SUNDAY
JUNE 1, 1862
THE DAILY PICAYUNE (LA)

The City Police.

The city has just gone through a process which, it might have been anticipated, would produce, if not a convulsion, some more of a sensation than it seems to have done. The entire personnel of the police has been changed within the compass of a single week, and is now in good working order, day and night. Doubtless, in making the change, some of the best and most useful of the old force have been omitted from the new list, and there are particularly some of the captains and lieutenants whose intimate knowledge of the town and all its people made their services invaluable, and whom we do not find in the catalogue of reappointments.

New Orleans, at the present moment, needs, if ever she did since her foundation, the active and faithful services of a good an efficient police. That important part of the government of this city has too often been entrusted to unworthy and unreliable hands, the posts under it having been considered the price and reward of past partisan services, or of such services yet to be rendered. Whatever may be the character of the force just appointed, and that has yet to be developed, we may fairly conclude that it is upon no such grounds as these that it has been appointed.

Thus it the more completely has it in its power to act independently and to discharge the important duties devolving upon it faithfully, and without favor or fear. Great interests are confided to its keeping, among which are not only property and personal immunity from injury, but even the liberty and the life of the citizen. Certainly a position of great and heavy responsibility is that of the policeman, and it is meet that he should consider it and its obligations most seriously upon assuming the discharge of its functions.

We have been informed that the new police has not been selected from the large number of applicants without much discrimination and deliberation on the part of Provost Marshal French, and from the prompt manner in which that officer has performed the duties of his office since his accession thereto, we deduce the conclusion that he will exercise such a supervision of this important department as will secure its lasting efficiency in the protection of the best interests of our community.

We believe that there are yet a good many vacancies in some of the districts to be filled, and in the meantime we suppose that detachments of the military will continue to do police duty where their services are needed.

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Won’t Emigrate.—The Negroes of Boston have held a public meeting to consider the subject of colonization. They don’t believe in the project, and their resolutions are pointed:

Resolved, That when we wish to leave the United States, we can find and pay for that territory that shall suit us best.

Resolved, That when we are ready to leave we shall be able to pay our own expenses of travel.

Resolved, That we don’t want to go now.

Resolved, That if anybody else wants us to go they must come and get us.

Taking of New Orleans.
Further Reports of Commander Porter.

U.S. Steamer Harriet Lane,
Mississippi River, April 30, 1862.

Sir—I inclose herewith the capitulation of Forts Jackson and St. Philip, which surrendered to the mortar flotilla on the 28th day of April, 1862. I also inclose in a box, forwarded on this occasion, all the flags taken in the two forts, with the original flag hoisted on Fort St. Philip when the State of Louisiana seceded.  Fort Jackson is a perfect wreck. Everything in the shape of a building in and about it was burned up by the mortar shells, and over 1800 shells fell in the works proper, to say nothing of those which burst over and around it. I devoted little attention to Fort St. Philip, knowing that when Jackson fell St. Philip would follow. The mortar flotilla is still fresh. Truly, the backbone of the rebellion is broken. On the 26th of the month I sent six of the mortar schooners to the back of Fort Jackson to block up the bayous and prevent supplies getting in. Three of them drifted over to Fort Livingston, and when they anchored the fort hung out a white flag and surrendered. The Kittatinny, which had been blockading there for some time, sent a boat in advance of the mortar vessels, and reaching the shore first, deprived them of the pleasure of hoisting our flag over what had surrendered to the mortar flotilla. Still the fort is ours, and we are satisfied. I am happy to state that officers and crew are all well and full of spirits. I have the honor to remain,

Your obedient servant,

David D. Porter.

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A New Paper and a New Party in New York.—The New York Evening Post, of the 13th inst., has the following:

The Monitor is the title of a new German journal published in this city, edited by Dr. Ignatz Koch, as the organ of the Union of German-Americans, a political organization of American citizens of German birth, who believe that slavery and freedom will be and must be the watchword of the two great parties in the State, which will arise out of the present war, and that either liberty must expel slavery, or slavery will crush liberty.

In the “Address of the German-American Party,” which forms the “programme” of the Monitor, it is declared that both of the present parties, the Democratic and the Republican, are virtually dead, and have only those appearances of life exhibited by a corpse under the effects of a galvanic battery. “There is apparent now and then a convulsion of the muscles, but of spirit or soul there is no sign.”

For this reason, it is stated, it has been determined by the leaders of the German element in the United States to form a German-American party, with the purpose to represent the views, wishes and demands of the German citizens of the United States, independently of the old parties; and to make their principles felt in the country by all the means in their power. For this end a provisional central committee has been chosen, and a party organization has been formed in this city. The success of the movement has been such as to induce the establishment of a weekly journal, the Monitor, as the organ of the new party.

MONDAY
JUNE 2, 1862
PORTLAND DAILY ADVERTISER (ME)

Desperate Battle Near Richmond!

Washington, June 1.—The following dispatch was received at the War Department this forenoon, from the field of battle of the 1st:

12 M.—We have had a desperate battle,¹ in which the corps Gens. Sumner, Heintzelman and Keyes, have been engaged against vastly superior numbers. Yesterday, ay 1 o’clock, the enemy taking advantage of the terrible storm which had flooded the valley of the Chickahominy, attacked our troops on the right flank. Gen. Casey’s division, which was in the first line, gave way unaccountably and disunitedly. This caused great confusion, during which, the guns and baggage were lost; but Generals Heintzelman and Kearney most gallantly brought up their troops, which checked the enemy. At the same time, however, we succeeded, by great exertion, in bringing across Gens. Sedgwick and Richardson’s divisions, who drove back the enemy at the point of the bayonet, covering the ground with his dead. This morning the enemy attempted to renew the conflict, but was everywhere repulsed. We have taken many prisoners, among whom is Gen. Pettigrew and Col. Long. Our loss is heavy, but that of the enemy must be enormous. With the exception of Gen. Casey’s division, the men behaved splendidly. Several fine bayonet charges have been made. The 2d Excelsior Regiment made two to-day.

Geo. B. McClellan
Maj. Gen. Commanding.

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From Corinth.

Corinth, May 31, (via Cairo, June 1.)—A special dispatch to the N. Y. Tribune says, yesterday morning our reserve divisions were brought up, and our entire front moved forward, the men having two days’ rations in their haversacks. During the day we kept up a tremendous cannonading, shelling the woods furiously. The rebels hardly showed themselves, but replied feebly with a few shots. Last night we threw up breastworks along the entire front, and slept on our arms within 1000 yards of the enemy’s breastworks. At 6 o’clock this morning, Gen. Pope entered Corinth without the slightest resistance, and took possession. At the same time, the Mayor, who came out on a different road, met Gen. Nelson, and surrendered the town to him. There were no inhabitants remaining, except women, children and old men. The rebels succeeded in carrying away absolutely everything except a few provisions which, with the warehouses and depot, were burned before we arrived. They took every invalid from the Hospital, and every letter from the Post Office. They did not leave a single gun, and had been moving away troops for more than six days, and stores two weeks.

The most of the troops have gone toward Grand Junction. The rebel rear guard under Bragg, 1000 strong, marched southward at midnight.

Citizens assert positively that Beauregard was there in person and left with it. All concur that never more than 60,000 troop were there at once, and usually much less.

The rebel fortifications were five miles long from the Memphis & Charleston to the Mobile & Ohio Railroads, but were much weaker than we supposed. They could have been carried by storm any time.

The few prisoners we have are deserters from the rebel rear guard.

There is great mortification in our army.

I have these details from one who was there in person.

A New Feature in Warfare.

Washington, June 1.—During the whole of the battle of this morning, Prof. Lowe’s balloon was overlooking the terrific scene from an altitude of about 2000 feet. Telegraphic communication from the balloon to Gen. McClellan, and indirect communication with the military wires, was successfully maintained; Mr. Park Spring of Philadelphia, acting as operator. Every movement of the enemy was obvious and instantly reported. This is believed to be the first time in which a balloon reconnoisance has been successfully made during a battle, and certainly the first time in which a telegraphic station has been established in the air to report the movements of the enemy and progress of a battle. The advantage to Gen. McClellan must have been immense.

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The Doomed City.—The news from Charleston gives us particulars of the declaration of martial law in that city. The Charleston Mercury, in anticipation of an attack there, puts the query: “Is not Charleston to be defended?” and a correspondent, speaking of a contemplated surrender of the city, says: “If, indeed, this decree is written in the Book of Fate, then let us know it at once, that patriots may have the chance to die before so terrible a doom shall overtake them,”

Charleston is a doomed city. The hand of fate points at it with unerring finger. It was here the first gun was fired at the flag. A sacrilege so great can only be wiped out by a terrible penalty. Like the cities of the plain, this offending city may become as desolate, and may never be forgiven by an overruling power, till the besom² of destruction has swept over its devoted head.

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The Fall of New Orleans.—The London Times has some speculations on the fall of New Orleans. It admits that it is a great blow to the rebels, and thinks they will feel it essentially. The Times thus discourses on that glorious victory to the Northern cause:

“It cannot be a pleasant thing to lose the commercial capital of the South, and still to lose it in this inglorious manner. It is vain to deny that the possession of New Orleans is such a loss to the South, that if the city could be maintained by the Federal power for an indefinite time, the South, great as it is, must pine, and dwindle, and go back to its natural state of forest and swamp. It is vain to say that a force holding that city, and supreme wherever a boat can swim, cannot spread devastation far abroad, and ruin all the classes which depend upon profits derived from without. To do the Southerners justice, they appear inclined, at least tacitly, to admit a great part of this.”

The Times seems to doubt the endurance of the South. So do we. They have a hard road before them, if they think to ruin themselves and their country for a series of years, by standing out in their rebellious course. Says the Times: “If the Southerners have but the endurance of which it would be easy to cite a hundred instances, they may well laugh the idea of subjugation to scorn. But they have sometimes talked so loudly and acted so feebly—as in this case of New Orleans—that we are not certain that words really mean facts.”

There is no “subjugation” in the case—but it would appear as though the Times would never find that out. It throws in a crumb of comfort for its friends, where it says: “they have the Merrimac, which for the moment holds the command of the little sphere in which she moves.”

Indeed! Have they? When the news reaches our brother Thunderer, as it has before this, that this commanding monster has been “blown sky high,” and her hideous bones now lie hurled “in the vasty deep,” he will change his tune, and no doubt find some other “consolation” to offer these infamous villains, who are carrying on this bloody war for no other purpose than their own aggrandizement.

TUESDAY
JUNE 3, 1862
THE HARTFORD DAILY COURANT (CT)

For the past week there has been an unwonted activity in the shipment of breadstuffs to Europe. There was shipped from the port of New York, 1,127,618 bushels of grain, and 27,018 barrels of flour. The Great Eastern took out 98,241 bushels of wheat, and about 350 tons of assorted provisions.

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On the 8th inst.,³ the Provost Marshal at Ship Island, with a detachment of troops, made a visit to Biloxi and destroyed the telegraph communicating with Ocean Spring and New Orleans. He found considerable latent Union feeling, but the persistent lying of the Rebels—who insisted that their army had whipped the Yankees at Corinth, and was steadily driving them north—prevented any open demonstration. All the able-bodied men were being drafted, care being taken to get any man who might be suspected of Unionism.

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The Fourth of July.—The finance committee on the raising of funds for the celebration on the coming Fourth, commenced their duties yesterday, and before nightfall raised over $600. The celebration is a sure thing; so let those who have plenty give plenteously, and let every man do according to his ability. . .

The principal feature of the celebration will be two balloon ascensions by the brothers Brooks, the well known æronauts. The committee on balloons are unanimous on this part of the programme.

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Gough’s Lecture.—Owing either to the hot weather or the subject, John B. Gough did not have as good a house last night as when he was here before. “Temperance” was his subject, and probably there is no man in the country better able to handle this subject than Mr. Gough. His lecture was full of facts, statistics and anecdotes, given as only he an give them, and oftentimes causing the audience to give expression to their feelings by long and continued applause, (which, we believe, is forbidden by the trustees of the church). Mr. G.’s description of his ascent of Mount Blanc was very fine. Henry Clay, he said, had once told him that war, famine and pestilence were the greatest evils a country could have, but he differed with the statesman, thinking that war, slavery and drunkenness were the greatest ills that could come upon a nation—and those which it seems we are called upon to-day to bear. He says that rum is killing more soldiers than powder, but still thinks that young men are better off on the battle-field than in the grog shop. He gave some very amusing anecdotes of his adventures in England and in America, and wound up with an eloquent appeal in behalf of the Temperance cause.

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Pratt Street Evacuated—Advance on Washington.—At an early hour on Monday morning, last, Messrs. John B. Eldridge and wife, Ellery Hills and wife, and Daniel Phillips and wife, started on a pleasant trip to Washington and localities in that vicinity. All of the party being residents of Pratt street, that locality presents a deserted appearance.

Mr. Wm. Davis, a contraband from Fortress Monroe, delivered an address last evening in the North Church, New Haven. Mr. D. was 47 years a slave and related his experience. He will lecture in the Center Church in this city on Friday evening next. Those who have heard him speak very highly of him, as being a smart and intelligent man.

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Daring Burglary.—About ten o’clock on Saturday night a bold burglary was committed at the office of the New Haven Steamboat Company, Peck Slip, New York, by two men. Mr. Henry I. Wright of this city, the agent of the Company, left the office for home at 9 o’clock, but in about an hour he returned for something which he had forgotten. He was unable to enter the office, and suspecting something wrong, he procured the aid of policemen, who guarded all the outlets to the premises, and then commenced a search. The two burglars were found concealed in the attic, and the money which they had taken from the safe, amounting to $3,852, was found concealed in a cotton bale. The safe had been drilled and blown open in order to get the money. But for the return of Mr. Wright to his office at 10 o’clock, the thieves would, in all probability, have made clean work of their job.

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A Novel Scene in Court.—On Friday last, four Sisters of the Good Shepherd took out their papers of naturalization in New York. The ladies were dressed in cream-colored merino, black flowing crape veils, white bands round their foreheads, blue corded belts with tassels, and a large silver heart suspended from the neck of each. It appears that they are part owners of property on which their institution is situated, and it becomes necessary for them, in order to legally hold it, to become citizens of the U.S. The regular questions were answered satisfactorily, and the oath of allegiance was administered by N. Jarvis, Esq., and three subjects of the Queen and one Bavarian have their allegiance to the United States.

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The Public Clocks.—Confound the clocks! Confound the keepers thereof! There was good ten minutes discrepancy, yesterday, between the Center and the State House clock. Lots of trouble and miscarriage is caused the omnibus men, as well as many other classes, by this utterly unnecessary difference. Which o the clocks is right, nobody cares a fig; all we ask is that one standard, and one only, should be recognized in our public time-pieces. Let pedants stickle for apparent or real, solar, sidereal or corrected time; the public asks only that all the public clocks tell a uniform story. The clock at the station of the railroad is carefully corrected, and it would be easy to adopt that time-piece as the guide and set all our public clocks by it. There ought to be a law passed by the legislature, if no other body has the power to correct this evil; for a serious practical inconvenience it daily and hourly is to both residents and visitors to our city.

WEDNESDAY
JUNE 4, 1862
THE BOSTON DAILY ADVERTISER

From Washington.
WHAT THE REBELS MEANT TO DO.

Washington, June 3.—The government regards it as a palpable fact that the movers in the present rebellion never entertained the expectation of achieving a revolution. What they desired was to open a point for foreign intervention on which they relied to overthrow the Union. They began their intrigues even before they ventured upon rebellion, and ever since have applied themselves to this work of intervention. The pretence of revolution was therefore a fraud and is now exposed to the world. It is not doubted that these views are now or soon will be known to European Governments through the Secretary of State.

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OUR LAKE DEFENCES.

A highly interesting report was made in the House this afternoon by Representative Blair of Missouri from the Committee on Military Affairs, with an amendment reported as a supplementary section to the pending bill for enlarging the Illinois Canal and improving the Illinois river. The section provides for enlarging the locks of the Erie and Oswego Canals to a size adequate to pass gunboats at a cost not exceeding three millions.

ALL QUIET.

The War Department has not received any further details of the late battle in front of Richmond.

No news of public interest has been received from the army at Corinth.

Advices from the Valley of the Shenandoah indicate a race, in which so far Jackson’s army has the lead.

Hospital Fleet in the Service of the U.S. Sanitary Commission.—There are now in the service of the United States Sanitary Commission, for employment in the transportation of the sick and wounded in the army of the Potomac, the following vessels, viz: The ocean steamers Daniel Webster No. 1, and the S. R. Spaulding, the steamers Elm City, Knickerbocker and Daniel Webster No. 2, and the tenders Elizabeth and Wissahickon. In addition to the above steam fleet, a large sailing vessel, (the St. Mark’s 1870 tons,) is now being fitted up as a permanent stationary hospital for York River. The Western fleet of the Commission is not involved in the above list. About 4900 sick and wounded soldiers have already been transferred from the seat of war near Yorktown to hospitals at other points by transports managed by the Commission.—Washington Sunday Morning Chronicle.

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The Blockade.—The English journals which have been so confident that there is no blockade on our coast, will be dismayed at the fate of the fleet sent out to evade our squadron and to carry arms and munitions into Charleston and Wilmington. Besides the capture of two rebel steamers, Commodore Dupont announces the capture of three which are probably British, laden with British goods and all, we believe, from Nassau.

It certainly begins to appear as though something besides paper was at work on that coast. The Liverpool firm, who are reported to have made one million sterling and no losses in evading the blockade, will probably have something now to enter on the other side of the account. There is still quite a fleet on its way to our coast from which we may yet hear by way of Dupont, unless the alarm is given at Nassau and they lose courage and seek some other market for their wares.

The Montgomery (Ala.) Advertiser sighs for a “great leader to upturn the existing state of things, and take us safely through the revolution.” The editor then asserts that during the war, thus far, “the whole tendency has been to repress the leading merit and give commanding positions to mediocrity.”

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There is every indication that the ensuing summer and fall will see a vigorous revival in mercantile affairs. In the book trade, which is as sensitive as a barometer to all outside influences, there seems, lately, to have been a marked change. For instance, Mr. Carlton of New York, has sold five thousand copies of Victor Hugo’s “Les Misérables,” and four thousand copies of “Artemus Ward,” in less than seven days after the date of their publication. This is doing well in spite of the war.

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There are 15 military hospitals in service in St. Louis, affording accommodations for 5750 patients, and a reserve of 250 beds, making a total of 6000. The number of patients admitted has been 19,457, of whom 1400 have died; 15,717 have been furloughed, discharged or returned to their regiments, and 3750 remain.⁴ There have been 162 additional deaths of soldiers in private houses, &c. From the date of appointment by the Commanding General, Sept. 10, 1861, to May 1, 1862, the Western Sanitary Commission has received 985 cases of goods from eighteen States, and Massachusetts has sent the largest number, 223. Illinois comes next, having sent 132.

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The National Intelligencer is informed by persons who have recently been over the principal portion of the State that the grain looks exceedingly promising throughout Maryland. The oats needed rain, but the recent beautiful showers have remedied that evil, and a full crop is now expected. The rye has already headed and looks finely, while the wheat is very thick and tall for the season.

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Local Matters.
DRAMATIC, Etc.

Boston Museum.—Miss Charlotte Thompson is certainly pretty, pleasant and pleasing; Miss C. T. is likewise and actress by profession and practice, But, like a good many other youthful creatures who cultivate the drama, Miss C. T. stands in her own light. She sets up for a star. Well, that’s all right enough. But she wants to be a big star—and there she makes a miss of it. A taper don’t fill a vast saloon, nor anything but a sun light up space. So it is better for the new planet to illuminate a world of moderate size, then to shed a dim glimmer over immensity. Miss Thompson hasn’t quite rays enough to irradiate the dramatic system which  she affects, although she might be brilliant in one of less proportions. “Camille,” and the melo-drama announced for this evening, which is “Madeleine, or the Belle of Faubourg,” are unsuited to her. Their great dullness is too much for her to lighten. Why should she eclipse herself in this way? A bright, intelligent face, a sweet voice and a graceful person, area  good capital, and, if well invested, may bring rich return. Let Miss Thompson be a star, if she chooses, but let her be a star of her natural size and in her proper place. Then shall it be perceived by any observer that she really evolves a light, and the perception shall be grateful.

THURSDAY
JUNE 5, 1862
THE ST. ALBANS DAILY MESSENGER (VT)

Gen. Butler’s Course at New Orleans

Gen. Butler is “taking the bull by the horns” in New Orleans. His orders all thick and fast, and the rebels have no doubt before this time found out that he is not a man to be trifled with. No sooner had Gen. Butler taken possession of the city, when the women commenced insulting officers and soldiers in all manner of ways. Being women, they thought they could escape the punishment they so justly deserve. But not so. The order . . . directing that all women insulting our soldiers should be treated as women of the town plying their avocation, will undoubtedly have a tendency to put a stop to the insulting conduct of the dear ladies of New Orleans.

The order was at first misconstrued. It was regarded as an outrage upon the ladies of the South by the Mayor of the city, and was so proclaimed by Beauregard to his troops, but when rightly interpreted and as explained by Gen. Butler, it admits of no such construction. By a municipal regulation of New Orleans, women of the town found plying their trade in the streets are liable to imprisonment in the calaboose; and all Gen. Butler meant to have understood, by his order which so much stirred up the rebels, was that those who insulted our troops should be treated in the same manner.

Several important seizures have been made  by Gen. Butler, among which was that of $800,000 in specie in the house of the Consul of the Netherlands. The consul naturally objected to the seizure of the money, but as it was sealed and stamped “Citizens Bank, N.O.” the commanding General did not hesitate on this account. Eighteen consuls of foreign nations remonstrated against the act as a violation of treaty obligations. General Butler told the gentlemen that it was proved that the flag of the Netherlands was made to cover property that belonged to the rebels, which could not be allowed.

Gen. Butler has managed most admirably since he has been in New Orleans. He has treated the citizens with much consideration and respect—far better than they deserve. The Mayor has from the first acted like a fool, but he has at last got his desserts, and is now lodged in Fort Jackson with other prominent Secessionists of the city. The secessionists of New Orleans will find that Gen. Butler’s orders will be executed to the letter, and the sooner they are convinced of this, the better it will be for them. The Commanding General at New Orleans is the “right man in the right place.”

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Spicy Correspondence
How the Mayor of New Orleans was Brought to Modify His Opinion

State of Louisiana
Mayorality of New Orleans, May 16

Maj. Gen. Benjamin F. Butler, Commanding U.S. Forces

Sir—Your general order, No. 28, of date 15th inst., . . . is of a character so extraordinary and astonishing that I cannot, holding the office of chief magistrate of this city, chargeable with its peace and dignity, suffer it to be promulgated in our presence without protesting against the threat it contains, which has already aroused the passions of our people, and must exasperate them to a degree beyond control. Your officers and soldiers are permitted, by the terms of this order, to place any construction they please upon the conduct of our wives and daughters, and, upon such constructions, to offer them atrocious insults.

The peace of the city and the safety of your officers and soldiers from harm or insult, have, I affirm, been successfully secured to an extent enabling them to move through our streets almost unnoticed, according to the understanding and agreement entered into between yourself and the city authorities. I did not, however, anticipate a war upon women and children, who, so far as I am aware, have only manifested their displeasure at the occupation of their city by those whom they believe to be their enemies, and I will never undertake to be responsible for the peace of New Orleans while such an edict, which infuriates our citizens, remains in force. To give a license to the officers and soldiers of your command to commit outrages such as indicated in your order upon defenceless women, is, in my judgment, a reproach to the civilization, not to say the christianity, of the age, in whose name I make this protest. I am, sir, your obedient servant,

John T. Monroe, Mayor.

To this disrespectful letter Gen. Butler vouchsafed the following unequivocal reply:

Headq’rs, Department of the Gulf
New Orleans, May 16.

John T. Monroe, late Mayor of the city of New Orleans, is relieved from all responsibility for the peace of the city, and is suspended from the exercise of any official functions, and committed to Fort Jackson until further orders.

B. F. Butler, Maj. Gen. Commanding

This order brought the Mayor up to headquarters in a hurry. Gen. Butler talked to him very freely, and lectured him very severely for palcing such an offensive construction on Order No. 28, and called his attention to its language, which expressly declares that “hereafter” women insulting our officers and men “shall be regarded and held liable to be treated as women of the town." The General then told him that he must apologize for and withdraw this letter or suffer the punishment for his offense indicated above. The Mayor didn’t like “the look of things,” and made the annexed apology and retraction, whereupon the General allowed him to resume the functions of his office:

Gen. Butler—This communication, having been sent under a mistake of facts, and being improper in language, I desire to apologize for the same, and to withdraw it.

May 16, John T. Monroe, Mayor.

A day or two after making the apology, Mayor Monroe appeared at Gen. Butler’s headquarters ad demanded the right to withdraw it, and General Butler granted it; but informed the insolent Mayor that he had played with the United States authority long enough and now he had got to go to Fort Jackson. Judge Kennedy, John Mc’Clellan, Chief of Police, and D. G. Duncan, who accompanied the Mayor and approved of his conduct, were also sent to Fort Jackson.

FRIDAY
JUNE 6, 1862
THE BARRE GAZETTE (MA)

PROGRESS OF THE WAR.

The important events of the week, since our last issue, are the evacuation of Corinth, the hasty retreat of Jackson, and the battle near Richmond. It will be remembered that Beauregard, in his official report of the battle of “Shiloh,” called Corinth “the strategic point of the campaign.” This fact, with the evidences of a hasty flight which the rebels left behind them at that place indicates that they became satisfied that they could not successfully resist Gen. Halleck’s army, and therefore suddenly changed their programme, and “skedaddled.”

The rebel Jackson, after his dash upon Gen. Banks, which so stirred the whole loyal people a week ago, has retreated more rapidly than he advanced, just in season to escape being cut off by Gen. Fremont, who at last accounts, was close upon his heels.

We have had two days of hard fighting before Richmond, which resulted in a heavy loss on both sides. It commenced on Saturday, when the rebels attacked us in the midst of a severe storm. The first day was disastrous in its results to the Federal forces, but on Sunday the tide of battle was turned against the rebels, and they were driven in confusion back upon Richmond. . . Our loss in killed and wounded is estimated at three thousand; that of the rebels is not known, but they left twelve hundred dead on the field! It was a terrible battle, and although, on the whole, a decided Federal victory, still it was a costly one. There can be no doubt but the rebels are determined to make a desperate resistance before yielding their capital, and we must expect to hear of more bloody work there; but Richmond must fall! Our army has opened communication with its base of operations at Fortress Monroe through the York river, and has severed the rebel connection between Richmond and northwestern Virginia by taking possession of the northern railroad at Hanover Court House. As this was the route by which the enemy received a large portion of his supplies, its interruption must naturally tend to hasten the crisis at Richmond. We have the utmost confidence in the ability and efficiency of Gen. McClellan and his army, and although the suspense with which we wait for news of the fall of the rebel capital is oppressive, still we are willing to wait patiently for the time when the fatal blow shall be struck and the rebellion crushed.

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The London Times on American Affairs.—In its American news summary of the 16th ult., it thus remarks of our military movements:

“Fort Macon, as we anticipated, has surrendered, and the port of Beaufort, North Carolina, is open. It is strange that there is no news from Savannah; but, unless the Federals manage things very badly, that city ought to share the fate of New Orleans. In that case, Wilmington, Charleston and Mobile would be the only places of consequence in the hands of the Confederate States along their whole seaboard.

“The military movements of Beauregard are not known to us, but it is just possible he may have marched from Corinth upon Memphis to the east, in order to get the support of the flotilla in some grand coup. If Halleck has anything like 160,000 men, the position of the Confederate corps becomes to the last degree dangerous; and the Federal General, who is a highly trained and scientific soldier (the author of the best work on soldiering ever written in America), is not the man to lose the great advantages afforded to him by the possession of such an enormous force. The Federals are gradually encircling and closing in on the heart and head of the secession movement. On the northeast angle of the Confederacy they have pressed down as far as the Rappahannock, and have only left to their enemies the divided allegiance of the James and York rivers, and Norfolk, on the seashore of Virginia.

“The coast of North Carolina is theirs, except Wilmington. They hold all the coast of South Carolina and of Georgia, except Charleston and Savannah, and the eastern shores of Florida are open to them whenever they please. On the Gulf (we presume) Pensacola only remains to the Confederates—though nothing has been heard for certain of the state of affairs there for some time back—and Mobile, and the profitless coast of Texas. McDowell, on the Rappahannock, however, is exhibiting immense caution, or is waiting for some development of Banks’ movement; perhaps, indeed, he is in observation lest the Confederates, if beaten at Yorktown and Richmond, should try to dash at Washington. McClellan is spending golden hours endeavoring to do what mortal general cannot effect—commanding success where he attacks. Private letters state he has an enormous field and battering train, and upward of 110,000 men; but there is some difficulty in finding them, and this difficulty is not likely to decrease if the army advances, if ever it does.”

The next arrival from this side, however, seems to have convinced the Times that McClellan had not wasted “golden hours,” as on the 17th it holds the following language concerning the evacuation of Yorktown:

“The news from America we publish today is hardly less important than the capture of New Orleans. The Confederate army evacuated Yorktown on the 4th of May, abandoning a number of its guns, together with stores and ammunition, and retreated to Williamsburg, a few miles up the Peninsula. All that had been said respecting the strength of the Confederate army seems to have been strictly true. It numbered, according to deserters, 100,000 men, and even this estimate is lower than that of Gen. McClellan. The telegrams do not give  any sufficient data for determining the cause of this movement. The Confederates, with an immense army, have abandoned the positions which they fixed upon some weeks since, and have fallen back, leaving no less than 71 heavy guns behind them. The object of this change of tactics we can only guess from the subsequent operations.”

SATURDAY
JUNE 7, 1862
THE SPRINGFIELD REPUBLICAN (MA)

The Great Antagonism.

When the rebels made Negro slavery the avowed basis of their confederacy we thought they had reached the utmost limits of theoretical folly and absurdity. But a Virginia abstractionist has led off in an entirely new and astounding stretch of the slavery doctrine. In the Virginia Senate, on the 15th of May, Mr. Collier submitted a joint resolution declaring slavery to be the fundamental doctrine of southern civilization, and that it is an institution of such inherent rightfulness that it is not subject to the will of the majority in any state, and can never be abolished without the consent of each individual slaveholder—in fact, an never be abolished at all, because each man (white man, of course) will always have the right to make Negroes slaves and hold them so in spite of all laws and constitutions. This is making slavery a divine institution with a vengeance. The object of this new attempt to extend the outposts of the peculiar institution is obvious enough. It is intended to meet and check the tendency to gradual emancipation on the president’s plan, which will be developed in Virginia, as well as in the other border states, after the rebel armies are driven out. . .

Mr. Collier proposes to have this new plank in the pro-slavery creed adopted by the confederate government and by the government of each state in the confederacy, as security against all future efforts at abolition in any of the present slave states. Doubtless the Virginia assembly will adopt the new doctrine, and these blind supporters of an obsolete barbarism will imagine that this shallow and monstrous abstraction will prove a Chinese wall⁵ to protect it against the assaults of Christian civilization.

While this tendency to the most extreme doctrines and measures I exhibited in the southern aristocracy and the leaders of the rebellion, it is cheering to find among the loyal men of the South, the slaveholders included, a growing disposition to consider the slavery question with candor, and this too in spite of the needless exasperations created by the anti-slavery zealots in and out of Congress, who obstinately refuse to see the signs of the times, or to co-operate in the great practical measures which are hastening the extinction of slavery. The action in this direction of the old-school Presbyterian assembly, which has been sitting at Columbus, Ohio, is most significant, and marks beyond mistake the setting of the irresistible popular current, which is to sweep the accursed institution to its doom. That body has hitherto been eminently conservative, and has been very tender towards the slaveholders. Last year, after the war began, it was with difficulty that the calm and moderate resolution of old Dr. Spring, declaring it the duty of Christians to uphold the government in suppressing the rebellion, was pressed through. But this year the assembly, by the decisive vote of 199 to 20 adopted a paper prepared by that noble Christian patriot, Dr. Robert J. Breckinridge of Kentucky, which is not only sound and hearty in its loyalty, but takes bold ground against slavery itself. It declares that there is “an almost superhuman effort in the present rebellion to base the entire frame-work of government on the single principle of hereditary servitude,” and that the “power of patronage of the general government have, to a great extent, been wielded in aiding and abetting this effort.” And it propounds this radical anti=slavery doctrine:

“The system that makes or proposes to make the relation of master and slave hereditary, perpetual and absolute, must be wrong, as it is a negation of the principles and precepts of the Gospel and of the very idea of civil liberty and inalienable rights.”

The adoption of such a declaration as this by the old-school Assembly marks a decided and important progress in the popular opinion against slavery. The other religious bodies have spoken this year with more than their accustomed boldness on this subject, and the new-school Presbyterians voted that “this whole insurrectionary movement can be traced to one primordial root, and only one, African slavery, the love of it and a determination to make it perpetual,” and that “everything, slavery if need be, must bend to the great purpose of restoring the Union and crushing out the last living and manifested fiber of rebellion.”

In allusion to these and other signs of the general feeling against slavery, some newspaper makes the comment that “the policy of our government has got to be fundamentally changed towards slavery.” Can any be so blind as not to see that this fundamental change has already taken place? The people decreed it in the election of Abraham Lincoln to the presidency. In every act of his administration he has kept this new policy of freedom prominent, and in his emancipation message he proposed the measure by which it will be realized. None are so blind as those who will not see, and there are none so unjust to the present administration as those who clamor for a policy against slavery, as if that were not already the distinctive and crowning glory of Abraham Lincoln’s administration. And his calm resistance to the clamor for ill-considered and unconstitutional measures, instead of being inconsistent with the general spirit and policy of the administration, will be seen in the end to have been the essential means of saving the great cause from wreck by the rashness and blind zeal of some of its supporters. The progress of the sacred work is steadily onward, and every dollar spent and every life sacrificed in the war is a deadly blow against the organized crime by which the rebellion was inspired. Neither the madness of its supporters nor the rashness of its enemies can stay its doom.

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The Story of a Brave Boy.—Capt. Boggs of the Varuna, tells a story of a brave boy who on board his vessel during the bombardment of the forts on the Mississippi river. The lad, who answers to the name of Oscar, is but thirteen years of age, but has an old head on his shoulders, and is alert and energetic. During the hottest of the fire he was busily engaged in passing ammunition to the gunners, and narrowly escaped death when on of the terrific broadsides of the Varuna’s rebel antagonist was poured in. Covered with dirt and begrimed with powder, he was met by Capt. Boggs, who asked, “Where he was going in such a hurry?” “To get a passing box, sir;⁶ the other was smashed by a ball!” And so through the fight, the brave lad held his place and did his duty. When the Varuna went down Capt. Boggs missed his boy, and thought he was among the victims of the battle. But a few minutes afterwards he saw the lad gallantly swimming towards the wreck. Clambering on board of Capt. Boggs’s boat, he threw his hand up to his forehead, giving the usual salute, and uttering only the words, “All right, sir! I report myself on board,” passed coolly to his station. So young a lad so brave and cool in danger will make himself known as years go over his head.

¹ This is the Battle of Seven Pines.

² “besom” (pronounced bee-zum) is a broom,  especially one of brush or twigs; in the sport of curling it is the broom used to propel the stone down the ice.

³ This report is probably from May, and “8th inst.” ought to have been 8th ult.” It looks like the editor picked it up whole and inserted it without making this change.

⁴ No, the numbers do not add up . . .

⁵ Meaning the Great Wall of China.

⁶ A passing box is a cylindrical leather case, sized to the dimension of the powder charge, in which powder monkeys ran powder from the magazine to the ship’s guns. It opens at one end and is carried by a leather strap that goes over the shoulder of the sailor. “Monkey” in naval parlance refers to any small object—in this case, the boys assigned to this dangerous duty.