Wednesday, 8th–General Townsend, of General Halleck’s staff, from Washington, D. C., made a speech to the Sixth Division of the Seventeenth Army Corps today, on the question of arming the colored men. He urged loyal men to accept commissions as officers in colored regiments. General McArthur, commander of our division, spoke also, and the boys cheered them a great deal. Steps were taken to raise two regiments of colored troops at this place and give them arms. The Fifteenth Iowa received their pay today.

April 3—Prayer meeting every night.

April 4—Fierce wind all day. Hard on soldiers. Dr. Grissom gets to camp. Hear from Rev. Mr. Sherwood. Snow all night.

April 5—Snow all a. m. Sore throat.

April 6—Visit G. T. Swain, Co. C., near camp, quite sick.

April 7—Meet chaplains of this corps. Preach to them and many others. Good meeting. All day with them. Such meetings warm the heart and encourage us.

April 8—In camp busy writing to the officers of thirteen regiments asking them if they wish our next conference to send them chaplains. Lieut. Ellis goes to work to raise money to buy a horse for his chaplain. Col. P. gives twenty dollars, others smaller sums.

APRIL 8th.—We learn to-day that the enemy bombarded our forts at Charleston, yesterday, two hours and a half. But few of our men were injured, and the forts sustained no damage of consequence. On the other hand, several of the iron-clads and monitors of the enemy were badly crippled; one of the latter, supposed to be the Keokuk, was sunk. Since then the bombardment has not been renewed. But no doubt the enemy will make other efforts to reduce a city which is the particular object of their vengeance.

Every one is on the qui vive for further news from Charleston. Success there will make Beauregard the most popular man in the Confederacy, Lee excepted.

Speculation is running wild in this city; and the highest civil and military officers are said to be engaged, directly or indirectly, in the disgraceful business of smuggling. Mr. Memminger cannot be ignorant of this; and yet these men are allowed to retain their places.

April 8, 1863, The Charleston Mercury

CHATTANOOGA, April 6. – MORGAN was attacked by the enemy at Liberty, on Friday, and driven back to Snow Hill, where he held his position, and the enemy retired. Our troops, under Colonel SMITH, were repulsed at Woodbury on Saturday, and fell back to within twelve miles of McMinnville, with the loss of one killed and eight made prisoners.

KNOXVILLE, April 6 – Parties from Kentucky report that PEGRAM’S command was attacked two miles beyond Somerset on Monday, March 24, by an overwhelming force of the enemy infantry and cavalry. After a desperate hand to hand fight, PEGRAM fell back six miles, the enemy making no pursuit. The loss was heavy on both sides. The Confederate Government agents brought out with them a large lot of cattle.

OKALONA, April 6 – The Yankees at Corinth are preparing for some movement – either a raid or an evacuation. Their suttlers are selling out their entire stock to Southern men, and are then leaving.

JACKSON, MISS., April 6. – General CHALMERS on Friday drove the enemy’s pickets within five miles of Memphis, killing two and capturing one.

We have intelligence from Fort Pemberton to the 5th to the following effect: The enemy began to embark last night, and this morning he is in rapid retreat. We shelled their camps and transports, and succeeded in disabling a boat laden with troops. We also made a reconnoissance in force from our left flank, creating great alarm amongst the Yankees.

We have reports from New Orleans that BANKS, with 10,000 men, had crossed to Donaldsonville, and had gone thence down the Bayou Plaquemine, with a view to reinforce WEITZEL, and enable him to attack the Teche country.

COLUMBIA, TENN., APRIL 6 – The following despatch has just been received:

‘To Gen. Bragg: A report received from Col. WOODWARD says: ‘With a section of KING’S Missouri Battery we sunk one gunboat and one transport and disabled others, on the night of the 23rd  instant, near Palmyra, on the Cumberland river.’

(Signed)EARL VAN DORN, ‘Major General.’

On the 4th, in a skirmish near Franklin, we captured seven Yankees.

April 8, 1863, Montgomery Weekly Advertiser

 Gen. Liddel’s command, stationed near Wartrace, Tenn., are having a good deal of sport in catching a large number of rabbits daily. An old friend of ours says that on last Friday the boys captured about four hundred of the “molly cottontails.” They manage the thing well. Two or three regiments march out and surround a thicket, then cavalry men with dogs enter the thicket and put the rabbits to flight, when our boys close in with clubs, sticks, etc., making a clean sweep of the varments. Quite a Luxury, and a great saving in a commissary point of view.–Chat. Rebel.

April 8, 1863, Arkansas True Democrat (Little Rock)

Some six or eight weeks ago, handbills and circulars were sent all over the State, notifying country dealers and merchants that the subscriber thereto was prepared to furnish some 50,000 pairs of cotton cards, calicoes, and other things, on terms that would enable them to supply families at low rates. A lively correspondence was soon opened with parties from every section of the State, and a large number of dealers, speculators, and some few who were desirous of benefiting their neighborhoods, visited the city to purchase cards and other things. They were referred to George W. Curtis, a shrewd fellow, who was book-keeper in a well known commercial house in the West for many years, and known to a great many persons in the city. The dealers were taken to a building on the river bank, and let to a cellar where boxes marked in the usual manner, with the numbers of pairs and the number of the size of the cotton cards were snugly stowed. Curtis, it appears, made no secret that these cards were smuggled, and liable to confiscation, but that was the reason why he was enabled to sell them so cheaply, some heavy sales being effected at twelve hundred and fifty dollars for each one hundred pairs. An open box or two of the cards were shown as samples. Secrecy was enjoined, as it was desirable not to let the law officers get on the scent, and as the building was near the river, it was very easy for purchasers to quietly move their boxes on a boat and carry them off.–As the demand was so great, purchasers were advised to pay for their cargo and secure their boxes, which were to be delivered early in April. Others engaged to take large quantities, one contract being to the tune of $30,000. About the first of April, Curtis told a number of his patrons that he expected every hour a large lot of dry goods and needed money, and the parties might take the cards, or take part in cotton cards and part in dry-goods when the latter came. Curtis, it appears, had a partner, whose name we did not learn and two or three others were in some way connected with the concern. The whole party boarded at the Hayne’s Hotel, and it appeared that the money received for the cards, or a good part of it was deposited with Haynes for safe keeping. A few nights since the partner of Curtis, accompanied by another of the parties, presented an order to Mr. Haynes, from Curtis, for the money. The paper money was in a box and some $1,000 in specie, in a bag. Haynes took the money from the safe and delivered it to them, but the lateness of the hour excited his suspicions and he told them they had better leave the money and call for it in the morning. They drew their pistols and prevented him from locking up the money again, took it up stairs to a room; but returned in a few minutes, handed him the box, said they were joking and went off. As they had not returned the specie, Haynes followed them, overtook the one who had the gold, took his arm and walked with him down the street expostulating, until they came in sight of two or three soldiers on guard, when the fellow got scared, dropped the bag of gold and ran off. Upon his return to the hotel, Mr. Haynes examined the box, and found the money had been abstracted and old newspapers put in its place. The next morning, the buyers of cotton cards became uneasy and proceeded to examine their purchases, when, to their dismay, they found that each box had in it nothing but a few sticks of wood so arranged that they sounded like the handles of the cards rattling, and weighing about the same as a box of cards would weigh.–Curtis & Co., have vamosed the ranche, and the buyers of the cotton cards may be seen looking very blue, each with a small stick of wood under his arm.

 Our lawyers are all busy discussing the question as to whom the $1,000 in gold belongs. One says to Haynes, for the fellow dropped it at his feet, and Haynes is bound to retain it until called for. Others say that it must be returned to those who paid the specie for cotton cards which they never received. Still others, contend that it should be divided, prorata, among all the victims, those who paid paper as well as those who paid gold. No decision has been arrived at, up to the time of our going to press, but the occurrence has given rise to any amount of witticisms and puns. It was a well planned scheme, boldly carried out, and the victims have learned the force of the old adage “never buy a pig in a poke,” which they alter to “never buy cotton cards in boxes.”

April 8, 1863, The Charleston Mercury

(CORRESPONDENCE OF THE MERCURY.)

RICHMOND, Saturday, April 4.

The cold March wind blowing this morning is fast drying the roads and paving the way to army operations, which the light April showers will hardly put a stop to. HOOKER’S army must be demoralized, if the half we hear from private sources be true. An attack on his part is not expected. Some sentences in a late order of Gen. Lee have been construed to mean offensive intentions on our side, but that cautious General will see to it that neither Yankees or Confederates get any clue to his designs.

Stonewall Jackson still grows in favor with the army. Lee inspires confidence, Jackson enthusiasm; and many who have been bitterly prejudiced against the latter, are now his most ardent admirers. A friend who called on Stonewall not long ago found him playing with two little girls, and learned that he sends some miles for them every evening to come and cheer him with their artless gaiety.

General Tochman’s case is still unsettled. In the course of its investigation before the Special Committee appointed for that purpose, some rather odd incidents have transpired, which induce the opinion that the powers that be are given to devious ways.

It is stated here that General G.W. Smith has received the appointment of State Geologist in Georgia. Another report is that he will take charge of important iron works. [continue reading…]

April 8, 1863, The New York Herald

IMPORTANT NEWS.

Three Thousand Armed Women Attack the Government and Private Stores.

BALTIMORE, April 7, 1863.

Col. Stewart, of the Second Indiana regiment, one of the fourteen United States officers just released by the rebels, and who has just arrived here, makes the following statement: –

On Thursday last he saw from his prison window to Richmond a great bread riot, composed of about three thousand women, who were armed with clubs and guns and stones.

They broke open the government and private stores, and took bread, clothing and whatever else they wanted.

The militia were ordered out to check the riot, but failed to do so.

Jeff. Davis and other high officials made speeches to the infuriated women, and told them they should have whatever they needed.

They then became calm, and order was once more restored.

All the other released Union officers confirm this statement.

April 8, 1863, Montgomery Weekly Advertiser

 When we see a man advertising for a wife or a woman advertising for a husband, we conclude that it was either intended for a joke or that it is bona fide. If it is intended for wit, where is the wit? If there is anything peculiarly funny in reviving a practice which had its origin in the brothels of New York, we cannot see it. If the advertiser be acting in good faith, we take it that he or she is a person of dubious character, and that there is some “take in” or Yankee speculation contemplated. We would not trust the morals of such a person out of sight, and should avoid their society as we would a moral pestilence. Generally, such persons will be found to be either Yankee denizens or hopeless idiots. One is an object of loathing, the other an object of pity.–Columbus Sun.

April 8, 1863, The Charleston Mercury

A correspondent of the Jackson Appeal, writing from Port Hudson, La., under date of March 15, gives the annexed account of the Yankee attack on that place:

The long expected contest between the Yankee fleet took place before daylight this morning, the first shot being fired at ten minutes past twelve o’clock, and the last one at twenty minutes past two. It was short, sharp and decisive.

Six vessels were to complete the expedition, divided into two divisions. The vanguard was to consist of the flag ship Hartford, a first class steam sloop-of-war, carrying twenty-six 8 and 9 inch Paixhan guns, leading, followed by the Monongahela, as second class steam sloop, mounting sixteen heavy guns, and the Richmond, a first class steam sloop-of-war, of twenty-six guns, principally 8 and 9 inch Columbiads. The rear guard was composed of the first class steam sloop Mississippi, twenty-two guns, 8 and 9 inch, and the gunboats Kinnes and Genesee, each carrying three Columbiads and two rifled 32 pounders. The Mississippi was a side wheel steamer. All the others were screw propellers. The vanguard was commanded by Admiral Farragut in person, on board the Hartford. The rear guard was under the command of Captain Melancthon Smith, flying his pennant from the Mississippi. They were to proceed up stream in single file, the prow of one following close upon the stern of another, and keeping their fires and lights well concealed, until they should be discovered by our batteries, when they were to get by the best way they could, fighting their passage, and once above, they believed they would have the rebel stronghold on both sides – their guns covering every part of the encampment. Besides this, the Essex and mortar boats anchored at the Point, and supposed to have already acquired our range, were expected to play no mean part in the affair.

Shortly before midnight the boats, having formed the line of battle as described, their decks cleared for action, and the men at their quarters, the Hartford led the way, and the others promptly followed her direction. At the moment of their [continue reading…]

April 8, 1863, Charleston Mercury

The Augusta Constitutionalist, of Saturday last, appears in a half sheet. The editor says:

The destruction of the Bath Paper Mills, from which was derived our supplies of printing paper, may entail on us the necessity of suspending the issue of the Constitutionalist. At this time it seems impossible to obtain paper from any other sources. All the paper mills of the Confederacy are now monopolized to their fullest capacity by press engagements. Under these circumstances, we prefer not to receive any more subscriptions. We request all persons contemplating remittances by mail or express, to withhold them, at least until we can announce definitely whether we will be able to continue the issue of this paper. Should we be compelled to suspend, we will resume our publication as soon thereafter as practicable. It is wholly impossible, however, now to make any calculation as to when that can be.

The remarks apply equally to the publication of The Southern Field and Fireside.

It would be vain for us to attempt to express the depth of our regret at this great calamity. It is one of those terrible providences to which we must bow, and we feel our subscribers will do so likewise, without any other sentiment towards us than that of regret at a common misfortune.

Under these circumstances, we will be compelled, for the present, to publish our daily on a half sheet, and to condense, or perhaps leave out, our contract advertisements.

The Macon Telegraph, of Monday, also appears on a half sheet. The editor says:

What we have for a long time foreseen and dreaded as inevitable, has come upon us. We are obliged to take to a fragment of a sheet and even then can only promise that it shall be as large as possible.For the reasons which impel this step we refer the reader to an article copied elsewhere from the Charleston Courier of the 3d instant–and so stringent are they as to force that old, wealthy, and influential sheet to a suspension for a few days. Nothing remains for us and all other Confederate newspapers, but to diminish our consumption to the lowest possible limit consistent with keeping our readers advised of current events, and this must be done by throwing out all standing advertisements, and restricting that branch of our business to the smallest possible limit.

April 8, 1863, The Charleston Mercury

About two weeks since, a force of about four hundred men of the Seventh New Hampshire Volunteers, stationed at St. Augustine, Fla., were out in the woods near that place, either on a foraging expedition or making an attempt to capture the company of Capt. DICKERSON, of the Second Florida Cavalry. Upon their retiring into St. Augustine, Capt. DICKERSON cut off from the main body of the Yankees a Sergeant and four men. They were sent to Lake City, the headquarters of General FINEGAN. Last evening a guard brought to this city the Sergeant and his comrades, and a deserter from the Sixth Connecticut Volunteers, recently stationed at Jacksonville.

April 8, 1863, Daily Mississippian (Jackson, Mississippi)

 A letter bearing the following direction reached the post office of our neighboring village of Clinton, where it was copied, and the letter bearing it again started for its proper destination in Louisiana:

 Go wing thy flight where e’er thou may,
 I’d have thee do so, without delay,
 Yet stay; go not too far, I’d have thee stop,
 And in the Clinton Post Office drop.
 But of Clintons there are many,
 To stop at Clinton, Louisiana.
 Tell the P.M. to keep you in his stalls,
 Until for you Miss Sallie Ripley calls.
 Go straight ahead–don’t be delayed,
 For don’t you se you’re postage paid?
 If on the road you should be left,
 I’ll make complaint to “Uncle Jeff.”

April 8, 1863, Arkansas True Democrat (Little Rock)

For the True Democrat.

Mr. Editor:

 Through the kindness of Dr. Headley, the head surgeon of Gen. McRae’s brigade, I had the pleasure a few days since of visiting the regimental hospitals of that brigade. For temporary encampments I regard these hospitals as models of the best kind. They are substantial log cabins, containing two rooms about 18 feet square, divided by a passage, with a good fire place to each. These rooms have closely chinked walls, good plank floors and are well ventilated above. The roofing is such as to most effectually exclude the rain. Not more than six patients are allowed to occupy the same room. Each regiment has its own hospital located at a distance from the others upon the best site near the camps. In a separate cabin there is a kitchen attached to each hospital, cooks are detailed to prepare, under the direction of a physician, such articles of diet as are suitable for the sick. So neat and well ventilated were the sick apartments, that on entering them I could not discover the presence of any vitiated air.–These hospitals have more than realized the results anticipated. The per cent. of mortality is far less than that reported under any of the various plans hitherto adopted.

 These gratifying results are chiefly due to the good sense and humanity of Gen. McRae, and the unretiring skill and energy of Dr. Headley, his brigade surgeon.

 I have sent you this meager sketch for publication, to assure loved ones at home who have friends in the service under command of General McRae, that they have better medical advice, more skillful nursing, and as many of the comforts of the sick as these hard times would furnish them at home.

 A Citizen.

 Little Rock, March 18^th, 1863.

April 8, 1863, The Charleston Mercury

HEADQUARTERS, DEPARTMENT OF SOUTH CAROLINA, GEORGIA AND FLORIDA,

GENERAL ORDERS No. 58.

CHARLESTON, S.C. April 5, 1863.

I. FIELD AND COMPANY OFFICERS ARE SPECIALLY enjoined to instruct their men under all circumstances to fire with deliberation at the feet of the enemy; they will thus avoid over-shooting, and, besides, wounded men give more trouble to our adversary than his dead, as they have to be taken from the field.

II. Officers in command must be cool and collected in action, hold their men in hand, and caution them against useless, aimless firing. The men must be instructed and required each one to single out his mark. It was the deliberate sharp-shooting of our forefathers in the Revolution of 1776, and at New Orleans in 1815, which made them so formidable against the odds with which they were engaged.

III. In the beginning of a battle, except by troops deployed as skirmishers, the fire by file will be avoided: It excites the men, and renders their subsequent control difficult; fire by wing or company should be resorted to instead. During the battle, the officers and non-commissioned officers must keep the men in the ranks, enforce obedience, and encourage and stimulate them if necessary.

IV. Soldiers must not be permitted to quit the ranks to strip or rob the dead, nor even to assist in removing our own dead, unless by special permission, which shall only be given when the action has been decided. The surest way to protect our wounded is to drive the enemy from the field; the most pressing, highest duty is to win the victory.

V. Before the battle, the Quartermaster of the Division will make all the necessary arrangements for the immediate transportation of the wounded from the field. After consulting with the Medical Officers, he will establish the Ambulance Depot in the rear, and give his Assistants the necessary instructions for the efficient service of the Ambulance Wagons and other means of transportation.

VI. The Ambulance Depot, to which the wounded are to be conveyed or directed for immediate treatment, should be established at the most convenient building nearest the field of battle. A red flag marks the place and way to it.

VII. Before and immediately after battle the roll of each Company will be called, and absentees must strictly account for their absence from the ranks. To quit their standard on the battle field, under fire, under the pretence of removing or aiding the wounded, will not be permitted. Any one persisting in it will be shot on the spot; and whoever shall be found to have quit the field, or his Regiment or Company, without authority, will be regarded and proclaimed as a coward and dealt with accordingly.

VIII. The active ambulances will follow the troops to succor the wounded, and to remove them to the depots. Before the engagement INFIRMARY Detachments will also be detailed and organized, of three men (the least effective under arms) from each Company, whose duties will be hereinafter prescribed. These men must not loiter about the Depots, but will return promptly to the field as soon as possible.

IX. The Infirmary Detachments will be under the immediate orders of the Medical Officers on the field. This Corps is to go upon the field unarmed, except the non-commissioned officers, who are to protect the Corps against stragglers and marauders. The members will be provided with one litter to every two men, and each with a badge by which he can be easily distinguished from the rest of the command, also with leather shoulder straps, a canteen of water, a tin cup, a haversack, containing a half pound of line, twenty-four bandages, two long and two short splints of wood, sponges and tourniquets, and a pint bottle of alcoholic stimulant.

X. It shall be the duty of this corps, under the immediate direction of the Assistant-Surgeon of the regiment, accompanied by the ambulances or wagons, to follow up promptly the action, administering to the immediate wants of the wounded, by giving stimulus, checking hemorrhage and the temporary splinting of fractures.

XI. Those who are too much disabled to walk, will be removed to some ambulance depot, previously agreed upon, where they will be left in charge of the Surgeon of the regiment. The removal of the wounded from the field will devolve upon the Infirmary Corps, and all men straggling from the ranks under pretext of aiding this corps will be summarily dealt with, to which end, the medical officers in charge and the non-commissioned officers are specially required to report to the regimental commanders of the stragglers, their names, and the company to which they may belong.

XII. The Assistant Surgeon in charge of the Infirmary Corps should provide himself with a pocket case, ligatures, needles, pins, chloroform, napkins, brandy or whisky, tourniquets, bandages, lint and splints. To obviate the shock of the nervous system, to suppress hemorrhage, to put fractures in some temporary apparatus, so as to facilitate the removal of the wounded, should be his first care. This last is best accomplished by placing under the fractured limb a piece of old linen or cotton, of the form of a pocket handkerchief; on the opposite and outer edges of this are placed the splints, which are rolled up in it, toward the lint, on each side; until the fracture is snugly supported in the intervening space; the whole to be secured by two or three bands of tape or of bandage.

XIII. The Regimental Surgeon should, before an action, satisfy himself by personal inspection, that all the means and appliances for carrying the wounded are at hand; give instructions to the Infirmary Corps as to the application of a tourniquet to restrain dangerous hemorrhage; establish depots for the wounded, under the supervision of the Medical Director; and render to the men of his regiment all necessary surgical aid; performing there all operations that are required; and he will be held responsible that he has at his disposition all the means, supplies and appliances, for the proper performance of the service enjoined, or has taken all proper measures to secure them. He will instruct all detailed to assist him, not to allow ambulances to be monopolised by wounded officers, to the exclusion of others. He will forbid any of the Infirmary Corps to hold officers’ horses on the field, or to do anything but what strictly appertains to their duty. The Surgeon should not devote himself exclusively to a wounded officer, nor leave his post to accompany his to the rear.

XIV. Wounds will be dressed and operations performed as far as practicable on the field, and patients made as comfortable as circumstances will admit for transportation to hospitals in the interior.

XV. Surgeons will supply themselves with Hospital Flags, and will have them attached to the Ambulances and placed conspicuously over the Field Infirmaries and Hospitals.

XVI. As soon as possible after an action, Surgeons will transmit to the Medical Director a return of casualties according to the following form: RETURN OF KILLED AND WOUNDED in the ———-Regiment, in the action of———–.

XVII. The material for the Badges and for the Ambulance Flags prescribed in VI. paragraph of this Order will be provided by the Quartermaster’s Department.

By command of General BEAUREGARD.
(Signed) THOMAS JORDAN,
Official: Chief of Staff.
JNO. M. OTEY, A.A.G. April 6
HEADQUARTERS,

DEPARTMENT OF SOUTH CAROLINA, GEORGIA AND FLA.,
CHARLESTON, April 5, 1863

(SPECIAL ORDERS No. 77)

I. IN CASE OF A BOMBARDMENT OF THE CITY OF Charleston, should any Hospital become untenable, Medical Officers in charge, and those unattached to Regiments, unless otherwise specially ordered, will repair forthwith to the temporary Hospital established four miles from the city, next adjoining the building known as the ‘Four Mile House,’ where they will convey all hospital property that can be removed, and with them attendants and nurses will report to the Surgeon in charge for duty.

II. Wounds will be dressed and operations will be performed, as far as possible, on the field, and patients will be made as comfortable as circumstances will admit for transportation to Hospitals in the interior.

III. Medical Inspectors are charged with the general supervision of the removal of the wounded by railroad to the Hospitals at Summerville and Columbia.

By command of General BEAUREGARD.
April 6 JNO. M. OTEY. A.A., Gen.

April 8, 1863, Daily Mississippian (Jackson, Mississippi)

The Richmond correspondent of the Knoxville Register says:

 The evils incident to revolution are in this city developed in their worst aspect. Citizens of Richmond are not affected by them, but the crowds which congregate in the Capital, of both sexes, give abundant evidence of the rapid progress of social demoralization growing out of the unhappy condition of our country. I cannot say more, without saying too much, and can give you no adequate conception of the looseness of morals that is becoming prevalent among those whose necessities open the gateway to all vices. Gambling, such as would startle habitues of European watering places, is not the worst of the moral calamities that has befallen Richmond.

 Not only do the Faro banks attract “despositors” from civil and military classes of society, but men who stand high, at least officially, above Congressmen and Major Generals, nightly resort to the magnificent gambling hells of Richmond. I have visited such establishments in Eastern and Southern cities, but have entered none in which the spirit of utter recklessness was so strongly betrayed as in those of this city. The vice of gaming contracted in the army over an “innocent game of old sledge,” becomes the absorbing passion of the gamester in the Faro banks of Richmond. The hope of sudden wealth, the insatiable love of excitement, the desperation resulting from the loss of fortune by the calamities of war, and the absence of those which wives and children throw about men, have all combined to fill this city with reckless gamblers.

 Women from all the States and cities of the South visit Richmond. They would reach the army, and often find it impossible. They have not anticipated the vastness of the expenditures to which they would be subjected. Their very necessities suggest a course of conduct which it is needless to portray. Penniless, helpless, unadvised, unrestrained by the presence of those to whom they are known, they resort to means of securing assistance of which at home they would never have dreamed. Religion is a stranger among the floating population of Richmond. Sunday, in this city, is the day of high carnival for all vices. Patriotism might well weep.

April 8, 1863, The Charleston Mercury

At last, the long period of doubt and delay is at an end; and this goodly city, girdled with the fiery circle of its batteries, stands confronted with the most formidable Armada that the hands of man have ever put afloat.

The first scene in the novel drama of the war, which, we trust, is to add new lustre to the fame of Charleston, has closed. Let us render thanks to the Lord of Hosts that the result, thus far, has been one of proud triumph to our country. As yet, however, we have but entered upon the ordeal. It will be for the next few days to tell the tale of our sad disaster, or complete success.

In view of the reticence which (for reasons of military policy) has heretofore marked our allusions to the presence of the iron clad fleet, a brief review of the events of the week will not be out of place. About noon on Sunday last the first intelligence was flashed to the city from Fort Sumter, that the turrets of the far-famed Monitor gunboats were looming up against the southeastern horizon. During the afternoon the entire fleet hove in sight. Eight Monitors, besides the frigate Ironsides and twenty-seven wooden war vessels, took up their position just beyond the bar. As the news became bruited about the city, very many of our non-combatant population (previously incredulous of danger) made hasty preparations to depart; and every train that has left the city since has gone heavily laden with the eleventh-hour refugees and their effects.

Sunday night passed quietly by. Monday morning brought us reports of the movements of transports up the Stono River, and the debarkation of a considerable force of Yankee troops on Cole’s Island. But throughout Monday and Monday night, the armored fleet held its position beyond the bar. On Tuesday morning it was observed that another Monitor had arrived, making a force of no less than ten iron clad vessels, including the Ironsides. [continue reading…]

April 8, 1863, Savannah Republican (Georgia)

 A correspondent of the Mobile Advertiser, writing from the camp of the Thirty-eighth Alabama Regiment, relates the following:

 Some weeks ago, a young man came to camp and proposed to volunteer. He was accepted, there being nothing in his physical appearance to indicate the singular denouement which followed six weeks afterwards. While on drill he was recognized and claimed as a runaway slave. He enlisted by the name of Solomon Vernoy; but after his arrest owned up to be nick named Pieg, and being a runaway. He says that he has a boss, but that “by right” he is free. He says that his mother was a domesticated Indian, who was unlawfully sold into slavery, and run off from Kentucky. His looks do not indicate the African, and if he gets a good lawyer and sues for his “by rights,” there will be a pretty law suit, since the master will have to rebut the presumption of color by proof. He must, at least, admire the patriotism of Vernoy, or Pieg, as the case may be.

April 8, 1863, Daily Mississippian (Jackson, Mississippi)

There is no country in the civilized world where quite the same devotion is paid to woman as in our own sunny domain. There is no land where woman, occupying in society her own appropriate place, deserves and receives a more unqualified homage, or exerts a more general and potent influence. Our present struggle for civil liberty and the heroism of Southern women were not necessary to our high appreciation of the sex. We were taught to love and to honor glorious womanhood as one of the attributes, and one of the evidences of true nobility in man. But never did woman furnish such illustrious proofs of worth, goodness and greatness, to demonstrate how much she merited our devotion, as in this glorious struggle for home and country the women of the South have shown!

 As if to inspire us with a new creation of virtue–as if to exhibit new phases of loveliness–to enthrone the sex in the holy laces of our affections–to impress the public mind with a new sense of their worth–to exhibit to the world the highest attributes of character–to cheer the brave–to soothe the sick–to minister to the wounded–to endure labor–to incur danger–to despise ease and luxury–to make unwonted sacrifices–to surrender, at the altar of liberty, those dearer than life–still to utter the words sacred to patriotism, “let us defend the country, or perish!”–to ply all human agencies, and to call on God for help–to astonish our enemies, and interest the gazing world with a devotion as holy, a courage as sublime, as ever marked the great characters of history, the women of the South have gone forth to cheer, to save, to comfort, and to bless!

 It is not affirming more than simple truth to say, without their aid, our struggle could not have been maintained! Their influence and their ministrations have saved the country! By their efforts, in large part, the troops have been clothed and warmed. They have blessed the sick, and restored the sinking in the hospitals. They have nerved the arm and inspired the courage of the soldier in the shock of battle. For them, we feel, we are enacting the deeds of glorious manhood. To them the dust-stained, toil-worn veteran looks for the laurel wreath when the battle is won. To the sanctity of home, and the purity of the domestic circle, the patriot looks for the safety, glory and strength of his country. With the help of God, they must save the country, if it is saved; they must purify it, if it is pure; they must elevate the standard of virtue; they must frown vice into the hidden recesses of its own shame; they must banish the extortioner, or mark him for infamy; they must, and they will improve and bless the world. They are heaven’s messengers. Ever true, kind, merciful, pitying, sympathizing women! Last to leave the victim on the cross; first at the tomb of the risen God-man; last to give over the offices of compassion and mercy; first to crown triumphant virtue, and to hail the conquering heroes who dre4w the sword for truth. Next to our worship and our supreme reverence for God, is our worship and our devotion for noble, self-sacrificing woman!

 With the aid of such a power, and God’s approval, we shall triumph gloriously, and our country shall yet be free as the eagle that cleaves the sky. These reflections have been suggested by reading the proceedings of a convention of some of the matrons of Mississippi, held at Meridian on the 4^th of March, 1863, to organize a “Confederate soldiers’ Aid Society,” for the better accomplishment of the objects suggested by the style of the association. They army will bless these ladies, and all those associated with them; and the country will record their names, and preserve their memory, as among the treasurers of its inheritance.

April 8, 1863, The New York Herald

There is nothing new from the Army of the Potomac. The snow has disappeared, but the roads are in a frightful condition.

By an arrival from Hilton Head we learn that the town of Jacksonville, Florida, was burned by the Union forces under Colonel Rust, in return for the attempt of the rebels to shell it and murder all the Union inhabitants.

The bread riot which took place in Richmond on Thursday is very significant of the condition to which rebeldom is reduced. If the people of that city are compelled to break open the public stores to obtain bread, what must be the state of the inhabitants of those districts which produce but little food and raise mainly cotton or tobacco? Virginia is the most fruitful grain raising State in the South, and is the Eastern portion of what Tennessee and Kentucky are to the West, and if the want of food manifests itself in such a demonstrative fashion as to bring out a hungry mob of three thousand women into the streets of the capital, we can readily imagine how dire must be the distress existing in the other States.

We learn by despatches from Nashville, dated yesterday, that General Mitchell, with three hundred and fifty cavalry, went out on the Lebanon poke to Green Hill, and dashing into a rebel camp, where there was a large number of conscripts, on the sabre charge, he took fifteen prisoners, killed five and captured all their arms, horses and equipments.

General Rosecrans’ despatches to the War Department, under date of Monday, state that General Stanley completely whipped the rebel guerillas of Morgan at Snow Hill, capturing about fifty prisoners and three hundred horses.

April 8, 1863, Arkansas True Democrat (Little Rock)

Warren, Texas, March 23d, 1863.

Mr. Editor:

 Having seen several pieces in your paper in regard to the war, our facilities for sustenance and defence, I take the liberty of requesting you to insert my opinion, if it is only the opinion of a native Texan girl. I live about a mile from the Indian Nation, on the west side of Red river, where I have the opportunity of seeing persons, not only from the Nation, but from every portion of Texas. And I am sure at this time, there is more unanimity of feeling respecting the war than ever before in Texas and the Nation. Last year there were some in Texas who were desirous of a reconstruction of the old connection. My parents were from the North–but now all, all are for prosecuting the war with vigor. The people here are far more able to bear the burden of the war now than at any time prior to this. Cotton cards have been procured, the loom and wheel have been brought into use, and nearly every family makes cloth enough for its own use, and some to spare. My mother, whose family is small, has had upwards of two hundred yards of cloth woven within the last six months. As to clothes, there will be no more trouble. The ladies are quite independent. As to the wheat crop, there never has been perhaps a more flattering prospect in Texas. More land has been planted in grain, and every appearance indicates a larger yield.

 Great preparation is making for a large maize or corn crop. It is true we all deplore the war; we are sorry it had to come; but it was a disease in the body politic which had to run its course. It has come and we trust it is in last stages. The fever is subsiding, and ere long we think the trumpet of peace will be sounded from the Great Lakes to the Rio Grande; from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

 It is strange, that our brethren of the North should have conceived an idea so erroneous as that of subjugating so many millions of their own race, armed in the holy cause of the Bible and the constitution. In the North we have friends, friends of right, and to them we look for a speedy terminus of this, the most atrocious war of modern times. But if the fanatics are bent upon piratical destruction let them come, we will welcome them to bloody graves. We would rather that our homes be burnt, our stock and grain be stolen, our brothers and lovers press the gory sod of a patriot’s grave, than live as conquered slaves.

Katrina.

April 8, 1863, Montgomery Weekly Advertiser

 We regret to learn that the Bath Paper Mill, situated a short distance from Augusta, Georgia, was destroyed by fire on Thursday last. This mill supplied a number of the most prominent papers of the country, and its loss at the present time is a public calamity.

April 8, 1863, Galveston Weekly News

 The Brownsville correspondent of the San Antonio Herald says Judge Davis was accompanied by a Major who was formerly a preacher in Austin, and by a Lieut. who was also a renegade from the same city, and by three subaltern officers, two of whom were from this State. One of these three is said to be Braubock, once the Sheriff of Gillespie county, and who escaped from the guard house in Austin last Summer. Some 10 or 12 men of the 3d Regiment had deserted by their influence, one of whom is Lieut. Holtse from New Braunfels. Pearce, the United States consul at Matamoras, keeps a recruiting office and clothes and feeds all the recruits among whom are the deserters and some traitors from San Antonio and other parts of Texas, some of whom are said to have very soon found out their mistake. The Herald says Montgomery, late of Lockhart, “went up a tree,” as soon as captured, and that Davis ought to have gone up at the same time, but that he was surrendered to the Mexican Authorities.

April 8, 1863, Galveston Weekly News

Brownsville, Texas, March 22, 1863.

Editor Galveston News:

 It is reported that Col. (late Judge) Davis, after his surrender to Gov. Lopez Wednesday last, behaved himself prudently, not joining in the noisy demonstrations gotten up by the Consul and adherents among the rabble, and that he has left Matamoras for the mouth of the river with the design of embarking as speedily as possible. “Let the devil have his due.” He has real sins enough to atone for, without imputation of others not his own. It is said that his wife had expressed a wish that he might be kept a prisoner during the war, to prevent him from serving the enemy. She is a firm Southerner, and although, as a true wife should, she goes with her husband where he wishes her to go, she does not hesitate to condemn the part he has taken against his country. He has other very near relatives in Texas, it is said, whose loyalty is true, and who are much pained by his defection.

 The steam transport, Honduras, in which colonel Davis came over, has had a run up the coast since his capture, and has returned to the mouth, ready, it is supposed, to take on these refugees, whose departure will be quite a relief from continual apprehension of unpleasant collisions. It is said that the barque “Arthur,” U. S. ship of war, so long lying off Aransas bar, is also now off this port, where a British steamer is also watching events.

. . . Sabre.