A few days after the publication of the President’s Message and Proclamation, the fact of its promulgation having been made known to the rebel pickets, they manifested great curiosity to hear it; and one of our men consenting to read it to them, quite a party collected on the opposite bank to listen. While it was reading, the utmost silence and attention were preserved by the listening rebels, and after it was finished one of them called out: “Well, that sounds about right. We’ll go back to camp and tell the boys about it.” Papers are frequently exchanged by the pickets, but the rebels tell our men that their officers do not like them to get our papers of late as “there is nothing encouraging in them.”

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