The new South. (Port Royal, S.C.) 1862-1867, December 19, 1863, Image 2
TH E ft E F 8 0 U T Jtl.
JOS. H. SEARS, Editor and Proprietor.
WWKOYAL. SATURDAY, DEC 10, 18G3.
The New South can be obtained of the following
persons:
J. C. Alexander, P. M., Beaufort.
J. W. Allen, P. M., St. Augustine, Fla.
W. C. Morrill, F. M.
L. It. Brooks, 39tli 111. Vols.
E. 1). Doollttle, Vol. Engineers.
AVm. Mason, 5'2d Pa. Vols.
Sergt C. S. Gay, Co. M. 1st Mass. Cavalry.
Regiments will please send in their orders the
?arly part of the week.
pni itihai sppnin atihnq
. The recent brilliant victories of the Federal
arms have induced numerous partisan journals at
the North, to offer their views in regard to a reconstruction
of the Government, and the final
restoration of all the States of the Union. These
speculations are premature. 1"hev have no national
significance. They are crude, unripe reflections,
and have no foreshadowing influence.
Besides we are not out of the icootls yet. The Kebellion
is not dead. It may be half finished, but
we had best do till the fighting, smash the Confederacy
entirely up before we attempt political
jugglery and "slight of hand " to the Constitution.
The capriciousness of political power give but
little stability to promises, even in limes of peace;
but at this period they would not be worth the
paper on which they are written. And to offer
* the olive branch to an enemy before he is conquered,
and who is as deliant as at the commencement
of the struggle, is perfectly absurd. The
rebels have not sued for peace. Thev have not
acknowledged the hopelessness of their cause.
And notwithstanding the partial success of Meade,
jaid the substantial victory of Grant, they stand
to-day confronting our armies, and seem determined
to arbitrate only by the logic of battle.
How absurd, then, to offer them terms of amnesty,
-or conciliation, or to speculate upon political!
problems at this time. !
Every loyal citizen desires a speedy termination
-of hostilities ; and every patriot hopes to see the
war so finished as to admit of no discordant and
incongruous elements to enkindle future strife.
How this can be accomplished other than on the
broad basis of Freedom, we cannot well divine.
Slavery iras the great fountain-head of the liebelii-jn,
and from it have flowed all the fruitful evils ol' |
sectional liate and discord. To harmonize the !
Xorth and South, and yet leave the chief and j
original cause of mischief intact, and protected ;
.and defended at the expense of all the national j
interests, is to us incomprehensible. It will re- j
quire something more than political speculations i
and partisan legerdemain to settle a question so
vast and complicated in all its aspect*.
Political sophists think that granting amnesty t
and pardon to the rebels?killing the fatted calf? ;
eating themselves back into the Union, is just the
.? #.< - - I
way to <10 it. lsy tnis means they nope to patch
up our broken and dissevered Union ; making it j
stronger and more adhesive than ever before.
Preposterous infatuation! A political compromise
will be of no possible value. It will leave j
us exactly where we were before hostilities commenced
, and the blood of two hundred thousand
men will be shed in vain. And if old political
hacks, the dullards and sophists of either, or all
parties, arc delegated to adjudicate and settle our
difficulties after the sword is hud aside, it were
better that our battles had never been fought? j
. better that our victories were aievev won.
Wlien the Rebellion is absolutely dead?Grant
has broken its legs, if not its back?then will
come a crisis more to be dreaded than that in
which we are now passing through. It will be the
resurreetion of nnrtv?the re-union of Govern
iment cheats anil plunderers, and the perpetration
of even-thing low and beastly in politics. We
' shall have an array of politicians numerically
! larger than Alexander lead to conquest; more
cruel and devastating than Murius marshalled in
J the waving days of llome. The ending of the
; war (judging from the partisan press) will com- j
: mence a tournament in politics?new and vast i
; schemes of usurpation?a grand raid on the i
j treasury?a magnificent steeple-chase for plan-'
j der and power, and a saturnalia and hullabaloo
among politicians generally, God help us!
LETTER FROM MORRIS ISLAND.
Correspondence of The New South.
Moeris Island, S. C., Dee. 11th, ISC".
The dearth of news on this island was broken
on Sunday last by the appalling disaster to the
Monitor Weehaicken, which went down in the terrible
Xorther of that day; at ubout three o'clock, j
P. II. How the accident occurred, what caused
| her to founder, is even at this lato date, unknown
I to us. The Signal Officers here attended to communicate
with the flag-ship, in order to ascertain
the particulars; but with the exception of learning
that thirty souls, three officers and twenty-seven men
went down with the ill-fated ship?"never more to
rise until the sea shall give up her dead"?all is
I mere conjecture and supposition,
j The Weehawken was commanded by Capt. Calhoun
; she was one of the first turreted-ships built,
?and had performed some of the most daring feats
and valuable sendees of the squadron. It was the
lyeehaiekin that lad the iron-clad fleet hi the first
attack on Siuntor, on the seventh of April Jast; receiving
the concentrated fire of that fort, also the
broadsides of Wagner, Moultrie, and .Gregg, as
well as the fire from the various batteries on James
Island. She was the first in that glorious attack,
and the last of our fleet to retire--sending the last
shot into the enemy's works. She was then commanded
by Capt. Rodgehs, now pu the "Dictator."
The melancholy fate of the Weehatchen, and of
the brave, proud hearts that shared her honors
and final destiny, suggests many sad thoughts,
and a wish that she might have " gone down, " (if j
at all,) in a contest with the-enemy?proudly loading
the squadron, as she did in April last?hr.vvyng j
the hurricane of shot and shell, and going down ;
with the old flag waving defiance to the foe.
MASONIC LODGS OX TOI.LY ISLAND.
A few days since, being on a flying visit to '
Headquarters, I visited the Masonic Lodge build- j
ing, recently completed. It is a beautiful affair? '
the structure being fifty feet long, and some.twen- !
ty-five wide; covered with canvass and tarpaulin. !
The interior is thatched, (east and west walls) '
with palmetto-leaves ; the rafters and posts with
evergreens, interspersed with red berries of the 1
hofly, or holm-tree ; making a pleasing ami cheer-1
ing contrast to the eye. As the Lodge is used em .
Sundays for religious worship, it has a beautiful j
t\ in . i?..i .i - ii. A ii. TT .11 .1 :
uorie A liar, lesioouea wiui x uinieuo, noiiy iuki
Magnolia. So magnificent a temple, of a christian '
anil brotherly fraternity, on that wilderness island, !
called r.p visions of magic and dreams of encliant-1
meut. Who bnilt it ??where did it come from ??
under whose masterly genius was it created, em- (
hellished and made " a thing of beauty, and a
joy forever?" Somebody said Lieut. D..C. 11 bowk, '
now Quarter-Master to the Engineer Corps, was ,
the artist, architect and builder. But I can't say. j
XTW FJ.AG-STAJT AT XIEAD-QrABTEKS.
Saturday last was a gala-dav on Folly, in dedi- j
eating (is that right ?) the new and splendid flagstaff
front ing the General's Head-Quarters. I hc^ar 1
CaI Hi'av.To fnviiitliofl 4Tin mnci/> i!a_ !
vuav v?/i? t vivi a uctuvi iuiui>nivvi ii*v aiaia^av 9 \ivw
laehnients from the. Seventy-sixth Pennsylvania, :
and the Engineer Corps, were the guard, and that
Jack Hamilton's celebrated battery, fired the sa- .
lute. General Gill mole ran up the fiag;Asst
Adjt. General Btt.oip. "did" the preliminaries, .
and George Shea, Esij., of the New York bar,
delivered an address, which I am told was a scholarly
production; terse and significant in its review
and foreshadowing*, of this heroic besieging
army. It was also creditable alike to his oratorical
abilities and to his crenerons appreciation ox" the
brave 44 soldiers of the ItepuLlic."
Further particulars of the W.?ehawken calamity?Explosion
in Sumter?Harbor cbstructicns coming down?Soldier
shot for Desertion?Skeleton rebels about.
Morris Island, S. C., Dec. 17th, 18G3.
The only additional items known here, relative
to the Weehateken calamity, is the cause of the
disaster, and a partial list of the victims. On
the day she went down, her forecastle hutch was left
open, and there being a " Norther," with a rough
sea at the time, and as shot and shell were acciK
undated in that part of the ship, she filled and
sunk in less than three minutes! Thirty-one men
were loot, four of whom were Engineers ;?names,
as follow s, viz:
Augustus Mitched, 3d Assistant Engineer,
George W. McGowax, '< 44
Mil Maeriex, " 44
Mr. Spuxburx, 44 "
The names of the other unfortunate men I
cannot learn, as I have no means of communicating
with the fleet. Capt. Bukce was in command
of the Weehaicken on the day she foundered, but
at the time of the accident, was absent on the
flag ship.
On the 11th inst., an explosion occurred in the
ruins of Fort Sumter?sending the debris " sky
high," and making many of ua believe that the
Bebs. were deserting that citadel of fame. Many
of the Confederate garrison (in the fort,) were
seen climbing and scrambling over the North
West angle, as if trying to escape. Probably it
was an accidental explosion. The rag of Treason
yet floats there.
For several days after the recent severe storm
and gale, large quantities of hewn-timber, plank,
etc., came ashore at the North end of this island?
indicating that somo of the obstructions of the
channel were washed away. One large box, perhaps
lifty feet long by twenty-five wide, also came
ashore near the Inlet. It was bnilt like a floating
battery, but may not have been used for that
purpose. If these wero a pait of the "obstructions"
to the main ship-channel, as many believe, now is
.1 A * _ il. . VT A. . At M 1 i
tne ume lor uie ..>avy 10 -go in ana smasn
things generally. An admirable, if not an
Admiral idea!
One ofthe^saddest scenes that occur in war, was
witnessed here yesterday. Private .John Kendaix,
Company " G," 3d New Hampshire Volunteers,
was shot for desertion. Ilis ease was a very
aggravated one ; he having deserted from his regiment?gone
into another (Union) [camp, and
declared himself "a deserter from the enemy,"
etc.. expecting probably to be sent North. The
Court-ilartial found him "guilty the sentence
was confirmed, and duly carried out yesterday.
I did not witness the execution?my unsophisticated
mind not liking such scenes.
The high tides of the past week licked up mucch
of this Island ; and also un-earthed large numbers
of the rebel dead, near Fort Putnam ;?in fact
the beach here lias bceu hideously ornamented,
with the dry bones of the Rebellion. I saw aui
Army Correspondont, to day, walking off with.
the skull of some rebellious chevalier. "Alas,
pvx>r Yorick !"?""Where be your gibes now?your
gambols ? your songs? your flashes of merri-.
mont ? when you thought of knocking the Federal.
u muu eicnuu :
Tubjll-Cais;.
'm m m '
SE&EKAudP-The habitues of Union Square w.ere
the of nous repast of music Monday.evetmj^
fr?n the ^jL?ruid, under the leadership.of
Mr. GrtV. IngaiiLS. The choicest ope rati#
morceaux were rendered in an artistic manner, not
forgetting our own National Melodies. Each mem-.
ber will please accept the thanks of ourselves, and;
those who sere present.