1862, March 15, Saturday

              IN AUGURAL. 
Not often has a newspaper occupied so singular a position as that filled to-day by The New South. Issued in a military command, addressed mostly to soldiers at the seat of war, its audience is yet not purely military, but in part naval, in part civil ; it is possible that some portion maybe found at the North, it is not impossible that we occasionally reach the ear of Southerners, debarred now for a twelve-month from learning what the sentiments and intentions and power of the nation really are. 
In acting as spokesman both to and for this varied population we shall have several aims in view : first of all to support, so far as we are able the national government. In order to do this more effectually we shall abstain from the discussion of exciting political topics, believing that the business of our most immediate readers is now military, not political, and that it is the province of the true patriot at this juncture, to do nothing to divide the national forces, or to distract their energies from the one great object of us all, the suppression of the Rebellion. Here is a common ground where all can meet, and on that we mean to plant ourselves. It shall be our endeavor to strengthen the hands of the government and those who represent it, to incite the courage and fortify the endurance of its defenders. not to sow the seeds of discord among those who are themselves battling against the results of discord. Next we desire to furnish news of inter- 
and importance to our readers for the life and ba- 
[? ? ?] by in this regard. 
information concerning public matters at the North the movements of the national armies and affairs abroad, will be presented in a condensed form, it is true, but still we trust a correct view of all important affairs will be afforded. The doings within this military command will of course receive a due share of attention; Port Royal, Beaufort, Tybee and Otter Islands, and other places occupied by our forces will not be neglected, and proceedings of every nature fit for publication will be chronicled ; but none of our loyal readers will complain if we with hold any thing that could by any chance prove of service to the enemy The news of the fleet, however, the dItaly in camp the health of the command, and a thousand other details will at once suggest themselves as proper subjects for report. These matters it is hoped, will prove o 
sufficient interest to the country at large for us to rely on a support from other quarters not altogether insignificant. 
And if an occasional copy of a Union paper should find its way to the deluded and unfortunate people with whom we are contending, some idea of the hopelessness of their effort may be afforded them. When they discover that the Unionists are so firmly established here as to issue and support newspapers, they will admit that we have no idea of returning; they will conclude that our occupation is not purely a military one ; they will perhaps see how desperate is their own condition, and submit more readily to the government which has never wished to do more than bring them back to their allegiance, but which is determined to do that at every cost and at every hazard, and it need arises by the employment of every means. 
Newspapers receiving the present number of The New South, and wishing to exchange, will please commence forwarding their issues at once. 
next number will contain a complete list of the deaths in this compound, since the sailing, of the Expeditionary Corps, in October last. 
The Situation. 
Our contemporaries it the North are in the habit or announcing in their daily issues the situation of military affairs, sure that nothing else can have so great an interest for their readers. We can not promise to be equally explicit in our developments, though perhaps we might be equally accurate without occasioning much harm ; but instead of attempting to tell all that we know and a great deal more that we guess in regard to operations in this vicinity, it has occurred to us that a synopsis of what has already been accomplished here since the 7th of last November, may well supply the place of an article on the Situation. 
Since the capture of Port Royal and the landing of the Expeditionary Corps, events have not been laggard. A great harbor, previously almost unknown to the world, has been opened; light ships and buoys established ; the results of the coast survey verified ; piers have been built for the landing of stores, and as many as seventy or eighty vessels may be constantly seen in the bay--men-of-war, transports, merchant ships, steam tugs, schooners, sloops, &c. Since the battle of Hilton Head the Navy has reconnoitered the entire coast between Ferdinanda on the South and Stono Inlet on the North; has penetrated into other bays and inlets often as far as ten or twenty miles ; taken the first possession of Tybee Island and North Edisto; driven the enemy out of the town of Rockville ; assisted in the dash made upon Port Royal Ferry on the 1st of January ; sunk the stone fleet Charleston harbor ; supervised the colony of Negroes at North Edisto, anti played its paint in the movements at Fernandina. 
Since the 7th of November, a town has sprung up on Hilton Head, where at least a thousand civilians must be now employed, in one capacity or another, teamsters, carpenters, machinists, laborers, newspaper reporters, sutlers, post masters and editors ; and, of late even women and children have been seen within the limits of the command. Long lines of hospitals, stables and store houses for quartermasters and commissaries' use, bakeries, negro quarters and other buildings have been erected, quite transforming the appearance of the spot. Negroes have been set to 
to work at various tasks and become entirely accustomed to their new condition, cotton to the value of hundreds 
 of thousands of dollars has been obtained from the Sea Islands, the blacks laboring vigorously and willingly, collecting, ginning and baling. 
Since the 7th of November, long lines of fortifications have been thrown up on this island, and lined with armament which defies any attack ; Beaufort --the Newport  of South Carolina, has been occupied by federal troops, Tybee island has been held and put into a position of defence ; Otter Point has been seized; Bay Point occupied and strongly fortified ; troops have been thrown upon nearly every one of these famous Sea Islands  and the entire coast definitely abandoned by Rebel forces. 
Since the date of our arrival here, there has occur-red ono brisk little engagement with the enemy al Port Royal Ferry, in which the National forces, both Army and Navy manifested pluck and coolness 
the most desirable qualities in soldier's or sailors. The nerve of officers was equally apparent. The re- 
proposed was completely accomplished and the enemy driven back from an annoying position, his battery destroyed and his impertinence chastised. 
More important however than any purely military movement made here since the 7th of November, has been the blockading of the Savannah river ; effected by the erection of two forts on Jones and Bird islands, within eight miles of the city of Savannah; works erected under infinite difficulties and amid great danger on spots hitherto supposed to be absolutely untenable if not inaccessible; and which have already proved the inefficiency by driving off the Rebel fleet and forcing Tatnall to acknowledge that he could not have remained ten minutes longer within their range without being smashed to pieces. 
The Situation then is one upon which those who have contributed to accomplish it, may honestly congratulate themselves and that may well prove an auspicious augury for the events which are to follow. 
The Western Victories. 
The successes which hate attended our arms at the West, continue, and the results are even greater than 
the successes themselves. Fort Henry, Fort Donelson, Mill Spring have demonstrated beyond a shadow 
of doubt, two things which the rebels proclaimed were not demonstrable -the bravery of Northerners and the existence of a Union spirit- in the slave states. The question of relative manhood is set at rest forever, after the gallant bayonet charge of the Ohio regiment at Somerset, and the desperate valor with which the troops from Southern Illinois held their own, through the weary hours of Saturday, the 15th of February. In neither of these instances was it preponderance of force which decided the result at that particular spot ; and in neither of these instances 
did the Rebels hesitate when once they discovered they were fairly whipped to yield. Let us hear no 
more then of the superior bravery of the Southerner. 
Indeed the Richmond papers have already learnt the lesson of the day, and acknowledge, that they have 
relied too much upon the cowardice of the enemy. 
The other result accomplished by the battles in Kentucky and Tennessee, is that the population of 
these states is really waiting to come back to its allegiance. And not only of those states ; the revulsion extends over into Alabama and by the very latest dates we learn - to Mississippi. If a reaction begins in Jeff Davis's own state, it is fair to presume that it is destined to be universal. The patriotic spirit that would not be smothered in Eastern Tennessee when things looked darker, now breaks out clearly in the light of our successes; and volunteers are received 
by the government; while a second gunboat expedition up the Tennessee River was as brilliant in its discoveries as its predecessor, that so stirred the country. Nashville and Columbus are now in our lands. The Tennessee and Columbus river, are open to free and unrestricted commerce, trade has begun again between Nashville and New York, and every proof of loyalty is given by the people who we have so long heard were unanimous in favor of the rebellion. 
The beginning of the end is surely evident ; for the alacrity- with which our generals advanced and followed up those victories affords the best possible presage of still more [glorious] [?] and still more 
		 
happy re-unions. 
		 
The Reviews. 
The Review of troops at Hilton Head on Monday, March 3, was unanimously pronounced by old army officers, one of the finest they had seen. More than one regiment of volunteers extorted from the regular officers, this praise. 
The inspection at Beaufort on the 6th was equally satisfactory ; the three arms of the service seemed to vie with each other ; artillery, cavalry and infantry manifesting the most gratifying improvement in drill 
and discipline. It has always been said that volunteers were the best material in the world for soldiers; it has already been proven that the material required working up ; what results can be attained when it is 
worked up have been shown the world within the last month at the West. The fact that the process of working goes on here, was evidenced by these reviews. When the time comes for the army here to act on a scale and in events commensurate with those that have attracted the attention of the country elsewhere, the army here will be ready. 
A CONTRAST. Brig. Generals Grant and Buell have 
both been made Major Generals since the result of their brilliant movements at the West has reached the government ; and have besides made their names familiar in the mouths and hearts of their country-men, as household words. The latest news from North Carolina is that Brig. Gen. Huger has been placed under arrest. While the Raleigh Reporter thinks 
news too good to be true, the Memphis journals announce Floyd as a traitor and scoundrel ; he is even twitted with the thefts which he perpetrated on the National Government in order to reccomend himself to the rebels. 
OTTER ISLAND.--An unfortunate circumstance occurred yesterday morning at Otter Island. Two small parties of the 45th Pennsylvania regiment went out to surround a number of Rebels., supposed to be lurking in the vicinity. They were led along different routes by negro guides, but the guides were stupid, and in the grey of morning, the two detachments came upon each other, when one party fired ; two were killed on the spot, Captain E. Y. Rambo, and a corporal, whose name we have not yet been 
 able to learn ; two were severely wounded in the lungs, and are unlikely to recover, and several others were slightly wounded. 
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