Editor’s Note: This article was transcribed by Jackie Martin.
[SOPO Editor’s Note: Portions of this article not pertaining to the Siege of Petersburg were omitted.]
LATEST NEWS FROM THE NORTH.
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Through the kind attention of one of our most gallant officers in the field, we were placed yesterday in possession of New York papers of the 11th instant. We get from them the following summary of news:
THE GOLD MARKET.
Gold continues to advance, and the market is excited. The HERALD’S report says:
The gold room was croweded this morning with persons who were drawn thither under the expectation that sales would be made at two hundred.—The price started at 198 ½, and after touching 199 the market became rather weak, and the premium fell to 97 ½, but it subsequently rallied a little, and was worked on the fractions above 98.
Sterling exchange sold to day at 110 for gold and at 217 for currency.
Southern stocks are quoted in the New York market as follows:
Tennessee 6’s, 60; Missouri 6’s, 71; Virginia 6’s, 51; North Carolina 6’s, 58.
This rise in gold had caused a sensation in the North, and the Senate had passed the following bill to check traffic and speculation in it. The bill was to have been brought up in the House, and the HERALD said that a party vote would be applied to it, and that its passage was almost certain:
BE IT ENACTED, &c. That it shall be unlawful to make any contract for the purchase or sale or delivery of any gold coin or bullion, or of any foreign exchange, to be delivered at any time subsequent to the making of such contract, or for the payment of any sum, either fixed or contingent, in default of the delivery of any gold coin or bullion, or of any such foreign exchange, or upon any other terms than the immediate manual delivery of such gold coin or bullion, or foreign exchange, and the immediate payment in full of the agreed price thereof by the manual delivery of United States notes or national currency, and not otherwise, or to make any contract whatever for the sale, loan, or delivery of any gold coin or bullion, or foreign exchange, of which the person making such contract shall not at the time of making it be the owner, in actual possession.
Section 2. That it shall be further unlawful for any banker, broker or other person to make any purchase or sale of any gold coin or bullion, or of any foreign exchange, or any contract for any such purpose, or sale, at any other place than the ordinary place of business of either the seller or purchaser, owned or hired, or occupied by him individually, or by a partnership of which he is a member.
Section 3. All contracts made in violation of this act shall be absolutely void.
Section 4. Any person who shall violate any provision of this act shall be held guilty of a misdemeanor, and, on conviction thereof, be fined in the sum of one thousand dollars and be imprisoned for a period not less than three months nor longer than one year, or both, at the discretion of the court.
Section 5. The penalty imposed by the fourth section of this act may be recovered in an action at law in any court of record of the United States or any court of competent jurisdiction, which action may be brought in the name of the United States, by any person who will sue for said penalty, one half for the use of the United States and the other half for the use of the person bringing such action; and the recovery and satisfaction of a judgment in any such action shall be a bar to the imposition of any fine for the same offence in any prosecution instituted subsequent to the recovery of such judgment; but shall not be a bar to the infliction of punishment by imprisonment as provided by the fourth section.
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FROM GRANT’S ARMY.
The Northern papers have very little news from Grant’s army. The following is Stanton’s latest “official gazette:”
WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington, June 10.
MAJOR-GENERAL DIX:
Owing to the break in the telegraph line, no despatches were received yesterday from the army of the Potomac.
Despatches have arrived this morning, with dates to nine o’clock last night.
There was no firing on Wednesday, except by pickets.
An arrangement has been effected by which the killed and wounded were gathered in.
There were no movements yesterday.
EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War.
The army correspondent of the HERALD writes:
Nothing of interest has transpired to day.
Along the greater part of the line the utmost quiet prevailed until five, P. M., when some skirmishing took place on the left.
Captain McEwen, of General Hancock’s staff, who lost his leg by a shell on Sunday evening is still alive, although no hopes are entertained of his recovery.
Another correspondent writes from Despatch station:
The First and Fourth divisions of the —–th corps reached here this morning. It was three o’clock in the morning when the men began the march.—When day dawned the rebels on the south side of the Chickahominy observed the moving column, and opened on it with two guns of very heavy caliber. Several men were injured while marching in the ranks.
Colonel Hoffman’s brigade, of the Fourth division, immediately took possession of this side of the railroad bridge. A barricade was thrown across the railroad about half a mile below this station.
Between us and the rebels flows the Chickahominy, a sluggish stream, bounded on either side by jungles and morasses, from which are continually arising dampness and noxious vapors. At this point the stream is not more than one hundred yards in width; the bridge is three times as long.
Rifle pits were dug and a long line of fortifications begun. For a long time the skirmishers were friendly and conversed with each other across the river. Before dark they were using every species of finesse to cause one another to expose their bodies for a mark.
A despatch from Washington says:
Passengers arriving here to-day state, on the authority of a captain in a New Jersey regiment, that information of the burning of Bowling Green, the county seat of Caroline county, Virginia, by our forces, had been received at the front. It appears that a train of ours was fired upon from the houses, in consequence of which the cavalry escort took the citizens and placed them in two houses standing away from the town, after which the town was set on fire and completely destroyed.1
Source:
- “Latest News from the North.” Richmond Examiner. June 15, 1864, p. 3 col. 3-5 ↩