SUNDAY
AUGUST 10, 1862
THE TIMES PICAYUNE (LA)

Southern Illinois.

From a letter in the New York World, dated Chicago, July 19, we make the following extracts:

I have just returned from a trip to Southern Illinois. At Cairo we hear and see little that does not partake of a warlike character. There are not many troops—none of any account; but materials of war abound in every variety of shape. The town looks rather desolate, not having recovered its usual not very good looks since the recent overflow. The subsidence of the waters left every sort of residuum in and around the town, and it had the appearance of being the general place of deposit for garbage of all kinds.

There was some excitement in relation to the recent uprising of rebel bands in Kentucky, Missouri and Tennessee. A report of an attack upon New Madrid created quite a sensation, but it proved a false alarm. About twelve miles above, on the Ohio, is Mound City, where they build and repair gunboats. There is also an extensive hospital here, which, however, has been of but little use to our sick and wounded soldiers. It has been kept as a show [of] concern. For months there were not over fifty patients in it, while there were beds nicely fitted up, which would accommodate from ten to twelve hundred.

The crops of Southern Illinois have been changed somewhat [in] the present season by the introduction of the cultivation of cotton, tobacco and sugar—the former extending as high as 40 degrees [latitude], and the sugar cane all over the State. Cotton was not planted last spring as extensively as was anticipated. It was an experiment evidently entered upon but hesitantly. But still, after all the efforts made, seed was scarce, there not being nearly enough to supply the demand. However, there is enough growing to test the question of cotton culture in our State, and that upon the ground looks well and promises a good crop. We shall not produce enough to keep the mills of England and France in motion, nor affect the great cotton market of the world, yet there will be some thousands of bales grown in Illinois. It is generally  grown in small patches of less than five acres, each farmer proposing to raise enough for home use only, as a general thing.

Tobacco has always been cultivated in most of the Southern counties of the State, to a greater or less extent. But the breadth of land planted this year is much larger than usual. It has heretofore been grown with profit, and consequently will pay well now—better than formerly. The plants are looking well everywhere.

Sugar-raising has become an “institution” among us since it has been satisfactorily demonstrated that sugar of an excellent quality can be manufactured from the Chinese and African varieties of the cane, its cultivation on the prairies of the West has been regarded as no longer an experiment. Last year it was estimated that a million dollars worth of sugar and syrup—principally the latter—was produced in this State, and about the same amount in Iowa.

There are probably not far from seventy-five thousand acres planted in Illinois the present year. This is the estimate of intelligent agriculturalists, and as the crop never appeared more promisingly at this season than it now does, your commercial editor will please prepare himself to quote: ”Western plantation” sugar and syrups in the New York market next fall.

The corn, too, in all the region I passed through, looked exceedingly well. A full crop everywhere may be confidently looked for. The wheat has been harvested, and the universal testimony is that it “never was better.”

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The Army Bakery at Washington.—The army bakery, which was established in the Capitol in April, 1861, is now removed to a new building just erected near the Observatory. Between the first of May, 1861, and the last day of June, 1862, the Capitol bakery supplied the troops in and around Washington ten million seven hundred and seven thousand one hundred and fifty-one rations of excellent bread, for which 56,486 barrels of flour were needed, and the saving between the weight of flour allowed and what was consumed was 16,453.  As high as 245 barrels of flour have been consumed every twenty-four hours for a week, making 42,750 twenty-one ounce rations or loaves a day. The average number of barrels consumed during the month of October, 1861, was a fraction less than 239 a day, or 1,315,275 loaves for the month. Sixty-five thousand loaves were once issued in a single day. The saving of flour has in some months made the profits of the bakery $10,000 after paying all expenses, and the net profits for the fourteen months ending with June 30, have been nearly $90,000. At one time 185 hands were employed, but the average number has been about 100; they receive from $31 to $42 per month, and one ration.

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Dead Houses.—In many of the towns in Germany there is at the entrance of the cemetery a building called the dead house, where, at the request of families, bodies may be deposited for a few days before interment. By this plan, the danger of burying alive is prevented. That a Frankfort is the best constructed place of the kind in the whole of the Germanic Confederation. It consists of a central room, which looks, by as many windows, into twelve smaller rooms. In each of them is an iron bedstead on which the open coffin is laid. Over the head of the corpse is suspended a small cord to the end of which are attached, by wires, ten brass thimbles, and these are placed on the ten fingers of the body. Should the slightest movement be made, a bell would be rung and alarm a person stationed by relays in the central room night and day, and who is forced, by a piece of mechanism, to keep constantly awake. Since 1833 no instance has been ever occurred of the bell being rung. Medicines, bathe, and other remedies are always kept in readiness, but have never been needed, and yet during that time thousands of bodies have had the thimbles placed on their fingers.

MONDAY
AUGUST 11, 1862
THE MACON DAILY TELEGRAPH (GA)

The Question of Intervention.

The New York Times of the 29th ult. says:

Our European letters this morning are big with portents of intervention. Our correspondent at Paris, always well poised and well informed, is satisfied that the vast naval and military preparations of France, ostensibly directed against Mexico, are ultimately aimed at the United States. It is with a view to a possible contest with the latter, growing out of the Mexican botchwork, if not out of some direct act of friendship and support offered to the South, that the Emperor is about to crowd his cuirassed steamers and ships of the line into our harbors, and thus be prepared for all eventualities. England, servile to the Imperial policy, is obliged to make a similar disposition of its squadrons, in readiness to back Napoleon in any quarrel he may provoke. Our London correspondent, constitutionally less cautious, is still more positive that all England is hastening to the conclusion that the war can only be terminated by forcible intervention. The aristocratic party, touched with the sufferings of the masses, clamors for an enforced peace. It only remains for the suffering masses to be tricked into a concordant clamor, for the cry to become too unanimous to be resistible, and accordingly the entire energies of the London Times, Post and Herald are concentrated upon an effort to satisfy the starving workmen that their calamities are not only due to Northern pugnacity, but that the North, so far from exhibiting any symptoms of remorse, actually glories in the agonies of Lancashire and Lanark. These labors, it is assumed by our correspondent, must presently be successful in arraying the whole British people in favor of the South and intervention.

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The French Fleet in the Gulf.

The Washington correspondent of the New York Herald says:

It is stated, on good authority, that when the news of the departure of the three iron clad frigates—La Couronne, L’Invincible, and La Normandie—for the Gulf of Mexico, together with several wooden frigates and line-of-battle ships, reached Washington, our Secretary of State, Mr. Seward, wrote immediately to the French government, and made strong remonstrance against the presence, in the vicinity of the United States, of such a formidable fleet. Mr. Seward gave as the reason for his protest, that the Mexican expedition being of too little consequence to justify the sending of such a tremendous armament in American waters, the American Government could not help thinking that it is destined to act against the United States. It would, in consequence, ask from the French Government an explanation on that subject.

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From Richmond.

The developments noted in the late Richmond papers seem to us to justify the suspicion that the enemy’s movements about Richmond are mere feints to attract our attention and keep us busy while he pushes the bulk of his forces northward to reinforce Pope. Burnside and his army are reported to have arrived at Fredericksburg last Tuesday.

A “Hazardous Exploit.”—We learn from the New York World that a naval officer, with the sanction of the Navy Department, on Friday last, went on board the receiving ship North Carolina, at the Brooklyn navy yard, and selected from a whole batch of volunteers, eighteen men, who are bound on hazardous duty, the nature of which it would be contraband to publish. To be forewarned is to be forearmed, and we would advise our authorities at Fort Drewry, Wilmington, Savannah, Mobile, Vicksburg, as well as those in Charleston, to be on the alert. These eighteen men may be intended for some dashing exploit which a little watchfulness on our part might check.

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Death of Gen. Sam. Houston.—Sam. Houston, Ex-Gov. of Texas, has been reported dead, and the report has been contradicted. It has been renewed, however, in the most positive manner, by Rev. C. H. Clark, a Baptist minister, formerly of Houston, who is a son in law of Gen. Houston. On the 24th inst., Mr. Clark spoke at a war meeting in Boston Common. Mr. Clark said he had been surprised since coming North to hear that it had been reported and believed that Gov. Houston had given his adherence to secession. As his son in law, and the one who had closed his eyes in death, he stigmatized them as false. The old man was loyal to the day of his death. He took a violent cold at a meeting held by the Union men to devise means to protect themselves, which finally settled into pneumonia.

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Special Dispatch to the Savannah Republican.

Richmond, Aug. 8.—The Federals have quit Malvern Hill. Their movement in that direction was only a feint and reconnoissance to cover the transfer of their troops across the river.

The enemy have also fallen back on the south side of the river, and are now entrenched at Coggin’s Point and below.

Three members of Cobb’s Legion were taken prisoners at Malvern Hill: Stovall and Dearing of Augusta, Ga., and one other whose name is not reported.

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Harvest hands throughout the State of New York are receiving $2 to $3 a day. In Ontario county $2.50 is paid, and on Long Island the price is $3!

The above is a very significant paragraph, and goes to show that the North has already enrolled in her immense armies as many laboring men as she can well spare. Already her enlistments must materially increase the price of food and army supplies. The writer spent a portion of the summer of 1855 in Ontario county, New York, where $2.50 per day is said to be the present price of harvest hands. At that time, the price was seventy-five cents per day. The difference must ruin the farmer or vastly increase the price of wheat. It will probably do both in time. Wheat, in the absence of a market is now very low. The farmer cannot afford to raise it and pay these wages. He must abandon the business, and this will be followed by scarcity and high prices, which in turn will cripple the government. We see from the foregoing the value of the laboring population of the South in war.

TUESDAY
AUGUST 12, 1862
PORTLAND DAILY ADVERTISER (ME)

No Foreign Intervention.

We have long said that there would be no foreign intervention; which, if it come, must come from one, or two, or all the three Great Powers—from England, France and Russia, or from England alone—France alone, or Russia alone, or from England and France, or England and Russia, or from France and Russia.

Russia is friendly, and nobody supposes her interference probable, or even possible. France, although suffering for want of cotton, and losing fifteen or twenty millions a year on her tobacco monopoly, is really friendly, and will never intervene against her government.

The only danger then is from the English nobility. They would be glad to see our democratic government a failure, and would intervene, if they could, to bring the government up “to do and dare.” But that is impossible. So we shall be left to fight it out alone, as we ought to be.

But this time, as in the Mexican war, we are promised a staunch friend in the short crops of Europe, and the superabundance of our own rich harvests.

The probabilities are that our exports of grain, flour, beef and pork, will reach near $50,000,000 in the coming commercial year. We exported about $40,000,000 worth of grain and flour during the year our armies were in Mexico, which went far towards paying the expenses of the army and navy.

Our gold mines, and our golden harvests ought to yield, the coming year, the snug little sum of $150,000,000.

Cotton grew purse proud, and went to war to be crowned king. The world was willing to cotton to King Cotton, and did till he fired on Sumter, and demanded to be crowned; and then it denounced him as an upstart, who wanted to establish a new and unheard of dynasty. He was fired on in turn, and it now looks as though he would lose the name of king in grasping at the crown.

We predict that before six months, the cry for bread in Europe will be tenfold more dangerous to the governments of France and England, than the cry of cotton is, or will ever be. While at the end of that time, there will be nothing left of all this talk about foreign intervention, but a few smoldering embers.¹

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Letter from the Niece of Jeff. Davis.

The Cincinnati Times publishes a letter written from Richmond May 7th to her mother, by Helen M. Keary, a niece of Jeff. Davis, and a member of the family of the bogus President. The letter appears to be genuine, and from the intimate relations of the writer to the rebel President, is very interesting. We make the following extract:

“General Johnston is falling back from the Peninsula or Yorktown, and uncle Jeff. thinks  that we had better go to a safer place than Richmond. We have not decided yet where we shall go, but I think to North Carolina, to some far-off country town, or perhaps to South Carolina. I will write to you from there the very first opportunity.

“If Johnston falls back as far as Richmond. All our troops from Gordonsville and "Swift Run Gap" will also fall back to this place, and make one desperate stand against McClellan. If you will look at the map, you will see that the Yankees are approaching Richmond from three different directions--from Fredericksburg, Harrisonburg and Yorktown. Oh! God, defend this people with thy powerful arm, is my constant prayer, Oh, mother, Uncle Jeff. is miserable. He tries to be cheerful and to bear up against such a continuation of troubles; but Oh, I fear be cannot live long, if he does not got some rest and quiet. Our reverses distress him so much, and he is so weak and feeble, it makes my heart ache to look at him. He knows that he ought to send his wife and children away, and yet he cannot bear to part with them, and we all dread to leave him too. Varina and I had a hard cry about it to-day. There was confirmation in the church, to-day, and we all hoped so much that he would go forward for confirmation. But he did not; yet I have hoped that he will do so before the Bishop leaves here.

“Oh, what a blow the fall of New-Orleans was! It liked to have set us all crazy here. Everybody looks depressed, and the cause of the Confederacy seems drooping and shaking; but if God is with us, who can be against us? Our troops are not doing as well as we expected. At the battle of Shiloh many of our men acted very cowardly indeed, and one Colonel laid down behind a log, and would not got up even when threatened by his commanding officer with a rifle ball if he did not return to his duty. And at Yorktown, in a skirmish of Gen. Cobb’s Division, our men gave back, and if it had not been for a Georgia regiment, they would have taken some of our best rifle-pits. The regiments that are most apt to run are from North Carolina and Tennessee, I am thankful to say that the Mississippi and Louisiana troops behave gloriously whenever called on to fight.

“Direct your letters to me, care of President Davis, Richmond, Va., and then when I leave here they will be forwarded to me.”

Helen M. Keary. 

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Discrimination in Drafting.—If possible, we are sure that the military authorities will see to it that the towns which furnish their full quota voluntarily shall escape a draft. Their voluntary patriotism should not go unrecognized or unrewarded. In no other way can those towns and counties which have done comparatively little be reached equitably. There are a great many towns, and a few counties, which have yet scarcely enrolled a man for the new levy. It will be a real pleasure to see those localities compelled to do their duty.

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The Brush at Hamilton.—A correspondent of the Philadelphia Press, writing from Newbern, N.C., July 30, gives the subjoined account of the affair at Hamilton:

“Commander C. H. Flusser, of the Commodore Perry, who, in the absence of Commodore Rowan, has command of the Albemarle Sound, and all the rivers emptying into it, made another reconnoissance up the Roanoke as far as Hamilton the other day, on learning that the enemy were attempting to re-fortify that point. Our fleet, consisting of the Commodore Perry, Capt. Flusser; Gen. Putnam, Capt. Hotchkiss; and Shawsheen, Capt. Woodward, ascended the river at a very rapid rate and in a very quiet manner, and when within a short distance of the point where the rebels were at work, and before they were aware of our approach, a company was landed from each of the gunboats, with howitzers, side arms and rifles, who by a hasty and well executed movement effectually surprised the rebels, who were a full regiment strong. They broke and ran in the most precipitate manner, believing that the entire Burnside expedition was after them, as one of the prisoners said. A large number of prisoners fell into our hands, together with their camp equipage, commissary stores, some two or three howitzers, three field pieces, a quantity of ammunition, private papers, and some twenty cavalry horses. And all of this without the loss of a man on our side. The enemy did not lose a man, as our sailors could not get within gunshot of the rebels, who were too terribly frightened to even look behind them. The new fortifications which they were constructing were again destroyed, as well as the obstructions in the river, which had been replaced. Now the route is again clear to Weldon, which point our fleet may visit before the next mail reaches.”

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Sailors are very scarce in New York, the inducements held out to enter the government service being greater than those offered on merchant vessels. To Liverpool $45 in advance is the ruling rate, and to complete crews $50 is sometimes paid; to London $45 to $65, and to Havre and the North of Europe $50 to $85; to South America and Mediterranean $16 per month and $30 advance; to West Indies $20, one month’s advance; to East Indies and California $13 and $30 to $40 [respectively,] and to New Orleans $30, and one month’s advance.

WEDNESDAY
AUGUST 13, 1862
THE CONSTITUTION (CT)

THE ARMY OF VIRGINIA
TWO DAYS FIGHTING.
Loss Severe on Both Sides.

Washington, Aug. 9.

Gen. Pope’s pickets being on the southern bank of the Rapidan, were attacked by a superior force of the enemy, and driven across the river. McDowell’s corps was ordered forward at once. Banks’s corps followed, and all moved toward the point where our pickets had been driven across the Rapidan, 10 or 12 miles from Gordonsville.

Headquarters, 6 miles beyond Culpepper, Va., Aug 10.—A battle was fought yesterday between Gen. Banks and Stonewall Jackson. Gen. Bayard, of Gen. McDowell’s corps, with his cavalry brigade, had been engaged the day before in the extreme advance near the Rapidan river, skirmishing and maneuvering, taking some prisoners and ending with slight loss, [resisting] the efforts of a large force to get round and cut him off. Yesterday morning he was engaged some hours before Gen. Banks came up, and with four regiments cavalry, the 1st Penn., 1st Maine, and 1st R. I., delayed and embarrassed the enemy’s advance.

The rebels under Jackson and Ewell had crossed the Rapidan in force, and their advance guard, 15,000 strong, was attacked by Gen. Banks yesterday afternoon about six miles south of Culpepper C. H. The fight was almost wholly with artillery at first, but infantry became engaged about 6 o’clock, and a determined and bloody contest followed. Gen. Banks’s right wing under Gen. Williams suffered severely. The rebel position was in the woods, while those attacking were obliged to cross open ground.

It was not until about 6 o’clock that it became evident that the rebels were attacking in force. Previously there had been a desultory cannonading. The whole rebel force suddenly attacked in overwhelming numbers. Nearly all their regiments had full ranks.

At 7½ Gen. Pope arrived on the field from Culpepper, accompanied by McDowell and part of his corps. The battle was substantially over, Gen. Banks holding the same position he occupied at the beginning. After the arrival of Gen. Pope there was an artillery contest continuing at intervals till nearly 12 o’clock.

The night was unusually clear and the moon full. The rebels planted a battery against McDowell’s center, where Gen. Pope and Gen. Banks were, bringing both of them under fire. The Generals and their staffs were so near the rebel lines that a sudden charge of rebel cavalry was made from the woods a quarter of a mile off, apparently with a view to capture them. The attempt was repelled by a vigorous fire from the rebels and their own troops. The fire of the rebel batteries was afterwards silenced.

Gen. Pope arriving, sent fresh troops to the front to take the place of Gen. Banks exhausted columns. The enemy did not renew the attack, except by artillery. The troops were under arms and in position all night.

Gen. Banks was in the field throughout the action and was constantly under fire. His handling of his troops and personal gallantry are highly praised by the officers. The bravery and good conduct of the troops were conspicuous during a large part of the flight, when, overpowered by numbers, some regiments retreated in disorder.

The casualties among the officers were very great. Several of the higher regimental officers were killed or wounded.

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The Arkansas Destroyed.—The rebel ram Arkansas which broke through our fleet at Vicksburg has been destroyed. She was on her way from Vicksburg to Baton Rouge when her machinery became disabled, and in that situation several of our gunboats attacked her. She was abandoned by those on board and blown up. Her officers and men reached the shore in safety.

An Important Order was issued last week by Secretary Stanton, forbidding any man liable to a draft to leave the country, and authorizing their arrest if they should do so. Measures have been taken to carry out this order. The New York boats and the cars are subjected to close scrutiny.

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A Time of Ill Health.—There has scarcely ever been a time of such general ill health as at present in this vicinity. No prevailing disease exists, but a multitude of the most distressing complaints seem to have suddenly made their appearance. Men who had supposed to be in robust health, are unexpectedly discovered to be invalids. Those who never knew a sick day in their life, are at once revealed a chronic sufferers. Several very stout men have within ten days become consumptive. Quite a number of hearty and vigorous individuals have within that time become the victims of some incurable disease. Unless these disorders are arrested soon, we shall have a community of invalids. It is suggested that the moon may have something to do with it, and as it changes soon after Friday next, there will be better general health after that date.

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Shoes.—The total shipments of boots and shoes by rail and sea from Boston during the past week (according to the Shoe and Leather Reporter) have been 21,471 cases, of which 9,258 were sent to New York and Pennsylvania, 5,062 to the border states, 7,107 to the Western states, 21 cases to Halifax, 12 cases to Hamilton, C. W., 3 cases to Cuba, 5 cases to Hayti, and 3 cases to Barbados. Among the shipments to the West are 1,294 cases to San Francisco.

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A plan is on foot in New York city supported by several wealthy merchants and other citizens, to get up a drafting insurance company, after the style of similar institutions in Europe. They propose, for a certain sum, to become responsible for persons liable to draft, and in case of their being drafted the insurance company to find a substitute. They have drawn up and filed their charter, and expect to commence operations soon.

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Miscellaneous.

Dobbs says he has one of the most obedient boys in the world. He tells him to do as he pleases, an he does it without murmuring.

“I don’t believe it’s any use to vaccinate for small pox,” said a backwoods Kentuckian, “for I had a child vaccinated, and in less than a week after he fell out of a window and was killed.”

One of the amusements of the 4th, in New York, was a display of fireworks in front of the institution for the blind. It was a big thing for the inmates of the institution, but they “couldn’t see it.”

Aaron Beebe of the 10th Connecticut Volunteers advertises in the New London (Conn.) Chronicle that, “Whereas, Mr. Andrew Peabody has taken my wife Calista M. Beebe since I came for a soldier, I respectfully request him or some one else to take care of her, as I forbid any one harboring or trusting her on my account after this date.”

A lady, who is now in Italy, on asking a poor woman who had placed a candle at the image of a saint, and another at the image of the devil, was told by the poor devotee, that “she knew not into whose hands she might fall, so she thought she had better be civil to both.”

THURSDAY
AUGUST 14, 1862
THE FARMERS’ CABINET (NH)

Ginning Government Cotton.
From the Brooklyn Daily Times.

When the Government cotton first began to come North from Port Royal, Collector Barney, to whom it was consigned, looked about for some ready means of preparing it for market. It was all unginned, just as it had been picked from the plants, and put in canvas bags, containing from seventy-five to a hundred pounds each. Samples of the staple were given to about forty different persons, with the understanding that the one who produced the best clean cotton should have the contract for doing the whole work. Among this forty was Mr. F. H. Lummus, of this district, (formerly of Salem, Mass.) who went to work with one of Brown’s Excelsior gins, the patent right of which he had secured, and succeeded in turning out by far the finest specimens of cotton that ever came from a cotton gin. Mr. Barney was exceedingly pleased thereat, and, although the McCarty gin had always heretofore had the name of doing the best work in all respects, and it was rather hard to overcome an established prejudice, the contract was given to Mr. Lummus. But Mr. Lummus had only one gin, and others could not be made and put to work fast enough to satisfy the wants of Collector Barney; therefore, Mr. Lummus had to share the work with a company using the McCarty gin, which did the next best work to Brown’s Excelsior.

Mr. Lummus immediately leased a large building on King street, near Van Brunt, in South Brooklyn, made a score of gins as soon as possible, and set to work the first cotton ginning factory ever established in the North. We had the pleasure, a few days since, of visiting this factory with Mr. Lummus, and were much pleased in witnessing the interesting process by which the seeds are stripped from the cotton.

The factory is a large three-story brick building, with an extension on each side one story high. That on the south contains a boiler and an engine room, in the latter of which is a thirty horse power steam engine, which furnishes motive power to the cotton gins in the main building. The extension on the north is used for storing cotton, ginned and unginned, and cotton seed. The tops of these extensions are used for drying cotton in fair weather. The cellar of the main building is also used for storing, the first floor for packing, the second for ginning, and the third for drying in wet weather.

The capture cotton is brought in government vessels to the Atlantic docks, where it is unloaded and placed in storehouses, weighed, and then sent to the factory for ginning. Here it is hoisted to the roof, opened, shaken up loose and spread out to dry, in order to make it work better in the gins. When it has laid here about half an hour it is gathered up in large baskets and taken into the ginning room. There are already eighteen gins here in operation, and more are being made.

A few words descriptive of the Excelsior cotton gin, which seems destined to be brought very generally into future use, will be in place here. It is a simple, yet very perfect piece of machinery. It consists of a horizontal wooden roller, about three feet long, and varying in diameter from four to six inches, which is made to revolve very fast against a thin scraper sitting perpendicular and reaching the whole length of the roller, and another blunt scraper which moves up and down very fast, just clearing the stationary scraper. 

A wooden platform extends back about two feet from the scrapers, the parts toward them being a coarse sieve. The roller is covered with leather strips about two inches wide, wrapped spirally around it. One edge of every strip is beveled off about the eighth of an inch, forming a number of spiral grooves around the roller, each of which has one sharp edge. One woman is required to attend each gin. The cotton is placed upon a wooden platform, and pressed by the hand upon the rapidly revolving roller. The fibers are caught by the sharp edges of the grooves and drawn down between the roller and scraper, while the movable scraper comes down and strips the seed from the staple in the neatest manner imaginable. The operation is performed very rapidly and in a very thorough manner. The seed falls through the coarse sieve in the bottom of the platform, while the cotton goes under the roller and falls softly down, with a graceful waving motion, shining like glossiest silk. The seeds and ginned cotton are not allowed to go together, while the fiber of the cotton is not torn or sawed in little bits, as is the case in other gins.

Two men are kept constantly gathering up the seeds, which are bagged and shipped, some to England, some South for seed, and a great many to oil factories, where one of the best oils in use is made from them. The cotton seed cake, after the oil is extracted, makes the very best feed that can be given to milk-producing cattle.

The ginned cotton is gathered up by boys and tumbled through a hole in the floor to the room below, where it is packed in large canvas bags, each one about eight feet long, two and a half in diameter, and holding from three hundred and fifty to three hundred and seventy-five pounds. This packing operation is performed by two contrabands from the neighborhood of Port Royal, both of whom were adepts at the business in the South. Round holes are cut in the floor to which the necks of the bags are fastened. A lot of cotton is thrown in, and the contrabands jump in on top, stamping and packing it down with their feet and heavy iron rammers. More cotton is then thrown in, more packing done, and so on till the bag is full. Each Negro can pack six of these bags in a day, and does do it with an ease and pleasure, while in the South, to pack three was considered a good day’s work. The difference is they are working for themselves, are in a cooler climate, and have greater conveniences for performing their tasks. These contrabands, whose names are George and David, are furnished by the Government, which also supplies all the labor necessary to pack, cart, &c., everything except for the mere process of ginning. They are stout, fine looking intelligent fellows, and relish living in the North very much.

When the bags are full they are dropped thro’ into the cellar, sewed up, and carted back to the storehouses, ready for sale at auction. Thus the Government cotton is ginned.

About five million pounds of cotton have already arrived at the Atlantic docks, two million of which have been ginned, and the greater part of it sold. From present appearances it will keep coming, and Mr. Lummus is already erecting more gins in order to carry the work on faster, to meet the requirements of the Government.

FRIDAY
AUGUST 15, 1862
THE LIBERATOR (MA)

Selling the Servants of Union Officers Into Slavery!

The following correspondence between John S. Rock. Esq., ad Wm. H. Page, M.D., who was especially detailed by Governor Andrew to go out to the Army of the Potomac to assist in the care of the sick and wounded Massachusetts soldiers, and who was taken prisoner at the recent battles before Richmond, is another proof of the rascality of the Confederate authorities:

Boston, Aug. 11th, 1862.

Wm. H. Page, M.D.: Dear Sir,--I have been requested to ask you if it is true that when colored servants of Union officers are taken prisoners by the rebels, they are sold into slavery? and also if it is true that John A. Emery, a colored boy from Salem, and servant to Lieut. Col. Devereaux of the 19th Massachusetts Regiment, was taken with you a prisoner at the recent battles before Richmond, and sold into slavery? An early reply will greatly oblige.

Your obedient servant,

John S. Rock.

●●●

Boston, August 11, 1862.

John S. Rock, Esq.: Dear Sir,--Your note of this date has just come to hand. In answer to your questions, I have to say that a colored boy of 17 years, named John A. Emery, servant to Lieut. Col. Devereaux, of the 19th Mass. Regiment, was left sick with fever (from which he is now well) at Savage Station Hospital, on the retreat of our army to James River; that I attempted to bring him away as my servant; but when we arrived at Richmond, he was immediately taken from me in accordance with a recent order of the Confederate Government, which demands the seizure of all persons of color found among prisoners taken from us, and the selling of them into slavery. I was told of this order by numerous Confederate officers who called at our hospital, and I tried to get him to go with one of them as a servant, who promised me to use him well; but he preferred to take his chances of getting away with us. I was also told by Confederate officers that another order had also been issued, commanding all persons of color taken with arms in their hands to be shot. His mother, Elizabeth Emery, lives [at] 106 Essex street, Salem, whom you will please inform of the facts of her son.

Yours, &c.,

Wm. H. Page.

There is no atrocity that the traitorous men-stealers of the South are not capable of perpetrating.

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The First South Carolina Negro Regiment.

This regiment, organized at Hilton Head by General Hunter, has been placed under the command of Capt. Fessenden, who is to act as its Colonel. He is a young man, and son of Senator Fessenden of Maine. The regiment originally numbered a little upward of seven hundred. After they had been drilled for a month, they were sifted; some three hundred were discharged and sent home, some on account of physical disability, others on account of their unwillingness to remain in the service, and others for various disqualifying causes. The corps now numbers about four hundred and fifty, divided into seven companies. These companies are officered by non-commissioned officers detailed (with their own consent) from various regiments in the department. The office of First or Orderly Sergeant is filled in the same manner, but the other Sergeants and the Corporals are black.

The President and Colored Soldiers.

The President has declared that he will not accept any regiment of colored men as soldiers. They must all be accepted as laborers. There have been several declarations made in the course of this war which it has been found expedient to revise or to forget, and this declaration of war against the black man may soon be found to belong to the list. The President may do his best and his worst to uphold and maintain a wretched prejudice, but it will all be in vain. The war that is directed against the colored race is neither more nor less than a war in behalf of the rebels, and all that is done adversely to them is so much done in support of traitors. Their services are scornfully rejected by persons who have been unable to do much for their country. The President is a Republican, and how his conduct contrasts with that of the gallant and patriotic Governor Sprague, of Rhode Island, who is a conservative, and who has called for the formation of a regiment of colored men, which will rank as the 6th Rhode Island regiment! Governor Sprague, it will be recollected, was the candidate of the conservatives and democrats, in 1860, for the office of Governor of his State, and he drove the Republican candidate out of the field; and he would have been the conservative candidate for the Vice President’s office but that he had not reached the constitutional age. No one can say that he is a “fanatic” or an “abolitionist,” but we all know that he is a man of mind, and that he is capable of seeing that the time has come when we should conquer our prejudices, as the first step toward an early and a complete conquest of the enemy. As respects the President’s decision, it ought in justice to him to be stated, that he is afraid that Kentucky would secede if black soldiers should be employed! It is none of Kentucky’s business of what kind of men our armies are or shall be composed, but the President may deem it right to regard her prejudices in the existing state of things, rather than add to the chances of the rebel’s strength being increased. But what a roaring from the democracy the world would hear, if Massachusetts were to intimate that she would not furnish any more men until the services of black soldiers should be accepted! And yet such conduct on the part of Massachusetts would be noble in comparison with that which, it is asserted, would be pursued by Kentucky should colored men be made soldiers. It would be an error in behalf of the right, whereas Kentucky will rebel if we shall not persist in doing wrong! Our past history is against Kentucky’s position, for we have repeatedly employed black soldiers, and in one instance at least, goodly numbers of them belonged to an army that was in part composed of Kentuckians.—Boston Traveller.

SATURDAY
AUGUST 16, 1862
THE SPRINGFIELD REPUBLICAN (MA)

Relative Strength of the North and South.—Very few persons have any correct idea of the vast superiority of the North over the South in absolute, available power. Throwing aside the common enumeration of men between the ages of eighteen and forty-five, let us look at the number between fifteen and fifty, as a majority between these ages could be made use of, should the war last for three or more years.

   White Males in the United States Between the
Ages of Fifteen and Fifty Years in 1850 and
1860, According to the United States Census.

Now who is so imbecile that he does not see the enormous advantages which the North would have over the South in the event of a protracted struggle? But add to the superiority in numbers the immense superiority in physical and mental resources, and we have a sum total of power which ought to form a firm basis for a man to stake his belief in ultimate success upon.

Secretary Stanton’s Last Orders.—Nothing, not even the call for 300,000 men by drafting, has occasioned such excitement throughout the country, as the last orders of Secretary Stanton in relation to those discouraging enlistments, and forbidding persons liable to the draft from leaving the country, or even their own county and state. Everybody wore a long face Saturday morning. Some of our citizens wanted to go to New York on business, and were anxiously inquiring of their neighbors if the new order referred to them. Loyal individuals who were innocently meditating a little summer trip “to mountain or shore,” looked very sheepish and informed their indignant families that they could not afford it this season. The real skulkers who had engaged a passage in the next steamer for Europe, or got their trunks packed for Canada, trembled in their boots, and everybody asked everybody else what they were to do. Although this order was only issued on Friday, numerous arrests were made on the frontiers Friday night, and this intelligence, flashed along the wires, added to the general consternation. At New York on Saturday, many persons who had engaged passage for Europe were detained, and at Baltimore, about a hundred weak-kneed individuals who were going to New York to take the steamer, were requested to go into the rear car, which was left standing on the track as the train moved away. Practically the whole country was under martial law. We have never seen the like before, and probably never shall again.

But, seriously, what does the new order mean? It explicitly states that no person shall leave his county or sate, before it is decided whether he is drafted or not. But if this device is to be taken literally it is simply absurd. As well might Secretary Stanton forbid a man from leaving his house. Many persons in the country live in one state and do business in another every day of their lives, and thousands of others live in counties where they do not transact their business. We take it the order is to be received with a great deal of latitude. It was made broad enough to take in every possible case, but with a tacit understanding, that it was not to be unnecessarily enforced. We admit that it is ambiguously worded, and will require a number of “explanations,” like all the papers of our perpetual-motion secretary of war; and the first of which we publish this morning. But that something of the kind was needed, and we rejoice that it has come, even though it is not just what it should have been. But the bark of the order will be far worse than the bite to loyal men. We take it there will be no difficulty thrown in the way of loyal persons pursuing their ordinary business or taking their customary pleasures. They need have no fears that they will be interfered with. But the real cowards who are trying to sneak off, will have to look out, and if they are arrested the whole country will laugh at their predicament. On the other hand, now will be seen the real benefits of a good reputation. Those of us who are known to be patriotic can travel wherever we wish, perform all our necessary business, take our wives and little ones to the sea shore or the “springs,” and no one will molest us or make us afraid. For everybody knows we shall be on board when the time comes, to take our chances in the draft.

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Railroad Employees Not Exempted.--Numerous applications having been made to the war department by railroad companies to exempt their employees from the militia it has been decided that none but locomotive engineers actually employed when the draft was made, can be exempted. The exception of telegraph operators is upon the ground that they are practicing an art necessary to military operations, and which being known to a comparatively few persons, their places cannot be supplied.

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Miscellaneous War News.

The soldiers of the army of the Potomac received the news of the new draft of 300,000 men with great enthusiasm. They have deeply felt the injustice of eleventh hour men receiving large bounties, while they, having borne the burden and heat of the day, got but the monthly stipend. But it is all right now, and the whole army is shouting, happy over the prospect of drafted reinforcements.

¹ During the war years, the North supplied 40% of Britain’s food needs—the stoppage of which could quickly have decided any conflict with the country.