SUNDAY
SEPTEMBER 25, 1864
THE DAILY TRUE DELTA (LA)

What Does it Mean?

There is a class of politicians who vehemently insist upon a cessation of the war and a recourse to negotiation. “We must have a talk,” they say. No other means can be devised by which to end the war. “We will talk and negotiate; and if, after that, the rebels won’t do right, all we have got to do is to renew the war and whip them into terms of decent submission.” All this looks very pretty, plausible; but like many other plausible and pretty things, it is very mischievous. Davis and his Government have distinctly avowed that they will accept of nothing short of absolute and complete separation. They are well nigh whipped. The crust of strength which encircled and surrounded their centre of weakness is broken. Raid after raid has pierced their centre, and come back astonished at their weakness. Not a fighting man is to be found. So complete is the drain that it has almost become a question whether the rebel army will not have to resort to the same expedient devised by the Grecians, and which gave rise to the servile race of Hellenists.

Gen. Sherman has warned recruiting agents that there are not even blacks in his section, and expressed his willingness to eat all the able-bodied recruits they find, pinning back the ears and arms, anointing the head with butter a la Davy Crockett. Their population is exhausted, their railroads destroyed. Few men can properly appreciate the trouble caused by the destruction of the rebel railroads. Great as is the want of men, Jeff Davis would have gladly given seven regiments for the seven locomotives destroyed by Hood at Atlanta. But to begin negotiations we must first not only stop the progress of our arms, but withdraw our armies. We must call Sherman back from Atlanta; he must march his army from eh graves of those noble dead, who have been offered upon the sacrificial altar of their country. Rosecrans must be brought back from the country so dearly wrestled from the rebels and stationed upon the northern bank of the Ohio. Farragut must be re-called from the scene of his triumphs, and all that we have gained lost. While we are negotiating, Mr. Davis will be hard at work preparing for the coming issue.

By negotiating we virtually grant all he asks, and any attempt to extort “better terms” will be so much lost time, inasmuch as they are already advised that we are pledged to peace. Negotiation, therefore, means submission, and nothing else. Every moment spent in settling the preliminaries of peace will be diligently employed in preparing for war. To hesitate is to play into disloyal hands; for, were even a momentary cessation to take place, the result would be, not an enjoyment of peace, but a preparation for war.

•••••

The Peace Movement in Georgia.—The subject of the following, from the Cincinnati Commercial of the 17th, is doubtless fresh in the minds of most of our readers, as brief allusion was made to it a week or so ago:

It was reported a few days ago that a gentleman from Georgia had arrived at Washington, acting under the authority of the Governor of the State, and bearing a pass from Gen. Sherman, and that his mission is to ascertain on what terms Georgia can make peace with the United States. This was thought highly improbable, but the somewhat eccentric character of Gov. Brown was remembered by some as affording grounds for suspecting that there might be something in it. The Ohio State Journal, of yesterday, mentions these facts, and says: ->

We are informed, on undoubted authority, that the announcement heretofore made is true. We are assured by one whose means of information are ample and direct, that our supposition was correct, and that such an agent from Georgia is actually in Washington, and in communication with the Government on the subject of his mission; and that he is fully authorized thereto by his State authorities. We also learn that his inquiries have received a most respectful consideration, and that he will, in due time, secure a full and, it is believed, a satisfactory reply–such a reply as may lay the ground-work for full and complete reconciliation; the details of which, however, have not transpired with such fullness as to be properly alluded to at this time.  

We do not regard the State Journal as among the most reliable newspapers, but it is difficult to believe the editor could make these statements so positively if something had not been communicated to him. It is a highly interesting and very important matter.

•••••

A “Reporter” from Richmond.—The New York Herald has had a visit from a man who let Richmond on the 5th inst., who has been an army correspondent for the rebel papers and is well-posted. He says that Lee’s whole army in the lines about Richmond at present numbers from seventy thousand to seventy-five thousand men, of all branches of the service. The rebels have got very male capable of bearing arms, between the ages of sixteen and sixty, in the ranks, so that the force around Richmond and Petersburg is largely made up of boys and old men. The lines of Lee’s army, which included the seventy or seventy-five thousand men, extend from Cold Harbor to the Appomattox and the Weldon Railroad, beyond the point of intersection by Grant’s troops. The whole rebel force in the field now amounts to one hundred and sixty thousand men, certainly not over one hundred and seventy-five thousand. This includes boys, old men, guerrillas and all.

•••••

A Greeting from Washington Territory.—The following official dispatch from Washington Territory speaks for itself:

Washington Territory, Olympia,
September 7, 1864.

His Excellency A. Lincoln–My Dear Sir: Washington Territory this day sends her first telegraphic dispatch, greeting yourself, Washington City, and the whole United States with our sincere prayer to Almighty God that his richest blessings, spiritual and temporal, may rest upon and perpetuate the whole of our beloved country; that his omnipresent power may bless her, and defend the President of the United States, our brave army and navy, our Congress and every department of the National Government forever. In behalf of Washington Territory.

Wm. Pickering,
Governor of Washington Territory.

MONDAY
SEPTEMBER 26, 1864
THE DAILY RICHMOND EXAMINER (VA)

It is a pity to be obliged so often to comment on the politicks and Presidential manœuvres of the Yankee people; but the motive and only sound reason for doing so is, not to turn the thoughts and hopes of our countrymen to those political movements, as being in themselves of moment to us: but rather to show that we have nothing whatever to hope or to fear from any party combinations beyond the Potomac. As for those who call themselves “Democrats,” though there are some amongst them who have long seen the madness of war, and wished to end it by the acknowledgement of Confederate independence, yet, as a party, those Democrats are in the strange position at present of meaning nothing at all, and even of giving out and wishing it to be understood that they do mean nothing. Mr. Fernando Wood is the Democrat who has most explicitly “defined the position” of his party to be no particular position at all. It was in a speech in New York at a “McClellan meeting,” that he distinctly indicated where the Democracy stands, that is nowhere. He affirmed that the Convention at Chicago was for Peace–that it nominated McClellan knowing he was for war. “It declared principles,” says Wood, “which it was thought were opposed to those he entertained. Yet, while declaring those sentiments, it also selected him as its candidate. I adhere to the principles–and on those principles shall support McClellan.” On what principles? On the principle of supporting the principle which is opposite to your own? Yes, just so–Mr. Wood proceeds to say: “The Convention itself took this very ground–its nominee and its platform were apparently inconsistent with each other; and yet, for paramount reasons connected with success, it deemed such a contradictory position reconcilable with good policy.” The distinguished Democrat is candid: his explanation amounts exactly to this–that the Chicago managers have no principle in the world except the noble and paramount principle of “success.” If they are asked what they mean by their manifestos and their nominations, platforms and speeches, they reply that they mean to succeed. The strength of their position is that they stand nowhere.

What gives to this definition defining nothing a real significance is that it is in strong contrast to the only too-well defined positions of the present holders of power. All the world knows where Lincoln stands and what he means. War to the knife; no negotiations, nor compromise, nor relenting, nor shadow of turning–subjugation of the whole South by the edge of the sword; confiscation of the property of “rebels;” and a peace which is the peace of Death and the Grave–that is the Lincoln-Seward platform of principles.

Now, although it is impossible, in view of this contrast, to compliment the Democrats upon their conscience or honesty (compliments indeed which they would not value), yet the very vagueness of their floating planks, the very “contradictory position,” which Wood says is reconcilable with good policy, “for paramount reasons connected with success,” demonstrates to us that they feel the elements of success to lie in the general yearning and longing for some change, and a deep, universal disgust and revolt against the brutality and corruption of the present administration. McClellan and his contradictory friends know very well that they must not startle and drive off any of the sections of this possible mass of support by too plainly defining anything. Amongst those who desire to overthrow the Lincoln tyranny there are of course thousands of Democrats who are for war still, but was “for the Union” and not for the Negro, and who wish to see that war so carried on that it will not be a scandal to the civilized world; and other thousands who are for war because they see that there is money to be made of it by those who administer it. All these “War Democrats would be driven off by a declaration in favor of peace, if it were not contradicted. Care, therefore, is taken to contradict the platform by the nomination. On the other hand, there are multitudes, and that of all parties (including the Republicans), who are sincerely desirous of peace, seeing that the “Union” is hopelessly and irrevocably destroyed, and that a persistence in the war would only plunge the nation into bankruptcy and lead to yet more and more atrocious deeds of horror that would cover the American people with shame and load them with maledictions for generations to come. ->

These sensible men it was necessary to conciliate with a plank or two in a platform; also with a Vice-President of their own sentiment, so as to neutralize in some sort the warlike air of the nominee for President and his known opinions. Thus nobody of any party is kept out of the great Anti-Lincoln league by being forced to swallow any principle straight, and unmixed with some other principle–the great principle of all being to get rid of Lincoln.  

Those Democratick managers must, therefore, rely very much upon the universal dissatisfaction which they believe to be working throughout the mass of society in all its political denominations; and their reliance upon it proves to us that it exists. They must believe also that to ensure the common action of those apparently discordant elements, no particular declarations of principle or opinion are needed; the one grand point with them all being to put an end to Lincoln and Seward: and this is what makes their studied contradictions and absolute ignoring of principle not only intelligible, but extremely significant “for reasons connected with success.”

In fact, if the pending Presidential election should end, not only in turning out Lincoln and his gang of thieves and butchers, but in bringing in McClellan, a war-man supported by the peace-men–a man bound of course to maintain the Union, and that by force of arms, but intending to find himself compelled to stop the war, though protesting vehemently all the while against permanent peace with Union–such a result, as we begin to perceive, would really be as agreeable to most persons in the North as it would certainly be to ourselves. As yet there is but little demonstration, or articulate avowal, of such a feeling; the roar of war fills all the air, and those who long for peace do not know one another; no man can be sure of sympathy from another if he plainly confesses he longs for peace. Perhaps the general people do not yet fully comprehend how wonderfully they would feel relieved and delighted, if they once saw the hideous and bloody image of Lincoln struck down from before men’s eyes. One week after the election that removed him, his countrymen would scarce be able to believe they had really passed four years of their lives in such a dream of blood–that their ears, for four long years filled with murder-shrieks and the groans of dying men, and the roar of cannon and the crash of falling cities. The horrible nightmare of Lincoln and Seward being once shaken off the breast of the nation, it may awake from its vision of horror, and see things as they really are. Then give them but three months of peace; let them see at their homes the survivors of their sons and brothers, safe and well, though short of here and there a limb, and he would be a bad politician and a mighty President who should venture to propose to them another four years’ “war for the Union.”

That the elements of the composite party now relied upon to make McClellan President are truly described above; and that, if elected, he will be compelled, by the very nature of the case, whatever his own individual desires may be, to seek negotiation with us, and suspend the military operations, is to many minds very clear. But we must still remember that to give him a chance of being elected at all, the invading armies must gain no further successes within the next month. It is the Confederate army which has created a Peace party at the North. Johnston and Beauregard planted it; Lee watered it; and we must give it increase; we must nurse it and cherish it, by the same methods as hitherto–that is, with the bullet and bayonet. Should the military situation be unfavorable to us next month, McClellan could not be elected; and if he were, his election could do us no good. At present he and his party promise neither peace nor war; intend neither peace nor war. Janus himself did not face both ways more steadily than the Democracy; and in their hands the door of the temple of Janus would neither be shut nor open: it would be ajar, and it is only we who could either fling the door wide or close and lock and seal it for generations.  

TUESDAY
SEPTEMBER 27, 1864
THE HARTFORD DAILY COURANT (CT)

Another Letter from Gen. Sherman.

General Sherman having determined to make Atlanta a military post, issued an order requiring the inhabitants to leave within a specified time for North or South, as they might elect. Mayor Calhoun addressed him a letter, dwelling pathetically upon the hardships that compliance would impose, and entreating the general to rescind or modify the original order. The reply of General Sherman is one of the most masterly productions of the war, convincing the reader that he is endowed with the prescience that constitutes one of the essential elements of genius in war and statesmanship. General Sherman’s justification of his policy will be accepted as conclusive. He is acting not for a day or a town, but for ages and America.

Headquarters Military Division of the Mississippi, in the Field
Atlanta, Georgia, Sept. 13, 1864.

James M. Calhoun, Mayor, E.E. Rawson and S.C. Wells, representing City Council of Atlanta:

Gentleman: I have your letter of the 11th, in the nature of a petition to revoke my orders removing all the inhabitants from Atlanta. I have read it carefully, and give full credit to your statements of distress that will be occasioned, and yet shall not revoke my orders, because they were not designed to meet the humanities of the cause, but to prepare for the future struggles in which millions of good people outside of Atlanta have a deep interest. We must have peace, not only at Atlanta, but in all America. To secure this, we must stop the war that now desolates our once happy and favored country. To stop war, we must defeat the rebel armies which are arrayed against the laws and Constitution that all must respect and obey. To defeat those armies, we must prepare the way to reach them in their recesses, provided with the arms and instruments which enable us to accomplish our purpose.

Now, I know the vindictive nature of our enemy, that we may have many years of military operations from this quarter; and, therefore, deem it wise and prudent to prepare in time. The use of Atlanta for warlike purposes in inconsistent with its character as a home for families. There will be no manufacturers, commerce, or agriculture here, for the maintenance of families, and sooner or later want will compel the inhabitants to go. Why not go now, when all the arrangements are completed for the transfer, instead of waiting till the plunging shot of contending armies will renew the scenes of the past month? Of course, I do not apprehend any such things at this moment, but you do not suppose this army will be here until the war is over. I cannot discuss this subject with you fairly, because I cannot impart to you what we propose to do, but I assert that our military plans make it necessary for the inhabitants to go away, and I can only renew my offer of services to make their exodus in any direction as easy and comfortable as possible.

You cannot qualify war in harsher terms than I will. War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it; and those who brought war into our country deserve all the curses and maledictions a people can pour out. I know I had no hand in making this war, and I know I will make more sacrifices to-day than any of you to secure peace. But you cannot have peace and a division of our country. If the United States submits to a division now, it will not stop, but will go on until we reap the fate of Mexico, which is eternal war. ->

The United States does and must assert its authority, wherever it once had power; for, if it relaxes one bit to pressure, it is gone, and I believe that such is the national feeling. This feeling assumes various shapes, but always comes back to that of Union. Once admit the Union, once more acknowledge the authority of the national Government, and, instead of devoting your houses and streets and roads to the dread uses of war, I and this army become at once your protectors and supporters, shielding you from danger, let it come from what quarter it may. I know that a few individuals cannot resist a torrent of error and passion, such as swept the South into rebellion, but you can point out, so that we may know those who desire a government, and those who insist on war and its desolation.

You might as well appeal against the thunder-storm as against these terrible hardships of war. They are inevitable, and the only way the people of Atlanta can hope once more to live in peace and quiet at home, is to stop the war, which can only be done by admitting that it began in error and is perpetuated in pride. We don't want your Negroes, or your horses, or your lands, or any thing you have, but we do want and will have a just obedience to the laws of the United States. That we will have, and if it involved the destruction of your improvements, we cannot help it. You have heretofore read public sentiment in your newspapers, that live by falsehood and excitement; and the quicker you seek for truth in other quarters, the better.

I repeat then that, but the original compact of government, the United States had certain rights in Georgia, which have never been relinquished and never will be; that the South began the war by seizing forts, arsenals, mints, custom-houses, etc., etc., long before Mr. Lincoln was installed, and before the South had one jot or tittle of provocation. I myself have seen in Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Mississippi, hundreds and thousands of women and children fleeing from your armies and desperadoes, hungry and with bleeding feet. In Memphis, Vicksburg, and Mississippi, we fed thousands and thousands of the families of rebel soldiers left on our hands, and whom we could not see starve. Now that war comes to you, you feel very different. You deprecate its horrors, but did not feel them when you sent car-loads of soldiers and ammunition, and moulded shells and shot, to carry war into Kentucky and Tennessee, to desolate the homes of hundreds and thousands of good people who only asked to live in peace at their old homes, and under the Government of their inheritance. But these comparisons are idle. I want peace, and believe it can only be reached through union and war, and I will ever conduct war with a view to perfect an early success.

But, my dear sirs, when peace does come, you may call on me for any thing. Then will I share with you the last cracker, and watch with you to shield your homes and families against danger from every quarter. Now you must go, and take with you the old and feeble, feed and nurse them, and build for them, in more quiet places, proper habitations to shield them against the weather until the mad passions of men cool down, and allow the Union and peace once more to settle over your old homes in Atlanta.

Yours in haste,

W.T. Sherman, Major-General.  

WEDNESDAY
SEPTEMBER 28, 1864
MASSACHUSETTS WEEKLY SPY 

Sheridan’s Victories.

Gen. Sheridan’s campaign is by far the most successful of any the Shenandoah valley has witnessed. It has been so often a valley of death to our brave troops that the country was scarcely prepared for so effectual and decisive work. The Boston organ, and some other McClellan organs, which make a business of depreciating all Union victories, have tried their hands upon Gen. Sheridan. The Courier disposes of him in the most summary manner. For example: “A bare inspection of the telegraph dispatches recently sent in regard to events in the valley showed upon their face both exaggeration and misrepresentation. They are made up for political effect.” Facts, however, without the slightest regard to the political exigencies of the opposition continue to vindicate the truth of the early reports. Here is Gen. Lee’s report of the first day’s battle:

Headquarters Army of Northern Virginia,
Sept. 26, 1864.

To James A. Sedden: Gen. Early’s report that on the morning of the 19th the enemy advanced on Winchester, near which place he met his attack, which was resisted from early in the day till near night, when he was compelled to retire. After night he fell back to Newtown, and this morning to Fisher’s Hill. Our loss reported to be severe. Maj. Gen. Rhodes and Brig. Gen. Goodwin were killed, nobly doing their duty. Three pieces of artillery, of King’s battalion, were lost. The trains were brought off safely.

R. E. Lee.

The Richmond papers do not attempt to mitigate the severity of the blow, but content themselves with vain efforts to stimulate the sinking spirits of their people. The Enquirer of the 22d, after noticing some of the casualties of the first day’s fighting, says:

“No other casualties were mentioned, but our loss is reported very severe. The fall of Atlanta has already cast a gloom over the community, and this reverse will very much increase it, we fear. It should not do so. The fortunes of war are always uncertain, and reverses are, of course, very saddening; but it is unbecoming our people not to shake off their long faces and bring themselves to calmly and resolutely consider their situation. These reverses show that our people must come forth and go to the front; more are there wanted, and more must be had. The long list of government details must be shortened; the nitre and mining bureau, the commissary and quartermaster departments, must disgorge. The contractors must be lessened, the exempts reviewed, and the army increased. But more than this, when men are sent to the army, they must not be allowed to desert and straggle off. Discipline must be improved, and as much done by officers of the line as is expected from the bureau of conscription. To stop to mourn over reverses is great folly; they should but nerve the people, as they do the army, to meet disaster with the full confidence in the over-ruling Providence, who sends victory or defeat as to Him seems best.”

The rebels had at this time heard only of the retreat of Early to Fisher’s Hill, “an impregnable position,” where a change of fortune was confidently expected. The Tribune correspondent sends the following account of the more crushing defeat which awaited him there:

Winchester, Va., Sept. 24.–Victory still perches over our banners in the valley. The choicest troops in the rebel service, including the famous corps which did so much to make the reputation of Stonewall Jackson, is now a disorganized, shattered body, flying post haste to Lynchburg. Large numbers have thrown down their arms and scattered in the mountains or sought to make their way homeward. Such as were recruited in the valley have nearly all made haste to transform themselves into farmers again. What remains of the rebel army of the Shenandoah is an uncontrollable mass–but partially organized and totally unfit for fighting purposes. ->

On Wednesday night Gen. Sheridan resolved to attack the rebel position on Fisher’s Hill. The plan of attack was as follows: The 8th army corps, under Gen. Crook, was to move to the right toward North Mountain, the extreme left of the rebel line, and attack the rebel left flank, and, if possible, gain their rear. Ricketts’ division, of the 6th corps, was to join Crook on the left, while Wheaton’s and Getty’s divisions of the same corps were to form the center. The 19th corps were to hold the left of the line. On Wednesday afternoon about half-past three o’clock Gen. Crook, after a rapid and difficult march, struck the rebel left flank, and threw one of his divisions in their rear. By a magnificent charge, the men cheering as they advanced on the double quick, the rebel left wing was driven in confusion on the center, which, at the same time, was charged by the 6th and 19th corps in the front.  

This combined attack in front, flank and rear, was more than rebel flesh and blood could stand. Their left and center became confused and disorganized, and the whole rebel army broke and ran, abandoning artillery, caissons, horses, small arms–in fact, everything that could possibly impede them in their retreat. Their rout was most complete. About twenty-five hundred of them, who were hemmed in, threw down their arms and surrendered. The rest fled pell-mell toward Woodstock. The road between the battle-field and the latter place was literally strewn with muskets, knapsacks, haversacks and almost every species of property known in the army. Our losses in the attack were very small, considering the strength of the position attacked and the advantages gained. I do not think they will exceed seven hundred in all, which falls principally on the 8th corps and on Ricketts’ division of the 6th. The losses in the 19th are slight. . .  

Our soldiers are in glorious spirits and anxious to be led forward. Hundreds of prisoners are coming into Winchester every few hours. The town is one vast hospital and rebel prison. There are over six thousand rebel prisoners, including the wounded, congregated here. The prisoners are a well-dressed, hearty, healthy set of men, who looked as living in the valley had agreed with them. A goodly proportion of the privates have already asked permission to take the oath of allegiance. All of them express themselves tired of fighting, and hope that the war will soon cease. Rebel officers captured admit the completeness of their defeat, and express fears that it will result in the annihilation of Early’s army. Reinforcements they say are out of the question, as Lee cannot spare any more men from Petersburg to defend Lynchburg. Thus has the disgrace of our various defeats in this valley of humiliation been wiped out by glorious little Phil Sheridan and his brave army.

•••••

Peace Rumors.–Richmond papers express the fear that Gen. Sherman is about to open peace negotiations with the state authorities of Georgia, excited by a current report that Alex. H. Stephens and Gov. Brown have been invited to a conference for that purpose. The Enquirer says that “separate state action has of late been agitated in more quarters than one,” and is therefore moved to caution Gov. Brown against this insidious method of withdrawing from the confederacy, “leaving her sisters the bag to hold, after having got them into this scrape.” There are also stock rumors of negotiations again between Jacob Thompson at Niagara Falls and other parties not named. In the meantime the armies of Sherman and Sheridan are “negotiating” with signal success.  

THURSDAY
SEPTEMBER 29, 1864
PROVIDENCE EVENING PRESS (RI) 

Colored Pupils and the High School.

At the last January session of the general Assembly, the House Committee on education, after a protracted hearing of all parties interested who desired to be heard, through its accomplished and able Chairman, reported a bill in accordance with the prayer of numerous petitions of the colored citizens of this city asking for equal privileges in the public schools of the city. Many of the hearings upon the petitions were public and attended by members of the General Assembly and others. No candid person who listened to the statements and arguments of the petitioners, presented as they were with great force, clearness and modesty, could avoid the conviction that they were right, and asking for no more than was due them. They appealed in simple and passionate eloquence for the intervention of the supreme power of the State to secure them the enjoyment of rights which belong to them, and of which they had been deprived by the action of the city government. They had paid their full quota for the establishment and support of the public schools; they prized as highly the privileges, and as earnestly desired the inestimable benefits of those schools, as their white fellow-citizens. There was unquestionably a very strong feeling in the Assembly favorable to the passage of the bill reported by the Committee. Before any test vote was taken upon the bill, a distinguished and influential member of the House, who was also, if we mistake not, a member of the School Committee of this city, gave such assurances to the Chairman of the Committee on Education as to satisfy him the School Committee would by their voluntary action remove the restrictions of which the colored people chiefly complained, so that colored pupils could be admitted to the High School upon the same terms as white pupils. Upon the strength of this assurance, as he publicly stated to the House, he moved a postponement of the bill to the May Session. Upon his motion many of the members of the House who were friendly to the bill, relying upon the good faith of those who had made the above promises, voted for the postponement, and the bill went over.

In this posture of the colored school question we confess that we have been surprised to learn that a girl has been recently refused admission to the High School on account of her color. If the information had not come to us from a source which we cannot discredit, we should be unwilling to believe it. If our information is correct, we think the people of this city and of the State are interested in knowing it. If we have been misinformed, we shall be most happy to be corrected.

•••••

A poor McClellan passenger at the depot at Springfield the other night, hearing of Sheridan’s last victory, thought it a “d----d shame that they couldn’t have had their victories before we made our nominations.”

•••••

Two English artists, thought to be intent on sketching Morro Castle near Santiago in Cuba, have been treated with much harshness by the local Spanish authorities. One of them, a Mr. Goodman, takes a Briton’s usual vengeance: he writes to the Times.

Late Charleston newspapers contain an advertisement requiring all male persons in that District between the ages of 16 and 50, to immediately report themselves for enrolment. The order extends throughout the South, the object being to ascertain the present and prospective military strength of the Confederacy. In several of the military divisions, slaveholders are required to furnish one-fourth–and in some cases one-half–of their slaves to work on the Charleston fortifications. Advertisements are also published for the collection of thirty per cent on profits, as a war tax, and for the public sale of foreign and domestic goods of recent importation from Nassau.

•••••  

Mobile.—The fleet in front of Mobile has been a little increased. It now numbers eight vessels. A correspondent writes from mobile:

“The fortifications around this city are very strong, and well provided with bomb-proofs.

“Notwithstanding the many order issued from this department for women, children and non-combatants to leave, the city is crowded with them. Not a house is to be had here, and supplies and merchandise of all kinds are higher than in any other city in the Confederacy.

“The balance of Forrest’s men arrived yesterday morning. They are a wild, ‘devil-may-car’ sort of soldiers–just as soon kill a Yankee as to take a drink of ‘old rye.’ I presume that they will be ordered to Hood’s army.

“Mobile, it seems to me, though I write it sorrowfully, is one vast bed of corruption–akin to Gomorrah of old, I think it surpasses Richmond in the vastness of its pollution, number of ‘hells,’ and abodes of ‘flashy vice.’ ”

•••••  

Late Georgia papers are informed by gentlemen from Atlanta “that Sherman is running eight trains daily to and from Chattanooga. Already many warehouses in the city are filled with commissary, quartermaster and ordnance stores, and the immense railroad passenger depot is so crammed with them that the trains are discharged outside of the house. Before the ten days’ armistice is over, Atlanta will be full to repletion of military stores of all kinds. They are accumulating immense stores, and evidently intend to make a depot of Atlanta, whence they will operate with one of the most formidable armies we have yet encountered.”

•••••  

Too Hot.—During the fight at Peters Bluff, Fish river, on the 11th instant, the steamer Stockdale ran into the bank, and the rebs tried to board her. But the engineer, like  a thoughtful fellow, got out his hose, and began playing hot water on them. Not relishing the idea of being parboiled like so much tough mutton, they skedaddled, howling with pain.

FRIDAY
SEPTEMBER 30, 1864
THE FARMERS’ CABINET (NH)

Letter from the 6th Heavy Artillery.

Fort Foote, Md., Sept. 23, 1864.

Venerable Cabinet:

You will see by the date of this that we are at last located. Fort Foote is a new defense built within the last two years, and is situated upon a high bluff on the north bank of the Potomac, about 12 miles below Washington, and ranks as one of the best forts in this department, mounting some 18 or 20 guns, of 15 and 20 inch calibre. The location is considered as generally healthy, although fever and ague is prevalent among those not acclimated. The 2d, 4th, 6th and 9th N. H. H. A. Cos. Comprise the troops now stationed here, forming an aggregate of about six hundred men.

He location of the fort is very pleasant, commanding a view of the river for some miles up and down, and of the opposite bank and the sacred soil of Virginia for a long distance inland, embracing within the range of vision Alexandria, Fairfax Seminary, Arlington Heights, and many other points familiar to the readers of the Cabinet.

Outside the limits of the fort, gardening is carried on to a large extent and you will find on each plantation nearly every vegetable peculiar to our northern clime, and in every stage of maturity. Farmers here anticipate no frost before Christmas, and tomatoes just forming and peas in blossom are expected to ripen before that time. Planting commences here in March, and continues till the first of September. A northern farmer who has been taught the maxim that “a penny saved is two pence earned” would hardly like the style in vogue here.

Our Co. made its first appearance this morning at artillery drill, and taking the opinion of those who know, made a very creditable debut. The boys are doing finely and under the care and attention of their officers, are rapidly acquiring that knowledge of military science as will enable them to do a part in restoring the old flag to its place once more. Amherst boys are all well contented, and take their rations from the hands of Gen. T----r with a zest and regularity that looks rather hard for the Doctor.–C. H. S.

•••••

Murderous Rebel Missile.–A young man by the name of Kinney, formerly of Trojan, but recently belonging to a western regiment, reached Troy a few days since. He served for a long time under Gen. Sherman, and was wounded at the battle of Altoona. The circumstances attending his injuries are such as we do not recollect to have seen recorded during the war. Young Kinney was show in the lower part of the leg by a bullet, apparently an ordinary rifle ball. It lodged in the limb, but did not prevent his walking to the rear. He had just seated himself in an ambulance, half an hour after being hit, when the bullet exploded in his leg, shattering the limb terribly, making four distinct openings and carrying away a quantity of bone. Despite the severe shock the young hero travelled to his home in Troy, and is now under the care of one of our surgeons, with a chance of recovery. He is as patriotic as he is brave. “Save my limb, doctor,” he said, “for God’s sake; I want to get back and join my regiment. But if I have got to lose both legs for my country it is all right.” The use of missiles that explode a half an hour after lodgment in any part of the body is an English novelty, practiced only by rebels.  

The recent victories, and prospective ones, have tumbled gold down all the way from 2.30 to 1.85, creating a perfect panic in the markets, and completely annulling all prices current. Flour fell, provisions fell, dry goods fell, and the chops of speculators fell–and nobody cared or dared to buy or sell–while a good many who had bought largely at the highest figures, and thousands who had hoarded their products for still higher prices, found themselves, as in a moment, most essentially sold.

In New York and Boston there has been a great decline, the leading dry goods houses, both wholesale and retail, marking down their prices 30 to 40 per cent, and finding at those prices less demand than at the higher rates.

There are some who indulge in apprehensions of a financial revolution, but such fears are without real cause. Business generally is on a good foundation. We owe but little abroad, and are doing mainly a cash business. Speculators will feel it, and they ought to, but the “wise and prudent” have foreseen this event and provided for it. The Journal in a good article says:  

With a good basis of capital, and due steadiness and caution, our merchants and traders generally will stand this shock and another and still another until business again settles down upon a specie basis, which will not be for some time to come. In the mean time the war will not be closed at once, although we begin to see the end. Government expenditures must continue large for some time to come, and when peace is re-established, the demand for goods from the South will keep our mills and workshops going, and the much dreaded crisis will have proved but a bugbear of the imagination. Our views are based upon the supposition that the present administration will be re-elected and the rebellion subdued. If the peace party gets control and the lets the South “depart in peace,” we may make up our minds for a prostration of business which will affect all classes–merchants, mechanics, farmers and laborers–in short, for the utter ruin of the industrial interests of New England, if not of the whole North.  

•••••

The Richmond papers are very mad over the fact that the citizens of Atlanta fraternized so generally and cordially with our soldiers after the possession of the city by Gen. Sherman. They see in the demonstration a rapid decay of faith in the Confederate cause. They are also very much chop-fallen at the prospect of secession from the Confederacy by Georgia, the first to follow South Carolina from the Union. The N. Y. Daily News (a McClellan and Pendleton paper) groans thus over the probable event:

“The withdrawal of Georgia from her sister States of the Confederacy in this hour of their supreme trial is a supposition that involves a depth of baseness which dispassionate witnesses must admit conflicts directly with all the teachings of the political history of the States of the South.”

Honest, loyal men of N. H., what think you of such company?  

SATURDAY
OCTOBER 1, 1864
COLUMBIAN WEEKLY REGISTER (CT)

A Scene in the Cars.—Wednesday afternoon there occurred an exciting incident on one of the Third Avenue cars on an up town trip. Two gentlemen of opposite politics–Lincoln and McClellan–who were passengers, were seated side by side, and were discussing the affairs of the day–the war particularly–in a warm but friendly manner. The latter was candid in his hopes that McClellan would be elected, the war cease, and the union be restored. The former, like old Abe, could see nothing bright in the future until slavery was abolished or the whole South exterminated. If it took to the last man and the last dollar, said he, the war must go on to the bitter end. He was extremely violent in his manner, gestures, and looks. By his side sat a plainly dressed, respectable looking woman, who showed considerable agitation while the Lincoln fanatic thus raved. She had watched him closely from the beginning, and her ears evidently drunk in every wrathful word he uttered. But when he exclaimed that every man must suffer in the cause of the Negro, she sprung from her seat as quickly as a tigress, and dealt blow after blow upon the face and nose of the unlucky Lincolnite. Blood spurted over the floor of the car, and the sensation created by the extraordinary act caused great excitement among the passengers, among whom were many ladies. After quiet was restored, and the car was proceeding up town, the assailant excused herself for her unwarrantable conduct by saying that she had already lost husband and one son in this war, and that she had still two sons in the army, and she felt that no one must intimate before her that the other two must sacrifice their lives also, and leave her alone in the world to satisfy the fanaticism of the hour.–Express.

•••••

General Sherman has written a letter to the Louisville agent of the Associated Press, denying the assertion in a Confederate dispatch that the people forced to leave their houses within Sherman’s lines, “were robbed of everything before being sent into the rebel lines.” General Sherman insists that they were allowed to take a considerable amount of furniture, and quotes a letter from Major Clan, Hood’s Adjutant General, thanking Major Warner, of Sherman’s staff, for the courteous manner in which he executed the order. We do not suppose any unnecessary cruelty was practiced upon the subjects of Sherman’s order, but the order itself was one of the most wantonly cruel yet issued in this war, and must bring an incalculable amount of suffering upon women and children, who are ordinarily regarded as exempt from the rigors of war. It was an act which must embitter the feelings of the people of the South, and prove a serious obstacle in the way of pacification of Georgia.

•••••  

The Courier calls our attention to a letter from a boy in the army, who says his “father advises him to vote for McClellan,” but he shall do nothing of the kind. We were in hopes that the youngster would improve when he got under military discipline, but his poor father must see by this time that there is not much hope for him. “How sharper than a serpent’s tooth is an unthankful child.”

Mr. Lincoln was constitutionally elected. The people should never forget that. But, in the popular vote the majority against him was more than a million in the whole Union, and nearly 100,000 in the free States. Mr. Lincoln should never forget that. There is a moral lesson in that majority which he ought to respect; and a moral force which he ought to fear. The same majority still exists, and it should admonish Mr. Lincoln that he can never consummate his fanatical and treasonable schemes. While he controls all the machinery of the government, he is able to make his majority effective. But the time will come when the majority will acquire its proper power, and then the people will see what these four years of folly and madness have cost them.

•••••

We have been informed, says the New York World, that the Administration is resorting to this trick to reduce the majorities in strong Democratic districts. They engage laborers here and elsewhere for Nashville, Memphis, etc., by offering them high wages–ship them off thither; offer them a musket when they get there, and a soldier’s pay. If they refuse, they suffer for it, and at any rate it is managed that they are kept away from home till after [the] election.

•••••

We are informed that certain parties are about publishing a book intended to embrace a collection of the authentic, obscene, or questionable jokes of the present presidential incumbent. Although the circulation of such a work might help our party, through the disgust it would inspire in the minds of respectable Republicans, we hope, for the sake of decency, that the police will put a stop to all endeavors to issue the book, and, if necessary, arrest its publishers and compilers. The Democratic Union men of the country mean to suppress both the jokes and the joker on the fourth of March next.–World.  

•••••

Senator Sumner, in a speech made in Faneuil Hall a few days ago, made the following declaration, viz: “The President was clearly right when in a recent letter he declared that he should accept no terms of peace which did not begin with the abandonment of slavery.” So, that so far from being an unconditional Union party, the Republican party is arrayed deliberately, unreservedly, enthusiastically against the Union of our fathers. They would tear down the glorious fabric reared by the Revolutionary patriots, strengthened and animated by Hamilton, Madison and Jay, and which has given shelter and security to so many generations of free people, and which up to the time when fanatics began to call for another Constitution and disunion, was the pride and boast of every true American, and the hope and refuge of the world.

This glorious Union, fanaticism and secession have destroyed; this Union the Democratic party is destined to restore.