Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams
Sir. Admiral Dahlgren, commanding the naval forces at Charleston, reported, under date of the 18th instant, that the enemy were evacuating, and he was on his way to enter that important city, the cradle of disunion. The Richmond papers announce the same event, and give us the further information that General Sherman having permanently secured Branchville and Orangeburg, on Friday morning appeared above Columbia, the capital of South Carolina, which was abandoned to him by the rebel chief Beauregard. We have no details of the capture of either of these positions except vague and doubtful rebel reports of three days’ fighting at Branchville. The rebels claim to have removed the bullion and the female operators in the paper mint from Columbia. They admit the destruction and loss of immense quantities of government machinery and medicines. The same authorities state that Beauregard retired to a position twenty miles from Columbia, and that Sherman with a large force passed directly through Columbia to Winnsboro’, thirty miles on the road towards North Carolina. They aver also that rebel soldiers plundered the town of Columbia while [Page 180] abandoning it to our forces. The rebel papers report a furious cannonade by our land and naval forces against Fort Anderson, a defence of Wilmington, situated on the east side of Cape Fear, and below that city. They also report significant movements of our forces from Newbern towards the Weldon road above Wilmington; but they say, that as yet the telegraphic communication between that city and Wilmington has not been broken.
The gold market is declining. Government stocks are in high demand. Recruiting is renewed. Exchanges o fprisoners are going forward rapidly Disaffection speaks out boldly in North Carolina, and a collision has occurred there between rebel troops and rebel deserters.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
Charles Francis Adams. Esq.,&c.,&c., London.
[Same, mutatis mutandis, to all our principal ministers in Europe.]