago. Til. 
ACrrat Chance l" Make Money— G. T- 11 asking & Co. 
Association of Breeders. Ar. Ilenrv A. Dyer. 
Km ruier Wanted -Box 214 , Geneva,"N. V. 
Now Item) v Fowler A Well*. 
I,eve, < 'onrtslitp and Maiviage—Fowler & Wells. 
Mnoil Lands W. II. toirdlier 
The Hum ,mm I' 1 -. Divine- Fowler A Wells. 
While or Hedge WIll'ov Dolby Bros. 
Tip Top FOwler X Weils. 
Employment Ballon .t S ,n. 
Beautiful Woioen— Fowler .<■ Wells. 
Apple Drafts felni < . Williams. 
Fear Seeds— K- Feliroedi r. 
A Pretty Present- Fowler & Wells. 
Pencil Pit- E. W ire Sylvester. 
Osier Willows M. Smallwood. 
Farm for Sale -Jfl. Hood. 
SPECIAL NOTICES. 
An American Product—D. B. He Land & Co. 
ROCHESTER, N. Y., JANUARY 23, 1864, 
The Army in Virginia 
Dispatches from Gen. Kelly state that Maj. 
Cole of the Maryland Cavalry has returned to 
his headquarters from a seout to Leesburg, anti 
the r eport that Gen. Stuart was there with a 
large cavalry force for the purpose of an attack 
on Point of Rocks, or on any other place in the 
possession of the Government, is entirely un¬ 
founded. Not an armed rebel was seen or 
beard of within 40 miles of Leesburg. 
Gen. Kelly also reports Gen. Early falling 
back up the Shenandoah Valley, and that all 
fears for the safety of the railroad are at rest. The 
latest news from the Kanawha Valley is encour¬ 
aging. The river is frozen over, and the heavy 
snows in the mountains prevent any military 
operations on either side in that direction. 
Reports have begun to reach us through 
scouts and informing farmers of rebel acts 
during the late raid. All reports agree that the 
rebels treated friends and foes alike, going into 
houses and taking bed clothes and such things 
away. Some houses they literally stripped of 
such articles, leaving the dwellers suffering 
from want of something to comfort them. The 
rebels took cattle, corn, &<*., wherever they 
found them. Their late actions have gained 
them no favor’among those who profess to be 
their friends. 
The Army of the Potomac Is still subject to 
occasional incursions of the rebel guerrillas, but 
beyoud this, the quietude which prevails is not 
disturbed. A few nights ago they made a dash 
into the camp of the 1st Massachusetts cavalry 
near Wai-renton, capturing 17 men and 35 horses. 
The ensuing day another party struck upon the 
mule train of the 1st Maine cavalry and cap¬ 
tured four or five men. 
The North Carolina troops in the rebel army 
have been sent back of Orange Court House, 
and are no longer permitted to do picket duty 
on Rapidan. 
On “Wednesday,'Gen. Butler sent important 
documents to City Point by a flag of truce, 
hearing on the subject of the exchange of pris¬ 
oners. In the meantime he has ordered the 
rebel prisoners to be brought within the lines 
of his Department to await a release w hich he 
hopes to be able to effect. 
The Baltimore American has a letter dated 
Point Lookout, 13th Inst,, giving an account of 
quite an extensive raid in 'Westmoreland, 
Northumberland and Richmond counties, Va., 
by Brig.-Gen. Mason. HLs command consisted 
of three hundred infantry and one hundred and 
thirty cavalry. The cavalry embarked from 
Point Lookout on the 12th. It consisted of de¬ 
tachments from the 2d and 5th U. S. cavalry. 
They landed at Kauisale, Ya., on the'Wycomako 
River. Thirty men were detached to go with 
the infantry. The command marched to War¬ 
saw Court House, Richmond county, captured 
and destroyed a large quantity of pork aud 
bacon collected there by the rebel government, 
captured a rebel Major and several other prison¬ 
ers, and destroyed grain, Ac. 
From "Warsaw they proceeded to Union Fork, 
on the Rappahannock, and communicated with 
the gunboats. They then moved down the 
river, crossed Farnham Creek, and burned a 
large bridge. Some skirmishing occurred at 
this point with the rebel cavalry. 
The next morning they marched to Little 
Waltham, and destroyed a large quantity of 
grain and other produce, aud after a slight 
skirmish with a small body of rebel cavalry, 
they moved on to Lancaster C. H., where the 
main command halted. Lieut, Dickerson, of the 
5th cavalry, was sent to Killannock, ten miles 
distant, aud from that jKiint a detachment was 
sent out which burned an extensive tannery aud 
a large amount of leather, hides, machinery, oil, 
Ac. That night the commaud marched to a 
point on the Wycomako, whore they expected 
to meet the infantry force and gunboats. They 
communicated with the fleet and found all 
quiet. On the 14th they moved up the Wy¬ 
comako to a point where the command were 
re-shipped and returned to Point Lookout after 
an absence of three days. Only one mau was 
killed, 25 prisoners were taken; 60 horses 
and 2 mules, 65 head of cattle, and 106 sheep 
were captured. 
A detachment of the 11th Pensylv 
NEWS PARAGRAPHS, 
By an arrival from Valparaiso we learn that 
the Cathedral in Santiago, Chili, caught lire on 
the 11th ult.. from an explosion of a gas pipe, 
when densely crowded with human beings. 
The church contained 2.000 lights, from some of 
which lire was communicated to the drapery of 
the gigantic image of tin- Virgin and the paste¬ 
board devices. In an instant a sheet of flame 
rushed along the festoon of lights to the roof 
and directly spread to all parts of the building. 
The people rushed to the principal door and it 
was soon blocked. Most of the men escaped 
lty the side doors. But few minutes elapsed ere 
the lights suspended so plentifully from the 
roof, poured a rain of liquid lire on the people 
below, and in less than fifteen minutes over 
2,000 persons, mostly females, were blackened 
corpses. Some 1,950 dead bodies, mostly ladies 
and children, have beeu recovered from the 
ruins. 
About one thousand rebellious Sioux, flying 
before the Union forces in Minnesota, have 
crossed the Canada line, and are now causing 
much trouble in the vicinity of Selkirk. Some 
time ago permission was asked of the British 
government to cross the line with our troops in 
order to prevent such outrages us are now 
taking place. After consultation with the home 
government, Lord Lyons replied that such per¬ 
mission could not he granted. 
Tine .Vor’ Wester announces the discovery of 
gold in large quantities on the east side of the 
Rocky Mountains iu British territory. It is 
represented that a party of American miners 
crossed the mountains from British Columbia 
and discovered diggings on the Bow River—one 
of the upper tributaries of the south branch of 
the Saskatchewan. So the “Yankees” are the 
first to discover gold even in British territory.- 
V Nkw Oklkans letter says workingmen are 
prosperous, w ages being very high, There arc 
no slaves, aud every able-bodied servant expects 
twenty dollars per month. The “ Yankees” have 
come in with the “currency,” and they want 
“ help.” They have taken the stores, put up big 
red and gilt signs of “Dry Goods,” “Yankee 
Notions,” “Produce,” Ac., and gradually they 
are making a new" city. 
Mu. J. B. Kellogg. Secretary of the Cham¬ 
ber of Commerce, of Milwaukee, reports the 
stock of wheat in store in that city on the 1st 
inst. to have beeu 1,134,400 bushels, aiul of oats 
87,500 bushels. The stock of wheat is larger, 
and of oats smaller than was generally esti¬ 
mated. A year ago, Jan. 1, the amount of 
wheat in store there w as 1,411,601 bushels. 
An instrument called a Iwdhormeirc has been 
been invented by Messrs. Lildwig A Kromeyer, 
depending ou the principle of closing an electric 
circuit by means of a substance interposed be¬ 
tween the electrodes, by which thicknesses of 
substances such as hair, spiders’ webs, Ac., may 
be determined with exactness to the twelve 
millionth part of an inch. 
A Saw Mill on a new plan has just been put 
in operation at Cheshire, Mich., by J. G. Lind¬ 
say, the inventor; the saw works horizontally, 
cutting the lurnbor from the top of the log, and 
after passing through t he log it is turned over, 
the carriage U started the other way, and the 
saw works hack again, cutting the log as before. 
Tun aggregate length of the railroads in Ver¬ 
mont is 500 miles, aud some of them have been 
running fifteen years, yet with the exception of 
two persona who were killed by a ear blown 
from the track at Manchester, no one has ever 
been killed inside of any passenger ear in the 
State, 
The rebel Secretary ol‘ the Treasury proposes 
an immediate tax to raise $-400,000,000. As there 
arc not more than 700,000 heads of families 
within the present limits of the Coufedcratey, 
each must pay $ 5 , 700 ! The tax collectors will no 
doubt have a precious time of it, 
A general officer engaged hi the siege of 
Charleston writes that the much talked of Greek 
Fire is a humbug-the shells containing it inva¬ 
riably exploding prematurely. He says that as 
far as is known not a single shell charged with 
the compound has entered the city. 
The number of emigrants landing iuNow York 
in 1863 was 155,223; of which 92,981 were from 
Ireland, 88,236 from Germany, 18,262 from Eng¬ 
land and 1,944 from Scotland. Last year the 
whole number was 76,806; increase this year, 
88,609, more than J00 per cent. 
L. B. TOUSLEY, w i ll known as a Sabbath- 
School agent in Central New York and so called 
“ the Children’s Minister,” died at his residened 
in Canandaigua last week, lie had suffered 
long and severely from injuries received three 
or four years ago. 
THE present condition of the rebel navy is ad¬ 
mirably illustrated by the fact that it contains 
five hundred and seventy-four commissioned and 
petty officers, and but eight hundred and seven 
seamen. 
ft is stated that, for the first time since the 
presidency of General Jackson, the administra¬ 
tion lias been able to organize in its interest the 
Congress elected for the last two years of its 
term. 
At St. Augustine, Florida, the peach trees are 
in blossom, garden flowers are in full bloom and 
boquets grace the tables of the officers having 
command at that point. 
®l)t News (CcniLicnscr 
— Wood is $10 a cord in Leavenworth. 
— Chicago has six miles of wood pavements and 
wants more. 
— The quota of the State of Indiana is full and there 
will be no draft. 
— There were 2,503 marriages and 4,698 deaths in 
Boston last year. 
— The assessed valuation of property iu Pennsylva¬ 
nia Is $596,691,994. 
— The total cost of the monitors built and being built 
will be $22,150,000. 
— It Is computed that $GO,000,000 are annually ex¬ 
pended in firing salutes. 
— The street manure of the city of New York is 
worth about $ 15.000 a year. 
— The people of Nevada Territory voted upon a State 
Constitution on the17th inst. 
— In the standing armies of Europe to-day there are 
more than two million soldiers. 
— There are 33,000 Tennesseans in the Union army, 
5,960 of whom are colored men. 
— During the past year 1,099 copyrights were taken 
out inN. Y. city for new publications. 
— A merican oysters have been planted at Havre, be¬ 
ing considered superior to the natives. 
— 'I’lic Democrats will huld their National Conven¬ 
tion at Chicago on the 4tli of July next. 
— The Pennsylvania Legislature has passed resolu¬ 
tions in favor of the re-election of Mr. Lincoln. 
— Tlic House Committee on the Conscription Bill 
have unanimously recommended commutation. 
— Abraham Hanson, of Wisconsin, has been appoint¬ 
ed Commissioner and Consul General to Liberia. 
— An ice bridge has been formed across the St. Law¬ 
rence at Montreal. The Potomac is likewise frozen. 
— Twenty-Bve thousand persons tire engaged in Pern 
to obtain India-rubber to supply the foreign demand. 
— The parties at work on the wreck of the Golden 
Gate have recovered $ 054,000 of the treasure sunk with 
her. 
— The Missouri Legislature have passed a bill ap¬ 
propriating $50,000 to the Sanitary Commission at the 
West. 
— The Pennsylvania Legislature met on the 5th inst., 
and failed to organize, owing to a tie on the vote for 
speaker. 
— A writer in the Chicago Post says Chicago is abont 
to have an immense flax fibriJia manufactory started in 
her midst. 
— Two thousand head of cattle and mules are esti¬ 
mated to have perished on the plains daring the late 
severe cold. 
— The sixty-first Ohio regiment, now at Chattanooga, 
has re-enlisted unanimously. That is the banner regi¬ 
ment so far. 
— Tire total loss by fires in the United States in 1863, 
where in each case the loss exceeded $20,000, was 
$14,000,000. 
— A mail in New York—Mr. Samuel Scare, a mer¬ 
chant-died Tuesday week from the effects of inhaling 
laughing gas. 
— Sixty eight couple were married in Adams, Berk¬ 
shire county, Mass., last year. A thriving business for 
a small town 
— One gentleman had his pocket picked of several 
hundred dollars in greenbacks at the President's New 
V ear's reception. 
— The Massachusetts Military Commission will re¬ 
commend to the legislature the establishment of a State 
Military School. 
— Two Congressmen have died of small pox at 
Washington—Senator Bowden of Ya., and Representa¬ 
tive Harris of Md. 
— The New Orleans True Delta has been bought by 
Hon. Michael Ilolm, aud will hereafter support Admin¬ 
istration measures. 
— Gun. Banks writes to the President that lie will 
soon complete the organization of the State Govern¬ 
ment of Louisiana. 
— Gen. Averlll's recent raid is said to have cost the 
enemy five million dollars. A pleasant event for a 
bankrupt concern. 
— The police authorities of New York estimate the 
present population of that little village at 1,009,000, aud 
Brooklyn at 850,000. 
— The first twenty bales of cotton ever raised in the 
island of Cuba were deposited in one of the warehouses 
of Havana recently. 
— Edward Scribner, of the publishing house of Chas. 
Scribner A Co., died in New Y'ork ou Friday week after 
a very short illness. 
— There are 8,000 teams connected with the army of 
the Potomac. 1 f placed in a single line they would ex¬ 
tend over sixty miles. 
_London has a population of 2,803,989; Glasgow 
394,864; Edinburg 168,121; Dublin 258,328; Liverpool 
and Birkenhead 496,588. 
— At Liverpool, during the week that ended on the 
12th ult., 63 wrecks were reported, making a total for 
the year 1 , so far, of 2,319. 
— Geo. Peabody, the London banker, has sent 2,000 
volumes of books to his native town of Danvers, Mass., 
os a New Year's present. 
_Chicago in 33 years has grown from a colony of 
seventy persous into a city of nearly one hundred and 
forty thousand population. 
— The annual meeting of the New York State Tem¬ 
perance Society will be held at the City Hall in the city 
of Utica, on the 27th inst. 
Mammoth sleigh rides are all the rage in Berkshire 
county Mass. Parties of two hundred and fifty or more 
are an every day occurrence. 
■ • ThoNow York Mercantile Agency reports a largely 
diminished number of failures during the past year as 
Compared with previous ones. 
At the sale of confiscated property in Virginia 
lately, Arlington (the property of Gen. Lee) was bid iu 
by the Government at $26,000. 
very exciting. A heavy cavalry light occurred 
near Strawberry Plains on the 10th. The enemy 
were repulsed with serious loss. Longstreet 
lias been heavily re-enforced from tire armies of 
Gens. Lee and Johnston. The re-enforcements 
from Johnston's army are on the south side of 
Holstein River. Gen. Longstrcet’s headquarters 
are at Red Bridge. Our pieket lines front each 
other at Blair’s cross-roads, twenty miles north¬ 
east of Knoxville. The repulse at Bean Station 
was very flattering. Longstreet's position is a 
splendid one, presenting a river and mountain 
front. 
Forrest has been badly handled in West and 
Middle Tennessee, but has managed to escape 
with most of his command. 
The rebel array in our front has been largely 
Gen. -Johnston retains 
AFFAIRS AT WASHINGTON. 
The President has approved and signed the 
act extending the bounties to the 1st of March, 
Assistant Adjutant General Townsend has 
made a report containing a list of all known 
desertions of non-commissioned officers and pri¬ 
vates from the regular army to the rebc-U. The 
number is only 28, of whom 20 are from the 8th 
infantry. He has also compiled a list of the offi¬ 
cers of the regular army who have left the army 
by resignation or desertion to engage in the 
rebellion. The total is 277, of whom 183 have 
entered the rebel service. Ninety-seven are 
presumed to have done so, one was dismissed 
for surrendering ilia command in face of the 
enemy, aud one made an attempt to desert to 
the rebels. Two hundred aud forty-two have 
resigned, 26 wore < listin' -ed, and 9 dropped. 
A message was received by the House from 
the President , in answer to the Inquiry relativo 
to the alleged trtaeherous treatment of Kansas 
prisoners by the rebels, transmitting letters 
from the Secretary of War to the Commander- 
in-Chief of the army. Gen. Halleck says:—As 
no information that the volunteers from Kansas 
when taken prisoners have been treated any 
different than volunteers from any other State, 
the General in command of the Department 
of which Kansas forms a part knows of no 
distinction made between Kansas and other 
prisoners. 
The Commissary General of prisoners says:— 
There is nothing in the records of this official to 
show the manner in which the wounded and 
dead soldiers have been treated on the battle¬ 
field, nor is there any thing to show that Kansas 
volunteers have been j ut to death on being 
taken prisoners. Only 58 enlisted men of Kan¬ 
sas regiments can be found on the records as 
having been delivered Ou parole by the. enemy. 
Gen. Ilcintzlemun, by order of the President, 
is placed in command of the Northern Depart¬ 
ment, which is composed of tlic States of Illi¬ 
nois, Michigan, Ohio and Indiana, with head¬ 
quarters at Columbus, Ohio. 
The reports of the prevalence of small-pox in 
Washington are much exaggerated, though it 
prevails to a much greater extent than hereto¬ 
fore. It is generally in a mild form, and there 
are comparatively few deaths. 
The bill appropriating $700,000 to pay the 
Home Guard heretofore called out in the De¬ 
partment of Missouri, now only awaits the 
President’s signature to become a law. 
The Commissioner of the General Land Office 
at Washington has decided that a “homestead 
settler has not a complete legal right, but merely 
an inceptive right, liable to bo defeated for non¬ 
performance of conditions, and can therefore 
only use the timber lur fencing, building and 
repairs. Under flic bounty of Congress be Is 
permitted to acquire a homestead iu the public 
domain for agricultural purposes, on the condi¬ 
tion of settlement and cultivation for th e years. 
Until this condition is satisfied he cannot com¬ 
mit waste by felling the timber for market, as 
increased by conscripts, 
a bold front at Tunuell Hill and Dalton. 
Gen. Grant lias left Knoxville via Cumberland 
Gap, aud is making a complete circuit of this 
Department. He reached Knoxville via Chatta¬ 
nooga. The army here is in good condition. 
"We have plenty to eat. The weather here Is 
frightfully cold, but we have little sickness. 
Part of Colonel McCook’s cavalry attacked 
the 8th and llth Texas regiments on the 15tli 
inst., killing 14 and taking 41 prisoners. 
A large number of carpenters and others have 
been sent by the Government to repair Die 
railroads in Tennessee, which will be iu com¬ 
plete running order on opening of spring. 
The ’Washington Republican's Memphis cor¬ 
respondent says two important propositions 
have recently been made by the rebels to the 
Federal Government, The first is front the 
Assistant Quartermaster of the rebel army, at 
Hernando, acting by authority of Richmond 
officials. He lias offered to sell to Gen. Hurl- 
hurt, or the United States Government, all the 
cotton w ithin a certain district yet outside the 
Federal line. This offer embraces 15,000 bales, 
and is ail rebel government cotton, aud green¬ 
backs w ill be taken for it. It is said that Gen. 
Hurlburt favors its purchase and has recom¬ 
mended that the proposition be carried into 
effect. 
The second is stated to be from Kirby Smith, 
who recently sent an authorized messenger to 
Washington to propose to the Federal authori¬ 
ties to furnish every requisite authority to get 
out cotton in that portion of the Red River and 
Wacbeto districts within rebel control, the 
money for the same to be paid to that class Of 
officers excepted from the amnesty offered by 
President Lincoln, they to retire from the rebel 
army and go to Mexico. 
The Republican says editorially of the cor¬ 
rectness of this information, we have no doubt 
of it, for it comes from sources likely to have 
the best means of information; also, that tills 
would involve the complete disbandment of the 
rebel forces in Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana 
and Texas, and the immediate return of those 
States to the Union. 
Refugees from Richmond who traveled via the 
Wilmington, Mobile and Ohio Railroad to Oko¬ 
lona, bring the Memphis jBulletin, which contains 
a long account of the condition of things in the 
am a cav¬ 
alry returned on the 16th to Fortress Monroe 
from a raid through Eastern North Carolina. 
They report that they found the body of a sol¬ 
dier hanging at Smith's Mills, on the 14th inst., 
with the following words upon it: — “Here 
hangs private Samuel Jones, of the 5th Ohio 
regiment, hung by order of Maj.-Gen. Pickett, 
in retaliation for private David Bright, of the 
G2d Georgia regiment, hung Dec. 18th, by order 
of Brig.-Gen. Wild," 
The Richmond Whig of the 16th thinks the 
future of the South is involved in the next 
spring’s campaign iu upper Georgia. 
Department of the South. 
The N. Y. Herald's letter from the squad¬ 
ron off Wilmington, Jan. 6th, reports the chase 
and destruction of the rebel blockade runner 
Dane by the Montgomery and Aries. Her 
crew run her ashore thirteen miles north of 
Georgetown Light, S. C. The crew escaped. 
Boats’ crews from the Montgomery and Aries 
boarded and burned her. The boat’s crew from 
the Aries was swamped in leaving her, and 
Acting Master Pendleton of the Montgomery, 
iu charge of a launch, picked up live of them 
while returning to bis ship. He saw others, 
and turning to save them, his boat was thrown 
