By a singular and strange transaction on the part of an officer on board of a Government vessel, Henry A. Wise, and undoubtedly a large number of men who were with him at Nag’s Head, escaped. This vessel left Fortress Monroe about the 8th or 9th instant, with orders to look after the enemy at Nag’s Head, at the same time that Gen. Burnside and Com. Goldsborough were engaging them on Roanoke. When the Stars and Stripes reached Hatteras Inlet, ion her return with Government dispatches, informing the government of the Federal Victory, we learned that this craft and her able commander had just left the inlet on her voyage to Nag’s Head, having as is stated, rundown the coast from Cape Henry to Hatteras without having been able to find the place to which he was sent. After reporting to Gen. Williams, he received such instructions as it was thought would enable him to find the place, when he retraced his course up the coast. At this time the battle had been fought three days, and old Wise, with his followers vanquished, so it mattered little whether he found it or not.
Had the man in command of that vessel landed above Nag’s Head, when he was in is vicinity, we should have caught the miserable Wise and all his party. I could not learn either the name of the vessel or her commander, but it is evident that we lost a rich prize through ignorance or disloyalty, either of which, in this instance, are inexcusable. –{Correspondence Philadelphia Enquirer.
– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, February 22, 1862, p. 2
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