SUNDAY
NOVEMBER 6, 1864
THE DAILY TRUE DELTA (LA)

The Arming of Slaves–Why it Should be Done.
[From the Richmond Sentinel, Oct. 22.]

The Raleigh Standard is greatly alarmed by the intimation that sooner than be conquered by the Washington despot, we will avail ourselves of the aid of our slaves. We are not surprised at this in a journal that with a surprising uniformity sees unconstitutionality, despotism, and horror in every measure adopted for increasing our military efficiency, and advocates only such views as tend to weaken or disarm us. Its horror at the suggestion above stated is not from any tenderness for the Negro, for it may become only a question which shall employ him, the enemy or us. It is not from any solicitude as to the preservation of slavery, for if we are conquered slavery is destroyed. The only other effect of this proposed accession to our military organization, in a certain extremity, is to increase our means of resisting our foes and of winning our independence. Is it this that alarms the Standard? It can be nothing else. We prefer independence to everything else. It seems to prefer anything else than independence. We have no wish to appeal to the resource we have mentioned. Nor is it now necessary. But when we see our enemies looking to that as their only hope, we should be fools, or madmen, or traitors, if we did not wrest this weapon from their hands and use it ourselves, if occasion shall require it. Not only our independence, but the preservation of slavery itself, would command it.

•••••

A Rebel Canine Dispatch Carrier.—An officer who came up from City Point to-day, had with him an ugly-looking specimen of the genus canine, which he guarded very carefully. The dog, it appears, was a great pet with both our own and the rebel pickets in front of Hancock’s corps. The dog had been trained to carry messages between the pickets. A rebel paper would be placed in his mouth and he would scamper off to the Union lines, deliver up the paper, and return with a Northern paper. He has been entrusted with packages of coffee and tobacco, and always delivered them promptly and safely. The rebs, however, tried to make use of him for transmitting information from one portion of their lines to another, and the four-legged messenger having been caught with one of those messages, he was confiscated and brought North.–Washington Republican.

•••••

Emigration of Leading Southerners to the Brazils.—The Brazil and River Platte Mail says: Owing to the war in America, several wealthy Southern planters propose settling in this country. Some have already arrived, and several more are on their way. One gentleman from South Carolina is expected to arrive here with a capital of two hundred and fifty thousand patacoons.¹ All these parties intend to locate in Santa Fé. In a few years’ time the lands in that province will be worth as much, if not more, than those in Buenos Ayres.

•••••

Important International Question.—A Party of Swedish Emigrants for the United States held at Quebec by the Swedish Consul.—Great anxiety was for some time felt here as to a party of emigrants who had been induced by the most flattering prospects to embark on board  a vessel called the Ernst Merck, bound for the Federal States of America. Nothing that could be urged either by the press o by individuals was sufficient to persuade these persons that there was no intention on the part of those who urged them to embark ever to fulfill the obligations under which they had come to them, as their real object was to kidnap them for service in the American Federal army, and to be “food for powder.” Fortunately, the vessel, instead of going, as had been proposed, to New York or Boston, proceeded in the first instance to Quebec, where the Swedish Consul, Mr. Falkenberg, interfered and succeeded in landing and retaining there the whole of these Swedish emigrants, the Ernst Merck proceeding on her voyage without them, while they, under protection and by the advice of the Consul, have determined to become settlers in Canada.–Stockholm (Sept. 24), Correspondence of the London Post.

Gen. Early’s Address.

We find in our city contemporaries the full text of Early’s late address to his troops after the battle of Cedar Creek. It is really a model of a dignified rebuke to the pilfering propensities of his chivalric braves. The General salutes his soldiers thus:

“I had hoped to have congratulated you on the splendid victory won by you on the morning of the 19th, at Belle Grove, on Cedar Creek, when you surprised and routed two corps of Sheridan's army, and drove back several miles the remaining corps, capturing eighteen pieces of artillery, 1,500 prisoners, a number of colors, a large quantity of small arms, and many wagons and ambulances, with the entire camps of the two routed corps; but I have the mortification of announcing to you that, by your subsequent misconduct, all the benefits of that victory were lost, and a serious disaster incurred.”

The “subsequent misconduct” which had mortified him, Early describes without circumlocution:

“But many of you, including some commissioned officers, yielding to a disgraceful propensity for plunder, deserted your colors to appropriate to yourselves the abandoned property of the enemy, and subsequently those who had previously remained at their posts, seeing their ranks thinned by the absence of the plunderers, when the enemy, late in the afternoon, with his shattered columns made but a feeble effort to retrieve the fortunes of the day, yielded to a needless panic and fled the field in confusion, thereby converting a splendid victory into a disaster.”

Early then sorrowfully makes the following invidious contrast:

“You have thus obscured that glorious fame won in conjunction with the gallant men of the Army of Northern Virginia, who still remain proudly defiant in the trenches around Richmond and Petersburgh. Before you can again claim them as comrades you will have to erase from your escutcheons the blemishes which now obscure them; and this you can do if you will but be true to your former reputation, your country and your homes.”

Gen. Early concludes his address by a moving appeal to his army to yield a steady obedience to the restraints of discipline.

•••••

Capt. Semmes again Afloat–Sailing of the Laurel.
[From the London Daily News.]

Liverpool, Tuesday.–Capt. Semmes, of whom since the sinking of the Alabama we have heard so little, and that so erroneous, sailed from the Mersey on Sunday last on board the bark Laurel, under the command of Capt. S. F. Ramsay. The destination of the Laurel is rather mysterious at present, but, as far as the customs bill of entry shows, the vessel has certainly cleared for ports where Confederate proclivities predominate, viz: Nassau, Havana, and Matamoras. Her cargo is of such a mixture that no belligerent State would have the slightest doubt as to its usefulness. It consists of some large guns, small arms, shoes, leather in bulk, ammunition, clothes, blankets, drugs, &c. But the Laurel must not be supposed to be intended for a cruiser; she is merely a tender, and carries out to a certain latitude guns and ammunition for a new screw steamer which was lying at Madeira on the 3d inst., and was there known as the Ranger. The Ranger is large and very swift. To show that Capt. Semmes does not go unattended, we may here state that he took with him on board the Laurel eight officers and 100 men, most of whom served with him on board the Alabama.

MONDAY
NOVEMBER 7, 1864
THE RICHMOND DAILY EXAMINER (VA)

The War News.

The war news may be shortly disposed of. There was none. The government did not receive a single dispatch, and other dispatches are mostly bogus.

Sunday quietude prevailed on the lines of Richmond and Petersburg, with the sole exception of the shelling of Dutch Gap–an operation not discontinued even for prayer and fast.

Deserters continue to come over in large numbers, and report that if Lincoln is elected, they will swarm. But deserter stories are not of much account.

the yankee fleet in hampton roads.

The reader will find elsewhere a telegram from Petersburg, reporting a great increase of the Yankee fleet in Hampton Roads. It agrees with the information contained in a private letter, dated at Washington, received through blockade last night by the editor of this paper. The writer says that a combined assault by water and land is to be made on Richmond as soon as Butler’s canal is finished and Grant receives certain reinforcement. Further that the fleet was then collecting in the lower waters of the James, and is to consist of fifty iron-clads.

from georgia and alabama.

Hood’s army has certainly crossed the Tennessee, and his headquarters were at Florence, north of the river, but not far from Tuscumbia. He has railroad communication there, and was getting up his stores and supplies when last heard from. Where he is now is an open question. The Yankees have withdrawn all their infantry from West Tennessee, and concentrated near Huntsville, where they expected Hood to pass the Tennessee. He appears to have had different intentions. What the enemy calls an “attack” on Decatur was intended only as a demonstration to cover the trains passing in that neighborhood, and it served the turn.

Nobody knows anything of the design or plan on which this army is acting. It is probably possessed by one or two persons only, and they have kept it to themselves. Many seem to think that there is no plan, no general idea, no object for all that movement. So they thought of General Johnston’s movement. But this view is manifestly absurd. Generals, like other men, act from motives, and it is impossible that the army should have been marched so far away from the late scene of war without a clear intention of decisive action elsewhere. What that intention may be, however, is still concealed. It was generally supposed that Hood’s aim was Nashville; but that may now be doubted, for if Nashville were the goal, it would have been struck before now. But secrecy cannot be longer maintained. A few days will develop all.

official report of the affair at plymouth.

A. F. Warley, the commander of the ram Albemarle, in his report to Secretary Mallory, says that on the night of the disaster, which was very dark and rainy, he had the watch doubled, and other extra precautions were taken. About nine o’clock, the officer on deck saw a boat approaching; he hailed it, but got no satisfactory answer. He at once called up all the Albemarle’s crew and opened fire with musketry on the boat. The aft gun of the Albemarle, as it turned out, could not be depressed sufficiently to strike the boat of the enemy, owing to its nearness, but the gun was loaded with grape and fired repeatedly. ->

The enemy’s boat struck the Albemarle just under her port bow, the torpedo attached making a large hole in the ram a few inches below the water line. This was done under heavy musketry fire from our men. The enemy’s boat instantly surrendered, and the prisoners were taken ashore. The engines of the Albemarle were put to work, but failed to keep her afloat. She went down in a few minutes, only the smoke-stack remaining above water.

The commander says he received no notice whatever of the approach of the enemy from the pickets below, nor did the artillery on shore give him the least assistance.

the evacuation of plymouth.

The Goldsboro Journal of the third has some particulars of the evacuation of Plymouth. Learning that the enemy had destroyed the Albemarle, General Baker repaired at once to Plymouth. The enemy sent showers of grape and canister within our works. Finding, however, all their attempts to sail up to Plymouth directly foiled by the stout resistance from the batteries under command of Colonel Whitford, the enemy retired and ascended Middle river. There they met obstructions, which they soon removed, and re-entering the Roanoke from this direction, they attacked the town in reverse. General Baker attempted to prevent this by throwing out sharpshooters, but owing to the exceedingly heavy fire of the gunboats and the accuracy of their fire, these were driven back; and the enemy, finding no opposition, ascended the Roanoke and came down upon the town. The first or upper fort was manned by the crew of the Albemarle. This the gunboat sailed past, though several times struck by the shots from its guns, the damage not appearing to be material.

The fleet next opened on Fort Jones, and succeeded in dismounting all the guns and exploding the magazine. Meantime the enemy threw an occasional spiteful shell or hot shot over into the town, which caused several of the buildings to fire. At this juncture, in the midst of the conflagration of the town, the necessary evacuation of the several forts, and the landing of the enemy, General Baker issued his orders to blow up the magazine and withdraw the garrison. The manœuvre of falling back was done with such perfect order that nothing of any value fell into the hands of the enemy, with the exception of two guns belonging to Lee’s battery, the horses to which had all been killed. The total loss in killed, wounded and taken prisoners will not exceed twenty-five or thirty men. General Baker has fallen back to Jamesville, and seems determined to dispute every foot of ground around Plymouth, he having decided not to evacuate Washington.

•••••

The Castle Thunder Battalion, composed of Confederate soldiers who have been committed to the Castle from time to time, and which was organized and sent to the front some weeks since, will be disbanded to-day, and the members returned to their original commands, their good conduct in the trenches having won for them immunity from further confinement.

TUESDAY
NOVEMBER 8, 1864
THE BOSTON EVENING TRANSCRIPT

Copperhead Conspiracy in Chicago.
Arrest of Ringleaders and Seizure of Arms and Ammunition.
Capture of 200 Secessionists from Canada.

Chicago, Ill., 7th.—The Journal says: “Telegrams were received yesterday by Hon. John Wentworth, announcing the coming of a large number of bushwhackers. Col. Sweet, commanding Camp Douglas, was communicated with, and orders were at once issued for the arrest of the desperadoes on their arrival. The fact leaked out and the faithful found means to apprise their friends and they left the train at the city limits and escaped in various directions. The military and police are scouring the city and have picked up hundreds of them.

“A propeller with nearly one hundred suspicious characters arrived this morning from Canada. The military and police are after them, and all will be captured.

“Col. Sweet has for some time been aware of a rebel plot to release the prisoners at Camp Douglas and burn this city. His detectives have been at work, and with success, and though the evidence obtained is not sufficiently conclusive to warrant the arrest of all the conspirators, it was deemed necessary to strike at once such ones as were unquestionably treasonable. Capt. Nelson, of the city police, was dispatched to the house of Dr. Edwards to arrest Col. Vincent Marmaduke, brother of the rebel General.

“At the same time a detachment of the military proceeded to the Richmond House, and captured the rebel Gen. G. St. Leger Greenfield, Morgan’s Adjutant General, and J. T. Shanks, an escaped rebel prisoner. B. S. Morris, a man noted for his hatred to the North, was also arrested. They are all now confined in Camp Douglas.

“In the meantime another detachment of the military invested the residence of Charles Walsh, near Camp Douglas. His house was entered and a portion of its contents taken to the camp. Capt. Cantrell and a private named Charles Traverse, both belonging to the rebel service, were arrested there as spies. In Walsh’s house were found 260 stand of arms, with all the necessary ammunition, and two cart loads of large revolvers, loaded and capped and ready for use.

“In regard to the arrest of Walsh, Col. Sweet said he had evidence enough against him to insure his swinging for treason.

“Col. Sweet had proofs in his possession that it was the plan of the rebel conspirators and home traitors to release the rebel prisoners at Camp Douglas and burn this city. The camp was to have been attacked on two sides tomorrow night, the rebels released, and the city plundered and burned.

“Simultaneously with the above arrests by the military, the police entered a room adjoining the Mattison House, and captured two large boxes loaded with guns concealed there.

“The police made a raid early this morning on the Donelson house, in Canal street, and captured forty bushwhackers who had been tracked there, all of them armed to the teeth.”

A mounted patrol of 500 men has been organized by the citizens for protection. They will be on duty all night. A sufficient military force is here to prevent any outbreak.

Richmond and Hancock, agents of the line of New York propellers, received a dispatch today that the Canadian steamer Georgiana has been fitted out as a pirate and is on Lake Huron.

Capture of the Pirate Florida
By the U. S. Steamer Wachusett.
Fifty-Eight of the Crew and Twelve Officers Taken Prisoners.

Screw sloop Kearsarge, 7th, arrived at this port at a late hour last night, from St. Thomas, which port she left on the 31st of October. On the 4th of November spoke brig Sea Lark for Boston, lat. 85 54, long. 68 2, all well. The Kearsarge has twenty of the crew and Surgeon Charlton prisoners from the rebel war steamer Florida, captured in the Bay of San Salvador, Brazil, on the morning of the 7th of October by the U. S. steamer Wachusett, Commander Napoleon Collins. Fifty-eight of the crew and twelve officers of the Florida were captured without loss of life, the remainder of the crew and officers being on shore at Bahia at the time of the attack. Paymaster Williams of the Wachusett arrived in the Kearsarge with government dispatches. The Wachusett and Florida were to leave St. Thomas on the 2d inst. for New York.

Chief Engineer Miles J. Freeman and Benjamin McCoskey, boatswain, of the Alabama, are also on board the Kearsarge.

•••••

Capture of the Pirate Florida.—We give on our first page the statement that the pirate Florida was captured by the U. S. steamer Wachusett. We have since learned the following particulars of the affair from Lieut. W. W. Williams, Assistant Paymaster of the Wachusett:

The Wachusett arrived at Bahia on the 5th. The Florida was in the harbor, and was allowed five days to make repairs.

The harbor of Bahia, which is a very large one, was found to be difficult to blockade, as there are two channels, each about fifteen miles wide; and Capt. Collins of the Wachusett determined to enter the harbor with the intention of either sinking the Florida or capturing her.

The officers of the Florida were taken by surprise. The captain and many of the men were on the shore. The Wachusett struck the Florida on the fore-quarter, but did not inflict any serious injury. The first Lieut. immediately acceded to Captain Collins’s demand to surrender. The affair lasted about twenty minutes, and while the Wachusett with her prize was leaving the harbor, she was fired at three times by a Brazilian steamer, but the Wachusett kept on her course.

The captured officers of the Florida were Southerners, most of whom had belonged to the regular service before the secession of the Southern States. One of the officers had held a commission as major in the Confederate Army. The crew were principally Italians, with a few Germans, French, Greeks and Hebrews.

The papers of the Florida were taken, and much valuable information is in the hands of Lieut. Williams, who is the bearer of dispatches to the Navy Department.

WEDNESDAY
NOVEMBER 9, 1864
THE SPRINGFIELD REPUBLICAN (MA)

Condition of the Confederacy.

The confederate congress met at Richmond on Monday. This is the second session of the regular congress. Among its members, Senators A. P. Garland of Arkansas and H. V. Johnson of Georgia, and Representatives W. R. Cobb of Alabama, W. W. Boyce of South Carolina, and Henry S. Foote of Tennessee, are called reconstructionists. They do not really advocate a return to the Union, but are ready for a general convention of northern and southern states to agree upon terms of separation and peace, but it is generally believed at the South, and it is doubtless true that they are ready to advocate reunion as soon as they shall consider it safe for themselves to personally do so. Alex. Stephens, the vice-president and presiding officer of the senate, belongs to the same party. Whether these men shall make any movement in the congress looking towards peace or restoration will depend upon the continued successes of Grant and Sherman. These will constitute the political barometer from which we may learn the rise and fall of faith and hope in the rebellion. The refusal of the legislature of Alabama to adopt any measures to assist the confederate authorities, or even to defend the state, is the most pregnant sign of coming dissolution in the confederacy, and there will be similar demonstrations in the other insurgent states, as the utter hopelessness of the rebel cause is demonstrated by the continued success of our armies.

The Richmond Sentinel urges upon the rebel congress an effective system of direct taxation as the only means of restoring the credit of the confederate government, now almost extinct at home, but kept up by a respectable position abroad by the help of cotton escaping the blockade. The Sentinel says it is impossible to obtain anything more from the people at home by voluntary loans, because of their want of confidence in the government, and consequently the only source of revenue is direct taxation, which congress must not be timid in imposing. The Sentinel also says–and the fact is most significant–that the general belief that the confederate government will be compelled to repudiate its debt is so fixed in the popular mind, that unless the congress takes the most radical measures to restore the confederate credit, the government will soon be left absolutely without resources. It is obvious that the rebel congress will find itself in a distressing dilemma; anything like an adequate tax will distress and disaffect the people and promote the peace movement, already alarming in its indications; and without such a tax the government cannot carry on the war. It will take extraordinary financial wisdom to solve the problem or to postpone the threatened financial collapse. The Sentinel proposes to levy a tax equal to one-fourth the valuation of the property in the confederacy, not all to be collected immediately, but to remain a lien upon the property, and interest on the tax and a certain proportion of the tax itself to be paid annually.

While the Sentinel frankly tells the whole truth as to the ruinous condition of the rebel finances, it is less honest in regard to the military situation, and attempts to make it appear that during the present year the confederate armies have more than held their own, and that the confederacy is relatively stronger and the United States weaker than in January last–and this in spite of Sherman’s grand march through Georgia and his occupation of the strategic key of the middle confederate states. It argues its case in this way:

“If results had only shown an equipoise as between two belligerents, the advantage would have been nevertheless largely with us, because, with the enemy, mere failure is a disaster and defeat, while to us to hold our ground is a victory. Delay does not merely disappoint and dispirit them, it undermines their strength. Each day they become weaker, so severely have they strained their resources, and so vast and rapidly increasing is the debt they have incurred, But we have done more than maintain ourselves. We have inflicted positive as well as negative blows. In Virginia we have lost nothing, while we have destroyed a host of our enemies. ->

Grant might have probably gained his present position as a starting point for his campaign. He has been driven there by necessity; but his army has melted away in the Wilderness, and at the close of the campaign, with nothing accomplished, he is begging for men to fill the places of the multitude he lost. In the trans-Mississippi states we have gained astonishingly, and the invaders have been almost entirely destroyed or driven off. In Georgia the campaign is still afoot, and the result undecided; but we have hope of closing the year without damage, as compared with its commencement.”

Not an unimportant indication of the threatening state of things in the South is the demoralization of the slaves, everywhere complained of. They seem to have somehow gotten the idea that their chains are in fact broken, and consequently they are becoming impudent and insubordinate to an alarming degree. In Richmond there is much complaint on this account, and the papers declare the Negroes to be the only really free men in the South. The Jefferson (Texas) Bulletin denounces a similar state of things there, and says:

“Are the citizens determined to sit with arms folded, and let the Negroes regulate prices, control the town and country, and run at large without restraint? Every house that is a square distant from the proper owner or guardian should be torn to the earth. Every Negro caught loitering after 8 o’clock should be put in the lock-up, kept twenty-four hours, and inflict a punishment of at least one hundred lashes, unless he is there unavoidably. There are many Negro ranches through the country without overseers, left for weeks by themselves uncontrolled. These are places of general resort, which afford the Negroes the best opportunities for concocting their devilish designs, and have a tendency to create disaffection among the other Negroes. The owners of the Negroes are more at fault then the Negroes themselves. They exercise no control over them at all–allow them to hire their own time and make their own trades, which has a baleful influence upon the other Negroes, and should be prohibited. No Negro should be allowed to trade and traffic, and hire his own time; and we should like to see the old South Carolina law adopted in regard to dress, suffering them to wear nothing but homespun. Nothing but humiliating steps like these will keep them in their proper place. What step will the honorable county court take in the premises?”

The proposed conscription of the slaves does not meet with universal favor. A writer in the Richmond Examiner declares it will be fatal both to the confederacy and to slavery. He says that two or three hundred thousand Negroes accustomed to arms would be a dangerous element in southern society, and asks how long slavery could live with free Negroes of such dangerous character in connection with the slaves. Virginia Negroes who have come into Gen. Grant’s lines say that the slaves will not submit to conscription; they have no disposition to fight on either side, and the fear of conscription into the Union armies has kept them from coming into our lines in response to the emancipation proclamation.

The Louisiana Democrat, printed in Alexandria, says that the state of society is really alarming there; violence and robbery prevail and misrule runs riot night and day; confederate money is worthless, and thousands of people have no provision made for the winter months. There are similar forebodings at Richmond, where an eight ounce loaf of bread sells for a dollar. The Examiner predicts bread riots and other disorders unless the confederate government can find means to avert starvation from the people.

THURSDAY
NOVEMBER 10, 1864
THE NEW HAMPSHIRE SENTINEL

ABRAHAM LINCOLN RE-ELECTED!
The Union Triumph Complete.
Copperheadism Crushed to Atoms.

The election returns received by telegraph up to Wednesday assure us of an overwhelming Union triumph in the election of Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson, all the New England and nearly all the Central and Western States casting their votes for them. Kentucky and New Jersey are probably all the states that have given their votes for McClellan and Pendleton. In Indiana and Illinois, where copperhead conspiracies have so recently been exposed, crushing majorities are given for Honest Abraham Lincoln and the Union.

In New York the vote is close, both parties claiming it, but the chances are with the Union ticket. Several Union members of Congress are gained, Henry J. Raymond of the Times being elected, and Fernando Wood defeated. Pennsylvania and Ohio report Union gains on the October elections, while Illinois, Indiana and other Western States have swept over the field of copperheadism with the rush of a tornado. Massachusetts, without the soldiers’ vote, rolls up a Union majority of over 60,000, electing all the Union Congressmen, carrying the two Boston districts by large majorities. Boston gives a Union majority of 4,000.

If Gov. Seymour of New York is defeated, and we believe he is, the controlling evil influence of copperheadism is swept from the loyal States, and our armies and navies can now move on to speedy and crowing triumphs.

•••••

Rebel View of Reconstruction.

Our northern conservatives who think the rebels can be coaxed back into the Union will do well to read and ponder the following from the Richmond Whig of October 31st:

“Talking of reconstruction, there is but one means for a thorough reunion, and that is by a combination between the confederates and the northern conservatives, cemented by the blood of the black republicans. If the northern conservatives would at once and actively co-operate with us on this basis, there might be hopes of a happy and permanent reunion. But nothing short of the blood–the extermination of the monsters who have made this war–will suffice. If the northern conservatives are not ready for this combination, the next, and possibly our best, alternative, is annexation to England or France. This would render reunion forever impossible, and at the same time gratify that which is the absorbing passion of every southern heart–vengeance upon the infernal Yankees. I would make the application for annexation in the first instance to England, as the mother country. If she declines, we could then apply to France. The advantages to either would be so great that refusal could not be expected. The advantages to us would be eternal separation from the Yankees, and the ability of wreaking upon that godless race a rich and sweet revenge. At present, however able we may be to maintain our independence, we are not able to desolate their land as they have desolated ours. Until that is effected the dead cannot rest quietly in their graves.”

The Western Copperhead Conspiracy.—There have been further disclosures in the trial of the “sons of liberty” at Indianapolis, more than confirming the previous testimony, and proving that the conspiracy was wide-spread, powerful and dangerous. Horace Hoffman, the deputy grand commander of the order, has turned state’s evidence and made a full confession. He says that none but democrats were admitted to the order, that it was thoroughly organized as a military force, Dr. Bowles being commander-in-chief, and that there was a special committee of thirteen to prepare for an insurrection. The plot was to release the rebel prisoners, assassinate Gov. Morton and other Union men, overturn the state government of Indiana, and begin there the revolution which they hoped to extend into all the northwestern states, and to organize a great northwestern confederacy which could ultimately join the rebel concern. Hoffman further says that rebel agents in Canada sent half a million of dollars to buy arms for the sons. Gov. Morton lately received an anonymous letter, telling that the writer and his associates had sworn to kill him and would do it. Dr. Athon, secretary of state under Morton, is a member of the order, and would take Gov. Morton’s place if he should be assassinated. These confirmatory revelations produced great excitement at the West.

•••••

Mexico.—Late Mexican news states that Cortinas has surrendered with his army to Gen. Meja of the French army, with all his material and munitions of war. He demanded to be placed in command of all the Mexican forces surrendered, with the rank of General, and his request was complied with. The rebels had agents in Matamoras offering large sums of money to Cortinas for his fine rifled cannon; but he refused to sell them to the rebels, as he told them they (the rebels) were not only the enemies of the United States, but the enemies of republican government on the American continent; and, if it had not been for the rebels, Mexico would not be invaded by the French, now would an Austrian be the emperor of the Mexican nation.

•••••

Forty-seven vessels are now on the way to England from the East Indies, with cargoes of cotton ranging from 1800 to 7000 bales each. The aggregate amount is no less than 221, 864 bales. All these vessels are at sea, and their arrival at Liverpool at different periods will keep the mills in operation for a considerable part of the coming winter.

•••••

A prominent copperhead politician in Keene threatened, a week or two ago, that if Lincoln was re-elected, “blood would flow in our streets.” Well, as soon as the glad news came that the Union cause was triumphant at the polls, the aforesaid copperhead politician was invisible, he having been kindly provided with a package of bandages, lint, &c., with which to exercise his professional skill. The election has passed off very quietly, neither blood runs, nor do copperheads clamor in our streets. All is quiet and calm. The loyal public breathes freer, and the public heart beats stronger with the hope of a more speedy restoration of the Union, and the return of peace and prosperity.

FRIDAY
NOVEMBER 11, 1864
THE VERMONT PHŒNIX

From the South.
The Capture of Plymouth, N. C.
A Sudden Attack Anticipated on Wilmington.

Richmond papers of the 3d instant contain the following information in regard to the capture of Plymouth by our forces:

A special dispatch from near Plymouth, via Rocky Mount, North Carolina, dated 31st ult., says: “After three days’ hard fighting the enemy passed up Middle River and came down the Roanoke this morning. Gen. Baker, commander of the garrison, fought until the enemy’s gunboats had passed our forts and dismounted all our guns in the harbor. AN evacuation was then ordered, under a severe shelling, which was effected without much loss. Col. Whitlord acted with conspicuous bravery.” As Middle river does not appear on the ordinary maps, and there may appear to be something of a paradox in the statement that the gunboats went up one river and down another, it is proper to state that there are three channels to the Roanoke at this point, separated by strips of land extending above Plymouth, the main channel passing by that place. Vessels ascending the middle channel would emerge above Plymouth, and thus be enabled to descend in the rear of the place. Meantime, where was the Albemarle?

The Dispatch says:

“The enemy have, it appears, retaken Plymouth, North Carolina. It will be remembered that this place was stormed last summer by Gen. Hoke, at the head of his brigade, and that, as a reward for his gallantry, he was promoted to the rank of Major General in the provisional army. The enemy, after three days’ hard fighting, passed up Middle River, and, on the 31st, came down the Roanoke towards the forts. Our troops in the two forts–one above and the other below Plymouth, on the Roanoke–were commanded by Gen. Baker, who fought until the upper fort had been passed and the lower one rendered useless by the dismounting of all the guns. We then evacuated the place, under heavy shelling from the enemy’s gunboats. Our loss was slight.

“Plymouth is a place of comparatively little importance to us, except as a check to the enemy’s gunboat excursions into the interior of the State of North Carolina.”

The Examiner says Plymouth is a small place, but acknowledges that “to take it from the Yankees last spring, we (the rebels) nearly lost Drewry’s Bluff. Its capture was one of the chief glories of Gen. Bragg’s reign.” By the way, is not Gen. Bragg in command somewhere on the coast of North Carolina?

The Wilmington (N. C.) Journal endeavors to be facetious over the threatened attack on that city by our gunboats, but winds up very lugubriously. Here is a specimen of the editor’s efforts to be jolly under difficulties:

“There is an old saying that threatened people live long. Perhaps the saying may apply as well in places as to individuals; and, if so, may account for the fact that Wilmington, whose fate has been so long and so frequently threatened or predicated, ‘still lives;’ or, in the classic phrase of a young gentleman who caught the idea but not the words, ‘It ain’t dead yet.’

“Now, once more, and with redoubled force and frequency, we are pointed out as sheep for the slaughter. The knife that is to sever our joints and sever jugulars has already been whetted so sharp that, like unto Job’s warhorse, even the inanimate cutlery smelleth the battle far off–thirsteth for blood and says ha! ha!

“Confound the people, we wish they would stop their nonsense. This thing of having people grinding axes, and whetting knives, and fixing up gunboats, and loading bombshells all the time for our special use may be fun to outsiders, but we don’t see the joke, and more than that, we don’t gain in our power of understanding or appreciating it, and don’t expect to. Our advice to Admiral Farragut, or any other admiral whose name so ends, would be to keep away from here. If he comes here he may get hurt in the end of his name.

“Seriously, however, this thing of an attack may be sprung upon us instantly, as it was at Mobile or Charleston. It has appeared just as probable here before as it does now, and still it has not yet come. It appeared no more so at Charleston, and yet the city is now under fire.”

The Dispatch announces that everything Is quiet in the Shenandoah Valley, and gives a few facts (?) to fire the Southern heart, as follows:

“A private letter from a lady in Clark County gives a sad account of the sufferings of the people from the vandals, and the heroism of our Southern ladies. The letter says they left desolation in their track. Many persons are without the necessaries of life–and of course they swept away all the luxuries, destroyed all grain, and killed or carried off stock of all kinds. At the house of the writer they killed all the sheep except six; took the only horse on the place; killed twenty hogs and fifty turkeys; broke open the meat house and took all the meat; destroyed all the fruit trees; tore the carriage to pieces and carried away all the hay, oats and corn. The lady told them to take it all, for it would not subdue her spirit, and not one tear would she shed over the loss of anything save friends.

“They went to the house of one old lady, nearly eighty years old, and robbed her of everything. For three days she had nothing to eat but green corn and salt.

“Three ladies kept forty of the brutes from entering their house by stationing themselves in the door, with knives in their hands, and telling them that they would stab the first man who entered the house. They, resorting to these measures, appealed to their humanity, asking if there were none present who had brothers and sisters. They only laughed and said they never heard of such things. The bravery of the ladies saved them, and the Yankees did not enter.

SATURDAY
NOVEMBER 12, 1864
THE SATURDAY EVENING GAZETTE (MA)

Central City, Colorado.

October 24, 1864.

Editor Gazette: We arrived at St. Joseph, or “The River” as everyone here calls it, all right. We found that the overland stages from Atchison had not commenced running as we were led to suppose by the advertisements in the papers. Rather than wait, we took the steamer West Wind for Omaha, Nebraska, to join some train. Omaha is about three hundred miles up the Missouri River from St. Joseph. It took us seven days to make the trip on account of the low water. If any one wishes to travel on the Western rivers, do not go in the fall.

Omaha is a small frontier city, laid out as if it was intended to grow. Council Bluffs, about three miles back from the opposite shore, is much the best place to stop at, and more convenient to get a fit-out.

After procuring our outfit for crossing the plains, we learned that the stages had commenced running again. We sold out and purchased our tickets for Denver by the Western Stage Company, which runs from Omaha and connects with the overland at Fort Kearney. We were forty-eight hours getting to Kearney on account of the  heavy roads from the recent rains. We had to wait at Kearney twenty-four hours because the stage from Atchison was full. The little log hut here, called Station House, is not a very good place to lay over night in; camp life is a luxury to it. I visited what is called the Fort, but it is no fort at all, not even an earthwork, simply a collection of houses in which live Government officers. Three hundred Indians could clean it out entirely. At this place General Curtis stopped to rest his wearied legions, and found no buffalo nor Indians, while the country about was swarming with both. The hunters found the one, and the other was destroying trains within twenty-five miles of the place.

We were glad enough when the next couch came to find a place in it. Our baggage was strictly weighed, and a dollar a pound charged all over twenty-five. I would advise all who intend crossing the plains by coach to take as little personal baggage as possible, and send the rest by express. Butterfield & Co.’s Western Transportation Company do the forwarding business in good shape, from a small package to a steam engine, and everything is promptly and carefully delivered.

The first night out we passed Plumb Creek; here the Indians killed a number of emigrants and ranch keepers and ran off the stock. Between this place and Cottonwood Ranch the Indian depredations were the most numerous. We had no difficulty, saw no Indians, and did not want to see any. We were all well armed, but a man cannot do much fighting in a stage.

Government has placed soldiers at all the principal stations, and the trains go in large numbers and well armed. An Indian will not fight unless he has the advantage. It would be an easy matter to clean the Indians off the route if Government handled the matter properly. Give Colorado five thousand men, with full power to fight as they choose, and there would not be a hostile Indian in the territory three months after.->

We arrived in Denver safely. Denver may truly be called the City of the Plains. One is surprised to come upon a real city after riding seven days across an almost uninhabited level plain. The citizens of this city have the real energy. Fire and water check, but do not discourage them. The city continues to grow, in spite of all. The hotels are well kept. The Tremont House, the best hotel in the city and one which I can recommend, is kept by Major Sargent, well known in the good city of Boston as proprietor of the Adams House, and at one time connected with the Bromfield House. His bright smile and genial manners make one feel at home under his roof. The remark is truly applicable to him: “He can keep a hotel.”

From Denver we took the stage to Central City; two hours’ ride brought us to Golden City, at the foot of the Rocky Mountains. This city at one time rivalled Denver, but its business has moved up into the mountains, since Gulch mining has run into quartz crushing. From Golden City we pass up through the Golden Gate, and we are fairly in the mountains.

Little thought I, when a school boy, that I should cross the Great American Desert and see these mountains, which no eye then had seen but the wild Indian, and the almost as wild hunter; but here I am, comfortably riding through its ravines in a Concord coach built in New England. We pass up through the ravines, or “gulches” as they are here called, the high peaks towering up on either side, and we finally climb one of the low ranges, the view from the top of which is delightful. On either side rises peak upon peak, their tops capped with snow, and as the sun gilds them with its golden rays, one could easily imagine himself in fairy land, if it were not for the biting cold wind that makes one wrap the blanket closer about him.

After admiring the view, we descend into the gulch beneath, to Clear Creek. As we ride up its bank, deserted cabins, broken sluices and erasterers show us the diggings from ’58 to ’61.² The driver tells us from those piles of stone and earth have been taken a mint of money. We look and wonder. We soon arrive at the first quartz mill, which is thump, thump, thumping out the gold from the solid rock. You take up a piece before it goes under the crushers or stamps. It glitters in the sunlight, but you are told that that yellow sparkling mineral is not gold, but iron. Then where is the gold? You are answered that it is there but you cannot see it, but the quicksilver finds it as it runs over the plates.

We continue our journey up, through the city of Black Hawk and Mountain City, to Central. These three cities are all attached, like a train of cars. I cannot speak very highly of the hotel accommodations here. The St. Nicholas is the best. The pretty, bright face of Madame Harvey, and her numerous attendants, and the good fare at her table, make one forget the incommodious chambers. Her beds are clean and neat, which is a great consideration in this country.

¹ A Spanish coin roughly equal to one dollar.

² The typography is good on this word, but it does not appear in any dictionary. Eraster seems to refer to the piles of rocks left behind by the process of sluicing for gold, and may be an archaic mining term that was simply never captured in a dictionary.