SUNDAY
APRIL 3, 1864
THE DAILY PICAYUNE (LA)

Will Virginia be Abandoned?

The Refugee correspondent of the Tribune thinks not.

An impression appears to prevail in the North that the rebels are preparing to evacuate Virginia, but I know, or at least I am confident, that such is not the case. That they will remove their capital I have no doubt, but you may depend that they will hold Virginia until expelled foot by foot by the Northern armies. Gen. Lee would not listen for a moment to the voluntary abandonment of the State, and the Virginia soldiers would instantly throw down their arms if such a course were determined on. There is no mistaking about this. And without Lee, and his brother Virginians, what would become of the rebellion and the Confederacy?

At the time of Stoneman’s raid in May last, Richmond was considered in danger, and the citizens were convoked by placards carried about the streets by Negroes, and other calls, in Capitol Square. Here they were addressed by Gov. Letcher, Mayor Mayo, and other prominent rebels, who urged them to form themselves into companies and regiments for defence of the city. They declared that if the city should be captured, the State could not be held, and that if the State were abandoned, the Virginia soldiers would fight no more, and the Confederacy would fall. Letcher said that the Virginia soldiers would feel, if their State should be lost, that there was nothing left for them to fight for. They would not be blind enough to hope that if lost, it could ever be regained. You may, therefore, depend that the rebels will defend Virginia with the desperation of despair; but let them be driven beyond its boundaries, and eight out of ten of the Virginians will gladly avail themselves of the president’s amnesty proclamation in order to return. Let Virginia be reclaimed, and the Confederacy will tumble like an inverted cone.

Desperate efforts will be made this spring to drive Grant’s army out of Northern Georgia and Southern Tennessee. The occupation of Chattanooga by the Unionists created a great consternation among the rebel authorities. The Secretary of War stormed like a madman. He declared that they might better have lost Richmond or Charleston than to have allowed the enemy to gain a foothold at Chattanooga, thus placing at his mercy the fertile valleys of Northern Georgia and Alabama, and that he must be driven back, regardless of the cost. The wholesale conscription which is being mercilessly enforced throughout the Confederacy will enable the rebels to concentrate an immense army in front of Grant by the 1st of April, and unless the latter is heavily reinforced, all that has been gained in that region may be lost.

•••••

Exploded Theories.—The rebels, with their accustomed alacrity, we see, are repairing their railroad communications in Central Mississippi, which were so badly cut up by the recent raid of Gen. Sherman from Vicksburg to Meridian. Dispatches from the latter place to the Richmond papers show that the “crippling” of the enemy by this process is but a temporary inconvenience, and that he will soon recover from it in Mississippi as he had already recovered from it in Virginia and elsewhere.

There are three fanciful theories for putting down the rebellion, otherwise than by meeting and beating its armies in the field, that were in vogue at the beginning of the war, but which are now pretty thoroughly exploded. One was an uprising of the Negroes on plantations in the cotton States that would compel masters and owners to quit the rebel army in order to look after life and property at home. The next was the famous and ever popular starvation theory. The other was the idea that if we could destroy their lines of communication, the enemy could not restore them, for want of the necessary labor and material. ->

Now, whatever expectations we may have entertained in these several respects, it is presumed nobody will now deny, in the face of past and present experiences, they are likely to be fulfilled. Negroes will not break out, as they have not broken out, in insurrection. Their masters will not starve, and they have not starved. Railroads will not stay, as they have not stayed, destroyed. It but remains for us then to drop these delusions–and to go to work and fight, and defeat the great armies which the rebels have in the field. When that work is actually accomplished, all will have been accomplished–and we shall no longer need to destroy railroads nor to invoke on our behalf the auxiliary help of Gen. Starvation or Gen. Insurrection.–N. Y. Express, March 23.

•••••

A Sutler Cobbled.—The Times of this city says they had the pleasure yesterday of an interview with Mr. Oliver V. Wagner, sutler of the 25th New York Battery, who has just returned from a brief captivity among the rebels. Mr. Wagner accompanied the advance of our army from Franklin, with an ox team, and was captured on Bayou Bœuf, between Washington and Cheneyville, on the 23d of March. His team stuck fast in crossing a stream, and he lost so much time in unloading and reloading that he fell behind the rear guard, and in endeavoring to overtake the train, was picked up by a guerrilla squad, who robbed him of his stores, watch, clothing and money. A diamond ring on one of his fingers tickled the fancy of one of the captors, but it could not be taken off. Fortunately it did not occur to the predatory warrior to amputate the finger, or Mr. Wagner might have lost both ring and finger. His boots were also made the focus of sundry admiring glances, but it did not require a second glance to satisfy his exacting friends that they were too small for any of their feet, and so he was allowed to retain them.

Mr. Wagner was taken to a point on the Mississippi river about sixty miles above Port Hudson, and there paroled and turned loose. He thinks he walked about 250 miles through the woods and swamps. Lieut. Hamlin, of the 1st Corps d’Afrique; Lieut. Twiggs, of the 77th Illinois, ordnance officer to Gen. Ransom’s brigade; private O’Donahue, of the 20th New York Battery; John Early, of the 96th Ohio; John Mitchell, of the 3d Massachusetts Cavalry; three privates of the 29th Maine, and another private of the 3d Massachusetts, who were captured at various times along the route, were taken along with him. They were all paroled except Lieut. Hamlin. A sergeant of the 1st Corps d’Afrique was killed at the time Lieut. Hamlin was captured. Lieut. Hamlin, in company with another lieutenant and the sergeant, had ridden ahead of the column, and stopped to wait for it at a church, when they were fired upon. The other lieutenant made his escape. Wagner came back in a rather dilapidated condition, with his clothes torn and soiled, and considerably scratched with the briars. He takes his reverse quite philosophically, and say that though he didn’t make much out of the trip, he got to see the country.

MONDAY
APRIL 4, 1864
THE RICHMOND DAILY EXAMINER (VA)

Capture of a Fleet of Iron-clads.—At about the hour of 11 a.m., on Saturday, after the members of the Iron-Clad Opera Troupe, performing at Metropolitan Hall, had assembled for rehearsal, a conscript guard appeared at all the doors and avenues of escape, ad came down like a wolf on the peaceful company of “Iron-Clads” gathered within that harbor. They took the big bass viola; they took the first and second fiddlers; they even took “bones” and the tambourine; they took them all, about a dozen in number, and towed them up the street before the Provost Marshal. Here all, except two or three, exhibited neutral colors–the Lion and Unicorn and “Maryland, my Maryland”–and were released.¹ The several condemned as conscripts were sent forward to the enrolling officer, who sent them still farther, even unto Camp Lee, from whence they were released on furlough to fulfill their engagements at the hall on Saturday evening, to report again at camp yesterday.

The descent upon the “Iron-Clads” is alleged to have received its inspiration from the management of the New Richmond Theatre, which does not tolerate a successful rival in the presentation of the “legitimate drama” in the same city.

Then R. D’Orsey D’Ogden, late manager and tragic man at the Theatre, but now enrolled in the service of the Confederate States at Camp Lee, determined that as many of his professional brethren as possible should accompany him to that retreat, probably with his intention of his there organizing his new band of “Harmonians.” For that reason, after obtaining a furlough to visit town and settle up business, he caused the arrest of Mr. T. B. Thorpe, late of the Theatre company, upon the charge of being a deserter. Mr. Thorpe proved a service of twelve months in the army and was discharged.

We do not know that it is the determination of the military authorities to break up entirely theatrical amusements in Richmond. If so, the Government will hardly be compensated in the conscript material obtained for the loss of all rational and harmless amusement for the hundreds of soldiers daily passing through and detained overnight in the Capital. Close the legalized placed of amusement, and they will resort to the brothels and low drinking inlets of the city, and crime, bawdyism, and rowdyism will flourish again.

•••••

Meeting of Merchants.—We understand a meeting of the merchants of Richmond, embracing the dry goods, provision and grocery, and all of the principal trades that enter into the supply of articles of prime necessity, was held one day last week, at which the high prices as prevailing in Richmond and the possibility of lowering them were the subjects of discussion. Only two of the merchants present–Messrs. Samuel Price, dry goods merchant, Main street, and A. Morris, bookseller, Main street–voted to lower the price of their goods, and undersell the exorbitant market quotations put upon fabrics in view of the depreciated currency, and the discount of thirty-three and a third cents upon the old in favor of the new money issues. Several merchants, whose names, if given, would be recognized as synonymous with extortion, vehemently opposed any reduction of prices and contended that the quality and value of their goods had not depreciated, if the currency had. All of the merchants and tradesmen present, with the highly honorable, praiseworthy, and patriotic exceptions above mentioned, contended for the present rates of charges, and as much more as can be obtained, we suppose. The public will remember them, discriminating between the few who advocated reduction and the many who opposed it, and mark the store portals of all with either their approval or reprobation.

The Exchange of Prisoners.

A flag of truce is expected from the enemy next Wednesday with returned prisoners. We learn that there will be exchanged under this flag, on our side, about one thousand prisoners, the wounded and sick having the preference in the selection. After this re-installment of the exchange, it is confidently expected that it will be completed without more questions, and that the exchange will be dispatched by thousands where heretofore it has been made by hundreds. The Yankee surplus is large in officers. There were, some time ago, nearly two thousand officers in their hands.

•••••

Burglaries by midnight and mid-day afford a daily chapter of incidents in the thieving line.

Saturday night the smoke-house on the premises of Mr. R. M. Smith, one of the proprietors of the Sentinel newspaper, corner of Third and Leigh streets, was forcibly entered and robbed of twelve pieces of bacon and several bushels of potatoes.

The same night the meat-houses of James Dornia, Twenty-ninth street, between Main and Franklin streets, on Libby Hill, was entered and despoiled of between two and three hundred pounds of pickled pork.

The same night the dwelling of E. J. McCormick, Main street, between Eighteenth and Nineteenth streets, was forced and about one thousand dollars’ worth of wearing apparel and bed clothing stolen. The inmates were absent at the time of the invasion.²

The burglary business accumulating on the hands of the burglars, they have extended their operations into the day-time.

Saturday, about noon, the confectionary store of Mr. Sands, corner of Twentieth and Main streets, was broken open during the momentary absence of the proprietor, and a considerable quantity of envelopes and other stationery stolen.

About the same hour the dwelling of Mr. Stevenson, over Millspaugh’s grocery, Main street, between Seventeenth and Eighteenth streets, was ransacked and property to an uncertain amount stolen.

Saturday night an unknown man was knocked down up town and robbed of thirty dollars of the new issue, his hat and some other articles.

The above are the burglaries and robberies of the past forty-eight hours, as far as known.

TUESDAY
APRIL 5, 1864
THE BOSTON HERALD

Our Washington Correspondence.

Washington, April 2.

Gen. Grant has not yet returned from Fortress Monroe. It is claimed in excellent circles here to-day, that his visit will effect a change in the command of the Department of North Carolina, Gen. Smith superseding Gen. Butler. The latter’s want of experience in the field is said to be Gen. Grant’s reason for contemplating such a change, while at the same time it indicates movements on the Peninsula. It is plain that Grant’s desire to avail himself of the abilities of all unemployed Generals will be carried out, for Gen. Buell, who has been without a command for eighteen months, has just been ordered to one in East Tennessee. While there are some sixty or seventy Major and Brigadier generals without command, an official report to Congress shows that a large number of Colonels are, as a consequence, commanding Brigades in the several armies. There may be a remedy effected in this particular without the army being burdened with rank by the creation of more General officers. On the whole, General Grant is attending to all details, great and small, calculated to promote the efficiency and interest of all the armies.

The enabling acts passed for the territories of Colorado, Nevada and Nebraska, for the formation of State Constitutions and their admission into the Union, have caused considerable comment in and out of Congress in view of the well-known fact that neither territory really contains the requisite population to be made a State. But there is another remarkable feature of this legislation. In the admission of all new States, heretofore, they have been required as territories to forma  State Constitution and send it to Congress, whereupon, if it was found to be Republican in form, it was adopted and the State admitted as the Constitution of the United States provides. In the three new cases mentioned, the enabling acts just passed by Congress require the State Constitutions to be sent not to Congress but to the President, who in October next is authorized to issue a proclamation admitting them to the Union. In other words, Congress alone does not admit them, contrary to every principle of law and justice. The reason for this very strange proceeding is found in the fact that the Presidential election comes off before Congress meets again, and if any “hocus pocus” can admit these territories as States in time for their Presidential vote, which in the Electoral College are equal to Massachusetts, New York and Pennsylvania, well and good say the political influences which have brought about so grave an infringement of Constitutional law.

Gen. Meade’s explanation of his campaign in Maryland before the Committee on the Conduct of the War yesterday is understood to have been perfectly satisfactory. The allegations made by jealous officers in that connection are therefore at least fully dissipated.

Gen. Rawlings, Gen. Grant’s chief of staff, who is now in town, was a lawyer in Galena, Illinois, before the war broke out. Capt. Badeau, an old newspaper gentleman, has been selected by Gen. Grant as his  military Secretary.

•••••

By the explosion and burning of the American cap and flask company at Waterbury, Conn., on Friday last, nearly all the machinery in the United States for making percussion caps was destroyed. Four girls employed in the factory were burned to death.

Police Court–Before Judge Rogers.

Monday, April 4.

It is not definitely known at the present time whether there is anything “rotten in Denmark” or not, but we can bring an overwhelming array of evidence that there was something rotten in the Court this morning, something which must have been decaying ever since the solid foundations of this earth were laid, and is now emphatically rotten.

The Great Smell manœuvred shrewdly this morning. At first, only small and feeble bodies of skirmishers entered and quickly retired, but as soon as it was ascertained definitely how the ground lay, it summoned its reserves, and pushed them forward in an overwhelming array, and at last it entered itself, having assumed form and shape, but its auxiliaries had done the work, and there was naught left for it to do but to call off its victorious forces. Those whose eyes were favored by the sight of this King of Odors will not soon forget it. It assumed the form of a man, an aged man, a man with whitened locks, bent and gaunt, and  decrepit, with shrivelled  legs and arms, and on whose face was a dark and greasy scum. By a careful glance, one could see the smell radiating from him in waves, like the radiation of heat from a furnace, and when said rays obtained a near proximity, every sense informed you that they were palpable and real; that they were no phantasies.

The windows were lowered and doors opened, and for a while a fierce battle raged between pure, life-giving air, and its incarnate and demonic enemy, and if the awful order had not voluntarily retreated, the issue would have been doubtful. The remembrance of this horrible essence seems more like the shadowy vagaries of some dreadful night-mare, than a reality; one’s stomach rolls and heaves in disgust at the retrospect, and your nostrils involuntarily contract at the bare imagination.

That thing who personified the Deity of Stinks had a name, James McGrath, but this name is a misnomer; he should have one more in accordance with his elevation. He was sentenced to two months’ imprisonment in the House of Industry as a common vagabond. He should first be exposed in an iron cage to a perpetual shower on the highest summit of the Himalaya Mountains, for a term of seven years, with a wind of the velocity of three hundred miles an hour constantly whistling through his garments, and then he might possibly be a fit subject for a reformatory institution; but we pray, in the name of a common humanity, that he may not be lugged into the Court again during the nineteenth  century.

•••••

Officers Punished for Enlisting Minors.

Cincinnati, April 4.–An order from the War Department to the Provost Marshal General of Ohio, discharging from the U. S. service four privates belonging to different regiments, for the reason that they were of insufficient age, being under 18, has been received. The order directs that the expenses of their enlistment be deducted from the pay of the offices concerned in the examination and muster, one-half to be deducted from the pay of the Surgeon who examined, and one-half from the pay of the officer who mustered them into service.

WEDNESDAY
APRIL 6, 1864
THE NEW HAMPSHIRE PATRIOT & GAZETTE

“Miscegenation.”

This new word for amalgamation is the title of a book or pamphlet recently contributed to the Abolition literature of the day. It advocates the mingling of the Negro with the white, and declares that the so-called “Republican” party is committed to the revolting doctrine. The writer says:

“When the President proclaimed emancipation, he proclaimed also the mingling of the races. The one follows the other as surely as noonday follows sunrise.

“And, now, behold! the great Republican party has merged into the little Abolition party. The drop has colored into the bucket full. There are only two parties now, the Abolition, which is in effect the party of miscegenation; and behind them, that contemptible crowd who fear the South, and have no policy for the North but expediency. Why did Abolitionism swallow Republicanism? Because it was founded on principles that approach nearer the truth.

“All that is needed to make us the finest race on earth, is to engraft upon our stock the Negro element which Providence has placed by our side on this continent. Of all the rich treasure of blood vouchsafed to us, that of the Negro is most unlike any other that enters into the composition of our national life.

“If we will not heed the demands of justice, let us at least respect the law of self -preservation. Providence has kindly placed on the American soil, for his own wise purpose, four millions of colored people. They are our brothers, our sisters. By mingling with them, we become more powerful, prosperous and progressive; by refusing to do so we become feeble, unhealthy, narrow-minded, unfit for the nobler offices of freedom, and certain of early decay.

“The white race which settled in New England will be unable to maintain its vitality as a blonde people.

“They need the intermingling of the rich tropic temperament of the Negro to give warmth and fullness to their natures. They feel the yearning and do not know how to interpret it.”

Here we have this nasty doctrine of amalgamation proclaimed as a part of the Republican creed. The Republican papers and leaders dare not deny the truth of this representation, but will labor to conceal and palliate the revolting character of the doctrine. But this book, like Helper’s “Crisis,” will soon be openly acknowledged as the Republican bible; and we therefore quote from it the following propositions to enable our readers to see to what length this doctrine is carried:

1. Since the whole human race is of one family, there should be in a republic no distinction of political or social rights on account of color, race or nativity.

2. The doctrine of human brotherhood implies the right of white and black to intermarry.

3. The solution of the Negro problem will not be reached in this country until public opinion sanctions a union of the two races.

4. As the Negro is here and cannot be driven out, there should be no impediment to the absorption of one race in the other.

5. Legitimate unions between whites and blacks could not possibly have any worse effect than the illegitimate unions which have been going on more than a century at the South.

6. The mingling of divers races is proved by all history to have a positive benefit to the progeny.

7. The Southern rebellion is caused less by slavery than by the base prejudice resulting from distinction of color, and perfect peace can come only by a cessation of that distinction through an absorption of the black race by the white race.

8. It is the duty of anti-slavery men everywhere to advocate the mingling of the two races.

9. The next presidential election should secure to the blacks all their social and political rights; and the provocative party should not flinch from their conclusions fairly deducible from their own principles.

10.In the millennial future the highest type of manhood will not be white or black with white in marriage will help the human family the sooner to realize its great destiny.

After drawing a sad picture of the degeneration of the white race, particularly in New England, the writer says:

“It is only by the infusion into their very system of the vital forces of a tropic race that they may regain health and strength. We must accept the facts of nature. We must become a yellow skinned, black haired people–in fine, we must become miscegens if we would sustain the fullest results of civilization.”

Such is the last phase of Abolitionism, for let it not be imagined that the author of this pamphlet is alone in his views. On the contrary, it is a melancholy truth that they are endorsed by such shining lights of radicalism as Wendell Phillips, Theodore Tilton, and Parker Pillsbury, together with the strong-minded women who associate with that class of politicians. It is palliated by Horace Greeley and many other leading Republicans and by papers of wide influence, while by none of the influential Republican organs is it repudiated and denounced  as its abhorrent and disgusting nature demands. Wendell Phillips says:

“I have no hope for the future, as this country has no past, and Europe has no past, but in that sublime mingling of races which is God’s own method of civilizing and elevating the world.”

We have before said, what daily developments tend to corroborate, that this disgusting doctrine has to-day more advocates than Abolitionism had twenty years ago, and there is not half the reason to doubt that it will become the creed of the Republican party that there was then, that Abolitionism would be openly proclaimed as their creed. This book bears the endorsement of a number of radical leaders, and we look to its becoming the openly avowed doctrine of the Republican party at no distant day. The real leaders of that party, not satisfied with boldly violating and nullifying the Constitution for the Negro’s sake–not content with plunging the country into civil war and sweeping away all the safeguards of white men’s right to secure a a ruinous freedom to the Negro–not content with demoralizing the whole community and bringing ruin upon a whole people in the effort to place the Negro upon political equality with white men–are now bent upon forcing upon the country the disgusting and revolting practice of amalgamation, “the sublime mingling” of the negroes and the white. To this consummation they have come back at last, and openly; and this is the issue hat white men have got to meet. It is useless for men to attempt to laugh down this assertion. Let them look back and see how persistently and indignantly the Republican leaders and papers, even as late as two years ago, denied and repudiated the idea that abolitionism was or ever could be the creed of their party. Yet what do we now see? So it will be with “miscegenation;” it will yet become the openly avowed doctrine of the Republican party, as it is now of the men who shape the creed and policy of that party.

THURSDAY
APRIL 7, 1864
THE PITTSFIELD SUN (MA)

The War News.

It is stated that a large force of rebels is concentrating at pound Gap, under Buckner. It is supposed that an extensive foray into Kentucky is intended.

Rebel deserters who have come into Knoxville sate that Longstreet’s baggage has been sent back to Richmond, and that his whole force is under marching orders.

It is said that Johnston is reinforcing Lee.

A successful expedition has been made up the Red River, at Natchitoches, twenty miles above Alexandria, La., which resulted in the capture of about two hundred of the rebel cavalry. The water in the river is rising, which will greatly facilitate the operation of gunboats above that point. A column of General Banks’s corps has passed through Opelousas, La.

•••••

A Contrast.—The entire value of land and other property in the United States is estimated at $6,000,000,000. We have contracted a debt of $2,000,000,000 within the short period of three years Mr. Chase has asked appropriations to the amount of $8,000,000, and other expenditures will swell that sum to $1,000,000,000. Hence at the end of the present fiscal year, one-half of the value of the property in the United States of every description will have been expended by the Government at Washington.

The debt of England is a little over $4,000,000,000–the value of property of every description is $30,000,000,000; in other words, the debt of the United States, at the end of 1864, will have risen to one-half the value of the whole wealth of the country, while that of England is only about one-eighth of the real wealth of the country. There is another difference of almost equal consideration. The interest on our debt is 7 and 8 per cent, on that of England 3 per centum.³–Lynn Bay State.

•••••

The census returns of “occupations” is instructive, and at times amusing. Among the occupations recorded we find 1,490 actors, 59 apiarists (all in California), 4,516 artists, 8 astrologists and 2 astronomers, 216 authors, 19,001 bakers, 2,753 bankers, 2,995 bank officers, 11,140 barbers, 13,263 barkeepers, 112,357 blacksmiths, 4,907 brokers, 30,103 butchers, 29,223 cabinet makers, 5 chiropodists, 58,437 civil and mechanical engineers, 37,529 clergymen, 353 cooks, 43,624 coopers, 2 cotton brokers, 2,650 daguerreotypists, 171 dancing masters, 5,606 dentists, 2,994 editors, 2 explorers, 1,445 expressmen, 2,443,895 farmers, 795,679 farm laborers, 3 geologists, 40,070 grocers, 2 gunners, 25,818 innkeepers, 787 judges, 969,301 laborers, 36,633 laundresses, 33,193 lawyers, 65 librarians, 43,824 machinists, 271 midwives, 25,722 milliners, 4,729 musicians, 943 newsmen, 114 nuns, 8581 hostlers, 54,542 peddlers, 23,106 printers, 36,567 railroad men, 411 reporters, 213 sculptors, 90,198 seamstresses, 836 sextons, 164,608 shoemakers, 246 showmen, 1,982 speculators, 110,469 teachers, 1956 telegraph operators, 11,195 traders, 4 translators, 8 trappers, 11 ventriloquists, 36,178 weavers, 32,693 wheel-wrights, 4 wild-horse catchers, 3,382 wood cutters, &c., &c.⁴

•••••

A Mud Embargo on the Potomac.—The Herald’s Alexandria dispatch of yesterday says a brief visit to the Army of the Potomac resulted in the discovery of nothing new. It has rained there seven out of the last ten days, and the camps are in a most horrible condition. It will take four weeks of sunshine to dry the ground so as to allow any part of the Army to change its base. The reorganization of the army is nearly effected, and the troops are becoming reconciled to the new order of things.

Revolutionary Pensioners.—The following is an official list of the living Revolutionary pensioners, furnished from the Pension Office:

James Barham, on the St. Louis, Missouri roll, $22.33 per annum; born in Southampton county, Virginia, May 18, 1764, age 99 years and 9 months.

John Goodnow, on the Boston, Massachusetts roll, at $16.67 per annum; born in Sudbury, Middlesex county, Massachusetts, January 30, 1762; age 102 years and 1½ months.

Amaziah Goodwin, on Portland, Maine roll, at $28.33; born in Somersworth, Strafford county, New Hampshire, February 16, 1759, age 105 years.

William Hutchings, on Portland, Maine roll, at $21.66; born in York, York county, Maine (then  Massachusetts), in the year 1764.

Adam Link, on Cleveland, Ohio roll, at $30 per annum; born in Washington county, Pennsylvania, age 102 years.

Benjamin Miller, on the Albany, New York roll, at $23.54 per annum, born in Springfield, Massachusetts, April 4, 1761, age 99 years, 10½ months.

Alexander Maroney, on the Albany, New York roll, at $8 per month; born in the year 1770, enlisted at Lake George, New York, age 94 years; enlisted by his father, as he was young.

John Pettingill, on the Albany, New York roll, at $50 per annum; was born in Windham, Connecticut, November 30, 1776; age 87 years, 2½ months.

Daniel Waldo, on the Albany, New York roll, at$96 per annum, born in Windham, Connecticut, September 10, 1762; age 101 years, 5½ months.

Samuel Downing (papers do not show his age), on the Albany, New York roll, at $80 per annum; served in the second New Hampshire regiment.

Lemuel Cook, on the Albany, New York roll, at $100 per annum; no age or birth-place given in papers.

Jonas Gates, on the St. Johnsbury, Vermont roll, at $8 per month; papers mislaid. Since found to be 101 years old.

•••••

To the people at large, a state of war is a state of destruction–always was, and always will be. But the few are becoming rich. Thirty years ago the rich men were so scarce that their names were on all the lips, as Girard in Philadelphia and Astor of New York; but now the men who are rated from one to twenty millions of property are too numerous to mention; and in our smaller towns the number who are assessed on from fifty thousand to a million is large. It has been no uncommon thing to see men making from twenty thousand to two or three millions annually since the war commenced, says the Newburyport Herald.

FRIDAY
APRIL 8, 1864
THE CALEDONIAN (VT)

Northern Cities to be Burned.

The malignant and fiendish spirit which animates the rebels is strikingly illustrated in a recent proposition of the Richmond Whig, which, confessing that the ordinary modes of civilized warfare are insufficient to accomplish the ruin of the North, advocates the burning of Northern cities by hired incendiaries. Here is the diabolical proposition:

“We may not, it is true, be able to send a raiding party to dash into Philadelphia of New York to do the work; nor have we artillery that can carry Greek fire far enough to reach them–but we have that which will go further than horsemen can ride, and will penetrate what the mightiest artillery will make no impression on: we have money. A million of dollars would lay in ashes New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, Pittsburg, Washington and all their chief cities, and the men to do the business may be picked up by the hundred in the streets of those very cities. If it should be thought unsafe to use them, there re daring men in Canada, of Morgan’s and other commands, who have escaped from Yankee dungeons, and who would rejoice at an opportunity of doing something that would make all Yankeedom howl with anguish and consternation.

“That what we are saying may be given an still more practical turn, we will add that we know and have talked with a man–a well-known officer in the army, and every way competent and fit–who is ready and anxious at once to proceed to Canada on this business.”

The Whig further says that if the rebel government declines to adopt the scheme, it “can as well be done by private enterprise as by the direction or connivance of the government.”

•••••

Mosby Outwitted.

On Friday, March 25, Capt. E. B. Gore, of the Griswold light cavalry, was sent out with 125 men in the neighborhoods of Berryville and Winchester on a scout, and encamped at Millwood, some six or eight miles from the former place. After the men had got their fires built, Sergeant Wetherbee of company B, Corporal Simpson of company H and a private went two two miles from camp to get supper at a farmhouse, and while waiting for the long delayed tea, were surprised to find several revolvers suddenly advance into the room, behind each pair of which was either Col. Mosby, a rebel captain of a lieutenant, all rather determined men with “shoot in their eyes,” who demanded the immediate surrender of the aforesaid Yankees. The aim being wicked, the three twenty-firsters saw they were “under a cloud,” and so quietly gave up the contest.⁵ Col. Mosby was much elated by his good fortune, and required his prisoners to follow him supperless on his rounds to his headquarters at Paris; the private, however, while pretending to get his horse, hid himself in the hay and escaped, Mosby not daring to wait and hunt him up. When they arrived at Paris, Col. Mosby dismounted and stepped into the house where he has his headquarters, leaving his pistols in his holsters. ->

The lieutenant, with drawn revolver, watched the prisoner while the captain endeavored to find an orderly to take the horses. Corporal Simpson, who had been marking the road for future use, and had been long looking for it, saw his chance and pretended to tie his horse, but really put his foot into the stirrup of Mosby’s saddle and laying hold of one of the overlooked pistols. The lieutenant detected his move and fired at him, when S. shot him through the heart with the weapon he had secured. The captain turned round and fired, and Col. Mosby came to the door to see “what all that --- row was about,” just in time to hear a bullet whiz unpleasantly close to his head that he had fired at him “just for luck,” as he and his comrade left–yelling back: “Col. Mosby, how do you like our style of fighting? We belong to the 21st New York.” And away they went, leaving Col. Mosby dismounted and outwitted of his best horse, saddle, pistols and overcoat, two Yankee prisoners, and with at least one vacancy among his commissioned officers.

•••••

The Fight at Paducah.
Pluck of the Negroes.

In the fort at Paducah, Ky., so well defended against Forrest’s raiders, there were about 250 recruits for a United States colored regiment, a portion of the 16th Kentucky cavalry, without arms, and two companies of the 122d Kentucky cavalry, without arms, and two companies of the 122d Illinois infantry, in all about 500 men. It was the Negro regiment that fought so well. They handled the artillery with great skill and their bravery is on the tongues of all loyal men. One of the regiments in the attack on the fort was the 3d Kentucky, Col. Thompson, who commanded a brigade. This regiment was raised in Paducah three years ago by Col. Tilghman, afterward brigadier general, and Col. Thompson, who was at the time prosecuting attorney for the Paducah circuit. Col. Thompson was a man of great influence and did more than any one else in recruiting the regiment from the chivalry. This was its first visit home. Before the attack was made, threats were freely made in the streets that they would capture the fort and kill ever Negro in it. In the attack, this regiment was in advance and suffered most. Colonel Thompson was literally torn to pieces by a shot from a siege gun handled by colored men. These colored men were native Kentuckians, and seven of them have offered up their lives for their country. Is there not a stern justice in the fact that many of these rebels paid the penalty of their treason at their own door-posts by the hands of the despised native Kentuckians of African descent. To Hon. Lucien Anderson of that district the credit is due of getting permission to raise a regiment of blacks, which was done against the opposition of the state authorities. To Col. Hicks, a noble war democrat, and all the troops under his command, great credit is due for their obstinate and successful defense.

SATURDAY
APRIL 9, 1864
COLUMBIAN WEEKLY REGISTER (CT)

Speech of Jeff Davis.

The following is the address of Jefferson Davis, delivered at the reception in Richmond of returned prisoners from the North:

Friends and Fellow Soldiers: I welcome you to your native land. When I have heard of the sufferings you have endured, and the indignities to which you have been subjected while helpless prisoners of cruel captors, my heart has yearned for you with a father’s deep sympathy and affectionate solicitude; it has burned with indignation at your wrongs; but it has also pulsated with an unspeakable pride and exultation at the fortitude you have evinced under the severest trials, the integrity you have preserved amid the most insidious temptations, and the calm trust you have never ceased to repose in the righteousness of your country’s cause. (Cheers.)

A color-bearer among you, when captured, secreted his battle-flag in his bosom, and possessed it through a long captivity, until the proud moment arrived when standing on the deck of a Confederate vessel, he gave its folds, amid the cheers of his comrades, once more to the light of his native skies. (Applause.) With a no less jealous care, through the long weary months of vile imprisonment, you have kept entwined around your heart of hearts, an unfading love of that sacred emblem, and your faithful guardianship earns for you the admiration of your government, and is hailed by the plaudits of your grateful countrymen.

You have passed through many bitter trials. You know there are many more in store for you. You have followed that flag with unfaltering steps on a bloody field. You will follow it again with no less enthusiasm, as each day makes it more precious, and sheds a new radiance on its bright folds. To the spirit that has carried you forward to so many heights of victory in the past, will be added the inspiration of new wrongs and outrages, that will strengthen your arms and nerve your hearts to a resistance that can overcome in the future. Your brother soldiers have awaited your coming with painful anxiety. They will welcome you with open arms. You will tell them, by the camp fires, of the horrors of your long captivity. You will contrast your sufferings with the generosity with which their prisoners have been treated at our hands, and, though you have felt many times this broad distinction, you responded to the sentiments of your comrades at home, that we must never forget what is due ourselves as a civilized people, though the enemy have nothing to claim.

Your words will excite them to an unconquerable determination. They will arouse you to the highest pitch of martial enthusiasm by accounts of their glorious deeds in your absence. Together you will be stimulated to renewed exertion until you plant our banner on the heights of Southern Independence and deck it with the rich fruits and fragrant flowers of an enduring peace. (Applause.)

You will find your families suffering less than you have been led to suppose. You will find much of our territory devastated, but the people still true to the spirit of ’76. (Applause.) You will find the old State of Virginia, baring her bosom to the storm, with lion heart and eagle eye, defiant as ever. So long as she has a crust you will share her hospitality. (Cheers.) After a short respite you will be called again to the front. I know you will come. (Applause.)

May God bless you all.

•••••

New Discovery in the Manufacture of Paper.—M. Bardoux, a manufacturer of Poitiers, is said to have made a discovery which will effect a revolution in the manufacture of paper. He has succeeded in manufacturing paper from various descriptions of timber, such as oak, walnut, pine and chestnut, and from vegetables, and with the paper exhibited at the office of the Journal des Inventeurs. M. Bardoux asserts that his invention will cause a revolution of from sixty to eighty per cent in the price of paper.

The Working-Women of New York.

A large meeting was held at the Cooper Institute, with a view to devise measures for ameliorating the condition of the working women of New York city. The subject was presented in an address which detailed the extortions practiced upon laboring women, and the bitter hardships to which they are subjected in consequence. Swindlers are extensively engaged in the employment of female labor, and make it a regular practice after getting all the work they can, to refuse payment on the ground that it is poorly done or on some other pretext equally frivolous. The victims of the cruel frauds which rob them of shelter and bread have no recourse but submission. They are too obscure and poverty stricken to enter upon measures pointing to the punishment of the swindlers. But the frauds are now likely to be brought to judicial investigation. Lawyers of character offer their services gratuitously to aid in bringing the rascals to justice.

The address gives statistics to show that the cost of living has doubled since 1859, without bringing any corresponding advance in wages. It also mentions a variety of employments suitable for females, such as engraving, type-setting, telegraph operating, &c., and urges their introduction so far as possible into these branches of industry. Women are advised to enter household services as a sure mode of securing comfortable homes and kindly treatment.

Articles manufactured by females were exhibited to the meeting, and the prices for the work announced. It appears that the wages of laborers range from 80 cents to 17 cents per day. A few samples show the terrible character of the oppression:

“For making a pair of cotton drill drawers, with buckles, button holes, straps and strings, a sewing woman is paid four and one-sixth cents. A smart woman, using a sewing machine, can make four pairs in a long day–working, that is to say, from seven in the morning till nine at night. For such a day’s work the reward is sixteen and three-quarter cents. Another sewing woman receives five and a half cents for making large canton flannel drawers by hand, each pair containing two thousand stitches, and having button holes, eyelet holes, buttons, stays and strings; but this poor woman has to furnish her own thread. She is able to make two pair of such drawers in a very long day, which includes a considerable part of the night.”

No community can boast of its civilization, that permits such oppression on helpless labor. It may raise larger sums of money for foreign missions, build costly churches, and endow colleges–but it will bring the greater damnation for allowing such things as the above. Women, at least, owe it to their sex, if not to the cause of humanity, to make their influence felt in this matter; for hunger and want are terrible counselors  even to the best of mankind. There is no better philanthropy in this world, than that which toils for the relief of honest poverty.

¹ The lion and unicorn appear on the royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom, meaning that some of the troupe claimed British citizenship and exemption from the rebel draft.

² Read “occupants” for “inmates;” there is no indication that this is anything but a private dwelling.

³ In the fall of 2103, net worth of the United States was $91,720,000,000,000, while debt was $17,075,000,000,000–or 18.6% (almost one-fifth) of worth. Amazingly, as far as the ratio of worth to debt goes, we are doing much better than 150 years ago.

⁴ Total of 5,383,090.

⁵ The Griswold Light Cavalry was designated the 21st New York Cavalry Regiment.