to exhibit a strong
sentiment among the people favoring peace. But the people are not the
government, and they sink peace and reconstruction together.

Yesterday Mr. Crockett, of Kentucky, said, in the House of
Representatives, that there was a party in favor of forming a Central
Confederacy (of free and slave States) between the Northern and Southern
extremes. Impracticable.

To-day we have news of the bombardment of Fort McAlister, near Savannah.
No result known. Now we shall have tidings every few days of naval
operations. Can Savannah, and Charleston, and Wilmington be successfully
defended? They may, if they will emulate the example of Vicksburg. If
they fall, it will _stagger_ this government--before the peace party in
the North can operate on the Government of the United States. But it
would not "crush the rebellion."

JANUARY 28TH.--The bombardment of Fort McAlister continued five hours
yesterday, when the enemy's boats drew off. The injury to the fort can
be repaired in a day. Not a man was killed or a gun dismounted. The
injury done the fleet is not known. But the opinion prevails here that
if the bombardment was continued to-day, the elongated shot of the enemy
probably demolished the fort.

Last night and all this day it snowed incessantly--melting rapidly,
however. This must retard operations by land in Virginia and probably in
North Carolina.

JANUARY 29TH.--It appears from the Northern press that the enemy _did_
make three attempts last week to cross the Rappahannock; but as they
advanced toward the stream, the _elements_ successfully opposed them. It
rained, it snowed, and it froze. The gun carriages and wagons sank up to
the hubs, the horses to their bodies, and the men to their knees; and so
all stuck fast in the mud.

I saw an officer to-day from the army in North Carolina. He says the
prospect for a battle is good, as soon as the roads admit of marching.

We have nothing further from the bombardment near Savannah. The wires
may not be working--or the fort may be taken.

Gov. Vance has sent to the department a strong protest against the
appointment of Col. August as commandant of conscripts in Northern
Tennessee. Col. A. is a Virginian--that is the only reason. Well, Gen.
Rains, who commands all the conscripts in the Confederate States, is a
North Carolinian. But the War Department has erred in putting so many
strangers in command of localities, where natives might have been
selected. Richm