Memphis Daily Appeal CS
Federal Reports from Arkansas.
From the Memphis Bulletin.]

By recent arrivals from Helena we learn that that place is at present very quiet. Little is going on but proceedings connected with a portion of the army and navy lying there, and a recent order, diligently carried out, prevents the soldiers leaving their camps except on strict regulations: this has made the city streets more orderly. The number of negroes with the army is great; the dark brethren are not popular with the soldiers.

The executive mansion of Governor Phelps, and the remainder of the military executive government, is on board the steamboat Choureau, no residence on shore having yet been put in order for their accommodation.

It is confidently stated in Helena that since the seizure of the steamboat Fairplay, with five thousand stand of arms for Hindman’s rebel troops, that a Federal gunboat ascended the Yazoo and captured a second lot of arms, amounting to about eight thousand stand, which was also intended for that general.

If this intelligence should prove correct, Hindman will be in a position of much difficulty. We know from communications of his that have reached the hands of Federal authority that he made strong application to the Richmond government for arms, alleging that a considerable portion of the forces under him were useless from the want of arms for them. The loss of thirteen thousand stand of arms must prove extremely, if not fatally, embarrassing to him.

There are, also, that statements of the seizure of a Confederate battery up the Yazoo, the particulars of which have not yet come to our knowledge.

A few days ago the Iatan and other transport boats, having, it is said, eight thousand men on board, proceeded down the river on some expedition, the object of which was not made known. We are told that the boats had returned, having discovered indications that showed an escort of gunboats would be a necessary adjunct to the expedition, and useful for shelling out any guerrilla parties that might be on watch along the banks. The loss of the Fair Play, and probably the intention to make other efforts to pass arms to Hindman across the river, have evidently wakened all the vigilance of the enemy, who will bring all their available resources into play to keep up communication with the Arkansas Shore.

It is also stated in Helena that the guerrilla forces in the neighbourhood has largely increased, and that the Federal pickets have more than once been driven back by their attacks. Preparations are going on, and the confident tone of the Federal officers cause it to be believed that any interruption from such sources will be merely temporary and trivial.

The number of persons known to be saved from the ill-fated steamer Acacia, and brought to Helena, was full sixty.

The lady whose name we published as Mrs. Schuman, was the wife of a Confederate captain, whose residence was in the neighbourhood of Helena. She was travelling under an assumed name.

Col John Bellzer, aid-de-camp of Gov. Yates, who was on board, was among the lost. He was agent of the associated press, and was well known as a newspaperman. He was formerly clerk of the Illinois Senate. A very wide circle of friends who held him in high regard, will deeply deplore his loss.