Fortress Monroe, April 22.—A small row-boat arrived here this morning, from Norfolk, containing three men, a woman, and two children, refugees.
They report that the Merrimac is still at the Gosport navy yard. Workmen were engaged in placing iron shields over her port-holes. It was supposed that the improvements would soon be completed, and the Merrimac be out again in two or three days. She was aground on the last day she came out, as was generally supposed here.
Nothing was said in Norfolk about the bursting of a gun on board the Merrimac, and that supposition was undoubtly incorrect. Captain Buchanan is thought to be still alive, having only been wounded by a rifle shot in the thigh. It was only a flesh wound.
Four new gunboats have been launched at the navy yard, and four more are in course of construction at Norfolk.
The previously reported engagement between the troops of Genral Burnside and a Georgia regiment took place on Saturday. The Union troops are said to have numbered only five hundred, while the Confederate troops consisted of the Third Georgia regiment, commanded by Colonel Wright.—The engagement took place not at Elizabeth City, but on the canal above that place.—The rebel loss 15 killed and 85 wounded. They were only partly equipped, they say, and many lacked muskets and ammunition. They are said to have run on being attacked, while the Union troops held their ground until they had buried their dead, when they retired. Eleven graves of Union soldiers were subsequently counted on the battle field.
One of the refugees visited Richmond last week. He states (hat there are very few troops either there or at Norfolk, most of the force having been sent to Yorktown. Fourteen thousand troops are said to have passed through Richmond in one day last week, bound for Yorktown.
The whole party of the refugees came from Savannah. One of the men who brought his wife and children belongs in Halifax. Another belongs in New York, and is a carpenter by trade. The third is one of the crew of the steamer Fingal, which ran the blockade some time since at Savannah. The crew of the Fingal were sent here from Norfolk by a flag of truce some weeks since, but were immediately returned. The rest of the crew are still in Norfolk. Up to last Saturday they were supported by the British consul, but a recent despatch from Lord Lyons has thrown them upon their own resources, and it is supposed that they will be forced to enlist in the Confederate navy.
One of the men, who left Savannah on the 1st of March, reports that great consternation prevailed there. The steamer Fingal and other vessels in the harbor were ready to be burned. The troops in the vicinity of Savannah have been dying in large numbers —mainly, on account of the filthy condition in which the men kept themselves.
The city might have been easily taken by our troops at the time of their first landing at Port Royal. An attack was then confidently expected, and the whole city was in a state of intense excitement, and alarm.
The Cecil Whig, Elkton, MD