and
then return. Our party will probably not exceed six persons of all sorts.

A. LINCOLN.

OPINION ON HARBOR DEFENSE.

April 4, 1863.

On this general subject I respectfully refer Mr.------__ to the
Secretaries of War and Navy for conference and consultation. I have a
single idea of my own about harbor defense. It is a steam ram, built so
as to sacrifice nearly all capacity for carrying to those of speed and
strength, so as to be able to split any vessel having hollow enough in her
to carry supplies for a voyage of any distance. Such ram, of course, could
not herself carry supplies for a voyage of considerable distance, and her
business would be to guard a particular harbor as a bulldog guards his
master's door.

A. LINCOLN.

TELEGRAM TO THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY.

HEADQUARTERS ARMY POTOMAC, April 9, 1863.

HON. SECRETARY OF THE NAVY:

Richmond Whig of the 8th has no telegraphic despatches from Charleston,
but has the following as editorial:

"All thoughts are now centred upon Charleston. Official intelligence was
made public early yesterday morning that the enemy's iron-clad fleet
had attempted to cross the bar and failed, but later in the day it was
announced that the gunboats and transports had succeeded in crossing and
were at anchor. Our iron-clads lay between the forts quietly awaiting the
attack. Further intelligence is looked for with eager anxiety. The Yankees
have made no secret of this vast preparation for an attack on Charleston,
and we may well anticipate a desperate conflict. At last the hour of trial
has come for Charleston, the hour of deliverance or destruction, for no
one believes the other alternative, surrender, possible. The heart of the
whole country yearns toward the beleaguered city with intense solicitude,
yet with hopes amounting to confidence. Charleston knows what is expected
of her, and which is due to her fame, and to the relation she sustains to
the cause. The devoted, the heroic, the great-hearted Beauregard is there,
and he, too, knows what is expected of him and will not disappoint that
expectation. We predict a Saragossa defense, and that if Charleston is
taken it will be only a heap of ruins."

The rebel pickets are reported as calling over to our pickets today that
we had taken some rebel fort. This is not very intelligible, and I think
is entirely unreliable.

A. LINCOLN.

TELEGRAM TO OFFICER IN COMMAND AT NASHVILLE.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, WA