They came into an open clearing, only to find that the rebels had retreated in the most precipitate manner. While the Union troops were crowding through the woods, the enemy had started along the Leesburg road, taking their cannon, but leaving their dead and wounded, and large quantities of arms and ammunition. A single caisson remained. Their magazine had been struck by a shell, and exploded with appalling effect. Around it the dead and dying were heaped in masses—fifteen men and five horses being killed. The Union men were wild with the enthusiasm of victory, and having placed the wounded in the houses near by, and chopped the gun-carriages to splinters, they started in pursuit of the retreating foe. This was about three o’clock. General McCall, with his staff, had arrived on the ground only to hear of a victory won. Knowing that an advance would be fatal, he ordered a recall, and with the wounded and dead, and the trophies of war, the troops returned from the field. The brave and victorious band arrived at Langley’s about nine o’clock in the evening, where they were met by thousands of their shouting and exultant comrades. The rebel troops engaged in this battle were on the same errand. Two hundred wagons had been sent out by General Stuart, their commander, under the care of a foraging party, escorted by the Eleventh Virginia, Colonel Garland; the Sixth South Carolina, under Lieutenant-Colonel A. J. Secrest; the Tenth Alabama, Colonel John H. Forney; the First Kentucky, Colonel Sam. Taylor; the Sumter Flying Artillery, Captain Cutts, and detachments from Ransom’s and Radford’s Cavalry. The rebel troops fought well, and did honor to themselves as soldiers, whose nerve and bravery would have been worthy of triumph in a sacred cause. Their loss was seventy-five killed, one hundred and fifty wounded, and thirty prisoners. Of the Federals, seven were killed and sixty-one wounded. EXPEDITION TO SHIP ISLAND. DECEMBER, 1861. General B. F. Butler, after having been stationed for a short time at Fortress Monroe, was assigned to the North-Eastern Department, and located his headquarters at Boston, where he superintended the organization of the New England troops, and the fitting out of an expedition intended to make a demonstration at some point on the Southern coast. A portion of his troops sailed from Boston on the 23d of November, in the steam transport Constitution, which arrived at Fortress Monroe on the 26th, with the Twenty-sixth Massachusetts, and the Ninth Connecticut regiments, and Captain Manning’s battery—making a total of one thousand nine hundred men. Brigadier-General J. W. Phelps here took the command, and reached Ship Island harbor, in Mississippi Sound, December 3.