SUNDAY
FEBRUARY 26, 1865
THE DAILY PICAYUNE (LA)

Graphic Account of the Battle of Hatcher’s Run.

At 2 o’clock the opposing lines were drawn up opposite each other and in woods, so that for the most part we were invisible to the rebels and they to us. About this time skirmishers were sent out from the left of the 5th Corps, with orders to find the rebels. They were not long in doing that, for the rebels were quite near, and in heavy force. A brigade of cavalry, consisting of the 4th, 8th and 13th Pennsylvania, dismounted–except one regiment–was then ordered to take the breastworks which the skirmishers had discovered in our front.

The advanced gallantly to the charge across an open field, till they came to a high post and rail fence, which the mounted cavalry were unable to pass. They remained here awhile, striving to get the bars down, the cavalry men hacking them with their sabers and the dismounted troops endeavoring to tear them to pieces. All this time they were subjected to a terrible fire from the breastworks in front. Both shot and shell poured in upon them, and their position was soon found untenable. They retreated. Many dead and wounded were left behind. Again they were formed, having this time left all the horses in the rear. Again they charged gallantly forward. They were bloodily again repulsed, and a second time they fell back.

They were now weak in numbers, many were killed, more wounded, and some, unable to get away, had been caught in the rebel lines and remained as captives. The third and last attempt to storm these works was made as bravely, as gallantly, as uselessly as the first and second. On the men rushed; back they were hurried by the volleys of musketry, and here the endeavor to accomplish so difficult a feat with so small a force ended.

An advance of the 3d division of the 5th Corp was now ordered to drive the rebels from their obnoxious breastworks. Under the eyes of the indomitable Warren, the men sprang gallantly forward. A short, sharp, and decisive fight drove the rebels away. We followed. Up hill and down dale, through valley and marsh and over hill tops, we followed as they slowly retreated, fighting our advance. Onward we went, too far onward. For nearly four miles the rebels retreated, gradually getting stronger in numbers, but still giving way steadily before the dashing charges of the 2d Division. Backward they went till our men reached the tannery and lead works, which are well known to be situated close to the South Side Road.

Here the rebels stopped. They had grown more powerful. Stubbornly the 5th Corps veterans, seeing the long sought object of their desires almost in their clutch, strove to push on. The ammunition of many of the regiments was exhausted, and the advance gun, in following, became glued in a swamp, and resisted all efforts to extricate it. In front was a swamp; rebel earthworks with heavy guns mounted, and lynx-eyed cannoneers were behind the swamp, which was in itself impassable. There was no chance or safety but in retreat. Our men paused; they paused and fought. The rebels received more reinforcements. They massed them. ->

Finally the left wing of the 3d Division was flanked and driven back. After this the division fell back in disorder. Once started, there was an overwhelming force of rebels in front. There was no refuge in the rear, save three miles back–for reinforcements, which should have been sent before these gallant fellows got so far away, were not on hand; they were too late. Our men went back rapidly, keeping pretty well together, losing some, unavoidably, as they went. I cannot pretend to judge where the blame of the reverse lies. It was plainly evident, however, that the reinforcements from the 6th Corps to the 5th came too late to be of any service in maintaining their advanced position, and only helped them to man the breastworks.

There were so many wounded in so short a time that the ambulances on the field proved insufficient, and numbers of the poor fellows, stiff and bleeding from horrid wounds, were carried from the front to the field hospitals upon stretchers, and some were even brought in upon blankets by their sympathizing comrades. Nearly all the wounded who were able to walk were ordered to march into their hospitals, which in the 5th Corps lay eight to twelve miles from the front.

•••••

Melancholy Condition of Queen Victoria.–A London correspondent of the New York Tribune furnishes the following questionable statement as to the mental condition of Queen Victoria:

The Queen will not open Parliament in person, though she has been earnestly entreated to do so by her ministers, who would fain gratify the community by withdrawing her from seclusion and being the session as brilliantly as possible. She is more than ever averse to society or publicity, and nobody seems to possess influence enough with her to overcome what appears to be a confirmed case of monomania. People who should know, folks who have access to the palace, or are intimate with such, tell curious stories about her. I heard very recently that she had the arm of the late Prince Consort modeled in wax and clothed, and would pass hours sitting with it drawn through hers, absorbed in melancholy reflection, recalling the past.

The Duchess of Marlborough, daughter to the great Duke and “Queen Sarah,” had such an admiration of Congreve, that when he died she had an ivory figure made to imitate him, also a large wax doll with gouty feet, to be dressed  just as the dramatist’s gouty feet were dressed in his life-time. “A glass was put in the hand of the statue, which was supposed to bow to her Grace, and to nod in approbation of what she spoke to it!” The Queen’s may be a parallel instance, only less extravagant. Six months ago, too, I was informed on authority that put the matter beyond a doubt, that the apartments of eh deceased Prince were kept in precisely the same order as that observed in his life-time, his slipper and dressing gown regularly aired, his clothes, boots and toilet apparatus placed as though he might come back at any moment to claim them. All of which, I confess, seems to me extremely sad and piteous.

MONDAY
FEBRUARY 27, 1865
THE HOUSTON TRI-WEEKLY TELEGRAPH (TX)

Charleston a Saragossa!

The cause of South Carolina, and the cause of the Confederacy which are involved in the fight here, needs of all things two essentials–courage and tenacity–courage to dare, to risk, to brave–tenacity to hold, to fight, to dispute every inch. There is a great cause, and a grand fight can be made here. But men and leaders must summon up every energy, must rouse themselves to great thoughts and aspirations. Let them shake off past lethargy and despondency. Let our leaders brace themselves for great and desperate undertakings. Let them fling from their hearts the pall of apprehension as to the future. Let that thing take care of itself. Let them put it behind them. Let them take care of the present.

The same tenacity and daring which has held Charleston and the Savannah line for four years, can hold Charleston now, if brought to bear upon the emergency. The same tenacity, had it been used could have held the lien at Pocataligo four weeks ago, when the Yankees were permitted, through mere want of nerve, to erect their batteries and break the road. The same tenacity could have held for many days the line at Coosawhatchie, but lately so ingloriously abandoned.

To be whipped, is to be whipped. No one can always prevent it. There is no ignominy in being fairly whipped, after a manly struggle. A man, or a body of men, can but do their best. But this thing of being whipped without a fight worthy of the name, upon a metaphysical or mathematical calculation that you may, or can, or should be whipped, Providence Permitting, and all other circumstances, favoring, is a sort of fighting that never did and never can save the liberties of a people.

Let those men and those officers who don’t want to fight, who are disheartened or cowed, let them go to the rear, and be promptly ordered to the rear. Let men who are whipped, and who have an interest and a pride in the cause here, go to the front. Strip the front line of every coward man. Give a chance to men who will fight for the old State, to strike a blow for her.

Let everything from Combance to Charleston, and from Branchville to Charleston, be promptly stripped for the fight. Let all humanitarianism be buried as dead as Julius Cæsar, and as deep as Tophet. Strip the State for a death struggle, and let every officer and man strip his heart likewise of all weak longings and lookings backward. Inch by inch let us fight the enemy; let us mark he makes with life blood; and let us not yield that inch until fairly, forcibly beaten from it. Let every creek be a point of fight–every marsh a battle ground. It will not be in vain–it is vitally important at this juncture. We can punish him five men for one man at every point. Time–time is gained, and the enemy is punished. ->

There are brave men here, and there are brave officers to lead tem, if the right men are put to work. It devolves upon the Chief Commander here to have no remorse now in this matter. Too much is at stake. Affections should be buried; all military hesitation should be merged into decision. Too long have we been fighting here around these old walls to yield tem now without a struggle. We say, unhesitatingly, to those in authority, there are brave men here who are prepared to make of Charleston a second Saragossa.¹ We use no fancy phrase. We mean the exact thing. We mean to fight the country inch by inch to her outside lines; and we mean, then, to fight it brick by brick to the foot of old St. Michael’s walls.

We say to the commander here, there is the spirit here in Carolina to do the thing. Let them try us. Let them give us a fair showing, chance to stand or fall here in behalf of the cause and the State we love. We want no Atlanta, no Savannah business here. Let every non-combatant in the city be compelled to leave it and seek shelter elsewhere in our churches and in every house in the State. Let Charleston be strictly a military camp. The opportunity is offered–let the Commanding General make a fight here that will ring around the world. We will not fail him. There are men here to do it. We have made names historic heretofore. We can do it now. Let us strip and enter the arena for life or for death. Will he stand by us?–Charleston Mercury.²

•••••

Material for the Defence of Georgia.–The Augusta Chronicle and Sentinel says that while General Bragg was in that city, a little incident occurred which shows that Gen. B. is not the “dry old stick” he has the credit of being.

President Davis had telegraphed to Gen. Bragg, in his usual way, to hold the State at all hazard–stop up the roads, destroy supplies and crush Sherman. At the close of the dispatch, the strange phenomenon of an idea seemed to strike him, and he asked: “What is your available force for this purpose?”

To which General Bragg promptly replied: “Five Proclamations and one Brigade.”

Our informant did not see the point, and asked Gen. Bragg to explain.

“Why,” said he, “Gov. Brown issued a proclamation, that was one. General A. R. Wright’s made two. The President’s made three. Senator B. H. Hill’s made four, and that from the eight members of Congress made five.

“I shall consider Sherman a hard case if I can’t ‘crush’ him with five proclamations and one brigade.”

TUESDAY
FEBRUARY 28, 1865
PROVIDENCE EVENING PRESS (RI) 

A Moving Time.

The world does move. And when we utter this common-place, our mind is especially directed to that portion of this globe of ours south of what used to be denominated “Mason and Dixon’s line.” Within the limits of the Confederacy it is nothing but move. True, Lee and his army have been supposed to be mud-bound, except northward and eastward, in which direction they have been Grant-bound for a  few months past. Elsewhere, it is all movement. They feel the necessity of moving, and that necessity arises from the presence of the armies of Sherman, Schofield and Terry.

They moved hastily from Savannah, then from Columbia; then Charleston caught the peripatetic fever, and then the forces holding Wilmington came to the wise conclusion that it was most decidedly preferable to move. In fact, it has been a regular military quadrille, only their step has been exceedingly hurried. It is said now that Lee and his army are to move, but exactly where does not yet appear.

The evacuation of Richmond will be nearly the last change, in our judgment. Rumor, from rebel sources of course, and rom the deserters who are moving into our lines rapidly and in quantities, has it that Lee is to move upon Sherman. We have heard so much of what they are going to do that we have lost all faith in Confederate sayings. We admit that such a loss of faith is very comforting. We think Sherman can take care of himself against Lee’s whole army, until success shall come, which will not be far behind Lee. Grant is not a very sleepy man. He will be sufficiently awake to hear the sound of Lee’s retreating bugles, and sufficiently near his read-guard to give him trouble.

But there is another move upon the Confederate tapis which we long ago prophesied, and which is an indication of despair among the slaves. This last card has been held in hand, and the policy of using it has been discussed in all its bearings–military, social, moral and political. It has been like “the War of the Roses,” long and bitter. “To arm or not to arm,” that has been the question.

Davis and lee, who are supposed to know just the military strength of the rebellion, are in favor of the immediate conscription of the blacks. It is to them a necessity immediate, and over-riding all other questions. These sons of Ham must be made to fight for their masters, even if the boon of freedom for themselves be the inducement. Lee wants them now. He has evidently brought the majority of the Confederate House of Representatives to his way of thinking. It is yet declared doubtful about the Senate. Richmond papers have it that the measure has been defeated in that body by one vote.

We do not wonder that the rebels pause over this last step, but they will take it. We shall rejoice when they do, for it will bring no serious injury to us at this stage of affairs, in our judgment, and will make the emancipation of the race easier and speedier of accomplishment. ->

The knell of American slavery has struck; the shackles are broken and thrown away, without a possibility of their being used or ever called for again, the moment this last move takes place.

We leave out of sight the moral question entirely. The emancipation and conscription of the Negroes does for slavery effectually. The removal of any considerable number of these swarthy sons of toil from the plantation to the camp is not going to give the rebels any great military strength for the present, and it is now that they need it, if ever! But it is most seriously to affect them in a vital point. They have been the producers for the army; they cease production and become consumers, a part of the army in fact, though without efficiency from the want of proper drill.

Can the rebels supply that deficiency? Remember that their blockade-running is effectually stopped. Remember also that raids for the supply of the army commissariat are out of fashion and are going to be hereafter. How then can the freeing and conscription of these men work other than evil to the designs of the rebels, and good to the national cause? But the cause of justice, of humanity and men’s rights does move in the Dixie country, even though necessity is the goad which incites the movement. A few more moves and then we hope to be able to chronicle the death of this rebellion and the system of slavery which caused it.

•••••

The Testimony of the Rocks.–The example of New Hampshire and Massachusetts in making it a criminal offence to desecrate places of natural curiosity, walls, fences, etc., with quack advertisements, will soon be followed by other Legislatures. One of the legislators of New York has in hand the reform, and we trust his example will be followed in other States. Among the White Mountains and the Highlands of the Hudson, by lake and seaside, in lovely valleys and along romantic glens, in rural suburbs of cities, and the majestic solitudes of nature, the vile inscriptions abound. One recent London paper affirms that an American has inscribed two advertisements of “Plantation Bitters” upon the face of the great Pyramid of Egypt.

•••••

The Prince of Wales has an income of only about one million dollars a year. But his family is small, and if his wife does her own housework, and he cuts down his old clothes for his boy to wear, he will be likely to get along on that sum.

•••••

Groceries are Lower.–L. K. Joslin is selling four and one-half pounds of light Havana sugar for $1; the best of Oolong tea at $1.28 per pound; good butter at 45 to 48 cents per pound; and other groceries proportionately low, at Nos. 207 and 211 Broad Street.³

WEDNESDAY
MARCH 1, 1865
THE BOSTON HERALD

Charleston.
How the Chivalry Ran Away.

A war correspondent who accompanied Gen. Gilmore on his entrance into the city of Charleston gives a very interesting and graphic narration of the occupation of the Palmetto City by our forces, from which we make the following extracts:

The Landing in Charleston.

The Colt, the fifth vessel to reach Charleston, swung beside a crazy old pier. The motley crowd of some one hundred on the pier to which the tugs were fastened, seeing a handsome transport land with its two large white stars on a field of blue flying at the jack staff, deserted the little crafts and the Admiral, and rapidly made a detour to the pier at which we rode. A lot of urchins, in worn out rebel jackets, were the skirmishers; then Negroes of both sexes, who rushed to shake hands with such of the crew as were already ashore; then ten or fifteen stragglers, all Irish or German, from the rebel army, who had hidden to fall into our hands, and looked on without demonstration; and, lastly, a squad of five young ladies, of German extraction, pretty well dressed for Charleston, twenty per cent of the five being rosy, plump, good looking, and not in the least afraid of the Yankees. In all, General Gilmore’s committee of reception numbered barely one hundred, and was composed as I have stated.

Decay and Desolation.

Along the whole line of piers not another soul was visible, save a few of our colored soldiers. The streets down which we could look were deserted, not a horse or vehicle in sight. No smoke arose from the chimneys, no blinds were thrown open. But the piers told the most eloquent tale of decay. They were crazy, neglected, and a sorry tombstone to departed traffic. On none of them was there the slightest evidence that any commerce had been carried on there in the memory of man. The piles were awry, the planking warped and dismantled, and in places removed altogether. Even the rings worn on the stanchions by the old-time cables were no longer visible. Around the piles, and for a short distance out in the harbor, floated clots of half consumed cotton, sent nearer shore by every impulse of the flood tide, and not at all detracting from the aspect of commercial ruin.

Effect of the “Swamp Angel’s” Fire.

That portion of Charleston subject to the Swamp Angel’s favors lay opposite where we were moored, and it was not necessary to stir from the deck of the Colt to see a fair specimen of the havoc occasioned by them. Holes were visible in eh walls of brick houses through which a horse might enter. Many roofs along the pier were perforated by a smashing bolt, making an opening large enough for a photographic skylight, and the piers themselves had been hastened in their neglect and disorder by stray shell-fractures now and then.

Apathy of the People.

The utter nervelessness of the people who remained was a matter for curious remark. They did not appear to care a pin about the matter, and seemed so well prepared for it that they took the approach of our boats and the landing as a matter of course.

Talks with Rebel Deserters.

I descended from the Colt and engaged in conversation with three deserters-all Irish–one of whom had no further capacity for snuffling the battle afar off, owing to the fact that he had enriched the soil of Virginia with the largest and most ornamental portion of his nose at the battle of Chancellorsville. The spokesman of the party was a deserter from the Palmetto State, one of the rebel iron-clads in Charleston harbor. The fleet, consisting of the Chicora, four guns, the Palmetto State, four guns, and the Charleston, six guns, was run a short distance up Ashley River, and there destroyed early in the morning. One deserter said that if our fleet had attempted to run past the forts it would have been pretty well warmed, in which I am disposed to believe he is correct.

Concealed in Cotton and Tobacco.

I singled out, in the crowd and on the pier, a man whom, I judged from dress and appearance, to have not much in common with the poor people around him. Catching my eye, he approached and asked for a New York paper. I was unable to give him one, but probably furnished all the information he desired when I gave, in answer to further inquiry, the price of cotton. He informed me that he had secreted, in his store and dwelling house, about two hundred bales of cotton and over seventy-five thousand dollars’ worth of tobacco. This, to use his own expression, he had “squatted” from time to time, in anticipation of the event that had just occurred that morning. Two or three stragglers attempted to burn his cotton half an hour before our troops reached the quay, but were frightened off without accomplishing their object. He said there was a considerable quantity of cotton and tobacco secreted in the city, which had been so well hidden that the officials knew nothing of it, and other lots had escaped through bribery. No doubt a good deal of both staples will come to light. ->

How the Chivalry Ran Away.

This gentleman informed me that after the capture of Savannah the people of Charleston considered the fall of their own city as a thing accomplished. The military endeavored to maintain a bold front, and the newspapers displayed a portentously calm confidence; but the process of evacuation had been going on, under one pretext and another, always receiving with virtuous indignation any hint that connected their departure with a military crisis. They had contemplated doing this and that for two years, they said, and shrank from the word “evacuate” as if it touched them on the raw–which it may have done. Everybody was very rhetorical, but, singular to say, it was very hard to get the flow of rhetoric plugged by the simulated process of biting cartridges, which a number of drill sergeants were ready to impart–loss of teeth immaterial. Everybody who was rich fell to putting his house in order, and, strange to relate, found his neighbors on each side of the way doing the same thing, and with energy. It was a coincidence–nothing more. Evacuated! Pooh, blow that. They were only carrying out a long cherished design.

And so, in pursuance of designs of remarkable antiquity, some went to Columbia, some to North Carolina, some to Richmond. The long-fostered intention did not refer to Augusta or Wilmington. They were safe enough, of course, but not in the ancient field of contemplation. For a month was this poor farce acted and re-acted–very badly acted, however, as if the low comedian had a wife to bury after the performance; the soubrette a new boarding house to hunt, (to say nothing of a most distressing cold in the head); as if the manager had been smiling vacantly at mention of salary; as if the property man found it impossible to amass pennies numerous enough to purchase the chemicals that tone water into theatrical Burgundy; as if the coals were out, and the clerk of the weather had turned bear; as if the call-boy, debauched by not getting his money, had disappeared with the every-day wardrobe of the company, and left them to go home in the costumes of funny people, generally belonging to the seventeenth century.

During four or five days preceding the evacuation the mask was thrown off. Sherman’s daring was terrifying, and his rate of speed per diem not the modest average day’s march through Georgia. The mantle of dignity fell off the sham, and the skedaddle (I don’t like the word, but it is good enough for Charleston), rapidly culminated.

The roads to Wilmington being the only ones not tapped by Sherman were thronged. All hope of getting off any further chattels was abandoned. The situation had become highly personal, and among the guilty burghers arose the cry sauve qui peut, and they evacuated to happy hunting (for food) grounds further north.⁴

Starvation.

A German deserter with whom I conversed was chiefly concerned about the prospect of making money under the new regime. He dwelt upon the fact that a week before we entered, $2500 in Confederate rags would not buy a barrel of flour. There was a shrivelled Irish female begging bread for the childer, the idea of there being any denomination of money in the world as low as twenty-five cents having seemingly escaped her mind. “How much is this?” would be followed with “How much will this buy?” If disappointment resulted when the first question was answered, the revulsion was great when, in return to the second, she ascertained that two twenty-five cent pieces would buy bread enough to give both herself and childer enough and to spare for one meal, provided her family was not more numerous that it had a right to be, even for an impoverished family.

A Dead City.

 Walked down the pier into the streets and glanced up and down them, my time being too brief even for a hurried stroll. The interior streets, like those on the quay, are dead. Charleston is the deadest Southern city I have ever seen since the rebellion commenced. Savannah is a Paris beside it. Debris from shells lies in the streets where it fell. Every scar where a fragment struck is as visible as the day on which it was made. The lower third of the city was an infected district. No one dared sleep there, and even when the guns at Morris Island were silent, men walked with accelerated gait and their ears pricked. The damage to Atlanta from shells is inconsiderable beside that to Charleston.

Before leaving, the enemy fired several arsenals, workshops and storehouses, and probably some twenty or thirty houses in all have been, or will be, destroyed. The fires have all gone down, at the moment I close this letter, save in one place, and there it is growing smaller fast.

THURSDAY
MARCH 2, 1865
PROVIDENCE EVENING PRESS (RI) 

Immense Capture of Stores and Other Property at Charleston.

Headquarters, Department of the South,
Charleston, S. C., Feb. 26th, 1865.

Lieut. Gen. Grant and Maj. Gen. H. W. Halleck, Chief of Staff, Washington:

An inspection of the rebel defences of Charleston shows that we have taken over four hundred and fifty pieces of ordnance, being more than double what I at first reported. The lot includes eight and ten-inch Columbiads, a great many 32 and 42-pounder rifles, some 7-inch Brooks’ rifles, and many pieces of foreign make.

We also captured eight locomotives and a great number of passenger and platform cars, all in good condition.

Deserters report that the last of Hood’s army was to have crossed the Santee river yesterday, bound to Charlotte, N. C., and that it was feared Sherman had already intercepted them. It is reported on similar authority that the last of Hood’s army, 17,000 strong, passed through Augusta on Sunday, the 19th, on its way to Gen. Beauregard.

Georgetown has been evacuated by the enemy, and is now in our possession.

Deserters are constantly coming in; we have over 400 already.

Q. A. Gilmore, Major General Commanding.

•••••

A Cloud on Our Southwest.

There is some significance in the news brought to us from the Rio Grande. It appears that the newly imported Emperor of Mexico, Maximilian, has expelled the American Consul from Matamoras, a seaport at the mouth of the Rio Grande. The act must have been a representative one, and not from personal objections to the Consul himself. This being the case, it shadows forth the evident designs of this usurping Emperor, and probably that of the French government, of which he is the agent or tool.

We suspected that some move would be made upon the part of the rebel sympathizers in Europe ere this. The government of Maximilian, and the European alliance behind it, fully understand that our people and government will never consent to the establishment of anew monarchical or despotic form of ruling on this continent, and that when the rebellion is quelled, that our attention will be turned to the settlement of the difficulty between Mexico and France, which must end finally in Maximilian vacating the Mexican premises. The usurping powers we think fully understand this.

If for this reason they suffered or directed the military officer of Maximilian to open a correspondence with the rebel authorities on the Texas side of the river, in which a profession of flattery for the confederacy formed the chief staple, it being spoken of as “the noble cause of the Confederates,” then we think this expulsion of the American Consul, and the order forbidding clearances to American vessels, has but one object. France is desirous of provoking a rupture between the two countries, and Maximilian is the agent by which it is to be accomplished. No other interpretation can well be put upon it.

This step upon the part of the Mexican usurper, being official, striking directly at an appointed of this government, and forbidding clearances to American vessels from one of the ports under his control, must be noticed by our government. Loose expressions of sympathy with the traitors in arms or the Confederate government might be overlooked or put conveniently beyond the official knowledge of the Administration, but this forcible expulsion of a Consul, this refusal of the use of their waters to our shipping, must be taken notice of. If we had a thousand wars upon our hands, our national honor and integrity would require an immediate notice of this. ->

We have taken some pretty strong insults from monarchical powers since this rebellion commenced. We have bided our time, often going to the very verge of humiliation to preserve the peace. The only wonder is that with such a multiplicity of cases we have escaped the necessity of throwing the mailed glove into the world’s fighting arena. We have preserved our national honor only “by the skin of our teeth.” Necessity has been laid upon us, and we have bowed to it with as good a spirit as we were capable of expressing. But all things have an end, and this system of insults so tenaciously adhered to must find an end either in the cessation, or in the overstepping of the line of official neutrality which purposely or otherwise must result in war.

We know also by the columns of that well printed organ, the National Intelligencer, that it is generally understood in the diplomatic circles of Washington that recent advices from the French Government are of a nature to dispel all forebodings of war between us and Louise Napoleon. We understand through the same sources that Napoleon will not recognize the Confederacy, and that farther, he will not require us to acknowledge the Maximilian usurpation in Mexico. Then he must instruct his agent in Mexico to respect our consuls and keep his ports open, that our ships may enter an depart with the same facility afforded those of other nations. The whole thing looks somewhat serious now, however peaceably disposed the French Emperor may have felt a month or six weeks ago. We have confidence in the administration of President Lincoln, and trust the plans of the rebels and their aiders to embroil us in a foreign war will be thwarted, and that the necessity for strong words on the part of our government will be avoided by Maximilian’s return to his senses.

•••••

Wilmington.–A newspaper correspondent writing from Wilmington says that when General Schofield took possession of the city, the Mayor, John Dorson, himself a Union man, assured him that, to the best of his knowledge, the majority of the inhabitants were loyal and Union-loving. Before the rebel troops left the city they robbed many of the stores of their contents.

•••••

News Paragraphs.

The Times’ Washington correspondent says that Senator Wilson has obtained the unanimous consent of the Military Committee to report a bill providing for an asylum for our disabled soldiers. There are one hundred incorporators, and they represent nearly every section of the country. The list is headed by Gen. Grant.

Since April 19th, 1862, the entire receipts of rebel prisoners at the camp on Johnson’s Island have been seven thousand seven hundred and seventy-one, of which number only two hundred and ten have died. Their treatment must have been radically different from that shown to our prisoners in rebel pens.

Among the bills before the Albany Legislature is one prohibiting persons from carrying concealed weapons, unless they are licensed to do so.

There are about three hundred and thirty thousand muskets at the Springfield Armory ready for use.

It is estimated that the appropriations authorized by Congress during the present week will exceed one million dollars per hour.

FRIDAY
MARCH 3, 1865
THE FARMERS’ CABINET (NH)

Latest.

Richmond papers of Monday are received, but they publish no news from General Sherman. They, however, do not exult over the situation, thus showing that Gen. Sherman must be meeting with success. From the indications of the rebel papers, it would seem that he is marching for Fayetteville, on the Cape Fear River.

Latest advices from Porter state that he was pushing up the river as rapidly as possible with his gunboats. It is probable that the junction of Schofield with Sherman’s army may take place at Fayetteville. Bragg has taken his Wilmington force to Goldsboro, followed by Gen. Terry.

The Virginia Legislature have instructed their Senators in Congress to vote for the bill for arming the slaves, and it is probable the measure will now pass the Confederate Senate.

Late Richmond papers show conclusively that the intimations of the evacuation of that city and of the prevalence of a famine there, have been well founded.

The Enquirer says the rebel Congressmen since the fall of Savannah, have been fraudulently deserting their posts until the House of Representatives is left without a quorum.

•••••

Perley writes from Washington that President Lincoln is understood to desire the passage of the resolution admitting Louisiana in accordance with its reconstruction under his proclamation and his instructions to Gen. Banks. Those who agree with him are of opinion that the admission of Louisiana will initiate a speedy restoration of peace, as the rebel States, one by one, wheel into their old places. Senator Sumner and those who agree with him, will oppose the passage of the resolution admitting Louisiana by every parliamentary obstacle, and the behindhand condition of the public business before Congress will probably ensure their success. They regard the reconstruction of Louisiana as a gigantic political hoax, and declare that no rebel State should be admitted until it has given a pledge for security in the future by granting suffrage to every man, nomatter what may be his race or color. It is not improbable that an extra session of Congress will be called should Louisiana not be admitted.

•••••

Boys Should Learn a Trade.–Sagacious in its way, is that Turkish maxim which requires that every boy, from the son of the Padishah to the son of the Cafegee, should be taught some useful handiwork, by which, in adversity, he may keep the wolf from the door. We may smile to see the Grand Turk deftly making slippers, as Sultan Mahmoud thought it no shame to do, or hollowing out pipes of cherry and jasmine, like Abdul Medjid, but there is prudent manliness in the custom. Tear off Hassan’s turban, throw dust on his beard, rifle his palace, confiscate his treasure to the use of the angry master who delights to honor his disgraced slave no more; but the ruined grand vizier will not blow out his addled brains in French fashion, will not be obola like Belisarsus in the pretty fable; at the door of some small house in the suburbs of Stamboul, you will find white bearded Hassan sitting cross legged to his work, as industrious a tailor as if he had never frowned on pashas and elchis, or been called protector of the poor, or ridden forth with fifteen gold caparisoned horses in his train.–Chambers’ Journal.

•••••

Gold has declined within the last three months from 250 and upwards to its present standing of 200, yet so gradually that the business of the country has accommodated itself to its fall without disaster. As confidence returns in the re-establishment of the Government over the Union, gold goes down, and will continue to. While it is every way desirable that gold should return to its proper standard, it is very undesirable that it should reach it by a rapid stride. A sudden fall of 20 or 30 per cent would bring ruin upon thousands of our business men, who would accommodate their operations to a gradual return to the same point. Gold will continue to go down as the old flag goes up.

•••••

[Miscellaneous.]

There are now formed, or in process of being formed, 543 oil companies, (more than the whole number of wells!) with an aggregate capital of $356,000,000. The inquiry suggests itself, where is the interest on this vast amount to come from?

It is estimated that the sugar crop in Vermont last spring was 15,000,000 ponds, worth $2,250,000–enough to pay the war expenses of the State twice over, and have enough left to sweeten the tea besides.

In New York they are talking of making sugar from milk. It is estimated that a factory employing the milk of 1000 cows can produce 800 pounds of sugar per day.

There have been many fearful accidents of late, caused by the explosion of kerosene lamps. This was unknown in the earlier days of kerosene, and good authorities say that the pure article will never explode, but the danger arises from the adulterations of soulless manufacturers. The following is said to be a good rule for testing the quality of kerosene oil: Put a small quantity in a saucer or other open vessel and apply a lighted match; if the oil burns, it is bad and dangerous; otherwise it is good.

Senator Foote, who was required either to take the oath of depart for some foreign country, says the Confederacy is essentially done up, her men and means nearly at an end, and that her remaining cities, including Richmond, must fall. He sailed for Europe, and left the Confederate ship to sink.

The opinion that Mobile will be defended gains ground. Beauregard is said to have been there recently, and having inspected the fortifications, he informed the citizens in a speech that he city could be held.

The Times’ Vicksburg correspondence of the 16th inst. gives details of the great movement in the Southwest. The expedition has started. It was to go to New Orleans, from thence to Pascagoula, where it would join Gen. Canby’s force in the investment of Mobile. The first object will be the capture of that city; second, the capture of Cahaba, Selma and Montgomery, Ala., and Columbus, Ga; third, to destroy Hood’s old army. If everything works well, Kirby Smith’s trans-Mississippi army will be attended to next summer.

SATURDAY
MARCH 4, 1865
COLUMBIAN WEEKLY REGISTER (CT)

About Desertion.–“An officer” of the 10th Conn. writes a sensible letter to the Norwich Bulletin, in which he says a word about desertion:

A word now about desertion. It is astonishing how little people at home understand about this matter, and why desertion can’t be stopped. Suppose one of our veteran regiments, as is often the case, is now reduced to an average of 250 men for duty; of these, 20 are cooks and assistants, 10 are pioneers, 20 are musicians, 40 are non commissioned officers–90 men who do not stand guard duty, except the sergeants and corporals, and they in charge of reliefs and picket posts, you have left about 160 privates to make sentinels of. You are filled up with 160 men full of the Old Harry, and undisciplined, and a large proportion, more or less, of whom are professed bounty jumpers. We are obliged to furnish details for picket duty and a camp guard. It takes 40 men for the camp guard and 45 for the picket. At that rate it would bring the old men on duty every other day. We begin to put in the “subs,” and place one between two old men on the camp guard. His beat is about 150 to 200 feet. We select the sub whom we think acts as though he means to stay, and put him on the beat. The night is dark and foggy, and the men cannot see each other at the distance of ten feet. This man informs his chums where he is, and they approach him cautiously, and two, three or more leave, and if they only get a five minute start, it is not usually a more difficult operation to find a needle in a hay stack than to catch those fellows unless by accident. And this same game may be played until every one of the new men are gone. A few will be picked up, but not over one-fifth caught, usually. Once into the swamps, and they are comparatively safe.

Now from the camp to the picket line. The posting is the same for this example, but the chance is for only one man to leave at a time. The men are here only twenty paces apart as videttes, sometime sonly fifteen paces. At 100 or 300 or more yards is the enemy’s line. Ours is in the woods, perhaps heavy timber or young pines. The deserter has only to step softly three or four paces in front of a tree. He may not get one minute the start. If you start after him you can only follow him by the sound, and the chances are one one in five hundred that you will catch him. The first thing you know you are nearing the enemy’s videttes and pickets, and a shower of ball stops your progress. If the deserter is ahead of you, all he has to do is lie down, and you have got to retire or bring on an engagement. The deserter lies quietly until daybreak. He then crawls cautiously towards the enemy’s line. As soon as he sees a vidette he raises a stick of his musket with a bit of paper or a white rag on it, and cries out “deserter.” Johnny sends out a man and conducts him in. After training our new levies, we are obliged to put them on guard and picket in great numbers, and then they begin to desert in squads. Your old men cannot do all this duty–if they could, we should not want your new men at all.

Another mode of desertion is to lose the camp and go to another part of the line where there is a regiment on duty, similarly situated as to bounty jumpers, and join their line during the night and then be passed by some of the fraternity. Once inside the rebel lines, they are rationed, furnished transportation to Nassau, or are started North in parties of forty to fifty men. They are furnished civilian’s clothes, and our good overcoats and blankets, and new Springfield and Spencer rifles help to clothe and arm the rebel soldiery. Or they exchange their uniforms for rebel “butternut and grey,” and go to the lines of another department and come in as deserters, take the oath of allegiance and go North, to count again on the quota of some state. ->

A new lieutenant of our regiment states that at the post where he was stationed last before coming to join us, there is under arrest a man who has jumped twenty-one bounties. Somebody took about $13,650 out of the people, on him. And he represents twenty-one citizens of some state. I have written the above for the sake of disabusing the minds of those who read it, of the idea that it is possible to prevent desertion entirely. Shooting those caught may deter some and make the more cautious, but will not make them hearty willing soldiers.

•••••

Barbarism in Connecticut.

A correspondent of the Hartford Times, in Berlin, makes the following statement, which seems incredible of occurrence in any respectable community in Connecticut:

“There is a young man who is insane, confined in the Town House in this place, in a room about six feet square, with a board window, and a crib like the crib of a cattle stall to sleep in, and with insufficient covering to keep him warm in mild weather. During the late cold he was neglected shamefully, and nearly froze to death. His feet are so badly frozen that it has been decided by a physician that they will have to be taken off. He has been shut up in that room for nearly a year, and has not been allowed to leave it. By being confined so long, he has lost the use of his legs, and before his feet were frozen was as helpless as a child. He was considered one of the finest young men in the town, before he was taken insane; he had studied for a preacher, and his family are of the first families in the town. His mother and sister live at the West, but he has other relatives in affluent circumstances living almost within a stone’s throw of the Town House. The Town Clerk of this town is cousin to him, and is a man of considerable means. The young man’s name is Albert North, and the name of the man who keeps the Town House is King.”

•••••

The following extract from a Norfolk letter in the Philadelphia Press, a leading Republican paper, would seem to show that General Butler is too thrifty a manager to let a good opportunity to make money slip:

A singular circumstance connected with General Butler’s cotton speculation has come to light. It seems that the chief of General Shepley’s staff, G. H. Johnston, resigned several months since, to enter, as Butler’s chief agent, into the business of buying cotton from rebels in North Carolina. He remained at this long enough to make over $250,000 as his share, which he deposited in the First National Bank of Norfolk. A few days ago, the military commission instituted by General Grant to investigate the proceedings of General Butler relative to cotton, got wind of Mr. Johnston. He heard that they would call upon him soon, but, not intending to be outdone by them, he drew all his money from the bank, and decamped in the Baltimore boat. They telegraphed the authorities at Baltimore to arrest and send him back to Norfolk, but the shrewd Johnston did not go on the boat further than Fortress Monroe, where he took the Washington boat, and landed at Annapolis. No one knows his whereabouts, although he [is] anxiously [a]waited here. The commission has proven that Butler received two-fifths of all cotton brought here, his brother-in-law one-fifth, and middle men, of which Johnston was one, two-fifths, the Government getting but one-half of that which was rightfully due it. You may expect even more astounding revelations than these.⁵

¹ The reference is to the Second Battle of Saragossa (Zaragosa) during the Peninsular War, which began on 20 December 1808 and ended after a brutal siege with the entry of the French into the city on 20 February 1809. An estimated 20,000 soldiers and 34,000 civilians inside the walls died, as well as 10,000 French. It was estimated that the population of Zaragosa had dropped from 55,000 to 15,000.

² The fire-breathing rhetoric of this article came to naught, as the Confederates evacuated Charleston without a fight on 17 April–a fact unknown to the Telegraph when they reprinted the piece.

³ Compare the 21 February 1865 report of prices in Richmond, where one pound of sugar cost $20–almost twenty times the price mentioned in this article (22¢ per pound).

⁴ As an exclamation, sauve qui peut means “Run for your life!”

⁵ See “Robbery & Recovery of money” in the 18 March 1865 Columbian Weekly Register.