Read Ebook: My Diary: North and South (vol. 2 of 2) by Russell William Howard Sir

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Camp Randolph--Cannon practice--Volunteers--"Dixie"--Forced return from the South--Apathy of the North--General retrospect of politics--Energy and earnestness of the South--Firearms--Position of Great Britain towards the belligerents--Feeling towards the Old Country 22

Heavy Bill--Railway travelling--Introductions--Assassinations --Tennessee--"Corinth"--"Troy"--"Humbolt"--"The Confederate camp"--Return Northwards--Columbus--Cairo--The slavery question --Prospects of the war--Coarse journalism 41

Camp at Cairo--The North and the South in respect to Europe-- Political reflections--Mr. Colonel Oglesby--My speech--Northern and Southern soldiers compared--American country-walks-- Recklessness of life--Want of cavalry--Emeute in the camp-- Defects of army medical department--Horrors of war--Bad discipline 63

Progress of events--Policy of Great Britain as regarded by the North--The American Press and its comments--Privacy a luxury--Chicago--Senator Douglas and his widow--American ingratitude--Apathy in volunteering--Colonel Turchin's camp 88

Niagara--Impression of the Falls--Battle scenes in the neighbourhood--A village of Indians--General Scott--Hostile movements on both sides--The Hudson--Military school at West Point--Return to New York--Altered appearance of the city-- Misery and suffering--Altered state of public opinion as to the Union and towards Great Britain 96

Departure for Washington--A "servant"--The American Press on the War--Military aspect of the States--Philadelphia--Baltimore --Washington--Lord Lyons--Mr. Sumner--Irritation against Great Britain--"Independence" day--Meeting of Congress--General state of affairs 114

Interview with Mr. Seward--My passport--Mr. Seward's views as to the war--Illumination at Washington--My "servant" absents himself--New York journalism--The Capitol--Interior of Congress--The President's Message--Speeches in Congress--Lord Lyons--General M'Dowell--Low standard in the army--Accident to the "Stars and Stripes"--A street row--Mr. Bigelow--Mr. N.P. Willis 124

Arlington Heights and the Potomac--Washington--The Federal camp--General M'Dowell--Flying rumours--Newspaper correspondents --General Fremont--Silencing the Press and Telegraph--A Loan Bill--Interview with Mr. Cameron--Newspaper criticism on Lord Lyons--Rumours about M'Clellan--The Northern army as reported and as it is--General M'Clellan 142

Fortress Monroe--General Butler--Hospital accommodation--Wounded soldiers--Aristocratic pedigrees--A great gun--Newport News--Fraudulent contractors--General Butler--Artillery practice--Contraband negroes--Confederate lines--Tombs of American loyalists--Troops and contractors--Duryea's New York Zouaves--Military calculations--A voyage by steamer to Annapolis 160

The "State House" at Annapolis--Washington--General Scott's quarters--Want of a staff--Rival camps--Demand for horses--Popular excitement--Lord Lyons--General M'Dowell's movements--Retreat from Fairfax Court House--General Scott's quarters--General Mansfield--Battle of Bull's Run 186

Skirmish at Bull's Run--The crisis in Congress--Dearth of horses--War prices at Washington--Estimate of the effects of Bull's Run--Password and countersign--Transatlantic view of "The Times"--Difficulties of a newspaper correspondent in the field 202

To the scene of action--The Confederate camp--Centreville-- Action at Bull Run--Defeat of the Federals--Disorderly retreat to Centreville--My ride back to Washington 214

A runaway crowd at Washington--The army of the Potomac in retreat--Mail-day--Want of order and authority--Newspaper lies--Alarm at Washington--Confederate prisoners--General M'Clellan--M. Mercier--Effects of the defeat on Mr. Seward and the President--M'Dowell--General Patterson 250

Attack of illness--General M'Clellan--Reception at the White House--Drunkenness among the Volunteers--Visit from Mr. Olmsted--Georgetown--Intense heat--M'Clellan and the Newspapers --Reception at Mr. Seward's--Alexandria--A storm--Sudden death of an English officer--The Maryland Club--A Prayer and Fast Day--Financial difficulties 267

Return to Baltimore--Colonel Carroll--A priest's view of the abolition of Slavery--Slavery in Maryland--Harper's Ferry--John Brown--Back by train to Washington--Further accounts of Bull Run--American vanity--My own unpopularity for speaking the truth--Killing a "Nigger" no murder--Navy Department 284

A tour of inspection round the camp--A troublesome horse--M'Dowell and the President--My opinion of Bull Run indorsed by American officers--Influence of the Press--Newspaper correspondents--Dr. Bray--My letters--Captain Meagher--Military adventures--Probable duration of the war--Lord A. Vane Tempest--The American journalist--Threats of assassination 304

A Crimean acquaintance--Personal abuse of myself--Close firing--A reconnaissance--Major-General Bell--The Prince de Joinville and his nephews--American estimate of Louis Napoleon --Arrest of members of the Maryland Legislature--Life at Washington--War cries--News from the Far West--Journey to the Western States--Along the Susquehannah and Juniata--Chicago-- Sport in the prairie--Arrested for shooting on Sunday--The town of Dwight--Return to Washington--Mr. Seward and myself 341

Another Crimean acquaintance--Summary dismissal of a newspaper correspondent--Dinner at Lord Lyons'--Review of artillery-- "Habeas Corpus"--The President's duties--M'Clellan's policy--The Union army--Soldiers and the patrol--Public men in America--Mr. Seward and Lord Lyons--A judge placed under arrest--Death and funeral of Senator Baker--Disorderly troops and officers-- Official fibs--Duck-shooting at Baltimore 366

General Scott's resignation--Mrs. A. Lincoln--Unofficial mission to Europe--Uneasy feeling with regard to France--Ball given by the United States cavalry--The United States army--Success at Beaufort--Arrests--Dinner at Mr. Seward's--News of Captain Wilkes and the Trent--Messrs. Mason and Slidell--Discussion as to Wilkes--Prince de Joinville--The American press on the Trent affair--Absence of thieves in Washington--"Thanksgiving Day"--Success thus far in favour of the North 392

A Captain under arrest--Opening of Congress--Colonel Dutassy--An ex-pugilist turned Senator--Mr. Cameron--Ball in the officers' huts--Presentation of standards at Arlington--Dinner at Lord Lyons'--Paper currency--A polyglot dinner--Visit to Washington's Tomb--Mr. Chase's Report--Colonel Seaton--Unanimity of the South--The Potomac blockade--A Dutch-American Crimean acquaintance--The American Lawyers on the Trent affair--Mr. Sumner--M'Clellan's Army--Impressions produced in America by the English Press on the affair of the Trent--Mr. Sumner on the crisis--Mutual feelings between the two nations--Rumours of war with Great Britain 410

News of the death of the Prince Consort--Mr. Sumner and the Trent Affair--His dispatch to Lord Russell--The Southern Commissioners given up--Effects on the friends of the South--My own unpopularity at New York--Attack of fever--My tour in Canada--My return to New York in February--Successes of the Western States--Mr. Stanton succeeds Mr. Cameron as Secretary of War--Reverse and retreat of M'Clellan--My free pass--The Merrimac and Monitor--My arrangement to accompany M'Clellan's head-quarters--Mr. Stanton refuses his sanction--National vanity wounded by my truthfulness--My retirement and my return to Europe 426

MY DIARY NORTH AND SOUTH.

Down the Mississippi--Hotel at Vicksburg--Dinner--Public meeting--News of the progress of the war--Slavery and England--Jackson--Governor Pettus--Insecurity of life--Strong Southern enthusiasm--Troops bound for the North--Approach to Memphis--Slaves for sale--Memphis--General Pillow.

The Mississippi is assuredly the most uninteresting river in the world, and I can only describe it hereabout by referring to the account of its appearance which I have already given--not a particle of romance in spite of oratorical patriots and prophets, can ever shine from its depths, sacred to cat and buffalo fish, or vivify its turbid waters.

Before noon we were in sight of Vicksburg, which is situated on a high bank or bluff on the left bank of the river, about 400 miles above New Orleans and some 120 miles from Natchez.

Altogether it was a semi-barbarous scene, but the host was active and attentive; and after all, his recommendations were very much like those which it was the habit of the taverners in old London to call out in the streets to the passers-by when the joints were ready. The little negroes who ran about to take orders were smart, but now and then came into violent collision, and were cuffed incontinently. One mild-looking little fellow stood by my chair and appeared so sad that I asked him "Are you happy, my boy?" He looked quite frightened. "Why don't you answer me?" "I'se afeered, sir; I can't tell that to Massa." "Is not your master kind to you?" "Massa very kind man, sir; very good man when he is not angry with me," and his eyes filled with tears to the brim.

The war fever is rife in Vicksburg, and the Irish and German labourers, to the extent of several hundreds, have all gone off to the war.

When dinner was over, the mayor and several gentlemen of the city were good enough to request that I would attend a meeting, at a room in the railway-station, where some of the inhabitants of the town had assembled. Accordingly I went to the terminus and found a room filled with gentlemen. Large china bowls, blocks of ice, bottles of wine and spirits, and boxes of cigars were on the table, and all the materials for a symposium.

The news of the defeat of an expedition from Fortress Monroe against a Confederate post at Great Bethel, has caused great rejoicing. The accounts show that there was the grossest mismanagement on the part of the Federal officers. The Northern papers particularly regret the loss of Major Winthrop, aide-de-camp to General Butler, a writer of promise. At four o'clock p.m. I bade the company farewell, and the train started for Jackson. The line runs through a poor clay country, cut up with gulleys and water-courses made by violent rain.

There were a number of volunteer soldiers in the train; and their presence no doubt attracted the girls and women who waved flags and cheered for Jeff. Davis and States Rights. Well, as I travel on through such scenes, with a fine critical nose in the air, I ask myself "Is any Englishman better than these publicans and sinners in regard to this question of slavery?" It was not on moral or religious grounds that our ancestors abolished serfdom. And if to-morrow our good farmers, deprived of mowers, reapers, ploughmen, hedgers and ditchers, were to find substitutes in certain people of a dark skin assigned to their use by Act of Parliament, I fear they would be almost as ingenious as the Rev. Dr. Seabury in discovering arguments physiological, ethnological, and biblical for the retention of their property. And an evil day would it be for them if they were so tempted; for assuredly, without any derogation to the intellect of the Southern men, it may be said that a large proportion of the population is in a state of very great moral degradation compared with civilised Anglo-Saxon communities.

The man is more natural, and more reckless; he has more of the qualities of the Arab than are to be reconciled with civilisation; and it is only among the upper classes that the influences of the aristocratic condition which is generated by the subjection of masses of men to their fellow-man are to be found.

At six o'clock the train stopped in the country at a railway crossing by the side of a large platform. On the right was a common, bounded by a few detached wooden houses, separated by palings from each other, and surrounded by rows of trees. In front of the station were two long wooden sheds, which, as the signboard indicates, were exchanges or drinking saloons; and beyond these again were visible some rudimentary streets of straggling houses, above which rose three pretentious spires and domes, resolved into insignificance by nearer approach. This was Jackson.

Our host was at the station in his carriage, and drove us to his residence, which consisted of some detached houses shaded by trees in a small enclosure, and bounded by a kitchen garden. He was one of the men who had been filled with the afflatus of 1848, and joined the Young Ireland party before it had seriously committed itself to an unfortunate outbreak; and when all hope of success had vanished, he sought, like many others of his countrymen, a shelter under the stars and stripes, which, like most of the Irish settled in Southern States, he was now bent on tearing asunder. He has the honour of being mayor of Jackson, and of enjoying a competitive examination with his medical rivals for the honour of attending the citizens.

In the evening I walked out with him to the adjacent city, which has no title to the name, except as being the State capital. The mushroom growth of these States, using that phrase merely as to their rapid development, raises hamlets in a small space to the dignity of cities. It is in such outlying expansion of the great republic that the influence of the foreign emigration is most forcibly displayed. It would be curious to inquire, for example, how many men there are in the city of Jackson exercising mechanical arts or engaged in small commerce, in skilled or manual labour, who are really Americans in the proper sense of the word. I was struck by the names over the doors of the shops, which were German, Irish, Italian, French, and by foreign tongues and accents in the streets; but, on the other hand, it is the native-born American who obtains the highest political stations and arrogates to himself the largest share of governmental emoluments.

Jackson proper consists of strings of wooden houses, with white porticoes and pillars a world too wide for their shrunk rooms, and various religious and other public edifices, of the hydrocephalic order of architecture, where vulgar cupola and exaggerated steeple tower above little bodies far too feeble to support them. There are of course a monster hotel and blazing bar-rooms--the former celebrated as the scene of many a serious difficulty, out of some of which the participators never escaped alive. The streets consist of rows of houses such as I have seen at Macon, Montgomery, and B?ton Rouge; and as we walked towards the capital or State-house there were many more invitations "to take a drink" addressed to my friend and me than we were able to comply with. Our steps were bent to the State-house, which is a pile of stone, with open colonnades, and an air of importance at a distance which a nearer examination of its dilapidated condition does not confirm. Mr. Pettus, the Governor of the State of Mississippi, was in the Capitol; and on sending in our cards, we were introduced to his room, which certainly was of more than republican simplicity. The apartment was surrounded with some common glass cases, containing papers and odd volumes of books; the furniture, a table or desk, and a few chairs and a ragged carpet; the glass in the windows cracked and broken; the walls and ceiling discoloured by mildew.

The Governor is a silent man, of abrupt speech, but easy of access; and, indeed, whilst we were speaking, strangers and soldiers walked in and out of his room, looked around them, and acted in all respects as if they were in a public-house, except in ordering drinks. This grim, tall, angular man seemed to me such a development of public institutions in the South as Mr. Seward was in a higher phase in the North. For years he hunted deer and trapped in the forest of the far west, and lived in a Natty Bumpo or David Crocket state of life; and he was not ashamed of the fact when taunted with it during his election contest, but very rightly made the most of his independence and his hard work.

The pecuniary honours of his position are not very great as Governor of the enormous State of Mississippi. He has simply an income of ?800 a year and a house provided for his use; he is not only quite contented with what he has but believes that the society in which he lives is the highest development of civilised life, notwithstanding the fact that there are more outrages on the person in his State, nay, more murders perpetrated in the very capital, than were known in the worst days of mediaeval Venice or Florence;--indeed, as a citizen said to me, "Well, I think our average in Jackson is a murder a month;" but he used a milder name for the crime.

When my work was over I walked out and sat in the shade with a gentleman whose talk turned upon the practises of the Mississippi duello. Without the smallest animus, and in the most natural way in the world, he told us tale after tale of blood, and recounted terrible tragedies enacted outside bars of hotels and in the public streets close beside us. The very air seemed to become purple as he spoke, the land around a veritable "Aceldama." There may, indeed, be security for property, but there is none for the life of its owner in difficulties, who may be shot by a stray bullet from a pistol as he walks up the street.

I learned many valuable facts. I was warned, for example, against the impolicy of trusting to small-bored pistols or to pocket six-shooters in case of a close fight, because suppose you hit your man mortally he may still run in upon you and rip you up with a bowie knife before he falls dead; whereas if you drive a good heavy bullet into him, or make a hole in him with a "Derringer" ball, he gets faintish and drops at once.

Our host gave me an early dinner, at which I met some of the citizens of Jackson, and at six o'clock I proceeded by the train for Memphis. The carriages were of course, full of soldiers or volunteers, bound for a large camp at a place called Corinth, who made night hideous by their song and cries, stimulated by enormous draughts of whiskey and a proportionate consumption of tobacco, by teeth and by fire. The heat in the carriages added to the discomforts arising from these causes, and from great quantities of biting insects in the sleeping places. The people have all the air and manners of settlers. Altogether the impression produced on my mind was by no means agreeable, and I felt as if I was indeed in the land of Lynch law and bowie knives, where the passions of men have not yet been subordinated to the influence of the tribunals of justice. Much of this feeling has no doubt been produced by the tales to which I have been listening around me--most of which have a smack of manslaughter about them.

The victory at Big or Little Bethel has greatly elated these men, and they think they can walk all over the Northern States. It was a relief to get out of the train for a few minutes at a station called Holly Springs, where the passengers breakfasted at a dirty table on most execrable coffee, corn bread, rancid butter, and very dubious meats, and the wild soldiers outside made the most of their time, as they had recovered from their temporary depression by this time, and got out on the tops of the carriages, over which they performed tumultuous dances to the music of their band, and the great admiration of the surrounding negrodom. Their demeanour is very unlike that of the unexcitable staid people of the North.

There were in the train some Texans who were going to Richmond to offer their services to Mr. Davis. They denounced Sam Houston as a traitor, but admitted there were some Unionists, or as they termed them, Lincolnite skunks, in the State. The real object of their journey was, in my mind, to get assistance from the Southern Confederacy, to put down their enemies in Texas.

In order to conceal from the minds of the people that the government at Washington claims to be that of the United States, the press politicians and speakers divert their attention to the names of Lincoln, Seward, and other black republicans, and class the whole of the North together as the Abolitionists. They call the Federal levies "Lincoln's mercenaries" and "abolition hordes," though their own troops are paid at the same rate as those of the United States. This is a common mode of procedure in revolutions and rebellions, and is not unfrequent in wars.

The enthusiasm for the Southern cause among all the people is most remarkable,--the sight of the flag waving from the carriage windows drew all the population of the hamlets and the workers in the field, black and white, to the side of the carriages to cheer for Jeff. Davis and the Southern Confederacy, and to wave whatever they could lay hold of in the air. The country seems very poorly cultivated, the fields full of stumps of trees, and the plantation houses very indifferent. At every station more "soldiers," as they are called, got in, till the smell and heat were suffocating.

At the station of Grand Junction, north of Holly Springs, which latter is 210 miles north of Jackson, several hundreds of our warrior friends were turned out in order to take the train north-westward for Richmond, Virginia. The 1st Company, seventy rank and file, consisted of Irishmen armed with sporting rifles without bayonets. Five-sixths of the 2nd Company, who were armed with muskets, were of the same nationality. The 3rd Company were all Americans. The 4th Company were almost all Irish. Some were in green others were in grey, the Americans who were in blue had not yet received their arms. When the word fix bayonets was given by the officer, a smart keen-looking man, there was an astonishing hurry and tumult in the ranks.

"Now then, Sweeny, whar are yes dhriven me too? Is it out of the redjmint amongst the officers yer shovin' me?"

"Sullivan, don't ye hear we're to fix beenits?"

"Sarjent, jewel, wud yes ayse the shtrap of me baynit?"

"If ye prod me wid that agin; I'll let dayloite into ye."

The officer, reading, "No 23, James Phelan."

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