I called at an
exchange office this morning, and asked the value of gold: they offered me six
to one for it. I went to a slave auction at 11; but they had been so quick
about it that the whole affair was over before I arrived, although I was only
ten minutes late. The negroes — about fifteen men, three women, and three
children — were seated on benches, looking perfectly contented and indifferent
I saw the buyers opening the mouths and showing the teeth of their new
purchases to their friends in a very business-like manner. This was certainly
not a very agreeable spectacle to an Englishman, and I know that many
Southerners participate in the same feeling; for I have often been told by
people that they had never seen a negro sold by auction, and never wished to do
so. It is impossible to mention names in connection with such a subject, but I
am perfectly aware that many influential men in the South feel humiliated and
annoyed with several of the incidents connected with slavery; and I think that
if the Confederate States were left alone, the system would be much
modified and amended, although complete emancipation cannot be expected; for
the Southerners believe it to be as impracticable to cultivate cotton on a
large scale in the South, without forced black labour, as the British have
found it to produce sugar in Jamaica; and they declare that the example the
English have set them of sudden emancipation in that island is by no means
encouraging. They say that that magnificent colony, formerly so wealthy and
prosperous, is now nearly valueless — the land going out of cultivation — the
Whites ruined — the Blacks idle, slothful, and supposed to be in a great
measure relapsing into their primitive barbarism.
At 12 o'clock I
called by appointment on Captain Tucker, on board the Chicora.1 The
accommodation below is good, considering the nature and peculiar shape of the
vessel; but in hot weather the quarters are very close and unhealthy, for which
reason she is moored alongside a wharf on which her crew live. Captain Tucker
expressed great confidence in his vessel during calm weather, and when not
exposed to a plunging fire. He said he should not hesitate to attack even the
present blockading squadron, if it were not for certain reasons which he
explained to me.
Captain Tucker
expects great results from certain newly-invented submarine inventions, which
he thinks are sure to succeed . He told me that, in the April attack, these two
gunboats were placed in rear of Fort Sumter, and if, as was anticipated, the
Monitors had managed to force their way past Sumter, they would have been
received from different directions by the powerful battery Bee on Sullivan's
Island, by this island, Forts Pinckney and Ripley, by the two gunboats, and by
Fort Johnson on James Island — a nest of hornets from which they would perhaps
never have returned.
At 1 P.M. I called
on General Beauregard, who is a man of middle height, about forty-seven years
of age. He would be very youthful in appearance were it not for the colour of
his hair, which is much greyer than his earlier photographs represent. Some
persons account for the sudden manner in which his hair turned grey by
allusions to his cares and anxieties during the last two years; but the real
and less romantic reason is to be found in the rigidity of the Yankee blockade,
which interrupts the arrival of articles of toilette. He has a long straight
nose, handsome brown eyes, and a dark mustache without whiskers, and his
manners are extremely polite. He is a New Orleans Creole, and French is his
native language.
He was extremely
civil to me, and arranged that I should see some of the land fortifications
to-morrow. He spoke to me of the inevitable necessity, sooner or later, of a
war between the Northern States and Great Britain; and he remarked that, if
England would join the South at once, the Southern armies, relieved of the
present blockade and enormous Yankee pressure, would be able to march right
into the Northern States, and, by occupying their principal cities, would give
the Yankees so much employment that they would be unable to spare many men for
Canada. He acknowledged that in Mississippi General Grant had displayed
uncommon vigour, and met with considerable success, considering that he was a
man of no great military capacity. He said that Johnston was certainly acting
slowly and with much caution; but then he had not the veteran troops of Bragg
or Lee. He told me that he (Beauregard) had organised both the Virginian and
Tennessean armies. Both are composed of the same materials, both have seen much
service, though, on the whole, the first had been the most severely tried. He
said that in the Confederate organisation a brigade is composed of four
regiments, a division ought to number 10,000 men, and a corps d'armée 40,000. But I know that neither Polk nor
Hardee have got anything like that number.2
At 5.30 P.M. the
firing on Morris Island became distinctly audible. Captain Mitchell had
evidently commenced his operations against Little Polly.
Whilst I was
walking on the battery this evening, a gentleman came up to me and recalled
himself to my recollection as Mr Meyers of the Sumter, whom I had known at
Gibraltar a year ago. This was one of the two persons who were arrested at
Tangier by the acting United States consul in such an outrageous manner. He
told me that he had been kept in irons during his whole voyage, in the merchant
vessel, to the United States; and, in spite of the total illegality of his
capture on neutral ground, he was imprisoned for four months in Fort Warren,
and not released until regularly exchanged as a prisoner of war. Mr Meyers was
now most anxious to rejoin Captain Semmes, or some other rover.
I understand that
when the attack took place in April, the garrison of Fort Sumter received the
Monitors with great courtesy as they steamed up. The three flagstaffs were
dressed with flags, the band from the top of the fort played the national airs,
and a salute of twenty-one guns was fired, after which the entertainment
provided was of a more solid description.
_______________
1 I have omitted a description of this little
gunboat, as she is still doing good service in Charleston harbor — November
1863.
2 A division does nearly always number 10,000
men, but then there are generally only two or three divisions in a corps d’armée.
SOURCE: Sir Arthur James Lyon Fremantle, Three
Months in the Southern States: April-June, 1863, p. 193-8