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.

April 7th. This afternoon some men were seen on shore making signals with a flag. Thinking it to be some parties from the lower fleet wishing to communicate with us, we ordered our army signal officer to exchange signals with them, but he found that it was impossible to do so, as they used different signals from ours. The gunboat Albatross then got under way, and found them to be some of the enemy, and shelled them off.

Between eight and nine o’clock, P. M., as near as I can recollect, we fired three guns at intervals of three minutes each, and sent up three rockets with same intervals intervening, to attract the attention of lower fleet, but received no answer to same. Mr. Gabaudan, the Admiral’s Secretary, with despatches, left the ship in a skiff to run the gauntlet of the rebel batteries, taking with him a contraband for oarsman, to communicate with the vessels below. Another skiff with two contrabands in it was sent away from the ship about the same time as the one first mentioned, for the purpose of distracting the attention of the emeny’s pickets from the other boat, or in case either were discovered, to give one a chance to escape. About ten o’clock P. M., a rocket was observed sent up from below, as a signal from the lower fleet that the experiment had proved a success.

Tuesday, April 7th.

I believe that it is for true that we are to leave for New Orleans, via Clinton and Ponchatoula, this evening. Clinton, at least, I am sure of. Lilly came down for me yesterday, and according to the present programme, though I will not answer for it in an hour from now, we leave Linwood this evening, and Clinton on Thursday. I am almost indifferent about our destination; my chief anxiety is to have some definite plans decided on, which seems perfectly impossible from the number of times they are changed a day. The uncertainty is really affecting my spine, and causing me to grow alarmingly thin. . . .

7th. After doing stable duty, went up to Co. H and got some ham, bread and coffee. Read the morning paper and wrote to Delos. A little after noon received orders to march. Fed, packed up and marched down to the boat. Saw Al Bushnell. Other battalion along. Took supper with Capt. Stewart on the boat. Had a berth with A. B. Good sleep.

Tuesday, 7th–The sanitary goods were issued to the different companies of the regiment today; the boys are pleased with the many good things that came from Iowa. Received orders to clean up for inspection.

APRIL 7th.—Nothing definite has transpired at Charleston, or if so, we have not received information of it yet.

From the West, we have accounts, from Northern papers, of the failure of the Yankee Yazoo expedition. That must have its effect.

Judge Campbell, Assistant Secretary of War, has decided in one instance (page 125, E. B. Conscript Bureau), that a paroled political prisoner, returning to the South, is not subject to conscription. This is in violation of an act of Congress, and general orders. It appears that grave judges are not all inflexibly just, and immaculately legal in their decisions. Col. Lay ordered the commandant of conscripts (Col. Shields) to give the man a protection, without any reason therefor.

It is now said large depots of provisions are being formed on the Rappahannock. This does not look like an indication of a retrograde movement on the part of Gen. Lee. Perhaps he will advance.

This afternoon dispatches were received from Charleston. Notwithstanding all the rumors relative to the hostile fleet being elsewhere, it is now certain that all the monitors, iron-clads, and transports have succeeded in passing the bar, and at the last accounts were in readiness to begin the attack. And Beauregard was prepared to receive it. To-morrow we shall have exciting intelligence. If we are to believe what we hear from South Carolinians, recently from Charleston (I do believe it), Charleston will not be taken. If the ground be taken, it will not be Charleston. If the forts fall, and our two rams be taken or destroyed, the defenders will still resist. Rifle-pits have been dug in the streets; and if driven from these, there are batteries beyond to sweep the streets, thus involving the enemy and the city in one common ruin.

April 7, 1863, Peoria Morning Mail (Illinois)

 Democrats, go early to the polls this morning. The abolitionists, alias the dark lantern Union Leaguers, though apparently inactive are secretly hard at work, and hence extra vigilance is needed on the part of the Democracy. Again we repeat, go early to the polls, and look sharp for fraudulent voting. This will be attempted, for in no other way can the abolitionists succeed.

April 7, 1863, The Charleston Mercury

The Richmond Enquirer very properly denounces the Government of the United States as a Despotism. Well – what constitutes it a Despotism? One thing, and one thing alone – the suspension of this writ of Habeas Corpus. By the suspension of this writ, President LINCOLN can arrest and cast into prison any citizen he pleases, and there is no power by which the citizen can be released, but his arbitrary will. This power makes President LINCOLN a Despot, and his Government a Despotism. Yet, strange to say, the Enquirer supports the proposition that the Congress of the Confederate States – President DAVIS to be empowered to suspend the Habeas Corpus Act: and, like President LINCOLN, to arrest and imprison whom he pleases, in the Confederate States, without any amenability or restraint from the Courts of the land. Does not the Enquirer support the establishment of a despotism in the Confederate States, exactly similar to that it denounces in the United States?

But the Enquirer alleges that President DAVIS will not abuse the power, if conferred upon him, by a law making him a Despot. This is exactly the plea of the Abolitionists of the United States, in making LINCOLN a Despot. It is ever the plea used in the establishment of all Despotisms. Admit the statement, however, to be true – the Government is nevertheless a Despotism. The right of personal liberty is gone. We have no right to be out of prison, if the President chooses we shall be in it. Suppose the Confederate States are conquered by the United States, will there be any worse form of Government over us? Can there be any worse, in its principles? It is to avoid just such a Government, with all its inevitable results of political ruin, slavery and death, that we are now fighting.

But the Enquirer argues that there are districts of disaffected country where the suspension of the writ of Habeas Corpus ought to prevail. Admit this to be true, for argument sake – what then? Shall the Writ be suspended throughout the Confederacy where disaffection does not prevail? To give any effect to the argument, let the suspension be limited by law to the districts disaffected. To go further, is using the disaffection in a small part of the Confederacy to extend a [continue reading…]

April 7, 1863, The Charleston Mercury

HEADQUARTERS, DEPARTMENT OF SOUTH CAROLINA, GEORGIA AND FLA.,

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 63

April 7, 1863, Weekly Columbus Enquirer (Georgia)

 We learn that fourteen bacon hams were sold in this city on yesterday, and brought the small sum of nine hundred and eighteen dollars and seventy-five cents. These hams, we learn, were raised by one of the oldest and best farmers, and were none of your little boney pieces of meat like that which you find scattered around some places in town, and better worth one dollar and twenty-five cents per pound than common meat is worth fifty cents. But that is a big pile of money these hard times for fourteen hams of bacon. Why it is almost the price of a number one negro.

Selma Sentinel.

April 7, 1863, The Charleston Mercury

FROM DIVISION No. 1.

I. IN PURSUANCE OF THE REQUISITION OF THE General Commanding, the orders of his Excellency Governor Bonham, and the terms of the Acts of the General Assembly in relation to this subject, I hereby call upon Division No. 1, comprising the Judicial Districts of Pickens, Greenville, Spartanburg, Anderson, Union, York, Chester, Laurens, Abbeville and Newberry, to supply its proportion of slaves labor under the present requisition.

II. The Commissioners of Roads of the several Districts, and the authorities of the incorporated towns and villages having jurisdiction of the road hands within their boundaries, will at once summon all persons in the possession of slaves within the limits of their authority to have their slaves subject to this call at the nearest Railroad Depot to the owner’s residence, on WEDNESDAY, the 6th day of May next, at 10 o’clock a.m., ready for transportation to Charleston.

III. All owners of slaves who have not hitherto furnished any labor in this connection will be required to furnish one-half their hands subject to road duty for thirty days, and those who have furnished less than one-half, will be required by the Commissioners and the town authorities as aforesaid to furnish enough to make up one-half. Persons owning single road hands or a number not divisible by one-half will be required to send such single negros, or two in such condition may unite and send one.

IV. The Act requires the attendance of one of the Commissioners at each Depot. He will be met by an Agent of the State and of the Confederate States, and the negros will be there receipted for.

V. Assessment of the negros are made in duplicate upon their arrival in Charleston and before they are put to work, one copy is kept by me for the owner, the other turned over to the Confederated authorities. I am authorized to say the [continue reading…]

April 7, 1863, The Charleston Mercury

The enemy’s fleet off this harbor yesterday consisted of nine iron-clads (eight turetted Monitors and the Ironsides), besides about thirty wooden war steamers of various classes. During yesterday afternoon, it was stated with confidence that the iron-clads had all crossed the bar and anchored within. At all events, their movements were such as to induce the anticipation that the thunders of the conflict will be heard before our next issue shall meet the eyes of our readers.

The reports that reach us from below indicate that the enemy is also vigorously preparing for a land attack, probably by the way of James’ Island. Twenty-five transports were in the Stono River yesterday, and six regiments of Yankee troops are reported to have been landed upon Cole’s Island. So that it is likely enough that we shall have to deal with the enemy land and naval forces about the same time.

April 7, 1863, The Charleston Mercury

Several of the largest tobacco growing counties in Virginia have held public meetings and determined to cultivate no more tobacco the present year, notwithstanding the high price which the article is commanding. This is truly laudable and patriotic conduct. It is really refreshing in these times of money making to see such a patriotic spirit evinced by a people struggling for liberty.

April 7, 1863, The Charleston Mercury

I have been instructed by the Surgeon General of the Confederate States Army to induce you to interest yourselves in the culture of the GARDEN POPPY, and thus render the Confederacy an essential service.

The Garden Poppy is a valuable as well as ornamental plant, and thrives well in our climate. The juice which exudes from the incised capsules or pods, when sufficiently hardened, should be collected, carefully put up and forwarded to me, or the nearest Medical Officer in the Confederate service. A few seeds carefully cultivated this year will be sufficient to yield a thousand plants for the next. Let me urge on parents, who have a few feet of uncultivated lands in their gardens, to encourage their children, however young, to cultivate a plant or two. To the families of our soldiers now fighting for our liberties, the cultivation of the Garden Poppy will afford a profitable income. Any persons having seeds to spare will oblige me to forward them to my address, in order that they may be distributed to any one who may desire to plant them.

THOMAS LINING,

Charleston, March 27, 1863. Medical Purveyor.

April 7, 1863, The New York Herald

The reports of the capture of Charleston are somewhat premature. That hostile demonstrations have commenced, and that a portion of our troops were landed at John’s Island, at which point the pickets of the enemy were driven in, cannot be doubted. The despatches from Charleston to Richmond confirm these statements, but they say that there are, so far, no signs of the expected attack upon the city.

Official information received at Washington yesterday, would imply that the forces of General Foster have been engaged in a conflict with the rebels at Washington, N.C., within a few days past, as the enemy were known to have concentrated a large force there.

Everything is reported quiet in General Rosecran’s department in Tennessee. The rebels under General Van Dorn fired into and rendered for a time unmanageable, the gunboat St. Clair, near Palmyra, five miles above Fort Donelson, while convoying transports. She was towed back to Cairo by the steamer Luminous.

There is no news of importance from Vicksburg today.

The British steamship Aries, which was captured on the 28th ult. in Bull’s Bay, thirty miles north of Charleston, by the United States steamer Stettin, while attempting to run the blockade on her voyage from St. Thomas, arrived at this port yesterday from Port Royal, short of coal. She is bound for Boston with merchandise.

April 7, 1863, Weekly Columbus Enquirer (Georgia)

 A crowd of women, some of them armed with revolvers and bowie-knives, entered the store of Rosenwald & Bro., on Triangular block, this morning, and took forcible possession of several pieces of calico.–The proprietor demurred to this seizure, and rushed upon the woman who had the bowie-knife, and took it from her–also re-captured two bolts of calico in possession of the invaders. He has lost but one piece of goods, he thinks. The scene in Second street was, we learn, quite exciting for the time it was in progress–but the women shortly dispersed and the usual quiet of the neighborhood was resumed.

 We know nothing of the cause of the outbreak, but sincerely deplore the circumstances. It is all wrong, decidedly wrong–and it behooves our authorities to take such action as will supply the destitute women of the vicinity, and thus prevent, for the future, any such raids upon private property. These women probably need clothing as well as food, and their wants should be supplied from public contributions, in the absence of employment that will yield sufficient remuneration for their toil! Men of wealth, open your coffers and let the poor be clothed and fed, before they become desperate and help themselves to what their hands can find.–Macon Confed, 1^st.

April 7, 1863, Weekly Columbus Enquirer (Georgia)

 We regret to learn that the Bath Paper Mill, situated on the South Carolina Railroad, six miles from the city, was destroyed by fire about 2 o’clock, p.m., yesterday. The roof of the building was discovered to be on fire, when every possible exertion was made to extinguish the flames; but owing to the prevalence of a high wind, all efforts to overcome the fire was of no avail–the entire building being consumed.

 This is a severe loss, and in the present scarcity of paper will most seriously interfere with the publication of the journals that are dependent on the Mill for a supply of paper.–Augusta Const., 3d inst.

April 6th. At four thirty A. M., weighed anchor and steamed down the river, arriving off Bayou Sara, which is about forty-eight miles below the mouth of Red River. Came to anchor and sent two boats on shore in charge of officers, the crews of which were armed, for the purpose of destroying some ten thousand bushels of corn meal and sweet potatoes found piled upon the levee, which had been transported by rebel steamers down the river, and landed there for transportation to the Confederate army at Port Hudson, as we afterwards learned from conversation with the inhabitants of this village, who flocked around us while we were employed making way with it. Every bag, except what we thought proper to take on board the ship for the officers’ and men’s consumption, was thrown into the muddy Mississippi. The villagers thought it hard to destroy this property in this manner, since they had to pay so high for it; but we, not wishing to have it reach the enemy, could not see it in this light. Before finishing this, let me remark that Bayou Sara was once a very handsome spot, but last year guerillas invested it and fired upon our transports, and the iron-clad Essex opened upon the place and laid it in ruins. A few frame buildings and the walls of some brick ones only remain to tell its fate. The remains of these buildings look to the observer like the ruins of some ancient castles in the old world, and the artist might here find a good subject for his pencil and canvas.

At one thirty P. M. got under way again, continuing on our trip down the river until within five miles of Port Hudson, when we turned around and came to anchor. From our anchorage the rebel batteries at Port Hudson, are visible to the eye, and many an officer and blue jacket has remarked that he cannot conceive how we ever stood the concentrated fire of and passed those batteries with so little loss of life and injury to ship, on the night of ever-memorable 14th of March last.

Monday, 6th. Got into Cincinnati at 8 A. M. Stopped a mile from the depot. Watered and fed horses. Then marched down town to the market. Dismounted and were given a very good dinner and breakfast. Election in the city. Crossed the river and passed through Covington to the barracks. Dod and I stayed at the stables in an old building.

Monday, 6th–Four loads of sanitary goods from Iowa were landed today for the Eleventh Iowa. Colonel Hall arrived this morning from home and the boys were glad to see him. One year ago today he commanded the Eleventh Iowa at the battle of Shiloh. The boys are all in fine spirits. The Sixteenth Iowa received their pay today. It is reported that our cutting of the levee at Lake Providence will prove of no avail, as the channel of the Tensas river is so narrow, and it is impossible to cut out the big overhanging trees, so as to make it wide enough for a fleet to pass through. The project will have to be given up as impracticable.

Board of Survey Office, Lagrange, Tenn.,
April 6, 1863.

I was in Memphis a few days since. It is quite a lovely town and quite Northern-like in its general appearance. Many of the blocks would pass muster creditably in Chicago, though the numerous fires it has furnished for the edification of the “Vandal Yankees” have somewhat marred its streets. I think the Fair grounds are not excelled even by those at St. Louis, and we certainly have none in Illinois that will compare with them for beauty, location, or in extent. There are some most beautiful country seats on the M. & C. R. R. scattered along within six miles of the city. I saw but one park. ‘Tis called Court Square and is very pretty. ‘Tis just about the size of our Canton square and filled with forest trees and evergreens. I think as many as fifty squirrels live in the park. They are very tame and playful. The city is full of butternut refugees from North Mississippi and some from Arkansas, but I could find none from the vicinity of Madison. The M. & C. R. R. is almost classical. From Memphis to Decatur, Ala. (that is as much as I’ve seen of it) you are rarely out of sight of fortifications, and on almost every mile, lay the remains of a burned train of cars. Hardly a bridge, culbert or cattle guard but has been burned from three to ten times and rebuilt as often. Night before last I had just retired (12 o’clock) when an order came to have the regiment in line and ready for action at a moment’s notice. We got up, stacked arms on the color line, and—went to bed again. Heard in the morning that 2,500 Rebel cavalry caused the scare. We still continue to guard against daybreak surprises by rising at 4 a.m., and standing at “guard against secesh” until daylight. All of the vigilance I like. I would hate to be surprised and gobbled without having half a chance. Am still on Board of Survey.