K! 
■“ Flag of the eagle! who 
Upon thy shining fields of blue, 
His fiery pinions boldly spread, 
Around thee we will stand. 
With our bright blades in hand. 
And swear to guard the land 
We love, till life's last drop be shed 1 
Hail, banner, beautiful and grand, 
How sweet, how beautiful is death, 
When for thy sake we yield our breath. 
ROCHESTER, N. Y., AUGUST 2, 1862. 
THE WAR’S PROGRESS 
the Mississippi river, and the expulsion ot the fede¬ 
ral troops from Tennessee and Kentucky. When 
these objects had been accomplished, the Lee and 
Beauregard plan proposed: 
5. To make the Potomac and Ohio rivers at once 
their base of operations and frontier line, and to 
transfer the seat of war from Virginia to Maryland. 
6. To hurl upon Washington, from Richmond, a 
column of two hundred thousand troops; the cap¬ 
ture of that city, the 1 liberation ’ of Baltimore, and 
the invasion of the North at the three points named 
above. By becoming in turn the invaders, they 
hope to make it necessary for us to keep at home tor 
the defense of oar cities fully five hundred thou¬ 
sand troops. 
The plan adopted for the obstruction of the James 
River was by the secret erection of permanent bat¬ 
teries, to be afterward mounted with heavy guns of 
long range, and by the use at present of batteries of 
light artillery, mostly rifled guns, that can be moved 
from place to place. Several of these batteries are 
already in the course of erection at various com¬ 
manding points on the James river, where they are 
completely concealed by the thick woods and 
bushes. This dense foliage affords, also, complete 
concealment to the men who work on them, who 
have instructions, also, not to show themselves to 
any passing vessels. Sentinels are stationed so as 
The Sew Militia Bill. 
One of the most important acts passed by 
Congress was that entitled the Militia Bill. It is 
doubly important from the fact, that all slaves, after 
its passage, who come within the lines of the army 
are made free forever. 
Sections one and two provide that whenever the 
President shall call forth the militia of the States he 
may specify in his call the period for which such 
service is required, not exceeding nine months; and 
the militia so mastered in shall serve for the term 
specified, unless sooner discharged. If, by reason 
of defects in existing laws, or in the execution of 
them in the States, or any of them, it shall be found 
necessary to provide for enrolling militia, the Presi¬ 
dent is authorized to make all necessary regula¬ 
tions, and the enrollment shall in all cases include 
all able-bodied men between the ages of eighteen 
and forty-five, and shall Vie apportioned among 
the States according to population, and when so 
enrol led shall be organized after the mode pre¬ 
scribed for volunteers. 
The third section authorizes the President to 
call one hundred thousand volunteers as infantry 
into the field, in addition to the number already 
authorized by law, for a period of nine months, 
discharged; and every soldier who 
born at Kinderhook, | with the expiration of his term of the Presidency, 
Martin Van Buren was 
Columbia Co., N. Y., December 5, 1782. His ances¬ 
tors, both paternal aud maternal, were among the 
early emigrants from Holland to the Colony of New 
Netherlands, now the State of New York. The 
father of Mr. Van Buren was a farmer in moderate 
circumstances, an upright, intelligent man, of strong 
common sense, and pacific disposition. The maiden 
name of the President’s mother was originally 
Goes. She was distinguished for her amiability, 
sagacity, and examplary piety. Martin Van Bu¬ 
ren was the eldest son of these parents. His oppor¬ 
tunities for instruction were limited, but at an early 
age he exhibited indications of a superior under- 
At'ter acquiring the rudiments of an 
standing. 
Euglish education, he entered the Academy in his 
native village. 
When but fourteen years of age we find him leav¬ 
ing the Academy to begin the study of a profession. 
In 1796 he entered the office of Francis Sylves¬ 
ter, Esq., and commenced the study of law. At that 
period seven years of student-life was required of 
candidates who, like the subject of tins sketch, bad 
not received a collegiate education. The last year 
of this course of preparation was passed in the office 
of Mr. Wm. P. Van Ness, a distinguished member 
of the bar in New Yoi'lt city. In 1803 Mr. Van Bu¬ 
rr:'; wm admitted, as ait attorney at law, to the bar 
of Supreme Court of the State of New York, the and 
returned to Ins native village to pursue the practice | 
of his profession. 
Mr. Van Buren was an active and ardent politi¬ 
cian even while pursuing his legal studies, and 
when he began his professional career the violence 
of party spirit was extreme throughout the country. 
He had connected himself with the Democratic 
party, and naturally became the vindicator of their 
political faith. In 1807 Mr. V. B. was admitted as 
counsellor in the Supreme Court, where he was 
brought into more immediate conflict with the dis¬ 
tinguished legal minds of the day, and rapidly ad¬ 
vanced to a high rank in the profession. In his own 
county he filled offices of trust and responsibility, 
and in 1815 was appointed Attorney-General of 
the State. His practice in the courts had become 
extensive and lucrative, but his career as a lawyer 
closed in 182S, when he may be said to have entered 
the National political arena. 
In 1821 the Legislature of New York elected Mr. 
Van Buren a member of the Senate ot the 1 nited 
States, and be was re-elected in 1827. Circum¬ 
stances compelled him to resign, and in 1828 he was 
chosen Governor of New York. He remained but 
a brief peroid in the chief majestracy of his native 
State. In 1829 he resigned the office of Governor, 
unless sooner 
shall enlist under it shall receive his first month's 
pay in advance, and also twenty-five dollars as a 
bounty, upon the mustering of his company or regi¬ 
ment into the service of the United States; and all 
provisions of law relating to volunteers enlisted for 
three years or during the war. except in relation to 
bounty, shall be extended to embrace the volun¬ 
teers raised under the provisions of this section. 
The fourth section authorizes the President to 
such a number ui' volmitcora »<• may i>o 
required for tilling up the regiments of infantry now 
in the service for twelve months, unless sooner dis¬ 
charged. All volunteers when mustered into ser¬ 
vice shall be on a fooling with similar troops, except 
as to service bounty, which shall be fifty dollars, 
one-half ot which is to be paid upon joining their 
regiments, and the other half at the expiration of 
the term of enlistment. 
Section fifth authorizes the appointment of a 
judge advocate-general, with the pay ol colonel ot 
cavalry, to whose office all proceedings in court 
martial shall be returned, and no sentence of death 
or imprisonment in the penitentiary shall be carried 
out without the approval of the President. 
Section six authorizes a judge advocate for each 
army, and section eight requires all battalion 
adjutants and quartermasters of cavalry exceeding 
in service, 
men have enjoys 
the number authorized by law, and uow 
to be mustered out of service. 
Section nine authorizes the President to establish 
and organize the army at his discretion, and section 
ten regulates the staffs of commanders of army 
corps, as follows:—One assistant adjutant-general, 
one quartermaster, one commissary, and one assist¬ 
ant inspector-general, with the rank ot lieutenant- 
colonel, and three aides-de-camp. 
Section eleven regulates the number of officers of 
cavalry regiments. 
Section twelve authorizes the President to receive 
into the service for the purpose of constructing 
intrenchments and performing camp service or any 
other labor, or any military or naval service for 
which they may be found competent, persons of 
African descent; aud such persons shall be enrolled 
and organized under such regulations, not incon¬ 
sistent with the Constitution and the Laws, as the 
President may prescribe. 
Section thirteen enacts that whenever any man or 
boy of African descent who, by the laws of any 
State, shall owe service or labor to any person who, 
during the present rebellion, has levied war or 
borne arms against the Government, or adhered to 
its enemies, and shall render any such service as 
enumerated in the section, be, his mother and wife 
and children shall forever be free, any law or custom 
to the contrary notwithstanding. And where such 
persons owe service to loyal masters, provision is 
made for compensation. 
sissippi, to say nothing of the Arkansas force, which 
is increasing by hundreds every day. The move¬ 
ment is, to speak literally, a united uprising of the 
people—an arming of every man in the country 
who is capable of bearing arms. Not but that they 
go unwillingly enough many of them, but they go. 
They find arms, or the government finds arms for 
them, (it has an abundance to spare now,) and they 
become soldiers from that day on. 
In connection with the foregoing we give the 
following paragraph from the correspondence ot the 
Cincinnati Gazette , dated ‘‘Athens, Ala., July 10r 
The Rebel Army.—I see it stated in one of your ' 
papers of a recent date, that the South has upward 
of seven hundred thousand men in the tield—an 
assertion I think entitled to credence. I have prob¬ 
ably in some of my other letters noted that very 
few men between the ages of eighteen and thirty-live 
are remaining at home. From the time ot our leav¬ 
ing Corinth up to the present date, we have trav¬ 
ersed a section of Alabama and Mississippi equal 
in extent, to several hundred miles square, and from 
this vast area of territory, thickly populated as most 
of it was sixty days ago, enough men young and 
aged could not now be gathered to form a regiment. 
The conscript law has dona its work most faithfully, 
and every person capable ot bearing arms has been 
forced, willingly and unwillingly, into the Confeder¬ 
ate service, and in numerous instances the tenure of 
the act has not been respected, men forty, fifty, and 
sixty years of age being dragged to aid the schemes 
of the insurgents. The same policy has doubtless 
do in Itevn Conscription—Over 1,000,000 Sold iers. 
The Memphis correspondence of the Chicago 
Times states that the rebels are enforcing rigidly 
their conscription, without respect of persons. 
Every man between the ages of seventeen and 
thirty-three is compelled to take up arms and go 
into the field. Hundreds of refugees from Arkansas 
tell the same story. Many of them have lain in the 
woods for weeks to escape from it. while others have 
taken to canoes and paddled down the stream, night 
after night, to meet our boats. There seems but a 
shadow of a chance that a man in Arkansas can 
escape. The majority of them enter the ranks with 
a negative acquiescence, but, once in, make as good 
soldiers as anybody. The remainder, who are deadly 
opposed to it, either run away and escape, or are 
caught and hung. 
It Is stated in rebel circles that when the con¬ 
scription was resolved upon the rebel Secretary 
of War caused the .Sheriffs of every county in the 
seceded States to make a return of the number of 
men between the above-mentioned ages fit to bear 
arms. The total returns showed $1,400,000 men, 
who can be relied upon as soldiers when once 
brought, into the ranks. The conscription is the 
measure to accomplish this, and with ample powers 
Finding the tug unable to steer with the wnoie 
fleet in tow, Mr. DuBois sent her on with the two 
lighters of rice, with instructions to anchor them at 
the mouth of the river, under cover of the guns of 
the Albatross, and then return for the schooner. 
The schooner now proceeded under sail for about 
three miles, when she grounded near a large plan¬ 
tation, within ten feet of the shore. She lay in this 
situation five hours, with only Mr. DuBois and five 
seamen on board, with five prisoners. An attempt 
at re-capture seemed certain; the plantations were 
all round them, and men could be seen at, a distance 
in several directions. The crew, part of whom 
fought in the Cumberland and Congress in the 
engagement with ffie Merriinac, expressed their 
determination to stand by their officers till the last, 
in case of attack. The plan was, if attacked by a 
greatly superior force, to burn the schooner and 
retreat, fighting in the small boat. At 9 A. M., Mr. 
Harris went to their relief, with news that the tug 
was aground at the mouth of the river, and Capt. 
Prentiss was sending boats loaded with men to their 
assistance. At noon the steam tug was got afloat, 
and by the time she reached the schooner she also 
was afloat. Both vessels proceeded safely down the 
The Fight at Murfreesboro’. 
The Editoroftbe Louisville (Ky.) Journal has 
had an interview with Lieut.' C. H. Blakesley, Adju¬ 
tant of the fid Minnesota, one of the regiments 
attacked at Murfreesboro’ by the rebel cavalry, and 
gives the following details of that battle: 
The force at Murfreesboro’, as we learn from 
Lieutenant B., consisted of six companies of the 
Michigan Ninth, two companies of the Fourth Ken¬ 
tucky, nine companies of the Minnesota Third, and 
four pieces of Hewitt’s First Kentucky Battery. 
The Ninth and the cavalry were encamped in the 
edge of the town, and the Third and the battery a 
mile and a half outside, on the Nashville pike. The 
forces are a part of the Twenty-third Brigade, 
which is commanded by Col. Duffield, lately of the 
United States forces in Kentucky. General T. T. 
Crittenden assumed command of the post on Friday 
night. The attack was made on Sunday morning at 
four o’clock, upon the cavalry and Michigan regi¬ 
ment, they being completely surprised. So large 
was the attacking party that the infantry could not 
form in line of battle, and after fighting as best they 
could for several hours, the Michigan regiment sur¬ 
rendered. Our cavalry was of no assistance what¬ 
ever; not a man mounted his horse, and but one or 
The ltebcl Programme for the Future. 
The Baltimore correspondent of the New York 
Herald , in his letter of the 12th inst., has the follow¬ 
ing intelligence: 
“ A council of war, composed of all the principal 
rebel Generals, was held at Richmond on the 
4th of July. The conferences were animated, 
and were protracted far into the night. They 
embraced a complete review of the military 
operations of the past fifteen months, and plans for 
the present summer campaign. Nothing was 
decided upon, and the council re-assembled early 
on the morning of July 4tb. At this meeting the 
plans for the summer campaign were decided on. 
L The general review of military operations did not 
V appear to the council in a very favorable light. The 
^' amount of territory that had been abandoned caused 
J the council great chagrin. The evacuation policy 
(A was warmly discussed, being unsparingly ridiculed 
: 'f and denounced by some, and defended by others. 
U Every one agreed, however, that in the case of 
Corinth it was highly proper, and indeed a masterly 
stroke of policy, since it had saved Richmond. But 
jY the fact that they had lost the whole Mississippi 
Ag valley, New Orleans, Norfolk, and the whole of 
