Sacramento Daily Union, Volume 27, Number 4114, 28 May 1864 — NEWS FROM MEXICO. [ARTICLE]

NEWS FROM MEXICO.

A gentleman from Tabasco (San Juan Bantista) has furnished some additional particulars of the siege and capture of that place by the Liberal forces. He says that the siege was begun on the 18th of January. The Liberal forces consisted only of the militia from the smaller towns and villages, and who were relieved every week, amounting sometimes to 800 and at other times to 1,100 men, only 500 of whom had guns; the rest were only provided with machetes (a kind of sword.) They had five small cannon and two 24pounders, but were in great want of ammunition. The besieged were well fortified on the streets of the place, near the river banks, and supported by four men-of-war, of which three, named La Tourmente, La Pique and Pizarro were French steam gunboats, and the Conservador, a Mexican steam gunboat, the artillery which they carried and those on shore altogether amounting to twenty or twenty-one guns, with plenty of ammunition. When they lost Tabasco their forces were 850 well armed pressed Mexicans and enlisted foreigners, commanded by General Manuel de la Vega, and about 250 French mariners, without taking Into account the crews of the gunboats. On the first days of the siege the besieged made a few sorties, without gaining any advantages, and they were received so gallantly by the poor Tabasqulan laborers and countrymen that they did not dare to essay the same game again. There were more wounded by the machetes than by balls. The Liberals advanced, fighting house by house and street by street, the besieged, in the meantime, contenting themselves with throwing shells and balls into the houses and buildings as they moved along. The Liberals, with one of their 24-pounders, gave the Tourmente nine welldirected shots; but being then without any ammunition, they had to wait and load their pieces when any twenty-four-pound balls from the Mexican gunboats were round. When the Liberals reached the line of houses in front of the besieged, and the first attack on the barricades commenced, the order was given to evacuate the fortifications. The French auxiliaries and General Vegas' troops then embarked in great haste, leaving the place and eleven cannon on shore to the Liberals, and ran down the river to the village of Frontera. The explanation given by the French or this curious retreat, is the following: General Vega having refused to make a sortie with the troops and French marines under 1 .1.-5 command, and offer battle to the enemy, he was asked if he could do so with a French reinforcement of two hundred and fifty men, but he having answered " Quint $abe," the retreat was *esobed upon. TIV Liberals immediately entered the Capital, and Governor Sierra again established the Constitutional Government which for more than five years had maintained the country in peace and prosperity. In nine months of the intervention's despotic rule, more has been destroyed In this country than by all the former revolutions put together. The annual budget of the State is $80,000. The first Regency's Governor, D. Eduardo Arrebalo, extorted from the merchants, bankers, etc., in the first six months of his rule, more than $450,000; and the atrocities committed by his officers and men surpassed all outrages ever experienced by the peaceful people of Tabasco in any revolution, although they had previously seen the body of their Governor, who had been shot, brought to town, hung in the market, and the head cut off and tried in oil. This was done by order of Santa Anna's General, Ampudia, Neither the Tabasco liberals nor General Salinas hung "thirty of the most prominent Mexicans of this place, who had taken aides with the French," as the Campeachy correspondent says. General Salinas arrived from Oaxaca before the village Tuxtla [Chiapas] with 600 militia, at the very moment when the liberals of this State were besieged by the interventionist Governor, Juan Ortega, made a sortie and dispersed his troops. The Oaxaca and Chiapas liberals, with five hundred men, drove back Ortega to the Capital, and entering it at his heels, made him retreat to the most northeastern part of the State of Chiapas. He arrived afterward with 150 in Palenque, and when the liberal forces approached, left this place, and took refuge in Carmen's territory. General Salinas then marched to join the liberals of Tabasco in the siege of their Capital [San Juan Bautista], but, in Teapa, a town some thirty or forty miles distant, he learned of the capture of the place, and returned without visiting it. Two executions took place after the occupation of the Capital of Tabasco—a young Spaniard, convicted of having amused himself during the siege shooting liberals from his employer's house door, he not belng a soldier, and a deserter that the liberals found when. they entered the city. It would have been utterly impossible to have hanged thirty Mexicans, while the number of all those who take sides with the French in the whole State of Tabasco could scarcely reach half that number.

TllK Kkmki. I'oi:Ki:sT a OoLO-BLOOmB Mcrdkrkr. — The following lelter from Major General Stinley, which appears ia the Cincinnati ComMercitt!, describes the character of the rebel General Forrest, and gives an incident of hla cam r :

lleadq'r'3 Fis3f Division Fourth Asm Coups, > Department of Tin. Cumberland, L SUn Springs (Term.), April 21, 156-1. ) The late butchery at Fort HUow, 'by Forrest, seems to have filled the community with indignation and surprise. To those in the front of our armies who know Forrest, there is nothing at all astonishing in his conduct at Fort Pillow. 1 know that this very much respected Confederate hero has upon a former occasion, condescended to become his own executioner. To show the style of man Jeff. Davis and the Cincinnati Enquirer delight to honor, I will relate the following, which was stated to me last Summer by a rebel citizen of Middle Tennessee, a man of high standing in his community, who had it from his nephew, an officer, serving under Forrest. About the middle of the Summer of 1868, Forrest surprised the post of Murfreesboro, commanded by Brigadier General T. T. Crittenden, of Indiana. The garrison was composed mostly of the Ninth Michigan and Second Minnesota Infantry and the Seventh Pennsylvania Cavalry. After some little fighting the troops were surrendered. A mulatto man, who was a servant of one of the officers of the Union forces, was brought to Forrest on horseback. The latter inquired of him with many oaths "what he was doing there?? The mulatto answered that he was a free roan and came out as a ser- 1 vant to an officer— earning the officer. Forrest, who was on horseback, deliberately put his hand to his holster, drew his pistol and blew the man's brains out. The rebel officer stated that the mulatto man came from Pennsylvania, and the sane officer denounced the act as one of cold-blooded murder anil declared ho would never agsin serve under Forrest. This murdered man was not a soldier, and indeed, the | occurence took place before the United States Government determined to arm negroes. Of the truth of this there is not the shadow of a doubt, and it can be established any day by living witnesses. r .\ . . ■ - •- ; -.. ■■ Your obedient servant, i). L. STANLEY, 1 Major General.