Diary of Dr. Alfred L. Castleman, August 9, 1861

What a wonderful effect the hardships of camp life, with the troubles and cares which they entail on a surgeon, have had on my health. For many years I have been dyspeptic. Now I can eat what I please, and go without sleep almost entirely, and suffer no inconvenience. Last night, at 11 o'clock, after having ate a piece of hard salt beef for my supper, I "cared for" a pint of rich ice cream, and feel no inconvenience from it to-day. This would kill an ordinary civil man. I have to work very hard, but feel it a great comfort to work amongst the sick without suffering from fatigue, as I have been accustomed to.

Having received an order this morning from Gen. Dix to put all my sick into general hospital, and finding them bitterly opposed, I visited Fort McHenry, saw Gen. D., and prevailed on him to rescind the order.

I was highly gratified with what I saw at Fort McHenry. It, being the first equipped fort I ever saw, was an object of much interest; its numerous cannon, large enough for a small soldier to sleep in, pointing in all directions overlooking Baltimore and guarding all the approaches to it. No matter from what direction you come, you find these monster guns looking right in your face. Low down behind the walls lie almost innumerable ugly bull-dog-looking mortars, not over two and a half feet long, loaded with a 20 to 40-pound shells filling them to the very muzzle, and ready to be vomited forth at the first approach of trouble. There, too, is the great Dahlgren, stretching its long black neck away beyond the embrasures, as if looking for an object into which to pour its monster shot and shell, or its shower of grape and cannister. Its howitzers are there, and its great Columbiads, into some of which I was strongly tempted to crawl and take a nap, but a sudden recollection of the history of Jonah reminded me that its stomach, too, might sicken, and that I might awake in a trip across the mighty deep on the wings of the wind. I didn't go in. The bright little brass 6, 8, and 10pounders, on the greater number of which Napoleon said God always smiled in battles, were conspicuous amongst these great leviathans, and above all, the newly invented rifle cannon, ready to demolish ships or houses at two to five miles distance.

Have lost no man yet from sickness, but I have one who, I fear, will not recover. He is supposed to be poisoned by a glass of lemonade, bought of a man suspected of being a rebel.

I have succeeded, by selling a half barrel of flour, and by the approval of a small requisition made on the commissary, in getting provisions of all kinds to make my little detachment comfortable.

SOURCE: Alfred L. Castleman, The Army of the Potomac. Behind the Scenes. A Diary of Unwritten History; From the Organization of the Army, by General George B. McClellan, to the close of the Campaign in Virginia about the First Day January, 1863, p. 10-12

Diary of Gideon Welles: Wednesday, July 6, 1864

Admiral Porter called on me to-day direct from his command. Had a long interview on his affairs.

Received dispatches to-day from Captain Winslow of the Kearsarge relative to sinking the Alabama. Wrote congratulatory letter. There is great rejoicing throughout the country over this success, which is universally and justly conceded a triumph over England as well as over the Rebels. In my first draft, I made a point or two, rather too strong perhaps, against England and the mercenary, piratical spirit of Semmes, who had accumulated chronometers.

While our people generally award me more credit than I deserve in this matter, a malevolent partisan spirit exhibits itself in some, which would find fault with me because this battle did not sooner take place. These assaults disturb me less, perhaps, than they ought; they give me very little uneasiness because I know them to be groundless. Violent attacks have been made upon the Department and myself for the reason that our naval vessels were not efficient, had no speed; but in the account of the battle, the Kearsarge is said, by way of lessening the calamity, to have had greater steaming power than the Alabama, and to have controlled the movement. Our large smooth-bore guns, the Dahlgrens, have been ridiculed and denounced by the enemies of the Navy Department, but the swift destruction of the Alabama is now imputed to the great guns which tore her in pieces.

A summer raid down the valley of the Shenandoah by the Rebels and the capture of Harper’s Ferry are exciting matters, and yet the War Department is disinclined to communicate the facts. Of course, I will not ask. A few words from Stanton about “cursed mistakes of our generals," loss of stores that had been sent forward, bode disaster. General Sigel is beaten and not the man for the command given him, I apprehend. He is always overwhelmed and put on the run. It is represented that the Rebel army is in large force, 30,000 strong, under Ewell. We always have big scares from that quarter and sometimes pretty serious realities. I can hardly suppose Ewell there with such a command without the knowledge of Grant, and I should suppose we would hear of the movement of such a body from other sources. But the military authorities seem not to know of them.

I have sometimes thought that Lee might make a sudden dash in the direction of Washington or above, and inflict great injury before our troops could interfere, or Grant move a column to protect the city. But likely Grant has thought and is prepared for this; yet he displays little strategy or invention.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 67-8

Diary of John Hay: May 9, 1861

. . . There was a very fine matinee at the Navy Yard given by some musical members of the 12th New York. They sang well, the band played well, and the President listened well. After the programme the President begged for the Marseillaise. The prime gentleman gave the first verse and then generously repeated it, interpolating nonchalantly “Liberty or Death” in place of “Abreuve nos sillons” which he had forgotten.

Then we went down to the Pensacola and observed the shooting of the great Dahlgren gun Plymouth. . . . The President was delighted. . . .

SOURCE: Clara B. Hay, Letters of John Hay and Extracts from Diary, Volume 1, p. 32

Diary of William Howard Russell: March 30, 1861

Descended into the barber's shop off the hall of the hotel; all the operators, men of color, mostly mulattoes, or yellow lads, good-looking, dressed in clean white jackets and aprons, were smart, quick, and attentive. Some seven or eight shaving chairs were occupied by gentlemen intent on early morning calls. Shaving is carried in all its accessories to a high degree of publicity, if not of perfection, in America; and as the poorest, or as I may call them without offence, the lowest orders in England have their easy shaving for a penny, so the highest, if there be any in America, submit themselves in public to the inexpensive operations of the negro barber. It must be admitted that the chairs are easy and well-arranged, the fingers nimble, sure, and light; but the affectation of French names, and the corruption of foreign languages, in which the hairdressers and barbers delight, are exceedingly amusing. On my way down a small street near the Capitol, I observed in a shop window, “Rowland's make easier paste,” which I attribute to an imperfect view of the etymology of the great “Macassar;” on another occasion I was asked to try Somebody's “Curious Elison,” which I am afraid was an attempt to adapt to a shaving paste, an address not at all suited to profane uses. It appears that the trade of barber is almost the birthright of the free negro or colored man in the United States. There is a striking exemplification of natural equality in the use of brushes, and the senator flops down in the seat, and has his noble nose seized by the same fingers which the moment before were occupied by the person and chin of an unmistakable rowdy.

In the midst of the divine calm produced by hard hand rubbing of my head, I was aroused by a stout gentleman who sat in a chair directly opposite. Through the door which opened into the hall of the hotel, one could see the great crowd passing to and fro, thronging the passage as though it had been the entrance to the Forum, or the “Salle de pas perdus.” I had observed my friend's eye gazing fixedly through the opening on the outer world. Suddenly, with his face half-covered with lather, and a bib tucked under his chin, he got up from his seat exclaiming, “Senator! Senator! hallo!” and made a dive into the passage — whether he received a stern rebuke, or became aware of his impropriety, I know not, but in an instant he came back again, and submitted quietly, till the work of the barber was completed.

The great employment of four fifths of the people at Willard's at present seems to be to hunt senators and congressmen through the lobbies. Every man is heavy with documents — those which he cannot carry in his pockets and hat, occupy his hands, or are thrust under his arms. In the hall are advertisements announcing that certificates, and letters of testimonial, and such documents, are printed with expedition and neatness. From paper collars, and cards of address to carriages, and new suits of clothes, and long hotel bills, nothing is left untried or uninvigorated. The whole city is placarded with announcements of facilities for assaulting the powers that be, among which must not be forgotten the claims of the “excelsior card-writer,” at Willard's, who prepares names, addresses, styles, and titles, in superior penmanship. The men who have got places, having been elected by the people, must submit to the people, who think they have established a claim on them by their favors. The majority confer power, but they seem to forget that it is only the minority who can enjoy the first fruits of success. It is as if the whole constituency of Marylebone insisted on getting some office under the Crown the moment a member was returned to Parliament. There are men at Willard's who have come literally thousands of miles to seek for places which can only be theirs for four years, and who with true American facility have abandoned the calling and pursuits of a lifetime for this doubtful canvass; and I was told of one gentleman, who having been informed that he could not get a judgeship, condescended to seek a place in the Post-Office, and finally applied to Mr. Chase to be appointed keeper of a “lighthouse,” he was not particular where. In the forenoon I drove to the Washington Navy Yard, in company with Lieutenant Nelson and two friends. It is about two miles outside the city, situated on a fork of land projecting between a creek and the Potomac River, which is here three quarters of a mile broad. If the French had a Navy Yard at Paris it could scarcely be contended that English, Russians, or Austrians would not have been justified in destroying it in case they got possession of the city by force of arms, after a pitched battle fought outside its gates. I confess I would not give much for Deptford and Woolwich if an American fleet succeeded in forcing its way up the Thames; but our American cousins, — a little more than kin and less than kind, who speak with pride of Paul Jones and of their exploits on the Lakes, — affect to regard the burning of the Washington Navy Yard by us, in the last war, as an unpardonable outrage on the law of nations, and an atrocious exercise of power. For all the good it did, for my own part, I think it were as well had it never happened, but no juris-consult will for a moment deny that it was a legitimate, even if extreme, exercise of a belligerent right in the case of an enemy who did not seek terms from the conqueror; and who, after battle lost, fled and abandoned the property of their state, which might be useful to them in war, to the power of the victor. Notwithstanding all the unreasonableness of the American people in reference to their relations with foreign powers, it is deplorable such scenes should ever have been enacted between members of the human family so closely allied by all that shall make them of the same household.

The Navy Yard is surrounded by high brick walls; in the gateway stood two sentries in dark blue tunics, yellow facings, with eagle buttons, brightly polished arms, and white Berlin gloves, wearing a cap something like a French kepi, all very clean and creditable. Inside are some few trophies of guns taken from us at Yorktown, and from the Mexicans in the land of Cortez. The interior inclosure is surrounded by red brick houses, and stores and magazines, picked out with white stone; and two or three green glass-plots, fenced in by pillars and chains and bordered by trees, give an air of agreeable freshness to the place. Close to the river are the workshops: of course there is smoke and noise of steam and machinery. In a modest office, surrounded by books, papers, drawings, and models, as well as by shell and shot and racks of arms of different descriptions, we found Capt. Dahlgren, the acting superintendent of the yard, and the inventor of the famous gun which bears his name, and is the favorite armament of the American navy. By our own sailors they are irreverently termed “soda-water bottles,” owing to their shape. Capt. Dahlgren contends that guns capable of throwing the heaviest shot may be constructed of cast-iron, carefully prepared and moulded so that the greatest thickness of metal may be placed at the points of resistance, at the base of the gun, the muzzle and forward portions being of very moderate thickness.

All inventors, or even adapters of systems, must be earnest self-reliant persons, full of confidence, and, above all, impressive, or they will make little way in the conservative, status-quo-loving world. Captain Dahlgren has certainly most of these characteristics, but he has to fight with his navy department, with the army, with boards and with commissioners, — in fact, with all sorts of obstructors. When I was going over the yard, he deplored the parsimony of the department, which refused to yield to his urgent entreaties for additional furnaces to cast guns.

No large guns are cast at Washington. The foundries are only capable of turning out brass field-pieces and boat-guns. Capt. Dahlgren obligingly got one of the latter out to practise for us — a 12-pounder howitzer, which can be carried in a boat, run on land on its carriage, which is provided with wheels, and is so light that the gun can be drawn readily about by the crew. He made some good practice with shrapnel at a target 1200 yards distant, firing so rapidly as to keep three shells in the air at the same time. Compared with our establishments, this dockyard is a mere toy, and but few hands are employed in it. One steam sloop, the “Pawnee,” was under the shears, nearly ready for sea: the frame of another was under the building-shed. There are no facilities for making iron ships, or putting on plate-armor here. Everything was shown to us with the utmost frankness. The fuse of the Dahlgren shell is constructed on the vis inertӕ principle, and is not unlike that of the Armstrong.

On returning to the hotel, I found a magnificent bouquet of flowers, with a card attached to them, with Mrs. Lincoln's compliments, and another card announcing that she had a “reception” at three o'clock. It was rather late before I could get to the White House, and there were only two or three ladies in the drawing-room when I arrived. I was informed afterwards that the attendance was very scanty. The Washington ladies have not yet made up their minds that Mrs. Lincoln is the fashion. They miss their Southern friends, and constantly draw comparisons between them and the vulgar Yankee women and men who are now in power. I do not know enough to say whether the affectation of superiority be justified; but assuredly if New York be Yankee, there is nothing in which it does not far surpass this preposterous capital. The impression of homeliness produced by Mrs. Lincoln on first sight, is not diminished by closer acquaintance. Few women not to the manner born there are, whose heads would not be disordered, and circulation disturbed, by a rapid transition, almost instantaneous, from a condition of obscurity in a country town to be mistress of the White House. Her smiles and her frowns become a matter of consequence to the whole American world. As the wife of the country lawyer, or even of the congressman, her movements were of no consequence. The journals of Springfield would not have wasted a line upon them. Now, if she but drive down Pennsylvania Avenue, the electric wire thrills the news to every hamlet in the Union which has a newspaper; and fortunate is the correspondent who, in a special despatch, can give authentic particulars of her destination and of her dress. The lady is surrounded by flatterers and intriguers, seeking for influence or such places as she can give. As Selden says, “Those who wish to set a house on fire begin with the thatch.”

SOURCE: William Howard Russell, My Diary North and South, p. 50-4

Latest from Island No. 10

FLAGSHIP BENTON, ISLAND NO. 10,

EVENING of April 3.

At an early hour this morning a large object was seen moving up along the Island, and glasses revealed it to be the floating battery, which the rebels were towing into position, from which to command good range of the mortar boats. – When it got sufficiently near, a brisk fire was at once opened upon it, and in the course of half an hour the battery was struck several times – splinters being thrown in all directions, and several beams displaced.  One mortar shell fell and exploded directly inside, wrapping the inside in a cloud of smoke.  The fire must have been terribly destructive to the gunners, for the battery was immediately sunk to the water’s edge by the rebels, and towed back out of range.  The few shot previously fired from it fell some distance short, but evidently only from unskillful gunnery, as the ordnance as at other times proved of long range.

A shot from one of the new rifled Dahlgrens on the Benton, carried away the smoke-stack of the steamer thought to be the Lackland, which attempted to run reconnoitering along the Kentucky shore.

At one time a crowd of rebels could be seen busily at work on their upper battery, the guns of which were spiked two nights ago.  They were repairing the work apparently endeavoring to unspike the cannon.  Some shell were thrown at them, when they immediately disappeared, and did not return again.

A great source of annoyance for some time has been the steamer Winchester, lying sunk in the stream some distance from the island, and used by the enemy’s spies, who could from there watch easily every movement of the fleet.  An effort was accordingly made this morning to destroy it, and a mortar shell being lodged successfuly, the boat was soon in flames, and burned to the water’s edge.

The skillful firing to-day has rendered the foe extremely cautions; all their tents are moved back far out of range, and it is only at rare intervals that individuals show themselves.

Advices from New Madrid report affairs here quiet, and the fact is fully ascertained that the rebels have erected batteries on the Kentucky shore opposite New Madrid.  The ballon has been taken from herp.

The river is falling very rapidly, and it will soon be possible to land troops at any point wished along the banks here.  This will much facilitate operations.

CAIRO, April 5. – The firing at Island No. 10 last night disabled a floating battery of the rebels.  One shell struck directly in it, killing three of the men and disabling it so that it floated down towards the foot of the Island.  The firing to-day has been more active and has done good execution.

A messenger from New Madrid this evening reports that the rebels erected a battery last night opposite Point Pleasant, and this morning opened fiercely upon our works.  After firing for some time the battery was silenced by our guns, and a warehouse on the Kentucky shore was fired by our shells.  It and its contents were consumed.  No casualties on our side reported, and the loss of the rebels is not known.  Several must have been killed.  All quiet here.  No news from the Tennessee.

The bombardment to-day upon our side had been very heavy.  The mortars have kept up a regular and splendid fire.  The work admirably and with great precision.

At 2 o’clock this afternoon one o four shells struck the sunken steamer Winchester, which the rebels sank in the shoot.  The shell set her on fire and she was soon consumed.  She has been used as a rebel picket house.  The enemy has replied but a few times, and then wildly.

– Published in the Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, April 12, 1862, p. 4

Specials to the New York Papers

(Special to Times.)

WASHINGTON, March 12. – The statement published that account in council of war in Washington decided by 6 to 4 that the army of the Potomac could not be moved against the enemy at present, is entirely untrue.  The Generals were decisive that an advance was possible and probably the only difference was as to the plan of proposed attack.

A correspondent of the Times who accompanied the advance upon Centreville and Manassas, has just come in.  It was only recently that the retreat of the rebels from Centreville commenced.  General Johnson left Friday morning, General Smith left Saturday afternoon, and Colonel Stewart last Monday, the day our army left camp on the Potomac.  The retreat was conducted very orderly at first.  Nothing was left at Centreville that could be useful to us. – The forts were well planned and very formidable.  They commanded the roads and the fire of not less than a hundred guns could be converged upon any approach to the defences.  The guns were never brought from Manassas to mount the Centreville works.  A railroad track is extended from Manassas to Centreville, and a telegraph line.  The rebel Generals had their headquarters at Centreville.  Although a more convenient and complete military armament could not be found in Washington than they had at Manassas.  The enemy carried off all their heavy guns from Manassas, forty to fifty in number, part of their army marching by turnpike to Warrenton and part to Gordonville, where it is said they would make a stand.  It was announced that the first sign of panic was noticed at Manassas.  A part of Stewart’s rear column was preparing a train to move southward by railroad, when they learned that some excited rebels had set fire to the bridges.  Then they immediately began to burn and destroy and run away in general confusion.  500 barrels of flour were stove in.  Barrels of molasses suffered the same way.  160 barrels or kegs of powder were left, which they did not know how to destroy in safety to themselves.

It seems to be confirmed that the enemy had two weeks since, between 50,000 and 60,000 troops at Centreville and Manassas, and that they had began their retreat last Friday.  Why they went is a mystery, as that number of our men in their fortifications would have been equal to three times their forces assembling there.  They must have feared to trust their men whose enlistments were expiring, or their powder, which many accounts agree, is of very inferior quality.

The strangest news brought by the Times correspondent is, that Gen. Jackson and one half his army, whom Gen. Banks yesterday supposed he was closely watching in Winchester, went down the Railroad to Manassas one week ago, and quietly marched off southward.  The other half are said to be moving southward in the valley of the Shenandoah.

(Special to Tribune.)

The Naval Committee of the Senate agreed today to recommend an appropriation of $25,000 for the construction of furnaces for the manufacture of 20 inch Dahlgreen guns.

The ––– of this evening says we have positive information that the rebels have retreated to as far as Gordonville.  Our scouts have probably penetrated the country as far as Culpepper C. H., 35 miles in the rear of Manassas.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, March 15, 1862, p. 3

Letter From Orpheus C. Kerr

The Border State Conservatives – Capt. Villiam Brown’s Administration in Paris – His Treatment of the Contraband Question.

Correspondence N. Y. Sunday Mercury

The conservatives from the border States, my boy, look upon the Southern States as a brother, whom it is our duty to protect against the accursed designs of the fiendish abolitionists, who would make this war one of bloodshed. – They ignore all party feeling, support the Constitution as it was, in contradistinction to what it is, and object to any confiscation measure calculated to irritate our misguided brothers and sisters in that beautiful land where

The Suitor he goes to the planter so grand,

And “Give me your daughter,” says he

“For each unto other we’ve plighted our loves,

I love her and so she loves me,”

Says he,

“And married we’re wishing to be.”

The planter was deeply affected indeed,

Such touching affection to see,

“The giving I couldn’t afford, but I’ll sell

Her for six hundred dollars to thee,”

Says he,

“Her mother was worth that to me.”

Which I quote from a sweet ballad I recently found among some Rebel leavings at Yorktown.

These conservative patriots, my boy, remind me of a chap I once knew in the Sixth Ward.  A high moral chap, my boy, and full of venerable dignity.  One night the virtuous cuss doing business the next door to him, having just got a big insurance on his stock, and thinking himself safe for a flaming speculation, set fire to his own premises and then called “Murder” on the next corner.  Out came the whole Fire Department, only stopping to have two fights and a scrimmage on the way, and pretty soon the water was pouring all over every house in the street except the one on fire.  The high moral chap stuck his head out of the window, and says he “This fire ain’t in my house, and I don’t want no noise around this here residence.”  Upon this, some of our gallant firemen, who had just been in a fashionable drinking shop, not more than two blocks off, to see if any of the sparks had got in there, called to the chap to let him into his house, so that they might get at the conflagration more easily. – “Never!” says the chap, shaking his nightcap convulsively, “I didn’t set fire to Joneses, and I can’t have no Fire Department running around my entries.”

“See here, old blue pills,” says one of the firemen, pleasantly, “if you don’t let us in, you own crib will go down to blazes in ten minutes.”

But the dignified chap only shut down the window, and went to bed again, saying his prayer backwards.  I would not accuse a noble Department of violence, my boy, but in about three minutes there was a double back action machine standing in that chap’s front entry, with three inch streams out of all the back windows.  The fire was put out with only half a hose company killed and wounded, and next day there was a meeting to see what should be done with the incendiary when he was caught.  The high moral chap was at the meeting very early, and says he

“Let me advise moderation in this here unhappy matter.  I feel deeply interested,” says the chap with tears “for I assisted to put out the conflagration by permitting the use of my house by the firemen.  I almost feel,” says the genial chap, “like a fellow fireman myself.”

At this crisis a chap who was assistant engineer and also Secretary to the Board of Education arose and says he

“What are yer coughin about, old peg top?  Didn’t me and the fellers have to cave in your door with a night key wrench – sa-a-ay?  What are yer gassin’ about, then?  You did a muchness – you did!  Yes – slightually – in  a horn. – Now,” says the gallant fireman, with an agreeable smile, “if you don’t jest coil in your hose, and take the sidewalk very sudden, it’ll be my duty as a member of the department, to bust yer eye.”

I commend this chaste and rhetorical remark, my boy, to the attention of Border State Conservatives.

Since the occupation of Paris by the Mackerel Brigade, affairs there have been administered with great intellectual ability by Captain Villiam Brown, who has been appointed Provisional Governor, to govern the sale of provisions.

The city of Paris, my boy, as I told you lately, is laid out in one house at present, and since the discovery, that what were at first supposed to be Dahlgren guns by our forces were really a number of old hats with their rims cut off, laid in a row, on top of the earthworks, the democracy have stopped talking about the general of the Mackerel Brigade for next president.

The one house, however, was a boarding house, and though all the boards left at the approach of our troops it was subsequently discovered that all of them, save one, were good Union men, and were brutally forced to fly by that one Confederate miscreant.

When Villiam heard of the fate of these noble and oppressed patriots, my boy, he suffered a tear to drop into the tumbler he had just poured, and says he

“Just Hevings! Can this be so?  Ah?”  Says Villiam, lifting a bottle near by, to see that no rebel was concealed under it, “I will issue a proclamation calculated to conciliate the noble Union men of the Sunny South, and bring them back to those protecting folds which our inedycated forefathers folded themselves.”

Nobody believed it could be done, my boy – nobody believed it could be done, but Villiam understood his species and issued to following

PROCLAMATION

The Union men of the South are hereby informed that the United States of America has reasserted hisself, and will shortly open a bar room in Paris.  Also, cigars and other necessaries of life.  By order of

CAPTAIN VILLIAM BROWN, Eskevire.

‘There!’ says Villiam, ‘the human intellect may do what violence may fail to accomplish.  Ah!’ says Villiam, “mortal suasion is more majestick than any army with banners.”

In just half an hour after the above proclamation was issued, my boy, the hum of countless approaching voices called us to the ramparts.  A vast multitude was approaching.  It was the Union men of the South, my boy, who had read the manifesto of a beneficent Government, and were coming back to take the oath – with a trifle of sugar in it.

How necessary it is my boy, that men intrusted with important commands – Generals and Governors responsible for the pacification and welfare of misguided provinces – should understand just how and when to touch that sensitive chord to our common nature which vibrates responsively when man is invited to take something by his fellow man.

Scarcely had Villiam assumed his office and suppressed two reporters, when there were bro’t before him a fugitive contraband of the color of old meerschaum, and a planter from the adjacent county who claimed the slave.

“It’s me – that’s Misther Murphy – would be after axing your reverence to return the black crayture at once,” says the planter, “for its meself that owns him, and he runn’d away right under me nose and eyes as soon as me back was turned.”

“Ah!” says Villiam, blanancing a tumbler in his right hand.  “Are you a Southerner, Mr. Murphy?”

“yay sir,” says Mr. Murphy, “it’s that I am intirely.  Be the same token, I was raised and been in the shwate South – the South of Ireland.”

“Are you Chivalry?” says Villiam, thoughtfully.

“Is it Chivalry! – ah, but it’s that I am, and me father befoor me, and me childers that’s afther me.  If Chivalry was praties I could furnish a dinner to all the wur ruld, and have enough left to fade the pips.”

“Murphy is a French name,” says Villiam, drawing a copy of Vattel on International Law from his pocket and glancing at it, “but I will not dispute what you say.  You must do without your contraband, however, for slavery and martial law don’t agree together in the United States of America.”

‘Mr. Black,’ says Villiam, gravely, turning to the emancipated African, “you have come to the right shop for freedom.  You are from hence forth a free man and a brother in law.  You are now your own master,” says Villiam encouragingly, “and no man has a right to order you about.  You are in the full enjoyment of Heving’s best gift – Freedom!  Go and black my boots.”

The moral grandeur of this speech, my boy, so affected the Southern planter that he at once became a Union man, took the oath with the least bit of water in it, and asked permission to have his own boots blackened.

“O Liberty! Thou sacred name,

The bondsman’s hope, the poet’s dream,

From Pole to Pole extend the sway,

And travel through by steam.”

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, May 31, 1862, p. 1

From Washington

Special to Commercial.

WASHINGTON, April 10.

The N. Y. 7^th regiment of volunteer cavalry have been mustered out of service and are now on their way home.  Government has in service more cavalry than it needs.

No official dispatches have yet been received at the War department respecting the battle at Pittsburg Landing.

Mr. Seward will probably leave for Corinth to-night.

Senator Wilson introduced important amendments to the Fugitive Slave Law.  These establish jury trial and abolish the harsher features of the present law, and debar the rebels from recovering fugitive slaves.

Fifty 15 inch Dahlgren guns are to be immediately cast at Pittsburgh for the armament of the new batteries, of the Monitor pattern.

Tribune’s Correspondence.

WASHINGTON, April 10.

Secretary Seward is not going to Corinth as reported.

Gov. Sprague, of R. I., will be elected U. S. Senator from that State.  He goes to Yorktown to-morrow.

Times’ Special.

The President sent a message to the Senate to-day covering a treaty recently agreed upon by Lord Lyons and Mr. Seward, and correspondence relating to the African slave trade.  The President, without expressing any opinion on the subject, transmitted the papers to the Senate for its ratification or rejection.  If ratified, the government of Great Britain will then pass upon the subject of the treaty as now drawn up by the ministers of the two governments.  If finally agreed upon and it becomes a law, it is believed that by a thorough compliance with its provisions the slave trade will cease to exist in less than ten years.

WASHINGTON, April 11.

The steamer King Phillip came up to the navy yard to-day from York river.  Our forces before Yorktown are said to be hourly gaining ground.  Nothing new has transpired on the river.

WASHINGTON, April 10.

The Senate in executive session to-day confirmed the nominations of Col. G. M. Dodge, of Iowa, Col. R. S. Canby, of the 19^th infantry, and Paymaster Benj. Price, to be Brigadier Generals of volunteers;  Bayard Taylor, of New York, Secretary of Legation to St. Petersburg; Green Clay, of Kentucky, Secretary of Legation to Turin; John Malvin, of Illinois, Register of Land Office at Vermillion, Dacotah Territory; Wm. H. Bennett, of Oregon, to be Marshal of that State.

The Washington and Alexandria RR. was sold to-day at Alexandria, and purchased by Alex. Hay, of Philadelphia, for $12,500.  He is the owner and attorney for claims for more than $200,000.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Saturday Morning, April 12, 1862, p. 1

NEAR NEW MADRID, April 3 [1862].

The telegraph wire between Bird’s Point and this camp was discovered, to-day, to be cut in at least a dozen places between here and Sikeston.  Gen. Pope immediately issued a special order directed to residents along the route, that they will be held responsible for the safety of the telegraph, and that if that if any damage was done to it near their farms or residences, their houses shall be burned; themselves and families arrested, brought to camp, and visited with the severest punishment.

No change has been made in the position of affairs at the Fort or Point Pleasant and Ruddle’s Point.  Rebel gun boats and transports pass without difficulty our batteries at Point Ruddle, but none have come above Point Pleasant.

A special to the Chicago Tribune, dated on board the steamer Wilson, Island No. 10, April 4, says: Yesterday the bombardment was more active on our part thus far.  Several days previously at 10 o’clock the Benton crossed over to the Missouri shore near the point, and commenced firing with her new Dahlgrens at the floating battery.  Three shots struck, and it was hauled off to the foot of the Island, apparently disabled.

In the afternoon a reconnaissance was made by a small party in a skiff.  After burning the steamer Winchester, which was sunk in the chute, they circumnavigated the entire Island, and report they did not see a man upon it.

Tents were still standing, and while the party were in the vicinity, several of our shells struck in the encampment, but not a person could be seen.  Nothing was seen of the floating battery.  Whatever may be the condition of the Island, it is evident the rebels still remain in force upon the main shore.

To-night a large force of men were observed at work in the upper battery, trying to unspike the guns, which Col. Roberts so effectually spiked on Wednesday night. – The Benton opened upon them with her Dahlgren rifles, and with the aid of the mortars soon drove them out.

Nothing late from Gen. Pope has been received, although we can hear his cannonading almost incessantly day and night.

The health of the fleet and land forces is excellent.  Nearly all of the newspaper correspondents, however are sick.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Tuesday Morning, April 8, 1862, p. 2

From Washington

WASHINGTON, March 12.

Nothing new at Manassas.  The Rebels have retired towards Gordonsville.  They rest with their advance at the Cape Daine river, their camps extending back to Gordonsville, 12 miles.

Telegraphs from Fort Monroe, report all quiet.

Parties who accompanied a rebel flag of truce, admit that the Monitor severely wounded the Merrimac.

Information from Winchester to-night, indicates that our forces are in possession there.  Nothing valuable to our army was found at Manassas

Special to Tribune.

The Naval Committee of the Senate agreed to-day to recommend an appropriation of $250,000 for the construction of furnaces for the manufacture of 20 inch Dahlgren guns.

The Washington Star of this evening says: “He have positive information that the rebels have retreated as far as Gordonsville.  Our scouts have probably penetrated as far as Culpepper Courthouse, 34 miles in the rear of Manassas.

Times’ Dispatch.

The statement published that a council of war in Washington decided 6 to 4 that the army of the Potomac could not be moved against the enemy at present, is entirely untrue.  The Generals were unanimous that an advance would be possible and proper.  The difference was as to the plan of the proposed attack.  A correspondent of the Times, who accompanied the advance upon Centreville and Manassas has just come in.  It was only last Friday that the retreat of the rebels from Centreville commenced.  Gen. Johnston left Friday morning; Gen. Smith left Saturday P. M., and Col. Stewart last Monday – the day our army left camp on the Potomac.

The retreat was conducted very orderly at first.  Nothing was left at Centreville that could be useful to us.

The forts were planked and very formidable.  The commanded the roads, and the fire of not less than a hundred guns could be converged upon any approach to the defenses, but the guns were never brought from Manassas to mount the Centreville forts.  The railroad track extended from Manassas to Centreville, and a telegraph line.

The rebel generals had their headquarters at Centreville altogether, and a more convenient and complete military establishment could not be found in Washington than they had through Manassas.

The enemy continued their retreat as quietly as it began.  They carried off all their heavy guns from Manassas, forty or fifty in number – part of their army marching by turnpike to Warrenton, and part to Gordonsville, where, it is said, they would make a stand.

It was On Monday evening that the first sign of panic was noticed at Manassas.  A part of Stuart’s rear column was preparing a train to move southward by railroad when they learned that some excited rebels had set fire to the bridges ahead of them.  They immediately began to burn and destroy, and run away in general confusion.  Five hundred barrels of flour, piled in ranks, had their heads stove in; barrels of molasses suffered the same way.  Fourteen or fifteen kegs of powder were left, which they did not know how to destroy in safety to themselves.

It seems to be confirmed that the enemy had, for weeks, between 50,000 and 60,000 troops at Centreville and Manassas, and that they only began their retreat last Friday.  What they mean is a mystery, as that number of men in their fortifications would have been equal to three times the force assailing them.

They must have feared to trust those whose enlistment was expiring, or their powder, which many accounts agree is of very inferior quality.

The strongest news brought by the Times’ correspondent is that Gen. Jackson and one half of his army, whom Gen. Banks yesterday supposed he was closely watching in Winchester, wend down the railroad to Manassas one week ago, and quietly marched off southward in the valley of the Shenandoah.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Friday Morning, March 14, 1862, p. 2 

The Navy Department has ordered . . .

. . . the casting of fifty 16-inch Dahlgreen [sic] guns at Pittsburgh. – the Draughts of moulds, &c., have been prepared by Capt. Dahlgreen, and it is understood that the guns will be much shorter and thicker that the 16-inch Rodman gun. Most of them will be smooth bored, and are designated for use on board of the new vessels of the Monitor style, and others, whose construction has been already directed by Secretary Wells [sic].

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, April 26, 1862, p. 2