The war news.
It is reported that the enemy, during the storm of last Tuesday, advanced their picket lines on our extreme right, south of
Petersburg.
We have no positive information on the subject, but the news is not very important if true.
There is a report that the explosion heard on Monday night was another attempt of the enemy to blow out the western end of the
Dutch Gap canal.--The freshet in the river has, we hope, by this time, filled up the ditch and obliterated all traces of the canal.
It is likely that one of our pontoon bridges, which, by good management, was allowed to be washed away, has pulled up in the neighborhood of the submerged canal.
Francis P. Blair, Sr., the
Yankee commissioner, arrived in this city late Wednesday night, attended by "a servant,"
Mr. Blair came into our lines at the point, in front of
Fort Harrison, held by the
City battalion.
He was delayed several hours on our lines waiting for a permit to come to the city, which was not procured till a late hour of the night.
Since his arrival he has been kept, or has kept himself, from the public eye, and his provements and whereabouts are shrouded in mystery.
He is believed to be lodged at the
Spotswood Hotel; and we think there is little doubt that he is, though his name does not appear on the register.
He has been met accidentally by several of his old acquaintances, and their meetings were characterized by the utmost cordiality on both sides.
He is said to have had interviews with the chief executive officers of the
Government.
What passed at these interviews we need not expect to know until
Mr. Blair returns to the
United States, when everything will be published in full in the New York
Tribune and other New York papers.
Mr. Blair's ostensible business in
Richmond, or rather presumed business here, for there is nothing
ostensible about him, or his business, or movements, is to ascertain whether anything can be done to bring about a cessation of hostilities — an end of the war. We think his real business is to place the
Lincoln Administration in a good position before the
Northern people, who are just now called upon to fill up another draft.
Lincoln knows that the propositions he will make are such that they will be spurned by our Government; but our rejection of them will enable him to go before his people, and, with
Blair's aid, to prove that the "rebels" will accept of no terms of peace, and that nothing is left him but a vigorous prosecution of the war.
Mr. Blair will return to
Grant's lines on Saturday if the freshet subsides sufficiently to enable a flag-of-truce boat to go down the river.
We have no news from the South or Southwest.
