SUNDAY
JANUARY 25, 1863
THE DAILY PICAYUNE (LA)

Women in the Confederate Ranks.
A Strange, Eventful Story.

The correspondent of the Philadelphia Inquirer, writing from Cairo, tells the following:

Walking about the group, a friend with me called my attention to two personages among the prisoners, dressed like the others, unwashed like the others, reckless and profane  with their profane and vulgar comrades, the regular features, small heads and hands, swelling and rounded chests, and limbs of whom, pronounced their possessors not men, but women. But I was loth to believe that a tender female could be found who could endure the privations and dangers which these prisoners had endured previous and subsequent to their capture at Abbeyville, Richmond and other parts in Kentucky. I was therefore taken about the party, to a more favorable position for observation. I was soon convinced that, among the thirty or forty lame and halt, sick and convalescing rebels before my eyes, there were at least three women included. I was not surprised, therefore, later in the day, while at Gen. Tuttle’s headquarters, to be made acquainted with the following little biography:

Among the prisoners brought here is a young person wearing the uniform of a private in the Confederate army. Not above medium height, rather slight in build, features effeminate but eye full of resolution and spirit, the party is not disagreeable to look upon. The descriptive roll calls him Richard Anderson. A note to Gen. Tuttle, however, from the Provost Marshal at another point, explained that, for once, “Richard was not himself,” but another person altogether. In fact, that Richard Anderson was no less a personage than Mrs. Anna Clark, wife of the late Walter Clark. When requested to tell her story, she revealed the following incidents in her history. They may be true or untrue, but the relator appeared perfectly truthful and candid in her recital.

Mrs. Clark is a native of Iuka, Miss. Early in the war her husband joined a regiment, and left her at home to manage as best she could. She did not manage as a prudent wife should. She fell in love with a gallant hussar belonging to a Louisiana regiment. She determined to follow this love. She dressed as a trooper, procured a horse, and enlisted in his company. For four months she remained attached to the cavalry service of the Confederate army, but the fatigues of that department were more than she could bear, and after one or two narrow escapes from serious fits of sickness, she resolved to leave the mounted service and enter the infantry branch, for which, she argued, she was by nature better fitted. Her exchange was effected. She left her trooper’s command and joined a company in the 11th Tennessee Infantry. In this regiment she served under the name of Richard Anderson, until the battle of Richmond, Ky., where she, with others, was made prisoner. Her husband was killed at Shiloh or Donelson, she never knew which. At the former battle Mrs. Clark, according to her own story, performed prodigies of valor, frequently having to stand upon the dead body of a comrade to obtain a sight of the enemy, upon which she continually emptied the contents of her musket. >

Thus, for over ten months, as cavalry, and then as infantryman, then as prisoner of war, the woman endured the brunt of war. The latter sphere she found irksome enough, and she desired nothing better than to be sent to Vicksburg, there to be returned to her friends, promising that she had had enough of this latter life, and would there again assume her apparel and the condition of her sex. Some benevolent ladies and gentlemen contributed to her purchase of a dress and other suitable clothing, and yesterday she was a woman once more. She was sent to the department of the Provost Marshal, and Gen. Tuttle will undoubtedly forward her to Vicksburg with the next batch of prisoners. Mrs. Clark is not yet thirty years of age, and dressed in the costume of a lady, is not by any means an unpresentable woman. She is well informed upon politics, literature and other general topics, and has less of the rowdy in her conversation and air than one would expect from her late associations.

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The Value of the Magnetic Telegraph.—The Washington Chronicle, in referring to the fact that the Government, by the use of telegraphic communication, has probably saved the California treasure on the mail steamers from capture, says:

Professor Morse, who besieged Congress for an appropriation to build a short line of his telegraph between Baltimore and Washington, may well enjoy himself in his quiet and now comfortable and luxurious home, when he reads in the newspapers that the Government of the United States gladly flew to the electric wire to send instructions to California to prevent any more treasure from being forwarded over the sea, unless properly protected and convoyed.

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The Slaughter at Murfreesboro.—The Louisville Democrat says:

In reading of the victory at Murfreesboro, one cannot but be struck with the tremendous expense with which it has been gained. Our losses in killed, wounded and prisoners sum up to the enormous figure of 14,500, or nearly one-third of all our forces engaged. Such an extraordinary loss is perfectly unparalleled in the annals of warfare, and the desperate valor of our troops, who succeeded in winning a victory under such circumstances, is, with its results, perfectly astounding.

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The slave trade is again revived. On the 29th October a large screw steamer shipped upwards of 920 slaves at Whydah, and got to sea, although several British cruisers were keeping a sharp lookout after her. Other vessels are also reported to have escaped with cargoes of slaves.

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The “clerical bands” worn by young ladies have attracted the attention of the Journal of Commerce, which describes them as a broad band of white something tied about the neck in a stupendous bow, with the ends hanging down from six to ten inches, according to tastes.

MONDAY
JANUARY 26, 1863
THE MACON DAILY TELEGRAPH (GA)

The Puritan and the Cavalier.

We take the following extract from a long and interesting article which appeared in a late number of the London Times. It contains a deal of philosophy bearing on the present contest, and showing that the North and South can never live together in peace:

The Puritan race was that part of the mingled Norman and Saxon races which never held power in England except when Cromwell was Protector. This race settled in New England, and has infused itself through all the North except Pennsylvania.

The North and South are now in a war waged by the Puritan stock against the Cavalier and the Scotch-Irish part of what was the United States. This war has long been brewing. It had its rise in the elementary minds of the races. Thus,

The Cavalier or higher Norman type, in harmony with the Scotch and the Scotch-Irish, have, the world over, one great peculiarity, i.e., they honor authority, as authority from God. And having thus the mind which knows how to obey, it knows how to command. Hence it is the governing power, wherever it is found in conditions to show itself to be this higher type.

It must be that governing mind--for, to honor authority, as authority from God, is the highest reach of human thought. It is faith in God, simply as God; above all reasoning. And the same faith is seen in all rule over men as condition of mind to insure rightful obedience to, and rightful control of, government.

The Puritan, on the contrary, is as I have said, that development of the Englishman which never held power in England but once, and from its radical element this phase of mind never can be the ruling power in any country. For,

The Puritan is the ultra liberty man of the world--both in religion and politics. He is not willing to be under any authority, as authority of God or man. His pride of individual right is so extreme, that he must have all rule and all authority, and power, to be such only as he in his reason shall approve. Hence he admits government only as he likes it. Hence, however God may speak of himself, or of his government over men, spiritual or temporal, the Puritan submits or refuses only as he wills. But as each man claims the same right of reason, it follows that the Puritan has no tribunal whatever to control him in a public body. For, as everybody’s judgment is as good as another’s in his own estimation, so no one’s can be admitted to be supreme. Reason, therefore, must necessarily fail to govern. The strongest will, then, has the control.

The tendency, therefore, of the Puritan mind is to infidelity in religion, and anarchy and ultimate despotism in the State. It ran its course in England. Thus the misrule in that country during the reign of Henry VIII, Mary, Elizabeth, James I, the two Charles, and James II, justified resistance. But this Puritanical mind went far beyond the correction of the abuses of the government.

The mind gained for once the ascendancy, and overturned the powers that were in wild notions of liberty, which would have brought the country to anarchy, but for the uprise of a military dictator. Then came the reaction, and the restoration of the Cavalier race to the old power, which they have wielded ever since. >

In North America the Puritan character has developed itself just as in England. In religion it has moulded the Bible in the crucible of its philosophy, until it has made the whole Northern mind, whatever the exceptions, thoroughly skeptical, where it has not been absolutely led to reject the Scriptures. In politics, as the necessary results of such tampering with the word of God, it has contended with that idea of liberty which claims a perfect equality for each individual of the human species by birth--and, of course, the right in each man or woman to be governed only as they may will.

The anarchy and final despotism of this idea was developed just as soon as it gained the ascendancy in the election of Mr. Lincoln. Constitutional liberty was at an end. And the greatest liberty was realized at once in military despotism.

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Vicksburg.

Sixty gunboats and transports coming down the river to assail our poor, battered, spunky, immortal Vicksburg. We hold our breath to hear from her, with a strong confidence that she will again emerge from the smoke and tempest of the fierce assault, erect and defiant. To hold Vicksburg is of incalculable importance to the Confederate cause just now. Nothing will relieve the Lincolnism of the rapidly growing and dangerous disaffection in the West, but the opening of the navigation of the Mississippi, and once convinced of the importance of the Federal arms for that achievement, and we shall soon hear of more plots among the hoosiers and more secession talk than ever. True, it may result in nothing, but then, on the other hand, it may result in something--but something or nothing, it will be one of the dangers to which the Lincoln government will be exposed and a strong argument for peace. All eyes, hearts and prayers, then, for Vicksburg.

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Beast Butler in Boston.—Beast Butler recently made a speech in Faneuil Hall, Boston, in which he said:

His plan for paying the war debt was the introduction of free labor at the South, whereby labor would become honorable, and by which more abundant crops of cotton could be raised with profit at less cost than by slave labor. Cotton could be raised with profit at less than ten cents per pound. We are paying fifty to sixty cents per pound for it. Put a tax of ten cents a pound upon cotton, thus bringing the market price to twenty cents, and we have an internal revenue, from that source alone, enough to pay the interest on a war debt twice as large as that we now have. Besides England and France, who have done so much to prolong this war, would thus be obliged to pay a large proportion of the debt.

General Butler, in concluding, presented the city of Boston with an elegant Confederate flag, taken from the city of New Orleans, not as a trophy, but as a memento of the evils of Secession.

TUESDAY
JANUARY 27, 1863
THE DAILY PALLADIUM (CT)

A Federal Fleet off Galveston.
A Vessel Sunk by a Steamer Supposed to be the Alabama.

Galveston advices of the 17th state that the United States sloop-of-war Brooklyn, in company with six other federal steamers, was off that place. They saw a steamer in the offing. The steamer Hatteras immediately got under way to speak her, and when within hailing distance asked who she was, and received in answer, “Her Majesty’s sloop-of-war Spitfire.” The commander of the Hatteras told them to wait and he would send a boat to her, and had just lowered a boat with an officer and crew in her, when the steamer opened her broadside and fired into the Hatteras. The Brooklyn got under way and started in pursuit of the stranger, but, night coming on, lost sight of her, and was compelled to give up the chase. On returning, she found the Hatteras sunk in nine fathoms of water. Further particulars are not obtained. The steamer was no doubt the pirate Alabama. The Hatteras was merely a transport, but carried four guns of light caliber, similar to the transport McClellan.

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Present Condition of the Monitor Fleet.

Of the nine iron-clad batteries of the Monitor class, the Passaic, the Patapsco, and the Montauk are awaiting active operations in the waters of North Carolina. Two others, the Nahant and the Weehauken, are en voyage to join them at the rendezvous at Beaufort. The remaining four are situated as follows: The Sangamon is to be ready to sail on the 27th instant, and the Nantucket about the 10th of February; the Catskill will be finished in a week, and the Lehigh was launched on Saturday last, at Chester. Thus it will be seen that the first series of nine iron-clad Ericsson batteries are all afloat; five of them being in service, and two more about to go into commission. This is certainly good progress.

All of the five that are in service have been tried in severe weather at sea, and every one has proven herself equal to the emergencies of our stormy coast. Their next ordeal--and we hope to hear of it anon--will be the trial by battle, out of which we feel confident they will come in triumph.

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It is lamentable to think what a gulf must ever separate men of principle, whom offices want, from men of no principles, who want offices.

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What Has Become of Her?

Miss Sarah Leroy, a young lady of good character, left her friends in Tarriffville on Wednesday, the 14th day of January, having been heard to remark to some of her shop-mates, with whom she had been some six or eight months at work in one of the mills there, that she would like to visit New Haven. She started for New Haven on the Canal Railroad, and is said to have had five dollars in her pocket. Her home is in New Britain. Miss Leroy is only sixteen years of age, rather tall, light complexion, blue eyes, dark brown hair. She used to wear a black cloak and jockey hat with a white plume, tinted with pink. Who can tell us where she is, and if all is well with her, so that those who care for her may be freed from their anxiety?

From the Army of the Cumberland.
A Hint to the Newspapers.

Gen. Rosecrans hopes the Cincinnati, Louisville and other newspapers will desist from the practice of publishing reports of shipments of supplies to the department of the Cumberland. This is substantially a notification to the rebels to prepare their forces for the capture of such supplies. It is understood, however, that newspapers would not make such publications if quartermasters and commissaries did not furnish the items.

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Leaving New England Out in the Cold.

The Springfield Republican regards the movement to leave New England out in the cold as “a played out game.” The West is as much dependent on New England as the latter is on the West. The liberality and capital of New England have made the West. “But,” says the Republican, “it should be understood that New England is not in the slightest degree alarmed at the idea of being left out in the cold even if the threat were made in good earnest. If the West were insane enough to unite her destiny with the impoverished and barbarous slave States, and if, which is still more preposterous, Pennsylvania and New York should join in such a partnership, the New England States would be abundantly able to take care of themselves. Compact, populous, and easily defensible, they would fear no aggression from abroad; cheaply governed, and with their public works and institutions perfected, they would be relieved from the heavy tasks imposed by the development and defense of extensive wild territories; and they are certain that no political lines could break their commercial connection or make the West independent of the trade which is now a reciprocal benefit to us. There is great talk about the re-opening of the Mississippi, as if its commerce were of vital importance to the West. But it is greatly overrated. There is a large trade of the upper valley of the Mississippi with New Orleans, but it is not a tithe of the trade of that valley with the eastern sea ports, and the increased facilities of railroad transportation eastward have caused the commerce with the East to gain rapidly upon that of the Mississippi for the last twenty years.”

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Payment of Soldiers’ Bounties.

The State bounty of some seventeen regiments of Connecticut troops has just fallen due, being that of the 6th to the 22d inclusive and the artillery regiment. Paymaster Fitch is busily engaged in paying out the State bounty upon orders. His pay roll figures up about $5,000 daily at this time, and we are told that the bounty payments average about $2,500 per day for the year.

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At Oswego on the 26th, the friends of Gen. Hatch presented him a service of silver, and a policy of insurance on his life. The general is just recovered from his wounds. Thomas H. Bond, of New Haven, Conn., somewhat marred the harmony of the gathering by making a speech denouncing those who support the President’s emancipation proclamation. Mr. Bond was finally hissed down.

WEDNESDAY
JANUARY 28, 1863
THE NEW HAMPSHIRE PATRIOT & STATE GAZETTE

Know-Nothingism Revived!

The Republican party managers are becoming desperate. They see the disaffection which is rapidly spreading in their ranks. The people of this State, in these terrible times, feel the need and duty of calm reason and sober judgment. Party appeals and party associations can not now be relied upon, for every honest and patriotic citizen is determined to do what the safety and good of the country demand, without any regard to party interests or party success. The Republican leaders therefore fear the result. They know what a mighty influence the mismanagement of the war, the enormous peculations from the public treasury, the defeats of our arms, the sufferings of our soldiers, the heavy burdens of our taxes, and the various schemes for emancipation, are exerting against them in the public mind. They plainly see that something must be done to blind the eyes of the people to these things, and some plan must be devised to keep those who have heretofore followed them still in the party. They are therefore attempting to resuscitate the old Know-Nothing organization, with its oaths and “dark lanterns.” Their emissaries have already been sent out to institute “Union” associations or lodges throughout the State, to entrap and bind men by oaths of allegiance, in form to the Union, but in effect only to the Republican party and the support of its candidates.

We are glad they are doing so. These desperate expedients can serve only to show how hopeless the party managers themselves now consider their cause to be. No greater insult could be offered to any intelligent and patriotic man, especially at this time of peril, than the proposition that he should bind himself by an oath, or in any way, to surrender his own judgment and convictions of right and duty, into the hands of others, and to blindly follow their guidance. Honest men need no oaths and fear no light.

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Big Story of Little Men.--The Western army has been famed from the start for magnifying its exploits. Every skirmish is an important battle, and every success a magnificent victory, according to the dispatches from that region. When Pope followed the rebels after their retreat from Corinth, he sent back that he had captured 10,000 prisoners, 20,000 stand of arms and other things in proportion; but the prisoners and arms were never seen by our army nor missed by the enemy--existed in fact only in Pope’s highly excited imagination. It seems probable that the story about the great victory in the capture of Arkansas Post will turn out somewhat like Pope’s [other] captures. There is no doubt that the “Post” was captured, after a vigorous assault--by the gunboats. Com. Porter says he took the place--that it was surrendered to him. The first news we had of it came in the form of a dispatch from Gen. McClernand, probably manufactured at Washington. This stated that the land forces took the “Post,” and that from 7,000 to 10,000 prisoners were taken with it. A dispatch from Cairo states that these prisoners have arrived there, numbering 4,793; but what is most remarkable is that they were all conveyed to that place in the little gunboat Lexington! We do not pretend to doubt the truth of the statement, but beg leave to suggest that if the number of prisoners is as large as stated, the men must be very small! For it is very doubtful whether that number of Lilliputians could get into that gunboat, and therefore these rebels must be the smallest kind of humans--as much smaller than Tom Thumb as that little chap is smaller than the Republican candidate for  Governor.¹

The Army of the Potomac.--The following is from a dispatch to the N. Y. Tribune, and the Boston Journal has heard the same from other sources:

Three weeks ago Burnside issued an order for the troops to march with ten days’ cooked rations within forty-eight hours. The President countermanded the order upon his representation of two officers of Franklin’s division, who came up and declared to the President that the army was so demoralized that if it fought it would be sure to be cut to pieces.

Gen. Burnside came up to know the reason why his order was countermanded. Learning these facts he demanded the names of the officers, but was refused, and then tendered his resignation.

The President wouldn’t accept it. General Burnside has since learned the names of the officers and will court martial them.

The above statement is probably true, as Mr. Wilson of Mass., on Friday, introduced in the Senate a resolution of inquiry founded upon it. All accounts agree that large divisions of Lee’s army have been sent South and West, and the most reliable reports indicate that full one-half of the army that opposed Burnside at Fredericksburg has gone to Tennessee and North Carolina. This fact and the other fact that it is not considered safe for our army to advance, are proofs of great demoralization in the army or gross incompetency and mismanagement of officers. Nothing can be more discouraging to the people than the state of things developed by the above. The army demoralized to such an extent as to render it unsafe to meet half its number, and the President constantly interfering with and countermanding the orders of the commanding General! The constant meddling interference of the President with the plans of the commanders has done more to bring defeat upon our arms than any thing else. It has been the chief cause of the present demoralization of the army and the people. To what an extent this feeling pervades the public was made evident last week. We had reports that Burnside had crossed the Rappahannock--that he was driving the enemy--that Gen. Hooker was mortally wounded, &c. Yet no one seemed to anticipate success and the universal feeling was that these reports were the prelude to news of another defeat. The people see that there is truth in Gov. Seymour’s remark that the natural result of this interference is exhibited in the fact that “while our armies have gained victories in fields remote from the Capital, within its influence the heroic valor of our soldiers and the skill of our Generals are thwarted and paralyzed.”

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One million of dollars was paid by the Government to the Commissioners on Wednesday to recompense slaveowners in the District of Columbia for the emancipation of their slaves. The soldiers in the field yet remain unpaid.

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Burnside Resigned.--Gen. Burnside has resigned the command of the Army of the Potomac and Gen. Hooker has been appointed in his place. It is supposed that this is another step down the ladder to the point long since designed to reach--the appointment of Fremont.

THURSDAY
JANUARY 29, 1863
THE PITTSFIELD SUN (MA)

New-Year’s Day at Port Royal.
Correspondence of the N. Y. Tribune.

Port Royal, S. C., Jan. 3, 1863.

New Year’s Day of 1863 will be the day of days to the United States of America, next to the Fourth of July. Henceforth it will not be simply a time of reunions, gentlemanly calls, or wine and coffee sippings for form sake, but a day hallowed by sacred memories, and radiant with the grandeur of a great and noble deed, which, with one bold dash, has cleansed our country’s flag of the darkest stain that ever polluted the escutcheon of a prosperous and Christian nation.

Nothing has been harder to do in the Department of the South, at Port Royal and other islands, than to convince the colored people that they were free, and that the Government, or Yankees, as they call us, were in earnest. Christmas was to them a sad day. Gen. Saxton, who spares no effort which lies in his power to disabuse their minds and inspire them with confidence, issued his proclamation inviting the people to assemble at the headquarters of the 1st S. C. Vols., on the 1st of January.

Missionaries, ministers, superintendents and teachers, officers and privates (friendly to the blacks), joined heartily in the work. Ten beeves were slaughtered and roasted, in true barbecue fashion. The word went out far and near, but the people were jealous. Mischievous ones told them it was a trap to force them into the army; others that they were to be gathered on steamboats that would run them to Cuba; others that they were to be got away from their homes and sent into exile.

The day was sublimely beautiful. The old year passed into the new with one of the most magnificent sunsets human eyes ever looked upon. A moonlight so clear and serene as to seem like day, followed, and ushered in the new era, cloudless, pure and genial. At an early hour the people began to arrive at the camp ground and, despite their fears, thousands were there.

The exercises were opened by Chap. Fowler of the 1st S. C. Volunteers, followed by music from the 8th Maine. Judge Brisbane of Wisconsin was introduced by Col. Higginson as a son of South Carolina who, 25 years ago, on this very ground, acknowledged the rights of man, and the wrongs of slavery, by setting all his people free--by giving all of what the world called property--for convenience sake. It was meet that he should this day read to them the Emancipation Proclamation of Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States.

With a voice almost choked with emotion, and yet lofty and far reaching, that document, which to-day has given liberty to three millions, was read, often interrupted by cheers.

At its close, the Proclamation of Gov. Saxton was read; and to know how much the colored people, the officers, and all others engaged in the Port Royal Mission, love and respect him, one should have heard the twelve deafening shouts that burst forth from hearts already overflowing with gratitude and joy.

Then came the crowning interest of the day, the presentation by the Rev. Mr. French of a splendid silk flag, with this inscription embroidered on its folds:

“To the 1st South Carolina Regiment. The year of jubilee has come.”

This beautiful flag was a gift from Dr. Cheever’s Church of New York City.

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Fortifying Portsmouth Harbor.—The Portsmouth (N. H.) Chronicle says that five large iron buoys have recently been placed in that harbor, between the two forts, for the purpose of mooring an iron clad, which will be sent to that station, to remain there until the forts are completed. Fifty laborers, with wheelbarrows, picks and shovels, on Monday morning last, commenced work on fortifications at Fort McClary. The extension will be pushed on with all possible dispatch. Work has been going on at Fort Constitution for some days past.

From Mexico.—Puebla not taken by the French. Advices from the city of Mexico to the 21st of December, represent the Mexican people as being thoroughly united in their determination to resist the invaders. The Mexican Congress had adjourned at the period fixed by the constitution, and the speeches of the President and Vice President on that occasion show that the honor and patriotism of the people are being fully aroused. These high dignitaries contended that Mexico is a free and independent nation, and that with her inexperienced soldiers and citizen generals she will face the renowned armies of France and hand down fresh laurels to history. The Congress passed an act denouncing all the acts of the authorities appointed by the French, designating them as traitors and usurpers. So far from there having been any advance of the French on Puebla, that stronghold was every day increasing in strength, and new troops were pouring in for its defense. General Ortega, a skillful and indefatigable officer, is in command, and the labors of the soldiers on the fortifications were continually increasing. Hospitals were being established in convenient places, and the ladies were collecting money, clothing, &c., for the use of the wounded. The “times give note of awful preparation.”

Four French vessels bombarded Acapulco [for] three days commencing the 15th. Fire was returned from the fort, doing some damage. But 13 Mexicans were killed. The fort was finally silenced, when 10 sailors landed and spiked the guns. The fleet then left.

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Bludgeon Law.—The disgraceful scenes at the election of the United States Senator in Pennsylvania, when the Legislature acted under the intimidation of armed bullies and ruffians who were sent to Harrisburg by the Democratic leaders, are finding their parallel at Albany. The mob yesterday invaded the State House, filling the hall of the House of Assembly, and actually compelling the members to adjourn without proceeding to the election of a Speaker. It is threatened that if a Speaker is elected by the aid of Republican votes he shall not be allowed to take his seat. Application has been made to Gov. Seymour for sufficient force to protect the Assembly, but he either refuses or neglects to interpose. The object of the mob is to stave off the election of a Republican United States Senator by preventing the organization of the House until after the time fixed by the Constitution for the choice of Senators. These disgraceful demonstrations, while they show the malign character of the opposition which has sprung up at the North, also illustrates the style of government which such leaders as the Woods of New York, and Hughes in Pennsylvania would be glad to force upon the people. If they and their ruffian followers are allowed to control the election of a United States Senator with the bludgeon and bowie-knife, they will be emboldened to usurp other powers which will trample upon the rights of the people. Such exhibitions of brutal and malignant spirit of the opposition leaders ought to open the eyes of patriotic men to the duty of a more unhesitating and earnest support of the government. The ruffians should be sternly rebuked by the law-abiding and order-loving.

FRIDAY
JANUARY 30, 1863
THE HARTFORD DAILY COURANT (CT)

DOINGS OF A REBEL PIRATE.

A Spanish Man-of-War
Fires into a United States Mail Steamer.

Arrival of Rebel Schooners at Havana.

The steamer Eagle, from Havana the 23d, has arrived at New York.

A Havana letter of the 24th to the Associated Press states that the pirate Florida arrived there on the 21st, from Mobile, coaled during the night, and sailed on the 22d on a piratical cruise. The pirate first met the bark La Ciguera, from Portland, but the bark kept well in-shore, and the pirate’s boat was recalled, the La Ciguera thus escaping.

On the afternoon of the 22d, four miles from the coast, the pirate fell in with the brig Windward, Captain Roberts, from Matanzas with molasses for Portland. The Windward was robbed and burned, the crew being sent ashore in their own boats. Her cargo belonged to Spanish merchants.

At ten o’clock on the morning of the 23d, off Cardenas, the pirate captured and burned the brig Cora Ann, of Machias, Me., Capt. Small, from Philadelphia, laden with shooks.² She was burned only one mile from land. The captain and crew were sent into Cardenas in their own boats. Soon after the pirate captured two more brigs, just out from Cardenas, burned one and sank the other. A schooner, arrived at Havana on the morning of the 24th, states that the pirate was last seen, with a British flag flying, steering for the Bahamas.

The U.S. mail steamer Reaney left Havana on the 23d, but returned the same afternoon, having been fired into by a Spanish man-of-war, the Princess A. de Asturia. The American consul ordered the Reaney to proceed on her voyage, and the gunboat Oneida, which had just arrived, was sent out as a convoy. The Reaney had the American flag flying when fired into. She had the American mails and government dispatches on board.

The gunboat Wachusett arrived at Havana on the evening of the 22d, twelve hours after the departure of the pirate, coaled and sailed on the morning of the 24th.

The rebels at Havana are in high glee. Mr. Helm, their agent, holds receptions every Friday evening, and Mayor Wood’s daughter was present at the last one.

The rebel schooners Rag and Gen. Worth, from Mobile, with cotton, arrived at Havana on the 23d. The rebel schooner Mary Harris was to sail the 25th for Matamoras. The French consul general at Havana had lately drawn a million dollars on the French treasury, which draft was honored by the Spanish bank. The steamer Bio Bio sailed from Havana on the 22d, for New York.

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Gen. Scott, at the opening of the war, predicted that the decisive battles of the rebellion would be fought in opening up the Mississippi, and of these he judged there would be about eight.

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Hitch Your Horses.—In these days of snow slides and other uncomfortable things, it is not safe to leave horses unhitched even for a moment. Small avalanches were the order of the day yesterday, and in several instances horses left unhitched becoming frightened, started off for a run, but no serious damage was done.

Particulars of the Captures on White River.

Washington, Jan. 29.--The Navy Department has received information that the expedition of White river was entirely successful. Lieut. Walker pushed on to Duval’s Bluff in the Baron de Kalb. The captures made rendered it very difficult for the rebels to defend the approach to Little Rock, and it is believed the State of Arkansas is completely in our power.

Lieut. Walker in his official report date the 16th, states that without resistance he took possession of the public property at Duval’s Bluff. He found two fine 8-inch guns, 200 stand of arms, and three platform cars. The guns were being hoisted into the cars when the rebels took alarm and fled. They left their supper cooking, and left their blankets and traps behind. Seven prisoners were captured.

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The friends of the Secretary of the Navy, residing in Connecticut, are at a loss as to the motive which governed him in selecting League Island instead of New London for a navy yard. They cannot see the advantage likely to accrue to the Government, but they think they see the immense loss and sacrifice of treasure.

A member of a committee, representing the city of Philadelphia, while on their visit to Washington last year to urge the acceptance of the Island, stated to a friend that he had no heart in the business, for he considered it a swindle on the Government, and then went on to describe the Island as a mass of mud without foundation and so low that it would have to be diked all around or raised several feet to prevent flooding at high tide.

The Washington correspondent of the Commercial Advertiser says:

“The Philadelphians are jubilant over the expected acceptance of that ‘munificent gift,’ League Island, as it ensures the disbursement of an immense amount of greenbacks in the Quaker City. Indeed, it will require the investment of millions before the location can be made available.

“Many thought and now think that New London was a better location for a new navy yard, and that the erection of fortifications there would not only protect the Government works, but the entire Sound, bordered by prosperous towns and villages.”

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Remarkable Escapes.—Captain Buford of Gen. Crittenden’s staff had a remarkable escape in the Murfreesboro battle. A bullet struck him fairly on the breast, above his heart, and flattened completely without penetrating the flesh. He picked it out of his uniform with his fingers. He did not wear a coat of mail. The Colonel of the Eighty-sixth Indiana did, and it saved his life. A ball struck him fairly over his heart, and knocked him off his horse without hurting him. He mounted and proceeded to fight.

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End of the World.—Prophecies are again current respecting the approaching end of the world. One reverend gentleman of the Millerite persuasion predicts universal dissolution in 1867-68. Anotehr seer names the 17th of August as the closing up of creation, adding that a world’s convention will assemble at Cincinnati to “settle up the business of the past and arrange matters for the future.”³

SATURDAY
JANUARY 31, 1863
THE SPRINGFIELD REPUBLICAN (MA)

Progress of the War.

The elements have been against us and have defeated and delayed the most important movements of the campaign. The army of the Potomac in its second advance upon Fredericksburg was overtaken by the severest storm of the season, making it impossible to go forward and difficult to retreat, but is again safe in camp. This failure was followed by the immediate resignation of Gen. Burnside, and Gen. Hooker now commands. The expedition that has been preparing at Newbern, N. C., is on its way to some southern port, after a series of delays that have postponed its movement for nearly a month. Indications point to Charleston as its destination. The army of the Cumberland is still resting and reorganizing. The armies of Grant and McClernand are again moving down the Mississippi, with Porter’s gunboat fleet, and the attack upon Vicksburg may already have been renewed. Of the operations of Gen. Banks and Com. Farragut below, we have no information, nor is there any report from Galveston, except the unpleasant one that some powerful rebel vessel, either the Alabama or the Oreto, had entered the harbor, destroyed the transport Hatteras, and escaped without encountering the rest of our fleet. Gen. Weitzel, of Gen. Banks’ division, has gained a victory of some importance over a rebel force on Berwick’s bay. Our fleet on the White river in Arkansas, has captured several forts above Arkansas Post, and it is believed we shall soon hear of the capture of Little Rock, the capital of the state. Whether it will be possible to begin a new campaign in Virginia before spring is quite doubtful, but the operations on the Atlantic coast and on the Mississippi approach the point of highest interest, and we shall soon know whether our formidable navy is to disappoint expectation or not, and whether the winter campaign is on the whole to be a success or a failure. It cannot turn out worse than our fears, and is pretty certain to exceed our hopes, and we therefore await events with composure.

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Social Life at the Capital.
The “Season” at the National.

Washington, January 22, 1863.--The Washington “season” is fairly inaugurated. The holidays over, we are almost smothered with a shoal of fashionables, who have come to the capital for the express purpose of staring at each other, envying each other, slandering each other, and stunning sensible people with the splendor of a new dress every night. The nation seems in its death-struggle. Statesmen are bowed and silent. Military chiefs are haggard and desperate. Soldiers are dying like sheep from wounds and privations. Their families are suffering the extremes of sickness and want for lack of the money and comforts which the husband and father could once supply, but the soldiers of the republic have no money. Sixty miles away, one of its most gallant armies, unpaid, unsheltered, half fed, discouraged, soul-sick, languishes on the banks of the Rappahannock. This is the unexaggerated life of the hour; but to these newcomers it is life to make calls in a carriage, to make a show at dinner, a sensation in the parlor; to waltz, to flirt, to doze and dream, and to waste time. Yes, the season has commenced. We who did not come to the “National” to be fashionable are fully conscious of this fact, as we muse over the quiet days that are no more; the cozy chats with congenial friends in still parlors, with no buzz-buzz to break our pleasantest thoughts into empty sound; the lonely, meditative promenades through silent saloons, whose crimson shadow was broken only by the suffusing sunshine of the early southern winter. Now, they are filled with loungers and laughter, with fashion and folly, with belles and beaux, with magnificent matrons and passé widows waiting to be consoled for their “irreparable loss.”

Arming the Negroes.

Gov. Andrew has received authority to enlist persons of African descent as volunteers in this state, and our colored men will now have the opportunity to show how much interest they feel in the welfare of their brethren at the South, whose freedom now depends upon our success in the war. The government will now make a business of recruiting among the able bodied Negroes whom the war has emancipated, and the colored troops who for some time have been under drill at Hilton Head are said to promise efficient service. Davis’s retaliatory proclamation excites general horror and indignation abroad, and even the London Times, which has gone all lengths in defense of the rebels, sticks at this, and declares it will lose to the confederates the moral support of their friends abroad. The rebel congress is also divided as to the propriety of the measure, and some of the members denounce it as cowardly in Davis to attempt to throw on the state governments the responsibility of hanging the United States officers captured. It may be well doubted whether the rebels will dare enforce their retaliatory measure, loudly as they threaten, more especially as we now hold several hundred more of their officers than they of ours. They do not hesitate, however, to murder in cold blood the Negro attendants upon our armies captured by them, and the government should find some means to retaliate and compel them to discontinue this barbarous violation of the rules of civilized warfare. Unless it can do so, it cannot expect to obtain many Negro soldiers from the free states.

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New England.

The experiment which Vermont has been trying with so much success for a few weeks past, of taking care of sick and wounded soldiers at home, is to be adopted in New Hampshire. Arrangements are making at Concord for the reception of a large number of invalids, and application is being made at Washington for permission to remove soldiers from the government hospitals as soon as possible. The same thing is talked of in Maine, but no action has been taken in the matter. The people of Vermont have proved their noble generosity by large and repeated contributions of articles of comfort to the Brattleboro and Burlington hospitals.

1 See “Quite a Difference” in 6 March 1863 for explanation of how this was accomplished.

2 A shook is set of pre-made wooden parts ready for assembly into a barrel, box, piece of furniture, &c.

3 See footnote for 27 September 1861 for description of the Millerites.