In the evening a light breeze came up, and to-night a number of small vessels, mostly oyster boats, are passing up the river.

It is now a quarter to nine o'clock, and the rebel batteries at Shipping Point have just opened on two of the larger ones-the Oriental and the Shining Light, Captain Walker-which the rebels can easily distinguish by reason of the clearness of the night and the brightness of the moon. Both batteries are keeping up a rapid fire upon them. The flashes of two, three, and four guns are seen simultaneously. Shells, with the burning fuse, are making graceful curves through the air like shooting stars, and then comes the loud reports of their bursting.

We have a fine view of this magnificent night cannonade from the rear verandah of Mr. Posey's residence. Some of the shells have struck the water, several are bursting in the air, and some have come over here to the Maryland shore. One shot which ricocheted along the water touched the side of the Shining Light about the water mark, but being spent did not do any damage. About forty shots were fired by the rebels, but none of the vessels sustained any injury. The firing soon ceased, and every thing was quiet during the remainder of the night.

Doc. 219.

GOV. PICKENS' PROCLAMATION,

CALLING FOR VOLUNTEERS.

Sixth, Ninth, and Tenth Brigades of South Carolina Militia respectively, in accordance with the ninth section of said act.

2. Brigadier-General De Saussure, commanding Fourth Brigade S. C. M., is directed to proceed at once to take, or cause to be taken, a complete and accurate census of his command, in accordance with provisions of the ninth section of the above Act of the General Assembly, and make the returns thereof to this office.

3. The Generals commanding the Seventh and Eighth Brigades of S. C. M., are directed to make out and return to this office returns of the same character.

4. That Generals of Divisions and Brigades and Commanders of Regiments are charged with the prompt extension and faithful execution of the above provisions of said act and of this order.

5. That the number of volunteers or drafted men required from each company (beat or volunteer) be apportioned by the commanding officers of regiments, under the direction of Generals of Brigades, and when any company (beat or volunteer) fails to furnish its required quota, then the coinmanding officer of the regiment will at once order and execute a draft for such quota, in accordance with the form provided in the one hundred and forty-sixth section of A. A. of 1841.

6. The regiments of infantry will consist of ten companies, at least sixty-eight men in the aggregate, and the companies of cavalry of at least seventy-two each, aggregate, to serve for a period of not less than twelve (12) months.

7. Elections will be ordered for company officers by the commanding officers of the regiments, as soon as the requisite number of men have volunteered, or been drafted, and the rolls of the companies and certificates of election will be forthwith forwarded to this office.

STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA, } HEAD-QUARTERS, Dec. 9, 1861. OUR State is invaded, and Charleston is threatened, by land and by sea, with large forces. I, therefore, in conformity with an act passed the 7th inst., entitled "An Act to annul and suspend certain portions of the Militia and Patrol Laws of this State," do hereby issue this, my proclamation, calling for twelve thousand 8. Upon the reception of the rolls of compavolunteers, to be furnished for a term of ser-nies and certificates of election of company offivice not less than twelve months, unless sooner discharged. These troops will be received and mustered in according to orders, below issued, by the Adjutant and Inspector-General.

Unless this call is promptly responded to, a draft will be executed according to the provisions of said Act. For further particulars, special reference is hereby made to the order of the Adjutant and Inspector-General.

F. W. PICKENS.

STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA, HEAD-QUARTERS, ADJUTANT AND INSPECTOR-GENERAL'S OFFICE, COLUMBIA, Dec. 9, 1861.

General Orders No. 121:

In accordance with the proclamation of His Excellency the Commander-in-Chief, and under the provisions of the Act of the General Assembly, entitled "An Act to suspend and amend certain portions of the Militia and Patrol Laws of this State," it is hereby ordered:

1. That ten companies of Infantry and two companies of Cavalry be raised and organized forthwith, from the First, Second, Third, Fifth,

cers, orders will be issued for the rendezvousing of said company in camp, and company officers will take rank from the reception of their companies in this office.

9. Tenders of volunteer companies made from and after this date, should be made to and transmitted to this office, by the commanding officer of the militia regiments, from which such companies are raised, who will keep a copy of such rolls to perfect his census returns of their respective regiments.

10. All volunteer companies not having the number of officers, non-commissioned officers, and privates, required by law, except those in actual service, or already ordered into actual service, are herewith ordered to be dissolved, and their arms, accoutrements, and equipments returned forthwith to the arsenals at Charleston or Columbia.

11. The census returns required by the act will be accurately made out and returned in a proper form to this office without delay.

12. Officers charged with duties under this

order are required to execute them promptly and efficiently without further notice, upon the pain of being visited with the extreme penalties of the law.

By command of the Governor.

S. R. GIST.
Adjt. and Inspector-Gen. of 8. C.

Doc. 220.

MR. CARDWELL'S RESOLUTIONS,

OFFERED IN THE TENNESSEE LEGISLATURE,
DECEMBER 10, 1861.

Resolved by the General Assembly of the State of Tennessee, As its unanimous sense, that any and all propositions of the Congress of the (socalled) United States of America to reconstruct a Union which they have prostituted to the base purposes of annihilating the liberties, trampling upon the rights, destroying the lives, and plundering the people of the Confederate States, thus driving them to the assertion of their independence and the formation of a new Confederacy, for the maintenance of their inalienable rights and the preservation of their sovereignty, is but another form under which our enemies would subjugate the South and reduce us to the despotism of their degraded doctrines, and that we cannot view any such proposition of reconstruction in any other light than as a crowning insult to our intelligence and manhood, to thus approach us after the acts of rapine, murder, and barbarity which have marked their inhuman invasion of our territory; and that any such proposition should be met promptly and unhesitatingly with our indignant rejection.

Resolved, That the secret sympathizers of Lincolnism in the South, if any there be, who may favor any such insulting approach of our enemy, deserve to be branded as traitors to the South and enemies of their country.

Resolved, That the Governor be requested to forward a copy of these resolutions to each of our Representatives to Congress, and also a copy to each of the Governors of the Confederate States, with a request that they be laid before their respective State Legislatures.

Doo. 221.

ASIEPOO RIVER EXPEDITION.

COMMANDER DRAYTON'S REPORT.

UNITED STATES STEAMER PAWNEE, PORT ROYAL HARBOR, Dec. 9, 1861. SIR: In obedience to your order of the 4th instant, I proceeded to sea at daylight of the 5th, accompanied by the gunboat Unadilla, Lieutenant-Commanding N. Collins; steamer Isaac Smith, Lieutenant-Commanding Nicholson, and coast survey steamer Vixen, Captain Boutelle, and reached anchorage off the fort on Otter Island, St. Helena Sound, at mid-day. In the course of the afternoon, some negroes coming on board, and reporting that there was a body of soldiers at the entrance of Mosquito Creek, a place up Ashepoo, 'where the inland route to Charleston commences, I proceeded as far as that place, when night coming on, obliged me to return. I saw, however, no signs of the presence of white people, excepting that some buildings, which I discovered next day to have been on Hutchinson's Island, were burning.

On the morning of the 6th, the United States steamship Dale, Lieutenant-Commanding, W. T. Truxton, appearing off the harbor, I sent the Isaac Smith to tow her in. Unfortunately, however, when half way up, the Dale stuck fast, and no exertions could get her afloat until one o'clock that night, when she was forced into deep water, having suffered no apparent injury, and towed the following morning by Capt. Boutelle in the Vixen, around Morgan Island. So soon as she was safely at her anchorage near us, I proceeded up Ashepoo with the Unadilla, Isaac Smith, and Vixen, to examine the river further up than I had been able to do on the previous occasion.

On approaching Mosquito Creek, we saw a picket of soldiers, who took to their horses on our approach, and escaped into the woods, hastened perhaps in their flight by a shot or two which were thrown after them. Continuing up the river, I landed on Hutchinson's Island, and found that two days before, all the negro houses, the overseer's house, and outbuildings, together with picked cotton had been burned. The attempt had, at the same time, been made to drive off the negroes, but many had escaped, although some of their number, they said, had been shot in attempting to do so. The scene was one of complete desolation.

Resolved, That any commissioners appointed by the Lincoln Congress at Washington to the government of the Confederate States, having for the object of its mission a reconstruction of the old Union, should be at once promptly rejectde by the government of the Confederate States. Resolved, That the Confederate States and their people ardently desire a peaceful solution of existing difficulties with the Northern States, and that an honorable peace, guaranteeing our independence, would be hailed by our people with joy and satisfaction, but that, having taken up arms to achieve our independence of a government which has cruelly persecuted and oppressed us, and which has shown a determination to overturn every guarantee of our constitutional rights, by a long train of abuses and usurpations, the people of Tennessee cannot with honor and safety to themselves, and with The smoking ruins and cowering figures which security to their posterity, consent to any treaty surrounded then, of those negroes who still which shall not recognize our entire independ-instinctively clung to their hearthstones, alence of any political connection with the government of the so-called United States.

though there was no longer there shelter for them, presented a most melancholy sight, the

impression of which was made even stronger by the piteous wailing of the poor creatures, a large portion of whom consisted of the old and CAPTURE OF REBELS IN CALIFORNIA. decrepit. They were not able to leave until some time after dark, and, singular enough, the moment we were fairly under way, a bright signal light was burned on the very plantation we had just quitted, showing that some of the blacks, for there was certainly no white man there, were communicating our departure.

DOCUMENTS.

kind committed by a man named Si Gordon, a leader of rebel marauding bands, I give you notice that unless you seize and deliver the said Gordon to me at these head-quarters, within ten days from this date, or drive him out of the county, I shall send a force to your city with orders to reduce it to ashes, and to burn the house of every secessionist in your county, and to carry away every slave.

Col. Jennison's regiment will be entrusted . with the execution of this order.

the Seneca, the second vessel of the line, had
turned, a well-directed shot was fired at her,
apparently from a rifled cannon, which fell not
more than two hundred yards astern.

A shot was also fired at the Pembina, appa-
rently from a heavy smooth-bore gun, which
fell much short. We did not fire from the
vessels, being at too long range for effective
practice. Nor was I willing our simple recon-
noissance should be reported for the comfort of
the enemy as an engagement and repulse. Pass-
ing again in to Ossabaw Sound, we entered the

The following persons are particularly directed to this notice:-David Hunt, Clinton Cock-Great Ogeechee, and steamed up it about four erill, James Merryman, Robert Cain, John Murray, H. T. Freeland, William Paxton, W. C. Bemington, Andrew Tribble, R. P. S. Ely, Jackson Miller, Robert Clark, W. Tutman, H. M. Cochrane, Samuel M. Hayes, Joseph Todd, D. HUNTER, and Jonas Burkhart. Major-General Commanding.

miles to Morrell's plantation and Össibaw Island,
where I landed, but found it abandoned. There
are no batteries on Ossabaw Island for the de-
fence of the Sound. I saw Vernonsburg, but
could observe no battery, save the one off Green
Island. We saw over land two or three schooners
at the head of Warsaw Sound, which had
probably passed from Ossabaw through Romilly
Marshes.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
C. P. R. RODGERS,

Commander.

To Flag-officer S. F. DUPONT,
Commanding South Atlantic Blockading Squadron.

The part of Missouri in which Platte County is situated borders on Leavenworth County, Kansas, the Missouri River only being the dividing line; and as long as the rebels are allowed to roam about in the former county, committing depredations without let or hindrance, so long will this part of Kansas be hourly in danger of a raid from such lawless vagabonds. The rebels there are not an army fighting for UNITED STATES GUNBOAT OTTAWA, independence, but more like a body of reckless PORT ROYAL, S. C., Dec. 11, 1861. banditti, who would scarcely have any more respect for those who sympathize with the docA third of the series of important recontrine they pretend to uphold, than they would for those who are opposed to them, providing noissances projected by Flag-officer Dupont, that by an attack they could obtain plunder of for the purpose of ascertaining the practicability Such being the case, General Hun-of penetrating, by our light draught gunboats, any value. ter issued his proclamation.

Doc. 224.

EXPEDITION TO OSSABAW,

GA.

COMMANDER RODGERS' REPORT.

UNITED STATES FLAGSHIP WABASH,
PORT ROYAL HARBOR, Dec. 12, 1861.

A WRITER on board one of the vessels composing the expedition relates the following:

the internal waters of the rebel coast, and then, by cutting off the illicit commerce of the same, was made to-day, proving a complete success. Of course, in addition to the foregoing object, these reconnoissances have another equally important object to obtain a correct knowledge of the position, nature, and extent of the rebel works erected to defend these internal waters from visits of our dashing gunboats; and in SIR: I left Tybee Roads before daylight yes-pursuing this object we are frequently treated terday morning, with the Ottawa, Seneca, Pem-to a discharge of shot and shell, which have as bina, and Henry Andrew, and crossed the bar at Ossabaw soon after eight o'clock. Entering and passing up Vernon River, we discovered, on the eastern end, on Green Island, a fort mounting eight guns, apparently of heavy calibre. Near it we saw about seventy-five tents. There was a barrack near the fort, and another building was in process of erection. I think the work is not yet completed.

The fort is advantageously placed, and its approaches landward are well protected by marshes. It has three faces, upon two of which guns are mounted. It commands not only Vernon River, but Little Ogeechee and Hellgate Passage from Vernon River into Great Ogeechee. Its long-range guns will also reach the channel of the Great Ogeechee. We were exactly two nautical miles from the fort, and after observing it carefully, we steamed down the river. When VOL. III.-Doc. 38

yet done us no injury.

The reconnoissance in the direction of Vernonsburg-a village on the Vernon River, of Georgia-which we made to-day, was made in force.

Our force consisted of the gunboat Ottawa, Captain Stevens, the flagship of Captain C. R. P. Rodgers, of the Wabash; the Seneca, Captain Ammen, the Pembina, Captain John Bankhead, and the Mary Andrews, in command of Acting Master Mathews, late of the Quaker City. We left Port Royal yesterday (Tuesday) at noon, and, the Ottawa leading, followed by the Pembina and Mary Andrews in the line, steamed sonth, and at sundown anchored in Cockspur harbor, off Tybee Island, Savannah River. The Seneca came in half an hour later. As we passed over the bar the water was dotted by hundreds and thousands of wild ducks of every variety, which lazily

flapped their wings and sailed slowly away, | intricate, sandbars putting out on either side at without exhibiting the least alarm at our presence. The waters hereabout are black with water fowl, and I am told that they have but just begun to arrive. Throughout the winter millions upon millions throng the bays, rivers, and lagoons of the Southern coast, and afford to the sportsman one of the finest fields for his art imaginable.