SUNDAY
OCTOBER 23, 1864
THE DAILY TRUE DELTA (LA)

The Rebel Press.
The Fears of the Rebels.
[from the Richmond Examiner, Oct. 8.]

A battle was fought near Richmond on yesterday morning. It was a signal victory for the Confederate arms. The immediate cause of the collision was an establishment of the enemy much too near our lines. They gained the foothold on Saturday last, in the little affair after which an artillery officer was arrested by his superior in rank for shelling an advance still nearer to our batteries. On that day the enemy sent up two brigades of infantry and a body of cavalry on the Darbytown road, until they arrived within full view of our batteries. The officer immediately in command opened fire upon them with heavy artillery, and easily drove them out of view. But his wasteful expenditure of the Georgia ammunition being speedily checked by his economical superior, the enemy stopped in their retreat, were reinforced, and threw up redoubts. Working by day and night, and uninterrupted by the  the officious artillery on our side, they soon got themselves very strongly entrenched within three and a half miles of the city. In the meantime Grant moved over heavy forces to the northern bank, and threw one corps out in support of his redoubts.

On this wing of his army an attack was made at daybreak yesterday, by a portion of our troops under the immediate command of Gen. Anderson, which was signally successful. Grant’s line of infantry was beaten into rapid retreat. His fortifications were carried by assault, and ten pieces of his cannon, with several hundred prisoners, were secured by the Confederate troops. The last authentic account represents the enemy to have been driven five miles from the city, and it is supposed that all further annoyance from that direction is now effectually prevented. But the battle will probably be renewed. Grant is unwilling to see the trifling advantage gained last week so soon obscured; he has heavy forces, and will doubtless try to do something with them without delay–both on the Peninsula and on the lines beyond Petersburg.

•••••

The Fears for Wilmington.
[from the Richmond Sentinel.]

In commenting upon the probability that having sealed up nearly every other seaport, the Yankees are bent upon the destruction of Wilmington, the Augusta Constitutionalist congratulates its readers that this point bids fair to put a period to the audacious luck of Farragut. It is stated that no more tremendous earthworks exist on this continent than those that bulwark the inlets of Cape Fear. Nature, besides, has done much for its protection. The bars are shallow, the channels narrow and immediately under our guns. By the most skillful navigation alone can the breakers be avoided, the slightest variation precipitating vessels upon their remorseless fangs. In addition, every precaution has been taken to conduct an investment by land.

In addition, the enormous value to the Confederacy is made a note of. The supplies brought from abroad have been immense, and by its commerce our credit has been mainly sustained in Europe. For more than a year the arrival and departure of steamers averaged twenty per month. Since the inauguration of a new system of signal lights, very few vessels have been lost, and the peculiar conformation of coast, hard by the river mouths, renders a hermetic blockade almost impossible.

And, outside of its maritime importance, the fact of its being a railroad centre, just in the rear of Gen. Lee, makes it a position of almost prime necessity. Our impression, the Federals would have a magnificent water base south of Richmond, and dangerous point d’appui as against Charleston or Petersburg.¹

More Southern Complaints of the Licentiousness of Hood’s Army.
[from the Savannah Republican, Oct. 1.]

Somehow we can hardly avoid the impression that the great difference between the army of Virginia and that of Tennessee is in its discipline. It is notorious that our own army, while falling back from Dalton, was even more dreaded by the inhabitants than was the army of Sherman. The soldiers, and even the officers, took everything that came in their way, giving the excuse that if they did not, the enemy would. Subsequently, stragglers from our own army almost sacked the stores in Atlanta. Now complaints loud and deep come up from that portion of Georgia in the neighborhood of our army, telling of outrages committed by straggling squads of cavalry, and of insults offered to the families of the best and most patriotic citizens. This straggling–not confined to cavalry–this pillage, from which, if report speaks truth, even officers are not free, besides its intrinsic wrong, is wholly subversive of discipline, and destructive of all hopes of efficiency. If not checked by some master spirit, it presents a gloomy prospect of disasters to come.

How different from Lee’s army, which, even in a hostile State, behaved itself with marked propriety. How different even from Sherman’s army, which pursued its stern and ruthless path from Chattanooga without straggling, and committed outrages simply as a matter of policy and in obedience to orders. License is fatal to discipline and to efficiency. Even the modified license of the Maryland campaign ruined the cavalry of the Army of the Valley of Virginia, and it has done nothing worthy of its reputation or its real force since its return to Virginia.

•••••  

The Northern Presidential Candidate–
Nothing Hoped for From McClellan more than Lincoln.
[from the Richmond Whig, Oct. 5.]

Returned prisoners, almost to a man, express the opinion, so we learn, that Lincoln will be re-elected by an overwhelming majority. This coincides with the view we have always taken of the matter, and with all the intelligence we have received from the North for many days past. If any think differently they indulge a delusion, and the sooner they get rid of it, and of every other, the better, for they will then be the better able to look their situation calmly in the face. The sooner that we accept the fact that there is for us no alternative but success or subjugation, the better. Let us indulge in no more day dreams. It is fight to the last, or die a slave.

And so it would be, we are very much disposed to think, even were McClellan elected. His platform speaks a different language; but what does he himself say? He tells us plainly that if elected, he will prosecute the war to the restoration  of the Union. Now we are determined never to go back into the Union. Of course, therefore, the war must be prosecuted until we shall have been reduced to subjection. What can Lincoln do worse than this? And this is exactly what McClellan promises to do. He promises, to be sure, to conduct the war in a less savage fashion; but elect him under his pledge to continue the war, and how long will it be before he will forget his promises? Accepting the war, he accepts everything connected with it. He cannot carry it on in a different manner. He cannot restore to their masters the Negroes of whom Lincoln has made soldiers. Indeed, he was the first general to make large inroads upon southern property of this description. He cannot refuse to continue the enrolment of that species of force. He is less detested than Lincoln in the South, and would, on that account, be only the more dangerous enemy. Had Lincoln not shown himself a fanatical personal enemy of everything Southern; had he proceeded like a man and a Christian at the first, the effect might have been fatal. As it was he consolidated the South into one mass of determined opposition.

MONDAY
OCTOBER 24, 1864
THE HOUSTON DAILY TELEGRAPH (TX)

The Situation at Petersburg.

The Yankees have shown no further disposition to advance their line in the direction of the Southside railroad since their failure on Thursday.

The usual cannonading, now of almost daily occurrence, continues.

Some few shells–fifteen inch mortars–loaded with pieces of thick glass, brass, copper, iron and lead, were thrown into the city, but no damage was done.

On Friday a portion of the enemy’s skirmish line in front of Wilcox’s division, on our right, was surprised and eighty-eight prisoners, including one commissioned officer, were taken. The prisoners were mostly from the First and Second Maryland regiment.

Parties from City Point report great activity there. An immense wharf has been erected by Grant’s orders, extending from the old steamboat landing on James river, around up the Appomattox for a half mile or more, commissary, ordinance and quartermaster depots, over three hundred feet in length have been constructed, and sutlers’ shanties innumerable, have sprung up on every hand.

General Grant has his wife staying with him now. The former superb residence of Dr. Epes has been renovated and repaired, and General Grant and Mrs. Grant and sundry little Grants are now snugly ensconced there.

The usual amount of outrages by Grant’s men are reported. All through the country the citizens have suffered all the insults and outrages that could be inflicted on a conquered people by lawless bands of Yankees and runaway Negroes who plunder, insult and rob at their pleasure.

How General Longstreet was Wounded.–The Times Richmond correspondent gives the following interesting account: “Upon the same plank road which on May 2, 1863 witnessed the death-wound of Stonewall Jackson, General Longstreet, dangerously struck in the throat by a Southern bullet, escaped death upon May 6, 1864, although receiving after three years of unparalleled exposure, his first hazardous wound. You will have learnt that upon the previous day, two Confederate divisions–those of Heth and Wilcox–held their ground long and nobly against overwhelming numbers of their foe. These were to be relieved in the night; and the men, worn down by exertion, looked for a brief repose as they scanned their thin numbers, when, before the dawn of May 6, heavy lines of the enemy, massed in the night, and following each other in quick succession, dashed upon their enfeebled ranks. They stood gallantly for a while, but at last, shrinking before the compact masses hurled upon them, they commenced a retreat, which from a walk grew into a run, from a run into a demoralized rout.

“At this moment there was advancing along the plank road the hardy corps which Longstreet has so long led. Into their leading files dashed, at headlong speed and in wild disarray, the broken ranks of Heth and Wilcox, mingled with field-pieces, ambulances, caissons, runaway horses, and shouting officers striving to bear up against the rout, but whirled along in its resistless current. Beside the road was General Lee, irritated and excited beyond precedent, and eager to stem the torrent by catching hold of any organized body of men and immediately launching them in person against the head of the advancing stream. Upon this hurly-burly of confusion and alarm supervened at the most critical moment the unshrinking constancy of General Longstreet and his corps. ->

“Riding up to General Lee, he said, ‘General, my men have seen such scenes before, and will not be daunted; wait, and you shall see the enemy driven like chaff before the wind.’ Right nobly did his men, and especially Kershaw’s division, verify their General’s confident promise. The onward rush of Federals was stayed; at their head fell General Wadsworth, gallantly yielding his life for what he believed the holiest of causes; the Confederates went forward irresistibly, and the ground on which Heth and Wilcox had bivouacked passed again into their hands. At this moment, Longstreet, after brief consultation with General Lee, suggested a flank movement not dissimilar to that by which twelve months before the bloody day of Chancellorsville was decided by Jackson. It was commenced, the promise of the first movement was richly encouraging.

“Generals Longstreet and Jenkins rode in great glee with their Staff along the plank road, when one of those unforeseen accidents which are inseparable from War, and doubly hazardous with undisciplined troops, checked in an instant all laughter and merriment. A volley at short range, issuing from Mahone’s brigade of Confederates as they poured obliquely through the tangled undergrowth of the Wilderness, struck Longstreet’s little party like a white squall; General Jenkins sprang high from his saddle and fell dead with a bullet through his brain; Longstreet himself lay stretched in the road pulseless and  inanimate, and, as all thought, with but few minutes of life left in him. Instantly, the flank movement was arrested. About an hour later, Longstreet, awaking from his swoon, exclaimed to Dr. Cullen, ‘In another half hour, but for my wound, there would not have been a Yankee regiment standing and unbroken on the south of the Rapidan.’ ”

•••••

From the following, taken from the Richmond Examiner of September 19th, the reader may get a good idea of the current value of the various stocks of the Confederacy in Richmond, as well as of the relative value of groceries, dry goods, gold, etc., with the New Issue, the only currency there. Gold will be found to rate at about the same price as in Houston; Fifteen Million Loan Coupons are worth greatly more here than there. Four per cent certificates it seems are below par. This would indicate a relative increase in value of the currency since the change. Eight per cent bonds are considerably above par of New Issue. Corn is not quoted, but is very high, say about $10 per bushel, owing to the great consumption in the army. Brown sugar is considerably cheaper here than there. Nearly all imported articles are cheaper there. On the whole, however, the difference is less than many who come from Richmond and inveigh loudly against Houston would lead us to believe. Extortion is not local. No pent up Utica confines its powers. But the whole Confederacy belongs to it, county and city, capital and remote dependency.

TUESDAY
OCTOBER 25, 1864
THE SPRINGFIELD DAILY REPUBLICAN (MA)

Southern Notes.

The rebel papers, since they have found that their friendship is damaging Gen. McClellan’s prospects, are pretending to take another view of the matter and prefer Mr. Lincoln’s election. The Columbia South Carolinian, for instance, says:

“We were inclined , not many days ago, to wish success to McClellan in the approaching presidential election. But we have changed our mind. It has lately become evident that there are many persons in the South who are disposed to believe that if McClellan should carry the day the restoration of the union would not be impossible. To such a conclusion under any circumstances to the sacred contest in which the confederacy is engaged, we are so much opposed, that we must perforce deprecate any event which might lead to the formation of a party, however small, which could entertain the thought of a re-alliance with the people of the North. We have, therefore, determined to withdraw the support of our good wishes from the Chicago nominee. We are Lincoln men from this time forth. The re-election of that unqualified villain will effectually put a stop to the dream of reconstruction in the hearts even of the most timid among us.”

Davis gets no volunteers. He conscripts all that can carry a musket, who do not run away, but, according to all accounts, there is great skedaddling for the mountains and the rural districts. The Richmond Enquirer of the 20th says:

“Everybody in the confederate states seems to be shouting at the same time, that everybody else ought to be in the army, and still not one of the stubborn creatures heed the appeal. About one-half of the cute, old “able-bodies” are stirring up the other half, and making them uncomfortable. Here’s the way to “seme” the entire “school”:² Let’s all go in, from the president down to the humblest wharf-rat, men, women and children, and their Negroes, throughout the length and breadth of the land. Now come in, if you dare. Say when, and we’ll all start at a given signal.”

Confederate Secretary of the Treasury Trenholm is indefatigable in his public appeals for his department. In his last he urges the southern people to take confederate bonds, instead of allowing them to be sold abroad at a discount, and to illustrate the wisdom of his advice, he relates this incident:

“The government paid, on one occasion, $300,000 for certain supplies, and the party who received this sum bought with it, from a foreigner, $15,000 in gold, deliverable in England. With the $300,000 thus obtained, the foreigner then bought an equal amount of government bonds, bearing seven per cent per annum interest. It follows that, at the end of this war, for $15,000 thus acquired by the citizen, the government will owe a debt of $800,000.”

More properly, it follows that for every dollar’s worth of supplies the confederate government will pay hereafter $20 and interest–it is pays anything. Its promises to pay are worth five per cent of their face now. Under such circumstances the moneyed men of the South turn a deaf ear to Mr. Trenholm’s appeals.

The food question is beginning to be a serious one at Richmond. The Sentinel of the 19th has a doleful article on the subject, in which it says:

“Money is valued by what it will purchase. But hedged up and cut off as Richmond is–cribbed, cabined and confined– money can buy but little here, for the reasons we have stated. Flour and corn are harder to be obtained here in adequate quantities than they are in many Alpine towns, where the only approach is by mule path. Hence they command enormous prices; and hence the news goes out that Richmond, which has since time immortal set the markets for Virginia, values three or four hundred dollars as but the fair equivalent for a barrel of flour, and other things in proportion.”

The Whig says on the same subject:

“Prices are inconveniently high for poor folks, but this must be expected so long as the necessaries of life are impressed on their way to market by government agents, who are too precious lazy to go through the country in search of supplies. Half of the troubles of our army and nearly all the troubles of our people are due to the existence of these pestiferous commissioners. We ought never to have had any commissioners. If, in their stead, government had depended upon contracts with individuals to supply the troops there would always have been plenty, and there would not now be a prospect of famine. Contractors would produce and supply their produce to the government. Commissary is another name for impressment, violence and waste.”

The females in the rebel laboratory at Richmond, who get $5 per day, recently struck for $7, but did not get it. The Enquirer says: “five dollars a day is not an amount which will keep either man, woman or child very far from starvation, at the present rate of prices for the necessaries of life.”

•••••

Egypt.–Mr. Charles Hale of Boston, our new consul general at Egypt, writes that on the evening of the 23d of September, the city of Alexandria was lighted for the first time by gas, the works having been erected by a French company. The lamplighter is nightly followed by a crowd of wondering Arabs, who insist that the marvellous blaze following the touch of his torch must be provoked by the will of a genie. This improvement causes a great change in the habits of the place. Heretofore a municipal regulation has required everybody going abroad after nightfall to carry his own lantern, but this is no longer necessary. Telegraphic communication with Malta, which had been interrupted by the breaking of the submarine wire, was restored on the 25th. Speculation in cotton was very active in consequence of the reports from America, and a very heavy fall in prices had burned the fingers of many of the operators. The present summer has witnessed the advent in Egypt of new consul-generals from Spain, from Greece and from Persia as well as from the United States.

WEDNESDAY
OCTOBER 26, 1864
NEW HAMPSHIRE PATRIOT & STATE GAZETTE

The War.

We have to record more terrible fighting in the Shenandoah Valley. Gen. Sheridan had withdrawn his army to this side of Strasburg towards Winchester, and the enemy, now under Longstreet, had followed him up and occupied the former place. On the 15th, Gen. Sheridan left for Washington, Gen. Wright taking command in his absence. Some skirmishing took place on Monday and Tuesday; and on Wednesday morning at 4 o’clock, the enemy made a formidable attack upon our forces. The conflict raged fiercely for hours , our forces being gradually driven back with heavy loss and finally in confusion, for some miles. Our loss is stated at 5000, with 24 pieces of artillery, all the ambulances, and other trains of the 19th corps, and leaving their dead and wounded upon the field. Up to 10 o’clock the fortunes of the day were all in favor of the enemy. Our forces had been driven to Middleton, and were in fact badly beaten. At this time the fighting ceased for a time. The enemy ceased the pursuit and began to entrench himself, and our scattered and beaten forces were being formed in a new position. When the battle commenced, Gen. Sheridan was at Winchester on his return from Washington. Hearing the sound of battle, he hurried to the scene and met his retreating army. He at once set to work to re-organize it and retrieve the fortunes of the day. Having completed his arrangements, at 3 o’clock in the afternoon he advanced upon the victorious enemy, evidently taking them by surprise; and after a most obstinate resistance, they were defeated and driven beyond Strasburg, with considerable loss. Gen. Sheridan reports that he captured fifty cannon, including many of those lost in the morning, with 1600 prisoners and a large number of ambulances and wagons, and recovered all the ground lost in the morning. We have no report of the loss on either side in the last battle. Among our high officers, Gen. Bidwell was killed, also Col. Thorburn, commanding a division, and Col. Lowell of Mass.; and Gens. Wright, Ricketts, and Grover, and Cols. Kitchen and McKenzie commanding brigades, were wounded. The Confederate Gen. Ramseur was fatally wounded and captured, and two or three others  are reported wounded. The general result of the day’s work was that our army returned to its former position with a loss of probably twice as large as that of the enemy, but a gain of some twenty-five cannon.

Later reports estimate the Confederate loss at from seven thousand to ten thousand, and state that their forces were scattered to the four winds and pursued many miles.

We have accounts of fighting in Missouri, and the Confederates were beaten and retreating South; but it is feared that Price intends to go into Kansas.

Affairs in the Southwest still have a very unpromising look. The following brief account of late operations in Sherman’s department will give the reader some idea of the condition of things there. It is from the Philadelphia Age, which generally gives very reliable accounts of military affairs: ->

Gen. Sherman’s supply railroad is cut almost beyond the hope of repair. In the long interval of silence, during which we have heard nothing from Atlanta, the Confederates have been burning bridges and destroying the railroad. Our last authentic news from Sherman left him confronting the enemy at Marietta, twenty-five miles north of Atlanta. Hood, with the Confederate army, was near Dallas, twelve miles southwest of Marietta. Sherman had two corps. Five of his corps were in Atlanta. On Oct. 4th, Hood made a feint movement, as if he were going south to attack Atlanta. Sherman, on the 5th, discovered it, and made a forced march towards Atlanta. Hood turned about, again reached the railroad at Marietta, and began a quick advance northward along it towards Chattanooga. As he marched he burned the bridges, destroyed the depots and tore up the rails. For sixty miles–all the way to Dalton–he continued this destruction, capturing every Federal railroad guard which did not run away. A flanking party, sent eastward to Rome, captured its Negro garrison without any loss. No Federal opposition was made until Dalton was reached, ninety miles from Atlanta. Here there was a Negro garrison which held out. Hood sent a detachment around it, and on Wednesday last seized the Negro garrison at Resaca, north of Dalton. Bridges were burned and the road torn up there. Tunnel Hill, between Resaca and Dalton, was next captured, and finally Dalton fell. At Chattanooga every one was frightened, and Schofield and Stedman hurried down from Nashville to give what aid they could.

Sherman followed Hood from Atlanta, but not quick enough to catch him. Hood destroyed sixty miles of railroad, unopposed, and Dalton was captured long before Sherman’s advance reached Hood’s rear. Hood made no attempt against Chattanooga. From Dalton, Beauregard and Hood turned westward towards Bridgeport and Stevenson, on the Tennessee River, west of Chattanooga. From Chattanooga the Nashville Railroad runs along the south bank of the Tennessee to Bridgeport, where it crosses the river and goes northward. Between Bridgeport and Dalton the distance is about forty miles. Several ridges of high hills intervene. Lafayette is twenty miles from Dalton, on the road to Bridgeport. Taylor’s Ridge is crossed by the road at Ship’s Gap, ten miles from Dalton, and just west of Lafayette the road crosses Lookout Mountain. Hood is on his way to Bridgeport, and there are rumors that his advance has appeared at Carpenter’s Ferry, on the river near Bridgeport. Sherman has not yet caught up to Hood. On Saturday night last, Hood’s rear was in Lafayette, and his main body was crossing Lookout Mountain, towards Bridgeport. Sherman’s advance was at Ship’s Gap. The two armies were about ten miles apart.

In East Tennessee the Federal troops have withdrawn to Knoxville, and the Confederates have advanced until they are but fifteen miles east of it. The railroad from Virginia has been repaired, and is used to carry supplies to the farthest advanced Confederate post.

THURSDAY
OCTOBER 27, 1864
THE BOSTON HERALD

Affairs in Mobile Bay–
Desertions from the Rebel Army–
The Rebels Hoping for McClellan’s Election.

A correspondent of the New York Post with our fleet in Mobile Bay furnishes some interesting information in regard to the state of feeling existing in that part of Alabama, Florida, Mississippi and Louisiana adjacent to the Bay, now in possession of the military and naval forces of the United States:

Since the capture of the rebel fleet on the morning of the 5th August, and the subsequent surrender of Forts Powell, Gaines and Morgan to the military and naval forces of the United States, (the last on the 23d August), deserters and refugees have been numerous to both the fleet and army. Fugitives of a better class than usual have sought protection of the “old flag,” and desertions are no longer confined to ragged and gaunt privates, but commissioned and non-commissioned officers have, in many instances, resisted to an almost death-struggle to effect their escape.

Within a day or two past a captain and sergeant belonging to the rebel army in the vicinity of Mobile, got two logs together, and having lashed them so as to form a raft, launched out into the broad Mobile Bay, in the desperate hope of being picked up by the many vessels stationed below Dog River bar, but owing to the smallness of the objects when so nearly immersed, the darkness of the night, and furious wind that soon after their departure sprung up, these poor fellows missed the upper fleet, and were some time next day accidentally seen and picked up by one of the navy boats. They were in a sad plight, and nearly at the last gasp when rescued.

What a condition of affairs must exist when two officers of an army can deliberately desert to the enemy at such risk of life!

Fugitives and deserters are equally reckless of the means they adopt for escaping. A single plank, or a miserable old skiff, such as a seafaring man, with his usual indifference to danger, would not tempt fortune in, serve these poor creatures; and, although many find the haven under the “old flag,” yet it is feared there are many who find their last resting place beneath the waves.

Fugitives and prisoners, with scarcely an exception, say that the rebels are waiting to see how the election for President goes; that if Mr. Lincoln is re-elected their cause is hopeless, and they must give up, and the sooner the better; but if McClellan is elected, they will hold on in the firm belief that he and his party will acknowledge their independence immediately after making a show of a wish for reconstruction, which the rebels will fight shy of until they see their way clear, when they will demand the acknowledgement of their independence as the first condition for listening at all to overtures of peace.

The Chicago platform was, in their opinion, worth more to their cause than all of our successes at Atlanta, Mobile Bay, Valley of the Shenandoah and on the Weldon railroad have been to ours; but they damn in round and unmeasured terms the weak-kneed and weak-backed Wall street gold-speculating rebels for allowing “the damned Yankees” to cow them and frighten gold to 85, or, as they call it, to 185.

In Mobile the property-owners swear that the city shall not be bombarded, that they will not allow their houses to be knocked about their heads to please the radicals there, who have nothing to lose, and no earthly interest in the place. It cannot be controverted that Northern Alabama has always been Union, and the people of that region have only been kept out of civil conflict among themselves by the bayonets of Southern Alabama.

Our Batteries Engage the Rebel Fleet Below Richmond.–A correspondent of the N. Y. Tribune, writing from the Army of the James, 22d inst., says:

At dawn this morning one of our land batteries in charge of Capt. Ashby, Co. E, 3d N. Y. Artillery, opened on the rebel fleet in James river, about a mile above Cox’s Landing, with 20 and 30 pound shells, and quickly sent their wooden gunboats to the protecting wings of Fort Darling and their own shore batteries. The three iron-clad rams, however, stood fire, and returned the compliment sent for an hour or more, until one of their smoke-stacks was nearly shot away, and one of our shells exploded in the after port of the Richmond, killing a gunner and wounding three seamen, when, having had a vigorous pounding from our shells, they one by one filed away out of range to a place of security, leaving an earthwork, which the rebels have recently constructed on the west side of the James, to continue the duel with Capt. Ashby’s battery and another of our forts lower down the river. This rebel work sent one hundred pounders in return for Capt. Ashby’s twenty and thirty pound shells, but received those of the same caliber from our lower battery, and finally discontinued the duel.

The result of the morning’s work was to drive the whole rebel fleet upward of a mile from the point in the river where they had recently been stationed. One wooden gunboat was seriously, and one iron-clad ram considerably injured. Our casualties are summed up in the loss of a leg by Michael Lynch, Orderly to Capt. Ashby, from a fragment of a shell which, at the same time killed the horse on which he was mounted.

Until this evening there has been no firing at Dutch Gap since yesterday noon.

•••••

Race Between Iron-clads.–There was recently a trial of speed near Fortress Monroe between the iron-clads Saugus and Canonicus. Both are of the monitor lass, and they were launched about one year ago. The distance over the course was 8 1-10th miles, and they came to the buoy together in 64 minutes. The water was rough at the time. The trial of speed was considered as highly satisfactory.

•••••

A Wheelbarrow Bet on the Election.–An amusing bet was made in Springfield, Mass., on Monday, between a McClellanite and the Mayor of that city, who is a strong Union man. In the event of McClellan’s election, the Mayor agrees to give the aforesaid McClellanite a wheelbarrow ride from City Hall to the farm of Wm. Pynchon, distance just two miles. The exciting event is to take place between the hours of 1 and 5 o’clock p.m., and no postponement on account of the weather. If Little Mac should happen not to get the election, then the Mayor has the ride. His Honor may book himself for a free passage.

FRIDAY
OCTOBER 28, 1864
THE CALEDONIAN (VT)

Under the Knife.

The critical moment has arrived, so having undressed myself, I take a last look around and mount the table, where I am at once seized on and arranged for the convenience of the carving by the two aides-de-camp. Mr. C., who, with his sleeves tucked up, has been standing in such a position as to screen the little whatnot and its glittering load from my sight, takes a last look at the wound, evidently determining in his own mind the precise spot where he will make the first gash, and then retiring a pace or two, nods to Dr. S., who has placed himself behind me. The gentleman at once steps forward and commences to apply the chloroform. The instrument he uses for this purpose appears to me to partake very much of the form of a meerschaum pipe, in the bowl of which is placed a sponge containing the fluid, a cover fitting tightly over the top of the bowl. The long pipe stem terminates in a cup intended to cover the nose and mouth of the patient. At the upper end of the  stem is a valve or stopcock, which regulates the amount of vapor to be inhaled. I am told to draw long deep inspirations as steadily and slowly as possible, and for two or three seconds the only effect I perceive is a slight choking sensation which makes me gasp for breath. Then, however, I seem to turn on the stopcock a little fuller, and immediately I feel myself becoming giddy, the sensation of choking increases, and I find more and more difficulty in drawing my breath. The objects of the room become blurred and dance before my eyes; my brain begins to throb and whirl in my head, and I feel a weight like lead on my heart. And now my blood begins to surge violently through my veins, and beats like a sledge hammer on my temples; every nerve in my body tingles, it grows faster and faster, wilder and wilder; the room rushes round and round, I cannot bear it, I cannot breathe, I try to struggle, and feel I can just raise my arm, which, in my state of semi-consciousness, I perceive is at once held down by one of those abominable students, who is doubtless enjoying the spectacle amazingly, and gloating over my distress. A roaring sound fills my ear, I shall die; I strive to raise myself to struggle, but I cannot move. I try to scream, I try to breathe, I gasp wildly, I am suffocating, I  . . .

A pause, a long sensible pause, at the end of which I feel that I have been asleep; and then I am gradually awoke by hearing the gentle plash of water dropping on my pillow. I hear it quite distinctly, and I know at once what it is; but for the king’s ransom I could not open my eyes, or stir hand or foot. I am conscious but motionless. I hear the murmur of voices, but cannot distinguish what is said. Presently there is another plash, and I somehow know they are sprinkling my face; but though I hear it fall on the pillow I cannot feel it; and now I hear the voices once more. This time I can distinguish what is said. It is Dr. S. speaking, and he says, “He is coming round fast.” Another moment and I can open my eyes. Dr. S. is standing over me with a basin of water, from which he is sprinkling my face and bathing my temples, though oddly enough, I cannot feel either his touch or the water. Mr. C. is standing with his back to me washing his hands, and one of the pupils is packing up the mahogany box, while the other is watching me with a look which seems to me very much like one of regret that it is all over, and that there is no more to be seen. The nurse is carrying away the two buckets, and I can even see that the water is red. I see all this at a glance. I am perfectly conscious and yet I can feel nothing. Not only am I free from pain, but there is a numbness all over my limbs. I cannot feel my own touch,  have no sensation whatever. In this state I am lifted into bed and placed in a comfortable position, not even the movement causing any sensation. Gradually, however, a slight tingling comes on, somewhat similar to that which takes place when a hand or foot has, what is commonly called, gone to sleep. This is succeeded by a smarting pain at the seat of the wound, which increases in intensity until, after some minutes, it becomes very severe. Sensation has returned to my body, and with it comes the after pain of the operation. This, of course, is all the more severe because I have been spared the torture of the operation itself. It does not, however, last very long, and within half an hour it has ceased entirely.–British Army and Navy Review.

The Sharpshooters.

The manner in which the skill of the sharpshooter is criticized in the army might strike a civilian with surprise. If he does his work well, a soldier gives him credit for it. I have heard many a compliment to a rebel marksman even from those whose escapes from him were most narrow, or whose dearest comrades he had recently picked off. “What admirable range!” “How capitally they fire!” “Isn’t their shooting excellent?” and other similar remarks were freely uttered in the picket rifle pits at Bermuda Hundred while the enemy were pouring in an artillery fire upon us on an afternoon in June, and that while limbs were being mangled or brains spattered wide by the death-dealing fragments of the spherical case [shot]. After a prolonged skirmish fire on the edge of Strawberry Plain a few weeks ago, a brave and faithful private of the 11th Maine was commenting on the work of the day in which he had borne an active and honorable part: “They’ve got some good fellows out here,” he said, referring to the rebel sharpshooters, “picked men. They’ve given us good shootin’. They gave us first-rate shootin’ t’other day when we were here. And they’ve given us good shootin’ to-day. There was one of our fellows, they put a ball right into one of his cheeks under the eye. Killed him, dead! And he was behind a good tree, too. But they brought a flank fire on him, and they dropped him. Now that’s what I call good shootin’. Bully good shootin’.” Then the intrepid fellow showed two holes in the leg of his pants where a bullet had gone in and out, and the expression of his face as he pointed to them showed only disgust at so poor an aim as to miss his limb, while so fairly exposed. I thought that if his standard of admiration for “bully good shootin’ ” prevailed generally at the North, there would be fewer substitutes and more volunteers for the year.

•••••

What the War was made for.—This is the people’s war. For the information of any one who asks what the war is for, and what caused it, let me read a short extract from the Richmond Examiner, a paper that is considered the exponent of the highest civilization of the south: “We hate everything with the prefix ‘free,’ from free Negroes down and up through the whole catalogue–free labor, free farms, free thinking, free will, free children; but the worst of all these abominations is free schools. The New England system of free schools has been the cause and prolific source of the infidelities and treasons that have turned her cities into Sodoms and Gomorrahs, and her churches into the common nestling places of howling bedlamites. We abominate the system because the schools are free.” Howell Cobb of Georgia, secretary of the treasury under President Buchanan said: “There is perhaps no solution of the great problem of reconciling the interests of labor and capital, so as to protect each from the encroachments and oppressions of the other, so simple as slavery. By making the laborer himself the capital, the conflict ceases and the interests become identical.”–Speech of Samuel Hooper.

SATURDAY
OCTOBER 29, 1864
COLUMBIAN WEEKLY REGISTER (CT)

Soldiers’ Votes.

The votes of the Connecticut soldiers have been taken. The 6th, 7th, 8th, 10th and 21st regiments, the 1st Light Battery, together with the officers of the 29th (colored) regiment, polled only 461 ballots, which were distributed among 128 towns. These votes were secretly enveloped, and no one can possible know how they stand until election day. Mr. Wattles, the Democratic Commissioner for this county, reports that he was treated with perfect courtesy and fairness by officers and men, and so far as he saw, there was no attempt to influence any man in the selection of his vote. He found, however, what is notoriously true, that all the camps had been flooded with the most villainous libels against McClellan, which there was no possibility of counteracting. In fact, the soldiers are not permitted to see any other reading but this disgraceful trash, and it is a matter of wonder that McClellan should get any votes at all, except from those who personally served under him, and know the falsity of all the charges against him.

Connecticut will not get more than 2000 to 3000 votes out of the camps.–Norwich Aurora.

•••••

Fairness in Army Voting.

It is useless to multiply words about it. Every man knows that unfair influences have controlled the result of the voting in some of the regiments, from which preponderating Administration majorities have been returned.

Examples–facts–are abundant to prove this. Elsewhere we give more of them–and shameful revelations they are; and here is another:

Yesterday, October 20th, the Vermont Sixth Regiment passed through Hartford on the way home. They are about three hundred strong. Some of the soldiers stated that they were Republicans, that others among them are Democrats; that before they had orders for home, arrangements were made by authority for holding an election in camp, but that no tickets except Republican were permitted to be brought into camp. This conduct excited the indignation of even Republicans among the soldiers, and they refused to vote at all unless there could be a fair chance for all. There result was, there was no voting. This is their own statement.–Times.

•••••

More of the Rascality.
10,000 Soldiers Sent from Nashville to Indiana to Vote at the Public Expense.

We are permitted to make the following extract from a private letter, from a write whose position enables him to speak with accuracy of the points named:

Nashville, Oct. 9, 1864.

We have had quite exciting times moving soldiers from the front to go to Indiana, to have them vote for Morton for Governor. It will cost this Government a large pile of money. It costs Government $7.60 to get one man from here to Louisville and back–and there is some further expense to get them into Indiana. So you can see it costs a pile to get enough to carry the election over the Democratic nominee. The number sent over this road, for the Indiana election, was 10,161. At $7.60 for each man, the cost is $132,093.³ Rather a large pile for the tax-payers to meet! Yet this is not quite one third of the expense of electing our ticket in Indiana, for some of the soldiers had to come all the way from Atlanta, nearly 256 miles from here, further South. Heretofore, when a man went  home on furlough, the Government has always put the expense on each man’s furlough, but this time they left it blank, so we tax-payers must pay it. You should have seen what a set of invalids these 10,000 were–they all had to get through the General Hospital, and get the signature of the General Surgeon. Well, so it goes here, all the time. Pen and paper could not begin to tell the stealing and thieving of the people’s money that is going on here in the quartermaster’s departments. The war must stop soon, hereabouts, for this part of the country is already stolen poor by these men, and they will have to effect a change of base of become honest.

The Gospel According to St. Beecher.
H. W. Beecher’s Beatitudes and Sermon on the Mount.

Blessed are the rich in pocket, for theirs are the Federal greenbacks.

Blessed are they that make widows mourn and prevent orphans from being comforted.

Blessed are the saints, for they shall inherit the Southern plantations; and we are the saints.

Blessed are they that do hunger and thirst after pap, for they shall be filled, and Father Abraham will give them a little more pudding.

Blessed are the unmerciful, for they shall exterminate the rebels.

Blessed are the impure of heart, for they shall see miscegenation.

Blessed are the strifemakers, for they shall be called the children of Old Abe.

Blessed are they that persecute others for conscience sake, for they shall make earth a hell.

Blessed are ye when ye revile copperheads, and persecute them, and say all manner of evil falsely against them for Lincoln’s sake.

Rejoice and be exceedingly glad. For great is your reward in greenbacks; for so rewarded they the Opdykes and Hendersons that went before you.

Think ye that I am come to destroy contracts and diminish profits? I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.

Fore verily, I say unto you, the Constitution and the Union shall pass away; but not one jot or tittle of the public plunder shall pass away until all be devoured.

Whosoever, therefore, shall not break all the provisions of the Constitution, shall be called the least in the city of Washington; but whoever shall break them all, the same shall be called great in the city of Washington.

For I say unto you that unless your treason shall exceed that of the rebels and secessionists, ye shall in no case find favor at Washington.

Ye have heard it said, ye shall not kill, but I say unto you thou shalt kill, and refuse to be reconciled with your brother, or agree with your adversary quickly, but deliver him to the Provost Marshal, that he may be cast into Fort Lafayette. Verily I say unto you, he shall by no means come out hence till he is fleeced of his last greenback.

Ye have heard it said by them of old times thou shalt not forswear thyself, but perform unto the Lord thine oaths. But I say unto you thou shall compel copperheads to take unconstitutional oaths, and swear to vote the Lincoln ticket.

Lay up treasures for yourselves in greenbacks and five twenties, for where your treasure is there will your heart be, which is Abraham’s bosom.

For I say unto you, you cannot serve God and Lincoln.

And after he had said these things, a great multitude was converted, and there was great rejoicing among the elect.

¹ point d’appui is French for “fulcrum,” here meaning the Yankees would gain a base from which they could move against either of the two cities mentioned.

² “seme” is a heraldic term, meaning “covered with many small, identical figures.” Given the obsession with the trappings of knighthood and chivalry prevalent among the Southern aristocracy, the sense of making “identical figures” of everyone by conscripting everybody would have been understood by readers. Seme is an adjective, intentionally misused here as a verb (hence the quotation marks).

³ After more than three years of newspapers, you should know that accuracy in math was not a requirement in the nineteenth century. $7.60 x 10,161 is not $132,093, but only $77,223.60. If the larger figure is divided by the number of soldiers sent, the result is an even $13; perhaps the additional $5.40 is the “some further expense to get them into Indiana.