Diary of William Howard Russell: April 29, 1861

This morning up at six, A.M., bade farewell to our hostess and Barnwell Island, and proceeded with Trescot back to the Pocotaligo station, which we reached at 12:20. On our way Mr. Heyward and his son rode out of a field, looking very like a couple of English country squires in all but hats and saddles. The young gentleman was good enough to bring over a snake-hawk he had shot for me. At the station, to which the Heywards accompanied us, were the Elliotts and others, who had come over with invitations and adieux; and I beguiled the time to Savannah reading the very interesting book by Mr. Elliott, senior, on the Wild Sports of Carolina, which was taken up by some one when I left the carriage for a moment and not returned to me. The country through which we passed was flat and flooded as usual, and the rail passed over dark deep rivers on lofty trestle-work, by pine wood and dogwood-tree, by the green plantation clearing, with mud bank, dike, and tiny canal mile by mile, the train stopping for the usual freight of ladies, and negro nurses, and young planters, all very much of the same class, till at three o'clock, P. M., the cars rattled up along-side a large shed, and we were told we had arrived at Savannah.

Here was waiting for me Mr. Charles Green, who had already claimed me and my friend as his guests, and I found in his carriage the young American designer, who had preceded me from Charleston, and had informed Mr. Green of my coming.

The drive through such portion of Savannah as lay between the terminus and Mr. Green's house, soon satisfied my eyes that it had two peculiarities. In the first place, it had the deepest sand in the streets I have ever seen; and next, the streets were composed of the most odd, quaint, green-windowed, many-colored little houses I ever beheld, with an odd population of lean, sallow, ill-dressed unwholesome-looking whites, lounging about the exchanges and corners, and a busy, well-clad, gayly-attired race of negroes, working their way through piles of children, under the shade of the trees which bordered all the streets. The fringe of green, and the height attained by the live-oak, Pride of India, and magnolia, give a delicious freshness and novelty to the streets of Savannah, which is increased by the great number of squares and openings covered with something like sward, fenced round by white rail, and embellished with noble trees to be seen at every few hundred yards. It is difficult to believe you are in the midst of a city, and I was repeatedly reminded of the environs of a large Indian cantonment — the same kind of churches and detached houses, with their plantations and gardens not unlike. The wealthier classes, however, have houses of the New York Fifth Avenue character: one of the best of these, a handsome mansion of rich red-sandstone, belonged to my host, who coming out from England many years ago, raised himself by industry and intelligence to the position of one of the first merchants in Savannah. Italian statuary graced the hall; finely carved tables and furniture, stained glass, and pictures from Europe set forth the sitting-rooms; and the luxury of bath-rooms and a supply of cold fresh water, rendered it an exception to the general run of Southern edifices. Mr. Green drove me through the town, which impressed me more than ever with its peculiar character. We visited Brigadier-General Lawton, who is charged with the defences of the place against the expected Yankees, and found him just setting out to inspect a band of volunteers, whose drums we heard in the distance, and whose bayonets were gleaming through the clouds of Savannah dust, close to the statue erected to the memory of one Pulaski, a Pole, who was mortally wounded in the unsuccessful defence of the city against the British in the War of Independence. He turned back and led us into his house. The hall was filled with little round rolls of flannel. “These,” said he, “are cartridges for cannon of various calibres, made by the ladies of Mrs. Lawton's ‘cartridge class.’” There were more cartridges in the back parlor, so that the house was not quite a safe place to smoke a cigar in. The General has been in the United States' army, and has now come forward to head the people of this State in their resistance to the Yankees.

We took a stroll in the park, and I learned the news of the last few days. The people of the South, I find, are delighted at a snubbing which Mr. Seward has given to Governor Hicks of Maryland, for recommending the arbitration of Lord Lyons, and he is stated to have informed Governor Hicks that “our troubles could not be referred to foreign arbitration, least of all to that of the representative of a European monarchy." The most terrible accounts are given of the state of things in Washington. Mr. Lincoln consoles himself for his miseries by drinking. Mr. Seward follows suit. The White House and capital are full of drunken border ruffians, headed by one Jim Lane, of Kansas. But, on the other hand, the Yankees, under one Butler, a Massachusetts lawyer, have arrived at Annapolis, in Maryland, secured the “Constitution” man-of-war, and are raising masses of men for the invasion of the South all over the States. The most important thing, as it strikes me, is the proclamation of the Governor of Georgia, forbidding citizens to pay any money on account of debts due to Northerners, till the end of the war. General Robert E. Lee has been named Commander-in-Chief of the Forces of the Commonwealth of Virginia, and troops are flocking to that State from Alabama and other States. Governor Ellis has called out 30,000 volunteers in North Carolina, and Governor Rector of Arkansas has seized the United States' military stores at Napoleon. There is a rumor that Fort Pickens has been taken also, but it is very probably untrue. In Texas and Arkansas the United States regulars have not made an attempt to defend any of the forts.

In the midst of all this warlike work, volunteers drilling, bands playing, it was pleasant to walk in the shady park, with its cool fountains, and to see the children playing about — many of them, alas! “playing at soldiers” — in charge of their nurses. Returning, sat in the veranda and smoked a cigar; but the mosquitoes were very keen and numerous. My host did not mind them, but my cuticle will never be sting-proof.

SOURCE: William Howard Russell, My Diary North and South, p. 149-151

Lydia Maria Child to Governor Henry A. Wise

In your civil but very diplomatic reply to my letter, you inform me that I have a constitutional right to visit Virginia, for peaceful purposes, in common with every citizen of the United States. I was perfectly well aware that such was the theory of constitutional obligation in the Slave States; but I was also aware of what you omit to mention, viz.: that the Constitution has, in reality, been completely and systematically nullified whenever it suited the convenience or the policy of the Slave Power. Your constitutional obligation, for which you profess so much respect, has never proved any protection to citizens of the Free States, who happened to have a black, brown, or yellow complexion; nor to any white citizen whom you even suspected of entertaining opinions opposite to your own, on a question of vast importance to the temporal welfare and moral example of our common country. This total disregard of constitutional obligation has been manifested not merely by the Lynch Law of mobs in the Slave States, but by the deliberate action of magistrates and legislators. What regard was paid to constitutional obligation in South Carolina, when Massachusetts sent the Hon. Mr. Hoar there as an envoy, on a purely legal errand? Mr. Hedrick, Professor of Political Economy in the University of North Carolina, had a constitutional right to reside in that State. What regard was paid to that right, when he was driven from his home, merely for declaring that he considered Slavery an impolitic system, injurious to the prosperity of States? What respect for constitutional rights was manifested by Alabama, when a bookseller in Mobile was compelled to flee for his life, because he had, at the special request of some of the citizens, imported a few copies of a novel that everybody was curious to road? Your own citizen, Mr. Underwood, had a constitutional right to live in Virginia, and vote for whomsoever he pleased. What regard was paid to his rights, when he was driven from your State for declaring himself in favor of the election of Fremont? With these, and a multitude of other examples before your eyes, it would seem as if the less that was said about respect for constitutional obligations at the South, the better. Slavery is, in fact, an infringement of all law, and adheres to no law, save for its own purposes of oppression.

You accuse Captain John Brown of “whetting knives of butchery for the mothers, sisters, daughters and babes” of Virginia; and you inform me of the well-known fact that he is “arraigned for the crimes of murder, robbery and treason.” I will not here stop to explain why I believe that old hero to be no criminal, but a martyr to righteous principles which he sought to advance by methods sanctioned by his own religious views, though not by mine. Allowing that Capt. Brown did attempt a scheme in which murder robbery and treason were, to his own consciousness, involved, I do not see how Gov. Wise can consistently arraign him for crimes he has himself commended. You have threatened to trample on the Constitution, and break the Union, if a majority of the legal voters in these Confederated States dared to elect a President unfavorable to the extension of Slavery. Is not such a declaration proof of premeditated treason? In the Spring of 1842, you made a speech in Congress, from which I copy the following: —

“Once set before the people of the Great Valley the conquest of the rich Mexican Provinces, and you might as well attempt to stop the wind. This Government might end its troops, but they would run over them like a herd of buffalo. Let the work once begin, and I do not know that this House would hold me very long. Give me five millions of dollars, and I would undertake to do it myself. Although I do not know how to set a single squadron in the field, I could find men to do it. Slavery should pour itself abroad, without restraint, and find no limit but the Southern Ocean. The Camanches should no longer hold the richest mines of Mexico. Every golden image which had received the profanation of a false worship, should soon be melted down into good American eagles. I would cause as much gold to cross the Rio del Norte as the mules of Mexico could carry; aye, and I would make better use of it, too, than any lazy, bigoted priesthood under heaven.”

When you thus boasted that you and your “booted loafers” would overrun the troops of the United States “like a herd of buffalo,” if the Government sent them to arrest your invasion of a neighboring nation, at peace with the United States, did you not pledge yourself to commit treason? Was it not by robbery, even of churches, that you proposed to load the mules of Mexico with gold for the United States? Was it not by the murder of unoffending Mexicans that you expected to advance those schemes of avarice and ambition? What humanity had you for Mexican “mothers and babes,” whom you proposed to make childless and fatherless‘? And for what purpose was this wholesale massacre to take place? Not to right the wrongs of any oppressed class; not to sustain any great principles of justice, or of freedom; but merely to enable “Slavery to pour itself forth without restraint.” Even if Captain Brown were as bad as you paint him, I should suppose he must naturally remind you of the words of Macbeth:

“We but teach,

Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return

To plague the inventor: This even-handed justice

Commends the ingredients of our poisoned chalice

To our own lips.”

If Captain Brown intended, as you say, to commit treason, robbery and murder, I think I have shown that he could find ample authority for such proceedings in the public declarations of Gov. Wise. And if, as he himself declares, he merely intended to free the oppressed, where could he read a more forcible lesson than is furnished by the State Seal of Virginia? I looked at it thoughtfully before I opened your letter; and though it had always appeared to me very suggestive, it never seemed to me so much so as it now did in connection with Captain John Brown. A liberty-loving hero stands with his foot upon a prostrate despot; under his strong arm, manacles and chains lie broken; and the motto is, “Sic Semper Tyrannis;” “Thus be it ever done to Tyrants.” And this is the blazon of a State whose most profitable business is the Internal Slave-Trade! — in whose highways coffles of human chattles, chained and manacled, are frequently seen! And the Seal and the Coffles are both looked upon by other chattels, constantly exposed to the same fate! What if some Vezey, or Nat Turner, should be growing up among those apparently quiet spectators? It is in no spirit of taunt or of exultation that I ask this question. I never think of it but with anxiety, sadness, and sympathy. I know that a slaveholding community necessarily lives in the midst of gunpowder; and, in this age, sparks of free thought are flying in every direction. You cannot quench the fires of free thought and human sympathy by any process of cunning or force; but there is a method by which you can effectually wet the gunpowder. England has already tried it, with safety and success. Would that you could be persuaded to set aside the prejudices of education, and candidly examine the actual working of that experiment! Virginia is so richly endowed by nature that Free Institutions alone are wanting to render her the most prosperous and powerful of the States.

In your letter, you suggest that such a scheme as Captain Brown’s is the natural result of the opinions with which I sympathize. Even if I thought this to be a correct statement, though I should deeply regret it, I could not draw the conclusion that humanity ought to be stifled, and truth struck dumb, for fear that long-successful despotism might be endangered by their utterance. But the fact is, you mistake the source of that strange outbreak. No abolition arguments or denunciations, however earnestly, loudly, or harshly proclaimed, would have produced that result. It was the legitimate consequence of the continual and constantly-increasing aggressions of the Slave Power. The Slave States, in their desperate efforts to sustain a bad and dangerous institution, have encroached more and more upon the liberties of the Free States. Our inherent love of law and order, and our superstitious attachment to the Union, you have mistaken for cowardice; and rarely have you let slip any opportunity to add insult to aggression.

The manifested opposition to Slavery began with the lectures and pamphlets of a few disinterested men and women, who based their movements upon purely moral and religious grounds; but their expostulations were met with a storm of rage, with tar and feathers, brickbats, demolished houses, and other applications of Lynch Law. When the dust of the conflict began to subside a little, their numbers were found to be greatly increased by the efforts to exterminate them. They had become an influence in the State too important to be overlooked by shrewd calculators. Political economists began to look at the subject from a lower point of view. They used their abilities to demonstrate that slavery was a wasteful system, and that the Free States were taxed, to an enormous extent, to sustain an institution which, at heart, two-thirds of them abhorred. The forty millions, or more, of dollars, expended in hunting Fugitive Slaves in Florida, under the name of the Seminole War, were adduced, as one item in proof, to which many more were added. At last, politicians were compelled to take some action on the subject. It soon became known to all the people that the Slave States had always managed to hold in their hands the political power of the Union, and that while they constituted only one-third of the white population of these States, they hold more than two-thirds of all the lucrative, and once honorable offices; an indignity to which none but a subjugated people had ever before submitted. The knowledge also became generally diffused, that while the Southern States owned their Democracy at home, and voted for them, they also systematically bribed the nominally Democratic party, at the North, with the offices adroitly kept at their disposal.

Through these, and other instrumentalities, the sentiments of the original Garrisonian Abolitionists became very widely extended, in forms more or less diluted. But by far the most efficient co-laborers we have ever had have been the Slave States themselves. By denying us the sacred Right of Petition, they roused the free spirit of the North, as it never could have been roused by the loud trumpet of Garrison, or the soul-animating bugle of Phillips. They bought the great slave, Daniel, and, according to their established usage, paid him no wages for his labor. By his cooperation, they forced the Fugitive Slave Law upon us, in violation of all our humane instincts and all our principles of justice. And what did they procure for the Abolitionists by that despotic process? A deeper and wider detestation of Slavery throughout the Free States, and the publication of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, an eloquent outburst of moral indignation, whose echoes wakened the world to look upon their shame.

By fillibustering and fraud, they dismembered Mexico, and having thus obtained the soil of Texas, they tried to introduce it as a Slave State into the Union. Failing to effect their purpose by constitutional means, they accomplished it by a most open and palpable violation of the Constitution, and by obtaining the votes of Senators on false pretences.*

Soon afterward, a Southern Slave Administration ceded to the powerful monarchy of Great Britain several hundred thousands of square miles, that must have been made into Free States, to which that same Administration had declared that the United States had “an unquestionable right;” and then they turned upon the weak Republic of Mexico, and, in order to make more Slave States, .wrested from her twice as many hundred thousands of square miles, to which we had not a shadow of right.

Notwithstanding all these extra efforts, they saw symptoms that the political power so long held with a firm grasp was in danger of slipping from their hands, by reason of the extension of Abolition sentiments, and the greater prosperity of Free States. Emboldened by continual success in aggression, they made use of the pretence of “Squatter Sovereignty” to break the league into which they had formerly cajoled the servile representatives of our blinded people, by which all the territory of the United States south of 36° 30’ was guaranteed to Slavery, and all north of it to Freedom. Thus Kansas became the battle-ground of the antagonistic elements in our Government. Ruflians hired by the Slave Power were sent thither temporarily, to do the voting, and drive from the polls the legal voters, who were often murdered in the process. Names, copied from the directories of cities in other States, were returned by thousands as legal voters in Kansas, in order to establish a Constitution abhorred by the people. This was their exemplification of Squatter Sovereignty. A Massachusetts Senator, distinguished for candor, courtesy, and stainless integrity, was half murdered by slaveholders, merely for having the manliness to state these facts to the assembled Congress of the nation. Peaceful emigrants from the North, who went to Kansas for no other purpose than to till the soil, erect mills, and establish manufactories, schools, and churches, were robbed, outraged, and murdered. For many months, a war more ferocious than the warfare of wild Indians was carried on against a people almost unresisting, because they relied upon the Central Government for aid. And all this while, the power of the United States, wielded by the Slave Oligarchy, was on the side of the aggressors. They literally tied the stones, and let loose the mad dogs. This was the state of things when the hero of Osawatomie and his brave sons went to the rescue. It was he who first turned the tide of Border-Ruffian triumph, by showing them that blows were to be taken as well as given.

You may believe it or not, Gov. Wise, but it is certainly the truth that, because slaveholders so recklessly sowed the wind in Kansas, they reaped a whirlwind at Harper’s Ferry.

The people of the North had a very strong attachment to the Union; but, by your desperate measures, you have weakened it beyond all power of restoration. They are not your enemies, as you suppose, but they cannot consent to be your tools for any ignoble task you may choose to propose. You must not judge of us by the crawling sinuosities of an Everett; or by our magnificent hound, whom you trained to hunt your poor cripples, and then sent him sneaking into a corner to die — not with shame for the base purposes to which his strength had been applied, but with vexation because you withheld from him the promised bone. Not by such as these must you judge the free, enlightened yeomanry of New England. A majority of them would rejoice to have the Slave States fulfil their oft-repeated threat of withdrawal from the Union. It has ceased to be a bugbear, for we begin to despair of being able, by any other process, to give the world the example of a real republic. The moral sense of these States is outraged by being accomplices in sustaining an institution vicious in all its aspects; and it is now generally understood that we purchase our disgrace at great pecuniary expense. If you would only make the offer of a separation in serious earnest, you would hear the hearty response of millions, “Go, gentlemen, and

‘Stand not upon the order of your going,

But go at once!’”

Yours, with all due respect,

L. MARIA CHILD.

_______________

* The following Senators, Mr. Niles, of Connecticut, Mr. Dix, of New York, and Mr. Tappan, of Ohio, published statements that their votes had been obtained by false representations; and they declared that the case was the same with Mr. Heywood, of North Carolina.

SOURCE: The American Anti-Slavery Society, Correspondence between Lydia Maria Child and Gov. Wise and Mrs. Mason, of Virginia, p. 6-12

Henry H. Williams to John Brown, October 12, 1857

Osawatomie, Oct. 12, 1857.

Captain Brown.

Dear Sir, — Learning that there is a messenger in town from you, I will take the opportunity to drop you a line. We are just through with the October election, and as far as this county is concerned it went off bright. This was owing in a great measure to our thorough military organization here, and the well-known reputation that our boys have for fighting. There were about four hundred and twenty-five votes cast in this county: about three hundred and fifty Free-State. I have a company organized here of about eighty men, and we drilled twice a week for several weeks previous to election, which no doubt had a wholesome effect upon the borderers. Our company is a permanent institution. We have sent on to St. Louis for three drums and two fifes. We are very poorly supplied with arms. However, I understand that you have some arms with you which you intend to bring into the Territory. I hope that you will not forget the boys here, a considerable number of whom have smelt gunpowder, and have had their courage tried on several occasions. I do not like to boast, but I think we have some of the best fighting stock here that there is in the Territory. Speaking of arms reminds me that there was a box containing five dozen revolvers sent to you at Lawrence last fall to be distributed by you to your boys. K. and W. — two renegade Free-State men from here — went up to Lawrence about that time, told a pitiful tale, and said that they were your boys; and the committee that had the revolvers in charge gave them each one, and a Sharpe's rifle. A few days after, I was in Lawrence, and applied to the committee to know if they intended to distribute the revolvers; if they did, that I would like to have one. They refused, however, to let me have one, because forsooth I could not tell as big a yarn about what I had done for the Free-State cause as K. and W. could. I have since learned that the committee have distributed the revolvers to the “Stubs” and others about Lawrence, with the understanding that they are to return them at your order. But I think it is doubtful if you get them. There has been plenty of Sharpe's rifles and other arms distributed at Manhattan and other points remote from the Border, where they never have any disturbances, and a Border Ruffian is a curiosity; while along the Border here, where we are liable to have an outbreak at any time, we have had no arms distributed at all.

Two or three weeks before election I visited the Border counties south of this, and organized a company of one hundred men on the Little Osage, and a company on Sugar Creek; also at Stanton and on the Pottawatomie above this point. According to the election returns, we have done much better in this and the Border counties south than they have in the Border counties north of this point. The boys would like to see you and shake you by the hand once more. Nearly all would unite in welcoming you back here; those that would not, you have nothing to fear from in this locality. The sentiment of the people and the strength and energy of the Free-State party here exercise a wholesome restraint upon those having Border Ruffian proclivities.

Yours as of old for the right,

HENRy H. Williams.¹

_______________

¹ This letter was addressed “To Captain John Brown, Tabor, Fremont County, Iowa,” and among Brown's papers was accompanied with the following memorandum of the distribution made at Lawrence of the arms which Mr. Williams mentions, and which are the same spoken of by Mr. White in his testimony on page 342.

SOURCE: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 364-6

John Brown: “The Lawrence Foray,” January 1857

THE LAWRENCE FORAY.

I well know, that, on or about the 14th of September last, a large force of Missourians and other ruffians, numbering twenty-seven hundred (as stated by Governor Geary), invaded the Territory, burned Franklin, and while the smoke of that place was going up behind them, they, on the same day, made their appearance in full view of, and within about a mile of, Lawrence. And I know of no possible reason why they did not attack and burn that place except that about one hundred Free-State men volunteered to go out on the open plain before the town and there give them the offer of a fight, which they declined, after getting some few scattering shots from our men, and then retreated back towards Franklin. I saw that whole thing. The government troops at this time were with Governor Geary at Lecompton, a distance of twelve miles only from Lawrence, and, notwithstanding several runners had been to advise him in good time of the approach or of the setting out of the enemy, who had to march some forty miles to reach Lawrence, he did not on that memorable occasion get a single soldier on the ground until after the enemy had retreated back to Franklin, and had been gone for more than five hours. He did get the troops there about midnight afterwards; and that is the way he saved Lawrence, as he boasts of doing in his message to the bogus Legislature!

This was just the kind of protection the administration and its tools have afforded the Free-State settlers of Kansas from the first. It has cost the United States more than half a million, for a year past, to harass poor Free-State settlers in Kansas, and to violate all law, and all right, moral and constitutional, for the sole and only purpose of forcing slavery upon that Territory. I challenge this whole nation to prove before God or mankind the contrary. Who paid this money to enslave the settlers of Kansas and worry them out? I say nothing in this estimate of the money wasted by Congress in the management of this horrible, tyrannical, and damnable affair.

SOURCE: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 332-3

Last Hours of a Noted Border Ruffian

DETAILS OF HIS ARREST AND DEATH.

__________

From the Leavenworth Conservative, 14th.

From Lieut. J. G. Harris, of the Kansas 6th, (Col. Judson) we learn the following facts in relation to the death of a man who has caused so much public commotion in this State during the last eight months.

Lieut. Walker, of the 6th, recently made the acquaintance of Cleveland for the purpose of securing his arrest.  He learned his plans, companions, and places of rendezvous.  Last Saturday, the 10th inst., while he was with Cleveland in Ossawatomie, he sent to his company for a detachment of men.

On Sunday morning Sergeant Morris reached Ossawatomie with ten men.  As soon as they had ascertained the whereabouts of Cleveland, they surrounded the house. – Morris knocked at the door, and asked if there was a man there by the name of Cleveland.  The redoubtable Jayhawker answered the summons in person.  He came to the door with a navy revolver in each hand, and one strapped about his body.

Morris – I have come here to arrest you.

Cleveland – That’s a thing that can’t be done by your or any other man.  You’re too short-waisted.  I have done a good many things in my life, but I fear no man nor set of men.

M. – I have come here to take your body, dead or alive, and I am going to do it.

C. – I have killed many a man, and will do it again if you attempt to drive me.

M. – Probably you’ve done a great many things more than I have, but you can’t scare me.  I am going to take you.

C. – How many men have you got?

M. – I have ten.

C. – I can raise more than that at a moment’s warning.

M. – You needn’t talk about raising men, for I am going to have you, dead or alive.

C. – I don’t like to go with soldiers.  Get a Lieutenant, and I’ll go with you.

Lieut. Walker was sent for and came down; he was unarmed.

C. – I will go with you, lieutenant, if you will go round by a friend of mine.

Lieut. Walker consented and mounted his horse.  Cleveland also mounted a horse, put spurs to him and broke away.  The soldiers were soon on their horses and in close pursuit of the flying fugitive.  Cleveland dismounted at the Pottawatomie, a branch of the Marie des Cygnes, and about a mile from town.  He turned, fired several shots out of a revolver, threw that and his watch into the stream and sprang down the steep bank.  As the soldiers began to close in on him, he fired shot after shot from the two remaining revolvers, but with such desperation and madness that none of them took effect.

As he was raising his hand the last time to fire, a private named Johnson pierced him with a Minie ball, which, entering his person under the left shoulder, tore through his heart and nearly perforated his body.  The arm dropped, the tall form fell almost instantly life was extinct.  The soldiers then carried the lifeless form to Ossawatomie and delivered it to the citizens, who have since given Cleveland a burial.

His band has never been large, and he often travelled alone.  His skill in disguising his appearance and voice was so great that even to those who knew him well he seemed each day a different man.  And this, too, although he was more than six feet in height, and had a form as straight as an arrow.  Some persons, blessed with more imagination than brains, believe he led a charmed life.  They called him the “Phantom Horseman of the Prairie,” and told strange stories of his prowess and good fortune.  How many men he had killed, how many horses he had stolen, how many houses he had plundered, no one can tell.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Tuesday Morning, May 20, 1862, p. 2

Col. Jennison at Washington

This “abolition monster,” “border ruffian,” “Kansas highwayman,” and everything else that is bad, (according to the Democratic Newspapers,) is in Washington, and was upon the floor of the Senate for a long time yesterday.  He certainly does not have the look of a monster, but is a quiet looking gentleman whom we should never suspect of committing any excesses or outrages in time of peace or war, and we presume that the Democratic newspapers of Missouri, and the West, nave attributed acts to him for which he is not responsible. – Washington Republican, 9th.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Saturday Morning, May 17, 1862, p. 2

Col. Jennison

An anonymous correspondent of the Democrat denies the murder of Col. Jennison’s wife and child in Kansas.  The statement of their murder was first published in the Buffalo Express, and had a general circulation over the Union, and as we never had seen it contradicted, of course we believed it to be correct.  We hope it may be true that Col. Jennison’s family are still living, as he has suffered enough from the Border Ruffians without that cruel stroke.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Thursday Morning, May 8, 1862, p. 2

St. Louis Correspondence

ST. LOUIS, May 2, 1862.

ALFRED SANDERS, Esq. – Dear Sir:  Reading in the Weekly Gazette of yesterday your editorial on Maj. Gen. U. S. Grant, I am induced to add a word.  I knew Gen. Grant in 1858, was a collector of house rents in this city.  He was then strictly temperate, but of inactive habits.  For coolness and perfect equanimity he is justly noted.  All West Pointers pride themselves on those qualities.  But one who estimates the General with impartial eyes will accord him the possession of even the qualities for “a third rate” commander.  Aside from habits of intemperance which have resumed their sway after an interregnum of some years, the battles of Belmont, Fort Henry, Fort Donelson and Pittsburg Landing have fully tested him.  And curious it is, and sad as curious, to note how the successful results of those fights, so far as successful, have been passed to his credit at Washington.

At Belmont, his utter neglect to protect his rear, and to station a few field pieces to prevent the enemy from crossing, led to a terrible reverse and slaughter of the best of troops, and the Iowa boys poured out their blood like water, in vain.

At Fort Henry Grant was to co-operate with Com. Foote, but failed to get his forces to the rear of the fort for four hours after the surrender.  The rebel infantry instead of being bagged, as they might, had abundant time to “skedaddle,” which they did effectually.

At Fort Donelson he was off the field during all the important part of that bloody Saturday.  His friends say he was conferring with Com. Foote; others say he was intoxicated, but his admirers are compelled to admit that he went to confer with Foote at two or three o’clock Saturday morning, a distance of four or five miles, and did not return to the field till late in the day, when the fortunes of the day had been turned by that advance which, the N. Y. Herald says, was ordered by Capt. Hillyer, of the staff – a mere civilian – on his own responsibility.  Gen. Grant’s ablest advocate says the roads were in such condition he could not return in time – four miles!

Yet, before the facts of the affair at Fort Donelson where known, except the surrender, the President nominates Grant a Major General!  Wittily, though, profanely, has it been said Providence ought to be made a Major General, for it had given us two victories for which Grant got the credit!

But the climax of incompetency – criminal incompetency – was yet wanting.  It was attained at Pittsburg Landing.  Against orders he placed his forces on the west side of the river, on the plea that no good position could be found on the other side, and against all rule he placed the rawest troops of his command in front, under command of Prentiss, a notoriously inefficient officer.  This, too, in the face of an active enemy, distant, at the farthest, only 18 miles.  Add to this that no pickets were kept out at any proper distance, and what more could Beauregard have asked for?

The attempt has been made to show that Prentiss, alone, had no pickets out, but this is disproved by the universal testimony that all the brigades were alike surprised.  None of them had any notice of the enemy’s advance.

I have the information from a rebel surgeon, who was in the advance of the rebel army, that on the Saturday evening before the attack of Sunday morning, he, from his position, saw within his glass the evening parade of one of our regiments, and heard the drums and usual noises of the camp.  He further says that the rebel advance was in readiness to begin the attack on Saturday, but did not, because the reserve were not in supporting distance.  This surgeon is known here by union men as a gentleman, and one who entered the rebel army merely for the purposes of professional advancement, and not for love of the cause.  He has no motive for falsehood, and is corroborated by his fellow prisoners.

Thus the army was surprised and the thousands slaughtered, for whom tears are flowing through half a continent.  It was in Halleck’s fitly chosen phrase, “the heroic endurance” of the troops on Sunday, which saved them from annihilation, that their fresh reinforcements of Monday, that rolled back, but did not rout, their enemies, already weary with slaughter.

Again, before the facts were known, Gen. Grant was officially commended by Mr. Secretary Stanton, who seems to have felt that as somebody had been hurt, somebody deserved praise, and so he caught upon the readiest name and praised it.

I am happy to say that no newspaper of this city has dared, editorially, so far as I know, to say one word in favor or exculpation of Gen. Grant on the field of Shiloh, beyond testimony to his personal bravery.  But enough of General Grant.  The country has had too much of him.  His advancement has been in the teeth of his unfitness, and demerits; his successes have been in spite of disgraceful blunders; let us hope that hereafter, Providence will give us greater victories with good generalship, than those which have been won without it.

General Halleck is in the field now, and his sleepless vigilance, instructed by the late battle, will not permit a second surprise.

The Lion of St. Louis just now is Colonel Jennison, sent here in close confinement by a drunken pro-slavery General of doubtful loyalty, and unachieved promotion.  I refer to Gen. Sturgis, who, after a winter spent at the bar of King’s saloon, alternating between treasonable talk to rebels, and swallowing brandy smashes, now has signalized himself by the attempted disgrace of the peerless foe of Border Ruffians, and bushwhacking secessionists.

Nothing has so stirred up St. Louis for a long time.  The rebels, open and concealed, rejoiced greatly to know that the noted Jayhawker was here in durance vile.  The Republican fairly shrieked for joy.  It counseled indictments, and I know not what treatment.  Here was a noted enemy powerless, and with true rebel cruelty to cowardice, the Republican began to trample on him.  The Union sentiment of the city stoutly demanded that Col. Jennison be allowed his parole, as well as the rebels who parade our streets.  It was soon granted.  The Republican at once softened its tone. – Soon came permission to Col. Jennison to report himself on his parole only by letter; the Republican is mute.  The morning, its last crumb of comfort is in the apologetic card of the cowardly Sturgis, who cowering under the storm of public indignation, now seeks to evade the responsibility of Jennison’s arrest, by showing that he had instigators to do a deed for which he has yet dared to state no reason, and prefer no charges.

Jennison takes matters coolly.  He is a wiry young man, with a keen eye, and a lip of iron; but of gentle manners, and such pleasant address that Gen. Sturgis wrote to the Provost Marshal General, to warn him of the “seductive manners” of his victim!

Jennison has spoken twice in the city.  Many Union men are prejudiced against him, and many fear to be identified with him on account of his fearless avowal that he is a “real fighting abolitionist.”  The Germans regard him highly.  Anti-slavery in their opinions before the rebellion, they are now abolitionists.  Jennison makes war after the fashion of their own hearts.  He says that “rebels have no rights which loyal men are bound to respect.”  No wonder the abused and vilified Germans admire him.

Right or wrong, Jennison has been shamefully treated.  If I mistake not, the country will see him righted.  It will not tolerate the conduct of Sturgis and Denver, and there is reason to suppose they will shortly be relieved of any responsibility for such warriors as Jennison and Montgomery.

Over the capture of New Orleans there is great rejoicing, for vast interests here depend on the resumption of commerce with that city, which must soon happen unless Farragut fails to follow up his success with energy, and does not send his gunboats to co-operate with Foote on Memphis.

The weather is excellent, and reports this morning from below indicate that Halleck is taking advantage of it, and will soon, if not now, be upon Corinth.

Yesterday regiment after regiment of infantry and cavalry moved through our streets, on their way to the transports in waiting to take them, as we suppose, to Pittsburg Landing.  Whence do so many come? is the current inquiry.

Business has revived to some extent, but still suffers.  It cannot prosper till the river is opened to New Orleans, to afford an outlet for our pork and grain.

Rents are rising, and real estate is also on the ascendant.

I hope to soon give you some items relative to the emancipation movement here, but lack time and space to-day.

Yours truly.

E.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Wednesday Morning, May 7, 1862, p. 2

Col. Jennison

Among all the men who have periled their lives in defence of the Union, none have had more at stake, or strong reason for being truly loyal to their government, than the citizens of Kansas. Living in the immediate vicinity of a vindictive and relentless foe, who hold against them an old grudge and through whose hearts hatred has percolated until they have become hard as adamant; a foe that had earned for themselves and gloried in the title of “Border Ruffians,” and who would take advantage of the license to villainy that the present turbulent state of affairs gave them to inflict every species of cruelty that the most depraved mind could conceive of; these men had the highest incentives to loyalty, to ridding the country of an organized band of traitors steeped to the eyes in double-dyed villainy. Their homes, their families, their Government, all that their hearts held dear, were at stake, and when occasion presented, they fought as men who have risked all on the result.

Among the bravest of the number was Col. Jennison, whose fault – his only fault – was uncompromising hostility to Border Ruffianism and the institution upon which it feeds, viz: slavery. Col. Jennison is a slender, delicate man, a physician; he immigrated from New York with his little family, to whom he was devotedly attached, a wife and an only child, accustomed as himself to all the delicacies of city life, to the wilds of Kansas. What tempted him, a man of cultivated mind, to leave the refinements to which he had been accustomed and bring his tenderly-reared wife, a hot-house plant, to meet the rough winds and rougher people of the Western prairies, we know not; but it is a question that men all around us can ask of themselves, and their reply may suit the case of this gentleman.

We have no account of Dr. Jennison pursuing other than a quiet life, until one day a troop of Boarder Ruffians passed his little domicil on their way to organize a provisional government for Kansas. Attracted by so many persons passing, his wife and child stepped to the door to look upon the cavalcade, and there, upon their own doorstep, they were both shot dead by those ruthless villains. Is it any wonder when Dr. Jennison returned home and saw the idols of his household thus butchered, that the hot blood coursed impetuously through his veins and he vowed hostility forever to Border Ruffianism? Yet, because he has since harassed these scoundrels at every opportunity, and sought to overthrow their beloved institution of slavery, the Democrat of this city calls him “the most heartless villain that every cursed the border.” Our neighbor is ignorant of the antecedents of Col. Jennison, or he never could utter so calumnious and libelous expressions. He has gleaned his knowledge from pro-slavery sheets, or he never would be guilty of such language toward one who has passed through the experience of Col. Jennison. That he is bitterly opposed to Border Ruffianism and an avowed abolitionist, we admit, and heaven knows he has good reason to be, but that he is a heartless villain, is as false calumny as ever was uttered. The very quotation that the Democrat makes from the covert secession sheet, the St. Louis Republican, shows that the man, so far from being heartless, is possessed of tender sensibilities, notwithstanding the terrible ordeal through which he has passed.

Col. Jennison has resigned his command and since been arrested, for what reason no one knows, further than that the officer who arrested him, Gen. Sturgis, is a man of drunken habits and suspected loyalty. He is no doubt, the victim of the dirty malice of the pro-slavery Generals – Sturgis, Denver and Mitchell. The noble and gallant Colonel, we are happy to hear, has been released on giving bonds, and now stands ready to meet his accusers face to face and show them he has done no wrong. Perhaps, as our neighbor of the Democrat says that “his crimes are legion,” he may be able to put his finger upon a single crime, just one, that ever Col. Jennison committed.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Monday Morning, April 28, 1862, p. 2