SIR,--I am informed by Major-General Hunter that he is sending Colonel ---- on an important mission in the southerly part of his Department. I have not been made acquainted with the objects of this mission, but any assistance that you can offer Colonel ----, which will not interfere with your other duties, you are authorized to give. Respectfully your obedient servant, S.F. DUPONT, _Rear-Adm. Comdg. S. Atl. Block. Squad._ To the Senior Officer present at the different Blockading Stations on the Coast of Georgia and Florida. [D] "The effect was electrical. The Rebels were the best men in Ford's command, being Lieutenant-Colonel Showalter's Californians, and they are brave men. They had dismounted and sent their horses to the rear, and were undoubtedly determined upon a desperate fight, and their superior numbers made them confident of success. But they never fought with artillery, and a cannon has more terror for them than ten thousand rifles and all the wild Camanches on the plains of Texas. At first glimpse of the shining brass monsters there was a visible wavering in the determined front of the enemy, and as the shells came screaming over their heads the scare was complete. They broke ranks, fled for their horses, scrambled on the first that came to hand, and skedaddled in the direction of Brownsville."--_New York Evening Post_, Sept 25, 1864. [E] "The colored regiments had nothing at all to do with it; they behaved with propriety throughout."--_Boston Journal Correspondence_. ("Carleton.") "The negro troops took no part whatever in the perpetration of this Vandalism."--_New York Tribune Correspondence_. ("N. P.") "We know not whether we are most rejoiced or saddened to observe, by the general concurrence of accounts, that the negro soldiers had nothing to do with the barbarous act."--_Boston Journal Editorial_, April 10, 1863. A NEW ART CRITIC.[F]