SUNDAY
MARCH 15, 1863
THE DAILY PICAYUNE (LA)

Omens of Peace.—The Fredericksburg correspondent of the Tallahassee Floridian tells the following strange story:

While speaking of peace, there is a legend connected with a spring near Fredericksburg, which I will relate for the benefit of the curious: According to tradition, this spring was discovered running three months before the revolutionary war. Three months before a treaty of peace, it dried up and ceased to run. It commenced running again three months before the war of 1812, and three months before its close as in the revolutionary war it again dried up, and so with the Mexican war. Three months before the fall of Fort Sumter it commenced running, and a short time since dried up.

I give as my author for this an aged man who was born and is living near the spring, and who has considerable property, and offers to bet it all that we will have peace in three months from the drying up of the spring.

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Gen. Rosecrans and the Contrabands.—Gen. Rosecrans has issued an order at Murfreesboro which shows the view he entertains of the uses to which Negroes should be put:

He directs that all able-bodied soldiers now employed on detached service, as teamsters, laborers, hospital attendants, &c., &c., be returned to their regiments and that Negroes be substituted in their places. Commanders of corps are authorized to procure and employ Negroes: 1. From those found free and roaming at large; 2. From those belonging to masters serving in the rebel army, or who have been employed, in any manner, in the rebel service; 3. From those belonging to persons who, though not now serving in the rebel cause, are disloyal, or have children or any other relatives in the rebel army, who are benefitted or maintained by the labor of such slaves; 4th and lastly, when it becomes an absolute necessity, from among those belonging to loyal men. In the latter case a record is to be kept showing all the facts with regard to Negroes thus taken and their final disposition.

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The K. G. C.’s in Indiana.—A correspondent of the Cincinnati Gazette writing from Indianapolis on the 19th ult., says:

Dr. Carter, of Indianapolis, was before the U. S. Grand Jury to-day. He admitted he was a member of the K. G. C., and said he could expose nothing for it would criminate himself. He also said he was secretary of the Circle.

A lawyer of this city stated in the K. G. C. Lodge last night that unless each Knight of the Golden Circle procured five recruits at once, that is, multiplied their numbers by five, in less than forty days the order would be ruined—the Knights dispersed, the Democratic party gone up, and a general scatteration ensue; that unless the K. G. C.’s succeeded, the hopes of the Southern Confederacy were gone forever. He called upon the K. G. C.’s to arm themselves, for they were closely watched, and they might have to make the attack.

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The following will hit on either side of the line:

“I’ll die for the flag!” cried a Treasury clerk. Quoth a soldier: “My patriotic friend, look here—this shedding your blood for twelve dollars a month ain’t like shedding red ink for twelve hundred a year!”

Officers for an African Army.—The New York Times says:

The Washington correspondent of the New York Tribune says that “it is the positive opinion of Senators, who judge from the great number of written applications made to themselves, that an African army 100,000 strong could be officered with white men on a fortnight’s notice.” We do not doubt it. There has never been the slightest difficulty in getting any number of officers for any service. Unless we are misinformed, we have in the army now twice as many officers as are required, upon the usual basis, by the number of men under their commands. The high pay, the comparative comfort, and the general attractions of the positions, combine to make it perfectly easy to get officers in any quantity. The real question to be answered is, can we get the men? Where can we recruit an “African army 100,000 strong?” We must wait to see what progress is made in this effort before we can pronounce a conclusive judgment as to its wisdom.

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The “What is it?”—The New York Sun, of February 21st, says:

This submarine battery, which had been reported a failure, was towed up to the yard yesterday, having achieved an astonishing success. The rumor of its uselessness was printed for the purpose of keeping curious foreigners from trying to witness the experiments which were made in New York harbor. When we state that a shot, discharged a considerable distance under water, was sent some 150 yards in the air, the nature of the results reached by the Captain Hunt may be imagined.

It is a huge square box, almost twelve feet high and six feet wide, with an internal diameter of some twenty feet. A port hole is on one side, covered by a sort of arch. Within, a gun of indescribable make and strange appearance is mounted on the floor in such a manner that the muzzle protrudes through the port. The singular aspect of the cannon, however, is eclipsed by the queer construction of the ammunition, which consists of a square iron log or ball, about one foot wide and two feet long. Egress and ingress to the battery are effected over the top, by means of a ladder, and in through the before mentioned port.

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An exchange relates a good anecdote of a chap who was on board a man-of-war. When the iron-clad was just going into action, the soldier was on his knees. An officer sneeringly asked him if he was afraid. “No, I was praying,” was the response. “Well, what were you praying for?” continued the officer. “Praying that the enemy’s bullets may be distributed the same way as the prize money—principally among the officers,” was the quick and ready retort.

MONDAY
MARCH 16, 1863
THE CHARLESTON MERCURY (SC)

A Successful Foray on Hilton Head Island.
Full Particulars.

We take pleasure in recording the particulars of what is considered one of the boldest and most successful feats of the war. We allude to the brilliant foray of Captain John H. Mickler, and a detachment of his Company (11th Regiment, S. C. V.), on last Thursday night, which resulted in surprising and capturing a detachment of pickets and signal corps men at the Spanish Wells Observatory on Hilton Head Island, a few hundred yards from a regiment of infantry and within sound of the long roll at General Hunter’s headquarters. By examining a map of the location, it will be observed that Hilton Head Island is separated from the main land by wide water courses, navigable for gunboats of all classes, which renders all approach to it difficult, if not dangerous, except to men who can pull an oar lustily as well as handle the rifle with deadly precision. Washed by the Atlantic ocean on the front, and the rear so guarded naturally, Hilton Head was in every respect what might have been thought a safe place for “Department Headquarters,” but it seems that our salt water boys have found a way to get there.

On Thursday evening, all proper arrangements having been previously made, the “forayers” started in their canoes, and followed the May River down to its junction with Mackay’s Creek, where the union of the two streams forms Calibogue Sound. Learning from close observation the picket stations, they effected a safe landing. The night was dark, and the wind high enough to send the tide to the shore with a heavy murmur. After making all necessary dispositions to ensure success, the scouts moved cautiously to the high ground, and thence towards the house, which is used as a picket and signal station. Their plan was to approach the place to the rear and, if possible, capture or bayonet every one there without firing a gun; but they found that a sentinel guarded the approach from this quarter, and another was posted on the front. Under these circumstances, there was no alternative but to shoot down the sentinel at the back door, and then do their work with dispatch. Bang went a musket, and, as target practice is not certain in the dark, away scampered the sentinel, followed by the attacking party, who rushed close upon his heels into the house. Before the sleeping guards could throw off their blankets, they found themselves in the grasp of a band of stern rebels. Rather than take the twenty odd bright bayonets of out men, the astonished Yankees quietly surrendered. Meantime, the noise below had awakened the sleepers above, and a Lieutenant of the signal corps rushed down the stairs, en dishabille, to ascertain what had occurred; but he too was soon a prisoner in the hands of a sturdy grayback, with pistol cocked, whom he encountered at the foot of the stairs. This much having been accomplished, no time was to be lost. The prisoners were marched at the double quick to the landing, the Yankee Lieutenant suffering severely from briars and thorns, he being barefooted, without hat and coat. The retreat was safely conducted, and that, too, over nine miles of water courses, available for gunboats of large size.

A Lieutenant of the Signal Corps and a private, who remained upstairs, escaped unobserved, and the pickets on the bluff made their escape. All the rest were taken and brought off the Island without the loss of a man on our side. . . This is the fifth or sixth successful foray made by Capt. Mickler. In May last he secured a large quantity of corn and cattle on Calliwassee Island; in July he took two Yankee pickets from Pinckney Island, and killed a third; in August, with Capt. Stephen Elliott, they killed, wounded or took prisoners a company of Yankees on Pinckney Island; last week he foraged on Dawfuskie Island, supplying his men with hogs, poultry, eggs, &c., and burnt the wharf before leaving. In addition to these exploits, he has been on frequent scouts, giving to Headquarters valuable information from time to time. Gen. Walker is fortunate in having so efficient a force of “marines,” and, we have reason to know, holds them in the highest esteem.

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The march of events during the last thirty days has done much to dispel the hopes of early peace, so generally entertained at the opening of the year. Since the bloody affair at Murfreesboro, the hostile forces in Tennessee, as well as those upon the Rappahannock and the Mississippi, appear to have been at a dead lock. But though the military status is, in the main, unchanged, our enemies have not been idle. Never have their preparations to crush us been so active and energetic as during the present lull in the tempest of war. In the desperate resolve to rob us of our rights, they have madly thrown away their own. With a bankrupt Treasury, with a Constitution trampled in the dust, with an army which has invariably been beaten in every pitched battle by troops inferior in number and equipments, and with a Government derided abroad and despised at home, the Yankees have deemed all that was left to them—the shadow of a free and constitutional Government—not worth preserving, and they have deliberately cast the lives and the liberties of their whole people in the scale against the hitherto invincible sword of the South. The Northern States have welded together all that remains to them of strength and wealth to form an efficient weapon, in the hands of the vulgar despot at Washington, for our destruction. They have learned already to to applaud the tyrannies of their master, and they salute him Dictator. There are some amongst us who hope that the spirit of republican government will yet assert itself at the North and that the people of the Northwest, at least, will ere long rise up to wrest their independence from the grasp of the new Autocrat. But in vain do we look for any material indication of this counter revolution. The whole Yankee nation, from Cape Cod to the prairies of the far West, is this day substantially a unit in the determination to subjugate these Confederate States, if their subjugation is possible.

Meantime, the dreams of foreign intervention that have so long deluded our people are passing away. England was never so resolute in her policy of non-interference as now; France stirs not in our behalf without the co-operation of her jealous rival. Thus, to our cost, we have learned the wholesome lesson that upon the blows yet to be struck by our own right arms rests the only hope of peace and independence. Henceforth let our Government bend all its energies to strengthen our armies in the field; and let our planters everywhere, as they desire the salvation of our cause, as they prize the success of our living defenders and the cherished memory of our glorious dead, see to it that the soil is tilled with the single view of feeding the armies, whose breasts are the barriers that protect that soil from the tide of desolation.

TUESDAY
MARCH 17, 1863
THE DAILY PALLADIUM (CT)

Secession Rally.

The Copperheads had a meeting last night at Music Hall and were addressed by Mr. Richardson of Illinois. As this Richardson is the man who recently said in a speech in New Hampshire that the Republicans must be put down at the point of the bayonet, it will readily be imagined what sort of speech he made. His voice was quite husky, but he was understood to say that Mr. Lincoln must withdraw his emancipation proclamation and his conscription act, and if he did not do this, he (Richardson) would as soon support Jeff Davis as Abraham Lincoln. Nobody will be surprised at this. A man that can speak for Seymour will find no difficulty in supporting Davis.

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Negro Invasion of Georgia.

The Tribune correspondent from Hilton Head says that on March 9th, “Cols. Higginson and Montgomery, at the head of 1,000 well-armed, drilled and disciplined blacks, and with muskets enough to arm several thousand more, after landing at Fernandina, ascended the St. Mary’s river and, I have reason to believe, are at this time far from the coast, upon Georgia soil.”

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Rascality.

After the city clock was fixed up in good style and put into running order, some rogue got into the tower and so damaged the works, by putting salt among the wheels and otherwise disturbing the machinery, that the pointers came to a dead stop. It is in order again.

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Remember the Union rally to-night at Music Hall. Frederick Montgomery, Esq., of the Vicksburg Whig, will tell his story of escape from the joys of secession and traitors, and after him will come some most eloquent speakers. Let the Union men come out in strength.

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The Union meeting to-night is intended to be irrespective of old party lines and issues. All who favor a vigorous prosecution of the war, until the rebellion is crushed, are recognized as true Union men, and all such should, in this time of our country’s peril, unite in a league for its defense. The ladies are invited to attend.

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It is understood that the cargo of the Princess Royal, lately captured off Charleston, cost £100,000, distributed in shares of £1000 each, and not covered by insurance. The Manchester people are said to have been rather unfortunate in their ventures, and some of them have been bitten severely.

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Miscellaneous Items.

Hon. Gerritt Smith has contributed $500 towards raising a regiment of colored troops in Massachusetts, and offers $3,000 more for the same purpose in New York.

Mrs. Gorham, aged 72, housekeeper of Capt. Stephen Bulkley, living in the south part of Rocky Hill, was so shockingly burned on Friday evening last as to cause her death on Sunday. Anotehr and similar accident occurred on the same night, at Newington. Mrs. Mary Deming, aged 28, widow of John Deming and housekeeper for Samuel Richards, was burned to death by her clothes taking fire. She leaves a child four years of age.

An American merchant, who arrived from Europe in the City of Baltimore, brings intelligence of a new monster which is in process of construction for the Rebels in the vicinity of London. It is 350 feet long, iron clad, with a formidable prow, and will be provided with four engines. He describes her as one of the most terrible of the family of rams. ->

An order issued by Gen. Hunter on the 6th directs the drafting of all the able-bodied Negroes in the Department between the ages of 19 and 50, not otherwise employed by the Government, to garrison the various forts.

On Sunday, a fast schooner, while leaving the harbor of San Francisco, was overhauled by government agents and found to be in full outfit for a privateer. About twenty Secessionists were taken. Other vessels will probably be looked after.

A resolution was agreed to in the Legislature of Virginia, on the 4th inst., inquiring into the “expediency of reporting a law making it a penal offence for any one to maintain, by speaking or writing, the propriety of re-constructing the Union of the former United States.” Against whom is this proposed law aimed? Are not the people of Virginia, as of the whole South, a unit for secession? Have we not been told a thousand times, that both sexes, all ages, all sizes and every color, were opposed to the Union with all the faculties of their minds, all the passions of their hearts, all the members of their bodies, opposed so totally and to the bitter end, even to the “last ditch?”

A new metal has been discovered, to which the name of thallium has been given. The discoverer is a professor of chemistry residing at Lille. He went to Paris and lectured on the subject, and made experiments, all of which proved highly successful.

The Turks have just begun to use postage stamps, but as their religion forbids the taking of portraits, the stamps bear the fac simile of the sultan’s signature instead of his likeness.

The Boston Daily Advertiser corrects the false impression that the slaves in the exempted districts of Louisiana are free by law of Congress. The districts were occupied by our troops before the law passed, and the slaves in these districts are in the same position under the proclamation as those of Kentucky.

There is a bill before the Canadian Parliament which contemplates the abolition of public executions, owing to the demoralizing influence they exert upon the community.

The Mayor of Detroit has offered a reward of one hundred dollars a head for the conviction of the rioters who were engaged in the late Negro disturbance in that city. The Detroit Tribune states that Faulkner, the author of the late outrages in that city, is not a Negro, as has all along been stated. He is a dark-skinned man with blue eyes and straight hair. He claims to be Spanish and Indian. He has never associated with Negroes and has not been claimed by them.

“How do you do?” That’s English and American. “How do you carry yourself?” That’s French. “How do you stand?” That’s Italian. “How do you find yourself?” That’s German. “How do you fare?” That’s Dutch. “How can you?” That’s Swedish. “How is your stomach? Have you eaten your rice?” That’s Chinese. “How do you have yourself?” That’s Polish. “How do you live on?” That’s Russian. “May thy shadow never be less.” That’s Persian. And all mean much the same thing.

WEDNESDAY
MARCH 18, 1863
PORTLAND DAILY ADVERTISER (ME)

Admiral Porter’s Narrative
of the Construction and Career
of his “Dummy Monitor.”
A Laughable Affair.

A private letter has been received at Washington by a naval officer from Acting Rear Admiral Porter, which has created much amusement in Cabinet circles. It seems that Porter was much surprised to learn on the 25th of February that the ram Queen of the West was at Warrenton, seven miles below Vicksburg, with the rebel flag flying and steam up. The account Porter had received from Ellet led him to believe that the Queen was in such a condition that she could not be repaired for some time. “I knew,” says Admiral Porter in his letter, “that Brown could take care of the Webb by himself, but I have no idea that he will be a match for the Queen and the Webb both amusing him at the same time. The Indianola is a weak vessel, and the only good thing about her is her battery.” He proceeds to say that, “during the time of the running of the blockade, by the Queen and Indianola, five rebel guns were burst and dismounted in their forts. Therefore it was an object to make them fire as much as possible. I got a mortar in easy range, and opened on that part of the town where there was nothing but army supplies, and soon provoked a fire of four of their heavy batteries. The shell at first fell over the mortar and around it, bursting close to our men; but the range began to grow shorter, until they let us have it all their own way. Finding that they could not be provoked without an object, I thought of getting up an imitation Monitor. An old coal barge, picked up in the river, was the foundation to build on. It was constructed in twelve hours of old boards with pork barrels piled on top of each other for [a] smoke-stack, and two old canoes for quarter boats. Her furnaces were built of mud and only intended to make black smoke, and not steam. On the night of the 24th we heard, at 9 o’clock, heavy guns about fifteen miles below. We knew that the rebels had nothing but light guns there, which could be heard at any distance. So we thought it was the Indianola engaging the batteries at Carthage, fifteen miles below Vicksburg. Not knowing that Brown was in peril, we let loose our Monitor. It was towed to within a couple of miles of the first battery and let go, when it was discovered by the dim light of the moon that Vicksburg was in a stew. Never did her batteries open fire with such a vim. The earth fairly trembled, and the shot flew thickly around the devoted Monitor, which returned no shot with her long wooden gun. The Monitor ran safely past all the batteries, though under a heavy fire for an hour, and drifted down safely to the lower mouth of the canal, where she was tucked into an eddy. The rebels were completely deceived by her. As soon as they saw her by daylight they opened on her again with all the guns they could bring to bear, but without a shot hitting her to do any harm, for the shot went through one side and came out the other, without causing the vessel to sink, as she was full of water already. ->

Our soldiers shouted and laughed like mad, but the laugh was somewhat against them when, at daylight, we discovered the ram Queen of the West lying at Warrenton; and the question at once arose what had happened to the Indianola? Had the two rams sunk her or captured her in the engagement we had heard the night before? One or two of the soldiers got the Monitor out in the stream, and let her go down on the ram Queen. All the forts commenced firing and signalizing, and as the Monitor approached her, the ram turned tail and ran down the river as fast as she could go, the Monitor after her, making all the speed that was given her by a five-know current. The forts at Warrenton fired bravely and rapidly, and it was reported that they hit our Monitor in a very vulnerable spot.

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Fit Men for Soldiers.—European experience has proven that men are in general unable to surmount the fatigue of a military life under twenty years of age; raw lads have been proven not to be worth the premium in bounty paid for them; and of such, Napoleon said they were only fit to encumber the roadside. It has always been found that age, height and weight have been deemed indispensable requisites, and in the Roman armies, before a conscript was finally approved, he underwent a probation of four months’ duration. English experience on the Spanish Peninsula demonstrated that 350 men who had seen service for five years could accomplish more than 1,000 raw recruits. Let any man walk through our hospitals at this time, and he will find that a majority of the sick are merely large boys, and the same is true of the deaths that have occurred in the Washington hospitals. These, and similar facts connected with the enormous expense of supporting an army of puny men, would seem to demand the special attention of the military authorities.—N. Y. Journal of Commerce.

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The Battle Field of Antietam.—A revolting spectacle is already presented on the battle field of Antietam. The earth is washing away from the shallow trenches used for graves, and the bodies of the buried soldiers are appearing on the surface in various parts of that vast grave-yard.

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“Why is the letter D like a ring?” said a young lady to her accepted. The gentleman, like the generality of his sex in such a situation, was as dull as a hammer. “Because,” added the lady, with a very modest look at the picture at the other end of the room, “because ‘we’ can’t be ‘wed’ without it.”

THURSDAY
MARCH 19, 1863
THE FARMERS’ CABINET (NH)

Weekly Review of War News.

A special dispatch from Washington to the Mercury says: “Gen. Hooker will be ready to move in about a week. It is rumored that he will march on Richmond by way of Urbana, on the lower Rappahannock.”

The traitors and triflers in the Army are getting sifted out by discharges or by other means, and a consciousness of growing strength is apparent in the Government. The loss of such men as Gen. Porter, and later, Gen. Stoughton, is [a] gain to the army, except as they get into the hands of the enemy and furnish him information.

On the Mississippi, too, things wear a decided cheering look. Slight reverses have been followed by decided successes of the Federal arms, and it is even probable that to-day Vicksburg is in the hands of our forces.

The beginning of the end is also foreshadowed in the extreme destitution which is reported to prevail in the South, and the exorbitant prices to which provisions have attained. At Charleston and Mobile flour is $65 to $75 a barrel, and at the latter place it was thought would be $100, because of lack of transportation. At Richmond beef and pork are $1, no tea or coffee, eggs $2, butter $3, ready-made coats $80 to $100, boots $60. It is only by impressment that the Confederate Government can get food for its army, and this creates great dissatisfaction with the people and discourages those who cultivate the soil. Hunger is a hard enemy and will essentially aid us in reducing the rebellion.

A great Federal victory on the Yazoo is confirmed, resulting in the capture of 26 steamboats, eighteen of which were destroyed. It probably resulted from the combined action of an expedition under General Ross—which had succeeded in penetrating from Yazoo Pass down the Tallahatchie too Yazoo river, and thence to Yazoo city—and another under General Grant, which is supposed to have maneuvered up the Yazoo from its mouth in the Mississippi, at Vicksburg, and passed the rebel batteries at Haines’ Bluff, a point between the great stronghold and Yazoo City. General Ross was provided with several gunboats, two rams, and a large number of transports for his well-organized troops, some ten thousand in number. Thus the enemy was hemmed in upon the river, and must have surrendered from the sheerest military necessity. This affair, so highly creditable to our arms, is of great importance as placing us in an advantageous position regarding the looked for capture of Vicksburg. If followed up properly, General Grant can, and may have already, cut off the communication between the Sebastopol of the Mississippi and the great rebel army at Jackson, the capital of the state, after which the fate of Vicksburg becomes a question of time.

The recent operations at Lake Providence and elsewhere resulted in inundating more than 100 miles of Louisiana territory, destroying millions of dollars’ worth of property. The guerrillas were completely drowned out.

General Bragg is said to have been reinforced by some 22,000 men. His armies at Shelbyville and Tullahoma are deemed very large, and are in daily receipt of new arms and clothing. It is rumored that the rebels contemplate another formidable invasion of Kentucky, and that Fort Donelson is again threatened. ->

Forts Herman and Henry, on the Tennessee river, have been evacuated and destroyed by the Federal troops, as they were liable to overflow and not desirable for offensive or defensive operations. Their armaments, stores, &c., were removed to Fort Donelson. It is said that other and stronger works are to be erected in the same vicinity.

New Orleans advices of the 8th, per Marion, state that preparations have been made for an immediate attack on Port Hudson. Troops and munitions of war have already moved in that direction. Gens. Banks and Grover have started for Baton Rouge. The attack is to be made by land and water.

The Washington correspondent of the Herald writes that in not less than two weeks a proclamation calling for at least three hundred thousand troops under the Conscription Act will be forthcoming. The authorities are now engaged in forming the necessary machinery to carry it out. A Provost Marshal General is to be appointed, with headquarters at Washington, and prominent names are already mentioned for the position, among them Butler and Simeon Draper. The 12th section of the Conscription Act provides that the President shall assign to each district the number of men that it is required to furnish; and the Enrolling Board shall then make the draft of that number, and fifty per cent additional. This latter clause, which does not seem to be generally understood, was inserted in the act so that in cases where some of the first number drafted are incapable of being soldiers, selections from the remaining fifty per cent take their places, thus filling the number required for the district. The President is yet to make the needful rules and regulations for conducting the draft.

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Three companies of the New Hampshire 2d regiment are to be used for garrisoning the fort at Portsmouth. It will do no harm now to state that the naval station at Kittery has been entirely unprotected from a raid from the Alabama or any other adventurous rebel rover. The garrison which turned out to receive Gen. Wool consisted of one Sergeant! This state of things will exist no longer, and the papers that charge that the 2d regiment was sent home to vote may thank their lucky stars that the State is now protected from a rebel raid in its only vulnerable quarter. The companies selected are D, E and K, and are now there on duty.

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Chas. W. Dodge, our enterprising grocer, has closed out his stock, and left Tuesday to seek his fortune among the gold mines of California. May he be largely successful.

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Friday morning last the mercury dipped to 10 below, and Saturday morning to 24 below. That is being “out in the cold.” The sleighing for the past week has been (and still is) superb.

FRIDAY
MARCH 20, 1863
THE LIBERATOR (MA)

Why Don’t We Conquer?

“The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong,” but rather to him who stands unwaveringly by the right. The man who feels a great truth burning in his soul, and is fired by a principle which he knows is vital to the well-being and perpetuity of nations, goes forth conquering and to conquer. God is with him, the angels are with him, and he rejoices with exceeding joy. Such a one can chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight.

“Wisdom is better than weapons of war.” What is needed now for the salvation of this nation is not so much the external means of defence—not so much the reliance upon large number of soldiers—upon swords, bayonets and bombshells; but more than all is needed a policy based in righteousness, with a wisdom from on high to direct. These the Government lacks. It has little faith in righteousness, little confidence that God will prosper the right, and send confusion into the ranks of Humanity’s foes.

A friend asked me the other day why we did not succeed better in this war. “The reason,” I replied, “is because the lord and his hosts are against us—because neither the North nor the South are fighting to establish justice and righteousness. They are both fighting for dominion and power—for the continuance of the old order of things, wherein dwelleth unrighteousness and the despoiling of the poor. They are fighting for that state of things which permitted to flourish the most gigantic systems of wrong and oppression that ever cursed any land beneath the sun—where the spirit of selfishness reigned triumphant, and has heaped the most bitter, burning wrongs upon the red man and the black man, as well as upon the poor white man, and all their sorrowing widows and orphans. The almost entire extermination of the poor Indian, the cruel enslavement of the inoffensive African, and the heaping of heavy burdens upon the toiling millions—all to gain wealth and power—these are some of the stupendous national crimes which have, for generations, been crying for retribution to Heaven. The Lord has heard the cry. His time has come. He can withhold the rod of His chastisement no longer. War’s bloody enginery rolls heavily over the highway of time, its scourge is felt, the nation’s wail is heard. Still, neither side is willing to do justice. Both continue to fight against Omnipotence. Neither can conquer. Both are made tormentors to each other—causing that suffering which worketh out purification and repentance. When this is done, our troubles will cease; the Truth shall have conquered gloriously; Peace and Harmony then shall reign, and the nations shall become a brotherhood, wars and the causes of wars will then be done away. It will be many years before we reach this, but come at last it must. What war fails to do as a scourge, pestilence and famine may accomplish; and the world will be purified and redeemed, and a high and noble destiny for the race—even the kingdom of heaven—be established upon the earth.”

M. A. T.
New Brighton, Pa.

The Detroit Mob.

Three times during the past year, bands of white ruffians have found or made pretexts for a general assault upon the colored people of Northern cities—once in New York, once in Cincinnati, and last week in Detroit. In each and every case, the law had promptly removed the  alleged causes of offence; but the old-time and vengeful hostility of the more ignorant and degraded whites, inflamed by guilty partisan appeals, have broken out into outrages against men and women as innocent of the offence as if no crime had been committed.

The mob in Detroit was the worst of the three. The offending Negro was promptly arrested and would in due time have been tried and punished for his crimes. But this was not enough for the rioters. Failing to get him into their hands, they began a general assault upon the class to which he belonged. They set fire to buildings to which the frightened blacks had fled for safety, and met them with revolvers at the doors when they attempted to escape. One colored woman appeared with a babe in her arms, and appealed for mercy; but a shower of bricks, stones and clubs drove her back into the burning building. The men who, frenzied with fright, rushed into the crowd, were beaten with clubs and axes till they were insensible, and nearly or quite dead. Old and young suffered alike—the color of their skin was the measure of the injuries they were compelled to suffer.

It was the most atrociously vindictive riot that ever occurred in this country. It was not the result of frenzy or momentary passion, but of the old and heavy prejudice against a race which has borne the burden and curse of oppression till they doubt whether their claim of common justice will ever be acknowledged by the stronger people among whom their lot has been unwillingly cast. It is also the legitimate fruit of the inflammatory school of politics now rampant in some of the Northern States, which pursues with sleepless malignity the representatives of the colored race in whatever paths of patriotism, usefulness or honor they vainly try to walk. In contrast with the outrages they have long been compelled to endure, there are no nobler, no more heroic or magnanimous examples of self-devotion, than are shown when colored men come with their lives in their hands in support of a government under which they have experienced so scant and reluctant protection.—Worcester Spy.

SATURDAY
MARCH 21, 1863
THE ÆGIS AND TRANSCRIPT (MA)

Attack on Port Hudson.

Sloop of War Mississippi Sunk.

THE FLEET REPULSED.

Fortress Monroe, March 18.—The Richmond Whig of the 17th says the bombardment commenced on Port Hudson at 2 0’clock on the 14th.

“At 12 o’clock in the night a desperate engagement took place, the enemy attempting to pass our battery under cover of darkness. The firing was terrific. One gunboat passed in a damaged condition. The U. S. sloop of war Mississippi was burnt to the water’s edge in front of our batteries.

“One large vessel was completely riddled, a third badly crippled, and the rest were driven back. Our victory was complete; there were no casualties on our part.”

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The Expedition of Negro Soldiers into the Interior of Rebeldom.—A Port Royal correspondent of the New York Tribune makes the following statement in regard to the Negro expedition which left Port Royal about the first instant. This expedition took with them about five thousand muskets to arm Negroes upon the plantations along the route. The ultimate destination is supposed to be the interior of Georgia:

“As I am writing, the fine steamship Boston and several smaller vessels, all laden with Negro troops, are lying off the wharf, expecting in an hour or two to sail for Florida. This expedition is composed of all the Negro troops now mustered into service in this department. It is to be unaccompanied by white troops, and the Negro alone will bear all the praise or blame to follow the success or failure of the enterprise. Col. Higginson, of the 1st South Carolina, will have command in the field, and for the time being, will be acting Brig. General. Through causes beyond the control of any one in the department, this expedition has been delayed until the present month.

“At what point in Florida it has landed, and in what way it has operated against the enemy, you will probably learn first through Southern sources. Though known here and talked about, it has been thought advisable to keep the Northern reading public in ignorance until co-operating movements have been made at other points. As the Negro soldiers embarked on board the boats this morning and left Beaufort Harbor, General Saxton gave them a parting salute of thirty-two guns, the fine band stationed in the city struck up a national air, and the white handkerchiefs of the ladies, who have so long had the best interest of the African at heart, waved them adieu.”

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A curious project has been set on foot for the speedy conveyance of letters between England and France. It is proposed to erect in both countries, at a distance of about 1000 meters from the coasts of Calais and Dover, a strong edifice of masonry, containing a steam engine of sufficient power, by means of which an immense wheel, 25 metres in diameter, is made to turn forty times a minute. By this rotation, a series of wires, forming a gigantic strap, extending across the channel, is coiled round the wheel at one end, say at Dover, and uncoiled at the other, Calais, and conversely. To this strap, India rubber leather bags are to be attached, which are thus conveyed across the channel at the rate of 3000 meters per minute, so that within the space of twelve minutes, the letters and dispatches from one country may be landed on the other.

The Rebels at Vicksburg.—A captain from General Grant’s army, in an address at a war meeting in Chicago on the 5th inst., spoke as follows of the condition of the rebels at Vicksburg, and of the prospects of the capture of that stronghold:

“From what we learn from conscripts who come into our camps, they are very generally sick, with all kinds of diseases, and have no medicine. They are nearly starved out, and some of them say they haven’t had any flour bread for two months. They are not well disciplined, well armed or well fed. As to their comparative fighting qualities, to use our boys’ expressions, ‘they fight like the very devil;’ but they cannot stand the bayonet charge; at least they never have.

“The enemy say that if we take Vicksburg, we have conquered them. They have two hundred and seventy guns and sixty thousand or seventy thousand troops at Vicksburg, and if we can take that place in spite of all their forces, their cause is hopeless; and, gentlemen, we are going to take it. [Tremendous cheers.] We shall take it with as little loss of life as possible, but take it anyhow. [Cheers.] Old General Grant said not a week ago that we will take it, and what he says we all believe. He keeps his plans to himself, and if I know them, I should not tell you. He has his plans well matured, and will carry them out successfully.”

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Letters from members of the 42d Mass., captured at Galveston and recently paroled, say that they were treated as well as could be expected, both at Houston and during their march. The rebels took neither their knapsacks nor any of their clothes without paying an equivalent at the consent of the owner. Our boys told the rebels that their knapsacks were private property, which assertion was based on the fact that they paid fifty cents extra for them in Readville. Provisions were very scarce both in Houston ad in the country through which they passed on their march. There were two colored boys, waiters to the Colonel and Surgeon, with these companies when they were captured. These the rebels took and sold into slavery. I do not know what disposition will finally be made of these companies. They will remain here for the present, under the command of Capt. Cogswell, who has been detailed to look after them. Day before yesterday some of our men received letters that were on board the ill-fated Ella Worley. Many of the letters were warped and twisted and looked as though they had been well soaked.

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The Colored Regiment.—The 54th Mass. colored regiment now numbers 234 men. Its numbers increase steadily every day. Thirty recently came from Philadelphia and after a medical examination, most of them were accepted and taken to camp.

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Our soldiers are to have pea soup. Jacob Ames of Syracuse, N. Y., has just been awarded the contract for furnishing the government 40,000 bushels f split peas at $2.25 per bushel.