The free South. (Beaufort, S.C.) 1863-1864, April 09, 1864, Image 1
THE
VOLUME II.
I For the Krir South.
T lie Picket ^loaitor before Charleston.
TH.. iii.rji? iw it?rb llirl ilrivirv now.
And silent as the tomh.
Except when o'er the moaning waves
Is heard the sullen boom
Ol some bold " Parrott," cag'd iu Gregg.
Which. speaking plain as life,
Feuds its dread messenger of death
To those who eaus'd the strife.
But what is that which, >j>ectre-like.
Shows its uark tigure there?
Who said "a ehee?e-hox oa a mft "
Could boast so hold an air ?
Ah, yes', 'tis it, a "Monitor."
Like champion Knight of old,
And it's lone tower, by Vulcan forg'd.
Frowns on the rebel hold.
.No sound Is heard ou that low craft,
Thi' waters clasp it deep:
Yet there are eyes to pierce the gloom
While some arc wrapt in sleep;'
The hatch is down. au<l o'er the deck
The waves now wildly dash ;
And 'mid the raging elements
Is seen a signal flash.
A rebel " ram " is on the way.
To take a midnight glance;
Perhaps to gaze on Sumter's corse.
Perhaps to get a chance
Of testing Iter new coat of mail, ?
If so, she's sure to feel
The vengeance of a flfteen-inch.
And hear its thnnd'riug peal.
Light hearts are iu tliat iron keej\
They gladly hail the strife;
To grapple with the traitor foe,
They nobly peril life;
The hr:\vf> old Kls" that o' er tlu'm floats
Shall never sink from view,
While there remains one stalworth anu
To God and Country true.
But seeth' intruder hesitates.
A thought has crossed her mind;
^The hallow'd name " Wechawken "
Is whispered by the wind;
For though she rests beneath the wave.
Not dead, but in a trance.
That word recalls th' Atlanta's fate.
That 'a why she won't advauce.
And thus it is the Monitors
Keep night-watch o'er the fleet;
Jti'ltir.u in J'arvn as they are,
Their iron hail would greet
The coming of Secc s<n's best.
And scourge her from the main; ?
Bright be the name of Ericson,
The son of Tubal C ain!
P. W. Con oon, Morri* Inland. ,vf\.
Edward Everett on our Navy and llie '
Alabama.
Edward Everett, who presided at the
dinner given l>v the merchants of 15oston
to the Naval Committee of Congress, in
March," made an eloqnent speech con-!
oerning our navy and its work. After
alluding to the extraordinary growth of :
our naval force since the beginning of the
war, he said :
!
Every shin yard, public and private, 1
has been tested to its utmost capacity ;
every furnace in the country has been
kept at white heat night and day, and an
amount of work has been performed on
the coast and rivers, and a series of rewrits
achieved, without a parallel, as I
believe, when the disadvantages are considered
under which the navy labored at
the commencement, in naval history. Let i
Norfolk. Hatteras, ltoanoke Island, Port
Royal. Pcnsacola, the Rio Grande. Fort ;
Henry. Fort Donelson, Island No. Ten,
Memphis. Vicksbnrg, Port Hudson. the
shattered fragments of Sumter, Fort Jacksou
and Fort St. Philip, the city of New '
<*rlea ns ; the Athnl't, demolished by tive
shots front tbe Wtehwrk'tr: 1.045 vessels
captured from the enemy up to the tirst
V/irptnher. and from 70 to 80 since ,
added : the closure of over port save one, j
nnd that guarded by twenty vessels, on <
this immense line of coast, bear witness 1
to the activity and efficiency of this arm
oi' the service. I need not, of course, |
disclaim any thought of undervaluing
what has been done by our noble armies
and their gallaat commanders, who have ;
borne their full share iu many of these !
achievements, but I am sure that they, J
one and all, will do justieo to the efficient
co-operation of the navy.
Aud then that marvelous creation of the
genius aud skill of Ericsson, the wonder
of the age, the turreted monitor. If there
it au incident in the history of the war,,
I
?
1 FRE
BEAUFORT, SOUTH CA1
which more than any other deserves to he
referred to as a direct interposition of an
overruling Providence, it is the arrival of
the heaven-directed little vessel at Portress
Monroe, after her rough, uncomfortable
voyage from New York, on the
evening of March 8th, 18(S'J, at tne close
of a clay of havoc, I had almost said of
terror. The mind recoils from the contemplation
of the State of tilings which
would have existed had the ravages of the
Merrinwc been renewed on the morning
of the i>th.
But the avenger was nt liand ; after an
all but sleepless voyage from New York
of fifty-six hours, in a vessel whose construction?whose
strange enginery?whose
armament?whose capacity for offensive
or defensive service were all untried, the
gallant "Worden, at sunrise the next morning,
bore calmly down to the encounter
with his gigantic adversary, amidst the
wrecks of his yesterday's devastations,
(the topmasts of the sunken Cumberland
peering mournfully above the waters, the
Congress burned to the water's, edge, the
Minnesota, "marked out as the next victim,
helplessly aground),went round and round
him, to use the graphic language of an
eye-witness, "as a cooper goes round a
cask," and drove him crippled and discomfitted
back to his harbor, never more
to leave it until he went up self-destroyed
in fragments to the sky. [Great applause.]
When the noble young commander ol
the Monitor dropped upon the floor of hi*
pilot house, stunned, lacerated, blackened
and bleeding, with scarcely a vestige
of humanity in his manly countenance,
he had inaugurated a new era in nava!
warfare ! When the iron-clads and monnr>w
in onm-qo nf POTlstruction ai'
completed, we shall have, ui>on our coast
ami in our harbors, a defensive fora
which will relieve us from all possibility
of foreign aggression.
But this torpid, inefficient, fossil navy
do n't catch the Alabama ! No, nor die
torpid, inefficient, lazy Nelson, in command
of the fleet with which lie foughl
the battle of the Nile, catcli Napoleor
with a force in ships of war and transports
of more than four hundred vessels,
shadowing the sea for miles, though lit
chased liim, or rather thought he chased
him, round the Mediterranean, from tin
10th of May till the 1st of August, as th
cat chases her tail, Napoleon stopping,
by way of episode, to capture Malta or
the way, and on the 22d of June actually
crossing the track of Nelson a few hours
before. ,
Neither was he caught by the English,
Russian and Turkish fleets-?the English
still commanded by Nelson?when the
following year he retnmed by a vovnge oi
six or seven weeks from Egypt to Prance,
passing a week with his relations at Ajaccio,
by the way. Neither was he caught
in 1815 on his passage from Elba, though
the English knew he was plotting his escape,
and a French cruiser hailed him on
the wav, and hearing his corvette was
nnnnipo/1 Iwtnr flip iMmiOmi
111/111 XJil/Uf 1.U\|U11VV? MV> ?? ???' ? ?
was, "who answered in person that he 44 wa.>
perfectly well." The Mediterranean is
but a mill pond compared with the seas
over which the Alabama roams, and whenever
the pirate is hard pressed, he slips
into a net'trul port. [Applause.] It ol
course must be by mere chance if he is
ever captured.
Campbell's 44 Hohenltndfx. "?Ever?
Englishman remembers Campbell's noble
poem of ' Hohenlinden;" bnt few perhaps
had considered, until Sir Edward Cost
led the way. how entirely that poem misrepresents
sill the circumstances of the
battle which it has made so famous. It
is ubunt as near the fact as is David's
celebrated picture of Bonaparte crossing
the Alps ou a prancing charger to the
reality of the passing of the St. Bernard.
The essence of the poetical Hohenlinden
is a night attack; but the true battle of
Hohenlinden began at eight or nine
o'clock in the morning. It is rerv likely
Hie river Tver flows swift and dark in
winter: but it flows many miles from Hohenlinden;
it does indeed wash the walls
of Munich, and banners may have waved
upon those walls: nor would their waving
have had less influence upon the battle
because invisible, through distance, from
the scene. The onlj feature common to
the real and the imaginary spectacle was
the snow which fell heavily during, although
it did not cover the ground before
the battle. Perhaps the poet never heard
?
E SOI
i >
[JOLIXA, APRIL 9, 1864.
tlmt slash and mud were the allies of
France at Hohenlinden, and that Moreau )
won the battle by judging accurately how
inner bis Assailant would stick and strng
gle ill the forest paths, where it was no
more possible to rush to glory than it is ,
to gallop over an Alpine ridge.
Proclamation by President Lincoln. ,
Washington, March 26, 1804.
Whereat, it has become necessary to I
define the eases in which insurgent ene- \
I mies are entitled to the benefits of the '
J proclamation of the President of the 1
! United States, which was made on the
; 8th day of December, 1863, and the man,
j ner in which they shall proceed to avail 1
themselves of these benefits; and where- !
. as, the objects of , that proclamation were
' to suppress the insurrection and restore
j the authority of the United States; and
I whereas, the amnesty therein proposed by
r the President was offered with reference
! I to these objects alone,
(J Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln,
; President of the United States, do hereby ;
i proclaim and declare, that the said pro- j
J clamation does not apply to the- case of
persons who, at the time when they seek
the benefits thereof by taking the oath
, thereby prescribed, are in military, naval
I or civil confinement or custody, or under
' bonds, or on parole of the civil, military
or naval authorities or agents of the j
; United States, as prisoners of war, or j
( persons detained for offences of any kind, .
either before or after conviction, and that, 1
j on the contrary, it does apply only to
these persons who, being yet at large and
I free from any arrest, confinement or duress,
shall voluntarily come forward and
, take the said oath, with the purpose of
, restoring peace and establishing the na|
tional authority.
T Prisoners excluded from the amnesty
offered in the said proclamation may ap.
ply to the President for clemency, like all
I I other offenders, ami their application will ;
receive due consideration,
t I do further declare and proclaim that
( the oath prescribed in the aforesaid proclamation
of the 8tli of December, 1803,
may be taken and subscribed before any
[ commissioned officer, civil, military or
[ naval, in the service of the United States,
> ; or any civil or military officer of a Shite
, I or Territory not in insurrection, who, by
, the laws thereof, may be qualified for
1 administering oaths.
r ! All officers who receive such oaths are
, hereby authorized to give certificates hav'
ing thereon the names of the persons re- '
spectively by whom they are made ; and i
such . fficers are hereby required to trans- '
, mit the originnl records of such oaths, at j
! ;is early a day as may be convenient, to i
' j the Department of State, where they will
be deposited and remain in the archives
j of ihe government.
The Secretary of State will keep a registry
thereof, and will, on application, in
proper cases, issue certificates of such
records in the customary form of official j
[, certificates.
Iu testimony whereof I have hereunto pet my hand, j
' and caused the seal of the United State* to be af- ,
t fixed. Done at the city of Washington, the 2?5th |
day of March, in the rear of our Lord 1?iJ4. and of !
the Independence of tiie United States the eitrhtv- '
eighth.
[ i ~ ABRAHAM LINCOLN. !
I By the President:
Wilj.iam 11. Sf.waru, Secretar* of State.
I _ _
Arkansas.?This State, at an election I
just held, hn9 adopted, by an immense
- majority, a Constitution forever prohibit- I
, 1 iug slavery ! Think of that for Arkansas, :
i the land of the Bowie-knife and the re;
volver, of duelling and lynch law ! (fov.
| Isaac Murphy and the whole Free State |
, j ticket arc elected. Guerrilla bauds made
i violent threats. Nevertheless the citizens j
; , were enthusiastic in their determination !
. ' to vote the State back into tho Union,
! j many going to tho polls at the risk of I
I their lives. The military authorities used |
? i - a _ . i I
i every exertion to protect voters. auuui |
; } 10,000 votes were polled, and only a small
, linmbcr, voted against the free Constitu- i
tion ! The Legislature will meet next .
month to elect Senators to Congress ; the i
election lias already taken place for Representatives
to the House. The whole j
macliinery of the State government will j
. soon be in oi>eration throughout all parts !
, of the State which have been reclaimed i
from rebel control, now amounting to
nearly fonr-tifths.
Life is happy at moments. Has any
one ever added these moments together?
If so, what is the sum?
Zbe litcbfielb
"T Historical
Society.
ITH>^
NUMBER 14.
Clipping.
Pretty Good.?A correspondent,
doubtless a believer in two terms all
around, semis us the following:
Why are Lincoln and Hamlin "one and
inseparable?" Behold the reason!
Abra Ham Lix coin.?lirooji'lyn Union.
Rev. Mr. Robie, of the Buffalo A<tr<>rate,says:
"Some complain that there are
so many naughty soldiers in town. What
if they do act a it 1th' tnn/mtn/ orcwdonallo!
Home and social friendsliips press hard
upon them when furlougliea and. relaxed
from duty. We lutrehwen them for months
kx/elher irheti they ire re vomjmlfnd. to tte as
sober as deacons. While at home and
among friends they feel, we suppose, like
birds released from a cage. But the hard
and stern duties of the field will be felt
again by these defenders of our couutry."
A letter from New-Orleans to a NewEngland
organ of Gen. Banks, written in
defense of his existing serfage system in
Louisiana says:
"Tobias (iibson. one of the most extensive planter.*
in Louisiana, freely expressed to me in conversation
his belief in compensated free black labor, and s:M
'that (?eu. Banks's order had already saved him ?100,000.'"
Precisely. Saved the planter $100,Olid,
and saved it at the expense of the halfemancipated
half-reeuslaved. blacks whom
Gen. Banks compels to work for $8 a
month, though the planter can richly
afford three times that amount.
A new style of shell, invented by Capt.
William S. Williams, of Ohio, has recently
been successfully experimented
with lit Vick8burg, in a 20 pound Parrott
gun. One shell, weighing twenty pounds,
was, by this means of explosion, broken
infn nnr> linnrbWl nrnl fwpntv-spvPTi nippps
which surpasses any of a similar kind now
in use.
The New Moxitoe Moxadxock, just
launched at Boston, is built entirely of
oak, except her deck and turret, and is
coppered all below her armor, in which
slit* ilIfYerts from any utliei' <Jl .
has two turrets 90 feet apart, of iron, 11
inches thick, of one-inch plates, each to
cany two 15-incli guns. Her speed will
be about six knots an hour. She has
been two years building and will be completed
in about three months.
A gentleman in one of the towns in
Maine enlisted last week, but the surgeons
rejected him on account of his teeth. He
insisted that he would carry a coffee mill
that would fix hard tack so that he could
eat it.
Au infamous old bachelor, being aske d
if he ever witnessed a public execution,
replied, "No, but I once saw a marriage."
Why is Senator Sprague responsible
for the tightness in the money market?
Because he has the sole custody of Sec- .
retary Chase's first issue.
To win the regard of some people, give
* ii i. i.1 l
your nana 10 assist mem ;uoug, iw
the respect of others, help tlieni on with
your foot.
"Tommy, what does b-e-u-c-h spell?
" Don't know ma'am." " What, you little
numbskull, what are you sitting on?"
Tommy (looking sheepish)?" 1 don't like
to tell."
Miss Braddon. the author of the sensation
novels, has gratefully married Ikt
publisher. They will hereafter issue some
lively works.
More than half the uuniber of votes ordinarily
polled in the times of peac e, were
east in several counties of Tennessee at
the recent election. When it is remembered
that a large number of the men are
absent in the rebel army, it is clear that a
very largo proportion of the population
taktt an active interest in tho reconstruction.
Some Indiana soldiers on a scout in the
mountains of Georgia, came npou a house
occupied onl}* by an old woman. "Well,
wlmt. niwvnii? sHcesh'/" said the
lender. "No," said slie. "What then?"
"Baptist," said she, promptly, "and always
was."
The total receipts of Sanitary Fairs
held since November last, commencing
with the Pioneer Fair at Chicago, is estimated
at over one million of dollars, The
people of New York are predicting that
the Metropolitan Fair, to open in that city
on the 28th inst., will produce a million
more, while those in teres ted in the Mississippi
Valley Fair, to be held in St.
Lonis, are estimating their receipts iu
advance at ?000,000.
k
i