February 10, 1863, The Charleston Mercury
(CORRESPONDENCE OF THE MERCURY.)
RICHMOND, Thursday, February 5.
Charleston’s hour is at hand. The enemy is about to wreak his utmost malice upon you. Be of good cheer. The foe has lost heart. PRYOR’S fight – 1800 – shows that ABE’S infernal Proclamation has done its work, and that the Irish, the best fighters the North have, are sick of the war. The constant desertions to us at Vicksburg show what the men of the West feel in view of Lincoln’s abolition crusade. Moreover, you have Beauregard with you – a tower of strength – a General equal to our very best. Our only fear here is on account of the iron clads; but a late Port Royal letter to the N.Y. Times lets the cat out of the bag, and admits that the Monitors can’t stand a heavy sea. Keep them out of the bar for a few days, and they will be thumped to pieces. But the Yankees have two reasons for destroying you: first, because they hate you; second, because they desire to deprive the Confederacy of its chief port. Charleston would be an irreparable loss to the cause. Defend it bravely, and may God be with you in the hour of trial. Besides the harbor works and the gunboats, we take it for granted the defences of the city itself are well mounted with guns. With an open harbor all else may fail to stop the iron-clads. Drewry’s Bluff and Genesis Point greatly encourage.
Another lady – not the plenipotentiary from Illinois, mentioned in yesterday’s letter – is here, and declares that Wall street has shut down upon Chase, and refuses peremptorily to lend him another dollar. We hope it may be true.
One of our papers takes the ground that England’s hostility to slavery is undying, and that her Government is secretly on the side of the North, in order to destroy the institution in the Southern States. People are troubled, too, lest someone of the Northwestern States shall creep into the Confederacy, and so ensure ultimately a complete reconstruction.
Hugh Pleasants, the Polybius of the age, shows from history that Wellington did not for three years achieve any greater victory than our Generals, and proves that Lee, in six months, accomplished more, in the way of killing, wounding and capturing the enemy, than Wellington did in his whole career. Thus London Times Russell’s slur in the Army and Navy Gazette, upon our warlike deeds, is set at naught.
Some two inches of snow fell last night on ground frozen as hard as iron. It will stick, provided the weather don soften, which seems probable, now the snow has ceased to fall. More vexation for ‘Fighting Joe Hooker.’
HERMES.