TELEGRAPHIC REPORTS OF THE PRESS ASSOCIATION.
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FROM PETERSBURG.
PETERSBURG, July 25 [1864].—To-day (the forty-second of the siege) was decidedly the most quiet of the campaign. There was scarcely any picket firing and not more than one or two discharges of artillery.1
SECOND DESPATCH.
PETERSBURG, July 27 [1864].—The prediction of the Philadelphia INQUIRER, of the 22[n]d [of July 1864], seems likely to be realized soon on the north bank of James river. Hancock’s Second corps, which was in our front a few days ago, has gone there, and perhaps other Yankee forces. An engagement occurred there to-day [July 27, 1864], but full particulars have not transpired.2
The Nineteenth corps of the Yankee army appeared in front of Bermuda Hundreds.3 In front of this place all is comparatively quiet, though Grant is still digging. A citizen of California was sent into our lines under flag of truce yesterday on private business.
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FROM LOUISIANA.
CLINTON LA., July 26.—The enemy have withdrawn nearly all of the garrison from Baton Rouge. Seventy of their men deserted at one time.
New Orleans papers of the 23d [of July 1864] have been received. The Free Negro Convention adopted the constitution by a vote of 65 yeas to 15 nays.
Gold is quoted at 312; cotton at 165.
General Banks has issued an order that no gold shall be sold unless first deposited in the United States Treasury.
Two or more District Judges in New Orleans, have resigned in consequence of Handel’s removal for a decision on the negro question.4
SOPO Editor’s Note: This article was transcribed by Jackie Martin.
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Source/Notes:
- SOPO Editor’s Note: Going by this method of counting, the Confederates responsible for this national telegraphic news source set June 15, 1864 as the start of the Siege, the day Baldy Smith’s Eighteenth Corps, Army of the James showed up and attacked Petersburg from the east. Some modern scholars tend to set the start of the Siege just after the June 15-18, 1864 Second Battle of Petersburg. I tend to side with these contemporary accounts. ↩
- SOPO Editor’s Note: This was the first day of the First Battle of Deep Bottom on July 27, 1864. A reinforced skirmish line captured 4 20-pound Parrott rifles from the Confederates northeast of Deep Bottom. ↩
- SOPO Editor’s Note: In response to Early’s extended raid in the North, Ulysses S. Grant asked that all offensive action other than Atlanta and Petersburg be halted, excess troops in quiet areas be given up, and the Union go on the defensive in the quieter areas. He specifically asked for the Nineteenth Corps to come up from Louisiana and be added to his forces in the East. They had started to arrive at Bermuda Hundred and elsewhere about a week before this article appeared. Butler sent many of these troops north to strengthen the Deep Bottom bridgehead, and they saw some skirmishing while there, losing prisoners and making their presence known to the Confederates. ↩
- “Telegraphic Reports of the Press Association.” Richmond Examiner. July 28, 1864, p. 1 col. 4 ↩