Semi-Weekly Dispatch

The most important recent event has been the advance made by a portion of Gen. Sherman's division, under command of Brigadier General Stevens, and several Union gunboats, against a rebel battery, on New-Year's Day. The expedition was fully successful. This triumph is an indication that the rebels are about to suffer new and still more serious injuries from our South Carolina expedition. Charleston and Savannah are now constantly menaced, and the distance between the former city and our out posts is being rapidly diminished. The fond hope of the Secessionists of the Palmetto State, that they could remain safely at home during the progress of the rebellion, watching at a prudent distance the conflict in the Border States, with their own shores uninvaded, has proved utterly fallacious. Their best harbor and the favorite resort of their proudest aristocrats has fallen into our hands. Their railroad communications have been cut off.--Their industrial system has been demoralized, and, in some districts, utterly destroyed. Thousands of their contrabands have abandoned them forever. In insane fury they have demolished millions of dollars worth of their property, and the hand of incendiarism, prompted by motives different from their own, has desolated some of their most important thoroughfares.

The harbor of Charleston has been hermitically [sic] sealed, and her citizens are kept in a state of fearful suspense, hourly fearing that a vigilant army, near at hand, or secret foes in their very midst, may overwhelm them in irretrievable ruin. South Carolina is reaping the fruits of her folly and wickedness in fomenting the rebellion almost as rapidly as her most inveterate enemies could desire; and, much as she suffers, each new day, instead of bringing her relief, only adds to her miseries, perplexities and dangers.

The Richmond Examiner, of the 2d inst., gives an extraordinary picture of the condition of the Rebel army. After remarking that most of the officers are habitually drunk--that dirt, carelessness, bad food, and want of proper medical treatment have produced an immense amount of sickness, the Examiner proceeds:--

"We cannot shut our eyes to the fact that the army is becoming a name of terror and dread to the minds of our citizens. The newspapers are still filled with advertisements of bonuses for 'substitutes,' although the War Department has adopted a rule restricting the number of substitutes to one in each company. The rates paid for substitutes are enormous. We are informed that they average from two hundred to two hundred and fifty dollars; and we have been told of a recent instance where fifteen hundred dollars were paid for the prompt procurement of a substitute to take the place of a private suddenly constrained to leave the army. Richmond is filled with soldiers who have come out of the hospitals, or who have got here on some pretence or other, applying for discharges, and striving and wriggling in all sorts of ways to get out of the army. It was but a few days ago that a soldier, discharged from one of the hospitals here, committed suicide rather than be constrained to return to the army."

Even supposing, says the Philadelphia Bulletin, that the editor, for the sake of making a sensation, has been guilty of exaggeration, still, after making allowance for this, the statements he makes are most significant.

After hearing so much of the fine spirits of the chivalric Southerners, and of their eagerness to enlist; after hearing, too, so many denials of the reports that men wee pressed into the service, and that substitutes were often purchased, this statement from a leading journal in the rebel capital, given so circumstantially, is deserving of more than the usual amount of consideratian. [sic] It confirms the view that we have often taken, that the unfavorable delay in getting our main army into proper fighting condition, has had a most terrible effect on the rebel army. When men pay from two hundred to fifteen hundred dollars to get out of the service, the horrors of it must be quite as great as those described by the Richmond editor.

When patriotism is put in the market, and sold to the highest bidder, as it appears to be in Virginia, one can form some idea of the spirit of the troops. It is evident that when this army of the South, degraded and demoralized as it is described, is brought into the field against the well-organized army of the Union, every man of whom has volunteered cheerfully, the victory will be on our side. Our Generals have been providing for just such a victory, by the very delay that has been much so censured by unmilitary men. The time of action and advance has now arrived; Burnside and Buell are both on the point of striking at the enemy, and their movements will, we venture to predict, be the signals for a general advance, which will carry consternation and defeat into the demoralized rebel army.

A pretty general desire, on the part of the people and the press, is manifesting itself, for a forward movement of the army. Gen. McClellan, doubtless, knows what he is about, but if our army is not now ready to strike the enemy, when will it be? It has been undergoing organization and discipline for the last six months, and nothing has been withheld, in the shape of munitions and equipments, to render it invincible, that an extravagant expenditure of money could procure. The men are enthusiastic for a forward movement, and were as ready two months ago as now. The country, however, has confidence in Gen. McClellan, which will not be shaken until they have the most indubitable evidence of his unfitness for the responsible position he occupies, and this evidence has not yet been adduced. He may not yet have seen the favorable time to strike, but when he does, we believe the result will be a triumph. That day and triumph the country is anxiously awaiting.