SUNDAY
AUGUST 16, 1863
THE DAILY CHRONICLE & SENTINEL (GA)

From Mississippi.

A letter from Morton, Miss., to the Mobile Tribune dated Aug. 8th, says the hand of God is already smiting those who have desolated the land. He says:

I learn from Father Orlande, the pastor of the church at Jackson, who has just returned from Vicksburg, that the enemy and Negroes are dying by thousands from a disease called by the medical gentlemen cerebro spinals meningitis, which is fatal in almost every instance; and in vain have sought for an antidote, but so far it has baffled their skill. In many instances the victims have been struck down in the streets and expired in a few minutes.

The disease makes its appearance by a painful enlargement of the larynx, which is followed by a paralysis of the tongue, and if the victim lives twelve hours he will recover. He tells me that last Tuesday three hundred and fourteen soldiers died in the hospitals at Vicksburg, and one hundred and thirteen Negroes. The Yankees are deserting by the wholesale, and numbers of them have come into our lines and delivered themselves up as prisoners, rather than trust themselves to the tender mercies of yellow Jack, to the effects of which they attribute the great mortality among their troops.

Dr. Hewitt, Grant’s medical director, has issued a circular, stating that the disease was not the yellow fever, but the soldiery do not believe it, and are fleeing for their homes to escape the dreadful scourge. . .

The Negroes are starving, and dying of disease, for want of medical attention, in large numbers, in Vicksburg, the disciples of Ward Beecher and Brother Cheever looking on with silent indifference to the fate of a race whom they profess to consider as equals and brothers. Many are trying to escape from the city, but are not allowed to pass the Yankee lines. Three of these wretches offered to serve our informant the remainder of their days, if he would only get them out of the Yankee lines.

The Mississippian says that the Yankees were receiving immense supplies at Vicksburg for the army. Stables were filled with breadstuffs, and the landing covered with barrels and hogsheads of meat.

Sherman says the country between Big Black and Pearl rivers shall remain neutral for the present, unless Johnston brings his army west of Pearl river.

On Lincoln’s thanksgiving day, a divine preached a abolition sermon in one of the churches, saying that they had cause for thankfulness–that wherever the stars and stripes floated, there the shackles fell from the oppressed, and the slaves went free. They are free and starving, because they acknowledge they cannot feed 85,000 blacks already there.

•••••

Misfortunes Should Strengthen Us.—During the Revolutionary war the British had possession of nearly all our prominent cities. They had under their hated rule North Carolina, South Carolina, and a good portion of many other States. They captured Philadelphia, which was then the capital of the nation, and dispersed the Continental Congress. Our armies retreated, and fell back again and again. Yet the patriots of that day were not dispirited. No! Misfortune only made them the more united and determined to gain the freedom and independence for which were fighting.->

Why then, we ask, should we feel in the least dispirited or disheartened by our late disasters? We have no reason for so doing. On the contrary, our courage should rise with the presence of calamities. We should show the world by our acts that the subjugation of the South is impossible. To be sure, the horizon at present is overcast with dark clouds. Nearly everything wears a gloomy aspect. We should recollect, however, that we must either gain our rights or take the fate of conquered nations–chains and slavery. Our submission will fasten Federal despotism on us and our children for all time. If we are at once disarmed and our armies disbanded, all hope of independence is lost forever. Thenceforward we shall be serfs of Yankee taskmasters.

Misfortune always nieves the arms of patriots.¹ It should awaken us to greater exertions. It should redouble our spirits and energies. It should incite us to make every preparation possible to successfully accomplish the great work we have commenced to free the South from Yankee bondage.

•••••

Lord Palmerston on the Mexican Question.—La Patrie, the organ of the French Emperor, thinks that Lord Palmerston does not like the successes of the French arms in Mexico, and that he is also inclined to grumble at the course the Emperor has taken. La Patrie remarks thus on the present position occupied by the English statesman:

“The news of the surrender of Mexico and its occupation by the French troops has thrown the English press in a state of astonishment which the Morning Post does not conceal. Lord Palmerston’s journal even evinces great embarrassment as to the applauding this fortunate event. Unable to deny its importance, it endeavors to question the good effects that are to be expected from it. Singular disposition on the part of a ministerial journal. Strange attitude for the organ of an allied Government. But it must be recollected that if the English Cabinet did consent nearly two years ago to take part in the expedition against Mexico, it not only disengaged itself at Soledad, but even made common cause for a time with the Juarez Government, through the British Minister at Mexico. The surrender of the Mexican capital is therefore almost a defeat for Lord Palmerston’s policy. Still it would have been better for the Post to have dissimulated its regrets, for we are convinced that Lord Palmerston will not fail, if he have the opportunity, to applaud in the House of Commons the last successes of our expedition. The diplomacy of the Cabinet of St. James has inexhaustible resources; it knows how to hold itself prepared for all events, and while the representative of England alone obtained the privilege of staying in Mexico to assist at the victories of Juarez, Lord Palmerston at London left the door open for new negotiations, so that the Queen’s Government might take advantage of the victories of France.”

The English Minister has nothing more to do at Mexico; but Lord Palmerston is setting himself to work at London and Paris.

MONDAY
AUGUST 17, 1863
THE PROVIDENCE EVENING PRESS (RI)

The Draft in New York.

New York, August 17.—The draft commences in this city Wednesday in the 6th District. Gen. Dix has issued an address to the citizens setting forth the necessity and legality of the draft and exhorting the maintenance of order, obedience to laws, and the quiet pursuit of their accustomed avocations while the draft is in progress.

He says: Should his suggestion be disregarded and renewed attempts be made to disturb the public peace, and prevent the execution of the law, which it is my duty to enforce, I warn all such persons that ample preparation has been made to vindicate the authority of the government, and that exhibitions of disorder or violence will be met by most prompt and vigorous measures for their suppression.

Provost Marshal General Fry publicly announces, by an order to Provost Marshal Farr to proceed with the draft, that the draft will be commenced Wednesday at 10 a.m., at No. 186 Sixth avenue.

•••••

How Substitutes are Examined in Philadelphia.—In  examining substitutes the most rigid scrutiny is exercised. The substitute, upon presenting himself for acceptance, is taken into a room, where he disrobes himself. The surgeon begins with his teeth and examines his body down to his toes. If the front teeth are gone, so that the man cannot bite off a cartridge paper, he cannot be accepted for infantry service. He may do for a trooper. If the lungs are unsound, the temperament apoplectic, or the system wasting, the government does not want the man, either as a volunteer, a conscript, or a substitute.

The applicant is made to throw himself into various attitudes. His toes and fingers must be practically perfect. He is made to pick up a grain of corn from the ground without bending his knees; to stand upon the points of his toes, and to show that he is perfect in his anatomy. If he stands this test he is accepted, and a release is given to the man who brings him. The substitute then receives his money, and is given into the custody of a guard. He is then a United States soldier for three years.

•••••

Gen. Sibley’s Fight with the Indians.—The following dispatch from Gen. Sibley, dated Aug. 7th, has been received by Gen. Halleck through Major Gen. John Pope at Milwaukee:

We had three desperate engagements with 2,200 Sioux warriors, in each of which they were routed and finally driven across the Missouri with the loss of all their subsistence, etc. Our loss was small, while at least 150 of the savages were killed and wounded. Forty-six bodies have been found.

H. Sibley, Brig. Gen.

General Pope adds that Gen. Sibley was at Big bend of the Missouri, and would probably intercept the flying Sioux. Little Crow had been killed and his son captured, and it was thought that Indian hostilities east of the Missouri were at an end.

Jeff’s Brother.—Joe Davis is a brother of Jeff. Joe and Jeff had a plantation in partnership out near Jackson, Miss., and said plantation was well stocked with Negroes. These Negroes are now nearly all of them under the stars and stripes, some of them as soldiers and some as cooks and servants for Federal officers. Joe is living upon his plantation, and scarcely enough of his Negroes are faithful to him to carry home his subsistence, which he is obliged to draw from the commissariat of the army of the Union!

•••••

The Drummond Light Exhibition on Boston Common is thus described in a private letter from a young lady visiting in that city:

“As we neared the Common one might have thought it was the Fourth of July, or some grand gala day. The sidewalks and cars were all crowded with people whose destination was the Common. The gathering was quite as large as that we saw on the Fourth we spent here. A very respectable and orderly crowd we found it, too, composed mostly of people from the country. It seemed strange that so many people should come together to see so common a thing as a Drummond Light; but I had no idea what beautiful effects could be produced by it. It was one of the finest exhibitions I ever saw–quite equaling the stereopticon. One of the lights was on the cupola of the State House; the other on an elevation of the frog pond. During the evening the lights were so placed as to reflect on the spray from the fountain, and formed the finest rainbow I ever witnessed. The pond light was thrown upon the trees and the people, producing the most beautiful effect. The fountain was thrown to an immense height in a pyramidal form, and upon this  the light was reflected; then glasses of all colors were placed in front of the light, causing the water to appear of the most beautiful scarlet, green, blue, purple and yellow tints. The form of the fountain was then changed to that of a flower vase, which was used as a surface for reflecting pictures and mottoes. We had the heads of Washington, Lincoln, quite a number of Generals, and appropriate sentiments. At one time the light was thrown upon the flag, which could just be seen, with the ball of the staff, high up above the trees–furnishing a beautiful illustration of ‘Our Banner in the Sky.’ ”

•••••

The Cotton market.—The price of cotton, contrary to general expectation, has advanced since the capture of Vicksburg and Port Hudson. The supply is very small; only 3200 bales have been received at New York since the 1st of August, and most of this has come from Nassau and Matamoras. The truth is that a large portion of the cotton in the South and Southwest has been wasted and destroyed, and what is there is so remote from the railroads and navigable water that it will be a long time before it comes to market. In the meantime the high price reduces greatly the consumption  of cotton, and shows that formerly a much greater amount of cotton cloth was wasted than was fairly worn out.

TUESDAY
AUGUST 18, 1863
THE HARTFORD DAILY COURANT (CT)

Highly Important from North Carolina.
Rebels Take the Oath of Allegiance.
The Davis Government Denounced.

Newbern, N. C., Aug. 13.—A meeting of the citizens of North Carolina, representing ever county in the 1st and 2d Congressional districts, and a portion of the 3d, was held at Washington, N. C., on the 11th inst. The 1st N. C. Union regiment, stationed at that point, participated in the meeting. Addresses were made and resolutions adopted expressing sympathy with the great conservative party of North Carolina; declaring energetic prosecution of the war in this department to be the only means by which the Union sentiment in the interior of the State can be made practicable in restoring North Carolina to national jurisdiction; asking the Government for reinforcements for this purpose; accusing the confederate government of perfidy and cruelty towards North Carolina; declaring that her people are therefore absolved from any further obligation to sustain it; placing eh responsibility for the destruction of slavery upon Jeff Davis and his co-conspirators against the union; expressing the belief that North Carolina will find ample compensation in the blessings of free labor for the present inconveniences of emancipation; rejoicing in the recent Union victory at the Kentucky election; denouncing copperheadism at the North, and commending the ability and patriotism of the Administration in the conduct of the war, and especially in the sound national currency originated by the secretary of the treasury.

The Washington New Era of the 10th instant republishes from the Raleigh Standard of July 31st, an able article, four columns in length, denouncing the treachery of the confederate leaders; showing the falsity of their promises and the ill success of their efforts; stating that portions only of but five of the thirteen original seceded States remain in the hands of the confederacy; and proposing that North Carolina in her sovereign capacity make immediate overtures to the North for peace.²

Further from North Carolina.

Washington, Aug. 17.—According to a private letter received here, the article in the Raleigh Standard of the 31st of July, . . . was written by the speaker of the North Carolina House of Commons and the President of the Governor’s council. It is further stated by the correspondent that Governor Vance approved of the publication of the article, copies of which have been furnished the President and the members of the cabinet.

•••••

A Washington dispatch to the Tribune says an officer just returned from Charleston asserts that it is impossible to batter down Fort Wagner, and that a direct assault will not be attempted at present. He thinks Sumter can be knocked to pieces, but that it will be in such a condition that our forces cannot occupy it. He says that even should we take Sumter and Wagner, the rebels are building batteries on the way to Charleston, and other forts must be overcome. The military force is not sufficient for the work, and must be largely reinforced before the finale. If so, there will be no startling news from Charleston at present.

•••••

The Sanitary Commission has chartered vessels to carry ice, vegetables, lemons, cider, raspberry vinegar, &c., to the soldiers before Charleston and Port Royal. It will sail to-morrow. This commission is untiring in its work of mercy.

Doings of the Rebel Pirates.

New York, Aug. 17.—The ship Constitution, from Philadelphia for Valparaiso, was captured June 25th, by the pirate Georgia, and released on giving bond. The ship City of Bath, from Callao to Antwerp, had been captured by the Georgia and released on bond for $20,000. Report says that the bark Conrad, captured by the Alabama June 19th, was armed by her, and not destroyed. The ship Sunrise, from New York for Liverpool, was captured by the Florida, and released on a ransom bond of $60,000.

•••••

Opening of Trade on the Mississippi.

Cairo, Ill., Aug. 16.—A bearer of dispatches from Gen. Grant passed through here to-day, en route to Washington. It is understood that his dispatches have reference to trade regulations on the Mississippi river. It is said that Gen. Grant favors the opening of the cotton trade to all loyal citizens, under proper restrictions, and recommends to the Washington authorities the immediate adoption of this policy. This will bring out thousands of bales of cotton now hidden away in swamps, and have a beneficial effect on the manufacturing interests.

•••••

Strength of Lee’s Army.—The Baltimore correspondent of the Herald, referring to statements regarding the re-enforcement of the rebel army, says:

My information, never at fault hitherto, places the number of these re-enforcements at thirty thousand, which makes General Lee’s present strength one hundred and thirty five thousand troops. These were all old troops. General Lee is besides receiving some conscripts which will soon swell his number to one hundred and fifty thousand.

The main body of this vast army is massed on the line of the Rapidan, with General Lee’s headquarters at Gordonsville. New cavalry squadrons are being drilled and exercised in ten Shenandoah Valley.

•••••

The Herald publishes a letter from the rebel prison in Richmond, known as Castle Thunder, which reveals an amount of inhumanity on the part of the rebel jailors, practiced towards certain civilian prisoners, almost without parallel. Starvation, neglect, and even the pestilence of small pox was the fate to which these unhappy captives were exposed. It states, also, that at the time when Gen. Dix was on the peninsula, in July, the city of Richmond was undefended by any available force, and was almost at his mercy, if he had advanced upon it.

•••••

A Novel Project.—Gen. Ben Prentiss, the hero of Helena, who was the chief officer in command at the West when the war broke out, and who spent the year after the battle of Corinth in a rebel prison, broaches a novel plan, and one he would doubtless carry out if he had a chance. He says he would like no better amusement than to be put in command of ten thousand cavalry; that wit this force he could go from Texas to Richmond, and that when he comes out he will have thirty thousand mules with an able-bodied Negro on every one. In addition he would bring thousands of fighting Union men. He would destroy all rebel communications, and burn their factories, arsenals and foundries.

WEDNESDAY
AUGUST 19, 1863
THE CONSTITUTION (CT)

Demonstration of National Power.

The Philadelphia Press remarks: For two years we have vainly endeavored to capture Richmond, and to break the rebel power in Virginia. Two years were required to reclaim the Mississippi. Charleston, wrested from us at the beginning of the war, until now we had no prospect of retaking. For months the rebellion obtained brilliant successes, which we knew to be transitory, but which in the eyes of the world were permanent. For nearly a year the war waged without appreciable gain or loss on either side, and when our triumphs came they were slow, interrupted with reverses, and apparently unsure. Even now, though we have done so much, and are forcing the enemy to abandon that arrogant attitude of superiority with which he began the war, our task is very great. A new army of three hundred thousand men must be placed in the field to subdue the rebellion, and one battle, at least, which will transcend in desperation all the battles of the war, must be fought. Besides this, the war has imposed upon the nation a debt which it will take many years to repay, and has made necessary a system of taxation previously unknown in America. All these facts prove how mighty is the work which the nation has pledged itself to do. A rebellion which drags nine millions of people into its support, creates an army of four hundred thousand men, menaces the capital of the country, invades loyal States, and for nearly two years maintains inflexible resistance, is no common foe. We have read many excellent arguments which show the weakness of the rebellion, and know their truth, but the strength of the rebellion is a fact far more important to consider. Time should have taught us the danger of presuming upon the weakness of an enemy, and though we know now that the power of the South is waning, that very knowledge should incite us to greater energy.

All the defeats, the fierce struggles, the fortresses unreduced, and armies unconquered, which declare the strength of the rebellion, also increases our confidence in the power of the United States. For we measure that power by the difficulty of the task it is evidently bringing to an end. We know the might of Hercules by the magnitude of his labors; the more terrible the danger, the nobler is the courage that confronts it. We must be glad, therefore, not that the rebellion is so formidable, but that being so, it illustrates the superiority of the Republic. The entire strength of the war power of the Government has hitherto been unknown, and needed this extreme demonstration. Previous wars have required but a partial exertion of power, but this rebellion has forced the Government to reveal all its might, and the revelation has startled the world. From the first, Europe predicted our failure, and is now astonished to see the growing certainty of our success. The army we have sent into the Southern States is the largest the century has known; the territory we have conquered is larger than European empires. Thus, upon the very stronghold of rebellion the superior strength of Government stands as upon a pedestal, and we have gained from the very power of the conspiracy assurance that once crushed it will never be resumed. In  Missouri, in Kentucky, in Tennessee, and Louisiana, for instance, the disloyal inhabitants will not again endeavor to deny the authority of the Government, because they have already attempted that iniquity with all their energy, and have learned that it is insufficient. This the entire South is learning, and with the fall of Charleston and the defeat of Lee it will have the lesson by heart.->

The compensation for the disloyalty of the South is the proof it has learned of the patriotism of the North; thus, by reason of the tremendous force and vast extent of the pro-slavery conspiracy is discovered how much greater are the force and the extent of principles of freedom. Had the enemy been less powerful, the nation would to this day have remained ignorant of itself, had the rebellion been subdued in ninety days, we should never have known the resolution of the people, their willingness to make any sacrifices for honor and principle, their confidence in the Government and in themselves. To the rebellion we are indebted, also, for the development of a wiser spirit of freedom in a people which had for years obeyed the mandates of Southern slaveholders; for so long as the slaveholder merely threatened disunion the North weakly sacrificed its principles to prevent disunion; but the moment he attempted to execute his threats his moral power was gone. Until this war our belief in the strength of the Republic had been merely a matter of faith, but the rebellion establishes eh fact. In this way the victory is made more glorious by the difficulty of obtaining it, and the American Republic, when this war is ended, will stand upon a nobler and firmer basis; will have a higher claim upon the respect of all nations than it possessed at any other period of its existence.

•••••

Prospects of an Ice Famine.—The protracted continuance of unusually hot weather has operated disastrously upon the short supplies of the ice dealers, and in some parts of the country there is an almost certain prospect of an early exhaustion of the stock. In New York, within ten days, ice has risen in price from forty cents to one dollar per hundred weight; in Philadelphia two cents per pound is demanded; in Springfield, twenty-five cents per hundred; in Hartford, one cent per pound, and the present rates in Boston are fifty cents per hundred, by the quantity; sixty cents for family supply, and one cent per pound for small lots.

•••••

End of the Naval Campaign on the Mississippi.—All the vessels of war engaged in the late operations on the Mississippi are to be surveyed, in obedience to official orders, and such of them as need repairs are to be sent home. This is practically withdrawing the present fleet, as nearly every ship composing it has suffered severely in action, and must be relieved. The East Gulf Blockading Squadron and the Mississippi Squadron proper conjointly acted in the great battles which have resulted in the opening of the great river.

THURSDAY
AUGUST 20, 1863
THE VERMONT PHŒNIX

Woman.

What is it to give woman schooling, if you make her education stop where the real education of her brother begins? What is it to give woman wider employment, unless in this employment you proportion her wages to her work, and don’t give her work harder than man’s with one quarter of the remuneration? What is it to woman if better laws are passed here or there for her protection, if still the clergyman binds her to obey, and the lawyer assures her that man and wife are one, and that one is the husband? To reform these things the impulse must come from woman herself. Men judge of women as they personally see them. How can you expect a man to honor womanhood, if you do your utmost to dishonor it by wickedness or frivolity. How can you expect any man to labor for the elevation of those who spurn at the very laborers, and take pains to explain to the world, that they themselves, at least, are not “strong minded:” as if anybody supposed they were? How can any man reverence womanhood beyond the personal experience of his own household? I do not need to visit a man to know what his domestic relations are; I can talk to him about the rights and power of woman, and his answer gives me the true daguerreotype of his sister, wife, mother or daughter. How can he get beyond the standard of Thackeray–every woman weak or wicked–if he can only judge from a wife, who knows nothing in the universe beyond her cooking stove; and a daughter who has not much experimental acquaintance with even that? On the other hand, what tales of mesmerism or alchemy can fitly symbolize the power of a noble woman over him who loves her? The tale of Undine is only half the story. Dryden’s story of Cymon and Iphigenia needs to be placed beside it. Woman not merely finds her own soul through love, but gives it to her lover. Woman has this mighty power–when will she use it nobly? There are thousands to-day who are looking out of their loneliness, their poverty or their crime, for the new age, when women shall be truer to themselves, than men have ever been to woman; the new age of higher civilization, when moral power shall take the place of brute force, and peace shall succeed to war.

•••••

“Greenbacks”.—Few people, perhaps, are aware why the National currency is printed with green backs; therefore I will explain the reason. Ever since the adoption of paper currency, it has been the common study of bank note engravers to get up some plan of printing bills that could not be counterfeited. In this they only partly succeeded till, as late as 1857, a man named Stacy J. Edon invented a kind of green ink, which he patented June 30th of that year. It is called anti-photographic ink because it cannot be photographed on account of its color, and cannot be dislodged with alkalies by counterfeiters to get a complete facsimile of the bills. And as it is a secret only known by the American Bank Note Company and the inventor, it is impossible to counterfeit the green back money. It was used by many banks before the war, but was never a leading feature in the bill; but even if the composition of the ink was known, it would be of no use, as the work could not be copied from the genuine bills as with any other kind of ink. The date of the patent can be seen in all the bills, in small print.–Bur. Sentinel.

•••••

The Surgeons say that since the army has returned to Virginia, the free use of blackberries has saved the Government nearly a million of dollars in medical and hospital stores.

The Doom of the Democracy.—Thurlow Weed says in a recent letter:

“I remember Federalism in its palmy condition, redolent of material and intellectual acquisitions–its statesmen, jurists and lawyers towering up head and shoulders above their fellows. And I remember this party when its leaders, in sympathy with the enemies of their country, began to drag it under; when in Congress, in the legislature, in its journals and finally in the Hartford Convention, language identical with the utterances of the disloyal Democrats now, turned the people against them.

Here, in the letter of Mr. Bradbury, accepting the Democratic nomination for Governor for Maine, is an illustration:

“Are the people of Maine ready to concede the claim set up by the National Administration to that despotic power which could deprive them of their dearest rights and most sacred privileges–of all those noble guarantees affecting life, liberty and property, which are secured to them by the grand old Constitution established by their fathers?”

“This is New England Federalism, rank and raw. This precise language is stereotyped in eh archives of Federalism. They preached it until the patriotic masses loathed Federalism and “spewed it out.”

“There is reason to fear that modern Democracy will share the fate of ancient Federalism. The proclivity of its leaders is in that direction.”

After citing other instances of the disloyal drift of the Democratic leaders, Mr. Weed says:

“These things, I say, will run the Democratic party under; for no party, be its antecedents what they may, can be unfaithful to the country during a war. The people unvaryingly and unerringly find out and take the patriotic side. No matter if the administration errs, falls short of its duty, or even exceeds its authority, the people will stand by their government.

“During the war of 1812 the Federalists abused and ridiculed ‘Jimmy Madison’ more maliciously than President Lincoln is abused now. But they were against their own country in its day of trial, and they were driven from power, into popular contempt, and compelled to disband, seeking shelter from public indignation within other political organizations.

“Such will be the fate of Democracy if it be not warned; if it continues to take counsel of men whose prejudices blind or whose secession sympathies mislead.”

•••••

The New York Post states that the losses sustained by the dealers in perishable provisions during the heat of Saturday last, owing to the scarcity of ice in that city, amounted to thirty thousand dollars. Many of the large packing-houses of that city have suspended business until the cooler weather of autumn shall enable them to resume operations.

•••••

Over 5000 men are employed at the Brooklyn Navy yard, where great activity prevails. Their monthly pay amounts to $200,000.

FRIDAY
AUGUST 21, 1863
THE LIBERATOR (MA)

Negro Hunting in Missouri.

Potosi, July 26th, 1863.

Editors Missouri Democrat.–Last Saturday, we had an example of what it means to have regard for “law and order.” I mean one of those old fashioned Negro hunts. Some half a dozen slaves, who had deserted their rebel masters, and were in possession of their regular protection papers, issued by a Provost Marshal under General Order No. 35, Department of the Missouri, were hunted down like wild deer, handcuffed, and on a wagon hauled to jail in Potosi. This whole section of Washington county was alive. All the law and order men were out and busy. You could see men who never show their faces, except on an occasion of this kind. By “law and order men,” I understand that class which hold only as law the fugitive slave law, the black laws of the State of Missouri, and the laws of eh Confederacy; they don’t consider the laws of our Congress as binding on them. It has come to a nice state of affairs in Missouri, Men who, by their true loyalty ad good faith toward the Government, have shown their regard for “law and order,” and have sacrificed everything to save this country, are stigmatized as “Revolutionists” and Radicals, and are now at the mercy of men who have done everything to ruin this country, and who only enjoy their freedom by forbearance of the Union men. There is not a Union man in Washington county, when he goes to bed at night, who does fear that he may be murdered before morning.

A band of about twenty-five bushwhackers is in this county, and they declared only last week that Potosi could not hold a Union man. A Union man, Rev. Wilson Adams, who was worth some $12,000 to $15,000, has been shamefully ruined by them–been compelled to take refuge in Potosi with his family. The rebels are in possession of his place. They took all his horses, and in fact everything is at their mercy; and then we see the rebels prowling about the country, declaring that they are going to run this machine now, and the Union men tremble for their lives, because they don’t know how it comes that these rebels get in power. The way they intend to run this machine, we saw last Saturday. For the purpose of “law and order,” they set all law aside. We will see what our Provost Marshal does in the matter. These Negroes are promised in their papers the protection of all officers of the United States, but he thinks, perhaps, he don’t belong to the United States officers, being in the Missouri State Militia.

After having spent one hundred millions and given innumerable valuable lives, not to speak of the suffering and desolation of our homes, we have just come back again to the barbarous state of affairs where we were at the beginning, and near the end of the nineteenth century, in the midst of a civilized community, we see enacted before the eyes of our children, scenes which make the blood rush to every true man’s face. Human beings are treated like beasts; children only five years old separated from their parents, for the purpose of keeping them from running away; husbands separated from their wives. In fact, we don’t know if we are dreaming, or if it is reality. Who is responsible for this state of affairs? We Union men have proven that we have regard for law and order, but if these rebels think that we will submit to their rule, they may find themselves mistaken.

Jeff Davis’s Address.

It is said that a Cossack exists under the skin of the most civilized Russian. Jeff Davis’s recent address to the deserters of the rebel army would seem to show that the highest “Confederate” position cannot obscure the principles and language of the slave-driver. None but one affiliated with that tribe would dare to charge the Government of the United States with seeking the extermination of the Southern people, including their wives and children; with being engaged in wholesale plunder, destruction and division of property among “wretches” of “atrocious cruelty;” with incendiarism and the debauching of an inferior race with the promised “indulgence of the vilest passions as the price of their treachery.” No prominent man of any other nationality at the present day would be found using such vile and reckless language as this. But it is not inappropriate to the pen of the chosen representative of a community of slave-drivers. Beauregard has uttered foul falsehoods at home, and Maury has rivaled him in his scientific slanders abroad, but their official chief beats them both in full proportion to his superior rank.

But it may be suggested that the desperate situation of Davis is not calculated to induce him to stand upon propriety or to measure his words. He is making a last effort to “fire the Southern heart,” and he may well risk blowing his own reputation to the winds. In this point of view, his address is one of the most significant developments of the whole crisis. He acknowledges that there is a large army of deserters now scattered over the rebel States, which he has no hopes of gathering into the ranks again, except by this public promise of amnesty and pardon. Of course, he smooths over the excuses and reasons in favor of these absentees, but they are clearly nothing but common deserters, whom even the strictest regulations of the rebel army have not sufficed to hold, find or return. They are those who have abandoned the sinking ship, who have saved themselves as they could. Precious few of them, therefore, will Jeff Davis ever see rallying under his banner again.

But into what a valley of humiliation must the rebel “President” have descended, before he could have brought himself to thus announce the low estate of his audacious conspiracy! It is a confession that the attempt to recruit the rebel army by summoning all between the ages of eighteen and forty-five is a failure. But when did deserters ever recruit an army? If they should ever go back, their second state would be worse than their first; for it would denote their triumph over the rules of the service and the authority of their leaders. But they will not go back in numbers of any consequence. The reasons for which they ran away will keep them away. Jeff Davis must rely upon the force he has, subject to the daily loss by desertion. These are insufficient to stand before the national troops, unless the latter shall not be reinforced, but still further thinned out, through Copperhead influences. Let us take care to prevent that.–Boston Journal.

SATURDAY
AUGUST 22, 1863
THE HARTFORD DAILY COURANT (CT)

The Rebel Guerrilla Quantrell With 800 Men Invades Kansas.
LAWRENCE, KANSAS, BURNED.
Property Worth $2,000,000 Destroyed.

Leavenworth, Aug. 21.–About 6 o’clock last evening, the rebel guerrilla chief, Quantrell, with a force 800 strong, crossed the Missouri river into Kansas near the town of Gardner, sixty miles below here, ad immediately started for Lawrence, arriving before that town at 4 o’clock this a.m. Quantrell posted a guard around the town so that the citizens could not escape, and with the remainder of his men commenced pillaging stores, shooting citizens, and firing houses. A gentleman who managed to escape and secrete himself in a cornfield near the town, reports that he swam the river. On reaching the bluffs this side he had a plain view of the town, which was then in a sheet of flams. From what he saw the thinks the loss had reached $2,000,000 and by this time much more, as the rebels seemed determined to destroy everything that would burn. We cannot learn that any resistance was made, as the citizens were taken by surprise, the first alarm being the crackling of the flames, and the yells of the rebel incendiaries.

James H. Low was in the city, and it is feared that he has fallen into the hands of the rebels, as escape through their lines was almost impossible. A large number of Union troops have been sent in pursuit of the guerrillas, but with what success is not known. Mayor Anthony, of this city, has issued a proclamation stating that the people of Leavenworth need not apprehend any trouble, but requesting every able-bodied citizen to provide himself with the best arms he can, and hold himself in readiness to aid our friends in any part of the State at a moment’s notice. He censures the General commanding this district, who, he says, with 5,000 troops under his command, has allowed a few hundred guerrillas to burn a city and destroy $2,000,000 worth of property, and intimates that citizens must depend on themselves for the defence of the city and State.

•••••

Our Friends in Scotland.—The Edinburgh News of the 1st instant publishes the following:

“When the news of the fall of Vicksburg and General Lee’s retreat reached the village of Bankfoot, in Perthshire, the friends of the North got quite jubilant. A banner was hastily painted with the motto on one side, ‘Vicksburg is taken;’ on the reverse, ‘God speed the North.’ A floral device on a large scale was also extemporized, and at eight o’clock a procession set out through the village, accompanied by the music band. At the close of the procession, the political lions of the place ad members of the band repaired to the inn, where President Lincoln and his successful generals’ health were drunk with rounds of cheers, and then all went peaceably and gladly to their homes.”

•••••

Arrest of Men for Manufacture of Confederate Note Paper.

Boston, August 21.—Geo. W. Linn, Prentis C. Baird, and Wm. Brown, all residents of Lee, were brought before U. S Commissioner Hallett to-day on charge of giving aid and comfort to the rebels by manufacturing bank note paper having a water mark of C. S. A. on the centre of the bills. A nolle prosequi was entered in the case of Baird, that he might appear as a witness. Linn was held in $3,000 bail to appear at the September term of the District Court, and Brown, who worked for Linn, but against whom no testimony beyond that fact was introduced, in $1,000.

Hon. Winter Davis on Negro Soldiers.—Let Northern copperheads, who rail against the President for employing Negro soldiers in the service of the Union, ponder the words uttered by the Hon. Winter Davis, of Baltimore, at a Union meeting in Portland. He says:

“The President had an undoubted right, under the act of Congress, to employ as many Negroes as can be obtained in putting down the rebellion. He would like to see the question of slavery mooted. That act of Congress has placed in the hands of the President the instrument that shall free the Negro, who, bearing the stars and stripes, will defend the Constitution as it is, if not seek to secure the Union as it was.

“He said if the people of Maine were not sufficiently warmed up, let them take the roasting they in Maryland have taken, and they would get warmed up. They don’t stop to ask a man who is willing to fight for the Union, whether he is black or white, bond or free. We will fight side by side with anybody who will aid us in putting down this rebellion, and those who were not willing to do it had better stay at home. Gen. Jackson addressed the colored soldiers as fellow-citizens, and urged them to fight for their country. The question of equality need not now be settled. If they are our equals we can’t help it, and if they are not we should regret it, as it is not their fault, and they are entitled to our sympathy.

“The Constitution of the United States knows no difference except in a provision made for Indians. Colored men in Maine, New Hampshire and in many other States, have all the rights and privileges of a white man. They voted in Maryland and North Carolina at one time. John Bell said he was twice elected to Congress by Negro votes. It is entirely a new idea that they are not citizens, originating with Judge Taney in his decision to the Dred Scott case. They are a great instrument of power, having mental and physical ability combined with a strong motive to fight for the Union as it ought to be. It is no time to quibble about these matters of etiquette while the life-blood of our nation is being sought. The rebels have abdicated their country without a just causer; they must abide the consequences.”

•••••

Preparations to Reorganize the Government of Virginia.

Washington, August 21.–Governor Pierpont is here making arrangements for putting the government of the State of Virginia into operation, the seat of government to be Alexandria. With this view the Legislature will soon be convened in extra session, probably in September, when they will elect a treasurer and auditor, for without them no salaries can be paid, nor taxes collected in the several counties. By the creation of the State of West Virginia, the sum of $100,000 was left to the remaining portion of the Old Dominion.

The new term of Gov. Pierpont will commence January next, the election having taken place on the 28th of last May in those parts of Eastern Virginia free from rebel control. Thus there are three Governors in what was formerly known as one State, including the rebel functionary at Richmond.

¹ The printed copy clearly indicates the word nieves, which does not seem to be a word in English, then or now. It may be a typo for neive, which is an archaic Northern British/Scottish noun for a closed or clenched fist. The verb form used here is not recorded. 

² See the entry from the Daily Picayune for 23 August 1863, “Convention of North Carolina Troops,” for reaction to this article on the part of the N. C. regiments in the Army of Northern Virginia.