THE INJURY TO THE MINNESOTA.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 189, 24 June 1862, Page 5

THE INJURY TO THE MINNESOTA.

Ebenezer Thompson, ship's carpenter of the Minnesota, reports the following injuries received by the vessel:— '. '.' In obedience to your orders of this date, I submit the following report of the damages sustained by this ship in hull, spars, and boats, in the engagement: on tlie Bth and 9th instant, with the rebel steamers Merrimac, Yorktown, and one other, name unknown. Port, side received one shell bn after quarter at the water line, whicli cut through the planking; one shell between main and mizen rigging, below air-port line, which passed through chief engineer's Stateroom, crossing and tearing up the deck over the cockpit, and striking the clamp and knee in carpenter's stateroom, where it exploded,: Carrying away the beam clamp and knee, and completely demolished the bulkheads, setting fire to-the same and. ripping up the deck. One shell passed through hammock-; netting, abaft the main rigging,, striking the spardeck on starboard side; cutting through four planks, then ricochetting, carrying. away truck and axle of gun carriage and wounding waterways., Two shells passed through No. 8 port, carrying away planking,' timbers, and deck clamps, and splintering several beams and castings.... One shell passed through for^ ward part of No. 6 port, carrying away planking timber and upper sill. One shell under fore-rigging,' which cut away sheet cable, penetrating planking timber and splintering deck clamps. - One shell on starboard side carried away hammock nettings and gangwayjboards. There are several wounds on port; side received from fragments of exploding shell. One shell passed through the fliainmast fourteen: feet above deck, cutting away one-third of the ma<t and bursting the iron bands. One ehell struck, the spar deck in starboard gangway, cutting it up. One passed from port to s'arboard gangway, lorward of main; mast, where it exploded, wounding two boats." .Report of ammunition used: —Solid shot, ten inches. 78; solid shot, eleven inches,lC9; shell, ten inches, fifteen seconds, 67: shell, eleven inches, fifteen seconds, 180; shell, eight inches, fifteen seconds, 35: service powder, lbs., 5,5671.'; Charles'N. Hobhbr, Gunner. : ■ ■•■-..-.': '•..-. :.-.

An Amemoan QuERiiLA.-^-Thenameof this mysterious marauder, John Morgan, is on the lips of every one, for his daring coolness and disregard of fear, has become a by-word evenramongjour,own army.. This Colonel-John Morganj for so he, styles' himself, is said to be a native of: Lexington^ Ky., whose father was a respectable manufacture? of jeans.'' From his youth, thin Morgan bas won the;adtairatwnof all wh»

kriew him for his dare-devil recklessness, which even now does not seem to have,diminished in the lcasb.^ We first heard of liim when our brigade (the Eighth)" was a portion of them, encamped at Pilot Knob, Mo., in September last. Our pickets werti shot by some mysterious agency, and report stated,.in camp, that a tall, heavy man, with flowing beard, mounted on an immense black stallion, fleet as the wind, was several times detected in the act of retreating. Shot after shot was fired after him, but he seemed to bear a charmed life. We lost sight of him until just before we left Cairo, when he appeared one night suddenly I and shot two of our pickets. Again he appeared at Bacon Creek, Ky., and burnt the railroad bridge under M'Cook's nose, shot one of his pickets, and rode off before the army had recovered from its , surprise. Y:bu remember this bold attack upon our lines on Saturday, the Sth of Starch, in Mitchell's division, and again on Sunday morning, at dai'light, upon M'Cook's camp, on the Franklin pike. The very, same Sunday, this Morgan, disguised as a countryman, and dressed in butternut-colored clothes, obtained a pa«s.from General Mitchell, who did not know him, and had the audacity to dine at the City Hotel in company with our own officers, making good his escape, with vperfect nonchalance. ■ He came very near capturing General Nelson one day last week. The plot was discovered in time to be frustrated, but not to catch the rogue. He has since captured the railroad train runuing between Louisville nnd-Naah-ville at Gallatin, taking thirty bridge-builders prisoners, but releasing them, as he seeks higher game. He lias boasted that he will catch one of our Generals as an offset to Buekner, he being Buckner's'" especial favorite. He has offered a reward of 1,000 dotlars to any citizen or officer who will catch him and his steed, and, strnnge to say, disguised, has mads these bets openly before our officers, who, at the time, did not know him. Such is Colonel John Morgan, the famous rebel scout, who, though he deserves hanging, yet wins admiring opinions from enemies as well as"friends for his daring.— New York Times.

French Antiques fob English Amateurs.—A complaint was in September last made to the Prefect of Police that a man named Knecht, a journeyman baker, had sold some statuettes,which he represented . to ba of considerable antiquity, and to have been found buried in the earth, or got up from the bed of . the Seine, but wliich in reality he had made himself., A commissary of police was in consequence sent to the man's lodgings, and there seven statuettes in lead, clumsily executed, and with sand and little stones adhering to them, as if they had just been extracted from tbe earth, were seized, and Knecht was obliged to admit that he'had made them. The man was ac- - cordingly arrested, as was also one Lefevre, who, _it appeared, assisted him in selling the pretended curiosities. On AVednesday the two men were.brought to ■ trial before the Tribunal of Correctional Police, on the charge of swindling, and a tradesman proved that he had bought, as ancient,. two statuettes whicli .•» Knecht had made. " What have you got to say, . Knecht.T-'asked the President. " 1 have to say," answered tlie man, "that I have a secret for making I antiques, aud that Ideal in such things!; I have :: carried on that'trade for twenty years! 1 have made ■'■ statuettes alone enough to fill a. waggon drawn by four horses!'' "And you sold all of them as antiques!" " The purchasers were deceived ; that was their affair. I possess a peculiar talent —a secret—that of making statuettes which resemble ancient ones; but they aro :cheap, namely 5f., 6f., Bf., orlOt' each at the outside 1" " What was the connection between you arid Lefevre ?" " I sold statuettes at 4f. each, and he sold them at a profit." "Is that true, Lefevre 1" " Yes, I sold altogether 30 or 33 statuettes, but only to English amateurs !" •' You sold them as antiquities 1" • "Yes.;' " And yet you knew that they were made by Kilecht 1" "He told me that he had found them in excavations, and I believed him !" " But how . could a journeyman baker find such things V "He told me he did" not work at his trade, and was em- , ployed as a laborer in earthworks!" " But you could not believe that he could have found statuettes in such a quantity as to be able to sell 33 to you alone 1" " I knew that he made some, but stillhe might have found ' others. After all, I declared to the police that I was engaged in business as a dealer iv curiosities, so I did nothing wrong!"—-The Tribunal was of opinion that the facts alleged against the defenders did not consti-

tute swindling within meaning of the law; and it acaccordingly acquitted them both.