Major General William T. Sherman to Ellen Ewing Sherman, January 28, 1864

ON BOARD GUN-BOAT JULIET,

MOUTH OF WHITE RIVER, January 28, 1864.

. . . I sent you a paper about the banquet² which was really a fine affair. The hall of the Gayoso was crammed and the utmost harmony prevailed. Everything passed off well. My remarks as reported by the Argus were about right. The Bulletin got mere incoherent points. I cannot speak consecutively, but it seems that what I do say is vehemently applauded. The point which may be wrongly conceived was this. As the South resorted to war, we accepted it, and as they fought for Slaves and States' Rights they could not blame us if they lost both as the result of the war; and again, that they, the South, prided themselves on high grounds of honor. I am willing to take issue then adopting their own rules, as those of the most fashionable clubs of London, New Orleans, and Paris. If a member goes into an election he must abide the result or be blackballed or put in Coventry. Now as the Southern people went into the presidential election they, as honorable men, were bound to abide the result. I also described the mode and manner of seizure of the garrison and arsenal at Baton Rouge and pronounced that a breach of soldierly honor, and the firing on boats from behind a cottonwood tree. People at the North may not feel the weight of these points, but I know the South so well that I know what I said will be gall and wormwood to some, but it will make others think. I was at Memphis Tuesday and part of Wednesday. The festival was on Monday and several real old Southerners met me and confessed their cause would be recorded in history as I put it. I was not aware of the hold I had on the people till I was there this time. Hurlbut did not mingle with them and was difficult of access, and every time I went into a theatre or public assemblage there was a storm of applause.  I endeavored to avoid it as much as possible, but it was always so good-natured that I could not repel it. If I succeed in my present blow I would not be surprised if Mississippi would be as Tennessee, but I do not allow myself to be deceived. The Old Regime is not yet dead, and they will fight for their old privileges; yet so many of our old regiments are going on furlough that we will be short-handed. If we had our ranks full I know we could take Mobile and the Alabama River in thirty days and before summer could secure all of Red River also, leaving the Grand Battle to come off in East Tennessee or Georgia in June. We could hold fast all we have and let the South wriggle, but our best plan is activity. . . .

As I am about to march two hundred miles straight into danger with a comparatively small force and that composed of troops in a manner strange to me; but my calculations are all right, and now for the execution. I expect to leave Vicksburg in a very few days, and will cut loose all communications, so you will not hear from me save through the Southern papers till I am back to the Mississippi. You, of course, will be patient and will appreciate my motives in case of accident, for surely I could ask rest and an opportunity for some one else, say McPherson, but there are double reasons: I will never order my command where I am not willing to go, and besides it was politic to break up the force at Memphis which was too large to lie idle, and Hurlbut would not reduce it. I had to bring him away and make a radical change. He ranks McPherson, and we have not confidence enough in his steadiness to put him on this expedition. He is too easily stampeded by rumors. I have a better sense of chances. I run two chances, first, in case the enemy has learned my plans or has guessed them, he may send to Meridian a superior force. A bad road may prevent my moving with the celerity which will command success. Would that I had the Fifteenth corps that would march in sunshine or storm to fulfil my plans without asking what they were. I almost wish I had been left with that specific command, but confess I prefer service near the old Mississippi which enables us to supply ourselves so bountifully. I hear but little from Huntsville, but suppose all our folks are comfortable there. I sent Maj. Taylor, Fitch and McFeely back to Huntsville from Memphis, and have with me only my aids and quarter-master. I don't want any non-combatant mouths along to feed, and am determined this time not to have a tribe of leeches along to consume our food. Not a tent shall be carried or any baggage save on our horses. The wagons and packs shall carry ammunition and food alone. I will set the example myself. Experience has taught me if one tent is carried any quantity of trash will load down the wagons. If I had ten more regiments I would be tempted to try Mobile, but as it is if I break at Meridian and Memphis, I will cut off one of the most fruitful corn supplies of the enemy, and will give Mississippi a chance to rest. The State is now full of conscript gangs carrying to their armies the unwilling, the old and young. We will take all provisions, and God help the starving families! I warned them last year against this last visitation, and now it is at hand. . .

I feel the full load of care and anxiety you bear, mourning for Willy, fearing for the future, and oppressed with intense anxiety for parents. I believe you can bear all, and that you will for our sakes. Just think of me with fifty thousand lives in my hand, with all the anxiety of their families. This load is heavier than even you imagine. . . .

__________

² In a letter written on the same day to his brother John, Sherman said: "I could not well decline an offer of a public dinner in Memphis, but I dreaded it more than I did the assault on Vicksburg.” See Sherman Letters, p. 221.

SOURCES: M. A. DeWolfe Howe, Editor, Home Letters of General Sherman, p. 280-4.  A full copy of this letter can be found in the William T Sherman Family papers (SHR), University of Notre Dame Archives (UNDA), Notre Dame, IN 46556, Folder CSHR 2/10.

Major General Ulysses S. Grant to Jesse Root Grant, June 15, 1863

Walnut Hills. Miss.,

June 15th, 1863.

Dear Father:

I have received several letters from Mary and yourself, but as I have to deal with nineteen-twentieths of those received, have neglected to answer them.

All I can say is that I am well. I have the enemy closely hemmed in all round. My position is naturally strong and fortified against an attack from outside. I have been so strongly reinforced that Johnston will have to come with a mighty host to drive me away. — I do not look upon the fall of Vicksburg as in the least doubtful. If, however, I could have carried the place on the 22nd of last month, I could by this time have made a campaign that would have made the State of Mississippi almost safe for a solitary horseman to ride over. As it is, the enemy have a large army in it, and the season has so far advanced that water will be difficult to find for an army marching, besides the dust and heat that must be encountered. The fall of Vicksburg now will only result in the opening of the Mississippi River and demoralization of the enemy. I intended more from it. I did my best, however, and looking back can see no blunder committed.

ULYSSES

SOURCE: Jesse Grant Cramer, Editor, Letters of Ulysses S. Grant to His Father and His Youngest Sister, 1857-78, p. 98-9

Major General William T. Sherman to Senator John Sherman, September 21, 1865

HEADQUARTERS MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSISSIPPI,

ST. LOIUS, Mo., Sept. 21, 1865.

Dear Brother:

I got your letters by Mr. Kinneard, and spent a whole day with him and his party,¹ first in a steamboat going up and down the river, then in carriages, and finally at a banquet. The whole party seemed much pleased with the courtesies shown them, and to me were sufficiently complimentary. General Grant was here also, and they expressed themselves more than usually pleased at the opportunity to see us together. In Europe they are settling down to the conviction that Grant and I accomplished the military problem, and now they look to you to bring order, system, and prosperity out of the wreck. I am well satisfied at the course things are taking. No matter what change we may desire in the feelings and thoughts of people South, we cannot accomplish it by force. Nor can we afford to maintain there an army large enough to hold them in subjugation. All we can, or should, attempt is to give them rope, to develop in an honest way if possible, preserving in reserve enough military power to check any excesses if they attempt any. But I know they will not attempt any, and you may look for outbreaks in Ohio quicker than in Georgia or Mississippi. You hardly yet realize how completely this country has been devastated, and how completely humbled the man of the South is. Of course editors and talkers may express opinions we don't like, but they will take good care not to reduce those opinions to acts.

Affectionately,

W. T. SHERMAN.

__________

¹ A party of Englishmen with letters of introduction from John Sherman.

SOURCE: Rachel Sherman Thorndike, Editor, The Sherman Letters: Correspondence Between General and Senator Sherman from 1837 to 1891, p. 255-6

Diary of Alexander G. Downing: Wednesday, October 22, 1862

We had brigade inspection today with all accouterments on. There is a report in camp that the army is soon to make an important move south into Mississippi. It is rumored that there are soon to be some changes of brigade and division commanders.¹

_____

¹ There was a sentiment even then among the rank and file of the men, that General Grant was the man to lead them. Some expressed the opinion that In the course of time he would be placed In command of all the armies of the United States. The men had the utmost confidence In his leading the army to complete victory. — A. G. D.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 77-8

Diary of Alexander G. Downing: Monday, June 9, 1862

It is dry and hot. We are at work building fortifications here on a large scale, Corinth being an important point for either army to hold, as it is the key to Mississippi and Alabama. The bulk of the Army of the Tennessee is left here, while detachments of the original hundred thousand under Halleck are being sent to other commands to act as reinforcements.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 53

Major General William T. Sherman to Senator John Sherman, January 28, 1864

ON BOARD JULIET,

Bound for Vicksburg in a fog,

Friday, Jan. 28,1864.

Dear Brother:

I have organized a cavalry force to sweep down from Memphis towards Mobile, and have gathered together out of my garrisons a very pretty force of twenty thousand men which I shall command in person, and move from Vicksburg down east in connection with the cavalry named, to reach Meridian and break up the railroad connections there. This will have the effect to disconnect Mississippi from the eastern Southern States, arid without this single remaining link they cannot keep any army of importance west of the Alabama River. Our armies are now at the lowest point, and so many are going home as re-enlisted veterans that I shall have a less force than should attempt it; but this is the time and I shall attempt it. It seems my luck to have to take the initiative and to come in at desperate times, but thus far having done a full share of the real achievements of this war, I need not fear accidents. . . .

You who attach more importance to popular fame would be delighted to see in what estimation I am held by the people of Memphis, Tenn., and all along this mighty river. I could not well decline an offer of a public dinner in Memphis, but I dreaded it more than I did the assault on Vicksburg. I had to speak, and sent you the report that best suited me, viz., that in the "Argus." The report of the bulletin which may reach the Northern press is disjointed and not so correct. Indeed, I cannot speak from notes or keep myself strictly to the point, but ’tis said that the effect of my crude speeches is good. . . .

I know that for us to assume that slavery is killed, not by a predetermined act of ours, but as the natural, logical, and legal consequence of the acts of its self-constituted admirers, we gain strength and the enemy loses it. I think it is the true doctoring for the time being. The South has made the interests of slavery the issue of the war. If they lose the war, they lose slavery. Instead of our being abolitionists, it is thereby proven that they are the abolitionists. . . .

The Mississippi is a substantial conquest; we should next get the Red River, then the Alabama, and last push into Georgia. . . .

Your affectionate brother,

W. T. SHERMAN

SOURCE: Rachel Sherman Thorndike, Editor, The Sherman Letters: Correspondence Between General and Senator Sherman from 1837 to 1891, p. 221-2

Spirit of the Rebel Press

CAIRO, April 1.

F. B. Wilkie, of the New York Times, who accompanied the expedition to Union City, returned this evening with copies of the Memphis Appeal of the 27th, and the Charleston Mercury of the 22d, from which we condense the following intelligence:

President Davis, in secret session, had advised the Confederate Congress, that the prisoners released by the Yankee Government upon parole be absolved from their oath and allowed to take part in the approaching struggle for independence.  He urged it as a retaliation for the infamous and reckless breach of faith exhibited by Lincoln in the exchange of prisoners.

Attempts are being made to raise troops by conscription.  Editors and compositors are not to be enrolled, except for local duty.

The New Orleans Delta of the 26th, referring to the gallantry exhibited by Capt. Rucker in the defense of the battery at Island No. 10, says that one single battery has thus far sustained the brunt of the bombardment, repulsing the Federal gunboats and sending one of them back to Cairo crippled, for repairs.

The Appeal says the recent reverses on the Confederate army are nerving them with new faith and confidence in the hope and that it entertains no doubt of ultimate success.  Also that Gens. Van Dorn and Jeff Thompson are concentrating large forces at Pocahontas, Arkansas, preparatory to an attack upon the Federals at New Madrid, and that Gen. Pope will be compelled to evacuate.

No damage had been done to Island No. 10 up to Wednesday, but the Confederates had sunk two Federal gunboats.

The works at Fort Pillow were completed.  General Pope was building flatboats at New Madrid to transport his troops across the river to the Tennessee shore.

In Mississippi planters were piling up their cotton for fire and fagot.  Gen. Pillow has gone to Richmond.

A dispatch from New Orleans, dated March 26th states that the Confederate steamer Vanderbilt had foundered at sea with all on board.  The Appeal is issued on a half sheet.

The Mercury, in view of the scarcity of lead, suggests that linings of tea chests be melted and run into bullets.

The ladies of Charleston are contributing jewels, silver spoons, watches, and money to build a gunboat to be called the “Ladies Gunboat.”

The Mercury and Appeal contain extensive extracts from Northern papers, but no important military news.

The Conestoga arrived from Island No. 10 this evening, and reports no change in affairs there.  The mortars fire every half hour eliciting no response.

A rebel mail captured yesterday at Union City, contains letters from the Confederate troops at the Island representing the forces there as disheartened and dispirited.  There is nothing from Gen. Grant’s column.  The river is falling.

Today forty or fifty rebel soldiers came into Hickman and gave up their arms, and desired to return allegiance and join the federal army.

They were a portion of those who escaped from Union City yesterday.  They report that large numbers of rebel troops are also disposed to yield.

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

Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman to Senator John Sherman, December 6, 1862

COLLEGE HILL, MISS., NEAR OXFORD,

Dec. 6, 1862.

Dear Brother:

I left Memphis Wednesday, Nov. 26, with 26 regiments of Infantry, ten field batteries and one Cavalry regiment. In all about 18,000 men to cooperate with Grant in attacking the enemy, then lying on the south bank of the Tallahatchee, 18 miles south of Holly Springs and about 70 from Memphis. Their strength is estimated from about 40,000 to 50,000 men, under Pemberton, Price, Van Dorn and others. Grant allowed me 4 days to reach Tehullahoma. In 3 days I was near Tallahoosee, when I communicated with him, and next day reached Tehullahoma, he advancing to Waterford. Coincident with our movement, an expedition was planned to move from Helena under Gen. Harvey, to attack or threaten Grenada, about 60 miles to the rear of the position of the enemy. On approaching the Tallahatchee we found it abandoned, although its fords, ferries, and crossing places had been well fortified and obstructed. Grant moved on the main road south from Holly Springs, and I on his right about 10 miles, reaching the river at an old town called Wyatt. I had brought boats with me from Memphis, with which we soon crossed our infantry and cavalry regiments, swimming the horses, and found two long lines of intrenchments about 2 miles back from the river, where there is a kind of neck. These were, however, completely abandoned. Sending the Cavalry ahead to co-operate with Grant, then pressing the rear of the retreating forces, deliberately set to work, built a good bridge, and the day before yesterday I rode forward to Oxford, where I found Grant and received his further orders to cross and occupy College Hill, 4 miles to his right.

I have one division, Dunn's, here, and 2 on Hurricane Creek, to my rear. We have had two days’ hard rain and snow, making the roads very bad. Indeed, since the building of the railroad, the mud roads, leading north and south are disused and are washed very badly, the country resembling that about Somerset, Ohio. We find plenty of corn, fodder, cattle, hogs, sheep, &c., so that our enemies have not been starving. Salt is scarce, but they are manufacturing it largely on the coast, and at well about Mobile. By our movement, we have for the time being cleared North Mississippi. I doubt if we shall proceed much further on this line, as operations should now proceed against Vicksburg and Yazoo. I hear nothing from Virginia or Kentucky. We are far ahead of them, and they should push up. . . .

I suppose you hear little of me. I allow no reporters about. My official reports go to the proper office, and thus the enemy shall learn nothing of my forces, plans or purposes, through an egotistical and corrupt press. . . .

Yours affectionately,

W. T. SHERMAN.

SOURCE: Rachel Sherman Thorndike, Editor, The Sherman letters: correspondence between General and Senator Sherman from 1837 to 1891, p. 170-1

A Good Report from Tennessee and Alabama

WASHINGTON, Feb. 25. – The Navy Department to-day received the following:

CAIRO, Feb. 24.

To Hon. Gideon Welles, Sec’y of the Navy

Lieutenant Commanding Gwynn with the gunboat Tyler has just arrived from Tennessee, Mississippi and Alabama, and reports the Union sentiment in South Tennessee and North Alabama to be very strong.  I shall send him back to-day, and he will call for a regiment at Fort Henry to accompany the gun-boat, which will aid the loyal people of those States to raise Union forces within their borders.

(Signed)

A. H. FOOTE,

Flag-Officer Commanding.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, March 1, 1862, p. 3 

Tennessee River Expedition – Official Report of Lieut. S. L. Phelps

U. S. GUNBOAT, “CONESTOGA,”

Tennessee River, February 10, 1862

Flag Officer H. H. Foote, U. S. N. Commanding

Naval Forces Western Waters

SIR – Soon after the surrender of Ft. Henry on the 6^th inst., I proceeded in obedience to your orders up the Tennessee river with the Tyler, Lieut. Commanding Gwin, Lexington, Lieut. Commanding Shirk, and this vessel, forming a division of the Flotilla, and arrived after dark at the railroad crossing, 25 miles above the Fort, having destroyed on the way a small amount of camp equipage abandoned by the fleeing rebels.  The draw of the bridge was found to be closed and the machinery for turning it disabled.  About one and a half miles above were several rebel transport steamers escaping up stream.  A party was landed, and in one hour I had the satisfaction to see the draw open.  The Tyler being the slowest of the gun boats, Lieut. Gwin landed a force to destroy a portion of the railroad track, and to secure such military stores as might be found while I directed Lieut. Shirk to follow me with all speed in chase of the fleeing boats.  In five hours this boat succeeded in forcing the rebels to abandon and burn three of their boats, loaded with military stores.  The first one fired (Samuel Orr) had on board a quantity of submarine batteries which very soon exploded.  The second was freighted with powder, cannon shot, grape, balls, &c.  Fearing an explosion from the fired boats (there were two together) I stopped at a distance of 1,000 yards, but even then our sky lights were shattered by the concussion, the light upper deck was raised bodily, doors were forced open and locks and fastenings everywhere broken.  The whole river for half a mile around about was completely beaten up by the falling fragments and the shower of shot, grape, balls, &c.  The house of a reputed Union man was blown to pieces, and it was suspected there was design in landing the rebels in front of the doomed house.  The Lexington having fallen astern, and without a pilot on board, I concluded to wait for both of the boats to come up.  Joined by them we proceeded up the river.  Liut. Gwin had destroyed some of the trestle work at the end of the bridge, burning with them a lot of the camp equipage.  J. N. Brown, formerly a Lieutenant in the Navy, now signing himself Lieut. C. S. N. had fled with such precipitation as to leave his papers behind.  These Lieut. Gwin brought and I send them to you, as they give an official history of the rebel floating preparations on the Mississippi, Cumberland and Tennessee.  Lieut. Brown had charge of the construction of gunboats. – At night on the 7^th we arrived at a landing in Hardee county, Tenn. Known as Cerro Gordo, where we found the steamer Eastport being converted into a gunboat.  Armed boat crews were immediately sent on board, and search made for means of destruction that might have been devised.

She had been scuttled, and the suction pipes broken.  These leaks were soon stopped.  A number of rifle shots were fired at our vessels, but a couple of shells dispersed the rebels.  On examination I found that there were large quantities of timber and lumber prepared for fitting up the Eastport, that the vessel itself, some two hundred and eighty feet long was in excellent condition and already half finished.  Considerable of the plating designed for her was lying on the bank and everything at hand to complete her.  I therefore directed Lieutenant Commanding Gwin to remain with the Tyler to guard the prize, and to load the lumber, &c., while the Lexington and Conestoga should proceed still higher up.  Soon after daylight we passed Easport, Mississippi, and at Chickasaw, farther up near the State line, seized two steamers the Sallie Wood and Muscle, the former laid up the latter freighted with iron destined for Richmond and for rebel uses.

We then proceeded on up the river, entering the State of Alabama and ascending to Florence at the foot of Muscle Shoals.  On coming in sight of the town three steamers were discovered, which were immediately set on fire by the rebels.  Some shots were fired from the opposite side of the river below.   A force was landed and considerable quantities of supplies, marked “Fort Henry” were secured from the burning wrecks.  Some had been landed and stored.  These I [secured], putting such as we could bring away on board our vessels, and destroying the remainder.  No flats or other craft could be found.  I found also more of the iron plating intended for the Eastport.

A deputation of the citizens of Florence waited upon me, first desiring that they might be able to quiet the fears of their wives and daughters with assurance from me that they should not be molested and secondly, praying that I would not destroy their railroad bridge.  As for the first, I told them that we were neither ruffians nor savages, and that we were there to protect from violence and to enforce the law, and with reference to the second that if the bridge was away we could ascend no higher, and that it could possess, so far as I saw no military importance, as it simply connected Florence itself with the railroad on the south side of the river.  We had seized three of their steamers, one the half finished gunboat, and had forced the rebels to burn six others loaded with supplies, and their loss with that of the freight, is a severe loss to the enemy.  Two boats are still known to be on the river, and are doubtless hidden in some of the creeks where we shall be able to find them when there is time for the search.  We returned on the night of the 8^th to where the Eastport lay.  The crew of the Tyler had already gotten on board of the prize an immense amount of lumber etc.  The crews of the boats set to work to finish it immediately, and we have brought away, probably 250,000 feet of the best quality of ship and building lumber, all the iron machinery, spikes, and plating, nails, etc., belonging to the rebel gunboat, and I caused the mill to be destroyed where the lumber had been sawed.  Lieut. Commanding Gwin, in our absence, enlisted some twenty-five Tennesseeans, who gave information of the encampment of Colonel Drew’s rebel regiment at Savannah, Tennessee.  A portion of the six hundred or seven hundred men were known to be pressed men and all were badly armed.  After consultation with Lieutenants Commanding Gwin and Shirk I determined to make a land attack on the encampment. – Lieutenant Commanding Shirk with thirty riflemen came on board the Conestoga, leaving his vessel to guard the Eastport and accompanied by the “Tyler,” we proceeded up to that place prepared to land 130 riflemen, and a 12 pound rifled howitzer.  Lieutenant Commanding Gwin took command of this force when landed, but had the mortification to find the encampment deserted.  The rebels had fled at 10 o’clock, at night, leaving considerable quantities of arms, clothing, shoes, camp utensils, provisions, implements, etc., all of which were secured or destroyed, and their winter quarters of log huts were burned.  I seized also a large mail bag, and send you the letters giving military information.

The gunboats were then dropped down to a point where arms gathered under the rebel (press) law had been stored and an armed party, under Second Master Goudy, of the Tyler, succeeded in seizing 70 rifles and fowling pieces.  Returning to Cerro Gordo, we took the Eastport, Sable Woods and Muscle in tow, and came down the river to the railroad crossing.  The Muscle sprung a leak, and all efforts failed to prevent her from sinking and we were forced to abandon her, and with her a considerable quantity of fine lumber.  We are having trouble in getting through the draw of the bridge here.

I now come to the most interesting portion of the report, one which has already become lengthy, but I trust you will find some excuse for this in the fact that it embraces a history of labors and movements day and night, from the 6^th to the 10^th of the month all of which details I deem it proper to give you.  We have met with the most gratifying proofs of loyalty everywhere across Tennessee, and in the portions of Mississippi and Alabama we visited. – Most affecting incidents greeted us almost hourly.  Men, women and children several times gathered in crowds of hundred, and shouted their welcome and hailed their national flag with an enthusiasm there was no mistaking.  It was genuine and heartfelt.  These people braved everything to go to the river bank, where a sight of their flag might once more be enjoyed, and they have experienced, as they related, every possible form of persecution.  Tears flowed freely down the cheeks of men as well as of women, and there were those who had fought under the stars and stripes at Moultrie, who in this manner testified to their joy.  This display of feeling and sense of gladness at our success, and the hopes it created in the breasts of so many people in the heart of the Confederacy astonished us not a little, and I assure you, Sir, I would not have failed to witness it for any consideration.  I think it has given us all a higher sense of the character of our present duties.  I was assured at Savannah that of several hundred troops there, more than one half, had we gone to the attack in time, would have hailed us as deliverers, and gladly enlisted with the national force.  In Tennessee, the people generally, in their enthusiasm, braved secessionists and spoke their views freely, but in Mississippi and Alabama what was said was guarded, “If we dared express ourselves freely, you would bear such a shout greeting your coming as you never heard.  We know that there are many Unionists among us, but a reign of terror makes us afraid of our shadow.”  We were told, too, “Bring us a small, organized force, with arms and ammunition for us and we can maintain our position and put down rebellion in our midst.”  There were, it is true, whole communities who, on our approach, fled to the woods, but these were where there was less of the loyal element.

I am, respectfully, your obedient servant,

S. L. PHELPS,

Lieutenant Commanding, U. S. N.

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

"Knowest Thou The Land?"

Two adjoining counties in Mississippi, Washington and Isqueena [sic], situate between the Yazoo and Mississippi rivers, have, by the census of 1860, an aggregate of 21,711 slaves to 1,799 free persons, or about 92 per cent. slaves.  This must be the very garden of Eden, in the view of the advocates of that system.  There is scope for a poet in imagination in the conception of a society thus constituted – more than ten negro slaves to every white person throughout two large counties.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, May 31, 1862, p. 2