We understand that . . .

. . . a commission of gentlemen – among the Judge Pierpont, of New York and Major General Dix – had an interview on Saturday last, at the Provost Marshal’s quarters with Mrs. Greenhow and Mrs. Morris, (alias Mason,) – who our readers are perhaps aware, have been for some months past kept in durance in this city, on charges of treasonable conduct – to ascertain whether those ladies would come under such pledges of loyalty and such renunciation of devotion to the insurgent cause as to authorize the Government to set them at liberty.  But the examination, we learn, resulted in nothing satisfactory.  The ladies would confess nothing, promise nothing, give their parole for nothing, renounce nothing; and they were reconveyed to their quarters at the Old Capitol.  Thus the examination ended in furnishing at least one instance of the truth of the ungallant old sarcasm on female willfulness:

“If she will she will, you may depend on’t;

If she wont she wont, and there’s an end on’t.”-

            –{National Intelligencer.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, April 5, 1862, p. 2

Horrible Accident

A young man named Samuel Bowen, engaged as engineer and beer-runner at Gregg & Co.’s distillery, was instantly killed yesterday morning between one and two o’clock, his body being literally cut in two between a couple of cog wheels.  The accident occurred in what is called the beer cellar.  The unfortunate young man had only been a short time “on watch,” and went into the cellar to give some directions to the men working there.  The place was dark, but being intimately acquainted with the position of the machinery, he took no light with him.  It is supposed that in passing, the skirt of his coat caught in the wheels drawing him in their terrible embrace, and cutting him in two diagonally, from a little above the hips, through the breast.  He gave a few heart-piercing shrieks, but his death was almost instantaneous.  His right leg and one arm were shockingly mutilated. – Peoria Transcript, April 1.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, April 5, 1862, p. 2

Diary of Alexander G. Downing: Tuesday, February 25, 1862

No news of any importance. There is some talk of our having to stay at this place all summer. We have company drill twice a day and with the other four companies of our regiment here now, have dress parade at 5 p. m.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 33-4

A Military Bank Robbery

A very adroit bank robbery was recently effected in St. Louis by a young rogue belonging to the 3rd Missouri volunteers.  It was effected in broad daylight.  Below is a protion of the statement of the young robber which shows how it was done:

OFFICE OF PROVOST MARSHAL,

ST. LOUIS, March 29, 1862.

I was born in St. Louis county; will be sixteen years old in May next.  I joined company H, Third Missouri Volunteers, in this city on the 4th inst., and went to Rolla soon afterwards. – On the 20th instant I arrived in this city from Rolla as one of an escort of prisoners of war – escort and prisoners being in charge of Colonel Shepherd, of said regiment.  On the 24th inst., I went to the office of Capt. Leighton (Provost Marshal St. Louis District,) and reported that a cavalry sabre was in possession of one Kuester, living on the Bellefontaine road, six miles from the city.  When I made this report I expected Capt. Leighton (Provost Marshal,) would give me authority to take the sabre, but I was merely informed that the matter would be properly attended to.  On the next day I went to the headquarters of the Eighth Missouri Militia, on Fifth street, near Franklin avenue; said I had been sent by the Provost Marshal to get a guard of five or six men.  The officer in charge gave me five men, and I went with them to the house of Keuster and got the sabre.  On going out I marched the guard to the terminus of the railroad at Bremen, and then took possession of an omnibus, telling the driver to take myself and the guard to the six mile house, on assuring him that the fare would be all right between him and Uncle Sam.  The driver did not object to the terms which I proposed.  After leaving Kuester’s I went to the premises of Col. McLaren and took therefrom a breach loading rifle, a musket, a shot gun, a navy revolver, and a few cartridges.  I then went to the house of John Jennings, and took from a box that I found therein about a dollar in silver.  Not finding any arms in Jennings’ house, in which I was very much disappointed, I directed him to send his wagon with myself and guard to the Six Mile House, which order he complied with.  The money which I obtained from Jennings was barely sufficient to pay the fare of the guard from the six mile house to the city.  I discharged the guard on the sidewalk in front of an eating house on Broadway, kept by on Crozier, sending it to headquarters on Fifth street under the care of one of them, whom I told to act as corporal. – The arms taken in this expedition were deposited by me for safe keeping in Crozier’s establishment.

On the next night between seven and eight o’clock, I proceeded to the headquarters of the City Guard, on Sixth street, and called for a guard of six men, and the same time presenting to Major McConnell an order purporting to have been written by Captain Leighten, Provost Marshal.  I wrote the order in an eating house on Broadway by Miller & True.  As I was quite nervous from the effects of liquor, I could not write very well, and asked Miller to write the order, but True said: “No, if you can do that it will get you and me into trouble; but Redman may write it here, and I will not say anything about it.”  I told True that I was going to get a guard and arrest the proprietors of the Broadway Bank, and that I would soon have money enough to go into partnership with him, to which he replied, “Bully for you; if you do, I will stick to you as long as life lasts.”  Both Miller and True had a pretty good idea of the adventure, although I had not given them the full particulars.  My intentions were, in case I obtained the guard, to rob the bank and arrest the proprietors that night.  Major McConnell refused to give me the guard, and I returned to Miller and True’s eating house, and stayed there that night.  Before retiring for the night, I told True to call me early in the morning, as I intended to arrest the proprietors of the above named bank, and he said he would do so.

An an early hour on Thursday morning, I went to the headquarters of the City Guard, and presented to the Lieutenant in charge another order purporting to be from Captain Leighton, for a guard of six men.  The Lieutenant said the order was not good and refused to place the guard under my charge.  I then went to Benton Barracks, and after a few judicious inquiries, learned that a German company attached to the Seventeenth Wisconsin Volunteers, was stationed in Barrack No. 68; so I informed myself of the Captain’s name and went to his quarters, and told him that I had been sent to him by the Provost Marshal for a guard of six men.  He said it was strange that I had not brought a written order, but gave me the guard quite readily.  My idea was that I could get the guard more surely from a German than from an American officer and the result showed that I had reasoned correctly.  Upon getting the guard I marched them to the Broadway Bank, arrested the proprietor thereof, and sent him under guard to the Broadway Garden; after which, finding I could not unlock the safe – it having a combination lock – I went to the Garden and told him he must come down and open the safe, as I had orders to see that all his papers were thoroughly searched.  He came down to the bank with me and opened the safe, and then I sent him back to the Garden, giving directions to have him kept in close custody until further orders were received from me.  After his departure I went to the safe and helped myself to quite a large amount of money – the exact sum I do not know.  I then locked the door of the Bank and gave the key to a sentinel which I had previously stationed on the sidewalk for the purpose of keeping the crowd back, telling him to deliver it to the sergeant of the guard, and to tell the sergeant not to let any one have it except myself or a commissioned officer.  I also gave the sentinel a ten dollar bill and told him to hand it to the sergeant of the guard, and have it spent for the benefit of the guard in the way of paying for beer and food.  I had previously paid the sergeant a dollar or two to pay the fare of the guard and that of my prisoner from the Bank to the Garden.

Upon leaving the Bank I stated to the crowd in front of the door that I had seized a quantity of counterfeit Treasury notes, and was going to take them to the office of the Provost Marshal, but I immediately started in search of a man named Jerry Welch, (who had previously been introduced to me by the name of Wetzel,) whom I found on Fifth Street, near the Melodeon.  We stepped into an alley, and I told him what I had done.  He said, “Bully for you; you have carried the thing out better than I have ever heard of anything being done before.”  I then gave him part of the money which I had taken from the Bank, and told him that I had two others to divide with.  I do not know how much I gave him.  I then divided with Miller and True, but do not know what sums I gave them respectively.  My opinion is that Miller got more of the money than True did.  I kept only a comparatively small amount.  The understanding was that Miller and True were to meet me in Chicago, where I intended to go the day following the robbery.

The idea of getting money from the Broadway Bank was original with me, but I spoke of it to Welch, Miller and True, and they encouraged it.  I told Welch that I thought of bringing a charge against the proprietors of the Bank, and have it investigated by the Provost Marshal.  Pending the examination, I expected to find time and opportunity to rob the Bank.  Welch said that scheme would not work, and advised me to get a guard and arrest the banker, and have him confined in some place where there were no commissioned officers.

The Broadway Garden being the only suitable place that I knew of, I selected it as a temporary prison for the banker, and expected he would remain there in confinement at least twenty-four hours.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, April 5, 1862, p. 2

Escape of more Prisoners from Camp Butler

The Springfield, (Ill.,) Journal, of March 31, says: Two rebel Prisoners named Partwright and Des Merks escaped from Camp Butler on last Saturday night.  They are described as being nineteen and seventeen years of age respectively, both having fair hair and blue eyes, and of fair complexion.

A week ago we noticed the escape of other prisoners from Camp Butler, stating that we believed they were aided by traitors in this neighborhood.  That the two who escaped on Saturday night were aided in a like manner, there can be no doubt, as Col. Morrison states that they were entirely without money.

In this connection we may mention that when these prisoners were first brought here they exhibited every sign of repentance and sorrow for the part they had taken in this dread rebellion, and spoke with gratitude of the undeserved kindness they had received at the hands of their enlightened captors.  Now, how is it with them?  They are rampant, braggart rebels, talking treason with the air of nabobs, and sneering at and threatening those whose kindness was misunderstood and abused.  Let us hear no more about kindly treatment, etc., etc.  ‘Tis time we were tired of throwing pearls before swine.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, April 5, 1862, p. 2

The Clinton Journal

We have received a little paper with the above title, printed at Clinton, Henry county, Missouri.  On the outside it is secesh and printed by Richard E. Day.  After the outside form was in type, Day left at the approach of the 1st Iowa Cavalry and Frank Pease as Editor and Samuel Marchant as publisher continue the paper.  Col. Warren as commander of the Post; Wm. Thompson, Acting Major of 3d Battalion; Capt. Heath, Provost Marshal.  Below are a few items from the local column.

FOR ST. LOUIS. – Last Tuesday fifteen prisoners were sent to St. Louis from this place – men who were found in arms against the Government.  How they will be dispose of we are not unable to say, but they will no doubt have justice don them.

THE HOSPITAL. – This post is provided with an excellent building for the accommodation of sick and wounded soldiers.  There are not many, however, occupying the building as yet.  We have a few sick and wounded of our own men there, besides some wounded secesh.  All are receiving excellent care at the hands of those having them in charge; and most of them will soon be themselves again.

PRISONERS. – Not a day passes without a fresh installment of secesh prisoners being brought to town, by various scouting parties of the Iowa First.  Our boys have also taken a supply of guns, which for variety, eclipse Mrs. Toodles’ assortment of sundries in the old garret.  These fellows are required to take the oath of allegiance, and give heavy bonds for their future good conduct.  The presence of the Iowa First in this locality is having a salutary effect.

“OLD PI.” – We have about a bushel and a half of pi, that is of no earthly use to us, unless we conclude to remain here and publish a paper just for the “fun of the thing,” but as we do not propose doing that, we’ll let some one have it to “distribute” on shares.  Our office looks as if the former occupants had taken French leave, and like the kangaroo going into the mountain had kicked the sand and gravel behind them.  They left the “pi” referred to, some rusty “sticks,” a few “chases,” seven pieces of “riglette,” a stove pipe hole, an empty bottle of whiskey, a sardine box full of “quods,” a jackass cut – also a small cut representing a runaway nigger.  With this outfit, which we regard as a “fat take,” we are doing Uncle Samuel’s job printing and find work sufficient to keep three printers busy day and night.

MORE PRISONERS. – Just as we go to press we learn that the detachment under Col. Warren which left here last Monday, is returning from the scout in the direction of Monigaw Springs with from 40 to 50 prisoners.  There was no chance to bring the rebels into an engagement, but a little skirmishing took place in which a few were wounded.  We have no room for particulars.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, April 5, 1862, p. 2

Diary of Alexander G. Downing: Monday, February 24, 1862

Nothing of importance.  Our company now has a company cook. He cooks the beans and salt beef for all, but each man draws his rations every five days, makes his own coffee and cooks his salt bacon to suit himself.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 33

The Plot To Assassinate The President

For a long time it was believed that an Italian barber of Baltimore was the Orsini who undertook to slay President Lincoln on his journey to the Capital in February, 1861, and it is possible he was one of the plotters; but it has come out on a recent trial of a man named Byrne, in Richmond, that he was the captain of the band that was to take the life of Mr. Lincoln.  This Byrne used to be a notorious gambler and leading Democrat of Baltimore, and emigrated to Richmond shortly after the 19th of April, of bloody memory. – He was recently arrested in Jeff. Davis’s capital on a charge of keeping a gambling house and of disloyalty to the chief traitor’s pretended Government.  Wigfall testified to Byrne’s loyalty to the rebel cause, and gave in evidence that Byrne was the captain of the gang who were to kill Mr. Lincoln, and upon this evidence, it appears he was let go.  Of course, to be guilty of such an intended crime is a mantle large enough to cover up all other sins against society and the Divine law.  So Wigfall has revealed the Baltimroe Orsini at last.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, April 5, 1862, p. 2

Abolition Of Slavery In The District Of Columbia

REMARKS OF MR. HARLAN.

IN SENATE, Tuesday, March 25.

Mr. HARLAN.  Mr. President, I regret very much that Senators depart so far from the proprieties, as I consider it, of this Chamber, as to make the allusions they do.  It is done merely to stimulate a prejudice which exists against a race already trampled under foot.  I refer to the allusions to white people embracing colored people as their brethren, and the invitations by Senators to white men and white women to marry colored people.  Now, sir, if we were to descend into an investigation of the facts on that subject, it would bring the blush to the cheeks of some of these gentlemen.  I once had occasion to direct the attention of the Senate to an illustrious example from the State of the Senator who inquired if any of us would marry a greasy old wench.  It is history that an illustrious citizen of his State, who once occupied officially the chair that you, sir, now sit in, lived notoriously and publicly with a negro wench, and raised children by her.

Mr. SAULSBURY.  Let me interrupt the gentleman for a moment.  Does he refer to any citizen of Delaware?

Mr. HARLAN.  I referred to the Senator from Kentucky, [Mr. Davis].

Mr. SAULSBURY.  I beg your pardon.

Mr. HARLAN.  I referred to a gentleman who held the second office in the gift of the American people; and never yet have heard a Senator on this floor denounce the conduct and the association of that illustrious citizen of our country.  I know of a family of colored or mulatto children, the children, too, of a gentleman who very recently occupied a seat on the other side of the Chamber, who are now at school in Ohio.  Yes, sir, the children of a Senator who very recently, not to exceed a year since, occupied a seat on this floor, a Senator from a slave State.

I do not desire to consume the time of the Senate and of the country in calling attention to these facts; it is humiliating enough to know that they exist; but if Senators who represent slaveholding States will perpetually drag this subject to the attention of the Senate and of the country, let them take the logical consequences of their own folly, and bear the shame which an investigation of the facts must inflict on themselves and their constituents.

I know there is a newspaper slander – written, printed, and published as a slander – on those who went down to South Carolina for a benevolent purpose, at least a desire to look after the welfare of those who had been cast off by their masters and had no means of support, the armies of the Republic furnishing them no protection, and as it is said, actually robbing them of the scanty supplies left them by their absconding owners.  Benevolent gentlemen have gone, as it is said, and I believe truly to furnish them temporarily with food and raiment, and also employment, to enable them to provide, in part at least, by the labor of their hands, for their own wants.  I confess I can perceive nothing objectionable in this; nor do I believe that the Senator himself who drags up that subject, as it seems to me, unnecessarily, in the discussion of the provisions of this bill, can point out anything improper in it.  Does he desire that those persons who have been deserted by their masters should be left there to starve and die like brutes?  I know he does not.  Then what other means can he devise for their protection and support; or does he desire the President to withdraw the Army and permit the rebels, who are now striking at the life of the nation, to return to their possessions under the folds of a rebel flag, reasserting their ownership over their deserted slaves?  If he desires the armies of the Republic to push forward until the supremacy of the laws of the Union shall be acknowledged, under the protecting folds of the stars and stripes, to its utmost limits, what does he propose to do with these destitute people?  Does he propose to support them directly from the national Treasury?  Would this be more wise than to permit benevolence to provide for their temporary wants and to permit the labor of their own hands to supply their necessities for the future?

I do not deem it proper on this occasion to enter into a labored investigation of the probabilities of amalgamation of the white with the negro race if the negroes should all be set free.  How is it in point of fact?  Do you find white gentlemen and white ladies marrying the free negroes that are now in this District?  Do you find them marrying the negroes that are now free in Maryland, and I understand the Senator says there are over eighty thousand of them in that State?  Do Senators find that the amalgamation of the white and negro race is in progress in the States they represent?  And if so, does it progress more rapidly in the free than in the slave States?  And in the slave States does it progress more rapidly among the free negroes than among the slaves.  I have known of but three cases in my own State, and all three of those men married to wenches have been residents of slave States, where, I doubt not they acquired their tastes.  [Laughter.]  Liberating the negroes carries with it no obligation to marry their wenches to white men.  Gentlemen may follow their tastes afterwards as now.

The Senator from Massachusetts [Mr. Wilson] has furnished me with the figures showing the exact number of free negroes in the States of Delaware and Maryland.  In the former there are 19, 723 free negroes, and but 1,798 slaves, and in Maryland 83,718 free persons of color, and but 87,700 slaves.  If the white population of Maryland does not intermarry and amalgamate with 83, 718 free negroes now in the State, would their tastes in that regard be changed in more of them were liberated?  If the people of this city, the capital of the nation, are not now insulting our delicate sensibilities by intermarrying with nearly twelve thousand free negroes here, would their tastes be changed in that regard by the liberation of about fifteen hundred others, for I understand on consultation with the chairman of the Committee on the District of Columbia that there are not now probably to exceed fifteen hundred slaves in the District.  There were when the census was taken but a trifle over three thousand.

This is merely a fling intended on the part of those who use it to arouse a prejudice that they know is deep-seated in the minds of the people of the free States against association with the colored population.  They know what I know and here state, that there is in all the free States a deep-seated prejudice against an association with the colored population – a prejudice that does not exist in the slave Sates.  There you find this association together, not in the social circle, it is true.  You find them, however at work together in the same shop, at the same bench, on the same farm, in the same buildings, at the same kind of toil.  You find their children on the same play grounds, at the same games, at the same amusements, not unfrequently eating, sleeping, quarreling, and fighting with each other without reference to color.  It is so in this District.  We all observe it every day we live.  Any man who will take the trouble to walk up Pennsylvania avenue at this moment will see the white hackman and the negro standing side by side, whip in hand, waiting for a job.  He will see the white man and the negro on the cross streets, sitting on wagon or cart, side by side, waiting for employment.  Go into the hotels, and you will find them there, white men and negroes, white females and colored females, in the employment of the same landlord.  Go into the Government workshops, into your own navy yard, as I doubt not all have done, and as I have done, and you will see black men and white men working side by side swinging the same kind of hammer, forging the same piece of iron.

It is here in a slave District and in the slave States that men learn to associate familiarly as laborers and mechanics with the colored population; and as a result of that familiar association at the daily toils of life, there is less shrinking away from them; less reluctance at receiving them into their embrace, so handsomely described by the senator from Delaware but a moment since.  No, sir; if you inquire for those willing to receive colored persons into their embrace, you will find a large majority of them born, brought up, and educated in the midst of a slave holding community; and as a result of this familiar association, you will find in every slaveholding community a much larger number of mulattoes than in the free states.

But then what is to be done with these fifteen hundred liberated slaves?  If they are liberated we are told that they must be expatriated; they must be sent into some other country, into a strange community, and there compelled to provide in a land of strangers for the supply of their daily wants?  Where are they now? In the bosom of the families [of] this metropolis.  They are the house servants and field hands of those who now claim to be their owners.  Whence, then, a necessity for expatriating them?  It does not increase their number to liberate them.  If their labor is now necessary for the industrial purposes and comfort of the people of this District, will it not be as necessary after they shall have been liberated? – If they are now needed as house servants and hotel servants, laborers and mechanics, in shops and fields, will they not be necessary afterwards?   The only change in this regard that I can perceive is that after their liberation, and those who now enjoy their labor gratuitously will then, if their service are continued, be compelled to pay them reasonable compensation, the Government paying them a bonus of $300 each to relinquish the supposed right to their labor without the payment of wages.  This is the only wrong that will have been inflicted on those who now own them.  They now employ them, and give them food and raiment and shelter for their services, without reference to their own wishes, coercing obedience with the lash when found necessary.  Afterwards they will be compelled to consult the will and wishes of the employed, and pay them probably stipulated wages, with which the servants will provide his own supplies.  No injury is inflicted on society, no change is wrought on its organization, and no change is made in the political condition of the emancipated.  They will have acquired no political rights or franchises.  They will have acquired simply the right to enjoy as they choose the proceeds of their own labor.  But if you confer this right on fifteen hundred more negroes now slaves in this district, we are gravely warned by Senators, in most eloquent and pathetic strains, that we will thus inaugurate a war of extermination between the white and black race!  Yes if you confer on these fifteen hundred poor negroes the right now enjoyed by more than eleven thousand of their colored brethren now living in the District, allow them to collect and use the wages of their own labor, you will incite a spirit of wholesale murder! – Rather than pay them just compensation for their services, their former masters, who have lived on the proceeds of their unpaid toil, will take down their rifles and shoot them!  A war of extermination is to arise!  Sir, I have understood that it was murder now in this District to kill a colored man; that so far from justifying the indiscriminate murder of those poor people who are now free, you regard it as a very grave offense against society to shed his blood, and would arrest, indict, try and hang the felon who would perpetrate it in a single case.  I inquire if it is not also a felony now in Maryland?  I inquire of the Senator from Maryland, who predicts a war of extermination immediately on the liberation of the slaves in this district, why it has not heretofore commenced: and if it would not be murder to shoot or otherwise maliciously destroy the life of a free negro of his own State under the laws of Maryland as they now exist?

Mr. KENNEDY.  If the honorable Senator desires an answer, I will say in a very few words that there is now a bitter antipathy between the laboring white people and the free blacks, and that it has been so strong heretofore in the State of Maryland that we have had great difficulty in restraining the passage of what we consider inhuman laws.  The antipathy is very strong between the two classes of people, and I do not know how far they might be excited to deeds of violence, of the proportion of free blacks that now exists was greatly increased.

Mr. HARLAN.  I am very much obliged to the Senator for his explanation; and yet I beg leave very respectfully to differ from him in relation to the fact which he has stated.  In my opinion, these feelings are not excited by the laboring men.  I see laboring white men standing side by side with laboring negroes in the District seeking for jobs, for employment –

Mr. KENNEDY.  The Senator will allow me to say right here that I employ both classes, and one of the troubles that I have is to restrain that very feeling.  I speak from experience.

Mr. HARLAN.  I am inclined to think that any improper results which might grow out of this prejudice could be readily controlled by that part of the community enjoying high social and official position, like the Senator from Maryland and the Senator from Kentucky and the Senator from Delaware, who have spoken to-day.  What is the inference to be drawn by the less reflecting from this statement made in this discussion.  They declare, “if you liberate the slaves, allow them to become free, the free white people will rise and exterminate them;” and, is not the inference legitimate that it would, in the opinion of the speaker, be proper for this to be done?  Is it not indirectly saying to every laboring white man of Maryland, “you may murder indiscriminately those that come in contact with your interests, in competition with you in the various avocations of life?”  You say to them, “you will do so;” you say to this entire population in this District, “you will arise and murder the free colored people if we set a few more free;” and this statement thus far has not been accompanied even with so much as a regret at the supposed existence of such vindictiveness.  Sir, the slaveholders of Maryland control the legislation of those States, and they control, to a fearful extend the opinion of the masses; and they can as readily give to public opinion the right as the wrong direction; they can as readily conform it to the plain principles of a Christianized humanity as to degrade it to the standard which controls the policy of communities in a savage condition.

Why, sir, I know a people not many hundred miles from my own home that are to-day engaged in a war of extermination.  The Chippewas and the Sioux never meet each other on the plains, but to murder and massacre each other.  A war of extermination with all the vindictiveness and atrocities common to savage life, is in progress.  They meet only to imbrue their hands in their brothers’ blood.

Mr. KENNEDY.  Will the honorable Senator allow me to make to him a single statement in further answer to the question he put just now?

Mr. HARLAN.  Certainly.

Mr. KENNEDY.  One of the worst riots we have had in Baltimore for many years, arose from the fact that free negroes were employed in the ship-yards as caulkers.  They came in competition with a class of men who had before done work of that sort, who determined to drive them out of those yards, and from that cause a tremendous riot ensued.  I do not even now know whether a single free negro is allowed to work in the ship-yards.  There is a feeling against them on the part of a class of people who regard them as interfering with their exclusive privilege to do work of that sort themselves.

Mr. HARLAN.  And in that I see an explanation of the suggestion I made.  Of course the Senator’s knowledge of the facts existing in his own State, and in the metropolis of that State, is better than mine.  I will not dispute the truth of his statement; but he winds it up by saying that even now he does not know that a “free negro” is permitted to work in the yards of that city; and why?  Because the owners of the slaves cultivate this prejudice for the purpose of driving out the free negroes who come in competition with their own slave hands, so frequently hired out for wages to be placed in their owner’s pockets.

Mr. KENNEDY.  The slave interest of the State of Maryland, I may be allowed to say, is a very small one – seventeen thousand altogether.  That interest does not prevail anywhere in Maryland except in the tide-water counties. – The Senator is entirely mistaken in supposing that it prevails in Maryland.  It is in a minority.

Mr. HARLAN.  As to the fact, of course the Senator’s knowledge is more perfect than mine could be.  I have in my hand, however, a statement furnished me by the Senator from Massachusetts, which gives the number of slaves in Maryland as eighty-seven thousand one hundred and eighty-eight.

Mr. KENNEDY.  Yes, Sir.

Mr. HARLAN.  I know the institution is going down in Maryland; it is sinking under the quiet influence of emigration from the free States and enlightened public opinion; but even in Maryland the slaveholding portion of the community controls its legislation, controls public opinion, and stimulates and sustains the savage doctrines which we have heard advanced on this floor from their Senators – I use the word with respect; but I illustrate it with the example I have just cited.  As I have said, among the savages on our western plains, wars of extermination are going on day by day; these tribes are melting away by this vindictive and savage strife, which they keep up between belligerent tribes.  Now, is it possible that Senators will teach the Senate and the country and the Christian world that the people of Maryland are not elevated in civilization above the condition of the Chippewas and Sioux; that there, too, we have hundreds of thousands of savages with white skins who will immediately commence a war of extermination – on whom?  On men with whom they have lived their lives through, men who were born with them on the same soil, men who were brought up with them under the same roof, who played with them in childhood on the same grounds; who did not accompany them to the same schools for they have been excluded from the means of mental culture, who did not accompany them to the same church for they have been excluded also from a high order of religious culture.

Mr. KENNEDY.  Does the honorable Senator mean to apply that remark to Maryland?

Mr. HARLAN.  I am applying to Maryland the doctrines the Senator has advanced to-day.  He says that in Maryland, if the slaves be set free, the white population will arise and massacre the entire colored population.  If the people of Maryland will do this savage act, they are not to-day elevated above the condition of the Chippewas and Sioux; no, they are below the civilization of these savages, because they murder their enemies, not their friends, their servants, and the people of their own households.

Mr. KENNEDY.  I trust the honorable Senator will allow me to make a statement.

Mr. HARLAN.  Certainly.

Mr. KENNEDY.  I think the Senator entirely misapprehends the scope of my remarks, and I desire to say here now, that we have some of the best regulated and best established churches and schools for negroes in the city of Baltimore that are to be found in the United States.  We have, further than that, highly educated men who were slaves who are preaching to the free colored people of Baltimore.  I have this day in my family a manumitted slave who has the privilege of teaching school.  A manumitted slave of my own family is with me now, and is a teacher of a school.  There is no restriction whatever in Maryland upon education of any sort in regard to the colored population.

Mr. HARLAN.  I would inquire at the heel of that remark of the Senator if he has any disposition to murder them?

Mr. KENNEDY.  None whatever; but there is a natural opposition that exists between two antagonist races of people; and the colored race has been protected by the well ordered and well regulated people of my State, men, like myself and other gentlemen who represent the state who are struggling everywhere to prevent the dominance of a rule that might be exercised by an antagonistic class.

Mr. HARLAN.  And if the Senator does not feel a savage disposition to murder his freed man, does he say that the mass of the slaveholders of his State are less civilized than himself?

Mr. KENNEDY.  Not one particle more than the people of the gentleman’s own country seem disposed to murder the white people of my section.

Mr. HARLAN.  Then, if neither he nor his fellow slaveholders in Maryland now entertain such a disposition, I apprehended that no such cruel result will flow from the liberation of slaves that do not live in his own State, but live under a different jurisdiction.  No, sir; these Senators have misrepresented their own people, they are not the savages they have been portrayed on this floor.  I doubt not they are in possession of all the elements of humanity.  A humanity that has been cultivated highly, cultivated well, and that they would be as far from murdering the colored men, merely because they are free, as would I or the people whom I represent.

Mr. DAVIS.  Will the gentleman allow me a word?

Mr. HARLAN.  Certainly.

Mr. DAVIS.  The gentleman certainly misconceives or misrepresents the argument that I made.  The position I assumed, and which I endeavored to sustain by argument was this: that if slaves were liberated in States where they exist in great numbers, without colonization, it would give rise to a war of races that would lead to the results which the gentleman is now deprecating; and I maintain that that is a true position.

Mr. HARLAN.  I think that that might possibly be brought about through the teachings of such gentlemen as those who now represent these States on this floor.  They declare on the floor of the American Senate in the face of a Christian nation, in the face of two hundred millions of Christians now living on the earth, that if men are to be liberated from a slavery that is more galling and degrading than any that has ever existed on the face of the earth from the commencement of time down to this moment their people will rise and murder the poor freed men.  They say so without expressing so much as a regret.  They declare it as a prophecy! – They thus inculcate its rightfulness.  They thus teach their people, that in their opinion this wholesale murder would be right, or at least, the result of a weakness to be tolerated.  They thus approve and justify this savage feeling – if it exists; but, sir, it does not exist; I will defend the people of Kentucky, of Maryland, of Delaware, and of this District, from any such slanderous aspersion.  They entertain no such purpose on their part as the indiscriminate murder of the colored population, if they should become free.  I doubt not but that the public sentiment that now exists, induced by the slaveholders themselves, in the States to which I have referred, is bitterly opposed to the liberation of the slaves; but if these slaves should be set free, it will be effected by their own Legislatures; and if thus set free, no such savage war would arise.  Nor is it probable that their liberation by the exercise of arbitrary power, of which there is not the slightest apprehension on the part of these Senators themselves, could such an historical anomaly be produced.

The Senator from Massachusetts very aptly inquired of Senators who have rung the changes on this supposed calamity, to inform the Senate when such a wholesale murder ever commenced between members of the same community on account of race?  Can any Senator put his hand on the page of history that records it?  None have, and none can.  You say that if two races are thrown together as freemen, they will necessarily engender a war of extermination.  Such a war never did commence between two races of free people; and until the laws of the human mind and the human heart change, never will.  You cannot point to any great people that has ever existed that has not been composed to a greater or less extend of, so called, different races.  You may refer to any of the great empires of antiquity – the Chaldean, the Persian, the Assyrian, the Grecian, and the Roman empires, and you will find that they each embraced people of every kindred, tongue, and race, and from every clime.  It has been so of every highly enlightened and prosperous people since civilization dawned.  It is so now of the most polished and powerful nations of Europe and Asia.  In proof, I need but cite the British and French Empires.  To say that men of different, so called, races are natural enemies to each other, and will commence and wage a war of extermination when brought into contact, is a libel on humanity.  It is a libel on the Author of the human race.  The Almighty never implanted such feelings in the human heart.  They never have been cultivated by an enlightened people.  Wars of extermination exist only among savages; and with them only between belligerent tribes.

But I was drawn away from the argument of the Senator from Delaware, that if the fifteen hundred slaves who are now the chambermaids, and the bootblacks, and the barbers, and the hostlers, and the wood choppers and wood sawyers, and coal carriers, and cart drivers, and carriage drivers and laborers on the gardens and grounds that surround this magnificent palace shall be liberated, somebody will commence a wholesale murder.

Mr. SAULSBURY.  I said no such thing.  If the gentleman is alluding to me, I did not say a word about it.

Mr. HARLAN.  I am most happy to hear the Senator recant the doctrine I have attributed to him.

Mr. SAULSBURY.  I do not recant anything.  I said nothing of the kind.

Mr. HARLAN.  The negroes then will be saved.  There is no danger of this wholesale murder.

Mr. SAULSBURY.  I will reply to the gentleman when he is through.

Mr. HARLAN.  There is no danger of this war of extermination at least in the streets of this capital; and the fifteen hundred slaves now laboring quietly under the control of their masters will probably not be murdered by their former owners if they should be liberated.  I would almost guaranty that the liberated slaves will not murder their masters if their masters will not murder them.  The mere fact of their liberation could hardly incite them to such a diabolical course of conduct.  Why should it?  If they prefer to live under the shelter that their masters have provided for them, and to labor day by day without wages for the gratuity they may receive from the hand of their former owner, their legal freedom will not compel a severance.  I will not vote for a law to compel them to leave.  The Senator desires us to do so; he proposes an amendment to this bill that will compel these poor men to leave their kind masters, to go homeless and penniless and friendless into a land of strangers.  I voted against his proposition.  I am disposed to leave them where they now are, and let them work on for their masters; if their masters choose to pay them for their labor, all well; and if they decide to work on without pay, be it so.  I perceive no motive that can arise out of the removal of the legal shackles that bind them, calculated to stimulate a disposition to murder or destroy.  They would be anomalous human beings if the mere act of liberating them would convert them into savages and murders.

If neither their masters nor they are disposed to engage in such strif, I apprehend there is no great danger.  I never yet have met a white man or white woman in the District who manifested this species of vindictiveness against the colored people.  I am gland for the same of humanity that it is so.  Why should they?  Do you answer because they are poor and ugly and ignorant and feeble.  Is it possible that an American Senator will teach here to-day that because the white race is said to be more powerful and more highly endowed, and has acquired a high position in the scale of civilization, he may with impunity trample on the feeble and defenseless?  The advancement of such a dogma ought to mantle the statesman’s cheek with the blush of shame.  It is at war with every manly impulse.  Why, sir, I have occasionally in passing through the rough society which sometimes congregates on the frontier, observed a strong, powerful man stepping into the ring in the midst of a broil “to pick up the glove,” as it was called, in defense of a gray haired man, or a boy, or a feeble person, about to be assailed by some thoughtless person of superior strength, with the declaration, “sir, if you must have a fight take a man of your inches,” and such an act never failed to secure the applause of the crowd.  This is true humanity; it is moral courage; it is a kind of natural religion, superior to much we hear from the pulpit.  It is true courage; it prompts to personal sacrifice in the defense of the feeble.  And I have never yet witnessed a crowd of frontiersmen, however rough and uncultivated, who could be induced to applaud the victor in a contest with an inferior.  This principle of humanity it is thought by many was illustrated on a grand scale when the English nation and the French people stepped in between Russia and the Turks.  Here was a great and powerful nation attempting to crush out a feeble people.  The contest was unequal; it was the athletic champion with iron muscles in deadly strife with the child or decrepit age, and two powerful nations stepped in between them and commanded peace, and took up the glove in defense of the weaker.  I suppose this element of humanity to be the foundation of that manly pride that most men experience when they stand in defense of their own families, in defense of their wives and children and parents.  They stand between the feeble and the strong, and peril their existence in defence of their rights.  As a nation we act from these generous and manly impulses in our intercourse with the children of the prairies and forests.  They are comparatively a feeble people, incapable of taking care of themselves, and you organize a bureau under the Government and appoint a Commissioner and appropriate millions of dollars year by year to pay agents to stand between them and your own citizens who might be stimulated by avarice to become their oppressors.  And this policy usually receives the applause of Christian men. – It is but another illustration of better impulses of an enlightened humanity – a powerful nation stretches out its strong arm to protect the feeble.

Here is another feeble people, a race of men that are inferior to us in beauty, not equal to us in symmetry of body, not equal to us possibly in original mental and moral capacities or endowments.  They are supposed not to be as capable of taking care of themselves as the Anglo-Saxons or others of the Caucasian race; and on that account you tell me they are to be trampled under foot.  You are to trample them into the earth because they are feeble!  Do you treat your own feeble people in this way?  I have sometimes stepped into a probate court, and I have seen a judge sitting on the tribunal of justice appointing a guardian for the persons and property of orphan children, and requiring him to give bond and security for the proper execution of the trust.  They have neither father nor mother; these natural guardians have been called hence; they may become the victims of avarice or malice.  The officer of the law steps in for their protection.  You sir, see this evidence of a Christian civilization!  And two hundred millions of Christians scattered up and down in the earth united in applause.  Orators and statesmen chime in with the axiom, the very object of the organization of civil society is the protection of the weak from the aggression of the strong.

Now if this be so in relations to every other people, in relation to weak members of your race, would it not be equally humane to provide for the protection of feeble colored people that have been born in our midst without any fault surely of their own; who have been cast here, you may say, as waifs on society by an act of Providence?  Are we to crush them with the iron heel of civilization that brings only blessings to all others?  And if their shackles shall be stricken off, are we indeed doomed to witness their indiscriminate murder because they are weak, because they are less capable of providing means of their own defense than we?  This is an illustration of what is sometimes styled the superior civilization of the slave system, and a conception of an enlightened humanity that I could not have believed a few years since would have been exemplified on the floor of the American Senate; because a people are weak, therefore you have a right to murder them, murder them indiscriminately, murder them en masse only because they are no longer slaves.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, April 5, 1862, p. 1

Diary of Alexander G. Downing: Sunday, February 23, 1862

We attended church today at the different churches in town, some of the boys going to the Catholic church. We had prayer meeting in camp in the evening.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 33

Brig. Gen. John McArthur Headquarters Monument: Perry Field, Shiloh National Military Park

U. S.

* * *

HEADQUARTERS, 2^D BRIGADE,

2^D DIVISION

ARMY OF THE TENNESSEE;

BRIG. GEN. JOHN M^CARTHUR,

COMMANDING.

* * * * *

ESTABLISHED MARCH 19^TH, 1862

Major General William T. Sherman to Senator John Sherman, March 14, 1863

CAMP BEFORE VlCKSBURG, March 14, '63.

Dear Brother:

* * * * * * * * * *

The Conscript Bill is all even I could ask, it is the first real step toward war. And if Mr. Lincoln will now use the power thus conferred, ignore popular clamor and do as near right as he can, we may at last have an army somewhat approximating the vast undertaking which was begun in utter, blind, wilful ignorance of the difficulties and dangers that we were forced to encounter. . . .

I have been much pleased with your course in Congress, and regret that anything I have done or may do has given you trouble or concern. I could easily have been popular, as I believe I am with my own command, by courting the newspaper men; but it does go hard to know that our camps are full of spies revealing our most secret steps, conveying regularly to the enemy our every act, when a thousand dollars won't procure us a word of information from Vicksburg. I know the press has defeated us, and will continue to do it, and as an honest man I cannot flatter them. I know they will ruin me, but they will ruin the country too. . . .

Napoleon himself would have been defeated with a free press. But I will honestly try to be patient, though I know in this, as in other matters, time must bring about its true result, just as the summer ripens the fruits of the season. . . .

My corps is alone here at the neck opposite Vicksburg, fighting off the water of the Mississippi which threatens to drown us. Grant is here on board a boat and Admiral Porter at the mouth of Yazoo.

Affectionately,

W. T. SHERMAN

SOURCE: Rachel Sherman Thorndike, Editor, The Sherman letters: correspondence between General and Senator Sherman from 1837 to 1891, p. 193-4

Diary of Alexander G. Downing: Saturday, February 22, 1862

This is Washington's birthday. We packed our knapsacks early this morning and left Lookout for California, arriving at 2 p. m. The roads were quite muddy. In camp again at California, Missouri. We pitched our tents on the commons south of town.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 33

The Campaign on the Potomac

In his late proclamation after the rebels had quit Manassas, Gen. McClellan held out his flattering promise to the Army of the Potomac:

“I shall demand from you great and heroic exertions, rapid and long marches, desperate combats and privations;” etc.

Per contra, here is an item of military information which we copy form the Milwaukee Sentinel:

We learn indirectly that Gen. King’s Brigade, now under command of Col. Cutler (the General being in command of McDowell’s Division,) has got back to its old encampments at Arlington Heights, after several day’s tramp into Secessia.”

The usually cautious and well informed Washington correspondent of the Cincinnati Gazette, writing under date of the 29th ult., says:

Is the present generalship on the Potomac to continue?  Or is a change of policy to be attained without a change of generals!  These are vital questions, in the exigency to which, if I am correct in what precedes, we are now reduced.  Certain it is that these questions are now upper most in the thoughts of all who are really in earnest in the prosecution of this war.

I began by speaking of a great battle as probably close at hand.  It cannot be disguised that the dilatory dallying of McClellan leaves it doubtful whether – despite his belligerent proclamation – he will “preside” on that occasion.  The event, however, it may be said with confidence, will not depend on the will of that General in regard to a forward movement.  There is a higher power here; and a little more “hanging fire” may result in a sudden change of leadership, for which a long patient people cannot, at this late day be unprepared.  This intimation is not a gratuitous one, but based upon positive knowledge.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, April 5, 1862, p. 2

An Enormous Cannon

A cannon, said to weigh 25,000 pounds, while passing through New Haven, on Friday, broke down the car on which it was loaded, while the latter was switching off on a side track.  The curiosity of the public to see the monster became so great that the railroad officials were obliged to put it under lock and key in an engine house.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, April 5, 1862, p. 2

The reason for placing Buckner in . . .

. . . close confinement, at Fort Warren, is stated to be that after declaring upon his honor that he bore no concealed weapons, a loaded revolver was found upon him.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, April 5, 1862, p. 2

Diary of Alexander G. Downing: Friday, February 21, 1862

We are to bid goodby to Lookout Station tomorrow. Some of the good people living here are sorry to see us go. May they have success for their loyalty to the Union cause.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 33

Messrs. Melick & McConnell . . .

. . . are about starting a new paper at Eddyville, to be called the “Eddyville Star.”

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, April 5, 1862, p. 2

An Advance In Wheat

Our Market is now in a condition which should give it the attention of growers of wheat throughout the North West.  By reference to our sales report it will be seen that there was an advance yesterday of about three cents per bushel over previously full figures – prime and choice fall grades selling at ninety to ninety-five cents.  Among the day’s sales were two lots of club aggregating twenty thousand bushels, which sold for future delivery.  These prices point to St. Louis as the best paying market in the West and Northwest at present, and sales of the above kind noted indicate that supplies are insufficient for the wants of buyers.

Our old customers on the upper rivers and at railway stations in Illinois, are too sparing in their shipments this season, probably because they think that we are cut off temporarily from our extensive southern trade connections, we have comparatively little want of the product of their wheat fields.  They know the height character of St. Louis flour, and the production of the mills of this city.  They should rather reflect therefore, that we have supplied and can still supply foreign as well as home ports, Northern States as well as Southern, and that the brands of our millers, particularly those for family use, reach kitchens and bakeries all across the continent from New England to Oregon.  This want, then, is again to be met, large quantities are needed for our immense armies now in the field, and shipments must go to New York and other seaboard ports to be sent thence to foreign distributing marts.  Railroad freights are falling, the Ohio river is in excellent navigable condition to its source, and everything favors the giving of good if not full employment to our mills.  They are ready for such employment, and only need liberal receipts of wheat to give it them.  Cannot our country readers consider that quick sales and fair await their consignments, and send down their grain in something like the old liberal fashion. – {Mo. Rep.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, April 5, 1862, p. 2

Iowa Legislature

DES MOINES, March 31, 1862.

EDITOR HAWK-EYE:

One of the best things of the session “came off” Saturday, the distinguished member from Madison had introduced a bill for the protection of Young Men’s Rights – a very laudable object, to which you will not demur.  The bill provided that young men over 21 years of age, shall be entitled to hold three hundred dollars worth of property exempt from taxation.  Mr. Hardie moved to amend by striking out all after the word “hold,” and insert “a young lady of corresponding age, subject to the Revision of 1860, and he shall be entitled to all the rights and privileges usual in such cases, as long as he holds the same.”  It is needless to add that this amendment met with a most decided support and was adopted, and the bill thus amended, sent to the Senate, where, it is probable, this very plausible “protection” will be outlawed.  If so, in the name of all bachelorhood, I enter a strenuous protest.

To-day begins the last week of this session, and work is crowding upon the Houses from the Committees, and the principal part of the legislation of the session will be done in the few days left.

Although the revenue law has been amended so as to make the penalties much more severe than formerly, and in some cases amounting almost to confiscation, still indications are that there will be much difficulty in collecting sufficient revenue to meet the extraordinary expenditures to be met for the next two years, and the Executive is anxious that some still more efficient measure may be agreed upon by the Assembly before it adjourns.

The Des Moines and Coon rivers are on a tremendous high.  Many houses on the west side of the Conn are inundated.  Steamboats are arriving daily, heavily freighted with goods for the interior.

T. H. S.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, April 5, 1862, p. 2

Rev. Marcus Arrington

It is sad to record the following details of suffering inflicted upon one of the oldest, most useful and honored members of the St. Louis Conference, M. E. Church, South; a man who for many years has been an humble, exemplary and influential member of the Conference, who occupied a high position in the confidence of the Church, and has been intrusted with high and responsible positions in her courts and councils. No man, perhaps, of any Church has stood higher in the esteem of all men of all Churches in Southwest Missouri, where he has so long lived and labored, than Marcus Arrington. Let him tell in his own-way the story of his sufferings:

“When the troubles commenced, in the spring of 1861, I was traveling the Springfield Circuit, St. Louis Conference. I was very particular not to say anything, either publicly or privately, that would indicate that I was a partisan in the strife. I tried to attend to my legitimate work as a traveling preacher.

“But after the war commenced, because I did not advocate the policy of the party in power, I was reported as a secessionist, and in the midst of the public excitement it was vain to attempt to counteract the report.

“At the earnest solicitation of divers persons, I took the oath of loyalty to the Government. This, it was thought, would be sufficient. But we were mistaken.

“Soon after this, my life was threatened by those who were in the employ of the Federal Government. But they were, as I verily believe, providentially prevented from executing their threat.

“After the battle of Oak Hills, or Wilson's Creek, July 10, 1861, it became my duty to do all I could for the relief of the sick and wounded, and because I did this I was assured that I had violated my oath of allegiance. I was advised by Union men, so-called, that it would be unsafe for me to fall into the hands of Federal soldiers. Believing this to be true, when General Fremont came to Springfield, I went to Arkansas, as I think almost any man would have done under the circumstances.

“While in Arkansas, I met Bro. W. G. Caples, who was acting Chaplain to General Price. He requested me to take a chaplaincy in the army, informing me at the time that, by an agreement between Generals Fremont and Price, all men who had taken the oath of loyalty as I did were released from its obligations.

“In December, 1861, I was appointed by Gen. McBride Chaplain of the 7th Brigade, Missouri State Guard. In this capacity I remained with the army until the battle of Pea Ridge, March 7 and 8, 1862. On the second day of this battle, while in the discharge of my duty as Chaplain, I was taken prisoner. Several Chaplains, taken at the same time were released on the field, but I was retained. , I was made to walk to Springfield, a distance of 80 miles. We remained in Springfield one-day and two nights, and whilst many prisoners who had previously taken the oath as I had were paroled to visit their families, I was denied the privilege.

“We were then started off to Rolla, and although I had been assured that I would be furnished transportation, it was a sad mistake, and I had to walk until I literally gave out. What I suffered on that trip I can not describe. When we reached Rolla I was publicly insulted by the Commander of the Post.

“From Rolla we were sent to St. Louis on the cars, lodged one night in the old McDowell College, and the next day sent to Alton, Ill.

“Whilst I was in Alton prison a correspondent of the Republican, writing over the name of ‘Leon,’ represented me as a ‘thief and a perjured villain!’

“I was kept in Alton prison until Aug. 2, 1862, when I was released by a General Order for the release of all Chaplains.

“I then went to St. Louis, and thence South, by way of Memphis, Tenn., into exile. I would have returned to Missouri after the war closed but for the restrictions put upon ministers of the gospel by the new Constitution.

“Eternity alone will reveal what I have suffered in exile. The St. Louis Conference is properly my home, and her preachers have a warm place in my affections. They are very near my heart. May they ever be successful.”

Rev. Mr. Arrington pines for his old home and friends, and few men have a deeper hold upon the hearts of the people in Missouri. Thousands would welcome him to warm hearts and homes after these calamities are overpast.

SOURCE: William M. Leftwich, Martyrdom in Missouri, Volume 2, p. 287-90


See Also:

• Among the prisoners taken at Pea Ridge was . . .

Diary of Alexander G. Downing: Thursday, February 20, 1862

No news of importance. Grant's recent victories have made the Union sentiment stronger in this locality, which will be a big help to the few Union men left here.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 33

There is but one Bull Run . . .

. . .but the rebels have made a good many bully runs.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, April 5, 1862, p. 2

Sorghum

For several years past a considerable breadth of land has been profitably devoted to the cultivation of the Cane in Southern Iowa and a very large amount of syrup manufactured, so much so as to cut off almost entirely the importation of molasses, and greatly reduce that of sugar.  The process of manufacture has been improved from year to year, with a perceptible improvement in the syrup, which is quoted in this market at 25@30 cents per gallon.  Such improvements as time will undoubtedly bring about, ridding the syrup of all vegetable matter and producing a fair per cent. of sugar, will enable, at least, Southern Iowa to produce all the sugar and molasses needed for home consumption, and thus be independent.  Within a few days we have been shown very fair sugar, whiter than New Orleans, and in other respects equal to it, made in this State from cane grown in our soil, by Mr. Brainard, of Linn county.  He has procured a patent for a sugar boiler, now being manufactured by Mr. Hendric in this city, with which, he claims, any farmer can manufacture the best of syrup upon his own farm.  We know nothing about it.  But we have always felt satisfied that in the end superior sugar and molasses would be made from Imphee.  Whether Mr. Brainard’s Sugar Boiler will do all he claims for it or not, we are confident this result will be finally attained, and for this reason hope that cane will be grown in larger quantities the present season.  A large refinery has been recently established at Chicago, where Sorghum syrup is reboiled, purified, and greatly improved.  All other expedients failing, a part of the crop might be sent to Chicago, as an experiment.  At any [rate], while it takes a bushel of corn to buy a pound of sugar, growing sugar cane will be found a great deal more profitable than raising grain.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, April 5, 1862, p. 2