roe at eleven o'clock Saturday night, and was consequently five days and a half at sea, and the greater portion of the time the men and crew were on a short allowance of water. No coffee could be made on board, on account of the scarcity of water, and the suffering of the troops was severe. Many cases of delirium resulted from this state of affairs, as the rations consisted chiefly of salt beef and pork. The schooner experienced a succession of severe gales, adding seasickness, to a general extent, to the suffering from want of water. different regions and at different periods of the earth's formation; by the same rule, although no trace of the species is to be found at present in the neighborhood of Hatteras Inlet, the existence of the wrecker is established by the remains of innumerable wrecks. No other animal can exist on this coast. HATTERAS INLET, January 19. We are still awaiting the order to advance into the enemy's country, and as the promulgation of that order is dependent on results yet to be atThe Suwanee, steam gunboat, which had been tained, the time of our departure is problematidisabled at Annapolis, by blowing out her steam-cal. It is laid down as an axiom that doubtful chest, arrived to-day, and will be added to the things are always uncertain. The author must armed squadron attached to the fleet. have been connected with some great military and naval expedition to have been so impressed with this truth as to declare it axiomatically. We are still within Hatteras Inlet, and each day of delay adds one if not two to the list of our disasters. Two of the regiments stationed at this post, the Ninth New-York, Col. Hawkins, and the Fortyeighth Pennsylvania, Col., are to be relieved by the Sixth New-Hampshire, Col. Converse, and the Fifty-third New-York, Col. d'Epineuil, and will join the forces of the expedition. The Sixth New-Hampshire has already been transferred, and the Fifty-third New-York will be transferred in a day or two. The steamer Louisiana is still aground. But little anxiety is felt here about the enemy's gunboats. They give our bull-dogs a very wide berth. The chief anxiety is on account of the indifferent anchorage within the inlet. Almost every day some additional vessel is aground, if not permanently, at least for a short time. Our good craft has touched bottom several times within the last two days, once only with danger of remaining aground. By the aid of a few tons of Pennsylvania volunteers, who were made to go from side to side of the vessel, to rock her, and by backing the engine, she was rescued from the impending danger. Night before last the gunboat Suwanee arrived here and anchored almost on the bar. Before long she was aground. Yesterday she partly bilged and is now unfit for service. The gunboat Ranger also went aground. The steamer Cossack was aground from Saturday morning until Sunday morning. The gunboat Stars and Stripes was aground yesterday, but succeeded in getting over the swash into deep water. A large ship grounded on the bar outside the inlet, but subsequently got off. A tug that swung foul of the Brant Island shoal lightship, which is anchored here, having been captured from the rebels, had her guard and gangway crushed into her cabin, showing her timbers to be rotten. A grand mistake seems to have been made in the selection of vessels for the expedition. A very large proportion of the vessels of the fleet have been aground and several have been lost through their great draft. The vessels draw too much for the waters in which they are intended to operate. It is even said that the figures on the stem and stern of some of our vessels have been altered in order to secure their sale to the Government. Many conjectures are expressed in relation to the object in the economy of nature of the sandbanks that make an inlet to Pamlico Sound a necessity, but all end in the opinion that they were intended as a wholesome and final test for human patience. The man who endures, without losing his temper, the million unexpected and improbable casualties that must attend what- To-day I have noticed for the first time since ever enterprise he engages in here, deserves to we left Annapolis something peculiar in the day. be canonized among the most patient of his race. The Pennsylvanians were singing hymns at variHow the people who formerly inhabited this ous intervals, and referring to my dates, I perregion managed to maintain anything more than ceived it was Sunday. But from no other exvegetative existence is a miracle. One can readi-ternal indication could I infer that a Sabbath had ly understand how the cardinal doctrine of the shed its benign influence on the bleak desolation wrecker becomes an article of faith, to doubt about me. I went ashore and found Capt. Belwhich is a wicked heresy, by enduring the pri-ger, of the Seventh Rhode Island battery, landvations of this region for a single day. Next to ing his horses from the George Peabody. The wrecking, piloting vessels through the tortuous trembling creatures were led to the gangway of ramifications of the sand-bars of Pamlico Sound is the legitimate profession of the biped mollusca of this region, and when you think you have settled with your pilot and given him a gratuity in the way of sail-cloth, or rope, there is a final request for a small piece of salt pork, as he has just lost a barrel by damage from sea-water. the steamer, and after attaching a rope about thirty feet long to their necks, were pushed over into the water; the end of the rope being secured to the stern of a small boat, they were thus led ashore. They were entirely under water when thrown over, and came up snorting and puffing, but invariably striking out by instinct for the beach. Capt. Belger's battery will be left here a short time, as there is no immediate service re quired of it, and the Peabody will be required as a transport for infantry. These forts, the scene of Gen. Butler's exploit, are nearly in the condition in which they were found by our forces. Fort Hatteras, the nearest to the inlet, is the most important. It is a circular work, riveted with wooden piles, and the sand of which it is composed is double sodded. Four or five of the guns are yet unmounted. Within the circular work are protecting bastions of earth, and a large bomb-proof magazine occupies the centre. The barracks within the work accommodate one company, and are occupied at present by company C, First United States artillery, under Capt. Morris. Fort Clark is a much smaller work, and is occupied by company B, Forty-eighth Pennsylvania volunteers, under the command of Capt. James Wren. The post is under the command of BrigadierGen. Thomas Williams, with the following staff: Assistant Adjutant-General, Lieutenant C. Cook; Brigade Quartermaster, Lieut. H. E. Elliott; Commissary of Subsistence, Capt. John Clark; Lieut. G. C. DeKay, A.D.C.; Lieut. J. C. Biddle, A.D.C.; Brigade Surgeon, Dr. T. H. Bache, son of Professor Bache, of Philadelphia. The sand-spit on which the forts are erected still bears traces of the bombardment in the form of fragments of bomb-shells and unexploded shells, with a few solid sixty-four-pound shot. The camps further up the island are being entrenched with skilfully constructed earthworks, which will prevent all possibility of a recurrence of such affairs as cutting off regiments, as in the case of the Twentieth Indiana. This affair has been magnified into an undue importance by the newspaper correspondents, who, in the absence of sensation in the humdrum life at Hatteras Inlet, have spread rather extensively on this trifling affair. The truth of the matter is, that the terrible execution by the shells of the Monticello was a joke practised on the credulity of these sensationists, and the only mortality resulting from her fire was the killing of an inoffensive inhabitant of the island. Not one rebel was killed. channel indicated by, barrel buoys, on which lights are to be placed at night. We have just received intelligence of the wreck of the steamer Pocahontas, which was loaded with the horses of the Fourth Rhode Island regiment, of the First battalion Fifth Rhode Island, and the horses of the staff-officers of several regiments, in all one hundred and twenty-three horses. Seventeen horses were brought to the shore, and ninety-six were lost. No lives were lost. The vessel was one of the oldest, if not the oldest, in the country. She was built over thirty years ago, and ran from Baltimore to points below, on the Chesapeake Bay. She was chartered by the Government for the present trip only. She was disabled by one of her flues giving out while at sea, and was run ashore about fifteen miles north of Cape Hatteras. The vessel was run ashore on Friday, and the crew, with the horses, did not arrive here until Sunday, after two days' travel in the heavy sands of this region. Propellers and steam-tugs are being sent out to remove the troops and stores from the heavy ships, three or four of which have been anchored off the beach since Monday, the thirteenth. Their draft is too great to admit of them being brought inside, even unloaded, and they will probably be sent back to New York. They can be seen rolling and tossing with the heavy sea that the east and south-east winds of the past two days have driven on the coast. Albert H. Tucker, of Milford, Mass., a private of company B, Twenty-fifth Massachusetts volunteers, died to-day of pleurisy, and will be bu ried to-morrow, on the beach. The chaplain of the regiment intends reading the funeral services over the deceased, at which the company to which he belonged, are to be present. Two soldiers of the Twenty-first Massachusetts died of small-pox, and were buried at sea, owing to the infectious character of the disease. Col. Allen, of the New-Jersey Ninth, left the Ann E. Thompson, accompanied by Surg. Weller, of the regiment, the captain and second mate of the ship, with a crew of ten or twelve sailors and soldiers, in a surf-boat, to report to Gen. Burnside. The Ninth New-York alone will be relieved at They were returning to the ship, and when in the this post by the Sixth New-Hampshire. The For-breakers outside the inlet, a heavy sca broke over ty-eighth Pennsylvania will not be relieved, as was stated in a previous letter, but will continue to form a portion of the command of Gen. Williams. HATTERAS INLET, January 20. The chief object of interest at present, is the difficulty in getting vessels over the bulkhead or swash, within the inlet. Our vessels are nearly all too deep to pass, except at the top of the tide, and even then it is necessary to remove troops, stores and coal, and to blow the water out of the boilers. When the vessels are lightened to the utmost possible degree, they are taken in tow by the light-draft tugs, and at high tide are, with a great deal of difficulty, worked over. An operation that should have been completed before our arrival here, was not commenced until to-day. Soundings are being taken on the bar, and the the bow of the boat, filling her with water, and washing the crew back toward the stern of the boat. The Surgeon was trampled into the bottom by the men, who were forced back by the water, and was drowned in the boat. Their oars were washed away, and the boat was thus at the mercy of the breakers, which soon upset her. The Colonel and the second mate of the ship, whose name is James Taylor, were both drowned when the boat capsized; and all hands would certainly have perished, but for the proximity of the tug Patuxent, Captain Jeremiah Bennett, whose pilot, James McIntyre, of Philadelphia, launched the boats of the steamer, which picked up the captain of the ship and the boat's crew. The remains of Colonel Allen and Surgeon Weller will be sent North in the Spaulding, which is daily expected to arrive from Port Royal. REBELLION RECORD, 1862. HATTERAS INLET, January 21. HATTERAS INLET, January 99. creasing. Several additional vessels were brought over the swash last night, although the night was Our hopes of a speedy movement are steadily indark as a starless and foggy night can be. This morning several others were brought over, and is even becoming defined, and it may take place they continue to come. within forty-eight hours. A strong north-east The time of our advance wind is blowing, the effect of which is to increase the water over the bulkhead, as it arrests the passage of the water through the inlets above this point, and consequently forces more through Hatteras Inlet. We feel somewhat encouraged to-day, in the brightening prospect for soon getting over the bar into deep water. Gen. Burnside has been disappointed in the arrival of four or five tugs, chartered at Annapolis, which have not yet made their appearance. supplied by three tugs, which were sent from This loss has been partially Philadelphia, with orders to proceed to Port Royal, but which were compelled, by stress of weather, to put back to this point, after going within about a hundred miles of their destination. Their experience of the rough sea outside has rendered them unfit for service, except in smooth water, and they are therefore compelled to remain here, where their presence is of great value to the ex-age ground at the inlet, in a north and easterly We are now about two miles from the anchorpedition. The steamers are the Phenix, the Pa- direction. Communication with the beach is extuxent, and the Pilot Boy. kept them constantly employed in conducting es in from the sea. Gen. Burnside has ceedingly difficult, from the strong tide which rushvessels over the shoals, outside and inside. The vessels of the naval fleet, formerly a portion of the North-Atlantic blockading squadron, under Flag-Officer Goldsborough, have been over the swash, and in deep water, with few exceptions, the last two days. The veteran declares his readiness to go into action in ten minutes, should the enemy have the temerity to appear. The delay at present, is occasioned by the difficulty in getting the transports over the shoal water. The vessels of the naval fleet have been selected with a full knowledge of the depth of water in the waters to be navigated, and the maximum draft has been limited to eight feet. But little difficulty has been experienced in getting these vessels over, but the movements of the entire expedition are hampered by the depth of water required for our transports. The first of the large transports has just got over the swash, by the high tide of to-night, after having been aground three days between the floodtides. The steamer Cossack, after having been lightened of everything that increased her depth, even to blowing the water out of her boilers, succeeded, at eleven o'clock this evening, in gaining water beyond the swash, ten feet deep. The discharge of heavy guns this afternoon, in the direction of the deep waters of the sound, attracted some attention at the headquarters of the fleet, and it is said to have been occasioned by the proximity of two rebel gunboats. They were chased by three or four of our most advanced gunboats, but they soon showed their heels. Two or three thirty-two-pound shot were sent after them, but they were beyond range, and in a short time entirely out of sight. They must have considerable anxiety in relation to the force now collected at this point, to venture so near in order to gratify curiosity. The floating battery (canal-boat) Grapeshot, which was being towed to this point by the steamer New-Brunswick, became disabled off Cape Hatteras, and was cut loose. She had no stores on board, and her crew were removed to the steamer. vorite mode of communication with the enemy. HATTERAS INLET, January 23. We daily hear of arrivals by this line, the ramiThe underground railroad seems to be the fafications of which seem to be as diverse as the stories told by the passengers. Confidence in the sagacity of General Burnside leads me to believe, however, that he will not be governed to any great extent, by the reports of highly imaginative travellers by the North Star. There are at present forty-five or fifty contrabands who have succeeded in escaping from thraldom and have reached this point by, according to their own reports, the most hairbreadth escapes and by positive interpositions of Providence. They are quartered outside of Fort Hatteras, in a wooden building bearing the sign of "Hotel d'Afrique," in wellpainted German characters. boat, in a condition to warrant a belief in their highly embellished story. They were gaunt from About a week ago five or six arrived in a small hunger, exhausted by fatigue, and in rags. They escaped from the northern counties of NorthCarolina, about two months ago, and spent five or six weeks in the woods, living on roots and herbs, which they descended Roanoke Sound on the eastern side of Roanoke Island. As they passed after which they succeeded in stealing a boat, in the island they were hailed by the sentinels, and, pretending to stop rowing, allowed their boat to drift past with the tide until they were at some distance from the sentries. They then struck boldly out, when several shots were fired at them, none of which struck them. They reported the island literally covered with rebels. the region of Roanoke, reports the island desert- and the sands on both sides, would indicate some DOCUMENTS. SMAR which, in case of defeat, they cannot retreat. It The The sound, where the character of the shore Our departure for the point of attack has not The naval squadron attached to Gen. Burnside's Coast division, is under the command of Flag-Officer L. M. Goldsborough, who is also the commander-in-chief of the North-Atlantic blockading squadron. Subjoined is the organization of the naval squadron: Flag-Officer, L. M. Goldsborough, of Washing- Chief of the Staff, Commander A. L. Case, of Staff Medical Officer, Assistant Surgeon S. C. Signal Officer, H. G. B. Fisher, of Boston. Clerk to Flag-Officer, E. C. Meeker. VESSELS OF THE SQUADRON. Flag-Ship, Philadelphia, steam gunboat, Acting Master S. Reynolds. of Lieutenant, E. L. Haines, of Philadelphia. Acting Purser, T. Thornton. Steam gunboat Stars and Stripes, Lieut. Com manding R. Worden. Steam gunboat Valley City, Lieut. Commanding J. C. Chaplin. Steam gunboat Underwriter, Lieut. Command- Steam gunboat Hetzel, Lieut. Commanding H. Steam gunboat Delaware, Lieut. Commanding Steam gunboat Shawsheen, Acting Master T. Steam gunboat Lockwood, Acting Master G. L. Steam gunboat Ceres, Acting Master J. Mc- Steam gunboat Morse, Acting Master Peter Steam gunboat Whitehead, Acting Master Chas. A. French. A. Steam gunboat Virginia. Steam gunboat Louisiana, Lieut. Commanding Steam gunboat Henry Brincker, Acting Master Steam gunboat General Putnam, Lieut. Com McCook. manding Steam gunboat Hunchback, Acting Lieut. Commanding E. R. Calhoun. Steam gunboat Southfield, Volunteer Lieut. Commanding C. F. W. Beam. Steam gunboat Young America. Steam gunboat Commodore Barney, Acting Sailing gunboat Granite, Acting Master Com- (Doc. 30.) PICKET. -N. Y. Commercial. BATTLE OF ROANOKE ISLAND. OFFICIAL REPORT OF GEN. BURNSIDE. To Major-General Geo. B. McClellan, Command- thousand small arms. Among the prisoners are Col. Shaw, commander of the island, and O. Jennings Wise, commander of the Wise Legion. The latter was mortally wounded, and has since died. The whole work was finished on the afternoon of the eighth inst., after a hard day's fighting, by a brilliant charge in the centre of the island, and a rapid pursuit of the enemy to the north end of the island, resulting in the capture of the prisoners mentioned above. We have had no time to count them, but the number is estimated at near three thousand. Our men fought bravely, and have endured most manfully the hardships incident to fighting through swamps and dense thickets. It is impossible to give the details of the engagement, or to mention meritorious officers and men, in the short time allowed for writing this report, the naval vessel carrying it starting immediately for Hampton Roads, and the reports of the Brigadier-Generals have not yet been handed in. It is enough to say that the officers and men of both arms of the service have fought gallantly, and the plans agreed upon before leaving Hatteras were carried out. I will be excused for saying in reference to the action, that I owe everything to Generals Foster, Reno and Parker, as more full details will show. I am sorry to report the loss of about thirty-five killed, and about two hundred wounded, ten of them probably mortally. Among the killed are Col. Russell, of the Tenth Connecticut regiment, and Lieut.-Col. Victor de Monteuil, of the D'Epineuil Zouaves; both of them fought most gallantly. I regret exceedingly not being able to send a full report of the killed and wounded, but will send despatch in a day or two with full returns. a expe I beg leave to enclose a copy of a general order I have the honor to be, General, your obedient REPORT OF COM. GOLDSBOROUGH. U. S. FLAG-STEAMER PHILADELPHIA, hills to thwart our advance, and altogether a body of men numbering scarcely less than five thou sand, of whom three thousand are now our prisoners. The fighting commenced on the morning of the seventh inst., at about eleven o'clock, and was continued till dark. The following morning it was resumed at an early hour, and it lasted until well in the afternoon, when by a bold charge by our army the rebel flag was made to succumb, and our own was hoisted everywhere on the island in its place. No attack could have been more completely executed, and it was carried out precisely in accordance with the arrangements made before the expedition left Cape Hatteras Inlet. A detailed account of the operations of the naval branch of the expedition will be forwarded to the Department hereafter. I beg to submit herewith a copy of a general order to be read on the quarter-deck of each vessel belonging to that branch of the expedition. I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, L. M. GOLDSBOROUGH, Flag-Officer Commanding North-Atlantic Blockading Squadron. To the Hon. GIDEON WELLS, REPORT OF COL. FERRERO, I beg to submit the following as the report of the Fifty-first regiment N. Y.V.: I received an order from Gen. Reno, on the morning of Saturday, the eighth of February, 1862, at about half-past seven o'clock, to form line on the right of the Second brigade. The regiment started at about eight o'clock A.M., in the rear of the First brigade. After having marched a disRoanoke Island is ours. The military authori- tance of about half a mile, we met three compaties struck to us yesterday. Their means of de-nies of the Twenty-first Massachusetts. I halted fence were truly formidable, and they were used my column, and allowed them to take their posiwith a determination worthy of a better cause. tion. Following them on the main road up the They consisted of two elaborately-constructed island, and marching a distance of about half a works, mounting together twenty-two heavy guns, mile, Í received an order from Gen. Reno's aid to three of them being one hundred pounders rifled. force our way through a dense jungle in the diFour other batteries, mounting together twenty rection of the fighting. On arriving near the rear guns, a large proportion of them being also of of the Twenty-first Massachusetts, received an large calibre, and some of them rifled; eight steam-order to advance, and take position on their left. ers mounting two guns each, and each having a Finding the swamp almost impassable, owing rifled gun with a diameter of a thirty-two pound- to the dense growth of underbrush on the right er, a prolonged obstruction of smaller vessels and of my line, I ordered four companies of the right |