LATEST FROM AMERICA, VIA AUCKLAND.

Southland Times, Volume 2, Issue 108, 30 October 1863, Page 3

LATEST FROM AMERICA, VIA AUCKLAND.

The following is '•from the Southern Cross (Auckland) of the 30th October: — The brigantir.e Neva arrived yesterday after a quick passage from San Francisco, and we have been favored by Messrs Henderson and Macfarlane, the owners of the vessel, with San Francisco papers to August 29th, containing' news from the seat of war up to August 26th. The files r of papers being incomplete, we are only able to give the news of the week prior to the 26th of that month, and such as it is, it must be taken with the usual allowance for exaggerations in intelligence received from that scource. We have carefully scanned the papers, but can see nothing to indicate that the position of the belligerents is much changed. Fire and the sword have carried desolation into the city of Lawrence, which had been burned to the ground by a band of guerrillas under Quantrell, and 180 of its inhabitants killed. Only one house, it is said, remained standing ; and that was filled with the dead and wounded of all classes. One hundred and twenty of the bodies of the slain had been buried, many of them frightfully charred by fire. The AUa California says on this subject : — " The guerrilla Quantrell has left a bloody track in Kansas, the city of Lawrence being destroyed by fire and most of its citizens brutaljy murdered. Out* account blames the commanding General of the department for lack of energy, but it seems the people themselves were beguiled into security by false reports, and made little or no resistance. It is probable that Quantrell has succeeded in reaching Missouri safely." The siege of Charleston was progressing, " favorably " as the Federal accounts have it, and Fort Sumter was being bombarded by the combined army and navy of the Federals. The bombardment commenced ' on the 16th August, and continued up to the date of last advices, viz., the 23rd, by which time it is said the whole south end of the Fort had been shot away ; and it was even reported that the Fort had surrendered. This, however, is probably only an AUa California exaggeration, although if the reports of the bombardment be anything like true, the defenders must be in a sad plight. The steamer City of Madison had been blown up atVicksburg while loading ammunition, and sixty lives lost. From Washington, the account is that there was a wide -spread suffering, and that fears were entertained of a famine during the coming winter. Lee's army amounted to 35,000 men. One of the sensation headings in the AUa California is:— "The Rebel loan bites foreign sympathisers to the tune of four millions sterling," and the same paper quotes the London Spectator as having said — " The friends of the rebels have lately paid £4,000,000 for their friendship,' as the rebel loan has tumbled to such a degree as to be almost out of sight." We 'quote the following from the AUa California, of the 24th August : — " Accounts from Charleston represent the siege as progressing favorably. . The combined army and navy have battered Fort Sumter so terribly that it is scarcely tenable. A day or two will" bring the intelligence of its total demolition — an augury of equal success on the part of Federal operations against the city of Charleston. The bombardment of Charles, ton, as conducted by General Gilmore and Admiral Dahlgren, will furnish a brilliant chapter in the history of the suppression of the rebellion; and the fall of Charleston will be hailed with joy by all as the death knell of the rebel chances of prolonging their insane and fiatrlcidal efforts. The various corps of General Burnside's army had commenced their inarch through Kentucky, and as they make a much larger force than he has been accredited with, we may confidently look for important successes at his hands. He has a finely disciplined army, and is assisted by capable generals."