SUNDAY
JANUARY 11, 1863
THE DAILY PICAYUNE (LA)

Better Off Than Our Neighbors.

After all, the citizens of New Orleans may thank their stars that they are as well off as they are. The war bears lightly upon them, comparatively. They have provisions in abundance and at living prices. Their streets are in good order, peace and quietness prevail throughout the city, while the government, though essentially military, is liberal. It is true, there is not much business, and yet most persons manage to find the means of living comfortably.

There are of course cases of hardship, of destitution and misery. Our charitable institutions, however, are numerous and our citizens proverbially munificent and alive to every cry of distress. Providence, as if to care for the poor, tempers the wind to the shorn lamb. The weather thus far during the winter we may term wonderful. It has been milder and more like spring than it was last winter, and that was extraordinary. Roses are in full bloom in our gardens, while vegetables such as peas, potatoes, beets, carrots cabbages, &c., are growing as if it were April.

Flour is only two or three dollars higher than it was before the war, while a barrel of good beef can be bought for eighteen or twenty dollars, and all other kinds of food in proportion. Up in Mississippi flour is sixty or seventy dollars per barrel, coffee four or five dollars per pound, and other things, when they can be obtained at all, at prices equally exorbitant and crushing. Added to the unprecedented cost of provisions beyond the Federal lines, the Confederate conscription law takes every man from eighteen to forty-five, and thrusts him, nolens volens, into the army.¹ This must leave families in a multitude of instances in terrible straits for the necessaries of life. Indeed, we can hardly conceive how some of them live.

When we take into consideration all these circumstances, and many others that might be mentioned, we repeat that the people of New Orleans may congratulate themselves upon the degree of comfort which they are enjoying. Our citizens ought not to forget—though perhaps some of them do—that we are in a state of war and that the city is under martial law. The commander manifestly wishes to pursue a course that will abridge the liberties of the citizens as little as possible. This should be met in a corresponding spirit. There is no reason why the present liberal condition of things may not continue as long as the present General remains here, if our people generally will act in a discreet and sensible manner. If person s will not so conduct themselves, we may expect a change that will not be agreeable. A word to the wise is sufficient.

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The Philadelphia Ledger says:

A citizen of New York, whose son, belonging to the 9th regiment New York State militia, was killed recently in battle, writes to a paper in that city, that the Colonel, every field officer, and some of the captains of the regiment named, were in New York on the day of the battle of Fredericksburg.

Home of the Aged and Infirm.

Thanks are gratefully tendered to the Federal offices for their valuable contributions of food and fuel to the “Home of the Aged and Infirm,” corner New Levec and Erato streets, January 1st, 1863.

This institution went into effect on the 16th of December, 1862. It is intended to alleviate the wants of a large class of the suffering poor of this city.

Let us hail it as a harbinger of peace and good will in our midst, around which all may rally in benevolent action, and thus give perpetuity to a work that will find its advocate in the heart of every thinking man and woman. Being without an established fund, all contributions of every kind or degree will be gladly received at the Home of the Aged and Infirm.

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The Crew of an Iron-Clad.—As the battery of the iron-clad steamer Montauk weighs thirty-five tons, it is interesting to know that her entire crew will be less than seventy men. An old frigate required a ship’s company of three hundred sailors and landsmen and a guard of marines. These would man four of the new fashioned ships, and while every 32-pounder on the frigate required the labor of twelve men, the 150-pounder of the Montauk is easily moved by four.

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Paper Stock from Wood.—An old paper manufacturer writes with great confidence and enthusiasm of a new process for reducing wood to paper pulp, which has been discovered by Prof. Chadbourne, of Williams and Bowdoin Colleges. It depends upon a combination of chemical and mechanical principles, by which the woody fibers are alike strengthened and separated from each other. The pronounced by practical paper makers and patent examiners as entirely unique, and quite certain in results. It involves no change of machinery and no additional expense, except for the pulp machine, which will cost from fifty to one hundred dollars. If no unforeseen difficulty arises in working it on a large scale, it will reduce the cost of paper pulp to less than one-half its present value, or to some $40 or $50 a ton. The invention is now in the hands of one of the largest and most energetic paper manufacturers in the country, a patent has been applied for, and in due time the full value of the process will be tested on a large scale.—Springfield Republican.

MONDAY
JANUARY 12, 1863
THE AUGUSTA CHRONICLE (GA)

War often a Necessary Instrumentality
to Develop the Resources and
Capacities of a People.

Nations are sometimes afflicted with such a quantity of error and indolence that, like the diseases which attack the human system unless removed at once, become chronic and produce decay and death. When such is the case—to eradicate falsehood, to change the sentiments, to revolutionize the habits of thought and employment, to impart fresh strength and energy into the weakened constitution of the body politic and to inspire a spirit for progressive improvement in every department of industry, is under ordinary circumstances the work of time, the slow and gradual result of long continued and efficient remedies. It does however sometimes happen in the course of events, that a miraculous power is evolved which arouses all the intellectual and physical faculties of a nation from their long repose, and causes it to spring forth into new life and activity. War, horrid war, is often that God-ordained instrumentality—waged too with deadly hatred between children of the same parents—sent to cut asunder with bloody hands those ties of affection and interest which had hitherto linked in one common destiny.

I offer as a practical illustration of these general remarks a theory of political economy advanced and advocated by Mr. Jefferson at the commencement of the old government—that because they were an agricultural people they must have their workshops in Europe—upon the supposition, I presume, that as they knew nothing about making anything else than rice, cotton, and tobacco, they never would thereafter enlarge the limited circle of national pursuits. With due deference to one of so much distinction and learning, the ruinous effect of this false doctrine was plainly to be seen in the dependent condition of the people on the mother country from the date of their recognition down to the war of 1812 and ’14. The independence of the colonies declared in 1776, and acknowledged seven years after, did not in the sense we have desired to regard that term, begin to assume the reality of an accomplished fact until the period just mentioned. It is true the rights and form of self-government as adopted by the United States were conceded from the date of their recognition. But such independence was only nominal—it was only the shadow of the object desired that rested on the country—it was of no real, practical benefit or advantage to the people. The United States during the whole of the interval alluded to, had only the independence of an infant—the privilege of life without the ability to supply its wants—or the power of self-protection. It had no commerce, no manufactories, the mechanical arts, and even agriculture itself, on which the entire capital and labor of the country were employed, were all in such a rude and inefficient condition, viewed from their present stand point of perfection, that we may with great propriety say they had scarcely an existence. In a word, the supply of those wants necessary to the comfortable existence of the people, and whatever luxuries a few of them could afford to enjoy, was all imported from abroad.

How long such a state of things would have existed under the operation of a system of political economy which did not encourage the diffusion of labor and capital amongst a diversity of pursuits, or under that other absurdity, that it was cheaper to buy from a distant region those articles required, when the same material was to be had in profuse abundance at their doors, it is not for me to decide. We will venture to predict that it would not be a great while in the life of a nation, before this exhausting and impoverishing process would have rendered it a fit prey for any foreign power. But the recent war with Great Britain was the instrumentality that saved the United States then from this future. It was the electric shock which thrilled every muscle and nerve of the system, and threw the nation into a prodigious travail that brought forth navy yards, cannon foundries, gun factories, sabre works, powder mills, water wheels, spinning ginnies, woolen works, power looms, and almost every other conceivable tool, instrument, apparatus, and machine necessary to enable a people to secure true independence. It brought upon the stage of action a class of practical teachers, who for wisdom, forecast, and comprehensive grasp of intellect, have never been surpassed in any previous age of the world. We delight to reflect on their patriotic agreement of sentiment in the service of their country. We bow before them in imagination, and make respectual acknowledgement of that masterly statesmanship which enabled them to bring to bear upon this critical period in the affairs of their country, a scheme of Legislation, which by premiums, bounties, and protection, caused the capital and labor and genius of the country to be distributed as equally as possible amongst those three great leading and controlling industries of a nation, viz: agriculture, mechanic arts and commerce.

So that not upon one alone, but on each of these departments of labor jointly and collectively would be devolved the burdens of supplying the wants of the nation in time of peace and the means of defence in time of war. Yes, it was by the harmonious action of this trio—this trinity of industries, three sisters inseparable in affection for each other, homogeneous in their affinities, born in the midst of war, and nurtured by the patriot statesmen of that day—did the United States begin to rise from its previous condition of almost absolute dependence to that of a first class power, unequalled at the time of our secession from them, by any other on the globe. The blockade of our ports then as now threw the nation into extremities. It dragged out the indolent from their hiding haunts, encouraged the industrious, stimulated the energy and ingenuity of the people and prompted to the endurance of sufferings, for another victory. Thus, I repeat, did war, aided by the wise legislation referred to, give to the varied employment of the Northern people an impulse that has never been lost; but which, on the contrary, has been subjected to a continued and progressive action, and which has compelled the acknowledgement from others that they were the most thrifty, productive, energetic, self-reliant population on the face of the earth.

In the process of time, however, it has pleased the Almighty to permit the vile passions of men to overturn and destroy this mighty empire. Its greatness and glory, its triumphs and trophies, are all gone. Out of its ruins, amid the roar of cannon and stained with the blood of her gallant sons, we behold arising our young and beloved Confederacy. We stand before the world a sublime spectacle of a people fighting single-handed against such mighty odds for the right of self-government and the God-established institutions of their native soil. The contest is unequal, but trusting in the power of Him who brought it about, we go on and despair not, believing that soon the mourning and desolation of war will cease throughout our land, and when our Government will be owned and acknowledged by every other.

In the mean time our country is becoming great as it passes through this trying ordeal. The present war is not unlike those we have previously alluded to in its benign and successful effects. In arousing our people to action, in changing their habits and sentiments in regard to the respectability of labor, in bringing out hidden capital and treasure, and exciting the native genius and constructive talents of our people, to engage in a hundred various operations and enterprises too tedious to mention, which without this powerful instrumentality would never have been undertaken. Let the impulse thus given to these various industries thus commenced in our own territory never cease to act, but let every one say something and do something to give it an increased power, until by the implements of peace we shall be enabled to cut asunder as fast as possible, and as far as practicable, every industrial tie that binds us to any other people. Then we shall have achieved true independence—the only recompense and reward worthy to be received by posterity in exchange for the lives that have been given to secure it.

Overton.

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To the Public.

Two cases of small pox having appeared in this city, I deem it my duty to inform the citizens of the fact. These cases are located at the extreme lower end of the city. Every precaution will be taken by the city authorities to prevent the extension of the disease, but I again impress upon the people the imperative necessity of immediate vaccination, and hope my efforts to keep the city in a healthy condition will be seconded by our entire population.

R. H. May, Mayor.

TUESDAY
JANUARY 13, 1863
THE BOSTON DAILY ADVERTISER

The Siege of Vicksburg Abandoned.
Another Plan Decided Upon.

Cairo, Jan. 11.—The expedition against Vicksburg was withdrawn from the Yazoo river yesterday, safely. A single attack by the enemy was repulsed by our gunboats. The Yazoo is abandoned as a base of operations, the enemy being impregnable on the front facing that stream.

There has been no fighting of any moment since last Monday. Nothing has been heard from Gen. Banks or Admiral Farragut.

Gen. McClernand arrived here on Thursday night.

The army are now in transports at Milliken’s Bend.

No further developments have been made of the movements of Generals Pemberton and Price in Vicksburg. The enemy were reinforced to the number of 60,000 men. They had 100 guns in their batteries, besides their field artillery.

Our losses in the Yazoo will amount to 2500 or 3000. The loss of the enemy is unknown.

Capt. Gwin’s remains will be sent to Cairo on a gunboat and thence to friends at the East.

It has been raining here incessantly for the last 36 hours, causing a heavy rise in the Mississippi River.

A council of war was held on board the Tigress, Gen. McClernand’s headquarters, on Sunday. Commodore Porter, Generals Sherman, McClernand and other officers were present. It was determined that it would be folly to make any further attack on Vicksburg with the present force, that the enemy received their reinforcements too rapidly, and that there were no prospects of our side receiving reinforcements, therefore it was deemed expedient to abandon the attack on Vicksburg, and operate against some other place. A point of attack was decided on, but its publicity is forbidden. The following day both fleets got underweigh. There was no coal for the gunboats, and they were unable to raise steam. The transports took the gunboats in tow and moved slowly along. The advance arrived here last evening, and met coal going down the river. There was considerable excitement at the mouth of the Arkansas river. The ram Ponchartrain is down the river. The gunboats and rams are waiting for her.

——-

British Steamer Princess Royal.

Halifax, Jan. 12.—The steamer Princess Royal, reported for New York, has sailed for Nassau.²

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The Army of the Potomac.—The Washington correspondent of the New York Times says of the Army of the Potomac:

“A very great uncertainty seems to prevail in regard to the programme marked out for the Army of the Potomac. A feeling of fatalism has, to a greater or less extent, obtained in the public mind concerning the destiny of this army, causing a presentiment that it is not fated to achieve success; and hence, official recommendations have not been wanting that a portion shall be retained for the defence of Washington, and the reminder transferred to fresh fields, where, consolidated with victorious troops, and serving under new commanders, they may be enabled to secure the substantial results which te hardships they have endured, and their gallantry in the field, co eminently entitle them to enjoy.

“Still, it seems to be agreed that the rebel army behind Fredericksburg has been materially diminished in numbers; and it is not certain that some vigorous and unexpected movement may not yet place Richmond speedily in the possession of the veterans who have so long made it the Mecca of their toilsome and perilous pilgrimage.”—-

From New Orleans.

We have received New Orleans papers to the 3d inst., from which we take the following:

Headquarters Department of the Gulf,
New Orleans, January 1, 1863.

General Orders No. 1.

In obedience to instructions from the Government of the United States, the Commanding General gives notice, that from and after this date, no persons, not in the civil, military or naval service of a foreign government, will be permitted to depart from the city of New Orleans, on board of any foreign ship-of-war, without the written permission of the commander of the military forces in New Orleans; and that no foreign vessel of war will receive on board or carry from this city any such person, who shall not have received written permission to depart on board of such vessel from the commander of the military forces in this city.

By command of Major-General Banks.
Richard B. Irwin,
Lieut-Colonel, Assistant Adjutant-General.

The bombardment of Port Hudson by the gunboats is confirmed, and it was supposed that a land attack would soon be made. The Vicksburg Citizen of the 29th has the following:

“We have further confirmation of the rumor that Banks had landed at least a portion of his troops at Baton Rouge, and that he has established his headquarters at that city.

“On the river above the battle is close at hand. The fleet of gunboats and transports, carrying an immense army, is now in the immediate vicinity of this city. It is supposed that they will bring an army of one hundred and fifty thousand men to reduce this place. Numerical strength will avail them nothing in an attack on Vicksburg, and we predict for them the most disastrous defeat that they have yet met with in this war.”

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The Recapture of Galveston.—The New York Herald’s Washington correspondent says:

“A great deal of indignation has been elicited by the intelligence of the surrender of Galveston and its garrison, and the capture by the rebels of the Harriet Lane. Various rumors are in circulation in regard to this transaction; but nothing is positively known to the government, except through the Richmond papers of yesterday, which published the official report of the rebel commander at Galveston. It is believed here that the scheme to cut out the Harriet Lane and the Westfield was devised at Richmond, in imitation of like exploits against British vessels in our early history. It is supposed that the officers and crews, sent from Richmond, were ready, and that the Harriet Lane is already after our cruisers in the Gulf. She is swift and strongly armed.”

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From Yesterday’s Richmond Papers.

Headquarters Army of the Potomac, Jan. 12. —The Richmond Enquirer of today contains the following dispatch:

Vicksburg, Jan. 8.

To. Hon. Joseph A. Seldon.—From the latest information, I am satisfied the enemy’s transports have gone up the river. There are only seven gunboats between the mouth of the Yazoo and Milliken’s Bend. Vicksburg is daily growing stronger. We intend to hold it.

J. S. Pemberton, Lieut.-Gen. Comd’g.

WEDNESDAY
JANUARY 14, 1863
NEW HAMPSHIRE PATRIOT & STATE GAZETTE

The East and the West.—The feeling in the West against New England is already bitter, and is every day increasing in bitterness. The West complains that New England brought on the war; that having inaugurated it, she keeps it along, for the benefit of shoddy manufacturers and contractor; that she controls the President, and Congress also, and fattens on high tariffs and heavy taxes; while the West suffers by reason of the closing of the Mississippi. “The whole country,” say these Western grumblers, “is governed by three millions of New England sharpers.” The Cincinnati Inquirer overhauls the Senate Committees, and finds that all the more important of them are in the hands of New Englanders. Sumner is Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations; Fessenden of the Committee on Finance; Wilson of Military Affairs; Hale of Naval Affairs; Collamer of Post Offices; Foster of Pensions; Clark of Claims; Foot of Public Buildings; Dixon on Contingent Expenses, &c., &c. The same preponderance, it says, is seen in the House. And it adds: “The abolition policy makes the fifteen millions of people who live in the Middle States and in the West a tail to the New England kite.” Governor Morgan of Indiana is reported to have said recently, that if the Union is not saved, the West must look out for itself. Governor Morgan is a Republican.

We publish this to show our readers whither we are drifting, under the guidance of such men as Charles Sumner. The people of the country are evidently determined to have “one great Republic,” but they are not at all anxious that it shall include New England; and so far as the Western States are concerned, the sentiment is almost universal, “If we cannot have both the South and New England, then give us the South, and let New England go.” The interests of the Middle States point in the same direction; and the probability is everywhere growing stronger, that a new Confederacy is to be formed, embracing all save the New England States.

Our readers will bear as witness that we have often enough warned New England of what was in store for her, if this sectional quarrel was allowed to go on. We predicted the result six years ago, but the same man who assured us, all along, that Southern talk of secession was all a sham, that the South could not live six months without our aid, and that she “couldn’t be kicked out of the Union,” have even been and are even now skeptical. They will discover one of these days that New England can be kicked out of the Union.

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Rumor.—It is again rumored that Gen. Burnside has asked to be relieved and that Gen. Hooker is to be appointed to the command of the Army of the Potomac. Gen. Burnside undoubtedly participates in the very general feeling that, under the radical programme, the Army of the Potomac has won its last victory. That programme he abhors, but he sees it is to be persevered in; and he desires to escape the responsibility of the disasters which he sees must follow.

The President on his own Proclamation.—The National Intelligencer, a journal proverbially cautious in its statements, in the source of an able article on the proclamation, makes public the curious fact that the President does not believe in the efficacy of that act to end the rebellion. The Intelligencer says:

“The only vital part of the document is to be found in the declaration that the executive government, including the military and naval authorities, will recognize and maintain the freedom of the persons proclaimed to be free. And this part of the paper derives all its vitality from the force that stands behind it, not at all from the words that precede it. And all the freedom that shall accrue to the slave under this proclamation will result from the law of force, and not at all from the declaratory portion of the President’s decree. And, in this view, which is self-evident to every mind, we are not at all surprised to learn, as we did, that the President, in his own private opinion, anticipates little, if any, utility from the proclamation of freedom, considered as a “war measure.” War measures depend for their effectiveness on something stronger than words, and the “war measure” which shall actually emancipate a single slave would be just as effective without a proclamation as with one.”

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Indebtedness to the Soldiers.—Nearly one hundred millions of dollars are now due the soldiers, and the distress is great in s ome of the regiments. It has already been proposed that no officer of the government shall get his pay after this until the troops have been paid off, but members of Congress will not run any such risk. By passing a resolution to this effect they might lose their own pay.

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What has become of the Know Nothings?—What will become of the abolitionists is the question which many ask. They will disappear like other factions—like the Know Nothings, who are spoken of by the Springfield Republicans:

It is curious and instructive to note how utterly the Know Nothing party of 1854-56 has gone out of power, existence and memory. It swept the country like a whirlwind, breaking up and absorbing all other parties, distributing offices, and dictating presidential candidates. Now, it is known only as a memory; historical societies have entered upon its possession, and antiquaries will search in vain for its traces. Massachusetts was peculiarly overrun with it; for two or three years, it filled our offices, congressional, State and local; in the year of its greatest triumph, there were only three members of the legislature that did not belong to its organization; everybody, who was anybody, seemed to have been drawn into its vortex—and yet the striking fact now appears that, save Henry Wilson, there is not a single man who belonged to that party now in a prominent position in Massachusetts politics. Neither in our State government (executive branch) nor in our Congressional delegation is there a man of that ilk. Verily, the pieces that once knew them know them no more, forever.

THURSDAY
JANUARY 15, 1863
THE PITTSFIELD SUN (MA)

A Mountain of Salt
Discovered in Western Louisiana.

Since the war began the necessities of the people in the Southern Confederacy have stimulated searches for salt, and most unexpected success has crowned their efforts in Western Louisiana. Along the Gulf coast bounding this particular part of the State are numbers of islands, some of which rise to a considerable height from out of the low swamp marshes with which they are frequently surrounded. One of these islands, known as Petite Anse, and entirely familiar with the residents of the vicinity as being a place famous for saline earths, turns out to be a rock of solid salt, possibly some 250 feet high, where the  mineral is quarried out in large pieces resembling cakes of ice. It was these salt works that Com. Buchanan some time since, with the gunboats Diana, Kinsman and St. Mary’s, with the 21st Indiana regiment, attempted to destroy, the result of which was, two buildings were torn down, but the vast mine of salt still remains.

The salt spring on this island, as it was termed, has been known for years, but it was not until a few months ago that it was discovered that this supposed spring was merely the rain water settling in hollows of solid salt rock. There is mention made of a similar formation to this mineral wonder in Cardona, about 16 leagues northwest of Barcelona, which town is situated at the foot of a rock of salt which rises abruptly out of the plain some 500 feet. The salt in its natural bed is as clear as glass—in fact, it seems as if you could look a vast distance into its solid heart. When it is blasted out, it assumes a dull yellow color, but grinds up whiter than most salt, and is so thoroughly saline in its properties that even a grain or two leaves a stringent tastes in the mouth. The immense value of this mine of wealth can scarcely be realized. A million of dollars was offered to its owners by a company of persons in the neighborhood, but refused. This island of salt—possibly three or four miles long, and one wide, of irregular form and covered from 15 to 20 feet with rich soil—bears on its surface immense pecan and live oak trees.—Correspondence, N. Y. Times.

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Abolition of the Alabama: Another Proclamation Called For.—The N. Y. World recounts the exploits of the rebel steamer Alabama in capturing the mail steamer on the grand route of travel between the Isthmus and New York, and after declaring the Alabama a nuisance which must be abated, and that “all the usual remedies relied upon in such cases having proved abortive, it is already time to resort to what the French describe as the grande means,” adds:

“The Alabama must be abolished by a Proclamation. This formidable military invention of the radicals, which is to end the war and crush the rebellion on land, can hardly fail to be fully as effective at sea. It is time to employ it. We have trifled with this Kraken, this dragon of the deep, long enough. Mr. Lincoln has it in his power to do, by a few strokes of his pen, what our ships, our sailors, and Secretary Welles can never accomplish. Let him come at once to the rescue of our commerce, and proclaim decisively that if the Alabama shall not surrender herself to the mercy of the Government on or before the 1st of April next, she shall from and after that date, be and remain forever and utterly abolished.”

That’s the Cheese.—“That’s the cheese!” Almost everybody has heard this London cockney expression, which simply implies, “That is the very thing, the ne plus ultra of what we want.” The original of the saying is said to be as follows, and as in these war times our forces may sometimes get out of ammunition, it may be well to apprize commanding officers how they may obtain potent substitutes from the commissary’s stores. The incident narrated occurred in an engagement with Admiral Browne, of the Buenos Ayres service:

“What shall we do?” asked the first Lieutenant, “we’ve not got a single shot about—round, grape, canister, double-headed—all are gone.”

“Powder gone?” asked Coe.

“No, sir; got lots of that left.”

“We had a very hard cheese, a round Dutch one, for dessert at dinner to-day; do you remember it?” asked Coe.

“I ought to; I broke the carving knife in trying to cut it, sir.”

“Are there any more aboard?”

“About six dozen; we took’em from a drogher.”

“Will they go into the eighteen pounders?”

“By thunder, commodore, but that’s the idea! I’ll try’em,” cried the first luff.

And in a few minutes after, the fire of old Santa Maria, (Coe’s ship), which had ceased entirely, was re-opened, and Admiral Browne found more shot flying over his head. Directly one of them struck his mainmast, and as it did so shattered and flew in every direction.

“What the h—l is that they are firing?” asked Browne. But nobody could tell.

Directly another one came through a port and killed two men who stood near him, then striking the opposite bulwark, burst into flinders.

“By Jove! This is too much—this is some new fangled Paixhan or other; I don’t like’em at all!” cried Browne; ad then, as four or five more of them came slap through his sails, he gave the order to “fill away!” and actually backed out of the fight, receiving a parting broadside of iron-hard Dutch cheese as he retired.

That was the cheese, and no mistake!

——-

The New York Chamber of Commerce had the Alabama under consideration again recently. A letter was read from our Consul at Liverpool, saying that four more pirate vessels are fitting out at that port, of the same character as the Alabama, but more powerful. The question what should be done was left till another meeting, but the general idea among the merchants was that the Government fleet is not to be relied upon to catch the pirate craft, and that Government ought to issue letters of marque, and see what private enterprise can do.

FRIDAY
JANUARY 16, 1863
THE CALEDONIAN (VT)

U. S. General Hospital.
To the Ladies of Vermont.

Brattleboro, Vt., Jan. 5, 1863.

Within the last few days a very important change has been made in the affairs of the sick and wounded soldiers from this state. This change has been long desired, but the Governor of the State has not succeeded in his efforts to bring the sick home to their native air until very recently. Now an arrangement with the War Department exists, by which the Vermont sick and wounded soldiers will be transferred from the Southern hospitals to the U.S. hospitals at Burlington and Brattleboro. This most desirable arrangement has been made only upon condition that the State authorities should provide additional accommodations at Brattleboro for whatever patients were thus transferred above 200 (the number the present hospital can accommodate). To carry out these arrangements, ten large barrack buildings, now standing near the U.S. General Hospital, will at once be moved to the Hospital, and fitted up in a proper manner, forming a large Hospital of about 500 beds.

Towards this the Government has contributed a full and very perfect outfit for 150 beds. We have now on hand, received from the ladies of Vermont and from the State, an equipment of about 50 beds, and shall therefore need to have supplied us from the State in some form an outfit for 300 beds. For the reason that the people of this State have shown a most untiring disposition to contribute liberally to the relief of the sick, and because we are every day asked what disposition benevolent societies and individuals shall make of their contributions, we are led to make this appeal, and we make it without fear of any repulse. We make it on the broad ground that the soldiers who have so uniformly maintained the honor of the State on so many battlefields, and who have suffered so much under the malarious atmosphere of the South, and who have so patiently endured all the privations and hardships of the camp and march, deserve all the attention that we can possibly bestow upon them.

As t our particular wants we can briefly state them. As before stated we need an equipment of hospital beds and bedding together with the articles of clothing worn by patients in the hospital.

For each bed and patient it requires:

1 iron bed stead (army pattern), Tucker’s Patent,
1 Mattress, 6½ ft. long by 30 in. wide,
4 sheets, 1½ yds wide, 2½ yds long,
1½ pillow cases, (i.e., 3 cases for 2 beds),
2 blankets, or a comforter,
1 coverlet,
1 hair pillow,
2 towels,
2 pair drawers,
1 dressing gown,
1 night cap,
2 pairs socks,
1 pair cloth slippers.

I refer to this particular bedstead as being not only a cheap one, but also as being very perfect in all respects for the sick, or indeed for those in health. It is 6½ feet long and 30 inches wide; the legs and head fold up so that it only takes a space 1½ inches in thickness, and is consequently very portable. As there have been many inquiries as to what disposition should be made of money that has been raised, I would suggest that it be applied to the purchase of these bedsteads, as being likely to contribute in this way more to the comfort of the sick than any other mode. The mattress, if made, better be filled with birch shavings, called Excelsior, which costs about 35 cents to a mattress; the weight required for each being 12 pounds. This material is put up in bales, and can be obtained in Boston and New York, at any Upholster’s for about two cents per pound by bale.

The blankets, coverlet and sheets should be of a size to suit the mattress. >

Transportation on any articles sent for the Hospital will be paid by the Quartermaster of the State.

I would not of course limit the contributions of any one, or direct how their contributions should be supplied, but would suggest that as all sections of the State are interested, the supplies might be proportioned to the population of the counties. In this way an outfit of 300 beds would give about one bed for every one thousand inhabitants, viz:

In reply to the many inquiries made as to what is the best disposition that can be made of contributions, and what kind are wanted, I may say that it would in my opinion be best to send everything here, until we have equipped this hospital fully for 500 beds.

The surplus I will send as I have heretofore to Mr. W. F. Hall, Washington, D.C., who has with his whole family, made a business of visiting Vermont soldiers in Washington and vicinity, and who distributes them individually to them only.

Before closing I would remark that what we do we must do quickly; the soldiers are kept out of the State only for want of these supplies.

Edward E. Phelps, Surg. U.S.V.
Surg. in Charge and Med. Director for Vt.

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Where the Liquor is Drank.—By the liquor commissioner’s report of Massachusetts we find that commissioner Porter of Boston sells $5,400 worth of liquor to Maine, $2,000 worth to Vermont, and thirteen thousand dollars worth to New Hampshire. We should think that our New Hampshire neighbors consumed liquor as though they were carrying on an election canvass all the time.

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Large numbers of slaves in the lower counties of Maryland, since the Christmas holidays, have refused to go to work for their masters unless they are paid wages for their labor, alleging that they became free on the 1st of January by the proclamation of emancipation. The masters are afraid to employ force, lest thereby they incur the vengeance of the “chattels,” and drive them into acts of violence, for which, it is said, the Negroes are fully prepared. Some of the slaveholders, in order to settle the matter amicably and preserve peace in the family, have agreed to pay their slaves wages; others, however, have refused, and their Negroes are escaping. That’s what slavery is coming to in all the border states. They had better accept the President’s offer, and sell out.

SATURDAY
JANUARY 17, 1863
THE SATURDAY EVENING GAZETTE (MA)

The Capture of Arkansas Post.
Confirmation of Good News.

Cairo, Ill., 17th.—The Rain Storm left Arkansas Post on Monday and arrived here to-day. She confirms the capture of that place. The attack was made on Friday evening by the gunboats. The land force debarked two miles below and reached to the rear of the rebel fortifications and took them. Two miles below the main fort the rebels had erected earthworks which were shelled by our gunboats. The rebels replied to this fire, doing some damage to our gunboats. Three balls entered the port holes of the Lexington, killing 4 men. The main fort, which is represented as very strong, surrendered on Monday. The officers of the Rain Storm say that six rebel regiments were captured in the earthworks.

At daylight on Monday, two Texan regiments who came to reinforce the place, being ignorant that it had surrendered, were also captured. Nearly all the ammunition taken by the rebels from the steamer Blue Wing some days since, was recaptured.

A reconnoissance which was sent up the river had not returned when the Rain Storm left.

Our loss is not so heavy as when first reported.

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Important Revelations.

In the early part of the week intelligence was received that our blockading squadron off Charleston, on the morning of Jan. 4th, seized a rebel boat containing a Major—said to be a son of George Saunders—who had with him important rebel dispatches, which would be made public as soon as certain hints received from them should have been acted upon. The National Intelligencer of Saturday morning contains the budget, occupying eight columns in that journal, and the telegraphic summary conveys the purport of the information thus obtained. The leading feature is the development of a plan concocted by Louis Napoleon to induce Texas to secede from the Southern Confederacy and become the “lone star” once more, the Emperor evidently wishing to put his paw upon the territory, and thus secure for his troops now in Mexico a place where they could colonize and establish French proclivities. The Confederate Government discovered the plan, which had been entrusted to the Consuls at Galveston and Richmond, and an order was issued to send the Consul at Galveston to Mexico as soon as possible and the Richmond Consul to leave forthwith. The order with regard to the latter, however, was rescinded.

The correspondence shows that Earl Russell has not been cordial to Mr. Mason, and from these papers we learn the names of the financial agents of the Southern Confederacy in England, and what houses are ready to fill the military and naval orders from Richmond. It may surprise some persons to find out that Mr. Geo. N. Saunders is playing a prominent part in the negotiations looking to the construction of iron-clads in England for the Southern Confederacy. He figures as the Diplomatic Courier of the Richmond Government.

This insight into the workings of the Rebel Government gives us renewed assurance that it is a tremendous sham, and unity at the North is all that is requisite to crush it to atoms. When such a man as Saunders is employed as the leading diplomatic agent, their case must be desperate. The discovery of the correspondence is timely. It will tend to place England on her guard in regard to her ally, and strengthen the growing attachment which the English people have recently evinced towards this country. The names of those engaged in furnishing iron-clads and supplies will be known, and we doubt not public opinion will correct the evil in a great degree.

Strike of the Navy Yard Employees.

Some sixteen hundred of the ship carpenters and laborers employed at the Navy Yard, having suffered much inconvenience because of withholden pay for nearly three months, resolved to remedy this, and seek for advanced pay, on regular pay days, by striking. They accordingly held meetings at City Hall, on Friday, over which Mr. Enoch S. Davis presided, that adopted resolutions embodying their complaint and their demand. The Commandant was conferred with, but the blame for their non-payment did not lie with him. The meetings were adjourned to yesterday, forenoon and afternoon, and the resolutions of the day previous were reconsidered, the following vote being adopted instead:

Voted, That the ship carpenters and laborers employed in the Navy Yard will give due notice to the Commandant of our demands, and that we will continue at our work till such time as he can get an answer from the Secretary of the Navy of the decision of the Department, provided E. S. Davis and all others who have been suspended on account of any action connected with the strike can be reinstated in the yard again, and if the decision of the Secretary is adverse to our wishes, the officers of the meeting have power to summon us again at such time and place as they may see fit.

A committee, consisting of Messrs. Wm. B. Foster, Wm. Barker and Samuel Woodward, was appointed to wait upon the Commandant, with the resolution that they had adopted, and reported at the meeting in the evening that they had done as directed, and were informed by the Commandant that he had no control over the pay, nor the appointment of any one, therefore he could not act. They then voted to go to work to-morrow and wait the action of the Department regarding their demand, as specified in their vote.

The meetings were orderly, but earnest and energetic. Our reporter was informed that a strike would not have been thought of but for the delay in payment, by which the families of many of them had been reduced to actual distress, compelling the workmen to sell their wages in advance at a discount. It is to be hoped this state of things may be remedied.

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A M U S E M E N T S

boston museum

JOHN WILKES BOOTH.

This young American Actor, the rapidity of whose professional progress and the brilliancy of whose success is almost without parallel in the record of the Stage, will on

MONDAY EVENING, JAN 19th

Commence a BRIEF ENGAGEMENT. The Management has pleasure in introducing to Bostonians one in whom they have already manifested deep interest, and whose performances have elicited such warm encomiums from all. Since here, MR. BOOTH has achieved

Great Successes at the South and West,

Astonishing critics by exhibitions of that splendid dramatic power so indissolubly allied with the name of

B O O T H !

1 Nolens volens is Latin for “willing or unwilling.” The English (Anglo-Saxon) equivalent is willy-nilly, which, although used in a slightly comic sense today, original indicated not being able to make up one’s mind, being literally “I want, I don’t want.” The negative n- is akin to ever/never in English.

2 This is the first mention of Princess Royal, which will soon be captured by the Union Navy and sent to New Orleans. In June 1863 she will save roughly 300 men of the 28th Maine, 16th New Hampshire and a small number of African American soldiers at the battle of Fort Butler, one of a myriad of small unit actions in which lone gunboats made the difference between victory and defeat--and which are largely forgotten today. The rebel force that will attack Fort Butler will be 1500 strong.