ever, that these feelings are universal. On the contrary, the prevailing opinion among the soldiers is that they will have an easy victory over the North, and the officers do all in their power to inspire them with confidence. General Beauregard, about the close of June, in addressing his troops, assured them that he had a strong hope that on the Fourth of July he would dine at Willard's Hotel, in Washington; that he would then immediately march upon Philadelphia, from which point he would proceed to New York, and there alone, on the banks of the Hudson, dictate terms of peace to the Northern army.

The cry among all the ultra-secessionists is that they seek no compromise, that they will ask for no quarter, and grant none. Their troops strive to be armed to the teeth, as if they were bent upon a sanguinary contest. Many of them have good arms; others are supplied with ordinary regulation muskets. Some still use flint locks, some shot guns, and about eight or ten thousand have not yet been furnished with any guns at all. There is an immense number of bowie knives and revolvers among them, and an unusually large proportion of their force consists of cavalry, mounted on very fine horses, branded "Va." on one of the front shoulders, and they are now taking particular pains to have their cavalry swords made very sharp.

Men are found in the ranks of almost every age from thirteen to sixty, and many of them are crippled or deformed, as they have no rigid inspection, and gladly accept all whose services they can obtain. There is no uniformity in their clothing, and often members of the saine company wear suits of different colors.

until their last dollar is spent and their las man killed.

Great pains have been taken to fortify Rich mond, and it is the prevailing opinion then that even if our armies should, by any chance, approach that city, they would be unable t enter it. Several heavy batteries, mounted with a large number of sixty-eight poundes have been erected-one in the direction of Acquia Creek, another on James River, another out by Howard Grove, towards Norfolk and the best pass towards the city, which is from the northwest, is well guarded, and they believe can be successfully defended against any force we can muster.

Many of the negroes in Richmond are s present idle, on account of the tobacco facteris having been closed, and there is considerable uneasiness felt in regard to them by the white population. The patrol and police force, which parade the streets day and night, have always their guns loaded, so as to be prepared for a emergency. The negroes are kept well formed of the course of events by the colored waiters at the various hotels, where the of cers, over their wine and whiskey, diseas military affairs with more freedom than cretion.

A short time ago three negroes were passing down one of the streets of Richmond, whe one of them complained to the others of treatment he had recently received from bi master, to which one of his companions plied, "Well, never mind; Massa Lincoln L be here soon, and den it will all be right This conversation having been overheard, the negroes were arrested, and each received thi nine lashes. On another occasion our inr In conversing with troops from the South, mant saw a negro drilling, in the outskirts he expressed surprise that Fort Pickens had the city, after the usual military fashion, se not yet been captured, but they replied that it forty or fifty negroes. He asked him what be was now too strong to be taken, except with was drilling negroes for? to which he replie great loss of life, and there was little probabil-"Oh! everybody learnin' to be soldiers Ow ity of its soon falling into their hands. Of the capture of Fortress Monroe the soldiers seemed more sanguine. They said that when they were ready to march against it they would soon find means to force our troops to surrender.

Public sentiment in the city of Richmond has recently undergone a very considerable change. Some five or six weeks ago scarcely a man could be found who had not been carried away by the secession excitement, but now, among the masses and the working men, a Union feeling is rapidly being developed, and if a fair election could be held at this time, and public sentiment truly expressed, a very large Union vote would be polled. On the other hand, the politicians and those who at present appear on the surface to control public sentiment are very loud and bitter in their denunciations of the North, and declare that they will never be subjugated-that, no matter how large may be our force, or how many victories we may win, they will fight for independence

whe

why not de darkies too?" Not satisfied w this answer, he repeated his interrogatory, the negro said, Well really, massa, I dal like to say." It is a general complaint an the whites that the negroes are much more pudent than usual, and but little disposed cheerfully submit to the restraints which we formerly imposed upon them.

Provisions of some kinds are now becoming scarce in Richmond, and command high prices The stock of bacon is very low, but this years crop of wheat and corn is a very fair one, there is little probability of any want of these articles in the South during the coming seas In Virginia and Tennessee the yield has bee unusually great. Our informant saw in the former State one plantation containing 2,000 acres, and in the other 1,800 acres of first-rate wheat, and many excellent crops of corn. The effects of the blockade are beginning to be seriously felt. The stocks of salt a leather, and many other articles for which there is great demand. are very low. Ice is

so very scarce, and can only be obtained at a | machines-two to be used in Virginia and one ice ranging from five to fifteen cents per in North Carolina. He is also busily at work und, and then not without a physician's pre- at an infernal machine, to blow up forts and iption. For a glass of ice-water fifteen vessels. It is connected with clock work, so arnts are charged at some of the hotels. The ranged that, in any period after it is set, from go lately taken to that city by the St. Nich-five minutes to twenty-four hours, fire may be is, after her capture by the pirate Captain communicated to a barrel of explosive matter. omas, was disposed of by the State taking It is on an entirely different principle from the If of it, and the other half was obtained by machine recently found by one of our vessels . Crenshaw, the proprietor of the Spotts- floating in the Potomac, and the Richmond seod House, where Jeff. Davis and family are cessionists seem to entertain great hopes of its artered. utility in inflicting injuries upon us. At one Notwithstanding all the precautions which time, there was a great want of powder in the ve been taken, goods of great importance to South, which is now being supplied by manuinsurgents are still occasionally forwarded facturers in North Carolina or Tennessee. them from the North. On the Fourth of y thirty barrels of linseed oil arrived there m the city of Philadelphia, and was of great to them in the manufacture of oilcloth haversacks and knapsacks. It was obtained Purcell & Co., of Richmond; and it might be amiss for our authorities to inquire at one of our establishments furnished it. About six weeks ago buckles and sewingead, for the manufacture of military equipnts, became very scarce; but Mr. King, of the a of King & Lambert, went to Massachuts, by the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, obtained a good supply, which he took k with him by the same route. There is still plenty of employment for all o understand any trades useful in assisting the equipment of the army, and they are t busily at work. The Union ManufacturCompany, which is under the superintende of G. P. Sloat, formerly of this city, has ontract to alter 5,000 guns from flint to persion locks, which it is now doing rapidly. When the war first broke out there was a city of caps in Virginia, and it was estied that there were not more than three for soldier in the Southern army. A Mr. De v then commenced to make a machine to ufacture them, and finally succeeded in structing one capable of turning out 40,000 day, without the fulminating or detonating der. The first efforts to make this powder e fatal to those employed. Mr. Finch, a nist, after succeeding in manufacturing it, eavored to continue the business in his se; but an explosion occurred by which his ding was destroyed, his wife and children ibly hurt, his own eyes blown out, and other injuries inflicted upon him that, r lingering a short time in great agony, he ly expired. Undaunted by this disaster, cher man was obtained to continue its manture, but in a few days a similar accident rred. His head was blown off, his arms from their sockets, and his assistant was killed. Notwithstanding this, another manturer has since been obtained, and the inrent army is now being well supplied from mond, and it is believed, by an establisht in Memphis, with percussion caps. Meanle, Mr. De Bow is making three more cap

The machinery for the manufacture of arms at Harper's Ferry has been removed to Fayetteville, N. C., where two hundred and seventyfive men have been sent to put it into operation. The design is to chiefly manufacture there Morse's breech-loading rifles, for which they have obtained all the necessary patterns.

The Tredegar Works at Richmond are very busily engaged manufacturing arms for the rebel army. They turn out two sixty-eight pounders and two six-pound howitzers, or smooth-bore cannon, and a great quantity of shot and shell every week. Mr. Anderson, who is at the head of the establishment, has formed the operatives into a military organization, called the Tredegar Battalion, of which he is the commander.

The currency of Richmond is in a very disordered condition. On the best bank bills a discount of from fifteen to twenty per cent. must be paid to obtain gold, and of ten per cent. for silver of the denomination of twentyfive cents or upwards, but five and ten cent pieces are very scarce, and cannot be obtained without paying a much higher premium. The chief small currency are shinplasters issued by the corporations, which are worth about twenty per cent. less than the bank notes. The bills of the Government are paid in treasury notes, State scrip, or corporation money. The people of Richmond think it utterly impossible that our Government can obtain a loan of $250,000,000, and declare the effort of the Administration to do so to be absurd.

The public generally know comparatively little of what is transpiring in the North, as their own papers do not attempt to give correct information. Their military officers, however, appear to be well informed, and one of their most important avenues of information seems to be the Baltimore Sun, which is received there with great regularity. There are occasional interruptions of a day or two, but these do not very often occur.

Jefferson Davis takes a ride in the evening through the city on a fine gray horse, and excites considerable enthusiasm among the citizens, with whom he is rather popular. Alexander H. Stephens was not in the city when our informant left there, but was expected soon. All the secession Cabinet, and a good

here, and I have not been able to communicate with him. I think they are at Sangster's Station. The four men wounded yesterday be longed to Colonel Miles' division, who had some slight skirmishing in reaching the posi tion.

many members of the Congress, which is to | has not reported to me since we have been meet on the 20th of July, had arrived there. The secessionists expressed great indignation at the proposed secession of Western Virginia from the eastern part of that State, and of East from West Tennessee, which they thought entirely unconstitutional and rebellious; but when they heard that there was a disposition upon the part of Western Kentucky to secede from the loyal portion of that State, they declared it to be a very righteous and perfectly legal movement.

Each column encountered about the same obstructions-trees felled across the road-bat the axemen cleared them out in a few moments There were extensive breastworks thrown up at this place, and some of them with emAs an evidence of the aristocratic tendencies brasures resettled with sandbags. Extensive of secession, and of the growing unpopularity breastworks were also thrown up at the Fairof it among the working classes, our informant fax railroad station, and the road leading to states that the Richmond Dispatch earnestly Sangster's. A great deal of work had been advocates the establishment of a property qual-done by them, and the number and size of their ification as a condition for the enjoyment of the right of suffrage, so that an aristocratic government may be created.

In many of the camps the measles and mumps were very prevalent, and many men had died of neglect and improper treatment. At one camp in Tennessee he saw two large tents literally crowded with the sick.

camps show they have been here in great force. Their retreat, therefore, must have a damaging effect upon them. They left in such haste that they did not draw in their pickets, who came into one of our camps, thinking, as it occupied the same place, that it was their own. The obstructions to the railroad in the vicinity of the str tion, including the deep cut filled in with earth, Colonel Gregg's South Carolina regiment, etc., can be cleared out in a few hours. The whose term of service had expired, had reach-telegraph poles are up with the wires on them. ed Richmond from Manassas on their way I hope to have railroad and telegraphic con home. The colonel tried to get them to reen-munication in a very short time. list and go back, but only sixteen out of the whole regiment were willing. The men were nearly all mechanics, and were dissatisfied with the service.

Lieutenant-Colonel Bowman and the other officer of the Pennsylvania volunteers captured on the Potomac, had been at large on parole, in Richmond; but on Monday of last week they were again put in confinement in a tobacco warehouse on Main street, near the Rockets, where about fifty other prisoners from our army are confined.

Much flour,

some arms, forage, tents, camp equipage, etc.,
were abandoned by them. I am distressed ta
have to report excesses by our troops. The er
citement of the men found vent in burning and
pillaging, which, however, was soon checked.
It distressed us all greatly. I go to Centrevile
in a few moments. Very respectfully your ole
dient servant.
IRWIN MCDOWELL
Brigadier General Commandi

Doc. 104.

In passing through Tennessee our informant learned that General Anderson, in command of THE FIGHT AT BLACKBURN'S FORD, VA.

Nashville, ordered two regiments on Wednes-
day to East Tennessee, and two more were to
go the next day, to overawe the Union men in
that region.
-Philadelphia Press, July 18.

Doc. 103.

GENERAL MCDOWELL'S DESPATCH.

FAIRFAX COURT HOUSE, July 18, 1861. To Colonel E. D. Townsend, Assistant AdjutantGeneral, Washington :—

THE First Division, under General Tyler, is between Germantown and Centreville. The Second (Hunter's) is at this place, just about to move forward to Centreville. The Fifth (Miles') is at the crossing of the old Braddock road with the road from this to Fairfax Station, and is ordered forward to Centreville by the old Braddock road. Barry's battery has joined it. One of Colonel Heintzelman's brigades (Wilcox) is at Fairfax Station. Colonel Heintzelman and his other brigade are below the station, but he

JULY 18, 1861.

REPORT OF GEN. TYLER. HEAD QUARTERS, 1ST DIVISION, DEP'T N. E. VIRGINIA, WASHINGTON, July 27, 156L Gen. McDowell, Commanding Department:SIR: On the 18th inst. you ordered me to take my division, with two 20-pound rifed guns, and move against Centreville, to carry that position. My division moved from its encampment at 7 A. M. At 9 A. M. Richardson's brigade reached Centreville, and found that the enemy had retreated the night before-ete division on the Warrentown turnpike, in the direction of Gainsville, and the other, and by far the largest division, toward Blackburn's Ford, or Bull Run. Finding that Richardson's brigade had turned the latter point and halted for the convenience of obtaining water, I took a squadron of cavalry and two light companies from Richardson's brigade, with Col. Richardson, to make a reconnoissance, and, in feeling our way carefully, we soon found ourselves