YALE
UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

PICTUEES

SOUTHERN LIFE,

SOCIAL, POLITICAL, AND MILITARY.

WRITTEN FOR THE LONDON TIMES,

WILLIAM HOWARD RUSSELL, LL. D.,
SPBCIAL CORRESPONDENT,

NEW YORK:
JAMES G5-. G-REOORY,
TO "Rr. A. TOWNSEND .& 00.,)
46 WAiKEE 8TEEET.
1861.

PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE.

Charleston, April 30, 1861.*
Nothing I could say can be worth one fact which has forced itself
upon my mind in reference to the sentiments which prevail among
the gentlemen of this state. I have been among them for several
days. I have visited their plantations ; I have conversed with them-
freely and fully, and I have enjoyed that frank, courteous, and graceful
intercourse which constitutes an irresistible charm of their society.
From all quarters have come to my ears the echoes of the same voice ;
it may be feigned, but there is no discord in the note, and it sounds in
wonderful strength and monotony all over the country. /"Shades of •
George III., of North, of Johnson, of all who contended against the
great rebellion which tore these colonies from England, can you hear
the chorus which rings through the state of Marion, Sumter, and
Pinckney, and not clap your ghostly hands in triumph ? That voice
says, " If we_could only get one of the royal race of England to rule
over us, we should be content." Let there be no misconception on
this point. That sentiment, varied in a hundred ways, has been re
peated to me over and over again. There is a general admission that
the means to such an end are wanting, and that the desire cannot be
gratified. But the admiration for monarchical institutions on the
English model, for privileged classes, and for a landed aristocracy and
gentry, is undisguised and apparently genuine. With the pride of
having achieved their independence is mingled in the South Caro
linians' hearts a strange regret at the result and consequences, . and
many are they who " would go back to-morrow if we could." An
intense affection for the British connection, a love of British habits '
and customs, a respect for British sentiment, law, authority, order,
civilization; and literature, pre-eminently distinguish the inhabitants of I
this state, who, gloryingjn their descent from ancient families on the j
three islands, whose fortunes they still foflow7"ancTwith whose members j
* Mr. Russell wrote one letter from Charleston previous to this, but it is occupied
exclusively with a description of the appearance of Port Sumter after the siege.
His " Pictures of Southern life " properly begin at the date above.

4 PICTURES OP SOTJTHERX LIFE.
they maintain not unfrequently familiar relations, regard with an aver
sion of which it is impossible to give an idea to one who has not seen
its manifestations, the people of New England and the populations
of the Northern States, whom they regard as tainted beyond _cure_by
the venom of " Puritanism." Whatever may be the cause, this is the
fact and the effect. " The state of South Carolina was," I am told,
'^founded by gentlemen." It was not established by witch-burning
Puritans, by cruel persecuting fanatics, who implanted in the North
the standard of Torquemada, and breathed into the nostrils of their
newly-born colonies all the ferocity, bloodthirstiness, and rabid intol
erance of the Inquisition. It is absolutely astounding to a "stranger
who aims at the preservation of a decent neutrality to mark 'the vio
lence of these opinions. '' If that confounded ship had sunk with
, those  Pilgrim Fathers on board," says one, " we never should
have been driven to these extremities !" " We could have got on with
the fanatics if they had been either Christians or gentlemen," says
another ; " for in the first case they would have acted with common
charity, and in the second they would have fought when they insulted
us ; but there are neither Christians nor gentlemen among them !"
" Any thing on the earth !" exclaims a third, " any form of government,
any tyranny or despotism you will ; but " —and here is an appeal more
terrible than the adjuration of all the gods — " nothing on earth shall
over induce us to submit to any union with the brutal, bigoted black
guards of the New England States, who neither, comprehend nor regard
the feelings of gentlemen ! Man, woman, and child, we'll die first."
Imagine these and an infinite variety of similar sentiments uttered by
courtly, well-educated men, who set great store on a nice observance
of the usages of society, and who are only moved to extreme bitterness
and anger when they speak of the North, and you will fail to conceive
the intensity of the dislike of the South Carolinians for the free states.
There are national antipathies" on our side of the Atlantic which are
tolerably strong, and have been unfortunately pertinacious and long-
lived. The hatred of the Italian for the Tedesco, of the Greek for the
Turk, of the Turk for the Euss, is warm and fierce enough to satisfy
the Prince of Darkness, not to speak of a fe*v little pet aversions amono-
allied powers and the atoms of composite empires ; but they are all mere
indifference and neutrality of feeling compared to the animosity evinced
by the " gentry" of South Carolina for the " rabble of the North."
The contests of Cavalier and Roundhead, of Vendean and Piepub-
lican, even of Orangeman and Croppy, have been elegant joustings,
regulated by the finest rules of chivalry, compared with those which
North and South will carry on if their deeds support their words.

PICTURES OP -SOUTHERN LIFE. 5
" Immortal hate, the study of revenge," will actuate every blow, ar. 1
never in the history of the world, perhaps, will go forth such a dreadful
vce victis as that which may be heard before the fight has begun.
There is nothing in all the dark caves of human passion so cruel and
deadly as the hatred the South Carolinians profess for the Yankees.
That hatred has been swelling for years till it is the very life-blood of
the state. It has set South Carolina to work steadily to organize her
resources for the struggle which she intended to provoke if it did not
come in the course of time. " Incompatibility of temper" would have
been sufficient ground for the divorce, and I am satisfied that there has
been a deep-rooted design, conceived in some men's minds thirty years
ago, and extended gradually year after year to others, to break away
from the Union at the very first opportunity. The North is to South
Carolina a corrupt and evil thing, to which for long years she has been
bound by burning chains, while monopolists and manufacturers fed on
her tender limbs. She has been bound in a Maxentian union to the
object she loathes New England is to her the incarnation of moral
and political wickedness and social corruption. It is the source of
every thing which South Carolina hates, and of the torrents of free
thought and taxed manufactures, of Abolitionism and of Filibustering,
which have flooded the land. Believe a Southern man as he believes
himself, and you must regard New England and the kindred states as
the birthplace of impurity of mind among men and of unchastity in
women — the home of Free Love, of Fourierism, of Infidelity, of Abol
itionism, of false teachings in political economy and in social life ; a
land saturated with the drippings of rotten philosophy, with the
poisonous infections of a fanatic press ; without honor or modesty ;
whose wisdom is paltry cunning, whose valor and manhood have been
swallowed up in a corrupt, howling demagogy, and in the marts of a
dishonest commerce. It is the merchants of New York who fit out
ships for the slave-trade, and carry it on in Yankee ships. It is the
capital of the North which supports, and it is Northern men who con
coct and execute, the filibustering expeditions which have brought dis-
6redit on the slave-holding states. In the large cities people are
corrupted by itinerant and ignorant lecturers — in the towns and in
the country by an unprincipled press. The populations, indeed, know
how to read and write, but they don't know how to think, and they
are the easy victims of the wretched impostors on all the 'ologies and
'isms who swarm over the region, and subsist by lecturing on subjects
which the innate vices of mankind induce them to accept with eager
ness, while they assume the garb of philosophical abstractions to cover
their nastiness, in deference to a contemptible and universal hypocrisy.

l> PICTURES OP SOUTHEKX LIFE.
" Who fills the butchers' shops with large blue flies?"
Assuredly the New England demon, who has been persecuting the
South until its intolerable cruelty and insolence forced her, in a spasm
of agony, to rend her chains asunder. The New Englander must have
something to persecute, and as he has hunted down all his Indians,
burnt all his witches, and persecuted all his opponents to the death, he
invented Abolitionism as the sole resource left to him for the gratifica
tion of his favorite passion. Next to this motive principle is his desire
to make money dishonestly, trickily, meanly, and shabbily. He has
acted on it in all his relations with the South, and has cheated and
plundered her in all his dealings by villainous tariffs. If one objects
that the South must have been a party to this, because her boast is
that her statesmen have ruled the government of the country, you are
told that the South yielded out of pure good-nature. Now, however,
she will have free-trade, and will open the coasting trade to foreign
nations, and shut out from it the hated Yankees, who so long monop
olized and made their fortunes by it. Under all the varied burdens
and miseries to which she was subjected, the South held fast to her
sheet-anchor. South Carolina was the mooring- ground in which it
found the surest hold. The doctrine of State Eights was her salvation,
and the fiercer the storm raged against her — the more stoutly dema
gogy, immigrant preponderance, and the blasts of universal suffrage
bore down on her, threatening to sweep away the vested interests of
the South in her right to govern the states — the greater was her con
fidence and the more resolutely she held on her cable. The North
attracted " hordes of ignorant Germans and Irish," and the scum of
Europe, while the South repelled them. The industry, the capital of
the North increased with enormous rapidity, under the influence of
cheap labor and manufacturing ingenuity and enterprise, in the villages
which swelled into towns, and the towns which became cities, under
the unenvious eye of the South. She, on the contrary, toiled on slowly,
clearing forests and draining swamps to find new cotton-grounds and
rice-fields, for the employment of her only industry and for the devel
opment of her only capital — " involuntary labor." The tide of immi
gration waxed stronger, and by degrees she saw the districts into which
she claimed the right to introduce that capital closed against her, and
occupied by free labor. The doctrine of squatter " sovereignty," and
the force of hostile tariffs, which placed a heavy duty on the very
articles which the South most required, completed the measure of
injuries to which she was subjected, and the spirit of discontent found
vent in fiery debate, in personal insults, and in acrimonious speaking
and writing, which increased in intensity in proportion as the Aboli-

PICTURES OP SOUTHERN LIFE.

tion movement, and the contest between the Federal principle and
State Eights became more vehement. I am desirous of showing in a
few words, for the information of English readers, how it is that the
Confederacy which Europe knew simply as a political entity has suc
ceeded in dividing itself. The slave states held the doctrine, or say
they did, that each state was independent, as France or as England, but
that for certain purposes they chose a common agent to deal with
foreign nations, and to impose taxes for the purpose of paying the
expenses of the agency. We, it appears, talked of American citizens
when there were no such beings at all. There were, indeed, citizens
of the sovereign state of South Carolina, or of Georgia or Florida, who
permitted themselves to pass under that designation, but it was merely
as a matter of personal convenience. It will be difficult for Europeans
to understand this doctrine, as nothing ilke it has been heard before,
and no such Confederation of sovereign states has ever existed in any
country in the world. The Northern men deny that it existed here,
and claim for the Federal Government powers not compatible with such
. assumptions. They have lived for the Union, they served it, they
labored for and made money by it. A man as a New York man was
nothing — as an American citizen he was a great deal. A South Caro
linian objected to lose his identity in any description which included
him and a " Yankee clockmaker " in the same category. The Union
was against him ; he remembered that he came from a race of English
gentlemen who had been persecuted by the representatives — for he will
not call them the ancestors — of the Puritans of New England, and he
thought that they were animated by the same hostility to himself. He
was proud of old names, and he felt pleasure in tracing his connection
with old families in the old country. His plantations were held by old
charters, or had been in the hands of his fathers for several generations ;
and he delighted to remember that when the Stuarts were banished
from their throne and their country, the burgesses of South Carolina
had solemnly elected the wandering Charles king of their state, and
had offered him an asylum and a kingdom. The philosophical histo
rian may exercise his ingenuity in conjecturing what would have been
the result if this fugitive had carried his fortunes to Charleston.
South Carolina contains 34,000 square miles, and a population of
720,000 inhabitants, of whom 385,000 are black slaves. In the old
rebellion it was distracted between revolutionary principles and the
loyalist predilections, and at least one half of the planters were faithful
to George III., nor did they yield till Washington sent an army to sup
port their antagonists, and drove them from the colony.
In my next letter I shall give a brief account of a visit to some of

o PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE.
the planters, as far as it can be made consistent with the obligations
which the rites and rights of hospitality impose on the guest as well as
upon the host. These gentlemen are well-bred, courteous, and hospit
able. A genuine aristocracy, they have time to cultivate their minds,
to apply themselves to politics and the guidance of public affairs.
They travel and read, love field-sports, racing, shooting, hunting, and
fishing, are bold horsemen, and good shots. But, after all, their state
is a modern Sparta — an aristocracy resting on a helotry, and with noth
ing else to rest upon. Although they profess (and I believe, indeed,
sincerely) to hold opinions in opposition to the opening of the slave-
trade, it is nevertheless true that the clause in the constitution of the
Confederate States which prohibited the importation of negroes was
especially and energetically resisted by them, because, as they say, it
seemed to be an admission that slavery was in itself an evil and a
wrong. Their whole system rests on slavery, and as such they defend
it. They entertain very exaggerated ideas of the military strength of
their little community, although one may do full justice to its military
spirit. Out of their whole population they cannot reckon more than
60,000 adult men by any arithmetic, and as there are nearly 30,000
plantations which must be, according to law, superintended by white
men, a considerable number of these adults cannot be spared from the
state for service in the open field. The planters boast that they can
raise their crops without any inconvenience by the labor of their
negroes, and they seem confident that the negroes will work without
superintendence. But the experiment is rather dangerous, and it will
only be tried in the last extremity.

Savannah, Ga., May 1, 1861.
It is said that " fools build houses for wise men to live in." Be that
true or not, it is certain that " Uncle Sam" has built strong places for
his enemies to occupy. To day I have visited Fort Pulaski, which de
fends the mouth of the Savannah Eiver and the approaches to the city.
It was left to take care of itself, and the Georgians quietly stepped into
it, and have been busied in completing its defences, so that it is now
Capable of stopping a fleet very effectually. Pulaski was a Pole who
fell in tht lefence of Savannah against the British, and whose memory
is perpetuated in the name of the fort, which is now under the Con
federate flag, and garrisoned by bitter foes of the United States.
Among our party were Commodore Tatnall, whose name will be
familiar to English ears in connection with the attack on the Peiho
Forts, where the gallant American showed the world that " blood was

PICTURES OP SOUTHERN LIFE. 9
thicker than water;" Brigadier-General Lawton, in command of the
forces of Georgia, and a number of naval and military officers, of whom
many had belonged to the United States regular services. It was
strange to look at such a man as the commodore, who, for forty-nine
long years, had served under the stars and stripes, quietly preparing
to meet his old comrades and friends, if needs be, in the battle-field —
his allegiance to the country and to the flag renounced, his long service
flung away, his old ties and connections severed — and all this in defence
of the sacred right of rebellion on the part of " his state." He is not
now, nor has he been for years, a slave-owner; all his family and famil
iar associations connect him with the North. There are no naval &ta-
tions on the Southern coasts except one at Pensacola, and he knows
almost no one in the South. He has no fortune whatever, his fleet
consists of two small river or coasting steamers, without guns, and as
he said, in talking over the resources of the South, '' My bones will be
bleached many a long year before the Confederate States can hope to
have a navy." "State Eights!" To us the question is simply inex
plicable or absurd. And yet thousands of Americans sacrifice all for it.
The river at Savannah is broad as the Thames at Gravesend, and resem
bles that stream very much in the color of its waters and the level nature
of its shores. Eice-fields bound it on either side, as far down as the
influence of the fresh water extends, and the eye wanders over a flat
expanse of mud and water, and green oziers and rushes, till its search
is arrested on the horizon by the unfailing line of forest. In the fields
here and there, are the whitewashed, square, wooden huts in which the
slaves dwell, looking very like the beginnings of the camp in the
Crimea. At one point a small fort, covering a creek, by which gun
boats could get up behind Savannah, displayed its " garrison" on the
walls, and lowered its flag to salute the small blue ensign at the fore,
which proclaimed the presence of the commodore of the naval forces
of Georgia on board our steamer. The guns on the parapet were
mostly field-pieces, mounted on frameworks of wood instead of regular
carriages. There is no mistake about the spirit of these people. They
seize upon every spot of vantage ground and prepare it for defence.
There were very few ships in the river; the yacht Camilla, better
known as the America, the property of Captain Deasy, and several
others of those few sailing under British colors, for most of the cotton
ships are gone. After steaming down the river about twelve miles the
sea opened out to the sight, and on a long marshy, narrow island near
the bar, which was marked by the yellow surf, Fort Pulaski threw out
the Confederate flag to the air of the Georgian 1st of May. The water
was too shallow to permit the steamer to go up to the jettv, and the
1*

10 PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE.
party landed at the wharf in boats. A guard was on duty at the land
ing — tall, stout youug fellows, in various uniforms, or in rude mufti, in
which the Garibaldian red shirt, and felt slouched hats predominated.
They were armed with smooth-bore muskets (date 1851), quite new,
and their bayonets, barrels,' and locks, were bright and clean. The
officer on duty was dressed in the blue frock-coat, dear to the British
linesman in days gone by, with brass buttons, emblazoned with the
arms of the state, a red silk sash, and glazed kepi, and straw-colored
gauntlets. Several wooden huts, with flower-gardens in front, were oc
cupied by the officers of the garrison ; others were used as hospitals,
and were full of men suffering from measles of a mild type. A few
minutes' walk led us to the fort, which is an irregular pentagon, with
the base fine or curtain face inlands, and the other faces casemated
and bearing on the approaches. The curtain, which is simply crenel
lated, is covered by a redan surrounded by a deep ditch, inside the
purapet of which are granite platforms ready for the reception of guns.
The parapet is thick, and the scarp and counterscarp are faced with
solid masonry. A drawbridge affords access to the interior of the
redan, -whence the gate of the fort is approached across a deep and
broad moat, which is crossed by another drawbridge. As the com
modore entered the redan, the guns of the fort broke out into a long
salute, and the band at the gate struck up almost as noisy a welcome.
Inside, the parade presented a scene of life and animation very unlike
¦the silence of the city we had left. Men were busy clearing out the
casemates, rolling away stores and casks of ammunition and provisions,
others were at work at the gin and shears, others building sand-bag
traverses to guard the magazine doors, as though expecting an imme
diate attack. Many officers were strolling under the shade of an open
gallery at the side of the curtain which contained their quarters in the
lofty bomb-proof casemates. Some of them had seen service in
Mexican or border warfare; some had travelled over Italian and
Crimean battle-fields ; others were West Point graduates of the regular
army, others young planters, clerks, or civilians, who rushed with
ardor into the first Georgian regiment. The garrison of the /fort is
some 650 men, and fully that number were in and about the work, their
tents being pitched inside the redan, or on the terreplein of the para
pets. The walls are exceedingly solid, and well built of gray brick,
strong as iron, and upward of six feet in thickness, the casemates and
bomb-proofs being lofty, airy, and capacious as any I have ever
seen, though there is not quite depth enough between the walls at the
salient and the gun-carriages. The work is intended for 128 guns, of
which about one fourth are mounted on the casemates. They are long

PICTURES OP SOUTHERN LIFE. 11
32's, with a few 42's and columbiads. The armaments will be exceed
ingly heavy when all the guns are mounted, and they are fast getting
the ten-inch columbiads into position en barbette. Every thing which
could be required, except mortars, was in abundance — the platforms
and gun-carriages are solid and well made, the embrasures of the case
mates are admirably constructed, and the ventilation of the bomb-proof
carefully provided for. There are three furnaces for heating redhot
shot. Nor is discipline neglected, and the officers with whom I went
round the works were as sharp in tone and manner to their men as
volunteers well could be, though the latter often are enlisted for only
three years by the state of Georgia. An excellent lunch was spread
in the casemated bomb-proof which served as the colonel's quarter, and
before sunset the party were steaming toward Savannah through a tide
way full of leaping sturgeon and porpoises, leaving the garrison intent
on the approach of a large ship, which had her sails aback off the bar,
and hoisted the stars and stripes, but which turned out to be nothing
more formidable than a Liverpool cotton ship. It will take some hard
blows before Georgia is driven to let go her grip of Fort Pulaski. The
channel is very narrow, and passes close to the guns of the fort. The
means of completing the armament have been furnished by the stores
of Norfolk Navy- Yard, where between 700 and 800 guns have fallen t
into the hands of the Confederates ; and, if there are no columbiads
among them, the Merrimac and other ships, which have been raised, as
we hear, with guns uninjured, will yield up their Dahlgrens to turn
their muzzles against their old masters.
May 2. — May Day was so well kept yesterday that the exhausted
editors cannot " bring out" their papers, and consequently there is no
news ; but there is, nevertheless, much to be said concerning " our
President's" message, and there is a suddenness of admiration for pacfic
tendencies which can with difficulty be accounted for, unless the news
from the North these last few days has something to do with it. Not
a word now about an instant march on Washington ! no more threats
to_seize Faneuil Hall ! The Georgians are by no means so keen as the
Carolinians on their border — nay, they are not so belligerent to-day as
they were a week ago. Mr. Jefferson Davis's message is praised for its
" moderation" and for other qualities which were by no means in such
favor while the Sumter fever was at its height. Men look grave and
talk about the interference of England and France, which '' cannot al
low this thing to go on." But the change which has come over them
is unmistakable, and the best men begin to look grave. As for me, I
must prepare to open my lines of retreat — my communications are in
danger.

12 pictures of southern life.
Montgomery, Capital of the Confederate States of America,
May 8, 1861.
In my last letter I gave an account of such matters as passed under
my notice on my way to this city, which I reached, as you are aware,
on the night of Saturday, May 4. I am on difficult ground, the land
is on fire, the earth is shaking with the tramp of armed men, and the
very air is hot with passion. My communications are cut off, or are at
best accidental, and in order to reopen them I must get further away
from them, paradoxical as the statement may appear to be. It is im
possible to know what is going on in the North, and it is almost the
same to learn what is doing in the South out of eye-shot ; it is useless
to inquire what news is sent to you to England. Events hurry on with
tremendous rapidity, and even the lightning lags behind them. The
people of the South at last are aware that the "Yankees" are preparing
to support the government of the United States, and that the Secession
can only be maintained by victory in the field. There has been a change
in their war policy. They now aver that " they only want to be left
alone," and they declare that they do not intend to take Washington,
and that it was merely as a feint they spoke about it. The fact if, there
are even in the compact and united South men of moderate and men
of extreme views, and the general tone of the whole is regulated by the
preponderance of one or other at the moment. I have no doubt on my
mind that the government here intended to attack and occupy Wash
ington — not the least that they had it much at heart to reduce Fort
Pickens as soon as possible. Now some of their friends say that it will
be a mere matter of convenience whether they attack Washington or
not, and that, as for Fort Pickens, they will certainly let it alone, at all
events for the present, inasmuch as the menacing attitude of General
Bragg obliges the enemy to keep a squadron of their best ships there
and to retain a force of regulars they can ill spare in a position where
they must soon lose enormously from diseases incidental to the climate.
They have discovered, too, that the position is of little value so long as
the United States hold Tortugas and Key West. But the Confederates
are preparing for the conflict, and when they have organized their
forces, they will make, I am satisfied, a very resolute advance all along
the line. They are at present strong enough, they suppose, in their
domestic resources, and in the difficulties presented to a hostile force
by the nature of the country, to bid defiance to invasion, or, at all events
to inflict a very severe chastisement on the invaders, and their excited
manner of speech so acts upon their minds that they begin to think
they can defy, not merely the United States, but the world. Thus
it is that they declare they never can be conquered, that they will

PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE. , 13
die, to a man, woman, and child, first, and that if 50,000, or any num
ber of thousands of black republicans get 100 miles into Virginia, not
one man of them shall ever get out alive. Behind all this talk, how
ever, there is immense energy, great resolution, and fixed principles of
action. Their strategy consists in keeping quiet till they have their
troops well in hand, in such numbers and discipline as shall give them
fair grounds for expecting success in any campaign with the United
States troops. They are preparing with vigor to render the descent of
the Mississippi impossible, by erecting batteries on the commanding
levees, or embankments which hem in its waters for upwards of 800
miles of bank, and- they are occupying, as far as they can, all the
strategical points of attack or defence within their borders. When
every thing is ready, it is not improbable that Mr. Jefferson Davis will
take command of the army, for he is reported to have a high ambition
to acquire reputation as a general, and in virtue of his office he is gen
eralissimo of the armies of the Confederate States. It will be remarked
that this plan rests on the assumption that the United States cannot or
will not wage an offensive war, or obtain any success in their attempts
to recover the forts and other property of the Federal government.
They firmly believe the war will not last a year, and that 1862 will be-t-
hold a victorious, compact, slaveholding confederate power of fifteen
states under a strong government, prepared to hold its own against the
world, or that portion of it which may attack it. I now but repeat the
sentiments and expectations of those around me. They believe in the
irresistible power of cotton, in the natural alliance between manufactur
ing England and France and the cotton-producing slave states, in the
force of their simple tariff, and in the interests which arise out of a sys
tem" of free trade, which, however, by a rigorous legislation, they will
interdict to their neighbors in the free states, and only open for the
benefit of their foreign customers. Commercially, and politically, and
militarily, they have made up their minds,, and never was there such
' confidence exhibited by any people in- the future as they have, or pre
tend to have, in their destiny. Listen to their programme.
S""TF is intended to buy up all the cotton crop which can be brought
into the market at an average price, and to give bonds of the Confed
erate States for the amount, these bonds being, as we know, secured by
the export duty on cotton. The government, with this cotton crop in
its own hands, will, use it as a formidable machine of war, for cotton
can do any thing, from the establishment of an empire to the securing
of a shirt button. It is at once king and subject, master and servant,
captain and soldier, artilleryman and gun. Not one bale of cotton will
be permitted fo "enter the Northern States. It will be made an offence

il PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE.
punishable with tremendous penalties, among which confiscation of
property, enormous fines, and even the penalty of death, are enumer
ated, to send cotton into the free states. Thus Lowell and its kindred
factories will be reduced to ruin, it is said, and the North to the direst
distress. If Manchester can get cotton and Lowell cannot, there_are
good times coming for the mill-owners.
The planters have agreed among themselves to hold over one half of
their cotton crop for their own purposes and for the culture of their
fields, and to sell the other to the government. For each bale of cotton,
as I hear, a bond will be issued on the fair average price of cotton in the
market, and this bond must be taken at par as a circulating medium
within the limits of the slave states. This forced circulation will be se
cured by the act of the legislature. The bonds will bear interest at ten
per cent., and they will be issued on the faith and security of the pro
ceeds of the duty of one' eighth of a cent on every pound of cotton ex
ported. All vessels loading with cotton will be obliged to enter into
bonds or give security that they will not carry their cargoes to Nor
thern ports, or let it reach Northern markets to their knowledge. The
government will sell the cotton for cash to foreign buyers, and will
thus raise funds amply sufficient, they contend, for all purposes. I
make these bare statements, and I leave to political economists the
discussion of the question which may and will arise out of the acts of
the Confederate States. The Southerners argue that by breaking
from their unnatural alliance with the North they will save upward of
$47,000,000, or nearly £10,000,000 sterling annually. The estimated
value of the annual cotton crop is $200,000,000. On this the North
formerly made at least $10,000,000, by advances, interest and ex
changes, which in all came to fully five per cent, on the whole of the
"crop. Again, the tariff to raise revenue sufficient for the maintenance
of the government of the Southern Confederacy is far less than that
which is required by the government of the United States. The Con
federate States propose to have a tariff which will be about 121 per
cent, on imports, which will yield $25,000,000. The Northern tariff
is 30 per cent, and as the South took from the North $70,000,000
worth of manufactured goods and produce, they contribute, they assert,
to the maintenance of the North to the extent of the difference be
tween the tax sufficient for the support of their government and that
which is required for the support of the Federal government. Now
they will save the difference between 30 per cent, and 121 per cent.
(17i per ct.), which amounts to $37,000,000, which, added to the
saving on commissions, exchanges, advances, &c, makes up the good
round sum which I have put down higher up. The Southerners are

PICTURES OF SOUTHERN UFE. 15
firmly convinced that they have "kept the North going" by the prices
they have paid for the protected articles of their manufacture, and they
hold out to Sheffield, to Manchester, to Leeds, to Wolverhampton, to
Dudley, to Paris, to Lyons, to Bordeaux, to all the centres of English
manufacturing life, as of French taste and luxury, the tempting baits
of new and eager and hungry markets. If their facts and statistics are
accurate, there can be no doubt of the justice of their deductions on
many points ; but they can scarcely be correct in assuming that they
will bring the United States to destruction by cutting off from Lowell
the 600,000 bales of cotton which she usually consumes. One great
fact, however, is unquestionable — the government has in its hands the
souls, the wealth, and the hearts of the people. They will give any
thing — money, labor, life itself — to carry out their theories. "Sir,"
said an ex-governor of this state to me to-day, [' sooner than submit
to the North, we will all hecome subject to Great Britain again." The
same gentleman is one of many who have given to the government a
large portion of their cotton crop every year as a free-will offering. In
this instance his gift is one of 500 bales of cotton, or £5,000 per an
num, and the papers teem with accounts of similar "patriotism" and
devotion. The ladies are all making sand-bags, cartridges, and uni
forms, and, if possible, they are more fierce than the men. The time
for mediation is past, if it ever were at hand or present at all ; and it
is scarcely possible now to prevent the processes of phlebotomization
which are supposed to secure peace and repose.
There was no intelligence of much interest on Sunday, but there is
a general belief that Arkansas and Missouri will send in their adhesion
to the Confederacy this week, and the Commissioners from Virginia
are hourly expected. The attitude of that state, however, gives rise
to apprehensions lest there may be a division of her strength ; and any
aggression on her territories by the Federal government, such as that
contemplated in taking possession of Alexandria, would be hailed by
the Montgomery government with sincere joy, as it would, they think,
move the state to more rapid action and decision.
Montgomery is on an undulating plain, and covers ground large
enough for a city of 200,000 inhabitants, but its population is only
12,000. Indeed, the politicians here appear to dislike large cities, but
the city designers certainly prepare to take them if they come. There
is a large negro population, and a considerable number of a color which
forces me to doubt the evidence of my senses rather than the state
ments made to me by some of my friends, that the planters affect the
character of parent in their moral relations merely with the negro race.
A waiter at the hotel — a tall, handsome young fellow, with the least

»

16 PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE.
tinge of color in his cheek, not as dark as the majority of Spaniards or
Italians — astonished me in my ignorance to-day when, in reply to
question asked by one of our party, in consequence of a discussion on
the point, he informed me he " was a slave." The man, as he said so,
looked confused ; his manner altered. He had been talking familiarly
to us, but the moment he replied, "I am a slave, sir," his loquacity
disappeared, and he walked hurriedly and in silence out of the room.
The River Alabama, on which the city rests, is a wide, deep stream,
now a quarter of a mile in breadth, with a current of four miles an
hour. It is navigable to Mobile, upward of 400 miles, and steamers
ascend its waters for many miles beyond this into the interior. The
country around is well wooded, and is richly cultivated in broad fields
of cotton and Indian corn, but the neighborhood is not healthy, and
deadly fevers are said to prevail at certain seasons of the year. There
is not much animation in the streets, except when " there is a difficulty
among the citizens," or in the eternal noise of the hotel steps and bars.
I was told this morning by the hotel keeper that I was probably the
only person in the house, or about it, who had not loaded revolvers in
his pockets, and one is aware occasionally of an unnatural rigidity
scarcely attributable to the osseous structure in the persons of those
who pass one in the crowded passages.
Monday, May 6. — To-day I visited the capitol, where the Provisional
Congress is sitting. On leaving the hotel, which is like a small Wil-
lard's, so far as the crowd in the hall is concerned, my attention was
attracted to a group of people to whom a man was holding forth in
energetic sentences. The day was hot, but I pushed near to the spot,
for I like to hear a stump-speech, or to pick up a stray morsel of divin
ity in the via sacra of strange cities, and it appeared as though the
speaker was delivering an oration or a sermon. The crowd was small.
Three or four idle men in rough, homespun, makeshift uniforms, leaned
against the iron rails enclosing a small pond of foul, green-looking wa
ter, surrounded by brick-work, which decorates the space in front of
the Exchange hotel. The speaker stood on an empty deal packing-
case. A man in a cart was listening with a lacklustre eye to the ad
dress. Some three or four others, in a sort of vehicle which might
either be a hearse or a piano van, had also drawn up for the benefit of
the address. Five or six other men, in long black coats and high hats,
some whittling sticks, and chewing tobacco, and discharging streams
of discolored saliva, completed the group. " N-i-n-e h'hun' nerd .and
fifty dollars? Only nine h-hun nerd and fifty dollars offered for him !"
exclaimed the man, in the tone of injured dignity, remonstrance and
surprise, which can be insinuated by all true auctioneers into the dryest

PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE. 17
numerical statements. " Will no one make any advance on nine hun
dred and fifty dollars?" A man near me opened his mouth, spat, and
said, " twenty-five." " Only nine hundred and seventy-five dollars
offered for him. Why, at's radaklous — only nine hundred and seven
ty-five dollars ! Will no one," &c. Beside the orator auctioneer
stood a stout young man of five-and-twenty years of age, with a bun
dle in his hand. He was a muscular fellow, broad-shouldered, narrow
flanked, but rather small in stature ; he had on a broad, greasy, old
wide-awake, a blue jacket, a coarse cotton shirt, loose and rather ragged
trowsers, and broken shoes. The expression of his face was heavy and
sad, but it was by no means disagreeable, in spite of his thick lips,
broad nostrils, and high cheek-bones. On his head was wool instead
of hair. I am neither sentimentalist nor black republican, nor negro-
worshipper, but I confess the sight caused a strange thrill through my
heart. I tried in vain to make myself familiar with the fact that I
could, for the sum of $975, become as absolutely the owner of that
mass of blood, bones, sinew, flesh, and brains, as of the horse which
stood by my side. There was no sophistry which could persuade me
the man was not a man — he was, indeed, by no means my brother, but
assuredly he was a fellow-creature. I have seen slave markets in the
East, but somehow or other the Orientalism of the scene cast a color
ing over the nature of the sales there which deprived them of the dis
agreeable harshness and matter-of-fact character of the transaction be
fore me. For Turk, or Smyrniote, or Egyptian to buy and sell slaves
seemed rather suited to the eternal fitness of things than otherwise.
The turbaned, shawled, loose-trowsered, pipe-smoking merchants speak
ing an unknown tongue looked as if they were engaged in a legitimate
business. One knew that their slaves would not be condemned to any
very hard labor, and that they would be in some sort the inmates of
the family, and members of it. Here it grated on my ear to listen to
the familiar tones of the English tongue as the medium by which the
transfer was effected, and it was painful to see decent-looking men in
European garb engaged in the work before me. Perchance these im
pressions may wear off, for I meet many English people who are the
most strenuous advocates of the slave system, although it is true that
their perceptions may be quickened to recognize its beauties by their
participation in the profits. The negro was sold to one of the bystand
ers, and walked off with his bundle, God knows where. " Niggers is
cheap," was the only remark of the bystanders. I continued my walk
up a long, wide, straight street, or more properly, an unpaved sandy
road, lined with wooden houses on each side, and with trees by the
side of the footpath. The lower of the two stories is generally used

18 PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE.
as a shop, mostly of the miscellaneous store kind, in which all sorts of
articles are to be had if there is any money to pay for them ; and, iu
the present case, if any faith is to be attached to the conspicuous no
tices in the windows, credit is of no credit, and the only thing that
can he accepted in exchange for the goods is " cash." At the end of
this long street, on a moderate eminence, stands a whitewashed or
painted edifice, with a gaunt, lean portico, supported on lofty lanky
pillars, and surmounted by a subdued and dejected-looking little
cupola. Passing an unkempt lawn, through a very shabby little gate
way in a brick frame, and we ascend a flight of steps into a hall, from
which a double staircase conducts us to the vestibule of the chamber.
Any thing much more offensive to the eye cannot well be imagined
than the floor and stairs. They are stained deeply by tobacco juice,
which has left its marks on the white stone steps and on the base of
the pillars outside. In the hall which we have entered there are two
tables, covered with hams, oranges, bread and fruits, for the refresh
ment of members and visitors, over which two sable goddesses, in
portentous crinoline, preside. The door of the chamber is open, and
we are introduced into a lofty, well-lighted and commodious apartment,
in which the Congress of the Confederate States holds its deliberations.
A gallery runs half round the room, and is half filled with visitors —
country cousins, and farmers of cotton and maize, and, haply, seekers
of places great or small. A light and low semicircular screen sepa
rates the body of the house, where the members sit, from the space
under the gallery, which is appropriated to ladies and visitors. The
clerk sits at a desk above this table, and on a platform behind him are
the desk and chair of the presiding officer or Speaker of the Congress.
Over his head hangs the unfailing portrait of Washington, and a small
engraving, in a black frame, of a gentleman unknown to me. Seated
in the midst of them, at a senator's desk, I was permitted to " assist,"
in the French sense, at the deliberations of the Congress. Mr. Howell
Cobb took the chair, and a white-headed clergyman was called upon
to say prayers, which he did, upstanding, with outstretched hands and
closed eyes, by the side of the speaker. The prayer was long and
sulphureous. One more pregnant with gunpowder I never heard, nor
could aught like it have been heard since.
" Pulpit, drum ecclesiastic,
"Was beat with fist instead of stick."
The reverend gentleman prayed that the Almighty might be pleased
to inflict on the arms of the United States such a defeat that it might
be the example of signal punishment forever — that this president

PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE. 19
might be blessed, and the other president might be the other thing —
that the gallant, devoted young soldiers who were fighting for their
country might not suffer from exposure to the weather or from the
bullets of their enemies ; and that the base mercenaries who were
fighting on the other side might come to sure and swift destruction,
and so on.
Are right and wrong mere geographical expressions ? The prayer
was over at last, and the house proceeded to business. Although each
state has several delegates in Congress, it is only entitled to one vote
on a strict division. In this way some curious decisions may be ar
rived at, as the smallest state is equal to the largest, and a majority of
the Florida representatives may neutralize a vote of all the Georgia
representatives. For example, Georgia has ten delegates ; Florida
has only three. The vote of Florida, however, is determined by the
action of any two of its three representatives, and these two may, on a
division, throw the one state vote into the scale against that of Georgia,
for which ten members are agreed. The Congress transacts all its busi
ness in secret session, and finds it a very agreeable and commendable way
of doing it. Thus, to-day, for example, after the presentation of a
few unimportant motions and papers, the speaker rapped his desk, and
announced that the house would go into secret session, and that all who
were not members should leave.
As I was returning to the hotel there was another small crowd at
the fountain. Another auctioneer, a fat, flabby, perspiring, puffy man,
was trying to sell a negro girl, who stood on the deal box beside him.
She was dressed pretty much like a London servant-girl of the lower
order out of place, except that her shoes were mere shreds of leather
patches, and her bonnet would have scarce passed muster in the New
- Cut. She, too, had a little bundle in her hand, and looked out at the
buyers from a pair of large sad eyes. " Niggers were cheap ;" still
here was this young woman going for an upset price of $610, but no
one would bid, and the auctioneer, after vain attempts to raise the
price and excite competition, said, " Not sold to-day, Sally ; you may
get down."
Tuesday, May 7. — The newspapers contain the text of the declaration
of a state of war on the part of President Davis, and of the issue of
letters of marque and reprisal, <fec. But it may be asked, who will take
these letters of marque ? Where is the government of Montgomery to
find ships ? The answer is to be found in the fact that already numer
ous applications have been received from the shipowners of New Eng
land, from the whalers of New Bedford, and from others in the Northern
States, for these very letters of marque, accompanied by the highest

20 PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE.
securities and guaranties ! This statement I make on the very highest
authority. I leave it to you to deal with the facts.
To-day I proceeded to the Montgomery Downing street and White
hall, to present myself to the members of the cabinet, and to be intro
duced to the President of the Confederate States of America. There
is no sentry at the doors, and access is free to all, but there arc notices
on the doors warning visitors that they can only be received during
certain hours. The President was engaged with some gentlemen when
I was presented to him, but he received me with much kindliness of
manner, and, when they had left, entered into conversation with me for
some time on general matters. Mr. Davis is a man of slight, sinewy
figure, rather over the middle height, and of erect, soldierlike bearing.
He is about fifty-five years of age ; his features are regular and well-
defined, but the face is thin and marked on cheek and brow with many
wrinkles, and is rather careworn and haggard. One eye is apparently
blind, the other is dark, piercing, and intelligent. He was dressed very
plainly, in a light-gray summer suit. In the course of conversation, he
gave an order for the Secretary of War to furnish me with a letter as a
kind of passport, in case of my falling in with the soldiers of any mili
tary posts who might be indisposed to let me pass freely, merely ob
serving that I had been enough within the lines of camps to know what
was my duty on such occasions. I subsequently was presented to Mr.
Walker, the Secretary of War, who promised to furnish me with the
needful documents before I left Montgomery. In his room were General
Beauregard and several officers, engaged over plans and maps, apparently
in a little council of war, which was, perhaps, not without reference to
the intelligence that the United States troops were marching on Norfolk
Navy-Yard, and had actually occupied Alexandria. On leaving the Sec
retary, I proceeded to the room of the Attorney-General, Mr. Benjamin,
a very intelligent and able man, whom I found busied in preparations
connected with the issue of letters of marque. Every thing in the offices
looked like earnest work and business.
On my way back from the State Department, I saw a very fine com
pany of infantry and three field-pieces, with about one hundred and
twenty artillerymen, on their march to the railway station for Virginia.
The men were all well equipped, but there were no ammunition wagons
for the guns, and the transport consisted solely of a few country carts,
drawn by poor horses, out of condition. There is no lack of muscle
and will among the men. The troops which I see here are quite fit to
march and fight as far as their personnel is concerned, and there is no
people in the world so crazy with military madness. The very children
in the streets ape the air of soldiers, can?' little flags, and wear cock-

PICTURES OP SOUTHERN LIFE. 21
ades as they strut in the highways, and mothers and fathers feed the
fever by dressing them up as Zouaves or Chasseurs.
Mrs. Davis had a small levee to-day in right of her position as wife
of the President. Several ladies there probably looked forward to the
time when their states might secede from the new Confederation, and
afford them the pleasure of holding a reception. Why not Presidents
of the State of Georgia, or Alabama ? Why not King of South Caro
lina, or Emperor of Florida? Soldiers of fortune, make your game!
Gentlemen politicians, the ball is rolling. There is, to be sure, a storm
gathering at the North, but it cannot hurt you, and already there are
eondottieri from all parts of the world flocking to your aid, who will eat
your Southern beeves the last of all.
One word more as to a fleet. The English owners of several large
steamers are already in correspondence with government here for the
purchase of their vessels. The intelligence which had reached the
government that their commissioners have gone on to Paris is regarded
as unfavorable to their claims, and as a proof that as yet England is not
disposed to recognize them. It is amusing to hear the tone used on
both sides toward Great Britain. Both are most anxious for her coun
tenance and support, although the North blusters rather more about its
independence than the South, which professes a warm regard for the
mother country. " But," say the North, " if Great Britain recognizes
the South, we shall certainly look on it as a declaration of war."
" And," say the South, " if Great Britain does not recognize our priva
teers' flag, we shall regard it as proof of hostility and of alliance with
the enemy." The government at Washington seeks to obtain promises
from Lord Lyons that our government will not recognize the Southern
Confederacy, but at the same time refuses any guaranties in reference
to the rights of neutrals. The blockade of the Southern ports would
not occasion us any great inconvenience at present, because the cotton-
loading season is over; but if it be enforced in October, there is a pros
pect of very serious and embarrassing questions arising in reference to
the rights of neutrals, treaty obligations with the United States govern
ment, the trade and commerce of England, and the law of blockade in
reference to the distinctions to be drawn between measures of war and
means of annoyance.
As I write, the guns in front of the State Department are firing a
salute, and each report marks a state of the Confederacy. They are
now ten, as Arkansas and Tennessee are now out of the Union.

22 PICTURES OP SOUTHERN LIFE.
Montgomery, Monday, May 6, 1861.
Although I have written two letters since my arrival at Charleston,
I have not been able to give an account of many things which have
come under my notice, and which appeared to be noteworthy ; and
now that I am fairly on my travels once more, it seems only too proba
ble that I shall be obliged to pass them over altogether. The rolling
fire of the revolution is fast sweeping over the prairie, and one must
fly before it or burn. I am obliged to see all that can be seen of the
South at once, and then, armed with such safeguards as I can procure,
to make an effort to recover my communications. Bridges broken,
rails torn up, telegraphs pulled down — I am quite in the air, and air
charged with powder and fire. One of the most extraordinary books
in the world could be made out of the cuttings and parings of the
newspapers which have been published within the last few days. The
judgments, statemeuts, asseverations of the press, everywhere neces
sarily hasty, ill-sifted and off-hand, do not aspire to even an ephemeral
existence here. They are of use if they serve the purpose of the mo
ment, and of the little boys who commence their childhood in deceit,
and continue to adolescence in iniquity, by giving vocal utterance to
the " sensation" headings of the journals they retail so sharply and so
curtly. Talk of the superstition of the middle ages ; or of the credu
lity of the more advanced periods of rural life ; laugh at the Holy Coat
of Treves, or groan over the Lady of Salette ; deplore the faith in
winking pictures, or in a communique of the Moniteur ; moralize on
the superstition which discovers more in the liquefaction of the ichor
of St. Gennaro than a chemical trick, but if you desire to understand
how far faith can see and trust among the people who consider them
selves the most civilized and intelligent in the world, you will study
the American journals, and read the telegrams which appear in them.
One day the Seventh New York regiment is destroyed for the edifica
tion of the South, and is cut up into such small pieces that none of it
is ever seen afterward. The next day it marches into Washington or
Annapolis all the better for the process. Another, in order to en
courage the North, it is said that hecatombs of dead were carried out
of Fort Moultrie, packed up, for easy travelling, in boxes. Again, to
irritate both, it is credibly stated that Lord Lyons is going to interfere,
or that an Anglo-French fleet is coming to watch the ports, and so
on, through a wild play of fancy, inexact in line as though the batteries
were charged with the aurora borealis or summer lightning, instead of
the respectable, steady, manageable offspring of acid and metal, to
whose staid deportment we are accustomed at a moderate price for
entrance. As is usual in such periods, the contending parties accuse

PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIEE. 23
each other of inveterate falsehood, perfidy, oppression and local tyranny
and persecution. " Madness rules the hour." The exultation of the
South when the flag of the United States was lowered at Sumter has
been answered by a shout of indignation and battle-cry from the North,
and the excitement at Charleston has produced a reflex action there,
the energy of which cannot be described. The apathy which struck
me at New York, when I landed, has been succeeded by violent popular
enthusiasm, before which all Laodicean policy has melted into fervent
activity. The truth must be that the New York population did not
believe in the strength and unanimity of the South, and that they
thought the Union safe, or did not care about it. I can put down the
names of gentlemen who expressed the strongest opinions that the
government of the United States had no power to coerce the South,
and who have since put down their names and their money to support
the government in the attempt to recover the forts which have been
taken. As to the change of opinion in other quarters, which has been
effected so rapidly and miraculously that it has the ludicrous air of a
vulgar juggler's trick at a fair, the public regard it so little that it would
be unbecoming to waste a word about it.
I expressed a belief in "a letter, written a few days after my arrival,
that the South would never go back into the Union. The North thinks
that it can coerce the South, and I am not prepared to say they are
right or wrong ; but I am convinced that the South can only be forced
back by such a conquest as that which laid Poland prostrate at the
feet of Eussia. It may be that such a conquest can be made by the
North, but success must destroy the Union as it has been constituted
in times past. A strong government must be the logical consequence
of victory, and the triumph of the South will be attended by a similar
result, for which, indeed, many Southerners are very well disposed.
To the people of the Confederate States there would be no terror in
such an issue, for it appears to me they are pining for a strong govern
ment exceedingly. The North must accept it whether they like it or
not. Neither party, if such a term can be applied to the rest of the
United States, and to those states which disclaim the authority of the
Federal government, was prepared for the aggressive or resisting power
of the other. Already the Confederate States perceive that they can
not carry all before them with a rush, while the North have learnt that
they must put forth all their strength to make good a tithe of their
lately uttered threats. But the Montgomery government are now,
they say, anxious to gain time, and to prepare a regular army. The
North, distracted by apprehensions of vast disturbance in its compli
cated relations, is clamoring for instant action and speedy consumma-

24 PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE.
tion. The counsels of moderate men, as they were called, have been
utterly overruled.
I am now, however, dealing with South Carolina, which has been
the fons et origo of the secession doctrines and their development into
the full life of the Confederate States. The whole foundation on
which South Carolina rests is cotton and a certain amount of rice ; or
rather she bases her whole fabric on the necessity which exists in
Europe for those products of her soil, believing and asserting, as she
does, that England and France cannot and will not do without them.
Cotton, without a market, is so much flocculent matter encumbering
the ground. Eice, without demand for it, is unsalable grain in store
and on the field. Cotton at ten cents a pound is boundless prosperity,
empire and superiority, and rice or grain need no longer be regarded.
In the matter of slave labor, South Carolina argues pretty much in this
way: England and France require our products. In order to meet
their wants, we must cultivate our soil. There is only one way of
doing so. The white man cannot live on our land at certain seasons of
the year ; he cannot work in the manner required by the crops. He
must, therefore, employ a race suited to the labor, and that is a race
which will only work when it is obliged to do so. That race was im
ported from Africa, under the sanction of the law, by our ancestors,
when we were a British colony, and it has been fostered by us, so that
its increase here has been as great as that of the most flourishing people
in the world. In other places, where its labor was' not productive or
imperatively essential, that race has been made free, sometimes with
disastrous consequences to itself and to industry. But we will not
make it free. We cannot do so. We hold that slavery is essential to
our existence as producers of what Europe requires, nay more, we
maintain it is in the abstract right in principle ; and some of us go so
far as to maintain that the only proper form of- society, according to
the law of God and the exigencies of man, is that which has slavery
as its basis. As to the slave, he is happier far in his state of servitude,
more civilized and religious, than he is or could be if free or in his
native Africa.
I have already endeavored to describe the aspect of Charleston, and
I will now make a few observations on matters which struck me during:
my visit to one or two of the planters of the many who were kind
enough to give me invitations to their residences in the state. Early
one morning I started in a steamer to visit a plantation in the Pedee
and Maccamaw district, in the island coast of the state, north of Charles
ton. Passing Sumter, on which men are busily engaged, under the
Confederate flag, in making good damages and. mounting guns, we put

PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE. 25
out a few miles to sea, and with the low sandy shore, dotted with sol
diers, and guard-houses, and clumps of trees, on our left, in a few
hours pass the Santee Eiver, and enter an estuary into which the
Pedee and Maccamaw Eivers run a few miles further to the north
west. The steamer ran alongside a jetty and pier, which was crowded
by men in uniform waiting for the news and for supplies of creature
comforts. Ladies were cantering along the flue hard beach, and some
gigs and tax-carts fully laden rolled along very much as one sees
them at Scarborough. The soldiers on the pier were al Igentlemen of
the county. Some, dressed in gray tunics and yellow facings, in high
felt hats and plumes and jack-boots, would have done no discredit in
face, figure and bearing to the gayest cavaliers who ever thundered at
the heels of Prince Eupert. Their horses, full of Carolinian fire and
mettle, stood picketed under the trees along the margin of the beach.
Among these men, who had been doing the duty of common troopers
in patrolling the sea-coast, were gentlemen possessed of large estates
and princely fortunes ; and one who stood among them was pointed
out to me as captain of a company, for whose uses his liberality pro
vided unbounded daily libations of champagne, and the best luxuries
which French ingenuity can safely imprison in those well-known
caskets with which Crimean warriors were not unacquainted at the
close of the campaign. They were eager for news, which was shouted
out to them by their friends in the steamer, and one was struck by the
intimate personal cordiality and familiar acquaintance which existed
among them. Three heavy guns mounted in an earthwork defended
by palisades, covered the beach and the landing-place, and the garri
son was to have been reinforced by a regiment from Charleston,
which, however, had not got in readiness- to go up on our steamer,
owing to some little difficulties between the volunteers, their officers,
and the quartermaster-general's department.
As the Nina approaches the tumble-down wharf, two or three citi
zens advance from the shade of shaky sheds to welcome us, and a few
country vehicles and light phaqjons are drawn forth from the same
shelter to receive the passengers, while the negro boys and girls who
have been playing upon the bales of cotton and barrels of rice, which
represent the trade of the place *h the wharf, ^take up commanding
positions for the better observation of our proceedings. There is an
air of quaint simplicity and old-fashioned quiet about Georgetown,
refreshingly antagonistic to the bustle and tumult of most American
cities. While waiting for our vehicl ewe enjoyed the hospitality of
one of our friends, who took us into an old-fashioned angular wooden
mansion, more than a century old, still sound in every timber, and
2

26 PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE.
testifying, in its quaint wainscotings, and the rigid framework of door
and window, to the durability of its cypress timbers and the preserv
ative character of the atmosphere. In early days it was the crack
house of the old settlement, and the residence of the founder of the
female branch of the family of our host, who now only makes it his
halting place when passing to and fro between Charleston and his plan
tation, leaving it the year round in charge of an old servant and her
grandchild. Eose-trees and flowering shrubs clustered before the porch
and filled the garden in front, and the establishment gave one a good
idea of a London merchant's retreat about Chelsea a hundred and fifty
years ago.
At length we were ready for our journey, and, mounted in two light
covered vehicles, proceeded along the sandy track which, after a while,
led us to a cut deep in the bosom of the woods, where silence was only
broken by the cry of a woodpecker, the boom of a crane, or the sharp
challenge of the jay. For miles we passed through the shades of this
forest, meeting only two or three vehicles containing female planterdom
on little excursions of pleasure or business, who smiled their welcome
as we passed. Arrived at a deep chocolate-colored stream, called Black
Eiver, full of fish and alligators, we find a flat large enough to accom
modate vehicles and passengers, and propelled by two negroes pulling
upon a stretched rope, in the manner usual in the ferry-boats of Swit
zerland, ready for our reception. Another drive through a more open
country, and we reach a fine grove of pine and live-oak, which melts
away into a shrubbery guarded by a rustic gateway, passing through
which, we are brought by a sudden turn into the planter's house, buried
in trees, which dispute with the green sward and with wild flower-beds
every yard of the space which lies between the hall-door and the waters
of the Pedee ; and in a few minutes, a.s we gaze over the expanse of
fields just tinged with green by the first life of the early rice crops,
marked by the deep water-cuts, and bounded by a fringe of unceasing
'forest, the chimneys of the steamer we had left at Georgetown gliding
as it were through the fields, indicate the existence of another navi
gable river still beyond. Leaving with regret the verandah which com
manded so enchanting a foreground, we enter the house, and are re
minded by its low-browed, old-fashioned rooms, of the country houses
yet to be found in parts of Ireland or on the Scottish border, with
additions, made by the luxury and love of foreign travel, of more than
one generation of educated Southern planters. Paintings from Italy
illustrate the walls, in juxtaposition with interesting portraits of early
colonial governors and their lovelywomankind, limned with no uncer
tain hand, and full of the \ig90Prtouch. and naturalness of drapery,

PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE. 27
of which Copley has left us too few exemplars ; and one portrait of Ben
jamin West claims for itself such honor as his own pencil can give. An
excellent library — filled1 with collections of French and English classics,
and with those ponderous editions of Voltaire, Eousseau, the Memoires
pour Servir, books of travel and history such as delighted our fore
fathers in the last century, and many works of American and general
history — affords ample occupation for a rainy day. But alas ! these, and
all things good which else the house affords, can be enjoyed but for a
brief season. Just as nature has expanded every charm, developed
every grace, and clothed the scene with all the beauty of opened flower,
of ripening grain, and of mature vegetation, on the wings of the wind
the poisoned breath comes, borne to the home of the white man, and
he must fly before it or perish. The books lie unopened on then-
shelves, the flower blooms and dies unheeded, and, pity 'tis true, the
old Madeira garnered 'neath the roof, settles down for a fresh lease of
life, and sets about its solitary task of acquiring a finer flavor for the
infrequent lips of its banished master and his welcome visitors. This
is the story, at least, that we hear on all sides, and such is the tale re
peated to us beneath the porch, when the moon enhances while soften
ing the loveliness of the scene, and the rich melody of mocking-birds
fills the grove.
Within these hospitable doors Horace might banquet better than he
did with Nasidienus, and drink such wine as can be only found among
the descendants of the ancestry who, improvident enough in all else,
learnt the wisdom of bottling up choice old Bual and Sercial ere the
demon of oidium had dried up their generous sources forever. To
these must be added excellent bread, ingenious varieties of the galette,
compounded now of rice and now of Indian meal, delicious butter and
fruits, all good of their kind. And is there any thing bitter rising up
from the bottom of the social bowl ? My black friends who attend on
me are grave as Mussulman Khitmutgars. They are attired in liveries /
and wear white cravats and Berlin gloves. At night when we retire,
off they go to their outer darkness in the small settlement of negro-
hood, which is separated from our house by a wooden palisade. Their
fidelity is undoubted. The house breathes an air of security. The
doors and windows are unlocked. There is but one gun, a fowling-
piece, on the premises. No planter hereabouts has any dread of his
slaves. But I have seen, within the short time I have been in this
part of the world, several dreadful accounts of murder and violence,
in which masters suffered at the hands of their slaves. There is some
thing suspicious in the constant never-ending statement that " we are
not afraid of our slaves." The curfew and the night patrol in the

28 PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE.
streets, the prisons and watch-houses, and the police regulations, prove
that strict supervision, at all events, is needed and necessary. My
.host is a kind man and a good master. If slaves are happy anywhere,
they should be so with him.
These people are fed by their master. They have upwards of half
a pound per diem of fat pork, and corn in abundance. They rear
poultry and sell their chickens and eggs to the house. They are
clothed by their master. He keeps them in sickness as in health.
Now and then there are gifts of tobacco and molasses for the deserv
ing. There was little labor going on in the fields, for the rice has been
just exerting itself to get its head above water. These fields yield
plentifully ; for the waters of the river are fat, and they are let in when
ever the planter requires it, by means of floodgates and small canals,
through which the flats can carry their loads of grain to the river for
loading the steamers.

Mobile, Ala., Saturday, May 11, 1861.
The wayfarer who confides in the maps of a strange country, or'who
should rely upon even the guide-books of the United States, which
still lack a Murray or a Bradshaw, may be at times embarrassed by in
superable hills and innavigable rivers. When, however, I saw the three
towering stories of the high-pressure steamer Southern Eepublic, on
board of which we tumbled down the steep bank of the Alabama river
at Montgomery, any such misgivings vanished from my mind. So
colossal an ark could have ascended no mythical stream, and the ex
istence and capabilities of the Alabama were demonstrated by its
presence. Punctuality is reputed a rare virtue in the river steamers of the West
and South, and seldom leave their wharves until they have bagged a
fair complement of passengers, although steaming up and ringing gongs
and bells every afternoon for a week or more before their departure, as
if travelers were to be swarmed like bees. Whether stimulated by the
; infectious activity of these " war times," or convinced that the " polite
ness of kings" is the best steamboat policy, the grandson of Erin who
owns and commands the Southern Eepublic, casts off his fastenings but
half an hour after his promised start, and the short puff of the engine is
enlivened by the wild strains of a steam-organ called a " caliope," which
gladdens us with the assurance that we are in the incomparable " land
of Dixie."
Preserving for a cooler hour the attractions of the lower floor, a Hades
consecrated to machinery, freight and negroes, we betake ourselves to

PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE. 29
the second landing, where we find a long dining hall, surrounded by two
tiers of state-rooms, the upper one accessible by a stair-way leading to
a gallery, which divides the " saloon" between floor and roof. We are
shown our quarters, which leave much to be desired and nothing to
spare, and rush from their suffocating atmosphere to the outer balcony,
where a faint breeze stirs the air. There is a roofed balcony above us
that corresponds to the second tier of state-rooms, from which a party
of excited secessionists are discharging revolvers at the dippers on the
surface, and the cranes on the banks of the river.
After we have dropped down five or six miles from Montgomery, the
steam- whistle announces our approach to a landing, and, as, there is no
wharf in view, we watch curiously the process by which our top-heavy
craft, under the sway of a four-knot current, is to swing round to her in
visible moorings. As we draw nigh to a wagon-worn indenture in the
bank, the " scream" softens into the dulcet pipes of the " caliope," and
the steamer doubles upon her track, like an elephant turning at bay, her
two engines being as independent of each other as seceding states, and
slowly stemmino: the stream, lays her nose upon the bank, and holds it
there with the judicious aid of her paddles until a long plank is run
ashore from her bow, over which three passengers with valises make
way for a planter and his family, who come on board. The gang plank
is hauled in, the steamer turns her head down stream with the expert-
ness of a whale in a canal, and we resume our voyage. We renew these
stoppages various times before dark, landing here a barrel and there a
box, and occasionally picking up a passenger.
After supper, which is served on a series of parallel tables running
athwart the saloon, we return to enjoy from the balcony the cool obscu
rity of the evening in this climate, where light means heat. As we cleave
the glassy surface of the black water the timber-clad banks seem to hem
us in more closely, and to shut up the vista before us, and while we
glide down with a rapidity which would need but the roar of the rapids
to prefigure a cataract beyond, we yield to the caprice of fancy, institut
ing comparisons between the dark perspective ahead and the mystery of
the future.
Again a scream, and a ruddy light flashes from our prow and deepens
the shades around us. This proceeds from the burning of " light-wood"
— a hio-hly resinous pine — in a wire basket hung on gimbals, and held
like a landing-net below the bow of the steamer, so as to guide without
blinding the pilot, who is ensconced like a Hansom cabman upon its
roof. The torch-bearer raises his cresset as we steam up to the bank,
and plants it in a socket, when a hawser is seized round a tree, and the
crew turn ashore to " wood up." There is a steep high bank above us,

30 PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE.
and while dusky forms are flitting to and fro with food for our furnace,
we survey a long stair-way ascending the bank at a sharp angle in a cut,
which is lost in the sheds that crown the eminence over-head. This
stair is flanked on either side by the bars of an iron tram-way, up which
freight is hauled when landed, and parallel to it is a wooden slide, down
which bales of cotton and sacks of corn are shot upon the steamer. One
or two passengers slowly ascend, and a voice in the air notifies us that
a team is at hand with a load of ladies, who shortly after are seen pick
ing their way down the flight of steps. The cresset is constantly re
plenished with fresh light-wood, and the shadows cast by its flickering
flame make us regret that we have not with us a Turner to preserve this
scene, which would have been a study for Eembrandt or Salvator Eosa.
At midnight we halt for a couple of hours at Selma, a " rising town,''
which has taken a start of late, owing to the arrival of a branch railway
that connects it with Tennessee and the Mississippi Eiver. Here a
huge embarcadere, several stories high, seems fastened to the side of the
bank, and affords us an opportunity of stepping out from either story of
the Southern Eepublic upon a corresponding landing. Upon one of
these floors there are haekmen and hotel runners, competing for those
who land, and indicating the proximity of a town, if not a city. Our
captain had resolved upon making but a short stay, in lieu of tying up
until morning — his usual practice — when an acquaintance comes on hoard
and begs him to wait an hour for a couple of ladies and some children
whom he will hunt up a mile or so out of town. Times are hard, and
the captain very cheerfully consents, not insensable to the flattering in
sinuation, " You know our folks never go with any one but you, if they
can help it."
The next day and evening are a repetition of the foregoing scenes,
with more plantations in view, and a general air of tillage and prosper
ity. We are struck by the uniformity of the soil, which everywhere
seems of inexhaustible fertility, and by the unvarying breadth of the
stream, which, but for its constantly recurring sinuosities, might pass
for a broad ship-canal. We also remark that the bluffs rarely sink into
bottoms susceptible of overflow, and admire the verdure of the primi
tive forest, a tangle of mangolias in full flower, of laurels, and of various
oaks peculiar to this region, and which, though never rising to the dig
nity of that noble tree in higher latitudes, are many of them extremely
graceful. All this sylva of moderate stature is intertwined with creepers,
and at intervals we see the Spanish moss, indicating the malarious exha
lations of the soil beneath. The Indian corn, upon which the Southern
ers rely principally for food, has attained a height of two feet, and we
are told that, in consequence of the war, it is sown in greater breadth

PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE. 31
than usual. The cotton plant has but just peeped above the earth, and,
alluding to its tenderness, those around us express anxieties about that
crop, which, it seems, are never allayed until it has been picked, bagged
and pressed, shipped and sold.
As I am not engaged upon an itinerary, let these sketches suffice to
convey an idea of the 417 miles of winding river which connect Mont
gomery with Mobile, to which place the Southern Eepublic conveyed
us in thirty-five hours, stoppings included.
One of the Egyptian pyramids owes its origin to the strange caprice
of a princess, and the Southern Eepublic is said to have been built with
the proceeds of an accidental " haul" of Gold Coast natives, who fell
into the net of her enterprising proprietor. This worthy, born of Irish
parents in Milk street, is too striking a type of what the late Mr. Web
ster was wont to call " a Northern man with Southern principles," not
to deserve something more than a passing notice.
For out-and-out Southern notions there is nothing in Dixie's Land
like the successful emigrant from the North and East. Captain
Meagher had at his fingers' ends all the politico-economical facts and
figures of the Southern side of the question, and rested his reason
solely upon the more sordid and material calculations of the secession
ists. It was a question of tariffs. The North had, no doubt, provided
the protection of a navy, the facilities of mails, the construction of forts,
custom-houses, and post-offices, in the South, and placed countless well-
paid offices at the disposal of gentlemen fond of elegant leisure ; but
for all these the South had been paying more than their value, and
when abolitionists were allowed to elect a sectional president, and the
system of forced labor, which is the basis of Southern prosperity, was
threatened, the South were but too happy to take a "snap judgment,"
as in a pie poudre court, and declare the federal compact forfeited and
annulled forever.
During the long second day of our voyage we examined the faces of
the proletarians, whose color and constitutions so well adapt them for
the Cyclopian realm of the main deck. Among them we detect several
physiognomies which strike us as resembling seedlings from the Gold
Coast, rather than the second or third fruits of ancient transplantation.
A fellow-traveller gratifies, at the same time, our curiosity and our pen
etration. There are several native Africans, or, as they are called in
Cuba, bonzes, on board. They are the property of the argumentative
captain, and were acquired by a coup de main, at which I have ahead}*-
hinted in this letter. It seems that a club of planters in this state and
one or two others resolved, little more than a year ago, to import a
cargo of Africans. They were influenced partly by cupidity and partly

32 PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE.
by a fancy to set the United States laws at defiance, and to evince
their contempt for New England philanthropy. The job was accepted
by an Eastern house, which engaged to deliver the cargo at a certain
point on the coast within certain limits of time.
Whether the shipment arrived earlier than anticipated, or whether
Captain Meagher was originally designated as the person to whom the
bold and delicate manoeuvre of landing them should be intrusted, it is
certain that on a certain Sunday in last July he took a little coasting
trip in his steamer Czar, and appeared at Mobile on the following
morning in season to make his regular voyage up river. It is no less
certain that he ran the dusky strangers in at night by an unfrequented
pass, and landed them among the cane-brakes of his own plantation
with sufficient celerity to be back at the moorings of the Czar without
his absence having been noticed. The vessel from which the bonzes
were delivered were scuttled and sunk, and her master and crew found
their way North by rail.
But the parties in interest soon claimed to divide the spoils, when,
to their infinite disgust, the enterprising captain very coolly professed
to ignore the whole business, and defied them to seek to recover by suit
at law property the importation of which was regarded and would be
punished as felony, if not as piracy, by the judicial tribunals. A case
was made, and issue joined, when the captain proved a circumstantial
alibi, and, having cast the claimants, doled them out a few bonzes, per
haps to escape assassination, as shells, while he kept the oyster in the
shape of the pick of the importation, which he still holds, reconciling
his conscience to the transaction by interpreting it as salvage.
All this is told us by our interlocutor, who was one of the losers by
the affair, and who stigmatized the conduct of its hero as having been
treacherous. The latter, after repeated jocular inquiries, suffers his
vanity to subdue his reticence, and finishes by " acknowledging the
corn." In the afternoon of the second day we meet two steamers ascending
the river with heavy cargoes, and are told that they are the Keyes and
the Lewis, recently warned off and not seized by the blockading squad
ron off Pensacola. They are deep with provisions for the forces of the
Confederate States army before Pickens, which must now be dispatch
ed from Montgomery by rail.
In Mobile, for the first time since leaving Washington, " we realize"
the entire stagnation of business. There are but five vessels in port,
chiefly English, which will suffice to carry away the debris of the cotton
crop. Exchange on the North is unsalable, owing to the impossibility
of importing coin through the unsettled country. And bills on Lon-

PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE. 33
don are of slow sale at par, which would leave a profit of seven per cent.
upon the importation of gold from your side.

Mobile, Sunday, May 12.
The heat of the city rendered an excursion to which I was invited,
for the purpose of visiting the forts at the entrance of the bay, exceed
ingly agreeable, and I was glad to get out from the smell of warm
bricks to the breezy waters of the sea. The party comprised many of
the leading merchants and politicians of this city, which is the third in
importance as a port of exportation in the United States of America.
There was not a man among them who did not express, with more or
less determination, the resolve never to submit to the rule of the ac
cursed North. Let there be no mistake whatever as to the unanimity
which exists at present in the South to fight for what it calls its inde
pendence, and to carry on a war to the knife with the government of
the United States. I have frequently had occasion to remark the cu
rious operation of the doctrine of state rights on the minds of the peo
ple ; but an examination of the institutions of the country as they
actually exist leads to the inference that, where the tyranny of the ma
jority is at once irresponsible and cruel, it is impossible for any man,
where the doctrine prevails, to resist it with safety or success. It is the
inevitable result of the action of this majority, as it operates in Amer
ica, first to demoralize and finally to absorb the minority ; and even
those who have maintained what are called " Union doctrines," and
who are opposed to secession or revolution, have bowed their heads be
fore the majesty of the mass, and have hastened to signify their acqui
escence in the decisions which they have hitherto opposed. The
minority, cowardly in consequence of the arbitrary and vindictive char
acter of the overwhelming power against which it has struggled, and
disheartened by defeat, of which the penalties are tremendous in such
conflicts as these, hastens to lick the feet of the conqueror, and rushes
with frantic cheers after the chariot in the triumph which celebrates its
own humiliation. If there be a minority at all on this great question
of secession in the Southern states, it hides in holes and corners inac
cessible to the light of day, and sits there in darkness and in sorrow,
silent and fearful, if not dumb and hopeless. There were officers who
had served with distinction under the flag of the United States, now
anxious to declare that it was not their flag, and that they had no affec
tion for it, although they were ready to admit they would have con
tinued to serve under it if their states had not gone out. A man's
state, in fact, under the operation of these majority doctrines to which
2*

34 PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE.
I have adverted, holds hostages for his fidelity to the majority, not only
in such land or fortune as he may possess within her bounds, but in his
family, his relatives and kin, and if the state revolts, the officer who re
mains faithful to the flag of the United States is considered by the
authorities of the revolting state a traitor, and, what is worse, he is
treated in the persons of those he leaves behind him as the worst kind
of political renegade. General Scott, but a few months ago the most
honored of men in a republic which sets such store on military success,
is now reviled and abused because, being a Virginian by birth, he did
not immediately violate his oath, abandon his post, and turn to fight
against the flag which he has illustrated by repeated successes, during
a career of half a century, the moment his state passed an ordinance of
secession. An intelligent and accomplished officer, who accompanied me to-day
around the forts under his command, told me that he had all along
resisted secession, but that when his state went out he felt it was neces
sary to resign his commission in the United States army, and to take
service with the confederates. Among the most determined opponents
of the North, and the most vehement friends of what are called here
" domestic institutions," are the British residents, English, Irish and
Scotch, who have settled here for trading purposes, and who are fre
quently slave-holders. These men have no state rights to uphold, but
they are convinced of the excellence of things as they are, or find it
their interest to be so.
The waters of two rivers fall into the head of the Bay of Mobile,
which is, in fact, a narrow sea-creek, between low sandy banks covered
with pine and forest trees, broken here and there into islands, extending
some thirty miles inland, with a breadth varying from three to seven
miles. No attempt has been made, apparently,, to improve the waters,
or to provide docks or wharfage for the numerous cotton ships which
lie out at the mouth of the bay, more than twenty five miles from Mo
bile. All the cotton has to be sent down to them in lighters, and the
number of men thus employed in the cotton season is loading the
barges, navigating, and transferring the cargoes to the ships, is very con
siderable, and their rate of wages is high.
The horror entertained by a merchant captain of the shore is well
known, and the skippers are delighted at an anchorage so far from land,
which at the same time detains'the crews in the ships and prevents
"running." At present there are but seven ships at the anchorage,
nearly all British, and one of the latter appears in the distance hard and
fast ashore, though whether she got there in consequence of the lights
not being burning or from neglect it is impossible to sav- Fort Gaines,

PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE. 35
on the right bank of the channel, near the entrance, is an unfinished
shell of a fort, which was commenced by the United States engineers
some time ago, and which it would not be easy to finish without a large
outlay of money and labor. It is not well placed to resist either a land
attack or an assault by boats. A high sand-bank in front of one of the
faces screens the fire, and a wood on another side, if occupied by rifle
men, would render it difficult to work the barbette guns. It is not
likely, however, that the fort will be attacked. The channel it com
mands is only fit for light vessels. From this fort to the other side of
the channel, where Fort Morgan stands, the distance is over three miles,
and the deep-water channel is close to the latter fort. The position of
the Gaines is held by a strong body of Alabama troops — stout, sturdy
men, who have volunteered from farm, field, or desk. They are armed
with ordinary muskets of the old pattern, and their uniform is by no
means uniform ; but the men look fit for service. The fort would take
a garrison of five hundred men if fully mounted, but the parapets are
mere partition walls of brickwork crenellated ; the bomb-proofs are
unfinished, and, but for a few guns mounted on the sand-hills, the place
is a defenceless shell-trap. There are no guns in the casemates, and
there is no position ready to bear the weight of a gun in barbette. The
guns which are on the beach are protected by sand-bag traverses, and
are more formidable than the whole fortress. The steamer proceeded
across the channel to Fort Morgan, which is a work of considerable
importance, and is assuming a formidable character under the superin
tendence -of Colonel Hardeej formerly of the United States army. It has
a regular trace, bastion and curtain, with a dry ditch and drawbridge,
well-made casemates and bomb-proofs, and a tolerable armament of co
lumbiads, forty-two and thirty-two pounders, a few ten-inch mortars, and
light guns in the external works at the salients. The store of ammu
nition seems ample. Some of the fuses are antiquated, and the gun
carriages are old-fashioned. The open parade and the unprotected
gorges of the casemates would render the work extremely unpleasant
under a shell fire, and the buildings and barracks inside are at present
open to the influences of heat. The magazines are badly traversed and
inadequately protected. A very simple and apparently effective contri
vance for dispensing with the use of the sabot in shells was shown to
me by Colonel Maury, the inventor. It consists of two circular grummets
/of rope, one at the base and the other at the upper circumference of the
shell, made by a simple machinery to fit tightly to the sphere, and bound
together by thin copper wire. The grummets fit the bore of the gun
exactly, and act as wads, allowing the base of the shell to rest in close
contact with the charge, and breaking into oakum on lea-ing the

36 PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE.
muzzle. Those who know what mischief can be aone by the fragments
of the sabot when fired over the heads of troops, will appreciate this
simple invention, which is said to give increased range to the horizontal
shell. There must be about sixty guns in this work ; it is over-garri
soned, and, indeed, it seems to be the difficulty here to know what to
do with the home volunteers. Eope mantlets are used on the breeches
of some of the barbette guns. At night the harbor is in perfect dark
ness. Notwithstanding the defences I have indicated, it would be quite
possible to take Fort Morgan with a moderate force, well supplied with
the means of vertical fire.
" Are there many mosquitos here ?" inquired I of the waiter on the
day of my arrival. "Well, there's a few, I guess; but I wish there
were ten times as many." "In the name of goodness, why do you say
so ?" asked I, with some surprise and indignation. " Because we'd get
rid of the  Black Eepublicans out of Fort Pickens all the sooner,"
replied he. There is a strange unilateral tendency in the minds of men
in judging of the operation of causes and results in such a contest as
that which now prevails between the North and the South. The waiter
reasoned and spoke like many of his betters. The mosquitos, for
whose aid he was so anxious, were regarded by him as true Southerners,
who would only torture his enemies. The idea of these persecuting
little fiends being so unpatriotic as to vex the Confederates in their
sandy camp never entered into his mind for a moment. In the same
way, a gentleman of intelligence, who was speaking to me of the terri
ble sufferings which would be inflicted on the troops at Tortugas and
at Pickens by fever, dysentery, and summer heats, looked quite sur
prised when I asked him, " whether these agencies would not prove
equally terrible to the troops of the Confederates ?"

Mobile, May 18, 1861.
I avail myself of the departure of a gentleman who is going to New
York by the shortest route he can find, to send you the accompanying
letters. The mails are stopped ; so are the telegraphs ; and it is doubt
ful whether I can get to New Orleans by water. Of what I saw at
Fort Pickens and Pensacola here is an account, written in a very hur
ried manner, and under very peculiar circumstances. Tuesday, May 14, 1861.
Two New Orleans gentlemen, who came overland from Pensacola
yesterday, give such an account of their miseries from heat, dust, sand,
and want of accommodation, in the dreary waste through which they
passed for more than seventeen hours, that I sought out some other
way of going there, and at last heard of a small schooner, called the

TICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE. 37
Diana, which would gladly undertake to run round by sea, if permitted
to enter by the blockading squadron.
She was neither clean nor neat looking ; her captain, a tall, wild-
haired young man, had more the air of a mechanic than of a sailor, but
he knew his business well, as the result of the voyage showed. His
crew consisted pf three men and a negro cook. Three gentlemen of
Mobile, who were anxious to visit General Bragg's camp, agreed to
join me, but before I sailed I obtained a promise that they would not
violate the character of neutrals as long as they were with me, and an as
surance that they were not in any way engaged in or employed by the
Confederate States forces. " Surely you will not have Mr. E  ¦
hanged, sir?" said the mayor of Mobile to me when I told him I
could not consent to pass off the gentleman in question as a private
friend. " No, I shall do nothing to get Mr. E  hanged. It will be
his own act which causes it, but I will not allow Mr. E  to accom
pany me under false pretences." Having concluded our bargain with
the skipper at a tolerably fair rate, and laid in a stock of stores and
provisions, the party sailed from Mobile at five in the evening of Tuesday,
May 14, with the flag of the Confederate States flying; but, as a pre
cautionary measure, I borrowed from our acting consul, Mr. Magee, a
British ensign, which, with a flag of truce, would win the favorable
consideration of the United States squadron. Our craft, the somewhat
Dutch build of which gave no great promise of speed, came, to our
surprise and pleasure, up with the lights of Fort Morgan at nine o'clock,
and we were allowed to pass unchallenged through a " swash," as a
narrow channel over the bar is called, which, despite the absence of
beacons and buoys, our skipper shot through under the guidance of a
sounding-pole, which, gave, at various plunges, but a few inches to

The shore is as flat as a pancake — a belt of white sand, covered with
drift-logs and timber, and with a pine forest ; not a home or human
habitation of any sort to be seen for forty miles, from Fort Morgan to
the entrance of the harbor of Pensacola ; cheerless, miserable, full of
swamps, the haunts of aligators, cranes, snakes, and pelicans ; with
lagoons, such as the Perdida, swelling into inland seas ; deep buried in
pine woods, and known only to wild creatures, and to the old filibus
ters — swarming with mosquitos. As the Diana rushed along within a
quarter of a mile of this grim shore, great fish flew off from the shal
lows, and once a shining gleam flashed along the waters, and winged
its way alongside the little craft— a monster shark, which ploughed
through the sea pari passu for some hundred yards leeward of the
craft, and distinctly visible in the wonderful phosphoreseence around

38 PICTURES OF SOUTHER*! LIFE.
it, and then dashed away with a trail of light seawerd, on some errand
of voracity, with tremendous force and vigor. The wretched Spaniards
who came to this ill-named Florida, must often have cursed their stars.
How rejoiced were they when the government of the United States
relieved them from their dominion! Once during the night some
lights were seen on shore, as if from a camp-fire. The skipper pro
posed to load an old iron carronade and blaze away at them, and one
of the party actually got out his revolver to fire, but I objected very
strongly to these valorous proceedings, and suggesting that they might
be friends who were there, and that, friends or foes, they were sure to
return our fire, succeeded in calming the martial ardor on hoard the
Diana. The fires were very probably made by some of the horsemen
lately sent out by General Bragg to patrol the coast, but the skipper said
that in all his life-long experience he had never seen a human creature
or a light on that shore before. The wind was so favorable, and the
Diana so fast, that she would have run into the midst of the United
States squadron off Fort Pickens had she pursued her course. There
fore, when she was within about ten miles of the station she hove to,
and lay off and on for about two hours. Before dawn the sails were
filled, and off she went once more, bowling along merrily, till with the
first blush of day there came in sight Fort M'Eae, Fort Pickens, and
the masts of the squadron, just rising above the blended horizon of low
shore and sea. The former, which is on the western shore of the main
land, is in the hands of the Confederate troops. The latter is just op
posite to it, on the extremity of the sand-bank, called Santa Eosa
Island, which, for forty-five miles runs in a belt parallel to the shore of
Florida, at a distance varying from one and a quarter to four miles.
To make smooth water of it, the schooner made several tacks shore
ward. In the second of these tacks the subtle entrance of Perdida
Creek is pointed out, which, after several serpentine and re-entering
undulations of channel, one of which is only separated from the sea
for a mile or more by a thin wall of sand-bank, widens to meet the dis
charge of a tolerably spacious inland lake. The Perdida is the divid
ing line between the states of Alabama and Florida.
The flagstaff of Fort M'Eae soon became visible, and in fainter out
line beyond it that of Fort Pickens, and the hulls of the fleet, in which
one can make out three war-steamers, a frigate, and a sloop-of-war, and
Hhen the sharpset canvas of a schooner, the police craft of this beat,
bearing down upon us. The skipper, with some uneasiness, announces
the small schooner that is sailing in the wind's eye as the " Oriental,"
and confesses to having already been challenged and warned off by her
sentinel master. We promised him immunity for the past and safety

PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE. 39
for the future, and, easing off the main sheet, he lays the Diana on her
course for the fleet.
Fort M'Eae, one of the obsolete school of fastnesses, rounds up oh
our left. Beyond it, on the shore, is Barrancas, a square-faced work,
half a mile further up the channel, and more immediately facing Fort
Pickens. A thick wood crowns the low shore, which trends away to
the eastward, but amid the sand the glass can trace the outlines of the
batteries. Pretty-looking detached houses line the beach ; some loftier
edifices gather close up to the shelter of a tall chimney which is vomit
ing out clouds of smoke, and a few masts and spars checker the white
fronts of the large buildings and sheds, which, with a big shears, indi
cate the position of the navy -yard of Warrington, commonly called that
of Pensacola, although the place of that name lies several miles hio-hcr
up the creek. Fort M'Eae seems to have sunk at the foundations ; the
crowns of many of the casemates are cracked, and the water-face is
poor looking. Fort Pickens, on the contrary, is a solid, substantial-
looking work, and reminds one something of Fort Paul at Sebastopol,
as seen from the sea, except that it has only one tier of casemates, and
is not so high.
As the Oriental approaches, the Diana throws her foresail aback,
and the pretty little craft, with a full-sized United States ensio-n
flying, and the muzzle of a brass howitzer peeping over her forecastle,
ranges up luff, and taking an easy sweep lies to alongside us. A boat
is lowered from her and is soon alongside, steered by an officer; her
crew are armed to the teeth with pistols and cutlasses. " Ah, I think
I have seen you before. What schooner is this ?" " The Diana, from
Mobile." The officer steps on deck, and announces himself as Mr.
Brown, master in the United States navy, in charge of the boarding
vessel Oriental. The crew secure their boat and step up after him.
The skipper, looking very sulky, hands his papers to the officer.
" Now, sir, make sail, and lie to under the quarter of that steamer,
the guardship Powhatan."
Mr. Brown was exceedingly courteous when he heard who the party
were. The Mobilians, however, looked as black as thunder ; nor were
they at all better pleased when they heard the skipper ask if he did
not know there was a strict blockade of the port. The Powhatan is a
paddle steamer of 2,200 tuns and ten guns, and is known to our service
as the flag-ship of Commodore Tatnall, in Chinese waters, when that
gallant veteran gave us timely and kindly proof of the truth of his well-
known expression, " Blood is thicker than water." Upon her spar-
deck there is a stout, healthy-looking crew, which seems quite able to
attend to hei' armament of ten heavy ten-inch Dahlgren columbiads,

40 PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE.
and the formidable eleven-inches of the same family on the forecastle.
Her commander, Captain Porter, though only a lieutenant command
ing, has seen an age of active service, both in the navy and in the
merchant steam marine service, to which he was detailed for six or
seven years after the discovery of California. The party were ushered
into the cabin, and Captain Porter received them with perfect courtesy,
heard our names and object, and then entered into general conversation,
in which the Mobilians, thawed by his sailorly frankness, gradually
joined, as well as they could. Over and over again I must acknowl
edge the exceeding politeness and civility with which your corre
spondent has been received by the authorities on both sides in this
unhappy war.
Though but little beyond the age of forty, Captain Porter has been
long enough in the navy to have imbibed some of those prejudices which
by the profane are stigmatized as fogyisms. Until the day previous
he had, he told me, felt disposed to condemn rifled cannon of a small
calibre as "gimcracks," but had been rapidly converted to the "Arm
strong faith" by the following experiment. He was making target
practice with his heavy gun at a distance of some 2,600 yards. At
any thing like a moderate elevation the experiment was unsatisfactory,
and while his gunners were essaying to harmonize cause and effect, the
charge and the elevation, he bethought him of a little rifled brass play
thing which Captain Dahlgren had sent on board a day or two before his
departure. To his astonishment the ball, after careering until he
thought "it would never stop going," struck the water 1,000 yards
beyond the target, and established a reputation he had never believed
possible for a howitzer of six-pound calibre carrying a twelve-pound
bolt. He observed that the ancient walls of Fort M'Eae would not
resist this new missile for half an hour.
If it comes to fighting you will hear more of the Powhatan and
Captain Porter. He has been repeatedly in the harbor and along the
enemy's works at night in his boat, and knows their position thoroughly,
and he showed me on his chart the various spots marked off whence he
can sweep their works and do them immense mischief. " The Pow
hatan is old, and if she sinks I can't help it." She is all ready for ac
tion ; boarding nettings triced up, field-pieces and howitzers prepared
against night boarding, and the whole of her bows padded internally,
with dead wood and sails, so as to prevent her main deck being raked
as she stands stern on toward the forts. Her crew are as fine a set of
men as I have seen of late days on board a man-of-war. They are
healthy, well fed, regularly paid, and can be relied on to do their duty
to a man. As far as I could judge, the impression of the officers was,

PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE. 41
that General Bragg would not be rash enough to expose himself to the
heavy chastisement which, in their belief, awaits him if he is rash
enough to open fire upon Fort Pickens. As Captain Porter is not the
senior officer of the fleet, he signaled to the flag-ship, and .was desired
to send us on board.
One more prize has been made this morning— a little schooner with
a crew of Italians and laden with vegetables. This master, a Eoman
of Civita Vecchia, pretends to be in great trouble, in order to squeeze
a good price out of the captain for his " tutti fruti e cosi diversi."
The officers assured me that all the statements made by the coasting
skippers when they return to port from the squadron, are lies from be
ginning to end.
A ten-oared barge carried the party to the United States frigate
Sabine, on board of which Flag-Captain Adams hoists his pennant
On our way we had a fair view of the Brooklyn, whose armament of
22 heavy guns is said to be the most formidable battery in the Ameri
can navy. Her anti-type, the Sabine, an old-fashioned fifty-gun frigate,
as rare an object upon modern seas as an old post-coach is upon mod
ern roads, is reached at last. As one treads her decks, the eyes, ac
customed for so many weeks to the outlandish uniforms of brave but
undisciplined Southern volunteers, feel en pays de connaissance, when
they rest upon the solid mass of 300 or 400 quid-rolling, sunburnt, and
resolute-looking blue-shirted tars, to whom a three years' cruise has
imparted a family aspect which makes them almost as hard to distin-
guish apart as so many Chinamen.
A believer in the serpent-symbol might feel almost tempted to regard
the log of the Sabine as comprising the Alpha and the Omega of, at
. least, the last half-century of the American republic. Her keel was
laid shortly after our last war with Brother -Jonathan, and so long as
the temple of Janus remained closed — her size having rendered her
unfit to participate in what is called the Mexican war — she remained
in the ship-house of the navy-yard which had witnessed her baptism.
In the year 1858 she was summoned from her retirement to officiate as
flag-ship of the " Paraguay expedition," and, after having conveyed the
American commissioner to Montevideo, whence he proceeded with
a flotilla of steamers and sloops-of-war up to Corrientes, and thence
in the temporary flag-ship, the steamer Fulton, to Assumpcion, she
brought him back to New York in May, 1859, and was then dis
patched to complete her cruise as part of the home squadron in the
Caribbean Sea and Gull of Mexico. During the concluding months of
her cruise the political complications of the North and South burst
into the present rupture, and the day before our visit one of her lieu-

42 PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE.
tenants, a North Carolinian, had left her to espouse, as nearly all the
Southern officers of both army and navy have done, the cause of his
native state. Captain Adams is in a still more painful predicament.
During his eventful voyage, which commenced with a six days' ex
perience in the terrible Bermuda cyclone of November, 1858, he had
been a stranger to the bitter sectional animosities engendered by the
last election; and had recently joined the blockade of this port, where
he finds a son enlisted in the ranks of the C. S. A., and learns that two
others form part of the Virginia division of Mr. Jefferson Davis's forces.
Born in Pennsylvania, he married in Louisiana, where he has a planta
tion and the remainder of his family, and he smiles grimly as one of
our companions brings him the playful message from his daughter,
who has been elected vivandiere of a New Orleans regiment, " that she
trusts he may be starved while blockading the South, and that she in
tends to push on to Washington and get a lock of Old Abe's hair" —
a Sioux lady would have said his scalp.
The veteran sailor's sad story demands deep sympathy. I, however,
cannot help enjoying at least the variety of hearing a little of the altera
. pars. It is now nearly six weeks since I entered " Dixie's Land," dur-
[ ing which period I must confess I have had a sufficiency of the music
and drums, the cavaliering and the roystering of the Southern gallants.
As an impartial observer, I may say I find less bitterness and denuncia
tion, but quite as dogged a resolution upon the Soundhead side. Some
experience, or at least observation of the gunpowder argument, has
taught us that attack is always a more grateful office than defence, and,
if we are to judge of the sturdy resolution of the inmates of Fort
Pickens by the looks of the officers and crews of the fleet, Fort Pickens
will fall no easy prize, if at all.
After some conversation with Captain Adams, and the ready hospi
tality of his cabin, he said finally he would take on himself to permit
me and the party to land at the navy-yard, and to visit the enemy's
quarters, relying on my character as a neutral and a subject of Great
Britain that no improper advantage would be taken of the permission.
In giving that leave he was, he said, well aware that he was laying him
self open to attack, but he acted on his own judgment and responsibility.
We must, however, hoist a flag of truce, as he had been informed by
General Bragg that he considered the intimation he had received from
the fleet of the blockade of the port was a declaration of war, and that
he would fire on any vessel from the fleet which approached his com
mand. I bade good-by to Captain Adams with sincere regret, and if —
but I may not utter the wish here. Our barge was waiting to take us
to the Oriental, in which we sailed pleasantly away down to the Powha-

PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE. 43
tan to inform Captain Porter I had received permission to go on shore.
Another officer was in his cabin when I entered — Captain Poore of the
Brooklyn — and he seemed a little surprised when he heard that Captain
Adams had given leave to all to go on shore. " What, all these editors
of Southern newspapers who are with you, sir ?" I assured him they
were nothing of the kind, and after a few kind words I made my adieu^
and went on board the Diana with my companions.
Hoisting one of our only two table-cloths to the masthead as a flag
of truce, we dropped slowly with the tide through the channel that runs
parallel to one face of Fort Pickens. The wind favored us but little,
and the falling breeze enabled all on board to inspect deliberately the
seemingly artistic preparations for the threatened attack which frowns
and bristles from three miles of forts and batteries arrayed around the
slight indenture opposite. Heavy sand-bag traverses protect the corners
of the parapets, and seem solid enough to defy the batteries ensconced
in earthworks around the lighthouse, which to an outside glance seems
the most formidable point of attack, directed as it is against the weaker
flank of the fort at its most vulnerable angle.
A few soldiers and officers upon the rampart appeared to be inhaling
the freshening breeze which arose to waft the schooner across the chan
nel, and enable her to coast the main-shore, so that all could take note
of the necklace of bastions, earthworks, and columbiads with which
General Bragg hopes to throttle his adversary. We passed by Barran
cas, the nearest point of attack (a mile and a quarter), the commander-
in-chief's head-quarters, the barracks, and the hospital successively, and
as the vessel approached the landing-pier of the navy-yard one could
hear the bustle of the military and the hammers of the artificers, and
descry the crimson and blue trappings of Zouaves, recalling Crimean
reminiscences. A train of heavy tumbrils, drawn by three or four pairs
of mules, was the first indication of a transport system in the army of
the Confederate States, and the high-bred chargers mounted by the
escorts of these ammunition wagons corroborated the accounts of the
wealth and breeding of its volunteer cavalry. The Diana now skirted
the navy-yard, the neat dwellings of which, and the profusion of orange
and fig groves in which they are embosomed, have an aspect of tropical
shade and repose, much at variance with the stern preparations before
us. Our skipper let go his anchor at a respectful distance from the
quay, evincing a regard for martial law that contrasted strangely with
the impatience of control elsewhere manifested throughout this land,
and almost inspiring the belief that no other rule can ever restore the
lost bump of veneration to American craniology.
While the master of the Diana was skulling his leaky punt ashore to

44 PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE.
convey my letters of introduction to the commander-in-chief, I had
leisure to survey the long, narrow, low sand-belt of the island opposite,
which loses itself in the distance, and disappears in the ocean forty-seven
miles from Fort Pickens. It is so nearly level with the sea that I could
make out the mainyards of the Sabine and the Brooklyn, anchored out
side the island within range of the navy-yard, which is destined to receive
immediate attention whenever the attack shall begin. Pursuing my re
flections upon the morale of the upper and nether millstones between
which the Diana is moored, I am sadly puzzled by the anomalous ethics
or metaphysics of this singular war, the preparations for which vary so
essentially — it were sin to say ludicrously — from all ancient and modern
belligerent usages. Here we have an important fortress, threatened
with siege for the last sixty days, suffering the assailants of the flag it
defends to amass battery upon battery, and string the whole coast of
low hills opposite with every variety of apparatus for its own devasta
tion, without throwing a timely shell to prevent their establishment.
War has been virtually declared, since letters of marque and a corre
sponding blockade admit of no other interpretation, and yet but last
week two Mobile steamers, laden with £50,000 worth of provisions for
the beleaguering camp, were stopped by the blockading fleet, and,
though not permitted to enter this harbor, were allowed to return to
Mobile untouched, the commander thinking it quite punishment enough
for the rebels to thus compel them to return to Mobile, and carry up
the Alabama river to Montgomery this mass of eatables, which would
have to be dispatched thence by rail to this place ! Such practical
jokes lend a tinge of innocence to the premonitories of this strife which
will hardly survive the first bloodshed.
The skipper returned from shore with an orderly, who brought the
needful permission to haul the Diana alongside the wharf, where I
landed, and was conducted by an aid of the quartermaster-general
through the shady streets of this graceful little village, which covers an
enclosure of 300 acres, and, with the adjoining forts, cost the United
States over £6,000,000 sterling, which may have something to do with
the President's determination to hold a property under so heavy an
hypothecation. Irish landlords, with encumbered estates, have no such
simple mode of obtaining an acquittal.
The navy-yard is, properly speaking, a settlement of exceedingly
neat detached houses, with gardens in front, porticoes, pillars, verandahs,
and Venetian blinds to aid the dense trees in keeping off the scorching
rays of the sun, which is intensely powerful in the summer, and is now
blazing so fiercely as to force one to admit the assertion that the average
temperature is as high as that of Calcutta to be very probable. The

PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE. 45
grass-plots under these trees are covered with neat piles of cannon-
balls, mostly of small size; two obsolete mortars — one dated 1776 — are
placed in the main avenue. Tents are pitched under the trees, and the
houses are all occupied by officers, who are chatting, smoking, and
drinking at the open windows. A number of men in semi-military
dresses of various sorts and side-arms are lounging about the quays and
the lawns before the houses. Into one of these I am escorted, and find
myself at a very pleasant mess, of whom the greater number are officers
of the Zouave corps, from New Orleans — one, a Dane, has served at
Idstedt, Kiel, Frederichstadt ; another foreigner has seen service in
South America ; another has fought in half the insurrectionary wars in
Europe. The wine is abundant, the fare good, the laughter and talk
loud. Mr. Davis has been down all day from Montgomery, accom
panied by Mrs. Davis, Mr. Maloney, and Mr. Wigfall, and they all think
his presence means immediate action.
The only ship here is the shell of the old Fulton, which is on the
stocks, but the works of the navy-yard are useful in casting shot, shell,
and preparing munitions of war. An aide-de-camp from General Bragg
entered as we were sitting at table, and invited me to attend him to the
general's quarters. The road, as I found, was very long and very dis
agreeable, owing to the depth of the sand, into which the foot sank at
every step up to the ankle. Passing the front of an extended row of
the clean, airy, pretty villas inside the navy-yard, we passed the gate
on exhibiting our passes, and proceeded by the sea-beach, one side of
which is lined with houses, a few yards from the surf. These houses
are all occupied by troops, or are used as bar-rooms or magazines. At
intervals a few guns have been placed along the beach, covered by sand
bags, parapets, and traverses. As we toiled along in the sand the aide
hailed a cart, pressed it into the service, and we continued our journey
less painfully. Suddenly a tall, straight-backed man in a blue frock-
coat, with a star on the epaulette strap, a smart kepi, and trowsers with
gold stripe, and large brass spurs, rode past on a high-stepping power
ful charger, followed by an orderly. " There is General Bragg," said
his aide. The general turned round, reined up, and I was presented as
I sat in my state chariot. The commander of the Confederated States
army at Pensacola is about forty-two years of age, of a spare and powerful
frame; his face is dark, and marked with deep lines, his mouth large,
and squarely set in determined jaws, and his eyes, sagacious, penetrat
ing, and not by any means unkindly, look out at you from beetle brows
which run straight across and spring into a thick tuft of black hair,
which is thickest over the nose, where naturally it usually leaves an
intervening space. His hair is dark, and he wears such regulation

46 PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE.
whiskers as were the delight of our generals a few years ago. His
manner is quick and frank, and his smile is very pleasing and agreeable.
The general would not hear of my continuing my journey to his quar
ters in a cart, and his orderly brought up an ambulance, drawn by a
smart pair of mules, in which I completed it satisfactorily.
The end of the journey through the sandy plain was at hand, for in
an enclosure of a high wall there stood a well-shaded mansion, amid
trees of live-oak and sycamore, with sentries at the gate and horses held
by orderlies under the portico. General Bragg received me at the top
of the steps which lead to the verandah, and, after a few earnest and
complimentary words, conducted me to his office, where he spoke of
the contest in which he was to play so important a part in terms of
unaffected earnestness. Why else had he left his estates ? After the
Mexican war he had retired from the United States artillery; but
when his state was menaced he was obliged to defeat her. He was
satisfied the North meant nothing but subjugation. All he wanted was
peace. Slavery was an institution for which he was not responsible ;
but his property was guaranteed to him by law, and it consisted of
slaves. Why did the enemy take off slaves from Tortugas to work for
them at Pickens ? Because whites could not do their work. It was
quite impossible to deny his earnestness, sincerity, and zeal as he spoke,
and one could only wonder at the difference made by the " stand
point" from which the question is reviewed. General Bragg finally,
before we supped, took down his plans and showed me the position of
every gun in his works and all his batteries. He showed the greatest
clearness of unreserved openness in his communications, and was anxious
to point out that he had much greater difficulties to contend with than
General Beauregard had at Charleston. The inside of Pickens is well-
known to him, as he was stationed there the very first tour of duty
which he had after he left West Point. It was late at night when I
returned on one of the general's horses toward the navy-yard. The
orderly who accompanied me was, he said, a Mississippi planter, but he
had left his wife and family to the care of the negroes, had turned up
all his cotton land and replanted it with corn, and had come off to the
wars. Once only were we challenged, and I was only required to show
my pass as I was getting on board the schooner. Before I left General <
Bragg he was good enough to say he would send down one of his aides-
de-camp and horses early in the morning, to give me a look at the
works.

PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE. 47
Mobile, May 16, 1861.
Our little schooner lay quietly at the wharf all night, but no one was
allowed to come on board without a pass, for these wild-looking sen
tries are excellent men of business, and look after the practical part of
soldiering with all the keenness which their direct personal interest
imparts to their notions of duty. The enemy is to them the incarna
tion of all evil, and they hunt his spies and servants very much as a
terrier chases a rat — with intense traditional and race animosity. The
silence of the night is not broken by many challenges or the " All's
well !" of patrols, but there is warlike significance enough in the sound
of the shot which working parties are rolling over the wooden jetty
with a dull, ponderous thumping on board the flats that are to carry
them off for the food and nourriture of the batteries. With the early
morning, however, came the usual signs of martial existence. I started
up from among my cockroaches, knocked my head against the fine
pine beams over my hammock, and then, considerably obfuscated by
the result, proceeded to investigate all the grounds that presented them
selves to me as worthy of consideration in reference to the theory
which had suddenly forced itself upon my mind that I was in the
Crimea. For close at hand, through the sleepy organ of the only sense
which was fully awake, came the well known reveille of the Zouaves,
and then French clangors, rolls, ruffles and calls ran along the line,
and the volunteers got up, or did not, as seemed best to them. An
ebony and aged Ganymede, however, appeared with coffee, and told
me "the eap'n wants ask weder you take some bitters, sar;" and, in
deed, " the captain" did compound some amazing preparation for the
judges and colonels present on deck and below that met the approval
of them all, and was recommending it for its fortifying qualities in
making a redan and Malakoff of the stomach. Breakfast came in due
time — not much Persic apparatus to excite the hate of the simple-
minded, but a great deal of substantial matter, in the shape of fried
onions, ham, eggs, biscuit, with accompaniments of iced-water, Bor
deaux and coffee. Our guests were two — a broad farmer-like gentle
man, weighing some sixteen stone, dressed in a green frieze tunic, with
gold lace and red and scarlet worsted facings, and a felt wide-awake,
who, as he wiped his manly brow, informed me he was a " rifleman."
We have some volunteers quite as corpulent, and not more patriotic,
for our farmer was a man of many bales, and in becoming an officer in
his company of braves, had given an unmistakable proof of his devotion
to his distant home and property. The other, a quiet, modest, intelli
gent-looking young man, was an officer in a different battalion, and
talked with sense about a matter with which sense has seldom any

48 PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE.
thing to do — I mean uniform. He remarked that in a serious action
and a close fighting, or in night work, it would be very difficult to pre
vent serious mistakes, and even disasters, owing to "the officers of the
Confederate States troop swearing the same distinguishing marks of
rank and similar uniforms, whenever they can get them, to those used
in the regular service of the United States, and that much inconvenience
will inevitably result from the great variety and wonderful diversity of
the dresses of the immense number of companies forming the different
regiments of volunteers. The only troops near us which were attired
with a military exactness, were the regiment of Zouaves, from New
Orleans. Most of these are Frenchmen or Creoles ; some have belonged
to the battalions which the Crimea first made famous, and were present
before Sebastopol, and in Italy ; the rest are Germans and Irish. Our
friends went off to see them drill, but, as a believer in the enchanting
power of distance, I preferred to look on at such of the manoeuvres as
could be seen from the_ deck. These Zouaves look exceedingly like
the real article. They are, perhaps, a trifle leaner and taller, and are
not so well developed at the back of the head, the heels and the ankles
as their prototypes. They are dressed in the same way, except that I
saw no turban on the fez cap. The jacket, the cummerbund, the baggy
red breeches and the gaiters are all copies of the original. They are
all armed with rifle musket and sword-bayonet, and their pay is at the
usual rate of $11, or something like £2 6*. a month, with rations and
allowances. The officers do their best to be the' true " chacal." I was
more interested, I confess, in watching the motions of vast shoals of
mullet and other fish, which flew here and there,, like flocks of plover,
before the red-fish and other enemies, and darted under our boat, than
in examining Zouave drill. Once, as a large fish came gamboling along
the surface close' at hand, a great gleam of white shot up in the waves
beneath, and a boiling whirl, marked with a crimson pool, which grad
ually melted off in the tide, showed where a monster shark had taken
down a part of his breakfast. " That's a ground sheark," quoth the
skipper ; " there's quite a many of them about here." Porpoises passed
by in a great hurry for Pensacola, and now and then a turtle showed
his dear little head above the enviable fluid which he honored with his
presence. Far away in the long stretch of water toward Pensacola are
six British merchantmen in a state of blockade — that is, they have
only fifteen days to clear out, according to the reading of the law
adopted by the United States officers. The navy-yard looks clean and
neat in the early morning, and away on the other side of the channel
Fort Pickens — teterrima causa — raises its dark front from the white
sand and green sward of the glacis, on which a number of black objects

PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE. 49
invite inspection through a telescope, and obligingly resolve themselves
into horses turned out to graze on the slope. Fort M'Eae, at the other
side of the channel, as if to irritate its neighbor, flings out a flag to the
breeze, which is the counterpart of the " stars and stripes" that wave
from the rival flagstaff, and is, at this distance, identical to the eye,
until the glass detects the solitary star in its folds instead of the whole
galaxy. On the dazzling snowy margin of sand that separates the
trees and brushwood from the sea close at hand, the outline of the bat
teries which stud the shore for miles is visible. Let us go and make a
close inspection. Mr. Ellis, lieutenant in the Louisiana regiment, who is
aide-de-camp to Brigadier-General Bragg, has just arrived with a mes
sage from his chief to escort me round all the works, and wherever else
I like to go, without any reservation whatever. He is a handsome, well-
built, slight young fellow, very composed and staid in manner, but full
of sentiment for the South. Eeturned from a tour in Europe, he is all
admiration for English scenery, life and habits. " After all, nature has
been more bountiful to you than to us." He is dressed in a tight
undress cavalry-jacket and trousers of blue flannel, with plain gold-lace
pipings and buttons, but on his heels are heavy brass spurs, worthy of
the heaviest of field officers. Our horses are standing in the shade of
a large tree near the wharf, and mine is equipped with a saddle of pon
derous brass-work, on raised pummel, and cantle, and housings, and
emblazoned cloth, and mighty stirrups of brass, fit for the stoutest
marshal that ever led an army of France to victory ; General Braxton
Bragg is longer in the leg than Marshal Pelissier, or Canrobert, or the
writer, and as we jogged along over the deep, hot sand, my kind com
panion, in spite of my assurances that the leathers were quite comfort
able, made himself and me somewhat uneasy on the score of their
adjustment, and, as there was no implement at hand to make a hole,
we turned into the general's courtyard to effect the necessary altera
tions. The cry of " Orderly" brought a smart, soldierly-looking young
man to the front, who speedily took me three holes up, and as I was
going away he touched his cap and said : " I beg your pardon, sir, but
I often saw you in the Crimea." His story as he told it was brief.
He had been in the Eleventh Hussars, and on the 25th of October ho
was following, as he said, close after Lord Cardigan and Captain Nolan
when his horse was killed under him. As he tried to make his escape
the Cossacks took him prisoner, and for eleven months he was in cap
tivity, but was exchanged at Odessa. " Why did you leave the ser
vice ?" " Well, sir, I was one of the two sergeants that were permitted
to leave in each regiment on the close of the war, and I came away."
" But here you are soldiering again ?" " Yes, sir. I came over here
3

50 PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE.
to better myself, as I thought, and I had to enter one of their cavalry
regiments, but now I am an orderly." He told me further, that his
name was Montague, and that he "thought his father lived near Wind
sor, twenty-one miles from London;" and I was pleased to find his
superior officers spoke of him in very high terms, although I could
have wished those who spoke so were in our own service.
I do not think that any number of words can give a good idea of a
long line of detached batteries I went through them all, and I cer
tainly found stronger reasons than ever for distrusting the extraordinary
statements which appear in the American journals in reference to mili
tary matters, particularly on their own side of the question. Instead
of hundreds of guns, there are only ten. They are mostly pf small
calibre, and the gun-carriages are old and unsound, or new and rudely
made. There are only five "heavy" guns in all the works; but the
mortar batteries, three in number, of which one is unfinished, will prove
very damaging, although they will only contain nine or ten mortars.
The batteries are all sand-bag and earthworks, with the exception of
Fort Barrancas. They are made after all sorts of ways, and are of very
different degrees of efficiency. In some the magazines will come to
speedy destruction ; in others they are well made. Some are of the
finest white sand, and will blind the gunners, or be blown away with
shells ; others are cramped, and hardly traversed ; others, again, are
very spacious and well constructed. The embrasures are usually made
of sand-bags, covered with raw hides to save the cotton-bags from the
effect of the fire of their own guns. I was amused to observe that
most of these works had galleries in the rear, generally in connection
with the magazine passages, which the constructors called "rat-holes,"
and which are intended as shelter to the men at the guns in case of
shells falling inside the battery. They may prove to have a very dif
ferent result, and are certainly not so desirable in a military point of
view as good traverses. A rush for the " rat-hole" will not be very
dignified or improving to the morale every time a bomb hurtles over
them ; and assuredly the damage to the magazines will be enormous
if the fire from Pickens is accurate and well sustained. Several of the
batteries were not finished, and the men who ought to have been work
ing were lying under the shade of trees, sleeping or smoking — long-
limbed, long-bearded fellows in flannel shirts and slouched hats, uni-
formless in all, save bright well-kept arms and resolute purpose. We
went along slowly, from one battery to the other. I visited nine alto
gether, not including Fort Barrancas, and there are three others, among
which is Fort M'Eae. Perhaps there may be fifty guns of all sorts in
position for about three miles, along a line extending 135 degrees

PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE. 51
round Fort Pickens, the average distance being about one and one-third
miles. The mortar batteries are well placed among brushwood, quite
out of view of the fort, at distances varying from 2,500 to 2,800 yards,
and the mortars are generally of calibres corresponding nearly with our
ten-inch pieces. Several of the gun batteries are put on the level of
the beach ; others have more command, and one is particularly well
placed, close to the White Lighthouse, on a high plateau which domi
nates the sandy strip that runs out to Fort M'Eae. Of the latter I
have already spoken. Fort Barrancas is an old fort — I believe of
Spanish construction, with a very meagre trace — a plain curtain-face
toward the sea, protected by a dry ditch and an outwork, in which,
however, there'are no guns. There is a drawbridge in the rear of the
work, which is a simple parallelogram showing twelve guns mounted
en barbette on the sea-face. The walls are of brick, and the guns are
protected by thick merlons of sand-bags. The sole advantage of the
fort is in its position ; it almost looks down rinto the casemates of
Pickens opposite at its weakest point, and it has a fair command of
the sea entrance, but the guns are weak, and there are only three pieces
mounted which can do much mischief. While I was looking round,
there was an entertaining dispute going on between two men, whom I
believe to have been officers, as to the work to be done, and I heard
the inferior intimate pretty broadly his conviction that his chief did
not know his own business in reference to some orders he was con
veying. The amount of ammunition which I saw did not appear to me to be
at all sufficient for one day's moderate firing, and many of the shot
were roughly cast and had deep flanges from the moulds in their sides,
and very destructive to the guns as well as to accuracy. In the rear
of these batteries, among the pine woods and in deep brush, are three
irregular camps, which, to the best of my belief, could not contain
more than 2,700 men. There are probably 3,000 in and about the
batteries, the navy-yard and the suburbs, and there are, also, I am
informed, 1,500 at Pensacola, but I doubt exceedingly that there are
as many as 8,000 men, all told, of effective strength under the com
mand of General Bragg. It would be a mistake to despise these irregu
lars. One of the Mississippi regiments out in camp was evidently com
posed of men who liked campaigning, and who looked as though they
would like fighting. They had no particular uniforms — the remark
will often be made — but they had pugnacious physiognomies and the
physical means of carrying their inclinations into effect, and every man
of them was, I am informed, familiar with the use of arms. Their tents
are mostly small and bad, on the ridge-pole pattern, with side flys to

52 PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE.
keep off the sun. In some battalions they observe regularity of line,
in others they follow individual or company caprice. The men use
green boughs and bowers, as our poor fellows did in the old hot days
in Bulgaria, and many of them had benches and seats before their
doors, and the luxury of boarded floors to sleep upon. There is an
embarrassing custom in America, scarcely justifiable in any code of
good manners, which, in the South at least, is only too common, and
which may be still more general in the North ; at all events, to a
stranger it is productive of the annoyance which is experienced by one
who is obliged to inquire whether the behavior of those among whom
he is at the time, is intentional rudeness or conventional want of breed
ing. For instance, my friend and myself, as we are riding along, see
a gentleman standing near his battery, or his tent — "Good morrow,
colonel," or "general" (as the case may be), says my friend — "Good
morrow (imagining military rank according to the notion possessed by
speaker of the importance of the position of a general's A. D. C), Ellis."
" Colonel, etc., allow me to introduce to you Mr. Jones, of London."
The colonel advances with effusion, holds out his hand, grasps Jones's
hand rigidly, and says, warmly, as if he had just gained a particular
object of his existence : " Mr. Jones, I'm very glad to make your
acquaintance, sir. Have you been pretty well since you have been in
our country, sir ?" etc. But it is most likely that the colonel will just
walk away when he pleases, without saying a word to, or taking the
least notice of, the aforesaid Jones, as to whose acquaintance he had
just before expressed such friendly feelings, and in whose personal
health he had taken so deep an interest ; and Jones, till he is accus
tomed to it, feels affronted. The fact is, that the introduction means
nothing ; you are merely told each other's names, and if you like, you
may improve your acquaintance. The hand-shaking is a remnant of
barbarous times, when men with the same colored skin were glad to
see each other.
The country through which we rode was most uninteresting, thick
brushwood and pine-trees springing out of deep sand, here and there
a nullah and some dirty stream — all flat as ditchwater. On our return
we halted at the general's quarters. I had left a note for him, in which
I inquired whether he would have any objection to my proceeding to
Fort Pickens from his command, in case I obtained permission to do
so, and when I entered General Bragg's room he was engaged in
writing not merely a very courteous and complimentary expression of
his acquiescence in my visit, but letters of introduction to personal
friends in Louisiana, in the hope of rendering my sojourn more agree
able. He expressed a doubt whether my comrades would be permitted

PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE. 53
to enter the fort, and talked very freely with me in reference to what
I had seen at the batteries, but I thought I perceived an indication of
some change of purpose with respect to the immediate urgency of the
attack on Fort Pickens compared with his expressions last night. At
length I departed, with many thanks to General Bragg for his kindness
and confidence, and returned to a room full of generals and colonels,
who made a levee of their visits.
On my return to the schooner, I observed that the small houses on
the side of the long sandy beach were filled with men, many of whom
were in groups round the happy possessors of a newspaper, and listened
with the utmost interest to the excited delivery of the oracular sen
tences. How much of the agony and bitterness of this conflict — nay,
how much of its existence — may be due to these same newspapers, no
man can say, but I have very decided opinions, or rather a very strong
belief, on the subject. There were still more people around the various
bar-rooms than were attracted even by the journalists. Two of our
companions were on board when I got back to the quay. The Mobile
gentlemen had gone off to Pensacola, and had not returned to time,
and under any circumstances it was not probable that they would be
permitted to land, as undoubtedly they were no friends to the garrison,
or to the cause of the United States. Our skipper opened his eyes
and shook his rough head a little when he was ordered to get under
way for Fort Pickens, and to anchor off the jetty. Up went the flag
of truce to the fore once more, but the ever-watchful sentry, diverted
for the time from his superintendence of the men who were fishing at
our pier, forbade our departure till the corporal of the guard had given
leave, and the corporal of the guard would not let the fair Diana cast
off her warp till he had consulted the sergeant of the guard, and so
there was some delay occasioned by the necessity for holding an inter
view with that functionary, who finally permitted the captain to pro
ceed on his way, and with a fair light breeze the schooner fell round
into the tide-way and glided off toward the fort. We drew up with it
rapidly, and soon attracted the notice of the look-out men and some
officers who came down to the jetty.
We anchored a cable's length from the jetty. In reply to the sen
try's hail, the skipper asked for a boat to put off for us. " Come off
in your own boat." Skiff of Charon ! But there was no choice.
With all the bathos of that remarkable structure it could not go down
in such a short row. And if it did ? Well, " there's not a more ter
rible place for sharks along this coast," the captain had told us inci
dentally en route. Our own boat was inclined to impartiality in its
relations with the water, and took quite as much inside as it could

54 PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE.
hold, but we soused into it, and the men pulled like Doggett's Badgers,
and soon we were out of shark depth and alongside the jetty, where
were standing to receive us Mr. Brown, our friend of yesterday, Cap
tain Vodges, and Captain Berry, commanding a United States battery
inside the fort. The soldiers of the guard were United States regular
troops of the artillery, wore blue uniforms with brass buttons, and
remarkably ugly slouched felt hats, with an ornament in the shape of
two crossed cannon. Captain Vodges informed me that Colonel Moore
had sent off a reply to my letter to the fleet, stating that he would
gladly permit' me to go over the fort, but that he could not allow any
one else, under any circumstances whatever, to visit it. My friends
were therefore constrained to stay outside, but one of them picked up
a friend on the beach and got up an impromptu ride along the island.
The way from the jetty to the entrance of the fort is in the universal
deep sand of this part of the world ; the distance from the landing-
place to the gateway is not much more than two hundred yards, and
the approach to the portal is quite unprotected. There is a high ramp
and glacis on the land side, but the face and part of the eurtain in
which the gate is situate are open, as it was not considered likely that
it would ever be attacked by Americans. The sharp angle of the bas
tion on this face is so weak that mon are now engaged in throwing up
an extempore glacis to cover the base of the wall and the casemates
from fire. The ditch is very broad, and the scarp and counterscarp
are riveted with brickwork. The curvette has been cleared out, and
in doing so, as a proof of the agreeable character of the locality, I
may observe upwards of sixty rattlesnakes were killed by the workmen.
An abattis has been made along the edge of this part of the ditch — a
rough inclined fence of stakes and boughs of trees. " Yes, sir ; at one
time when those terrible fire-eating gentlemen at the other side were
full of threats, and coming to take the place every day, there were only
seventy men in this fort, and Lieutenant Slemmer threw up this abattis
to delay his assailants, if it were only for a few minutes, and to give his
men breathing time to use their small arms." The casemates here are
all blinded, and the hospital is situate in the bomb-proofs inside. The
gate was closed ; at a talismanic knock it was opened, and from the
external silence we passed into a scene full of activity and life, through
the dark gallery which served at first as a framework to the picture.
The parade of the fort was full of men, and as a coup d'ceil, it was
obvious that great efforts had been made to prepare Fort Pickens for a
desperate defence. In the parade were several tents of what is called
Sibley's pattern, like our bell tents, but without the lower side-wall,
and provided with a ventilating top, which can be elevated or depressed

PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE. 55
at pleasure. The parade-ground has been judiciously filled with deep
holes, like inverted cones, in which shells will be comparatively innocu
ous ; and warned by Sumter, every thing has been removed which could
prove in the least degree combustible. The officer on duty led me
straight across to the opposite angle of the fort. As the rear of the
casemates and bomb-proofs along this side will be exposed to a plung
ing fire from the opposite side, a very ingenious screen has been con
structed, by placing useless gun-platforms and parts of carriages at an
angle against the wall, and piling them up with sand and earth for
several feet in thickness. A passage is thus left between the base of
the wall and that of- the screen, through which a man can walk with
ease. Turning into this passage, we entered a lofty bomb-proof, which
was the bedroom of the commanding officer, and passed through into
the casemate which serves as his head-quarters. Colonel Harvey Brown
received me with every expression of politeness and courtesy. He is
a tall, spare, soldierly-looking man, with a face indicative of great reso
lution and energy, as well as of sagacity and kindness ; and his attach
ment to the Union was probably one of the reasons of his removal from
the command of Fort Hamilton, New York, to the charge of this very
important fort. He has been long in the service, and he belonged to
the first class of graduates who passed at West Point after its establish
ment in 1818. After a short and very interesting conversation, he
proceeded to show me the works, and we mounted upon the parapet,
accompanied by Captain Berry, and went over all the defences. Fort
Pickens has a regular bastioned trace, in outline an oblique and rather
narrow parallelogram, with the obtuse angles facing the sea at one side
and the land at the other. The acute angle at which the bastion
toward the enemy's batteries is situate, is the weakest part of the work ;
but it was built for sea defence, as I have already observed, and the
trace was prolonged to obtain the greatest amount of fire on the sea
approaches. The crest of the parapet is covered with very solid and
well-made merlons of heavy sand-bags, but one face and the gorge of
the bastion are exposed to an enfilading fire from Fort M'Eae, which
the colonel said he intended to guard against if he got time. All the
guns seemed in good order, the carriages being well constructed, but
they are mostly of what are considered small calibres now-a-days, being
32-pounders, with some 42-pounders and 24-pounders. There are,
however four heavy columbiads, which command the enemy's works
on several points very completely. It struck me that the bastion guns
were rather crowded. But, even in its present state, the defensive
preparations are most creditable to the officers, who have had only
three weeks to do the immense amount of work before us. The brick

56 PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE.
copings have been removed from the parapets, and strong sand-bag
traverses have been constructed to cover the gunners, in addition to
the "rat-holes" at the bastions. More heavy guns are expected, which,
with the aid of a few more mortars, will enable the garrison to hold
their own against every thing but a regular siege on the land side, and
so long as the fleet covers the harrow neck of the island with its guns,
it is not possible for the Confederates to effect a lodgment. If Fort
M'Eae was strong and heavily armed, it could inflict great damage on
Pickens ; but it is neither one nor the other, and the United States
officers are confident that they will speedily render it quite untenable.
The bouches a feu of the fort may be put down at forty, including the
available pieces in the casemates, which sweep the ditch and the faces
of the curtains. The walls are of the hardest brick, of nine feet thick
ness in many places, and the crest of the parapets on which the merlons
and traverses rest are of turf. From the walls there is a splendid view
of the whole position, and I found my companions were perfectly well
acquainted with the strength and locus of the greater part of the ene
my's works. Of course I held my peace, but I was amused at their
accuracy. " There are the quarters of our friend, General Bragg."
" There is one of their best batteries just beside the lighthouse." The
tall chimney of the Warrington navy-yard was smoking away lustily.
The colonel called my attention to it. "Do you see that, sir? They
are casting shot, there. The sole reason for their 'forbearance,' is that
navy-yard. They know full well that if they open a gun upon us, we
will lay that yard and all the work in ruins."
Captain Vodges subsequently expressed some uneasiness on a point
as to which I could have relieved his mind very effectually. He had
seen something which led him to apprehend that the Confederates
had a strong intrenched camp in rear of their works. Thereupon I
was enabled to perceive that in Captain Vodges' mind, there was a
strong intention to land and carry the enemy's position. Why, other
wise, did you care about an intrenched camp, most excellent engineer !
But now I may tell you that there is no intrenched camp at all, and
that your vigilant eye, sir, merely detected certain very absurd little
furrows which the Confederates have in some places thrown up in the
soft sand in front of their camps, which would cover a man up to the
knee or stomach, and are quite useless as a breastwork. If they thought
a landing probable, it is unpardonable in them to neglect such a pro
tection. These furrows are quite straight, and even if they are deep
ened the assailants have merely to march round them, as they extend
for only some forty or fifty yards, and have no flanks. The officers of
the garrison arc aware the enemy have mortar batteries, but they think

PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE. 57
the inside of the fort will not be easily hit, and they said nothing to
show that they were acquainted with the position of the mortars.
From the parapet we descended by a staircase into the casement,
The Confederates are greatly deceived in their expectation that the
United States soldiers will be much exposed to sun or heat in Pickens.
More airy, well ventilated quarters cannot be imagined, and there is
quite light enough to enable the men to read in most of them. The
plague of flies will infest both armies, and is the curse of every camp
in the summer. As to mosquitos, the Confederates will probably
suffer, if not more, at least as much as the States troops. The effect
of other tormentors, such as yellow fever and dysentery, will be in all
probability impartially felt on both sides ; but, unless the position of
the fort is peculiarly unhealthy, the men who are under no control in
respect to their libations, will probably suffer more than those who are
restrained by discipline and restricted to a regular allowance. Water
can always be had by digging, and is fit for use if drunk immediately.
Vegetables and fresh provisions, are not, of course, so easily had as on
shore, but there is a scarcity of them in both camps, and the supplies
from the store-ships are very good and certain. The bread baked by
the garrison is excellent, as I had an opportunity of ascertaining, for I
carried off' two loaves from the bakehouse on board the schooner. Our
walk through the casemates was very interesting. They were crowded
with men, most of whom were reading. They were quiet, orderly-
looking soldiers — a mixture of old and young — scarcely equal in
stature to their opponents, but more to be depended upon I should
think in a long struggle. Every thing seemed well arranged. Those
men who were in their beds had mosquito curtains drawn, and were
reading or sleeping at their ease. In the casemate used as an hospital
there were only some twelve men sick out of the whole garrison, and I
was much struck by the absence of any foul smell and by the cleanli
ness and neatness of all the arrangements. The colonel spoke to each
of the men kindly, and they appeared glad to see him. The dispen
sary was as neat as care and elbow-grease could make it, and next door
to it, in strange juxtaposition, was the laboratory for the manufactory
of fuses and deadly implements, in equally good order. Every thing
is ready for immediate service. I am inclined to think it will be some
time before it is wanted. Assuredly, if the enemy attack Fort Pickens
they will meet with a resistance which will probably end in the entire
destruction of the navy-yard, and of the greater part of their works.
A week's delay will enable Colonel Brown to make good some grave
defects ; but delay is of more advantage to his enemy than it is to
him, and if Fort Pickens were made at once the point d'appui for a
'3*

58 PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE.
vigorous offensive movement by the fleet and by a land force, I have
very little doubt in my mind that Pensacola must fall, and that Gen
eral Bragg would be obliged to retrie. In a few weeks the attitude of
affairs may be very different. The railroad is open to General Bragg,
and he can place himself in a very much stronger attitude than he now
occupies. At last the time came for me to leave. The colonel and Captain
Berry came down to the beach with me. Outside we found Captain
Vodges kindly keeping my friends in conversation and in liquid sup
plies in the shade of the bakehouse shed, and, after a little more pleas
ant conversation, we were afloat once more. Probably no living man
was ever permitted to visit the camps of two enemies within sight of
each other before this, under similar circumstances, for I was neither
spy nor herald, and I owe my best thanks to those who trusted me on
both sides so freely and so honorably. A gentleman who preceded me
did not fare quite so well. He landed on the island and went up to
the fort, where he represented himself to be the correspondent of an
American journal. But his account of himself was not deemed satis
factory. He was sent off to the fleet. Presently there came over a
flag of truce from General Bragg, with a warrant signed by a justice
of the peace, for the correspondent, on a charge of felony ; but the
writ did not run in Fort Pickens. The officers regarded the message
as a clever ruse to get back a spy, and the correspondent is still in
durance vile or in safety, as the case may be, on board the squadron.
All sails filled, the Diana stood up toward the navy-yard once
more in the glare of the setting sun. The sentinels along the battery
and beach glared at us with surprise as the schooner, with her flag of
truce still flying, ran past them. The pier was swept with the glass
for the Mobile gentlemen ; they were not visible. " Halloa ! Mr. Cap
tain, what's that you're at?" His mate was waving the Confederate
flag from the deck — "Its only the signal, sir, to the gentlemen on
shore." "Wave some other flag, then, while there's a flag of truce
flying, and while we are in these waters." After backing and filling
for some time the party were descried in the distance. Again, the
watery skiff was sent off, and in a few minutes they were permitted,
thanks to their passes, to come off. Some confidential person had in
formed them the attack was certainly coming off in a very short time.
They were anxious to stay. They had seen friends at Pensacola, and
were full of praises of " the quaint old Spanish settlement," but mine
is, unfortunately, not an excursion of pleasure, and it was imperative
that I should not waste time. Every thing had been seen that was
necessary for my purpose. It was beyond my power to state the rea-

PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE. 59
sons which led me to think no fight would take place, for doing so
would have been to betray confidence. And so we parted company —
they to feast their eyes on a bombardment — and if they only are near
enough to see it they will heartily regret their curiosity, or I am mis
taken — and we to return to Mobile.
It was dark before the Diana was well down off Fort Pickens again,
and, as she passed out to sea between it and Fort M'Eae, it was cer
tainly to have been expected that one side or other would bring her
to. Certainly our friend Mr. Brown in his clipper Oriental would
overhaul us outside, and there lay a friendly bottle in a nest of ice
waiting for the gallant sailor who was to take farewell of us according
to promise. Out we glided into night and into the cool sea breeze,
which blew fresh and strong from the north. In the distance the
black form of the Powhatan could be just distinguished ; the rest of
the squadron could not be made out by either eye or glass, nor was
the schooner in sight. A lantsm was hoisted by my orders, and was
kept aft for some time after the schooner was clear of the forts. Still
no schooner. The wind was not very favorable for running toward
the Powhatan, and it was too late to approach her with perfect confi
dence from the enemy's side. Besides, it was late ; time pressed. The
Oriental was surely lying off somewhere to the westward, and the
word was given to make sail, and soon the Diana was bowling along
shore, where the sea melted away in a fiery line of foam so close to us
that a man could, in nautical phrase, " shy a biscuit" on the sand.
The wind was abeam, and the Diana seemed to breathe it through her
sails, and flew along at an astonishing rate through the phosphorescent
waters with a prow of flame and a bubbling wake of dancing meteor-
like streams flowing from her helm, as though it were a furnace whence
boiled a stream of liquid metal. " No sign of the Oriental on our lee-
bow ?" " Nothin' at all in sight, sir." The sharks and huge rays flew
off from the shore as we passed and darted out seaward, marking their
runs in brilliant trails of light. On sped the Diana, but no Oriental
came in sight.
I was tired. The sun had been very hot ; the ride through the
batteries, the visits to quarters, the excursion to Pickens, had found
out my weak places, and my head was aching and legs fatigued, and
so I thought I would turn in for a short time, and I dived into the
shades below, where my comrades were already sleeping, and kicking
off my boots, lapsed into a state which rendered me indifferent to the
attentions no doubt lavished upon me by. the numerous little familiars
who recreate in the well-peopled timbers. It never entered into my
head even in my dreams, that the captain would break the blockade if

60 PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE.
he could — particularly as his papers had not been indorsed, and the
penalties would be sharp and sure if he were caught. But the confi
dence of coasting captains in the extraordinary capabilities of their
craft is a madness— a hallucination so strong that no danger or risk
will prevent their acting upon it whenever they can. I was assured
once by the " captain" of a Billyboy, that he could run to windward
of any frigate in Her Majesty's service, and there is not a skipper from
Hartlepool to Whitstable who does not believe his own Mary Ann or
Three Grandmothers is, on certain " pints," able to bump her fat bows
and scuttle-shaped stern faster through the seas than any clipper which
ever flew a pendant. I had been some two hours and a half asleep,
when I was awakened by a whispering in the little cabin. Charley,
the negro cook, ague-stricken with terror, was leaning over the bed,
and in broken French was chattering through his teeth : " Monsieur,
Monsieur, nous sommes perdus ! Le batement de guerre nous poursuit.
H n'a pas encore tire. TI va tirer J>ientot ! Oh, mon Dieu ! mon
Dieuf" Through the hatchway I could see the skipper was at the
helm, glancing anxiously from the compass to the quivering reef-points
of his mainsail. " What's all this we hear, captain ?" " Well, sir,
there's been somethin' a runnin' after us these two hours" (very
slowly). " But I don't think he'll keech us up no how this time."
" But, good heavens ! you know it may be the Oriental, with Mr.
Brown on board." "Ah, wall — may bee. But he kept quite close
up on me in the dark — it gave me quite a stark when I seen him.
May be, says I, he's a privateerin' chap, and so I draws in on shore
close- as I cud, — gets mee centre-board in, and, says I, I'll see what
yer med of, mee boy. He an't a gaining much on us." I looked,
and sure enough, about half or three-quarters of a mile astern, and
somewhat to leeward of us, a vessel, with sails and hull all blended
into a black lump, was standing on in pursuit. I strained my eyes
and furbished up the glasses, but could make out nothing definite.
The skipper held grimly on. The shore was so close we could have
almost leaped into the surf, for the Diana, when her centre-board is up,
does not draw much over four feet. " Captain, I think you had better
shake your wind, and see who he is. It may be Mr. Brown." " Mees>
ter Brown or no I can't help carrine on now. I'd be on the bank out
side in a minit if I didn't hold my course." The captain had his own
way; he argued that if it was the Oriental she would have fired a
blank gun long ago to bring us to ; and as to not calling us when the
sail was discovered he took up the general line of the cruelty of dis
turbing people when they're asleep. Ah ! captain, you knew well it
was Mr. Brown, as you let out when we were off Fort Morgan. By

PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE. 61
keeping so close in shore in shoal water the Diana was enabled to
creep along to windward of the stranger, who evidently was deeper
than ourselves. See there ! Her sails shiver ! so one of the crew
says ; she's struck ! But she's off again, and is after us. We are just
within range, and one's eyes become quite blinky, watching for the
flash from the bow, but, whether privateer or United States schooner
she was too magnanimous to fire. A stern chase is a long chase. It
must now be somewhere about two in the morning. Nearer and nearer
to shore creeps the Diana. " I'll lead him into a pretty mess, whoever
he is, if he tries to follow me through the Swash," grins the skipper.
The Swash is a very shallow, narrow, and dangerous passage into
Mobile Bay, between the sand-banks on the east of the main channel
and the shore. The Diana is now only some nine or ten miles from
Fort Morgan, guarding the entrance to Mobile. Soon an uneasy danc
ing motion welcomes her approach to the Swash. " Take a cast of
the lead, John !" " Nine feet.'.' " Good ! Again !" " Seven feet."
" Good — Charley, bring the lantern." (Oh, Charley, why did that
lantern go out just as it was wanted, and not only expose us to the
most remarkable amount of " cussin'," imprecation, and strange oaths
our ears ever heard, but expose our lives and your head to more immi
nent danger ?) But so it was, just at the critical juncture when a turn
of the helm port or starboard made the difference, perhaps, between
life and death, light after light went out, and the captain went dancing
mad after intervals of deadly calmness, as the mate sang out, " Five
feet and a half! seven feet — six feet — eight feet — five feet — four feet
and a half — (Oh, Lord !) — six feet," and so on, through a measurement
of death by inches, not at all agreeable. And where was Mr. Brown
all this time ? Eeally, we were so much interested in the state of the
lead-line, and in the very peculiar behavior of the lanterns which would
not burn, that we scarcely cared much when we heard from the odd
hand and Charley that she had put about, after running aground once
or twice, they thought, as soon as we entered the Swash, and had van
ished rapidly in the darkness. It was little short of a miracle that we
got past the elbow, for just at the critical moment, in a channel not
more than a hundred yards broad, with only six feet of water, the bin
nacle light, which had burned steadily for a minute, sank with a sputter
into black night. When the passage was accomplished, the captain
relieved his mind by chasing Charley into a corner, and with a shark,
which he held by the tail, as the first weapon that came to hand, in
flicting on him condign punishment, and then returning to the helm.
Charley, however, knew his master, for he slyly seized the shark and
flung his defunct corpse overboard before another fit of passion came

62 PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE.
on, and by the morning the skipper was good friends with him, after
he had relieved himself, by a series of castigations of the negligent
lamplighter with every variety of Ehadamanthine implement.
The Diana had thus distinguished her dirty little person by break
ing a blockade, and giving an excellent friend of ours a great deal of
trouble (if it was, indeed Mr. Brown), as well as giving us a very un
enviable character for want of hospitality and courtesy ; and, for both,
I beg to apologize with this account of the transaction. But she had
a still greater triumph. As she approached Fort Morgan, all was
silence. The morning was just showing a gray streak in the east.
" Why, they're all asleep at the fort," observed the indomitable cap
tain, and, regardless of guns or sentries, down went his helm, and away
the Diana thumped into Mobile Bay, and stole off in the darkness
toward the opposite shore. There was, however, a miserable day he-
fore us. When the light fairly broke we had got only a few miles in
side, a stiff northerly wind blew right in our teeth, and the whole of
the blessed day we spent in tacking backward and forward between
one low shore and another low shore, in water the color of pea-soup,
so that temper and patience were exhausted, and we were reduced to
such a state that we took intense pleasure in meeting with a drowning
alligator. He was a nice-looking young fellow about ten feet long,
and had evidently lost his way, and was going out to sea bodily, but it
would have been the height of cruelty to take him on board our ship
miserable as he was, though he passed within two yards of us. There
was to be sure the pleasure of seeing Mobile in every possible view, far
and near, east and west, and in a lump and run out, but it was not
relished any more than our dinner, which consisted of a very gamy
Bologna sausage, pig who had not decided whether he would be pork
or bacon, and onions fried in a terrible preparation of Charley the cook.
At five in the evening, however, having been nearly fourteen hours beat
ing about twenty-seven miles, we were landed at an outlying wharf, and
I started off for the Battle House and rest. The streets are filled with
the usual rub-a-dub-dubbing bands, and parades of companies of the
citizens in grotesque garments and armament, all looking full of fight
and secession. I write my name in the hotel book at the bar as usual.
Instantly young Vigilance Committee, who has been resting his heels
high in air, with one eye on the staircase and the other on the end of
his cigar, stalks forth and reads my style and title, and I have the
satisfaction of slapping the door in his face as he saunters after me to
my room, and looks curiously in to see how a man takes off his boots.
They are all very anxious in the evening to know what I think about
Pickens and Pensacola, and I am pleased to tell the citizens I think it

PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIEE. 63
will be a very tough affair on both whenever it comes. I proceed to
Nev Orleans on Monday.

New-Orleans, May 25, 1861.
There are doubts arising in my mind respecting the number of
armed men actually in the field in the South, and the amount of arms
in the possession of the Federal forces. The constant advertisements
and appeals for " a few more men to complete" such and such com
panies furnish some sort of evidence that men are still wanting. But a
painful and startling insight into the manner in which "volunteers"
have been sometimes obtained has been afforded to me at New Orleans.
In no country in the world have outrages on British subjects been so
frequent and so wanton as in the States of America. They have been
frequent, perhaps, because they have generally been attended with im
punity. Englishmen, however, will be still a little surprised to hear
that within a few days British subjects living in New Orleans have been
seized, knocked down, carried off from their labor at the wharf and the
workshop, and forced by violence to serve in the " volunteer" ranks 1
These cases are not isolated. They are not in twos and threes, but in
tens and twenties ; they have not occurred stealthily or in by-ways •
they have taken place in the open day, and in the streets of New
Orleans. These men have been dragged along like felons, protesting
in vain that they were British subjects. Fortunately, their friends be
thought them that there was still a British consul in the city, who
would protect his countrymen — English, Irish, or Scotch. Mr. Mure,
when he heard of the reports and of the evidence, made energetic rep
resentations to the authorities, who, after some evasion, gave orders
that the impressed " volunteers" should be discharged, and the " Tiger
Rifles" and other companies were deprived of the services of the thirty-
five British subjects whom they had taken from their usual avocations.
The mayor promises that it shall not occur again. It is high time
that such acts should be put a stop to, and that the mob of New
Orleans should be taught to pay some regard to the usages of civilized
nations. There are some strange laws here and elsewhere in reference
to compulsory service on the part of foreigners which it would be well
to inquire into, and Lord John Eussell may be able to deal with them
at a favorable opportunity. As to any liberty of opinion or real free
dom here, the boldest Southerner would not dare to say a shadow of
either exists. It may be as bad in the North, for all I know ; but it
must be remembered that in all my communications I speak of things
as they appear to me to be in the place where I am at the time. The

64 PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE.
most cruel and atrocious acts are perpetrated by the rabble who style
themselves citizens. The national failing of curiosity and prying .into
other people's affairs is now rampant, and assumes the name and airs
of patriotic vigilance. Every stranger is watched, every word is noted,
espionage commands every keyhole and every letter-box; love of
country takes to evesdropping, and freedom shaves men's heads, and
packs men up in boxes for the utterance of " Abolition sentiments."
In this city there is a terrible substratum of crime and vice, violence,
misery, and murder, over which the wheels of the Cotton King's
chariot rumble gratingly, and on which rest in dangerous security the
feetof his throne.
There are numbers of negroes who are sent out into the streets
every day with orders not to return with less than seventy-five cents
— any thing more they can keep. But if they do not gain that —
about 3*. 6c?. a day — they are liable to be punished ; they may be put into
jail on charges of laziness, and may be flogged ad libitum, and are
sure to be half starved. Can any thing, then, be more suggestive than
this paragraph, which appeared in last night's papers. " Only three
coroners' inquests were held yesterday on persons found drowned in
the river, names unknown !" The italics are mine. Over and over
again has the boast been repeated to me, that on the plantations lock
and key are unknown or unused in the planters' houses. But in the
cities they are much used, though scarcely trusted. It appears, indeed,
that unless a slave has made up his or her mind to incur the dreadful
penalties of flight, there would be no inducement to commit theft, for
money or jewels would be useless ; search would be easy, detection
nearly certain. That all the slaves are not indifferent to the issues be
fore them, is certain. At the house of a planter, the other day, one
of them asked my friend, " Will we be made to work, massa, when ole
English come ?" An old domestic in the house of a gentleman in this
city said, " There are few whites in this place who ought not to be
killed for their cruelty to us." Another said, " Oh, just wait till they
attack Pickens !" These little hints are significant enough, coupled
with the notices of runaways, and the lodgments in the police jails, to
show that all is not quiet below the surface. The holders, however,
are firm, and there have been many paragraphs stating that slaves have
contributed to the various funds for state defence, and that they gener
ally show the very best spirit.
By the proclamation of Governor Magoffin, a copy of which I enclose,
you will see that the governor of the commonwealth of Kentucky and
commander-in-chief of all her military forces on land or water, warns
all states, separately or united, especially the United States and the

PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE. 65
Confederate States, that he will fight their troops if they attempt to
enter his commonwealth. Thus Kentucky sets up for herself, while
Virginia is on the eve of destruction, and an actual invasion has taken
place on her soil. It is exceedingly difficult of comprehension that,
with the numerous troops, artillery, and batteries, which the Confederate
journals asserted to be in readiness to repel attack, an invasion which
took place in face of the enemy, and was effected over a broad river,
with shores readily defensible, should have been unresisted. Here it is
said there is a mighty plan, in pursuance of which the United States
troops are to be allowed to make their way into Virginia, that they may
at some convenient place be eaten up by their enemies ; and if we hear
that the Confederates at Harper's Ferry retain their position, one may
believe some such plan really exists, although it is rather doubtful strat
egy to permit the United States forces to gain possession of the right
bank of the Potomac. Should the position at Harper's Ferry be really
occupied with a design of using it as a point d'appui for movements
against the North, and any large number of troops be withdrawn from
Annapolis, Washington and Baltimore, so as to leave those places com
paratively undefended, an irruption in force of the Confederates on the
right flank and in rear of General Scott's army, might cause most seri
ous inconvenience, and endanger his communications, if not the posses
sion of the places indicated.
Looking at the map, it is easy to comprehend that a march south
ward from Alexandria could be combined with an offensive movement
by the forces said to be concentrated in and around Fortress Monroe, so
as to place Eichmond itself in danger, and, if any such measure is contem
plated, a battle must be fought in that vicinity, or the prestige of the
South will receive very great damage. It is impossible for any one to
understand the movement of the troops on both sides. These compa
nies are scattered broadcast over the enormous expanse of the states,
and, where concentrated in any considerable numbers, seem to have
had their position determined rather by local circumstances than by con
siderations connected with the general plan of a large campaign.
In a few days the object of the recent movement will be better under
stood, and, it is probable that your correspondent at New York will send,
by the same mail which carries this, exceedingly important information,
to which I, in my present position, can have no access. The influence
of the blockade will be severely felt, combined with the strict interrup
tion of all intercourse by the Mississippi. Although the South boasts
of its resources and of its amazing richness and abundance of produce,
the constant advice in the journals to increase the breadth of land under
corn, and to neglect the cotton crop in consideration of the paramount

66 PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE.
importance of the cause, indicates an apprehension of a scarcity of food
if the struggle be prolonged.
Under any circumstances, the patriotic ladies and gentlemen who -are
so anxious for the war, must make up their minds to suffer a little in the
flesh. All they can depend on is a supply of home luxuries : Indian
corn and wheat, the flesh of pigs, eked out with a small supply of beef
and mutton, will constitute the staple of their food. Butter there will
be none, and wine will speedily rise to an enormous price. Nor will
coffee and tea be had, except at a rate which will place them out of the
reach of the mass of the community. These are the smallest sacrifices
of war. The blockade is not yet enforced here, and the privateers of
the port are extremely active, and have captured vessels with more en
ergy than wisdom.
The day before yesterday, ships belonging to the United States in
that river were seized by the Confederation authorities, on the ground
that war had broken out, and that the time of grace accorded to the
enemy's traders had expired. Great was the rush to the consul's office
to transfer the menaced property from ownership under the stars and
stripes to British hands ; but Mr. Mure refused to recognize any trans
action of the kind, unless sale bona fide had been effected before the ac
tion of the Confederate marshals.
At Charleston the blockade has been raised, owing, apparently, to
some want of information or of means on the part of the United States
government, and considerable inconvenience may be experienced by
them in consequence. On the 11th, the United States steam-frigate
Niagara appeared outside and warned off several British ships, and on
the 13th she was visited by Mr. Bunch, our consul, who was positively
assured by the officers on board that eight or ten vessels would be down
to join in enforcing the blockade. On the 15th, however, the Niagara
departed, leaving the port open, and several vessels have since run in
and obtained fabulous freights, suggesting to the minds of the owners
of the vessels which were warned off the propriety of making enormous
demands for compensation. The Southerners generally believe not only
that their Confederacy will be acknowledged, but that the blockade will
be disregarded by England. Their affection for her is proportionably
prodigious, and reminds one of the intensity of the gratitude which con
sists in lively expectations of favors to come.

PICTURES OP SOUTHERN LIFE. 67

New Orleans, May 21, 1861.
Yesterday morning early I left Mobile in the steamer Florida, which
arrived in the Lake of Pontchartrain, late at night, or early this morn
ing. The voyage, if it can be called so, would have offered, in less ex
citing times, much that was interesting — certainly, to a stranger, a good
deal that was novel — for our course lay inside a chain, almost uninter
rupted, of reefs, covered with sand and pine-trees, exceedingly narrow,
so that the surf and waves of the ocean beyond could be seen rolling in
foam through the foliage of the forest, or on the white beach, while the
sea lake on which our steamer was speeding lay in a broad, smooth sheet,
just crisped by the breeze, between the outward barrier and the wooded
shores of the mainland. Innumerable creeks, or " bayous," as they are
called, pierce the gloom of these endless pines. Now and then a sail
could be made out, stealing through the mazes of the marshy waters.
If the mariner knows his course, he may find deep water in most of the
channels from the outer sea into these inner waters, on which the peo
ple of the South will greatly depend for any coasting-trade and supplies
coastwise, they may require, as well as for the safe retreat of their pri
vateers. A few miles from Mobile, the steamer turning out of the bay,
entered upon the series of these lakes through a narrow channel called
Grant's Pass, which some enterprising person, not improbably of Scot
tish extraction, constructed for his own behoof, by an ingenious water-
cut, and for the use of which, and of a little iron lighthouse that he has
built close at hand, on the model of a pepper-castor, he charges toll
on passing vessels. This island is scarcely three feet above the water ;
it is not over 20 yards broad and 150 yards long. A number of men
were, however, busily engaged in throwing up the sand, and arms
gleamed amid some tents pitched around the solitary wooden shed in
the centre. A schooner lay at the wharf, laden with two guns and sand
bags, and as we passed through the narrow channel several men in mil
itary uniform, who were on board, took their places in a boat which
pushed off for them, and were conveyed to their tiny station, of which
one shell would make a dust heap. The Mobilians are fortifying them
selves as best they can, and seem, not unadvisedly, jealous of gunboats
and small war-steamers. On more than one outlying sand-bank toward
New Orleans, are they to be seen at work on other batteries, and
they are busied in repairing, as well as they can, old Spanish and
new United States works which had been abandoned, or which were
never completed. The news has just been reported, indeed, that
the batteries they were preparing on Ship Island have been destroyed

68 PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE.
and burnt by a vessel of war of the United States. For the whole day
we saw only a few coasting craft and the return steamers from New
Orleans ; but in the evening a large schooner, which sailed like a witch
and was crammed with men, challenged my attention, and on looking
at her through the glass I could make out reasons enough for desiring
to avoid her if one was a quiet, short-handed, well-filled old merchant
man. There could be no mistake about certain black objects on the
deck. She lay as low as a yacht, and there were some fifty or sixty
men in the waist and forecastle. On approaching New Orleans, there
are some settlements rather than cities, although they are called by the
latter title, visible on the right hand, embowered in woods and stretch
ing along the beach. Such are the " Mississippi City," Pass Cagoula,
and Pass Christian, &c. — all resorts of the inhabitants of New Orleans
during the summer heats and the epidemics which play such havoc with
life from time to time. Seen from the sea, these huge hamlets look very
picturesque. The detached villas, of every variety of architecture, are
painted brightly, and stand in gardens in the midst of magnolias and
rhododendrons. Very long and slender piers lead far into the sea be
fore the very door, and at the extremity of each there is a bathing-box
for the inmates. The general effect of one of these settlements, with its
light domes and spires, long lines of whitewashed railings, and houses
of every hue set in the dark green of the pines, is very pretty. The
steamer touched at two of them. There was a motley group of colored
people on the jetty, a few whites, of whom the males were nearly all in
uniform ; a few bales of goods were landed or put on board, and that
was all one could see of the life of that place. Our passengers never
ceased talking politics all day, except when they were eating or drink
ing, for I regret to say they can continue to chew and to spit while they
are engaged in political discussion. Some were rude provincials in uni
form. One was an acquaintance from the far East, who had been a
lieutenant on board of the Minnesota, and had resigned his commission
in order to take service under the Confederate flag. The fiercest among
them all was a thin little lady, who uttered certain energetic aspirations
for the possession of portions of Mr. Lincoln's person, and who was kind
enough to express intense satisfaction at the intelligence that there was
small-pox among the garrison at Monroe. In the evening a little diffi
culty occurred among some of the military gentlemen, during which one
of the logicians drew a revolver, and presented it at the head of the gen
tleman who was opposed to his peculiar views, but I am happy to say
that an arrangement, to which I was an unwilling " party," for the row
took place within a yard of me, was entered into for a fight to come off

PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE. 69
on shore in two days after they landed, which led to the postponement
of immediate murder.
The entrance to Ponchartraih lake is infamous for the abundance of
its mosquitos, and it was with no small satisfaction that we experienced
a small tornado, a thunderstorm, and a breeze of wind which saved us
from their fury. It is a dismal canal through a swamp. At daylight,
the vessel lay alongside a wharf surrounded by small boats and bathing
stations. A railway shed receives us on shore, and a train is soon ready
to start for the city, which is six miles distant. For a few hundred
yards the line passes between wooden houses, used as restaurants, or
" restaurats," as they are called hereaway, kept by people with French
names and using the French tongue ; then the rail plunges through a
swamp, dense as an Indian jungle, and with the overflowings of the
Mississippi creeping in feeble, shallow currents over the black mud.
Presently the spires of churches are seen rising above the underwood
and rushes. Then we come out on a wide marshy plain, in which
flocks of cattle, up to the belly in mud, are floundering to get at the
rich herbage on the unbroken surface. Next comes a wide-spread sub
urb of exceedingly broad lanes, lined with small one-storied houses.
The inhabitants are pale, lean, and sickly ; and there is about the men
a certain look, almost peculiar to the fishy-fleshy populations of Le
vantine towns, which I cannot describe, but which exists all along the
Mediterranean seaboard, and crops out here again. The drive through
badly-paved streets enables us to see that there is an air of French civi
lization about New Orleans. The streets are wisely adapted to the
situation ; they are not so wide as to permit the sun to have it all his
own way from rising to setting. The shops are " magasins ;" cafes
abound. The colored population looks well dressed, and is going to
mass or market in the early morning. The pavements are crowded
with men in uniform, in which the taste of France is generally followed.
The carriage stops at last, and rest comes gratefully after the stormy
night, the mosquitos, " the noise of the captains" (at the bar), and the
shouting. May 22. — The prevalence of the war spirit here is in every thing
somewhat exaggerated by the fervor of Gallic origin, and the violence
of popular opinion and the tyranny of the mass are as potent as in any
place in the South. The great house of Brown Brothers, of Liverpool
and New York, has closed its business here in consequence of the in
timidation of the mob, or as the phrase is, of the " citizens," who were
" excited" by seeing that the firm had subscribed to the New York
fund, on its sudden resurrection after Fort Sumter had fallen. Some

70 PICTURES of SOUTHERN LIFE.
other houses are about to pursue the same course ; all large business
transactions are over for the season, and the migratory population
which comes here to trade, has taken "wing much earlier than usual.
But the streets are full of " Turcos," and " Zouaves," and " Chasseurs ;"
the tailors are busy night and day on uniforms ; the walls are covered
with placards for recruits ; the seamstresses are sewing flags ; the ladies
are carding lint and stitching cartridge-bags. The newspapers are
crowded with advertisements relating to the formation of new compa
nies of volunteers and the election of officers. There are Pickwick
Eifles, Lafayette, Beauregard, Irish, German, Scotch, Italian, Spanish,
Crescent, McMahon — innumerable— rifle volunteers of all names and
nationalities, and the Meagher Eifles, indignant with " that valiant son
of Mars" because he has drawn his sword for the North, have rebap-
tized themselves, and are going to seek glory under a more auspicious
nomenclature. About New Orleans, I shall have more to say when I
see more of it. At present it looks very like an outlying suburb of
Chalons when the grand camp is at its highest military development,
although the thermometer is rising gradually, and obliges one to know
occasionally that it can be 95° in the shade already. In the course of
my journeyings southward, I have failed to find much evidence that
there is any apprehension on the part of the planters of a servile insur
rection, or that the slaves are taking much interest in the coming con
test, or know what it is about. But I have my suspicions that all is
not right ; paragraphs meet the eye, and odd sentences strike the ear,
and little facts here and there come to the knowledge, which arouse
curiosity and doubt. There is one stereotyped sentence which I am
tired of: "Our negroes, sir, are the happiest, the most contented, and
the best off of any people in the world."
—" The violence and reiterancy of this formula cause one to inquire
whether any thing which demands such insistance is really in the con
dition predicated ; and for myself I always say : " It may be so, but
as yet I do not see the proof of it. The negroes do not look to be
what you say they are." For the present that is enough as to one's
own opinions. Externally, the paragraphs which attract attention, and
the acts of the authorities, are inconsistent with the notion that the
negroes are all very good, very happy, or at all contented, not to speak
of their being in the superlative condition of enjoyment ; and as I only
see them as yet in the most superficial way, and under the most favor
able circumstances, it may be that when the cotton-picking season is
at its height, and it lasts for several months, when the labor is contin
uous from sunrise to sunset, there is less reason to accept the assertions

PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE. 71
as so largely and generally true of the vast majority of the slaves.
" There is an excellent gentleman over there," said a friend to me,
" who gives his overseers a premium of ten dollars on the birth of
every child on his plantation." " Why so ?" " Oh, in order that the
overseers may not work the women in the family-way overmuch."
There is little use in this part of the world in making use of inferences.
But where overseers do not get the premium, it may be supposed they
do work the pregnant women too much. Here are two paragraphs
which do not look very well as they stand.
Those negroes who were taken with a sudden leaving on Sunday night last, will
save the country the expenses of their burial if they keep dark from these parts.
They and other of the " breden" will not be permitted to express themselves quite
so freely in regard to their braggadocio designs upon virtue, in the absence of vol
unteers. — Wilmington ( Olintock County, Ohio) Watchman (Republican).
Served Him Right. One day last week, some colored individual, living near
South Plymouth, made a threat that, in case a civil war should occur, "he would
be one to ravish the wife of every democrat, and to help murder their offspring,
and wash his hands in their blood." For this diabolical assertion he was hauled
up before a committee of white citizens, who adjudged him forty stripes on his
naked back. He was accordingly stripped, and the lashes were laid on with such
a good will that blood flowed at the end of the castigation. — Washington (Fayette
County, Ohio) Register (Neutral).
It is reported that the patrols are strengthened, and I could not help
hearing a charming young lady say to another, the other evening, that
" she would not be afraid to go back to the plantation, though Mrs.
Brown Jones said she was afraid her negroes were after mischief."
There is a great scarcity of powder, which is one of the reasons,
perhaps, why it has not yet been expended as largely as might be ex
pected from the tone and temper _ on both sides. There is no sulphur
in the States ; nitre and charcoal abound. The sea is open to the
North. There is no great overplus of money on either side. In Mis
souri, the interest on the state debt, due in July, will be used to pro
cure arms for the state volunteers to carry on the war. The South is
preparing for the struggle by sowing a most unusual quantity of grain ;
and in many fields corn and maize have been planted instead of cotton.
" Stay laws," by which all inconveniences arising from the usual dull,
old-fashioned relations between debtor and creditor are avoided (at
least by the debtor), have been adopted in most of the seceding states.
How is it that the state legislatures seem to be in the hands of the
debtors and not of the creditors ?
There are some who cling to the idea that there will be no war after
all, but no one believes that the South will ever go back of its own free

72 PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE.
will, and the only reason that can be given by those who hope rather
than think in that way is to be found in the faith that the North will
accept some mediation, and will let the South go in peace. But could
there — can there be peace ? The frontier question — the adjustment of
various claims — the demands for indemnity, or for privileges or exemp
tions, in the present state of feeling, can have but one result. The task
of mediation is sure to be as thankless as abortive. Assuredly the prof
fered service of England would, on one side at least, be received with
something like insult. Nothing but adversity can teach these people
its own most useful lessons. Material prosperity has puffed up the citi
zens to an unwholesome state. The toils and sacrifices of the old world
have been taken by them as their birthright, and they have accepted
the fruits of all that the science, genius, suffering, and trials of mankind
in time past have wrought out, perfected, and won as their own pecu
liar inheritance, while they have ignorantly rejected the advice and
scorned the lessons with which these were accompanied.
May 23. — The Congress at Montgomery, having sat with closed doors
almost since it met, has now adjourned till July the 20th, when it
will reassemble at Eichmond, in Virginia, which is thus designated, for
the time, capital of the Confederate States of America. Eichmond, the
principal city of the Old Dominion, is about one hundred miles in a
straight line south by west of Washington. The rival capitals will thus
be in very close proximity by rail and by steam, by land and by water.
The movement is significant. It will tend to hasten a collision between
the forces which are collected on the opposite sides of the Potomac.
Hitherto, Mr. Jefferson Davis has not evinced all the sagacity and ener
gy, in a military sense, which he is said to possess. It was bad strategy
to menace Washington before he could act. His secretary of war, Mr.
Walker, many weeks ago, in a public speech, announced the intention
of marching upon the capital. If it was meant to do so, the blow should
have been struck silently. If it was not intended to seize upon Wash
ington, the threat had a very disastrous effect on the South, as it excited
the North to immediate action, and caused General Scott to concentrate
his troops on points which present many advantages in the face of any
operations which may be considered necessary along the lines either of
defence or attack. The movement against the Norfolk navy-yard
strengthened Fortress Monroe, and the Potomac and Chesapeake were
secured to the United States. The fortified ports held by the Virgini
ans and the Confederate States troops, are not of much value as long as
the streams are commanded by the enemy's steamers; and General
Scott has shown that he has not outlived either his reputation or hio

PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE. 73
vigor by the steps, at once wise and rapid, he has taken to curb the
malcontents in Maryland, and to open his communications through the
city of Baltimore. Although immense levies of men may be got toge
ther, on both sides, for purposes of local defence or for state operations,
it seems to me that it will be very difficult to move these masses in reg
ular armies. The men are not disposed for regular, lengthened service,
and there is an utter want of field trains, equipment, and commissariat,
which cannot be made good in a day, a week, or a month.
The bill passed by the Montgomery Congress, entitled " An act to
raise an additional military force to serve during the war," is, in fact, a
measure to put into the hands of the government the control of irregu
lar bodies of men, and to bind them to regular military service. With
all their zeal, the people of the South will not enlist. They detest the
recruiting sergeant, and-Mr. Davis knows enough of war to feel hesita
tion in trusting himself in the field to volunteers. The bill authorizes
Mr. Davis to accept volunteers who may offer their services, without re
gard to the place of enlistment, " to serve during the war, unless sooner
discharged." They may be accepted in companies, but Mr. Davis is to
organize them into squadrons, battalions, or regiments, and the appoint
ment of field and staff officers is reserved especially to him. The com
pany officers are to be elected by the men of the company, but here
again Mr. Davis reserves to himself the right of veto, and will only
commission those officers whose election he approves.
The absence of cavalry aud the deficiency of artillery may prevent
either side obtaining any decisive results in one engagement; but, no
doubt, there will be great loss whenever these large masses of men are
fairly opposed to each other in the field. Of the character of the North
ern regiments I can say nothing more from actual observation ; nor have
I yet seen, in any place, such a considerable number of the troops of the
Confederate States, moving together, as would justify me in expressing
any opinion with regard to their capacity for organized movements,
such as regular troops in Europe are expected to perform. An intelli
gent and trustworthy observer, taking one of the New York state mili
tia regiments as a fair specimen of the battalions which will fight for the
United States, gives an account of them which leads me to the conclu
sion that such regiments are much superior, when furnished by the
country districts, to those raised in the towns and cities. It appears, in
this case at least, that the members of the regular militia companies in
general send substitutes to the ranks. Ten of these companies form the
regiment, and, in nearly every instance, they have been doubled in
strength by volunteers. Their drill is exceedingly incomplete, and in
4

74 PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE.
forming the companies there is a tendency for the different nationalities
to keep themselves together. In the regiment in question the rank and
file often consists of quarrymen, mechanics, and canal boatmen, moun
taineers from the Catskill, bark peelers, and timber cutters — ungainly,
square-built, powerful fellows, with a Dutch tenacity of purpose crossed
with an English indifference to danger. There is no drunkenness and
no desertion among them. The officers are almost as ignorant of milir
tary training as their men. The colonel, for instance, is the son of a
rich man in his district, well educated, and a man of travel. Another
officer is a shipmaster. A third is an artist ; others are merchants and
lawyers, and they are all busy studying " Hardee's Tactics," the best
book for infantry drill in the United States. The men have come out
to fight for what they consider the cause of the country, and are said
to have no particular hatred of the South, or of its inhabitants, though
they think they are " a darned deal too high and mighty, and require
to be wiped down considerably." They have no notion as to the length
of time for which their services will be required, and I am assured that
not one of them has asked what his pay is to be.
Eevcrting to Montgomery, one may say without offence that its
claims to be the capital of a republic which asserts that it is the rich
est, and believes that it will be the strongest in the world, are not by
any means evident to a stranger. Its central position, which has refer
ence rather to a map than to the hard face of matter, procured for it a
distinction to which it had no other claim. The accommodations
which suited the modest wants of a state legislature vanished or were
transmuted into barbarous inconveniences by the pressure of a central
government, with its offices, its departments, and the vast crowd of ap
plicants which flocked thither to pick up such crumbs of comfort as
could be spared from the executive table. Never shall I forget the dis
may of myself, and of the friends who were travelling with me, on our
arrival at the Exchange Hotel, under circumstances with some of which
you are already acquainted. With us were men of high position,
members of Congress, senators, ex-governors, and General Beauregard
himself. But to no one was greater accommodation extended than
could be furnished by a room held, under a sort of ryot-warree tenure,
in common with a community of strangers. My room was shown to
me. It contained four large four-post beds, a ricketty table, and some
chairs of infirm purpose and fundamental unsoundness. The floor was
carpetless, covered with litter of paper and ends of cigars, and stained
with tobacco juice. The broken glass of the window afforded no un
grateful means of ventilation. One gentleman sat in his shirt sleeves at

PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE. 75
the table reading the account of the marshalling of the Highlanders
at Edinburgh in the Abbottsford edition of Sir Walter Scott; another,
who had been wearied, apparently, by writing numerous applications
to the government for some military post, of which rough copies lay
scattered around, came in, after refreshing himself at the bar, and oc
cupied one of the beds, which by the bye, were ominously provided
with two pillows apiece. Supper there was none for us in the house,
but a search in an outlying street enabled us to discover a restaurant,
where roasted squirrels and baked opossums figured as luxuries in the
bill of fare. On our return we found that due preparation had been
made in the apartment by the addition of three mattresses on the floor.
The beds were occupied by unknown statesmen and warriors, and we
all slumbered and snored in friendly concert till morning. Gentlemen
in the South complain that strangers judge of them by their hotels, but
it is a very natural standard for strangers to adopt, and in respect to
Montgomery it is almost the only one that a gentleman can conveniently
use, for if the inhabitants of this city and its vicinity are not maligned,
there is an absence of the hospitable spirit which the South lays claim
to as one of its animating principles, and a little bird whispered to me
that from Mr. Jefferson Davis down to the least distinguished member
of his government there was reason to observe that the usual attentions
and civilities offered by residents to illustrious stragglers had been
" conspicuous for their absence." The fact is, that the small planters
who constitute the majority of the land-owners are not in a position to
act the Amphytrion, and that the inhabitants of the district can scarce
ly aspire to be considered what we would call gentry in England, but
are a frugal, simple, hog-and-hominy living people, fond of hard work
and, occasionally, of hard drinking.

New Orleans, May 24, 1861.
It is impossible to resist the conviction that the Southern Confeder
acy can only be conquered by means as' irresistible as those by which
Poland was subjugated. The South will fall, if at all, as a nation pros
trate at the feet of a victorious enemy. There is no doubt of the una
nimity of the people. If words mean any thing, they are animated by
only one sentiment, and they will resist the North as long as they can
command a man or a dollar. There is nothing of a sectional character
in this disposition of the South. In every state there is only one voice
audible. Hereafter, indeed, state jealousies may work their own way.
Whatever may be the result, unless the men are the merest braggarts

76 PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE.
— and they do not look like it — they will fight to the last before they
give in, and their confidence in their resources is only equalled by
their determination to test them to the utmost. There is a noisy vo
ciferation about their declarations of implicit trust and reliance on their
slaves which makes one think " they do protest too much," and it re
mains to be seen whether the slaves really will remain faithful to their
masters should the abolition army ever come among them as an armed
propaganda. One thing is obvious here. A large number of men who
might be usefully employed in the ranks are idling about the streets.
The military enthusiasm is in proportion to the property interest of the
various classes of the people, and the very boast that so many rich men
are serving in the ranks is a significant proof, either of the want of a
substratum, or of the absence of great devotion to the cause, of any
such layer of white people as may underlie the great slave-holding, mer
cantile, and planting oligarchy. The whole state of Louisiana contains
about 50,000 men liable to serve when called on. Of that number only
15,000 are enrolled and under arms in any shape whatever, and if one
is to judge of the state of affairs by the advertisements which appear
from the adjutant-general's office, there was some difficulty in procur
ing the 3,000 men — merely 3,000 volunteers— "to serve during the
war," who are required by the Confederate government. There is
" plenty of prave 'ords," and if fierce writing and talking could do the
work, the armies on both sides would have been killed and eaten long
ago. It is found out that "lives of the citizens" at Pensacola are too
valuable to be destioyed in attacking Pickens. A storm that shall
drive away the ships, a plague, yellow fever, mosquitos, rattlesnakes,
small-pox — any of these agencies, is looked to with confidence to do
the work of shot, shell, and bayonet. Our American " brethren in
arms" have yet to learn that great law in military cookery, that "if
they want to make omelets they must break eggs." The " moral
suasion" of the lasso, of head-shaving, ducking, kicking, and such pro
cesses, are, I suspect, used not unfrequently to stimulate volunteers ;
and the extent to which the acts of the recruiting officer are somewhat
aided by the arm of the law, and the force of the policeman and the
magistrate, may be seen from paragraphs in the morning papers now
and then, to the effect that certain gentlemen of Milesian extraction,
who might have been engaged in pugilistic pursuits, were discharged
from custody unpunished on condition that they enlisted for the war.
With the peculiar views entertained of freedom of opinion and action
by large classes of people on this continent, such a mode of obtaining
volunteers is very natural, but resort to it evinces a want of zeal on the

PICTURES OP SOUTHERN LIFE. 77
part of some of the 50,000 who are on the rolls; and, from all I can
hear — and I have asked numerous persons likely to be acquainted with
the subject — there are not more than those 15,000 men of whom I
have spoken in all the state under arms, or in training, of whom a con
siderable proportion will be needed for garrison and coast defence du
ties. It may be that the Northern states and Northern sentiments are
as violent as those of the South but I see some evidences to the con
trary. For instance, in New York ladies and gentlemen from the South
are permitted to live at their favorite hotel without molestation, and
one hotel keeper at Saratoga Springs advertises openly for the custom
of his Southern patrons. In no city of the'South which I have visited
would a party of Northern people be permitted to remain for an hour
if the " citizens" were aware of their presence. It is laughable to hear
men speaking of the " unanimity" of the South. Just look at the pe
culiar means by which unanimity is enforced and secured ! This is
an extract from a New Orleans paper :
Charges of Abolitionism. — Mayor Monroe has disposed of some of the cases
brought before him on charges of this kind by sending the accused to the work
house. A Mexican named Bernard Cruz, born in Tampico, and living here with an Irish
wife, was brought before the Mayor this morning charged with uttering Abolition
sentiments. After a full investigation, it was found from the utterance of his in
cendiary language, that Cruz's education was not yet perfect in Southern classics,
and his Honor therefore directed that he be sent for six months to the Humane In
stitution for the Amelioration of the Condition of Northern Barbarians and Aboli
tion Fanatics, presided over by Professor Henry Mitchell, keeper of the workhouse,
who will put him through a course of study on Southern ethics and institutions.
The testimony before him Saturday, however, in the ease of a man named David
O'Keefe, was such as to induce him to commit the accused for trial before the
Criminal Court. One of the witnesses testified positively that he heard him make
his children shout for Lincoln ; another, that the accused said, " I am an abolition
ist," &c. The witnesses, the neighbors of the accused, gave their evidence reluct
antly, saying that they had warned him of the folly and danger of his conduct.
O'Keefe says he has been a United States soldier, and came here from St. Louis and
Kansas. John White was arraigned before Recorder Emerson on Saturday for uttering in
cendiary language while traveling in the baggage car of a train of the New Orleans,
Ohio, and Great 'Western Railroad, intimating that the decapitator of Jefferson
Davis would get $10,000 for his trouble, and the last man of us would be whipped
like dogs by the Lineolnites. He was held under bonds of $500 to answer the
charge on the 8th of June.
Nicholas Gento, charged with declaring himself an Abolitionist, and acting very
much like ho was one, by harboring a runaway slave, was sent to prison in default
of bail, to await examination before the recorder.

78 PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE.
Such is "freedom of speech" in Louisiana ! But in Texas the ma
chinery for the production of " unanimity" is less complicated, and
there are no insulting legal formalities connected with the working of
the simple appliances which a primitive agricultural people have devised
for their own purposes. Hear the Texan correspondent of one of the
journals of this city on the subject. He says :
It is to us astonishing, that such unmitigated lies as those Northern papers dis
seminate of anarchy and disorder here in Texas, dissension among ourselves, and
especially from our German, &c, population, with dangers and anxieties from the
fear of insurrection among the negroes, &e., should be deemed anywhere South
worthy of a moment's thought. It is surely notorious enough that in no part of
the South are Abolitionists, or other disturbers of the public peace, so very unsafe
as in Texas. The lasso is so very convenient I
Here is an excellent method of preventing dissension described by a
stroke of the pen; and, as such, an ingenious people are not likely to
lose sight of the uses of a revolution in developing peculiar principles
to their own advantage, repudiation of debts to the North has been
proclaimed and acted on. One gentleman has found it convenient to
inform Major Anderson that he does not intend to meet certain bills
which he had given the major for some slaves. Another declares he
won't pay any one at all, as he has discovered it is immoral and con
trary to the law of nations to do so. A third feels himself bound to
obey the commands of the governor of his state, who has ordered that
debts due to the North shall not be liquidated. As a naive specimen
of the way in which the whole case is treated, take this article and the
correspondence of " one of the most prominent mercantile houses in
New Orleans :" SOUTHERN DEBTS TO THE NORTH.
The Cincinnati Gazette copies the following paragraph from The New York Even
ing Post :
" Bad Faith. — The bad faith of the Southern merchants in their transactions with
their Northern correspondents is becoming more evident daily. We have heard of
several recent cases where parties in this city, retired from active business, have,
ne.vertheless, stepped forward to protect the credit of their Southern friends. They
are now coolly informed that they cannot be reimbursed for these advances until
the war is over. We know of a retired merchant who in this way has lost $100,000"
— and adds :
'• The same here. Men who have done most for the South are the chief sufferers.
Debts are coolly repudiated by Southern merchants, who have heretofore enjoyed
a first-class reputation. Men who have grown rich upon the trade furnished by
the West are among the first to pocket the money of their correspondents, asking,
with all the impudence and assurance of a highwayman, " What are you going to
do about it ?" There is honor among thieves, it is said, but there is not a spark of
honor among these repudiating merchants. People who have aided and trusted

PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE. 79
them to the last moment, are the greatest losers. There is a future, however. This
war will be over, aud the Southern merchants will desire a resumption of their
connections with the West. As the repudiators — such as Goodrich & Co., of New-
Orleans — will be spurned, there will be a grand opening for honest men.
" There are many honorable exceptions in the South, but dishonesty is the rule.
The latter is but the development of latent rascaUty. The rebeUion has afforded a
pretext merely for the swindling operations. The parties previously acted honestly
only because that was the best poUcy. The sifting process that may now be con
ducted wiU be of advantage to Northern merchants in the future. The present
losses wiU be fuUy made up by subsequent gains."
We have been requested to copy the foUowing reply to this tirade from one of
our most prominent mercantile houses, Messrs. Goodrich & Co. :
New Orleans, May 24, 1861.
Cincinnati Gazette. — We were handed, through a friend of ours, your issue of
the 18th inst., and attention directed to an article contained therein, in which you
are pleased to particularize us out of a large number of highly respectable mer
chants of this and other Southern cities as repudiators, swindlers, and other epi
thets, better suited to the mouths of the WUson regiment of New York than from
a once respectable sheet, but which now has sunk so low in the depths of nig-
gerdom that it would take all the soap in Porkopolis and the Ohio River to cleanse
it from its foul pollution.
We are greatly indebted to you for using our name in the above article, as we
deem i; the best card you could pubUsh for us, and may add greatly to our business
relations in the Confederate States, which wiU enable us in the end to pay our in
debtedness to those who propose cutting our throats, destroying our property,
stealing our negroes, and starving our wives and chudren, to pay such men in
times of war. Tou may term it rascaUy, but we beg leave to call it patriotism.
"Giving the sinews of war to your enemies has ever been considered treason." —
Kent. Now for " repudiating." We have never, nor do we ever expect to repudiate
any debt owing by our firm. But this much we will say, never will we pay a debt
due by us to a man, or any company of men, who is a known Black Republican,
and marching in battle array to invade our homes and firesides, until every such
person shaU be driven back and their poUuted footsteps shaU, now on our once
happy soil, be entirely obliterated.
We have been in business in this city for twenty years, have passed through
every crisis with our names untarnished or credit impaired, and would at present
sacrifice all we have made, were it necessary, to sustain our credit in the Confeder
acy, but care nothing for the opinions of such as are open and avowed enemies.
We are sufficiently known in this city not to require the indorsement of The Cin
cinnati Gazette, or any such sheet, for a character.
The day is coming, and not far distant, when there will be an awful reckoning,
and we are willing and determined to stand by our Confederate flag, sink or swim,
and would like to meet some of Tlie Gazette's editors vis-d-vis on the field of blood,
and see who would be the first to flinch.
Our senior partner has already contributed one darkey this year to your popula
tion, and she is anxious to return, but we have a few more left which you can-
have, provided you wiU come and take them yourselves.

80 PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE.
We have said more than we intended, and hope you wul give this a place in your
paper. GOODRICH & CO.
There is some little soreness felt here about the use of the word
" repudiation," and it will do the hearts of some people good, and will
carry comfort to the ghost of the Eev. Sydney Smith, if it can hear the
tidings, to know I have been assured, over and over again, by eminent
mercantile people and statesmen, that there is a " general desire" on
the part of the repudiating states to pay their bonds, and that no
doubt, at some future period, not very clearly ascertainable or plainly
indicated, that general desire will cause some active steps to be taken
to satisfy its intensity, of a character very unexpected, and very gratify
ing to those interested. The tariff of the Southern Confederation has
just been promulgated, and I send herewith a copy of the rates.
Simultaneously, however, with this docnment, the United States steam-
frigates Brooklyn and Niagara have made their appearance off the Pass
a l'Outre, and the Mississippi is closed, and with it the port of New
Orleans. The steam-tugs refuse to tow out vessels for fear of capture,
and British ships are in jeopardy.
May 25. — A visit to the camp at Tangipao, about fifty miles from
New Orleans, gave an occasion for obtaining a clearer view of the in
ternal military condition of those forces of which one reads much and
sees so little than any other way. Major-General Lewis of the State
Militia, and staff, and General Labuzan, a Creole officer, attended by
Major Hanney, President of the New Orleans, Jackson, and Great
Northern Bail way, and by many officers in uniform, started with that
purpose at half-past four this evening in a railway carriage, carefully
and comfortably fitted for their reception. The militia of Louisiana
has not been called out for many years, and its officers have no mili
tary experience and the men have no drill or discipline.
Emerging from the swampy suburbs, we soon pass between white
clover pastures, which we are told invariably salivate the herds of small
but plump cattle browsing upon them. Soon cornfields " in tassel,"
alternate with long narrow rows of growing sugar-cane, which, though
scarcely a fourth of the height of the maize, will soon overshadow it ;
and the cane-stalks grow up so densely together that nothing larger
than a rattlesnake can pass between them.
From Kennersville, an ancient sugar plantation cut up into " town
lots," our first halt, ten miles out, we shoot through a cypress swamp,
the primitive forest of this region, and note a greater affluence of
Spanish moss than in the woods of Georgia or Carolina. There it
hung, like a hermit's beard, from the pensile branch. Here, to one

PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE. 81
who should venture to thread the snake and alligator haunted mazes
of the jungle, its matted profusion must resemble clusters of stalactites
pendent from the roof of some vast cavern ; for the gloom of an endless
night appears to pervade the deeper recesses, at the entrance of which
stand, like outlying skeleton pickets, the unfelled and leafless patriarchs
of the clearing, that for a breadth of perhaps fifty yards on either side
seems to have furnished the road with its sleepers.
The gray swamp yields to an open savanna, beyond which, upon
the left, a straggling line of sparse trees skirts the left bank of the
Mississippi, and soon after the broad expanse of Lake Pontchartrain
appears within gunshot of our right, only separated from the road by a
hundred yards or more of rush-covered prairie, which seems but a feeble
barrier against the caprices of so extensive a sheet of water, subject to
the influences of wind and tide. In fact, ruined shanties and out-houses,
fields laid waste, and prostrate fences, remain evidences of the ravages of
the " wash" which a year ago inundated and rendered the railroad im
passable save for boats. The down train's first notice of the disaster
was the presence of a two-story frame building, which the waves had
transported to the road, and its passengers, detained a couple of days
in what now strikes us as a most grateful combination of timber-
skirted meadow and lake scenery, were rendered insensible to its
beauties by the torments of hungry mosquitos. Had its engineers
given the road but eighteen inches more elevation its patrons would
have been spared this suffering, and its stockholders might have re
joiced in a dividend. Many of the settlers have abandoned their im
provements. Others, chiefly what are here called Dutchmen, have
resumed their tillage with unabated zeal, and large fields of cabbages,
one of them embracing not less than sixty acres, testify to their energy.
Again, through miles of cvpress swamps the train passes on to what
is called the " trembling prairie," where the sleepers are laid upon a
tressel-work of heavier logs, so that the rails are raised by " cribs" of
timber nearly a yard above the morass. Three species of rail, one of
them as large as a curlew, and the summer-duck, seem the chief occu
pants of the marsh, but white cranes and brown bitterns take the
alarm, and falcons and long-tailed " blackbirds " sail in the distance.
Toward sunset a halt took place upon the long bridge that divides
Lake Maurepas, a picturesque sheet of water which blends with the
horizon on our left, from Pass Manchac, an arm of Lake Pontchartrain,
which disappears in the forest on our right. Half-a-dozen wherries
and a small fishing-smack are moored in front of a ricketty cabin,
crowded by the jungle to the margin of the cove. It is the first token
4*

S2 PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE.
of a settlement that has occurred for miles, and when we have suffi
ciently admired the scene, rendered picturesque in the sunset by the
dense copse, the water and the bright colors of the boats at rest upon
it, a commotion at the head of the train arises from the unexpected
arrival upon the " switch" of a long string of cars filled with half a
regiment of volunteers, who had been enlisted for twelve months' ser
vice, and now refused to be mustered in fur the war, as required by the
recent enactment of the Montgomery Congress. The new-comers are
at length safely lodged on the " turn-off," and our train continues its
journey. As we pass the row of cars, most of them freight wagons, we
are hailed with shouts and yells in every key by the disbanded volun
teers, who seem a youngish, poorly-clad, and undersized lot, though
noisy as a street mob.
After Manchac, the road begins to creep up toward terra firma, and
before nightfall there was a change from cypresses and swamp laurels
to pines and beeches, and we inhale the purer atmosphere of dry land,
with an occasional whiff of resinous fragrance, that dispels the fever-
tainted suggestions of the swamp below. There we only breathed to
live. Here we seem to live to breathe. The rise of the road is a
grade of but a foot to the mile, and yet at the camp an elevation of
not more than eighty feet in as many miles suffices to establish all the
climatic difference between the malarious marshes aud a much higher
mountain region.
But during our journey the hampers have not been neglected. The
younger members of the party astonish the night-owls with patriotic
songs, chiefly French, and the French chiefly with the " Marseillaise,"
which, however inappropriate as the slogan of the Confederate states,
they persist in quavering, forgetful, perhaps, that not three-quarters of
a century ago Toussaint l'Ouverture caught the words and air of his
masters, and awoke the lugubrious notes of the insurrection.
Toward nine p. m., the special car rests in the woods, and is flanked
on one side by the tents and watch-fires of a small encampment, chiefly
of navvy and cotton-handling Milesian volunteers, called " the Tigers,"
from their prehensile powers and predatory habits. A guard is sta
tioned around the car; a couple of Ethiopians who rave attended us
from town are left to answer the query, quis custodiet ipsos custodes ?
and we make our way to the hotel, which looms up in ths moonlight
in a two-storied dignity. Here, alas ! there have been no preparations
made to sleep or feed us. The scapegoat "nobody" announced our
coming. Some of the guests are club men, used to the small hours,
who engage a room, a table, half a dozen chairs, and a brace of bottles

PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE. 83
to serve as candlesticks. They have brought stearine and pasteboards
with them, and are soon deep in the finesses of " Euchre." We quietly
stroll back to the car, our only hope of shelter. At the entrance we
are challenged by a sentry, apparently ignorant that he has a percussion
cap on his brown rifle, which he levels at us cocked. From this un
pleasant vision of an armed and reckless Tiger rampant we are relieved
by one of the dusky squires, who assures the sentinel that we are "all
right," and proceeds to turn over a seat and arrange what might be
called a sedan-chair bed, in which we prepare to make a night of it.
Our party is soon joined by others in quest of repose, and in half an
hour breathings, some of them so deep as to seem subterranean, indi
cate that all have attained their object — like Manfred's — forgetfulness.
An early breakfast of rashers and eggs was prepared at the table
d'hote, which we were told would be replenished half-hourly until noon,
when a respite of an hour was allowed to the " help," in which to make
ready a dinner, to be served in the same progression.
Through a shady dingle a winding path led to the camp, and, after
trudging a pleasant half-mile, a bridge of boards, resting on a couple
of trees laid across a pool, was passed, and, above a slight embankment,
tents and soldiers are revealed upon a " clearing " of some thirty acres
in the midst of a pine forest. Turning to the left, we reach a double
row of tents, only distinguished from the rest by their "fly roofs" and
boarded floors, and, in the centre, halt opposite to one which a poster
of capitals on a planed deal marks as " Head-quarters." Major-General
Tracy commands the camp. The white tents crouching close to the
shade of the pines, the parade alive with groups and colors as various
as those of Joseph's coat, arms stacked here and there, and occasionally
the march of a double file in green, or in mazarine blue, up an alley
from the interior of the wood, to be dismissed in the open, resembles
a militia muster, or a holiday experiment at soldiering, rather than the
dark shadow of forthcoming battle. The cordon of sentinels suffer no
volunteer to leave the precincts of the camp, even to bathe, without .7
pass or the word. There are neither wagons nor ambulances, and the
men are rolling in barrels of bacon and bread and shouldering bags
of pulse — good picnic practice and campaigning gymnastics in fair
weather. The arms of these volunteers are the old United States smooth-bore
musket, altered from flint to percussion, with bayonet — a heavy and
obsolete copy of Brown Bess in bright barrels. All are in creditable
order. Most of them have never been used, even to fire a parade
volley, for powder is scarce in the Confederated States, and must not

84 PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE.
be wasted. Except in their material, the shoes of the troops are as
varied as their clothing. None have as yet been served out, and each
still wears the boots, the brogans, the patent leathers, or the Oxford
ties in which he enlisted. The tents have mostly no other floor than
the earth, and that rarely swept; while blankets, boxes, and utensils
are stowed in corners with a disregard of symmetry that would drive
a martinet mad. Camp-stools are rare and tables invisible, save here
and there in an officer's tent. Still the men look well, and, we arc
told, would doubtless present a more cheerful appearance, but for some
little demoralization occasioned by discontent at the repeated changes
in the organic structure of the regiments, arising from misapprehensions
between the state and federal authorities, as well as from some favo
ritism toward certain officers, elected by political wire-pulling in the
governing councils. The system of electing officers by ballot has made
the camp as thoroughly a political arena as the poll-districts in New
Orleans before an election, and thus many heroes, seemingly ambitious
of epaulettes, are in reality only "laying pipes" for the attainment of
civil power or distinction after the war.
The volunteers we met at Manchac the previous evening had been
enlisted by the state to serve for twelve months, and had refused to
extend their engagement for the war — a condition now made precedent
at Montgomery to their being mustered into the army of the Confed
erate States. Another company, a majority of whom persist in the
same refusal, were disbanded while we were patrolling the camp, and
an officer told one of the party he had suffered a loss of 600 volunteers
by this disintegrating process within the last twenty-four hours. Some
of these country companies were skilled in the use of the rifle, and
most of them had made pecuniary sacrifices in the way of time, jour
neys, and equipments. Our informant deplored this reduction of vol
unteers, as tending to engender disaffection in the parishes to which
they will return, and comfort, when known, to the Abolitionists of the
North. He added that the war will not perhaps last a twelvemonth,
and if unhappily prolonged beyond that period, the probabilities are in
favor of the short-term recruits willingly consenting to a re-enlistment.
The encampment of the " Perrit Guards" was worthy of a visit,
Here was a company of professional gamblers, 112 strong, recruited foi
the war in a moment of banter by one of the patriarchs of the frater.
nity, who, upon hearing at the St. Charles Hotel one evening that the
vanity or the patriotism of a citizen, not famed for liberality, had en
dowed with $1,000 a company which was to bear his name, exclaimed
that "he would give 81,500 to any one who should be fool enough to

PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE. 85
form a company and call it after him." In less than an hour after the
utterance of this caprice, Mr. Perrit was waited upon by fifty-six " pro
fessionals,"" who had enrolled their names as the "Perrit Guards," and
unhesitatingly produced from his wallet the sum so sportively pledged.
The Guards are uniformed in mazarine-blue flannel with red facings,
and the captain, a youngish-looking fellow, with a hawk's eye, who had
seen service with Scott in Mexico and Walker in Nicaragua, informed
us that there is not a pair of shoes in the company that cost less than
$6, and that no money has been spared to perfect their other appoint
ments. A sack of ice and half a dozen silver goblets enforced his
invitation " to take a drink at his quarters," and we were served by an
African in uniform, who afterward offered us cigars received by the last
Havana steamer. Looking at the sable attendant, one of the party ob
served that if these " experts of fortune win the present fight, it will be
a case of couleur gagne."
It would be difficult to find in the same number of men taken at
hazard greater diversities of age, stature, and physiognomy ; but in
keenness of eye and imperturbability of demeanor they exhibit a family
likeness, and there is not an unintelligent face in the company. The
gamblers, or, as they are termed, the " sports," of the United States
have an air of higher breeding and education than the dice-throwers
and card-turners of Ascot or Newmarket — nay, they may be considered
the Anglo-Saxon equals, minus the title, of those ames damnees of the
continental nobility who are styled Greeks by their Parisian victims.
They are the Pariahs of American civilization, who are, nevertheless,
in daily and familiar intercourse with their patrons, and not restricted,
as in England, to a betting-ring toleration by the higher orders. The
Guards are the model company of Camp Moore, and I should have felt
disposed to admire the spirit of gallantry with which they have volun
teered in this war as a purification by fire of their maculated lives were
it not hinted that the " Oglethorpe Guards" and more than one other
company of volunteers are youths of large private fortunes, and that in
the Secession as in the Mexican War, these patriots will doubtless
pursue their old calling with as much profit as they may their new one
with valor.
From the lower camp we wind through tents, which diminish in
neatness and cleanliness as we advance deeper, to the upper division,
which is styled " Camp Tracy," a newer formation, whose brooms have
been employed with corresponding success. The adjutant's report for
the day sums up 1,073 rank and file, and but two on the sick list. On
a platform, a desk, beneath the shade of the grove, holds a Bible and

80 PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE.
Prayer-book, that await the arrival, at ten o'clock, of the Methodist
preacher, who is to perform Divine service. The green uniforms of the
" Hibernian Guards," and the gray and light-blue dress of other com
panies, appertain to a better appointed sort of men than the lower
division. There may be 2,000 men in Camp Moore — not more, and yet every
authority gives us a different figure. The lowest estimate acknowledged
for the two camps is 3,500 men, and The Picayune and other New
Orleans papers still speak in glowing terms of the 5,000 heroes assem
bled in Tangipao. Although the muster there presents a tolerable show
of ball-stoppers, it would require months of discipline to enable them to
pass for soldiers, even at the North ; and besides that General Tracy
has never had other experience than in militia duty, there is not, I think,
a single West-Point officer in his whole command. The only hope of
shaping such raw material to the purposes of war would naturally be
by the admixture of a proper allowance of military experience, and
until those possessing it shall be awarded to Camp Moore we must sigh
over the delusion which pictures its denizens to the good people of New
Orleans as " fellows ready for the fray."
While the hampers are being ransacked, an express locomotive ar
rives from town with dispatches for General Tracy, who exclaims, when
reading them, " Always too late !" from which expression it is inferred
that orders have been received to accept the just disbanded volunteers.
The locomotive was hitched to the car and drew it back to the city.
Our car was built in Massachusetts, the engine in Philadelphia, and
the magnifier of its lamp in Cincinnati. What will the South do for
such articles in future ?
May 26. — In the evening, as I was sitting in the house of a gentle
man in the city, it was related, as a topic of conversation, that a very
respectable citizen named Bibb had had a difficulty with three gentle
men, who insisted on his reading out the news for them from his paper,
as he went to market in the early morning. Mr. Bibb had a revolver,
" casually," in his pocket, and he shot one citizen dead on the spot and
wounded the other two severely, if not mortally. " Great sympathy,"
I am told, " is felt for Mr. Bibb." There has been a skirmish some
where on the Potomac, but Bibb has done more business " on his own
hook" than any of the belligerents up to this date ; and though I can
scarcely say I sympathize with him, far be it from me to say that I do
not respect him.
One curious result of the civil war in its effects on the South will,
probably, extend itself as the conflict continues — I mean the refusal of

PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE. 87
the employers to pay their workmen, on the ground of inability. The
natural consequence is much distress and misery. The English consul
's harrassed by applications for assistance from mechanics and skilled
laborers who are in a state bordering on destitution and starvation.
They desire nothing better than to leave the country and return to their
homes. All business, except tailoring for soldiers and cognate labors, is
suspended. Money is not to be had. Bills on New York are worth
little more than the paper, and the exchange against London is enor
mous — eighteen per cent, discount from the par value of the gold in
bank, good drafts on England having been negotiated yesterday at
ninety-two per cent. One house has been compelled to accept four per
cent, on a draft on the North, where the rate was usually from one-
fourth per cent, to one-half per cent. There is some fear that the police
force will be completely broken up, and the imagination refuses to guess
at the result. The city schools will probably be closed — altogether
things do not look well at New Orleans. When all their present diffi
culties are over, a struggle between the mob and the oligarchy, or those
who have no property and those who have, is inevitable ; for one of the
first acts of the legislature will probably be directed to establish some
sort of qualification for the right of suffrage, relying on the force which
will be at their disposal on the close of the war. As at New York, so
at New Orleans. Universal suffrage is denounced as a curse, as corrup
tion legalized, confiscation organized. As I sat in a well-furnished club-
room last night, listening to a most respectable, well-educated, intelligent
gentleman descanting on the practices of "the Thugs" — an organized
band who coolly and deliberately committed murder for the purpose of
intimidating Irish and German voters, and were only put down by a
vigilance committee, of which he was a member — I had almost to
pinch myself to see that I was not the victim of a horrid nightmare.
Monday, May 27. — The Washington Artillery went off to-day to the
wars — quo fas et gloria ducunt ; but I saw a good many of them in
the streets after the body had departed — spirits who were disembodied.
Their uniform is very becoming, not unlike that of our own foot artil
lery, and they have one battery of guns in good order. I looked in
vain for any account of Mr. Bibb's little affair yesterday in the papers.
Perhaps, as he is so very respectable, there will not be any reference to
it at all. Indeed, in some conversation on the subject last night, it was
admitted that when men were very rich they might find judges and
jurymen as tender as Danae, and policemen as permeable as the walls
of her dungeon. The whole question now is, " What will be done with
the blockade?" The Confederate authorities are acting with a high

88 PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE.
hand. An American vessel, the Ariel, which had cleared out of port
with British subjects on board, has been overtaken, captured, and her
crew have been put in prison. The ground is that she is owned in main
by Black Eepublicans. The British subjects have received protection
from the consul. Prizes have been made within a league of shore, and
in one instance, when the captain protested, his ship was taken out to
sea, and was then recaptured formally. I went round to several mer
chants to-day ; they were all gloomy and fierce. In fact, the blockade
of Mobile is announced, and that of New Orleans has commenced, and
men-of-war have been reported off the Pas-a-1'outre. The South is
beginning to feel that it is being bottled up, all fermenting and frothing,
and is somewhat surprised and angry at the natural results of its own
acts, or, at least, of the proceedings which have brought about a state
of war. Mr. Slidell did not seem at all contented with the telegrams
from the North, and confessed that " if they had been received by way
of Montgomery he should be alarmed." The names of persons liable
for military service have been taken down in several districts, and Brit
ish subjects have been included. Several applications have been made
to Mr. Mure, the consul, to interfere in behalf of men who, having
enlisted, are now under orders to march, and who must leave their fam
ilies destitute if they go away ; but he has, of course, no power to exer
cise any influence in such eases. The English journals to the 4th of
May have arrived here to-day. It is curious to see how quaint in their
absurdity the telegrams become when they have reached the age of
three weeks. I am in the hapless position of knowing, without being
able to remedy, the evils from this source, for there is no means of send
ing through to New York political information of any sort by telegraph.
The electric fluid may be the means of blasting and blighting many
reputations, as there can be no doubt the revelations which the govern
ment at Washington will be able to obtain through the files of the dis
patches it has seized at the various offices, will compromise some whose
views have recently undergone remarkable changes. It is a hint which
may not be lost on governments in Europe when it is desirable to know
friends and foes hereafter, and despotic rulers will not be slow to take a
hint from " the land of liberty."
Orders have been issued by the governor to the tow-boats to take
out the English vessels by the south-west passage, and it is probable
they will all get through without any interruption on the part of the
blockading force. It may be imagined that the owners and consignees
of cargoes from England, China, and India, which are on their way
here, are not at all easy in their minds. Two of the Washing-ton artillery

PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE. 89
died in the train on their way to that undefinable region called " the
seat of war."
May 28. — The Southern states have already received the assistance
of several thousands of savages, or red men, and "the warriors" are
actually engaged in pursuing the United States troops in Texas, in
conjunction with the state volunteers. A few days ago a deputation
of the chiefs of the Five Nations, Creeks, Choctaws, Seminoles,
Comanches, and others, passed through New Orleans on their way to
Montgomery, where they hoped to enter into terms with the govern
ment for the transfer of their pension list and other responsibilities
from Washington, and to make such arrangements for their property
and their rights as would justify them in committing their fortunes to
the issue of war. These tribes can turn out twenty thousand warriors,
scalping-knives, tomahawks, and all. The chiefs and principal men are
all slave-holders.
May 29. — A new " affair" occurred this afternoon. The servants
of the house in which I am staying were alarmed by violent screams in
a house in the adjoining street, and by the discharge of firearms — an
occurrence which, like the cry of "murder" in the streets of Havana,
clears the streets of all wayfarers, if they be wise, and do not wish to
stop stray bullets. The cause is thus stated in the journals :
Sad Family Affair. — Last evening, at the residence of Mr. A. P. Withers, in
Nayades street, near Thalia, Mr. Withers shot and dangerously wounded his step
son, Mr. A. F. W. Mather. As the police teU it, the nature of the affair was this :
The two men were in the parlor, and talking about the Washington artillery, which
left on Monday for Virginia. Mather denounced the artillerists in strong language,
and his stepfather denied what he said. Violent language followed, and, as Withers
says, Mather drew a pistol and shot at him once, not hitting him. He snatched up
a Sharp's revolver that was lying near and fired four times at his stepson. The
latter feU at the third fire, and as he was faUing Withers fired a fourth time, the
bnUet wounding the hand of Mrs. Withers, wife of one and mother of the other,
she having rushed in to interfere, and she being the only witness of the affair.
Withers immediately went out into the street and voluntarily surrendered himself
to Officer Casson, the first officer he met. He was locked up. Three of his shots
hit Mather, two of them in the breast. Last night Mather was not expected to
live. Another difficulty is connected with the free colored people who
may be found in prize ships. Eead and judge of the conclusion :
What shaU be done with them? On the 28th inst., Captain G. W. Gregor, of
the privateer Calhoun, brought to the station of this district about ten negro saUors,
claiming to be free, found on board the brigs Panama, John Adams, and Mermaid.
The recorder sent word to the marshal of the confederate states that said ne-

00 PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE.
groes were at his disposition. The marshal refused to receive them or have any
thing to do with them, whereupon the recorder gave the foUowing decision :
Though I have no authority to act in the case, I think it is my duty as a magis
trate and good citizen to take upon myself, in this critical moment, the responsibil
ity of keeping the prisoners in custody, firmly believing it would not only be bad
poUcy, but a dangerous one, to let them loose upon the community.
The following dispatch was sent by the recorder to the Hon. J. P.
Benjamin : New Orleans, May 29.
To J. P. Benjamin, Richmond — Sir .- Ten free negroes taken by a privateer from
on board three vessels returning to Boston, from a whahng voyage, have been de
hvered to me. The marshal refuses to take charge of them. What shall I do
with them? RespeotfuUy, A. BLACHB,
Recorder, Second District.
The monthly statement I inclose of the condition of the New Or
leans banks on the 25th inst., must be regarded as a more satisfactory
exhibit to their depositors and shareholders, though of no greater
benefit to the commercial community in this its hour of need than the
tempting show of a pastrycook's window to the famished street poor.
These institutions show assets estimated at $54,000,000, of which
$20,000,000 are in specie and sterling exchange, to meet $25,000,000
of liabilities, or more than two for one. But, with this apparent am
plitude of resources, the New Orleans banks are at a dead-lock, afford
ing no discounts and buying no exchange — the latter usually their
greatest source of profit in a mart which ships so largely of cotton,
sugar, and flour, and the commercial movement of which for not over
nine months of the year is the second in magnitude amoug the cities
of the old Union.
As an instance of the caution of their proceedings, I have only to
state that a gentleman of wealth and the highest respectability, who
needed a day or two since some money for the expenses of an unex
pected journey, was compelled, in order to borrow of these banks the
sum of $ 1 ,500, to hypothecate, as security for his bill at sixty days,
$10,000 of bonds of the Confederate states, and for which a month
ago he paid par in coin — a circumstance which reflects more credit
upon the prudence of the banks than upon the security pledged for
this loan.

Natchez, Miss., June 14, 1861.
On the morning of the 3d of June I left New Orleans, in one of the
steamers proceeding up the Mississippi, along that fertile but uninterest
ing region of reclaimed swamp lands, called " the coast," which extends

PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE. 91
along both banks for one hundred and twenty miles above the citv. /
It is so called from the name given to it, " La C6te," by the early
French settlers. Here is the favored land — alas ! it is a fever-land, too
— of sugar-cane and Indian corn. To those who have very magnificent
conceptions of the Mississippi, founded on mere arithmetical computa
tions of leagues, or vague geographical data, it may be astonishing, but
it is nevertheless true, the Mississippi is artificial for many hundreds of
miles. Nature has, of course, poured out the waters, but man has made
the banks. By a vast system of raised embankments, called levees, the
river is constrained to abstain from overflowing the swamps, now drain
ed, and green with wealth-producing crops. At the present moment
the surface of the river is several feet higher than the land at each side,
and the steamer moves on a level with the upper stories, or even the
roofs of the houses, reminding one of such scenery as could be witnessed
in the old days of treckshuyt in Holland. The river is not broader than
the Thames at Gravesend, and is quite as richly colored. But then it
is one hundred and eighty feet deep, and for hundreds of miles it has
not less that one hundred feet of water. Thus deeply has it scooped
into the rich clay and marl in its course ; but as it flows out to join the
sea, it throws down the vast precipitates which render the bars so shift
ing and difficult, and bring the mighty river to such a poor exit. A few
miles above the wharfs and large levees of the city, the country really
appears to be a sea of light green, with shores of forest in the distance,
about two miles away from the bank. This forest is the uncleared land,
extending for a considerable way back, which each planter hopes to
take into culture one day or other, and which he now uses to provide
timber for his farm. Near the banks are houses of wood, with porti
coes, pillars, verandahs, and sun-shades, generally painted white and;
green. There is a great uniformity of style, but the idea aimed at
seems to be that of the old French chateau, with the addition of a col
onnade around the ground story. These dwellings are generally in the
midst of small gardens, rich in semi-tropical vegetation, with glorious
magnolias, now in full bloom, rising in their midst, and groves of live-
oak interspersed. The levee is as hard and dry as the bank of a canal.
Here and there it is propped up by wooden revetements. Between it
and the uniform line of palings, which guards the river face of the plan
tations, there is a carriage-road. In the enclosure, near each residence,
there is a row of small wooden huts, whitewashed, in which live the
negroes attached to the service of the family. Outside the negroes who
labor in the fields are quartered, in similar constructions, which are like
the small single huts, called " Maltese," which were plentiful in the

92 PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE.
Crimea. They are rarely furnished with windows ; a wooden slide or
a grated space admits such light and air as they want. One of the
most striking features of the landscape is, its utter want of life. There
were a few horsemen exercising in a field, some gigs and buggies along
the levee roads, and the little groups at the numerous watering-places,
generally containing a few children in tom-fool costumes, as zouaves,
chasseurs, or some sort of infantry ; but the slaves who were there had
come down to look after luggage or their masters. There were no
merry, laughing, chattering gatherings of black faces and white teeth,
such as we hear about. Indeed, the negroes are not allowed hereabouts
to stir out of their respective plantations, or to go along the road with
out passes from their owners. The steamer J. L. Cotton, which was
not the less popular, perhaps, because she had the words " low pressure"
conspicuous on her paddle-boxes, carried a fair load of passengers, most of
whom were members of Creole families living on the coast. The proper
meaning of the word " Creole" is very different from that which we at
tach to it. It signifies a person of Spanish or French descent, born in
Louisiana or in the southern or tropical countries. The great majority
of the planters here are French Creoles, and it is said they are kinder
and better masters than Americans or Scotch, the latter being consider
ed the most severe. Intelligent on most subjects, they are resolute in
the belief that England must take their cotton or perish. Even the
keenest of their financiers, Mr. Forstall, an Irish Creole, who is repre
sentative of the house of Baring, seems inclined to this faith, though he
is prepared with many ingenious propositions, which would rejoice Mr.
Gladstone's inmost heart, to raise money for the Southern Confederacy
and make them rich exceedingly. One thing has rather puzzled him.
M. Baroche, who is in New Orleans, either as a looker-on or as an ac
credited employe of his father or of the French government, suggested
to him that it would not be possible for all the disposable mercantile
marine of England and France together to carry the cotton crop, which
hitherto gave employment to a great number of American vessels, now
tabooed by the South, and the calculations seem to bear out the truth
of the remark. Be that as it may, Mr. Forstall is quite prepared to show
that the South can raise a prodigious revenue by a small direct taxation,
for which the machinery already exists in every parish of the state,
and that the North must be prodigiously damaged in the struggle, if
not ruined outright. One great source of strength in the South is, its
readiness — at least, its professed alacrity — to yield any thine* that is
asked. There is unbounded confidence in Mr. Jefferson Davis. Where-
ever I go, the same question is asked : " Well, sir, what do you think

PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE. 93
of our President ? Does he not strike you as being a very able man ?"
In finance he is trusted as much as iu war. When he sent orders to
the New Orleans banks, some time ago, to suspend specie payment, he
exercised a power which could not be justified by any reading of the
Southern constitution. All men applauded. The President of the
United States is far from receiving any such support or confidence, and
it need not be said any act of his, of the same nature as that of Mr.
Davis, would have created an immense outcry against him. But the
South has all the unanimity of a conspiracy, and its unanimity is not
greater than its confidence. One is rather tired of endless questions,
" Who can conquer such men ?" But the question should be, " Can
the North conquer us?" Of the fustian about dying in their tracks and
fighting till every man, woman and child is exterminated, there is a
great deal too much, but they really believe that the fate which Poland
could not avert, to which France, as well as the nations she overran,
bowed the head, can never reach them. With their faithful negroes to
raise their corn, sugar and cotton while they are at the wars, and Eng
land and France to take the latter and pay them for it, they believe
they can meet the American world in arms. A glorious future opens
before them. Illimitable fields, tilled by multitudinous negroes, open
on their vision, and prostrate at the base of the mountain of cotton,
from which they rule the kings of the earth, the empires of Europe
shall lie, with all their gold, their manufactures, and their industry, cry
ing out, " Pray give us more cotton ! All we ask is more !"
But here is the boat stopping opposite Mr. Eoman's — ex-governor
of the state of Louisiana, and ex-commissioner of the Confederate gov
ernment at Montgomery to the government of the United States at
Washington. Not very long ago he could boast of a very handsome
garden — the French Creoles love gardens — Americans and English do
not much affect them; when the Mississippi was low one fine day, levee
and all slid down the bank into the maw of the river, and were carried
off. This is what is called the " caving in" of a bank; when the levee
is broken through at high water it is said that a " crevasse" has taken
place. The governor, as he is called — once a captain always a captain
— has still a handsome garden, however, though his house has been
brought unpleasantly near the river. His mansion and the out-offices
stand in the shade of magnolias, green oaks, and other Southern trees.
To the last Governor Eoman was a Unionist, but when his state went
he followed her, and now he is a Secessionist for life and for death, not
extravagant in his hopes, but calm and resolute, and fully persuaded
that in the end the South must win. As he does not raise any cotton,

94 PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE.
the consequences for him will be extremely serious should sugar be
greatly depreciated ; but the consumption of that article in America is
very large, and, though the markets in the North and West are cut off,
it is hoped, as no imported sugar can find its way into the states, that
the South will consume all its own produce at a fair rate. The gover
nor is a very good type of the race, which is giving way a little before
the encroachments of the Anglo-Saxons, and he possesses all the ease,
candid manner, and suavity of the old French gentleman — of that school
in which there are now few masters or scholars. He invited me to visit
the negro quarters. " Go where you like, do what you please, ask any
questions. There is nothing we desire to conceal." As we passed the
house, two or three young women flitted past in snow-white dresses
with pink sashes, and no doubtful crinolines, but their head-dresses were
not en rhyle — handkerchiefs of a gay color. They were slaves going off
to a dance at the sugar-house ; but they were indoor servants, and
therefore better off, in the way of clothes than their fellow slaves who
labor in the field. On approaching a high paling at the rear of the
house the scraping of fiddles was audible. It was Sunday, and Mr.
Eoman informed me that he gave his negroes leave to have a dance on
that day. The planters who are not Catholics rarely give any such
indulgence to their slaves, though they do not always make them work
on that day, and sometimes let them enjoy themselves on the Saturday
afternoon. Entering a wicket gate, a quadrangular enclosure, lined with
negro huts, lay before us. The bare ground was covered with litter of
various kinds, amid which pigs and poultry were pasturing. Dogs,
puppies, and curs of low degree scampered about on all sides ; and deep
in a pond, swinking in the sun, stood some thirty or forty mules, en
joying their day of rest. The huts of the negroes belonging to the
personal service of the house were separated from the negroes engaged in
field labor by a close wooden paling ; but there was no difference in the •
shape and size of their dwellings, which consisted generally of one large
room, divided by a partition occasionally into two bedrooms. Outside
the whitewash gave them a cleanly appearance ; inside they were dingy
and squalid — no glass in the windows, swarms of flies, some clothes
hanging on nails in the boards, dressers with broken crockery, a bed
stead of rough carpentry; a fireplace in which, hot as was the day, a
log lay in embers ; a couple of tin cooking utensils ; in the obscure, the
occupant, male or female, awkward and shy before strangers, and silent
till spoken to. Of course there were no books, for the slaves do not
read. They all seemed respectful to their master. We saw very old men
and very old women, who were the canker-worms of the estate, and were

PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE. 95
dozing away into eternity mindful only of hominy, and pig, and molasses.
Two negro fiddlers were working their bows with energy in front of one
of the huts, and a crowd of little children were listeniug to the music,
and a few grown-up persons of color — some of them from the adjoining
plantations. The children are generally dressed in a little sack of coarse
calico, which answers all reasonable purposes, even if it be not very
clean. It might be an interesting subject of inquiry to the natural
philosophers who follow crinology to determine why it is that the hair
of the infant negro, or of the child up to six or seven years of age, is
generally a fine red russet, or even gamboge color, and gradually darkens
into dull ebon. These little bodies were mostly large-stomached, welj
fed, and not less happy than freeborn children, although much more
valuable — for once they get over juvenile dangers, and advance toward
nine or ten years of age, they rise in value to £100 or more, even in
times when the market is low and money is scarce. The women were
not very well-favored, except one yellow girl, whose child was quite
white, with fair hair and light eyes ; and the men were disguised in
such strangely cut clothes, their hats and shoes and coats were so won
derfully made, that one could not tell what they were like. On all
faces there was a gravity which must be the index to serene content
ment and perfect comfort, for those who ought to know best declare
they are the happiest race in the world. It struck me more and more,
as I examined the expression of the faces of the slaves all over the
South, that deep. dajj?.cti on i s tb p. pre van 1 i n gl if not universal, character -
isticof_the_xacfi. Let a physiognomist go and see. Here there were
abundant evidences that they were well treated, for they had good
clothing of its kind, good food, and a master who wittingly could do
them no injustice, as he is, I am sure, incapable of it. Still, they all
looked exceedingly sad, and even the old woman who boasted that she
had held her old master in her arms when he was an infant, did not
look cheerful, as the nurse at home would have done, at the sight of
her ancient charge. The precincts of the huts were not clean, and the
enclosure was full of weeds, in which poultry — the perquisites of the
slaves — were in full possession. The negroes rear domestic birds of all
kinds, and sell eggs and poultry to their masters. The money they
spend in purchasing tobacco, molasses, clothes and flour — whisky, their
great delight, they must not have. Some seventy or eighty hands were
quartered in this part of the estate. The silence which reigned in the
huts as soon as the fiddlers had gone off to the sugar-house was pro
found. Before leaving the quarter I was taken to the hospital, which
was in charge of an old negress. The naked rooms contained several

96 PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE.
flock beds on rough stands, and five patients, three of whom were women.
They sat listlessly on the beds, looldng out into space; no books to
amuse them, no conversation — nothing but their own dull thoughts, if
they had any. They were suffering from pneumonia and swellings of
the glands of the neck ; one man had fever. Their medical attendant
visits them regularly, and each plantation has a practitioner, who is
engaged by the term for his services. Negroes have now only a nominal
value in the market — that is, the price of a good field hand is as high
as ever, but there is no one to buy him at present, and no money to
pay for him, and the trade of the slave-dealers is very bad. The mena
geries of the " Virginia negroes constantly on sale. Money advanced
on all descriptions of property," etc., must be full — their pockets empty.
This question of price is introduced incidentally in reference to the
treatment of negroes. It has often been said to me that no one will ill-
use a creature worth £300 or £400, but that is not a universal rule.
Much depends on temper, and many a hunting-field could show that if
value be a guarantee for good usage, the slave is more fortunate than
his fellow- chattel, the horse. If the growth of sugar-cane, cotton and
corn, be the great end of man's mission on earth, and if all masters were
like Governor Eoman, slavery might be defended as a natural and
innocuous institution. Sugar and cotton are, assuredly, two great agen
cies in this latter world. The older got on well enough without them.
The scraping of the fiddles attracted us to the sugar-house, a large
brick building with a factory-looking chimney, where the juice of the
cane is expressed, boiled, granulated, and prepared for the refiner. In
a space of the floor unoccupied by machinery some fifteen women and
as many men were assembled, and four couples were dancing a kind
of Irish jig to the music of the negro musicians — a double shuffle and
a thumping ecstasy, with loose elbows, pendulous paws, and angulated
knees, heads thrown back, and backs arched inwards — a glazed eye,
intense solemnity of mien, worthy of the minuet in Don Giovanni. At
this time of year there is no work done in the sugar-house, but when
the crushing and boiling are going on the labor is intense, and all the
hands work in gangs night and day ; and, if the heat of the fires be
superadded to the temperature in September, it may be conceded that
nothing but " involuntary servitude" could go through the toil and
suffering required to produce sugar for us. This is not the place for
an account of the processes and machinery used in the manufacture,
which is a scientific operation, greatly improved by recent discoveries
and apparatus.
In the afternoon the governor's son came in from the company

PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE. 97
which he commands. He has been camping out with them to accus
tom them to the duties of actual war, and he told me that all his men
were most zealous and exceedingly proficient. They are all of the
best families around — planters, large and small, their sons and relatives,
and a few of the Creole population, who are engaged as hoopers and
stavemakers. One of the latter had just stained his hands with blood.
He had reason to believe a culpable intimacy existed between his wife
and his foreman. A circumstance occurred which appeared to confirm
his worst suspicions. He took out his firelock, and, meeting the man,
he shot him dead without uttering a word, and then delivered himself
up to the authorities. It is probable his punishment will be exceed
ingly light, as divorce suits and actions for damages are not in favor in
this part of the world. Although the people are Eoman Catholics, it
is by no means unusual to permit relations within the degree of con
sanguinity forbidden by the church to intermarry, and the elastic na
ture of the rules which are laid down by the priesthood in that respect
would greatly astonish the orthodox in Ireland or Bavaria. The
whole of the planters and their dependents along "the coast" are in
arms. There is but one sentiment, as far as I can see, among them,
and that is, " We will never submit to the North." In the evening,
several officers of M. Alfred Eoman's company and neighbors came in,"
and out under the shade of the trees, in the twilight, illuminated by
the flashing fireflies, politics were discussed — all on one side, of course,
with general conversation of a more agreeable character. The cus
tomary language of the Creoles is French, and several newspapers in
French are published in the districts around us ; but they speak Eng
lish fluently.
Next morning, early, the governor was in the saddle and took me
round to see his plantation. We rode through alleys formed by the
tall stalks of the maize, out to the wide, unbroken fields — hedgeless,
unwalled, where the green cane was just learning to wave its long
shoots in the wind. Along the margin in the distance there is an un
broken boundary of forest extending all along the swamp lands, and
two miles in depth. From the river to the forest there is about a mile
and a half or more of land of the very highest quality — unfathomable,
and producing from one to one and a half hogshead an acre. Away in
the midst of the crops were white-looking masses, reminding me ®f
sepoys and sowars as seen in Indian fields in the morning sun on many
a march. As we rode toward them we overtook a cart with a large
cask, a number of tin vessels, a bucket of molasses, a pail of milk, and
a tub full of hominy or boiled Indian corn. The cask contained water
5

98 PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE.
for the use of the negroes, and the other vessels held the materials for
their breakfast, in addition to which they generally have each a dried
fish. The food looked ample and wholesome, such as any laboring man
would be well content with every day. There were three gangs at
work in the fields. One of men, with twenty mules and ploughs, was
engaged in running through the furrows between the canes, cutting up
the weeds and clearing away the grass, which is the enemy of the
growing shoot. The mules are of a fine, large, good-tempered kind,
and understand their work almost as well as the drivers, who are usu
ally the more intelligent hands on the plantation. The overseer, a
sharp-looking Creole, on a lanky pony, whip in hand, superintends their
labors, and, after a few directions and a salutation to the governor,
rode off to another part of the farm. The negroes when spoken to
saluted us, and came forward to shake hands — a civility which must
not be refused. With the exception of crying to their mules, however,
they kept silence when at work. Another gang consisted of forty
men, who were hoeing out the grass in Indian corn — easy work
enough. The third gang was of thirty-six or thirty-seven women, who
were engaged in hoeing out cane. Their clothing seemed heavy for
the climate, their shoes ponderous and ill-made, so as to wear away the
feet of their thick stockings. Coarse straw hats and bright cotton
handkerchiefs protected their heads from the sun. The silence which
I have already alluded to prevailed among these gangs also — not a
sound could be heard but the blows of the hoe on the heavy clods.
In the rear of each gang stood a black overseer, with a heavy-thonged
whip over his shoulder. If " Alcibiades" or " Pompey," were called
out he came with outstretched hand to ask " how do you do," and
then returned to his labor; but the ladies were coy, and scarcely look
ed up from under their flapping chapeaux de paille at their visitors.
Those who are mothers leave their children in the charge of certain
old women, unfit for any thing else, and " suckers," as they are called,
are permitted to go home to give the infants the breast at appointed
periods in the day. I returned home multa mecum revolens. After
breakfast, in spite of a very fine sun, which was not unworthy of a
January noon in Cawnpore, we drove forth to visit some planter friends
of M. Eoman, a few miles down the river. The levee road is dusty,
but the gardens, white railings and neat houses of the planters looked
fresh and clean enough. There is a great difference in the appearance
of the slaves' quarters. Some are neat, others are dilapidated and
mean. As a general rule, it might be said that the goodness of the
cottages was in proportion to the frontage of each plantation toward

PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE. 99
the river, which is a fair index to the size of the estate wherever the
river bank is straight. The lines of the estates are drawn perpendicu
larly to the banks, so that the convexity or concavity of the bends de
termines the frontage of the plantation.
The absence of human beings in the fields and on the roads was re
markable. The gangs at work were hidden in the deep corn, and not
a soul met us on the road for many miles except one planter in his gig.
At one place we visited a very handsome garden, laid out with hot
houses and conservatories, ponds full of magnificent Victoria Eegia in
flower, orange-trees, and many tropical plants, native and foreign, date
and other palms. The proprietor owns an extensive sugar refinery.
We visited his factory and mills, but the heat from the boilers, which
seemed too much even for the all but naked negroes who were at work,
did not tempt us to make a very long sojourn inside. The ebony faces
and polished black backs of the slaves were streaming with perspira
tion as they toiled over boiler, vat and centrifugal driers. The good
refiner was not gaining much at present, for sugar has been falling
rapidly in New Orleans, and the 300,000 barrels produced annually
in the South will fall short in the yield of profit, which, on an average,
may be taken at £11 a hogshead, without counting the molasses, for
the planter. All the planters hereabouts have sown an unusual quantity
of Indian corn, so as to have food for the negroes if the war lasts,
without any distress from inland or sea blockade. The absurdity of
supposing that a blockade can injure them in the way of supply is a
favorite theme to descant upon. They may find out, however, that it
is no contemptible means of warfare. At night, after our return, a
large bonfire was lighted on the bank to attract the steamer to call for
my luggage, which she was to leave at a point on the opposite shore,
fourteen miles higher up, and I perceived that there are regular patrols
and watchmen at night who look after levees and the negroes ; a num
ber of dogs are also loosed, but I am assured by a gentleman who has
written me a long letter on the subject from Montgomery, that these
dogs do not tear the negroes ; they are taught merely to catch and
mumble them, to treat them as a retriever well broken uses a wild
duck. Next day I left the hospitable house of Governor Eoman, full
of regard for his personal character and of his wishes for his happiness
and prosperity, but assuredly in no degree satisfied that even with
his care and kindness the " domestic institution " can be rendered
tolerable or defensible, if it be once conceded that the negro is a
human being with a soul — or with the feelings of a man. On those
points there are ingenious hypotheses and subtle argumentations in

100 PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE.
print "down South" which do much to comfort the consciences of
the anthropropietors. The negro skull wont hold as many ounces of
shot as the white man's. Can there be a more potent proof that the
white man has a right to sell and to own a creature who carries a
smaller charge of snipe-dust in his head? He is plantigrade, and
curved as to the tibia ! Cogent demonstration that he was made ex
pressly to work for the arch-footed, straight-tibiaed Caucasian. He has
a rcte mucosum and a colored pigment. Surely, he cannot have a soul
of the same color as that of an Italian or a Spaniard, far less of a flaxen-
haired Saxon ! See these peculiarities in the frontal sinus — in sinciput
or occiput 1 Can you doubt that the being with a head of that nature
was made only to till, hoe, and dig for another race ? Besides, the
Bible says that he is a son of Ham, and prophecy must be carried out
in the rice-swamps, sugar-canes, and maize-fields of the Southern Con
federation. It's flat blasphemy to set yourself against it. Our Saviour
sanctions slavery because he does not say a word against it, and it's
very likely that St. Paul was a slave-owner. Had cotton and sugar
been known, he might have been a planter 1 Besides, the negro is
civilized by being carried away from Africa and set to work, instead of
idling in native inutility. What hope is there of Christianizing the
African races except by the agency of the apostles from New Orleans,
Mobile or Charleston, who sing the sweet songs of Zion with such
vehemence and clamor so fervently for baptism in the waters of the
" Jawdam?" If these high physical, metaphysical, moral and religious
reasonings do not satisfy you, and you venture to be unconvinced and
to say so, then I advise you not come within reach of a mass meeting
of our citizens, who may be able to find a rope and a tree in the
^neighborhood. As we jog along in an easy rolling carriage drawn by a pair of stout
horses, a number of white people meet us coming from the Catholic
chapel of the parish, where they had been attending a service for the
repose of the soul of a lady much beloved in the neighborhood. The
black people are supposed to have very happy souls, or to be as utterly
lost as Mr. Shandy's homuncule was under certain circumstances, for I
have failed to find that any such services are ever considered necessary
in their case, although they may have been very good — or where it
would be most desirable— very bad Catholics. My good young friend,
clever, amiable, accomplished, who had a dark cloud of sorrow weigh
ing down his young life that softened him to almost feminine tender
ness, saw none of these things. He talked of foreign travel in days
gone by — of Paris and poetry, of England and London hotels, of the

PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE. 101
;reat Careme, and of Alexis Soyer, of pictures, of politics — de omni
cibili. The storm gathered overhead, and the rain fell in torrents —
he Mississippi flowed lifelessly by — not a boat on its broad surface.
?he road passed by plantations smaller and poorer than I have yet
een, belonging to small planters, with only some ten or twelve slaves
.11 told. The houses were poor and ragged. At last we reached
irovemor Manning's place, and drove to the overseer's — a large heavy-
yed old man, who asked us into his house from out of the rain till the
>oat was ready— and the river did not look inviting — full of drift trees,
wirls and mighty eddies. In the plain room in which we sat there
vas a volume of Spurgeon's Sermons and of Baxter's works. " This
ain will do good to the corn," said the overseer. " The niggers has
lad sceerce nothin' to do leetly, as they 'eve clearied out the fields
iretty well." We drove down to a poor shed on the levee called the
erry-house, attended by one stout young slave who was to row me
>ver. Two fliit-bottomed skiffs lay on the bank. The negro groped
inder the shed and pulled out a piece of wood like a large spatula,
ome four feet long, and a small round pole a little longer. " What
ire those ?" quoth I, " Dem's oars, Massa," was my sable ferryman's
irisk reply. "I'm very sure they are not; if they were spliced they
night make an oar between them." " Golly, and dat's the trute,
vlassa." " There, go and get oars, will you ?" While he was hunting
ibout we entered the shed for shelter from the rain. We found " al
olitary woman sitting" smoking a pipe by the ashes on the hearth,
ilear-eyed, low-browed, and morose — young as she was. She never11
aid a word nor moved as we came in, sat and smoked, and looked
hrough her gummy eyes at chickens about the size of sparrows, and
it a cat not larger than a rat which ran about on the dirty floor. A
ittle girl some four years of age, not over-dressed — indeed, half-naked,
' not to put too fine a point upon it" — crawled out from under the
ted, where she had hid on our approach. As she seemed incapable of
ippreciating the use of a small piece of silver presented to her — having
10 precise ideas on coinage or toffy — her parent took the obolus in
•.harge with unmistakable decision ; but still she would not stir a
iep to aid our Charon, who now insisted on the " key ov de oar-
louse." The little thing sidled off and hunted it out from the top of i
he bedstead, and I was not sorry to quit the company of the silent '
voman in black. Charon pushed his skiff into the water — there was a
;ood deal of rain it — in shape a snuffer-dish, some ten feet long and a
oot deep. I got in, and the conscious waters immediately began vigor-
msly spurting through the cotton wadding wherewith the craft was

102 PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE.
caulked. Had we gone out into the stream we should have had a
swim for it, and they do say that the Mississippi is the most danger
ous river for that healthful exercise in the known world. "Why!
deuce take you" (I said, at least that, in my wrath), " don't you see
the boat is leaky ?" " See it now for true, Massa. Nobody able to
tell dat till Massa get in, tho'." Another skiff proved to be staunch.
I bade good-bye to my friend, and sat down in my boat, which was
soon forced up along the stream close to the bank, in order to get a
good start across to the other side. The view, from my lonely posi
tion, was curious, but not at all picturesque. The landscape had dis
appeared at once. The world was bounded on both sides by a high
bank, and was constituted by a broad river — just as if one were sailing
down an open sewer of enormous length and breadth. Above the bank
rose, however, the tops of tall trees and the chimneys of sugar-houses.
A row of a quarter of an hour brought us to the levee on the other
side. I ascended the bank, and directly in front of me, across the
road, appeared a carriage gateway and wickets of wood, painted white
in a line of park palings of the same material, which extended up and
down the road far as the eye could follow, and guarded wide-spread
fields of maize and sugar-cane. An avenue of trees, with branches
close set, drooping and overarching a walk paved with red brick, led
to the house, the porch of which was just visible at the extremity of
the lawn, with clustering flowers, rose, jessamine and creepers clinging
to the pillars supporting the verandah. The proprietor, who had
espied my approach, issued forth with a section of sable attendants in
his rear, and gave me a hearty welcome. The house was larger and
better than the residences even of the richest planters, though it was
in need of some little repair, and had been built perhaps fifty years
ago, in the old Irish fashion, and who built well, ate well, drank well,
and, finally, paid very well. The view from the belvedere was one of
the most striking of its kind in the world. If an English agriculturist
could see six thousand acres of the finest land in one field, unbroken
by hedge or boundary, and covered with the most magnificent crops of
tasselling Indian corn and sprouting sugar-cane, as level as a billiard-
table, he would surely doubt his senses. But here is literally such a
sight. Six thousand acres, better tilled than the finest patch in all the
Lothians, green as Meath pastures, which can be cultivated for a hun
dred years to come without requiring manure, of depth practically un
limited, and yielding an average profit on what is sold off it of at least
£20 an acre at the old prices and usual yield of sugar. Eising up in
the midst of the verdure are the white lines of the negro cottages and

PICTURES OP SOUTHERN LIFE. 103
the plantation offices and sugar-houses, which look like large public
edifices in the distance. And who is the lord of all this fair domain?
The proprietor of Houmas and Orange-grove is a man, a self-made one,
who has attained his apogee on the bright side of half a century, after
twenty-five years of successful business.
When my eyes " uncurtained the early morning," I might have
imagined myself in the magic garden of Cherry and Fair Star, so in
cessant and multifarious were the carols of the birds, which were the
only happy colored people I saw in my Southern tour, notwithstanding
the assurances of the many ingenious and candid gentlemen who at
tempted to prove to me that the palm of terrestrial felicity must be
awarded to their negroes. As I stepped through my window upon the
verandah, a sharp chirp called my attention to a mocking-bird perched
upon a rose-bush beneath, whom my presence seemed to annoy to such
a degree that I retreated behind my curtain, whence I observed her
flight to a nest, cunningly hid in a creeping-rose trailed around a neigh
boring column of the house, where she imparted a breakfast of spiders
and grasshoppers to her gaping and clamorous offspring. While I was
admiring the motherly grace of this melodious fly-catcher, a servant
brought coffee, and announced that the horses were ready, and that I
might have a three hours' ride before breakfast. At Houmas les jours
se suivent et se ressemblent, and an epitome of the first will serve as a
type for all, with the exception of such variations in the kitchen and
produce as the ingenuity and exhaustless hospitality of my host were
never tired of framing.
If I regretted the absence of our English agriculturist when I beheld
the 6,000 acres of cane and 1,600 of maize unfolded from the belve
dere the day previous, I longed for his presence still more when I saw
those evidences of luxuriant fertility attained without the aid of phos
phates or guano. The rich Mississippi bottoms need no manure ; a
rotation of maize with cane affords them the necessary recuperative
action. The cane of last year's plant is left in stubble, and renews its
growth this spring under the title of ratoons. When the maize is in
tassel, cow-peas are dropped between the rows ; and when the lordly
stalk, of which I measured many twelve and even fifteen feet in height,
bearing three and sometimes four ears, is topped to admit the ripening
sun, the pea-vine twines itself around the trunk, with a profusion of
leaf and tendril that supplies the planter with the most desirable fodder
for his mules in " rolling-time," which is their season of trial. Besides
this, the corn-blades are culled and cured. These are the best meals
of the Southern race-horse, and constitute nutritious hay without dust.

104 PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE.
The cow-pea is said to strengthen the system of the earth for the di
gestion of a new crop of sugar-cane. A sufficient quantity of the cane
of last season is reserved from the mill, and laid in pits, where the ends
of the stalk are carefully closed with earth until spring. After the
ground has been plowed into ridges, these canes are laid in the endless
tumuli, and not long after their interment, a fresh sprout springs at
each joint of these interminable flutes.
As we ride through the wagon roads, of which there are not less
than thirty miles in this confederation of four plantations, held together
by the purse and the life of our host — the unwavering exactitude of
the rows of cane, which run without deviation at right angles with the
river down to the cane-brake, two miles off, proves that the negro would
be a formidable rival in a ploughing match. The cane has been " laid
by," that is, it requires no more labor, and will soon " lap," or close up,
though the rows are seven feet apart. It feathers like a palm-top ; a
stalk which was cut measured six feet, although from the ridges it was
but waist high. On dissecting it near the root, we find five nascent
joints not a quarter of an inch apart. In a few weeks more, these will
shoot up like a spy-glass pulled out to its focus.
There are four lordly sugar-houses, as the grinding-mills and boiling
and crystalizing buildings are called, and near each is to be found the
negro village, or " quarter," of that section of the plantation. A wide
avenue, generally lined with trees, runs through these hamlets, which
consist of twenty or thirty white cottages, single storied, and divided
into four rooms. They are whitewashed, and at no great distance
might be mistaken for New-England villages, with a town-hall which
often serves in the latter for a " meeting-house," with occasionally a
row of stores on the ground floor.
The people, or " hands," are in the field, and the only inhabitants of
the settlements are scores of " picaninnies," who seem a jolly congre
gation, under the care of crones, who here, as in an Indian village, act
as nurses of the rising generation, destined from their births to the
limits of a social Procrustean bed. The increase of property on the
estate is about five per cent, per annum by the birth of children.
We ride an hour before coming upon any " hands " at work in the
fields. There is an air of fertile des'olation that prevails in no other
cultivated land. The regularity of the cane, its gardenlike freedom
from grass or weeds, and the ad unguem finish and evenness of the fur
rows, would seem the work of nocturnal fairies, did we not realize the
system of " gang labor " exemplified in a field we at length reach, where
some thirty men and women were giving with the hoe the last polish

PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE. 105
to the earth around the cane, which would not be molested again until
gathered for the autumnal banquet of the rolling-mills.
Small drains and larger ditches occur at almost every step. All these
flow into a canal, some fifteen feet wide, which runs between the plan
tation and the uncleared forest, and carries off the water to a " bayou "
still more remote. There are twenty miles of deep ditching before the
plantation, exclusive of the canal; and as this is the contract work of
" Irish navvies," the sigh with which our host alluded to this heavy
item in plantation expenses was expressive. The work is too severe for
African thews, and experience has shown it a bad economy to overtask
the slave. The sugar-planter lives in apprehension of four enemies.
These are, the river when rising, drought, too much or unseasonable
rain, and frost. The last calls into play all his energies, and tasks his
utmost composure. In Louisiana, the cane never ripens as it does in
Cuba, and they begin to grind as early in October as the amount of
juices will permit. The question of a crop is one of early or late frost.
With two months' exemption they rely, in a fair season, upon a hogs
head of 1,200 pounds to the acre ; and if they can run their mills until
January, the increase is more than proportionate, each of its latter days
in the earth adding saccharine virtue to the cane.
At an average of a hogshead to the acre, each working hand is good
for seven hogsheads a year, which, at last years' prices — eight cents per
pound for ordinary qualities — would be a yield of £140 per annum for
each full geld hand.
Two hogsheads to the acre are not unfrequently, and even three have
been, produced upon rich lands in a good season. Estimating the
sugar at seventy per cent., and the refuse, bagasse, at thirty per cent.,
the latter figure would give us two tons and a quarter to the acre, which
opens one's eyes to the tireless activity of nature in this semi-tropical
region. From the records of Houmas, I find that in 1857, the year of its pur
chase at about £300,000, it yielded a gross of $304,000, say £63,000,
upon the investment.
In the rear of this great plantation there are 18,000 additional acres
of cane-brake which are being slowly reclaimed, like the fields now re
joicing in crops, as fast as the furnace of the sugar-house calls for fuel.
Were it desirable to accelerate the preparation of this reserve for plant
ing, it might be put in tolerable order in three years at a cost of £15
per acre. We extended our ride into this jungle, on the borders of
which, in the unfinished clearing, I saw plantations of " negro corn,"
the sable cultivators of which seem to have disregarded the symmetry
5*

106 PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE.
practiced in the fields of their master, who allows them from Saturday
noon until Monday's cockcrow for the care of their private interests,
and, in addition to this, whatever hours in the week they can econo
mize by the brisk fulfilment of their allotted tasks. Some of these
patches are sown broadcast, and the corn has sprung up like Zouave
tirailleurs in their most fantastic vagaries, rather than like the steady
regimental drill of the cane and maize we have been traversing.
Corn, chickens, and eggs, are, from time immemorial, the perquisites
of the negro, who has the monopoly of the two last-named articles in
all well-ordered Louisiana plantations. Indeed, the white man cannot
compete with them in raising poultry, and our host was evidently de
lighted when one of his negroes, who had brought a dozen Muscovy
ducks to the mansion, refused to sell them to him except for cash.
" But, Louis, won't you trust me ? Am I not good for three dollars ?"
" Good enough, massa ; but dis nigger want de money to buy flour and
coffee for him young family. Folks at Donaldsonville will trust massa
—won't trust nigger." The money was paid, and, as the negro left us,
his master observed with a sly, humorous twinkle : " That fellow sold
forty dollars' worth of corn last year, and all of them feed their chickens
with my corn, and sell their own."
There are three overseers at Houmas, one of whom superintends the
whole plantation, and likewise looks after another estate of 8,000 acres,
some twelve miles down the river, which our host added to his posses
sions two years since, at a cost of £150,000. In any part of the world,
and in any calling, Mr. S  (I do not know if he would like to see
his name in print) would be considered an able man. Mr. S. attends
to most of the practice requiring immediate attention. We visited one
of these hospitals, and found half-a-dozen patients ill of fever, rheuma
tism and indigestion, and apparently well cared for by a couple of stout
nurses. The truckle bedsteads were garnished with mosquito bars, and
I was told that the hospital is a favorite resort, which its inmates leave
with reluctance. The pharmaceutical department was largely supplied
with a variety of medicines, quinine and preparations of sulphites of
iron. " Poor drugs," said Mr. S., " are a poor economy."
I have mentioned engineering as one of the requisites of a competent
overseer. To explain this I must observe that Houmas is esteemed
very high land, and that in its cultivated breadth there is only a fall of
eight feet to carry off its surplus matter. In the plantation of Governor
Manning, which adjoins it, an expensive steam-draining machine is em
ployed to reheve his fields of this incumbrance, which is effected by the
revolutions of a fan-wheel some twenty feet in diameter, which laps up

PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE. 107
the water from a narrow trough into which all the drainage flows, and
tosses it into an adjoining bayou.
On Governor Manning's plantation we saw the process of clearing
the primitive forest, of which 150 acres were sown in corn and cotton
beneath the tall girdled trees that awaited the axe, while an equal
breadth on the other side of a broad and deep canal was reluctantly
yielding its tough and fibrous soil, from which the jungle had just been
removed, to the ploughs of some fifty negroes, drawn by two mules
each. Another season of lustration by maize or cotton, and the rank
soil will be ready for the cane.
The cultivation of sugar differs from that of cotton in requiring a
much larger outlay of capital. There is little required for the latter
besides negroes and land, which may be bought on credit, and a year's
clothing and provisions. There is a gambling spice in the chances of
a season which may bring wealth or ruin — a bale to the acre, which
may produce 7c?. or only 5c?. per lb. In a fair year the cotton planter
reckons upon ten or twelve bales to the hand, in which case the annual
yield of a negro varies from £90 to £120. His enemies are drought,
excessive rains, the ball-worm, and the army-worm ; his best friend " a
long picking season."
There is more steadiness in the price of sugar, and a greater cer
tainty of an average crop. But the cost of a sugar-house, with its mill,
boilers, vacuum pans, centrifugal and drying apparatus, cannot be less
than £10,000, and the consumption of fuel, thousands of cords of which
are cut up by the "hands," is enormous. There were cases of large
fortunes earned by planting sugar with small beginnings, but these had
chifly occurred among early settlers, who had obtained their hands for
a song. A Creole, who recently died at the age of fifty-five, in the neigh
borhood, and who began with only a few thousand dollars, had amassed
more than $1,000,000 in twenty-five years, and two of his sons — skil
ful planters — were likely to die each richer than his father.
This year the prospects of sugar are dreary enough, at least while
the civil war lasts, and my host, with a certainty of 6,500 hogsheads
upon his various plantations, has none of a market. In this respect
cotton has the advantage of keeping longer than sugar. At last year's
prices, and with the United States protective tariff of 20 per cent, to
shield him from foreign competition, his crop would have yielded him
over £100,000. But all the sweet teeth of the Confederate States
army can hardly "make a hole" in the 450,000 hogsheads which this
year is expected to yield in Louisiana and Texas. Under the new
tariff of the seceding states, the loss of protection to Louisiana alone

108 PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE.
may be stated, within bounds, at $8,000,000 per annum— which is
making the planters pay pretty dear for their secession whistle.
When I arrived at Houmas there was the greatest anxiety for rain,
and over the vast level plateau every cloud was scanned with avidity.
Now, a shower seemed bearing right down upon us, when it would
break, like a flying soap-bubble, and scatter its treasures short of the
parched fields in which we felt interested. The wind shifted, and hopes
were raised that the next thunder-cloud would prove less illusory.
But, no 1 " Kenner" has got it all. On the fifth day, however, the
hearts of all the planters and their parched fields were gladdened by
half a day of general and generous rain, beneath which our host's cane
fairly reeled and revelled. It was now safe for the season, and so was
the corn. But " one man's meat is another's poison," and we heard
more than one "Jeremiad" from those whose fields had not been
placed in the condition which enabled those of our friend to carry off
a potation of twelve hours of tropical rain with the ease of an alderman
or lord chancellor made happier or wiser by his three bottles of port.
What is termed hacienda in Cuba, rancho in Mexico, and " planta
tion" elsewhere, is styled "habitation" by the Creoles of Louisiana,
whose ancestors began more than a century ago to reclaim its jungles.
At last " venit summa dies et ineluctabile tempus." I had seen as
much as might be of the best phase-*of the great institution — less than
I could desire of a most exemplary, kind-hearted, clear-headed, honest
man. In the calm of a glorious summer evening, arrayed in all the
splendor of scenery that belongs to dreams in Cloudland, where moun
tains of snow, peopled by " gorgons and hydras and chimseras dire,"
rise from seas of fire that bear black barks freighted with thunder be
fore the breeze of battle, we crossed the Father of Waters, waving an
adieu to the good friend who stood on the shore, and turning ever back
to the home we had left behind us. It was dark when the boat reached
Donaldsonville on the opposite " coast." I should not be surprised to
hear that the founder of this remarkable city, which once contained the
archives of the state, now transferred to Baton Eouge, was a North
Briton. There is a simplicity and economy in the plan of the place not
unfavorable to that view, but the motives which induced Donaldson to
found his Eome on the west of Bayou La Fourche from Mississippi
must be a secret to all time. Much must the worthy Scot have been
perplexed by his neighbors, a long-reaching colony of Spanish Creoles
who toil not and spin nothing but fishing-nets, and who live better than
Solomon, and are probably as well dressed, minus the barbaric pearl
and gold of the Hebrew potentate. Take the odd, little, retiring,

PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE. 109
modest houses which grow in the hollows of Scarborough, add to them
the least imposing mansions in the natural town of Folkestone, cast
them broadsown over the surface of the Essex marshes, plant a few
trees in front of them, then open a few "cafo billards" of the camp sort
along the main street, and you have done a very good Donaldsonville.
A policeman welcomes us on the landing and does the honors of the
market, which has a beggarly account of empty benches, a Texan bull
done into beef, and a coffee-shop. The policeman is a tall, lean, west
countryman ; his story is simple, and he has it to tell. He was one of
Dan Eice's company — a travelling Astley. He came to Donaldsonville,
saw, and was conquered by one of the Spanish beauties, married her,
became tavern-keeper, failed, learned French, and was now constable
of the parish. There was, however, a weight on his mind. He had
studied the matter profoundly, but he was not near the bottom. How
did the friends, relatives, and tribe of his wife live ? No one could say.
They reared chickens, and they caught fish; when there was a pressure
on the planters, they turned out to work for 6*. 6c?. a-day, but those
were rare occasions. The policeman had become quite gray with ex
cogitating the matter, and he had " nary notion of how they did it."
Donaldsonville has done one fine thing. It has furnished two com
panies of soldiers — all Irishmen — to the wars, and a third is in the
course of formation. Not much hedging, ditching, or hard work these
times for Paddy ! The blacksmith, a huge tower of muscle, claims ex
emption on the ground that " the divil a bit of him comes from Oire-
land ; he nivir hird af it, barrin' from the buks he rid," and is doing
his best to remain behind, but popular opinion is against him. As the
steamer would not be up till toward dawn, or later, it was a relief to
saunter through Donaldsonville to see society, which consisted of sev
eral gentlemen and various Jews playing games unknown to Hoyle, in
oaken bar-rooms flanked by billiard tables. My good friend the doctor
whom J had met at Houmas, who had crossed the river to see patients
suffering from an attack of eucre, took us round to a little club, where
I was introduced to a number of gentlemen, who expressed great pleas
ure at seeing me, shook hands violently, and walked away ; and finally
we melted off into a cloud of mosquitos by the river bank, in a box
prepared for them, which was called a bedroom. These rooms were
built in wood on the stage close by the river. " Why can't I have one
of those rooms ?" asked I, pointing to a large mosquito box. " It is
engaged by ladies." How do you know ?"— " Parceque elles ont
envoye leurs butin." It was delicious to meet the French " plunder"
for baggage — an old phrase so nicely rendered in the mouth of the

110 PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE.
Mississippi boatman. Having passed a night of extreme discomfiture
with the winged demons of the box, I was aroused toward dawn by
the booming of the steam drum of the boat, dipped my head in water
among drowned mosquitos, and went forth upon the landing. The
policeman had just arrived. His eagle eye lighted upon a large flat,
on the stern of which was inscribed, " Pork, corn, butter, beef," etc.
Several spry citizens were also on the platform. After salutations and
compliments, policeman speaks — " When did she come in ?" (meaning
flat.) First citizen — "In the night, I guess." Second citizen —
" There's a lot of whiskey aboord, too." Policeman (with pleased sur
prise) — "You never mean it ?" First citizen — "Yes, sir; one hundred
and twenty gallons 1" Policeman (inspired by a bright aspiration of
patriotism) — "It's a west country boat ; why don't the citizens seize
it? And whiskey rising from 17c. to 35c. a gallon !" Citizens mur
mur approval, and I feel the whiskey part of the cargo is not safe.
" Yes, sir," says citizen three, " they seize all our property at Cairey
(Cairo), and I'm for making an example of this cargo." Further reasons
for the seizure of the articles were adduced, and it is probable they
were as strong as the whiskey, which has, no doubt, been drunk long
ago on the very purest principles. In course of conversation with the
committee of taste which had assembled, it was revealed to me that
there was a strict watch kept over those boats which are freighted with
whiskey forbidden to the slaves, and with principles, when they come
from the west country, equally objectionable. " Did you hear, sir,
of the chap over at Duncan Eenmer's as was caught the other day ?"
" No, sir, what was it ?" " Well, sir, he was a man that came here and
went over among the niggers at Pienmer's to buy their chickens from
them. He was took up, and they found he'd a lot of money about
him." " Well, of course, he had money to buy the chickens." "Yes,
sir, but it looked suspic-ious. He was a west country fellow, tew, and
he might have been tamperin' with 'em. Lucky for him he was not
taken in the arternoon." " Why so ?" " Because if the citizens had
been drunk they'd have hung him on the spot." The Acadia was now
alongside, and in the early morning Donaldsonville receded rapidly
into trees and clouds. To bed, and make amends for mosquito visits.
On awaking, find that I am in the same place I started from ; at least,
the river looks just the same. It is difficult to believe that we have
been going eleven miles an hour against the turbid river, which is of
the same appearanee as it was below — the same banks, bends, drift
wood and trees.
Beyond the levees there were occasionally large clearings and plan-

PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE. Ill
tations of corn and cane, of which the former predominated. The
houses of the planters were not so large or so good as those on the
lower banks. Large timber rafts, navigated by a couple of men, who
stood in the shade of a few upright boards, were encountered at long
intervals. The river was otherwise dead. White egrets and blue
herons rose from the marshes where the banks had been bored through
by crayfish, or crevasses had been formed by the waters. The fields
were not much more lively, but at every landing the whites who came
down were in some sort of uniform, and a few negroes were in attend
ance to take in or deliver goods. There were two blacks on board in
irons — captured runaways — and very miserable they looked at the
thought of being restored to the bosom of the patriarchial family from
which they had, no doubt, so prodigally eloped. I fear the fatted calf
skin would not be applied to their backs. The river is about half a
mile wide here, and is upwards of 1,000 feet deep. The planters'
houses in groves of pecan and mangolias, with verandah and belvedere,
became more frequent as the steamer approached Baton Rouge, already
visible in the distance over a high bank or bluff on the right hand
side. Before noon the steamer hauled alongside a stationary hulk, which
once "walked the waters" by the aid of machinery, but which was
now used as a floating hotel, depot and storehouse — 315 feet long, and
fully thirty feet on the upper deck above the level of the river. Here
were my quarters till the boat for Natchez should arrive. The proprie
tor was somewhat excited on my arrival, because one of his servants
was away. " Where have you been, you  !" "Away to buy de
newspaper, Massa." "For who, you  ?" " Me buy 'em for no
one, Massa ; me -sell 'um agin, Massa." " See, now, you  , if ever
you goes aboard to meddle with newspapers, I'm  but I'll kill you,
mind that!" Baton Eouge is the capital of the State of Louisiana, and
the State House is a quaint and very new example of bad taste. The
Deaf and Dumb Asylum near it is in a much better style. It was my
intention to visit the State Prison and Penitentiary, but the day was
too hot, and the distance too great, and so I dined at the oddest little
Creole restaurant, with the funniest old hostess, and the strangest com
pany in the world. On returning to the boat hotel, Mr. Conrad, one
of the citizens of the place, and Mr. W. Avery, a judge of the court,
were good enough to call to invite me to visit them, but I was obliged
to decline. The old gentlemen were both members of the home guard,
and drilled assiduously every evening. Of the 1,300 voters at Baton
Rouge, more than 750 are already off to the wars, and another company

112 PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE.
is being formed to follow them. Mr. Conrad has three sons in the
field already. The waiter who served out drinks in the bar wore a
uniform, and his musket lay in the corner among the brandy bottles.
At night a patriotic meeting of citizen soldiery took place in the bow,
in which song and whiskey had much to do, so that sleep was difficult ;
1 but at seven o'clock on Wednesday morning the Mary T. came along-
side, and soon afterward bore me on to Natchez, through scenery which
became wilder and less cultivated as she got upwards. Of the 1,500
steamers on the river not a tithe are now in employment, and the
owners are in a bad way. It was late at night when the steamer
arrived at Natchez, and next morning early I took shelter in another
engineless steamer, which was thought to be a hotel by its owners. Old
negress on board, however, said, " There was nothing for breakfast ; go
to Curry's on shore." Walk up hill to Curry's — a bar-room, a waiter
and flies. " Can I have any breakfast ?" " No, sir-ree ; it's over half an
hour ago." " Nothing to eat at all ?" " No, sir." " Can I get some
anywhere else ?" " I guess not." It had been my belief that a man
with money in his pocket could not starve in any country soi-disant
civilized. Exceptions prove rules, but they are disagreeable things.
I chewed the cud of fancy faute de micux, and became the centre of
attraction to citizens, from whose conversation I learned that this was
" Jeff. Davis' fast day." Observed one, " It quite puts me in mind of
Sunday; all the stores closed." Said another, " We'll soon have Sun
day every day, then, for I 'spect it won't be worth while for most shops
to keep open any longer." Natchez, a place of much trade and cotton
export in the season, is now as dull — let us say as Harwich without a
regatta. But it is ultra-Secessionist, nil obstante. My hunger was as
suaged by a friend who drove me up to his comfortable, mansion through
a country not unlike the wooded parts of Sussex, abounding in fine
trees, and in the only lawns and park-like fields I have yet seen in
America. In the evening, after dinner, my host drove me over to yisit
a small encampment under a wealthy planter, who has raised, equipped
and armed his company at his own expense.
We were obliged to get out at a narrow lane and walk toward the
encampment on foot ; a sentry stopped us, and we observed that there
was a semblance of military method in the camp. The captain was
walking up and down in the verandah of the poor, deserted hut, for
which he had abandoned his splendid home. A book of tactics (Har
dee's) — which is, in part, a translation of the French manual — lay on
the table. Our friend was full of fight, and said he would give all he
had in the world to the cause. But the day before, and a party of

PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIEE. 113
horse, composed of sixty gentlemen in the district, worth from £20,000
to £50,000 each, had started for the war in Virginia. Every thing to
be seen or heard testifies to the great zeal and resolution with which
the South have entered upon the quarrel. But they hold the power
of the United States, and the loyalty of the North to the Union at far
too cheap a rate. Next day was passed in a delightful drive through
cotton fields, Indian corn, and undulating woodlands, amid which were
some charming residences. I crossed the river at Natchez, and saw
one fine plantation, in which the corn, however, was by no means so
fine as I have often seen. The cotton looks well, and some had already
burst into flower — bloom, as it is called — which had turned to a fla
grant pink, and seemed saucily conscious that its boll would play an
important part in the world. In this part of Mississippi the secessionist
feeling was not so overpowering at first as it has been since the majority
declared itself, but the expression of feeling is now all one way. The
rage of Southern sentiment is to me inexplicable, making every allow
ance for Southern exaggeration. It is sudden, hot, and apparently as
causeless as summer lightning. From every place I touched at along
the Mississppi, a large portion of the population has gone forth to
fight, or is preparing to do so. The whispers which rise through the
storm are few and feeble. Some there are who sigh for the peace and
happiness they have seen in England. But they cannot seek those
things ; they must look after their property. Each man maddens his
neighbor by desperate resolves, aud threats and vows. Their faith
is in Jefferson Davis' strength, and in the necessities and weakness of
France and England. The inhabitants of the tracts which lie on the
banks of the Mississippi, and on the inland regions hereabout, ought to
be, in the natural order of things, a people almost nomadic, living by
the chase, and by a sparse agriculture, in the freedom which tempted
their ancestors to leave Europe. But the Old World has been work
ing for them. All its trials have been theirs; the fruits of its experi
ence, its labors, its research, its discoveries, are theirs. Steam has en
abled them to turn their rivers into highways, to open primeval forests
to the light of day and to man. All these, however, would have
availed them little had not the demands of manufacture abroad, and
the increasing luxury and population of the North and West at home,
enabled them to find in these swamps and uplands sources of wealth
richer and more certain than all the gold mines of the world. But
there must be gnomes to work those mines. Slavery was an institu
tion ready to their hands. In its development there lay every material
means for securing the prosperity which Manchester opened to them,

114 PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE.
and in supplying their own countrymen with sugar. The small, strug
gling, deeply-mortgaged proprietors of swamp and forest set their
negroes to work to raise levees, to cut down trees, to plant and sow.
As the negro became valuable by his produce, the Irish emigrant took
his place in the severer labors of the plantation, and ditched and dug,
and cut into the waste land. Cotton at ten cents a pound gave a nug
get in every boll. Land could be had for a few dollars an acre. Ne
groes were cheap in proportion. Men who made a few thousand
dollars invested them in more negroes, and more land, and borrowed
as much again for the same purpose. They waxed fat and rich — there
seemed no bounds to their fortune. But threatening voices came from
the North — the echoes of the sentiments of the civilized world repent
ing of its evil pierced their ears, and they found their feet were of clay,
and that they were nodding to their fall in the midst of their power.
Ruin inevitable awaited them if they did not shut out these sounds and
stop the fatal utterances. The issue is to them one of life and death.
Whoever raises it hereafter, if it be not decided now, must expect to
meet the deadly animosity which is displayed toward the North. The
success of the South — if it can succeed — must lead to complications
and results in other parts of the world, for which neither it nor Europe
is now prepared. Of one thing there can be no doubt — a slave state
cannot long exist without a slave trade. The poor whites who have won
the fight will demand their share of the spoils. The land is abundant,
and all that is wanted to give them- fortunes is a supply of slaves.
They will have that in spite of their masters, unless a stronger power
prevents the accomplishment of their wishes.

Cairo, III., June 20, 1861.
My last letter was dated from Natchez, but it will probably accompa
ny this communication, as there are no mails now between the North
and the South, or vice versa. Tolerably confident in my calculations
that nothing of much importance could take place in the field till some
time after I had reached my post, it appeared to me desirable to see as
much of the South as I could, and to form an estimate of the strength
of the Confederation, although it could not be done at this time of the
year without considerable inconvenience, arising from the heat, which
renders it almost impossible to write in the day, and from the mos
quitos, which come out when the sun goes down and raise a blister at
every stroke of the pen. On several days lately the thermometer has
risen to 98 degrees, on one day to 105 degrees, in the shade.

PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE. 115
On Friday evening, June 14, I started from Natchez for Vicksburgh,
on board the steamer General Quitman, up the Mississippi. These long
yellow rivers are very fine for patriots to talk about, for poets to write
about, for buffalo fish to live in, and for steamers to navigate when
there are no snags, but I confess the father of waters is extremely tire
some. Even the good cheer and comfort of the General Quitman could
not reconcile me to the eternal beating of steam drums, blowing of
whistles, bumping at landings, and the general oppression of levees,
clearings and plantations, which marked the course of the river, and I
was not sorry next morning when Vicksburgh came in sight, on the left
bank of the giant stream — a city on a hill, not very large, be-steepled,
be-cupolaed, large-hoteled. Here lives a man who has been the pioneer
of hotels in the West, and who has now established himself in a big
caravansery, which he rules in a curious fashion. M'Makin has, he tells
us, been rendered famous by Sir Charles Lyell. The large dining-room —
a stall a manger, as a friend of mine called it — is filled with small tables,
covered with party-colored cloths. At the end is a long deal table,
heavy with dishes of meat and vegetables, presided over by negresses
and gentlemen of uncertain hue. In the centre of the room stood my
host, shouting out at the top of his voice the names of the joints,
and recommending his guests to particular dishes, very much as the
chronicler tells us was the wont of the taverners in old London. Many
little negroes ran about in attendance, driven hither and thither by the
commands of their white Soulouque — white-teethed, pensive-eyed, but \
sad as memory. " Are you happy here ?" asked I of one of them who
stood by my chair. He looked uneasy and frightened. "Why don't you
answer ?" " I'se afeared to tell dat to massa." " Why, your master is
kind to you ?" " Berry good man, sir, when he not angry wid me !"
And the little fellow's eyes filled with tears at some recollection which '
pained him. I asked no more. Vicksburgh is secessionist. There were
hundreds of soldiers in the streets, many in the hotel, and my host said
some hundreds of Irish had gone off to the wars, to fight for the good
cause. If Mr. O'Connell were alive, he would surely be pained to see
the course taken by so many of his countrymen on this question. After
dinner I was invited to attend a meeting of some of the citizens, at the
'railway station, where the time passed very agreeably till four o'clock,
when the train started for Jackson, the capital of Mississippi, and after
a passage of two hours, through a poor, clay country, seared with water
courses and gullies, with scanty crops of Indian corn and very back
ward cotton, we were deposited in that city, it must be called a city.
It is the state capital, but otherwise there is no reason why, in strict

116 PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE.
nomenclature, it should be designated by any such title. It is in the
usual style of the " cities" which spring up in the course of a few years
amid the stumps of half-cleared fields in the wilderness — wooden houses,
stores kept by Germans, French, Irish, Italians ; a large hotel swarm
ing with people, with a noisy billiard-room and a noisier bar, the arena
and the cause of " difficulties ;" wooden houses, with portentous and
pretentious white porticoes, and pillars of all the Grecian orders ; a cu
pola or two, and two or three steeples, too large for the feeble bodies
beneath — hydrocephalic architecture ; a state-house, looking well in the
distance, ragged, dirty, and mean within; groups of idlers in front of the
"Exchange," where the business transacted consists in a barter between
money, or credit, and " drinks" of various stimulants ; a secluded tele
graph-office round a corner; a forward newspaper-office in the street, and
a population of negroes, shuffling through the thick dust which forms
the streets. I called on Mr. Pettus, the governor of the state of Missis
sippi, according to invitation, and found him in the state-house, in a
very poor room, with broken windows and ragged carpets, and dilapi
dated furniture. He is a grim, silent man, tobacco-ruminant, abrupt-
speeched, firmly believing that the state of society in which he exists,
wherein there are monthly foul murders perpetrated at the very seat of
government, is the most free and civilized in the world. He is easy of
access to all, and men sauntered in and out of his office just as they
would walk into a public-house. Once on a time, indeed, the governor
was a deer-hunter, in the forest, and lived far away from the haunts of
men, and he is proud of the fact. He is a strenuous seceder, and has
done high-handed things in his way — simple apparently, honest prob
ably, fierce certainly — and he lives, while he is governor, on his salary
of four thousand dollars a year, in the house provided for him by the
state. There was not much to say on either side. I can answer for
one. Next day being Sunday, I remained at rest in the house of a
friend listening to local stories — not couleur de rose, but of a deeper tint
— blood-red ; — how such a man shot another, and was afterward stabbed
by a third ; how this fellow and his friends hunted down, in broad
day, and murdered one obnoxious to them — tale after tale, such as I
have heard through the South and seen daily narratives of in the papers.
Aceldama 1 No security for life ! Property is quite safe. Its propri
etor is in imminent danger, were it only from stray bullets, when he
turns a corner. The "bar," the "drink," the savage practice of walking
about with pistol and poniard — ungovernable passions, ungoverned be
cause there is no law to punish the deeds to which they lead — these are
the causes of acts which would not be tolerated in the worst days of

PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE. 117
Corsican vendette, and which must be put down, or the countries in
which they are unpunished will become as barbarous as jungles of wild
beasts. In the evening I started, by railroad, for the city of Memphis,
in Mississippi. There was a sleeping-car on the train, but the flying-
bug and the creature less volatile, more pungent and persistent, which
bears its name, murdered sleep ; and when Monday morning came, I
was glad to arise and get into one of the carriages, although it was full
of noisy soldiers, bound to the camp at Corinth, in the state of Missis
sippi, who had been drinking whiskey all night, and were now scream
ing for water and howling like demons. At Holly Springs, where a
rude breakfast awaited us, the warriors got out on the top of the car
riages and performed a war-dance to the music of their band, which was
highly creditable to the carriage-maker's workmanship. Along the road,
at all the settlements and clearings, the white people cheered, and the
women waved white things, and secession flags floated. There is no
doubt of the state of feeling in this part of the country'; and yet it does
not look much worth fighting for — an arid soil, dry water-courses, clay
ravines, light crops. Perhaps it will be better a month hence, and ne
groes may make it pay. There were many in the fields, and it struck
me thev looked better than those who work in gangs ou the larger and
richer plantations. Among our passengers were gentlemen from Texas,
going to Eichmond to offer service to Mr. Davis. They declared the
feeling in their state was almost without exception in favor of secession.
It is astonishing how positive all these people are that England is in
absolute dependence on cotton for her national existence. They are at
once savage and childish. If England does not recognize the Southern
Confederacy pretty quick, they will pass a resolution not to let her have
any cotton, except, <kc. Suppose England does ever recognize a Con
federation based on the principles of the South, what guarantee is there
that in her absolute dependence, if it exists, similar coercive steps may
not be taken against her ? " Oh ! we shall be friends, you know ;" and
so on.
On the train before us there had just passed on a company armed
with large bowie-knives and rifled pistols, who called themselves the
" Tooth-pick Company." They carried a coffin along with them, on
which was a plate with " Abe Lincoln" inscribed on it, and they
amused themselves with the childish conceit of telling the people as
they went along that " they were bound" to bring his body back in it.
At Grand Junction station the troops got out and were mustered pre
paratory to their transfer to a train for Eichmond, in Virginia. The
first company, about seventy strong, consisted exclusively of Irish, who

118 PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE.
were armed with rifles without bayonets. The second consisted of five-
sixths Irish, armed mostly with muskets ; the third were of Americans,
who were well uniformed, but had no arms with them. The fourth,
clad in green, were nearly all Irish ; they wore all sorts of clothing, and
had no pretensions to be regarded as disciplined soldiers. I am led to
believe that the great number of Irish who have enlisted for service indi
cates a total suspension of all the works on which they are ordinarily
engaged in the South. They were not very orderly. " Fix bayonets,"
elicited a wonderful amount of controversy in the ranks. " Whar are
yer dhrivin to ?" " Sullivan, don't ye hear we're to fix beenits ?" "Aysc
the sthrap of my baynit, sarjent, jewel !" " If ye prod me wid that agin,
I'll let dayloite into ye," <fec. Officer reading muster — " No. 23, James
Phelan." No reply. Voice from the ranks — " Faith, Phelan's gone ;
shure he wint at the last dipot." Old men and boys were mixed toge
ther, but the mass of the rank and file were strong, full-grown men. In
one of the carriages were some women dressed as vivandieres, minus the
coquette air and the trousers and boots of these ladies. They looked
sad, sorry, dirty and foolish. There was great want of water along the
line, and the dust and heat were very great and disagreeable. When
they have to march many of the men will break down, owing to bad
shoes and the weight of clothes and trash of various kinds they sling on
their shoulders. They moved off amid much whooping, and our jour
ney was continued through a country in which the railroad engineer had
made the opening for miles at a time. When a clearing was reached,
however, there were signs that the soil was not without richness, and all
the wheat ready cut and in sheaf. The passengers said it was fine and early,
and that it averaged from forty to sixty bushels to the acre (more than
it looked). Very little ground here is under cotton. It was past one
o'clock on Monday when the train reached Memphis, in Tennessee,
which is situated on a high bluff overhanging the Mississippi. Here is
one of jthe strategic positions of the Confederates. It is now occupied
by a force of the Tennesseeans, which is commanded by Major-General
Pillow, whom I found quartered in Gayoso House, a large hotel, named
after one of the old Spanish rulers here, and as he was starting to inspect
his batteries and the camp at Eandolph, sixty odd miles higher up the
river, I could not resist his pressing invitations, tired as I was, to ac
company him and his staff on board the Ingomar to see what they were
really like. First we visited the bluff, on the edge of which is con
structed a breastwork of cotton bales, which no infantry could get at,
and which would offer no resistance to vertical, and but little to hori
zontal fire. It - is placed so close to the edge of the bluff at various

PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE. 119
places that shell and shot would knock away the bank from under it.
The river runs below deep and strong, and across the roads or water
courses leading to it are feeble barricades of plank, which a howitzer
could shiver to pieces in a few rounds. Higher up the bank, on a com
manding plateau, there is a breastwork and parapet, within which are
six guns, and the general informed me he intended to mount thirteen
guns at this part of the river, which would certainly prove very formi
dable to such steamers as they have on these waters, if any attempt were
made to move down from Cairo. In the course of the day I was intro
duced to exactly seventeen colonels and one captain. My happiness was
further increased by an introduction to a youth of some twenty-three
years of age, with tender feet, if I may judge from prunella slippers, dressed
in a green cutaway, jean pants, and a tremendous sombrero with a plume
of ostrich feathers, and gold tassels looped at the side, who had the air
and look of an apothecary's errand boy. This was " General" Maggies
(let us say), of Arkansas. Freighted deeply with the brave, the Ingomar
started for her voyage, and we came alongside the bank at Chickasaw
Bluffs too late to visit the camp, as it was near midnight before we arrived.
I forgot to say that a large number of steamers were lying at Memphis,
which had been seized by General Pillow, and he has forbidden all traffic
in boats to Cairo. Passengers must go round by rail to Columbus.
June 18. — I have just returned from a visit to the works and bat
teries at the intrenched camp at Randolph's Point, sixty miles above
Memphis, by which it is intended to destroy any flotilla coming down
the river from Cairo, and to oppose any force coming by land to cover
its flank and clear the left bank of the Mississippi. The Ingomar is
lying under the rugged bank, or bluff, about 150 feet high, which re
cedes in rugged tumuli and watercourses filled with brushwood from
the margin of the river, some half-mile up and down the stream at this
point, and Brigadier-General Pillow is still riding round his well-beloved
earthworks and his quaint battalions, while I, anxious to make the most
of my time now that I am fairly on the run for my base of operations,
have come on board, and am now writing in the cabin, a long-roofed
room, with berths on each side, which runs from stem to stern of the
American boats over the main deck. This saloon presents a curious
scene. Over the bow, at one side, there is an office for the sale of
tickets, now destitute of business, for the Ingomar belongs to the State
of Tennessee ; at the other side is a bar where thirsty souls, who have
hastened on board from the camp for a julep, a smash, or a cocktail,
learn with disgust that the only article to be had is fine Mississippi
water with ice in it. Lying on the deck in all attitudes are numbers

120 PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE.
of men asleep, whose plumed felt hats are the only indications that
they are soldiers, except in the rare case of those who have rude uni
forms, and buttons, and stripes of colored cloth, on the legs of their
pantaloons. A sentry is sitting on a chair smoking a cigar. He is on
guard over the after part of the deck, called the ladies' saloon, and
sacred to the general and his staff and attendants. He is a tall, good-
looking young fellow, in a gray flannel shirt, a black wide-awake, gray
trousers, fastened on a belt on which is a brass buckle inscribed " U. S."
His rifle is an Enfield, and the bayonet sheath is fastened to the belt
by a thong of leather. That youthful patriot is intent on the ups and
downs of fortune as exemplified in the pleasing game of euchre, or
euker, which is exercising the faculties of several of his comrades, who,
in their shirt sleeves, are employing the finest faculties of their nature
in that national institution ; but he is not indifferent to his duties, and
he forbids your correspondent's entrance until he has explained what
he wants and who he is — and the second is more easy to do than the
first. The sentry tells his captain, who is an euchreist, that " It's all
right," and resumes his seat and his cigar, and the work goes bravely
on. Indeed, it went on last night at the same table, which is within
a few yards of the general's chair. And now that I have got a scrap of
paper and a moment of quiet, let me say what I have to say of this
position, and of what I saw — pleasant things they would be to the
national general up at Cairo if he could hear them in time, unless he
is as little prepared as his antagonist. On looking out of my cabin
this morning, I saw the high and rugged bluff of which I have spoken,
on the left bank of the river. A few ridge-poled tents, pitched under
the shade of some trees, on a small spur of the slope, was the only in
dication immediately visible of a martial character. But a close inspec
tion in front enabled me to detect two earthworks, mounted with guns,
on the side of the bank, considerably higher than the river, and three
heavy guns, possibly 42-pounders, lay in the dust close to the landing-
place, with very rude carriages and bullock-poles to carry them to the
batteries. A few men, ten or twelve in number, were digging at an
encampment on the face of the slope. Others were lounging about the
beach, and others, under the same infatuation as that which makes little
boys disport in the Thames under the notion that they are washing
themselves, were bathing in the Mississippi. A dusty track wound up
to the brow of the bluff, and there disappeared. Some carts toiled up
and down between the boat and the crest of the hill. We went on
shore. There was no ostentation of any kind about the reception of
the general and his staff. A few horses were waiting impatiently in

PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE. 121
the sun, for flies will have their way, and heavy men are not so unbear
able as small mosquitos. With a cloud of colonels — one late United
States man, who was readily distinguishable by his air from the volun
teers — the general proceeded to visit his batteries and bis men. The
first work inspected was a plain parapet of earth, placed some fifty feet
above the river, and protected very slightly by two small flahkino-
parapets. Six guns, 32-pounders, and howitzers of an old pattern
were mounted en barbette, without any traverses whatever. The car
riages rested on rough platforms, and the wheels ran on a traversing
semicircle of planks, as the iron rails were not yet ready. The gun
ners, a plain-looking body of men, very like railway laborers and
mechanics, without uniform, were engaged at drill. It was neither
quick nor good work — about equal to the average of a squad after a
couple of days' exercise ; but the men worked earnestly, and I have
no doubt, if the nationalists give them time, they will prove artillery
men in the end. The general ordered practice to be made with round
shot. After some delay, a kind of hybrid ship's carronade was loaded.
The target was a tree, about 2,500 yards distant I was told. It ap
peared to me about 1,700 yards off. Every one was desirous of seeing
the shot ; but we were at the wrong side for the wind, and I ventured
to say so. However, the general thought and said otherwise. The
word " Fire !" was given. Alas ! the friction-tube would not explode.
It was one of a new sort, which the Tennesseeans are trying their
'prentice hand at. A second answered better. The gun went off, but
where the ball went to no one could say, as the smoke came into our
eyes. The party moved to windward, and, after another fuse had
missed, the gun was again discharged at some five degrees elevation,
and the shot fell in good line, 200 yards short of the target, and did
not ricochet. Gun No. 2 was then discharged, and off went the ball
at no particular mark, down the river ; but if it did go off, so did the
gun also, for it gave a frantic leap and jumped with the carriage off
the platform ; nor was this wonderful, for it was an old-fashioned
chambered carronade or howitzer, which had been loaded with a full
charge, and solid shot enough to make it burst with indignation.
Turning from this battery, we visited another nearer the water, with
four guns (22-pounders), which were well placed to sweep the channel
with greater chance of ricochet ; and higher up on the bank, toward
a high peak commanding the Mississippi, here about 700 yards broad,
and a small confluent which runs into it, was another battery of two
guns, with a very great command, but only fit for shell, as the fire
must be plunging. All these batteries were very ill constructed, and
6

122 PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE.
in only one was the magazine under decent cover. In the first it was
in rear of the battery, up the hill behind it. The parapets were of
sand or soft earth, unprovided with merlons. The last had a few sand
bags between the guns. Eiding up a steep road, we came to the camps
of the men on the wooded and undulating plateau over the river, which
is broken by watercourses into ravines covered with brushwood and
forest trees. For five weeks the Tennessee troops under General Pil
low, who is at the head of the forces of the state, have been working
at a series of curious intrenchments, which are supposed to represent
an intrenched camp, and which look like an assemblage of mud beaver-
dams. In a word, they are so complicated that they would prove ex
ceedingly troublesome to the troops engaged in their defence, and it
would require very steady, experienced regulars to man them so as to
give proper support to each other. The maze of breastworks, of flank
ing parapets, of parapets for field-pieces, is overdone. Several of them
might prove useful to an attacking force. In some places the wood
was cut down in front so as to form a formidable natural abattis ; but
generally here, as in the batteries below, timber and brushwood were
left uncut, up to easy musket-shot of the works, so as to screen an
advance of riflemen, and to expose the defending force to considerable
annoyance. In small camps of fifteen or twenty tents each the Ten
nessee troops were scattered, for health's sake, over the plateau, and
on the level ground a few companies were engaged at drill. The men
were dressed and looked like laboring people — small farmers, mechan
ics, with some small, undersized lads. The majority were in their shirt
sleeves, and the awkwardness with which they handled their arms
showed that, however good they might be as shots, they were by no
means proficients in manual exercise. Indeed, they could not be, as
they have been only five weeks in the service of the state, called out
in anticipation of the secession vote, and since then they have been
employed by General Pillow on his fortifications. They have com
plained more than once of their hard work, particularly when it was
accompanied by hard fare, and one end of General Pill' w's visit was
to inform them that they would soon be relieved from their labors by
negroes and hired laborers. Their tents, small ridge-poles, are very
bad, but suited, perhaps, to the transport. Each contains six men.
I could get no accurate account of their rations even from the quarter
master-general, and commissary-general there was none present ; but I
was told that they had " a sufficiency — from £ lb. to li lb. of meat, of
bread, of sugar, coffee and rice daily." Neither spirits nor tobacco is
served out to these terrible chewers and not unaccomplished drinkers.

PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE. 123
Their pay " will be" the same as in the United States army or the
Confederate States army — probably paid in the circulating medium
of the latter. Seven or eight hundred men were formed into line for
inspection. There were few of the soldiers in any kind of uniform,
and such uniforms as I saw were in very bad taste, and consisted of
gaudy facings and stripes on very strange garments. They were armed
with old-pattern percussion muskets, and their ammunition pouches
were of diverse sorts. Shoes often bad, knapsacks scarce, head-pieces
of every kind of shape — badges worked on the front or sides, tinsel in
much request. Every man had a tin water-flask and a blanket. The
general addressed the men, who were in line two deep (many of them
unmistakable Irishmen), and said what generals usually say <n such
occasions — complements for the past, encouragement for the future.
" When the hour of danger comes I will be with you." They did not
seem to care much whether he was or not ; and, indeed, General Pil
low, in a round hat, dusty black frock-coat, and ordinary " unstriped"
trousers, did not look like one who could give any great material ac
cession to the physical means of resistance, although he is a very ener
getic man. The major-general, in fact, is an attorney-at-law, or has
been so, and was partner with Mr. Polk, who, probably from some of
the reasons which determine the actions of partners to each other, sent
Mr. Pillow to the Mexican war, where he nearly lost him, owing to
severe wounds received in action. The general has made his intrench-
ments as if he were framing an indictment. There is not a flaw for the
enemy to get through, but he has bound up his own men in inexorable
lines also. At one of the works a proof of the freedom of " citizen sol
diery" was afforded in a little hilarity on the part of one of the privates.
The men had lined the parcpet, and had listened to the pleasant assu
rances of their commander that they would knock off the shovel and
hoe very soon, and be replaced by the eternal gentlemen of color.
"Three cheers for General Pillow" were called for, and were responded
to by the whooping and screeching sounds that pass muster in thi<
part of the world for cheers. As they ended a stentorian voice shouted
out, " Who cares for General Pillow ?" and, as no one answered, it
might be unfairly inferred that gallant officer was not the object of
the favor or solicitude of his troops ; probably a temporary unpopu
larity connected with hard work found expression in the daring ques
tion. Randolph's Point is, no doubt, a very strong position. The edges
of the plateau command the rear of the batteries below ; the ravines in
the bluff would give cover to a large force of riflemen, who could ren-

124 PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE.
.!->:• the batteries untenable if taken from the river face, unless the camp
in their rear on the top of the plateau was carried. Great loss of life,
and probable failure, would result from any attack ou the works from
the river merely. But a flotilla might get past the guns without any
serious loss, in the present state of their service and equipment ; and
there is nothing I saw to prevent the landing of a force on the banks of
the river, which, with a combined action on the part of an adequate
force of gun-boats, could carry the position. As the river falls, the
round-shot fire of the guns will be even less effective. The general is
providing water for the camp, by means of large cisterns dug in the
ground, which will be filled with water from the river by steam-power.
The officers of the army of Tennessee with whom I spoke were plain,
farmerly planters, merchants, and lawyers, and the heads of the depart
ment were in no respect better than their inferiors by reason of any
military acquirements, but were shrewd, energetic, common sense men.
The officer in command of the works, however, understood his business,
apparently, and was well supported by the artillery officer. There were,
I was told, eight pieces of field-artillery disposable for the defence of
the camp.
Having returned to the steamer, the party proceeded up the river to
another small camp in defence of a battery of four guns, or rather of a
small parallelogram of soft sand covering a man a little higher than the
knee, with four guns mounted in it on the river face. No communica
tion exists through the woods between the two camps, which must be
six or seven miles apart. The force stationed here was composed prin
cipally of gentlemen. They were all in uniform. A detachment
worked one of the guns, which the general wished to see fired with
round shot. In five or six minutes after the order was given the gun
was loaded, and the word given, " Fire." The gunner pulled the lan
yard hard, but the tube did not explode. Another was tried. A strong
jerk pulled it out bent and incombustible. A third was inserted which
came out broken. The fourth time was the charm, and the ball was
projected about sixty yards to the right and one hundred yards short
of the mark — a stump, some 1,200 yards distant, in the river. It must
be remembered that there are no disparts, tangents, or elevating screws
to the guns ; the officer was obliged to lay it by the eye with a plain
chock of wood. The general explained that the friction tubes were the
results of an experiment he was making to manufacture them, but I
agreed with one of the officers, who muttered in my ear, " The old lin
stock and portfire are a darned deal better." There were no shells, 1
could see, in the battery, and, on inquiry, I learned the fuses were made

PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE. 125
of wood at Memphis, and were not considered by the officers at all
trustworthy. Powder is so scarce that all salutes are interdicted, except.
to the governor of the state. In the two camps there were, I was
informed, about 4,000 men. My eyesight, as far as I went, confirmed
me of the existence of some 1,800, but I did not visit all the outlying
tents. On landing, the band had played " God Save the Queen " and
"Dixie's Land;" on returning, we had the "Marseillaise" and the
national anthem of the Southern Confederation ; and by way of paren
thesis, it may be added, if you do not already know the fact, that
" Dixie's Land" is a synonym for heaven. It appears that there was
once a good planter, named " Dixie," who died at some period unknown,
to the intense grief of his animated property. They found expression
for their sorrow in song, and consoled themselves by clamoring in verse
for their removal to the land to which Dixie had departed, and where,
probably, the revered spirit would be greatly surprised to find himself
in their company. Whether they were ill-treated after he died, and
thus had reason to deplore his removal, or merely desired heaven in the
abstract, nothing known enables me to assert. But Dixie's Land is
now generally taken to mean the seceded states, where Mr. Dixie cer
tainly is not, at this present writing. The song and air are the compo
sition of the organized African association, for the advancement of
music and their own profit, which sings in New York, and it may be
as well to add, that in all my tour in the South, I heard little melody
from lips black or white, and only once heard negroes singing in the
fields. Several sick men were put on board the steamboat, and were laid on
mattresses on deck. I spoke to them, and found they were nearly all
suffering from diarrhoea, and that they had had no medical attendance
in camp. All the doctors want to fight, and the medical service of the
Tennessee troops is very defective. As I was going down the river, I
had some interesting conversation with General Clark, who commands
about 5,000 troops of the Confederate States, at present quartered in
two camps at Tennessee, on these points. He told me the commissariat
and the medical service had given him the greatest annoyance, and con
fessed some desertions and courts-martial had occurred. Guard-mount
ing and its accessory duties were performed in a most slovenly manner,
and the German troops, from the Southern parts, were particularly dis
orderly. It was late in the afternoon when I reached Memphis. I may
mention, obiter, that the captain of the steamer, talking of arms, gave
me a notion of the sense of security he felt on board his vessel. From
under his pillow he pulled one of his two' Derringer pistols, and out of

126 PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE.
his clothes-press he produced a long heavy rifle, and a double gun,
which was, he said, capital with ball and buckshot.
June 19. — Up at three a. m., to get ready for the train at five, which
will take me out of Dixie's Land to Cairo. If the owners of the old
hostelries in the Egyptian city were at all like their Tennesseean fel
low-craftsmen in the upstart institution which takes its name, I wonder
how Herodotus managed to pay his way. My sable attendant quite
entered into our feelings, and was icwarded accordingly. At five a. m.,
covered with dust, contracted in a drive through streets which seem
" paved with waves of mud," to use the phrase of a Hibernian gentle
man connected with the luggage department of the omnibus, " only
the mud was all dust," to use my own, I started in the cars along with
some Confederate officers and several bottles of whiskey, which at that
early hour was considered by my unknown companions as a highly
efficient prophylactic against the morning dews, but it appeared that
these dews are of such a deadly character, that, in order to guard
-against their affects, one must become dead drunk. The same remedy,
I am assured, is sovereign against rattlesnake bites. I can assure, the
friends of those gentlemen that they were amply fortified against any
amount of dew or rattlesnake poison before they got to the end of
their whiskey, so great was the supply. By the Memphis papers, it
seems as if that institution of blood prevailed there as in New Orleans,
for I read in my papers, as I went along, of two murders and one
shooting as the incidents of the previous day, contributed by the
"local." To contrast with this low state of social existence there must be a
high condition of moral feeling, for the journal I was reading con
tained a very elaborate article to show the wickedness of any one pay
ing his debts, and of any state acknowledging its liabilities, which
would constitute an individual vade mecum for Basinghall street. At
Humboldt there was what is called a change of cars — a process that all
the philosophy of the Baron could not have enabled him to endure
without some loss of temper, for there was a whole Kosmos of south
ern patriotism assembled at the station, burning with the fires of liber
ty, and bent on going to the camp at Union City, forty-six miles away,
where the Confederate forces of Tennessee, aided by Mississippi regi
ments, are out under the greenwood tree. Their force was irresistible,
particularly as there were numbers of relentless citizenesses — what the
American papers call " quite a crowd" — as the advanced guard of the
invading army. While the original occupants were being compressed
or expelled by crinoline — that all absorbing, defensive and aggressive

PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE. 127
article of feminine war reigns here in wide-spread, iron-bound circles —
I took refuge on the platform, where I made, in an involuntary way, a
good many acquaintances in this sort : "Sir, my name is Jones — Judge
Jones, of Pumpkin County. I am happy to know you, sir." We
shake hands affectionately. " Colonel (Jones' loquitur), allow me to
introduce you to my friend, Mr. Scribble ! Colonel Maggs, Mr. Scrib
ble." The colonel shakes hands and immediately darts off to a circle
of his friends, whom he introduces, and they each introduce some one
else to me, and, finally, I am introduced to the engine-driver, who is
really an acquaintance of value, for he is good enough to give me a
seat on his engine, and the bell tolls, the steam trumpet bellows, and
we move from the station an hour behind time, and with twice the
number of passengers the cars were meant to contain. Our engineer
did his best to overcome his difficulties, and we rushed rapidly, if not
steadily, through a wilderness of forest and tangled brakes, through
which the rail, without the smallest justification, performed curves and
twists, indicative of a desire on the part of the engineer to consume
the greatest amount of rail on the shortest extent of line. My com
panion was a very intelligent Southern gentleman, formerly editor of a
newspaper. We talked of the crime of the country, of the brutal
shootings and stabbings which disgraced it. He admitted their exist
ence with regret, but he could advise and suggest no remedy. "The
rowdies have rushed in upon us, so that we can't master them." "Is the
law powerless ?" "Well, sir, you see these men got hold of those who
should administer the law, or they are too powerful or too reckless to
be kept down." " That is a reign of terror — of mob ruffianism ?" " It
don't hurt respectable people much ; but I agree with you it must be
put down." "When — how?" "Well, sir, when things are settled, we'll
just take the law into our hands. Not a man shall have a vote unless
he's American-born, and, by degrees, we'll get rid of these men who
disgrace us." " Are not many of your regiments composed of Germans
and Irish — of foreigners, in fact?" "Yes, sir." I did not suggest to
him the thought which rose in my mind, that these gentlemen, if suc
cessful, would be very little inclined to abandon their rights while they
had arms in their hands ; but it occurred to me as well that this would
be rather a poor reward for the men who were engaged in establishing
the Southern Confederacy. The attempt may fail, but assuredly I have
heard it expressed too often to doubt that there is a determination
on the part of the leaders in the movement to take away the suffrage
from the men whom they do not scruple to employ in fighting their
battles. If they cut the throats of the enemy they will stifle their own

128 PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE.
sweet voices at the same time, or soon afterward— a capital recom
pense to their emigrant soldiers !
The portion of Tennessee traversed by the railroad is not very attrac
tive, for it is nearly uncleared. In the sparse clearings were fields of
Indian corn, growing amid blackened stumps of trees and rude log
shanties, and the white population which looked out upon us was
poorly housed at least, if not badly clad. At last we reached Corinth.
It would have been scarcely recognizable by Mummius — even if he had
ruined his old handiwork over again. This proudly-named spot con
sisted, apparently, of a grog-shop in wood, and three shanties of a simi
lar material, with out-offices to match, and the Aero-Corinth was a
grocery store, of which the proprietors had no doubt gone to the wars,
as it was shut up, and their names were suspiciously Milesian. But,
if Corinth was not imposing, Troy, which we reached after a long run
through a forest of virgin timber, was still simpler in architecture and
general design. It was too new for " Troja fait" and the general
"fixins" would scarcely authorize one to say " Troja fuerit."
The Dardanian Towers were represented by a timber house, and
Helen the Second — whom we may take on this occasion to have been
simulated by an old lady smoking a pipe, whom I saw in the verandah
— could have set them on fire much more readily than did her inter
esting prototype ignite the city of Priam. The rest of the place, and
of the inhabitants, as I saw it and them, might be considered as an
agglomerate of three or four sheds, a few log huts, a saw-mill, and some
twenty negroes sitting on a log and looking at the train. From Troy
the road led to a cypress swamp, over which the engines bustled, rattled,
tumbled, and hopped at a perilous rate along a high trestlework, and
at last we came to " Union City," which seemed to be formed by great
aggregate meetings of discontented shavings which had been whirled
into heaps out of the forest hard by. But here was the camp of the
Confederates, which so many of our fellow passengers were coming out
into the wilderness to see. Their white tents and plank huts gleamed
out through the green of oak and elm, and hundreds of men came out
to the platform to greet their friends, and to inquire for baskets, boxes,
and hampers, which put me in mind of the quartermaster's store at
Balaklava. WTe have all heard of the unhappy medical officer who ex
hausted his resources to get up a large chest from that store to the
camp, and who on opening it, in the hope of finding inside the articles
he was most in need of, discovered that it contained an elegant assorts
ment of wooden legs ; but he could not have been so much disgusted
as a youthful warrior here who was handed a wicker-covered jar from

PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE. 129
the luggage van, which he " tapped" on the spot, expecting to find it
full of Bourbon whiskey, or something equally good. He raised the
ponderous vessel aloft and took a long pull, to the envy of his com
rades, and then spirting out the fluid with a hideous face exclaimed,
" d  , etc. Why, if the old woman has not sent me syrup !'' Evi
dently no joke, for the crowd around him never laughed, and quietly
dispersed. It was fully two hours before the train got away from the
camp, leaving a vast quantity of good things and many ladies, who had
come on in the excursion train, behind them. There were about 6,000
men there, it is said, rude, big, rough fellows, with sprinklings of odd
companies, composed of gentlemen of fortune exclusively. The sol
diers, who are only entitled to the name in virtue of their carrying
arms, their duty, and possibly their fighting qualities, lay under the
trees playing cards, cooking, smoking, or reading the papers ; but the
camp was guarded by sentries, some of whom carried their firelocks
under their arms like umbrellas, others by the muzzle, with the butt
over the shoulder ; one, for ease, had stuck his, with the bayonet in the-
ground, upright before him ; others laid their arms against the trees,
and preferred a sitting to an upright posture. In front of one camp
there were two brass field-pieces, seemingly in good order. Many of
the men had sporting rifles or plain muskets. There were several boys
of fifteen and sixteen years of age among the men, who could scarcely
carry their arms for a long day's march ; but the Tennessee and Mis
sissippi infantry were generally the materials of good soldiers. The
camps were not regularly pitched, with one exception ; the tents were
too close together ; the water is bad, and the result was that a good
deal of measles, fever, diarrhoea, and dysentery prevailed. One man
who came on the train was a specimen of many of the classes which fill
the ranks — a tall, very muscular, handsome man, with a hunter's eye,
about thirty-five years of age, brawny-shouldered, brown-faced, black-
bearded, hairy-handed ; he had once owned one hundred and ten negroes
— equal, say, to £20,000 — but he had been a patriot, a lover of freedom,
a filibuster. First he had gone off with Lopez to Cuba, where he was
taken, put in prison, and included among the number who received
grace ; next he had gone off with Walker to Nicaragua, but in his last
expedition he fell into the hands of the enemy, and was only restored
to liberty by the British officer who was afterward assaulted in New
Orleans for the part he took in the affair. These little adventures had
reduced his stock to five negroes, and to defend them he took up arms,
and he looked like one who could use them. When he came from
Nicaragua he weighed only one hundred and ten pounds, now he was
6*

130 PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE.
over two hundred pounds — a splendid btte fauve ; and, without wish
ing him harm, may I be permitted to congratulate American society on
its chance of getting rid of a considerable number of those of whom he
is a representative man. We learned incidentally that the district
wherein these troops are quartered was distinguished by its attachment
to the Union. By its last vote Tennessee proved that there are at
least forty thousand voters in the state who are attached to the United
States government. At Columbus the passengers were transferred to a
steamer, which in an hour and a half made its way against the stream
of the Mississippi to Cairo. There, in the clear light of a summer's
eve, were floating the stars and stripes — the first time I had seen the
flag, with the exception of a glimpse of it at Fort Pickens, for two
months. Cairo is in Illinois, on the spur of land which is formed
by the junction of the Ohio River with the Mississippi, and its name is
probably well known to certain speculators in England, who believed in
the fortunes of a place so appropriately named and situated. Here is
the camp of Illinois troops under General Prentiss, which watches the
shores of the Missouri on the one hand, and of Kentucky on the other.
Of them, and of what may be interesting to readers in England, I shall
speak in my next letter. I find there is a general expression of satis
faction at the sentiments expressed by Lord John Russell in the speech
which has just been made known here, and that the animosity excited
by what a portion of the American press called the hostility of the
foreign minister to the United States, has been considerably abated,
although much has been done to fan the anger of the people into a
flame, because England has acknowledged the Confederate States have
limited belligerent rights.

Cairo, Illinois.
In my last letter I gave an account of what I saw on my way to the
city of Memphis, and of my visit to the Secessionists' camp, and brought
up the narrative of the journey to my arrival at this place, which is the
head-quarters of the brigade of Illinois troops employed in behalf of
the Union to keep a watch and ward over the important point which
commands the junction of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. Major-
General Pillow, of Tennessee, blockades the current of the united rivers
at Memphis ; Brigadier-General Prentiss blockades both streams before
they join at Cairo higher up. The former is in the midst of friends •
the latter is surrounded by enemies — across the rivers, in his rear be
low, behind, and above him — in his very camp there are Secessionist

PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE. 131
feelings, sentiments, and wishes, sometimes represented by actual force,
There are in the larger states about this vast region conditions of
opinion on the subject of Union or Secession which are like the electrical
phenomena of a conductor, charged by induction. As the states ap
proach or recede from the great slave agriculturists they become Seces
sionist, or divided, and finally Unionist. Western Virginia is rather
federalist than otherwise ; Southern Illinois is in several counties all
but secessionist ; East and West Tennessee differ in sentiment on the
great question Missouri is also distracted by federalist and dis-
unionist. It may be that this schism will not only break up the Union, but
even split up the states, for the sovereignity of which one part of the
republic is arrayed in arms against the other. The secessionists, how
ever, stop short with their universal remedy at the borders of each
state, and do not admit the right of separation to any portion of a
state unless it be in their own favor. A Union man is very glad to
observe discussion in a state when it is brought about by the friends
of the government at Washington. A Northern man will endure any
thing but the idea of the Union being broken up ; he becomes intem
perate and angry if it be hinted at. But, in whatever way the end
may be worked out, it is clear the means used in doing so is the old-
fashioned machine in vogue in the old world in the hands of despots,
kings, and rulers ; and that the majority in states which was the ruling
power must be destroyed by the process. The argument of a self-
governing people for the whole of the United States is now convenient
enough ; but we heard very different language when England demand
ed redress for the imprisonment of her subjects at Charleston, and
when a British subject was seized in New York because be had de
stroyed a vessel in the service of the enemy. In fact, the whole of
the philosophical abstractions on which the founders of the republic
based their constitution, have given way before the pressure of events,
and every step that is taken by the federal government in vindication
of its lights or prerogatives is embarrassed by difficulties which in the
end must be cut by the sword. The authorities can scarcely deal even
with a rebel privateer ; and in the case of the schooner taken by the
United States brig Perry in all but flagrant piracy, with proofs abund
ant of her guilt, there is no court to condemn her, unless one be
'specially devised, inasmuch as she ought by law to be condemned in
the United States court in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina,
where the United States processes at this moment are not of much
effect. It is obvious that such an emergency as the present cannot be

132 PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE.
met by any constitutional devices. Republics in a crisis have always
had recourse to dictators. If word-splitters, doctrine-mongers, and
dodging politicians, at the forthcoming Congress at Washington, at
tempt to control the aetion of the executive by " constitutional" de
vices, motions, or resolutions, they will do more harm to the cause c-f
the Union than all the militia captains of the enemy's host.
A few hours took me out of the Southern camps to the Federalist
position ; but secession sentiments travelled on board the steamer. An
English steward, who left his country so long ago that he forgets all
the feelings of his countrymen, expressed his opinion that the South
would hold its own on the slavery basis, and professed astonishment at
the notion that slavery was not in itself a good thing, which he found
prevalent in Great Britain. The passengers were rather Secessionist
than Unionist, and I must say, from what I have seen, there is far more
leniency and forbearance shown by the United States authorities to
the rebels than the latter exhibit toward those who are in favor of
federal principles, which are generally described down South as " abo
litionist." On landing at the levee of Cairo, the passengers went
where they listed, and a very strong secessionist from New Orleans,
who had travelled with me in the train going north on " business" — I
suspect tam Marte quam Mercurio — was let go his way by General
Prentiss after a brief detention. Regarded from the river, Cairo con
sists of a bank of mud running out in the junction of the Mississippi
and Ohio, in the shape of a horizontal <j. The tops of certain unim
pressive wooden stores appear above the bank, and one tall hotel rises
aloft near the sharp end, before which the United States flag floats
with all its thirty-four stars. At the angle there is an earthwork,
which is not yet complete, but which will soon be finished, in very
good order. It is a redan, or rather a fleche, following the line of the
banks, with a good profile and command — a regular ditch, scarp and
counterscarp, and it owes its excellence probably to the skill of a
Colonel Wa;i: ¦<:, a Hungarian artillery officer, who is in charge of it.
The hotel was crowded with men in uniform, and it was suggested by
the landlord that one bed was large enough for two stout gentlemen —
my friend and myself — the thermometer being at 100° or so in the
shade ; but there was a difference of opinion on that point, and finally
we were quartered in a secluded little chamber, two-bedded, one-win
dowed, with a fine view into the back-yard. The delta is strongly oc
cupied by Illinois volunteer forces, with two field batteries and several
guns of position. On the opposite shore of the Mississippi, at a place
called Bird's Point, in the State of Missouri, is a detached post, with

PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE. 133
field intrenchments held by a regiment composed of Germans, Poles,
and Hungarians, under Colonel Schuttner, about one thousand strong,
aud several pieces of light artillery. Posts are also established higher
up on the banks of each river, but on the bank of the Ohio, opposite
to Cairo, the soil is tabooed. There is the " sacred soil" of Kentucky,
and Beriah Magoffin has warned the United States and Confederate
States off his premises. It is my belief, however, that Columbus will
not be long unoccupied. The Kentuckians opposite Cairo are very
strong secessionists.
At the rear of the hotel, in the hollow between the levees and the
rivers, is " Camp Defiance," which must be the base of operations of
any force proceeding down the Mississippi. On the morning of my
arrival (June 20), I was introduced to General Prentiss, whom I found
in a large room on the ground floor of the hotel, which is the head
quarters of the brigade. He is a man in the prime of life, about
forty years of age, with a clear liquid blue eye, and very agreeable
in manner ; smooth-faced, except as to the chin, which is adorned by
the barbe d'Afrique or goatee, so much affected in America ; over the
middle height, slight and active figure, and speaking with what is called
a slight western accent. Although he was aware I had just come from
Memphis, the general had the good taste not to ask any questions re
specting the position, which is more than I can say of all I met on
either side. By his elbow was his acting aide-de-camp and military
secretary, an Englishman named Binmore, who was formerly engaged
as government stenographer at Washington, and has now sharpened
his pencil into a sword. A number of officers were in the room, one
of whom was a Hungarian, Milotsky ; another a German, a third a
Scotchman, a fourth an Englishman. In conversing on various mat
ters, General Prentiss showed me, with a smile, a copy of a newspaper,
published in Kentucky, which contained an " article" on himself that
cannot readily meet with a parallel even in the journalism of this part
of the world. For the benefit of your readers I send it, that they
may judge what sort of a people it must be which tolerates the use of
such language :
There is a man now vegetating at Cairo, by name Prentiss, who is in command
of the forces at that point. His qualifications for the command of such a squad of
viUains and cut-throats are: He is a miserable hound, a dirty dog, a sociable
feUow, a treacherous villain, a notorious thief, a lying blackguard, has served his
regular five years in the penitentiary, and keeps his hide continually full of Cincin
nati whisky, which he buys by the barrel to save money. In him are embodied all
the leprous rascalities, and in this living sore the gallows has been cheated of its
own. This Prentiss wants our scalp. We have no objection to his having it if he

134 PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE.
can get it ; and we wiU propose a plan by which he may become possessed of that
valuable article. It is this : Let him select one hundred and fifty of his best fight
ing men, or two hundred and fifty of the lager-beer Dutchmen, and we wiU select
one hundred ; then let both parties meet at a given point, where there wiU be no
interruption of the scalping business, and then the longest pole wiU knock the
"persimmon." If he does not accept this proposal he is a coward. We think the
above proposition fair and equal.
These gems are from a paper called The Crescent, printed at Co
lumbus, Ky., and edited by "Colonel" L. G. Faxon of the "Ten
nessee Tigers," a worthy and accomplished officer and gentleman, no
doubt. In the afternoon, General Prentiss was good enough to drive me
round the camp in company with Mr. Washburne, member of Congress
from Illinois, and several officers and gentlemen. Among them was
Mr. Oglesby, colonel of a regiment of Illinois volunteers, and, as it
shows of what material the commanding officers of these regiments, on
whose individual action so much depends, are made, I may be pardoned
for stating that this excellent, kindly, and shrewd old man, who was
responsible for the position and efficiency of 1,000 men, is one who
raised himself from obscurity to a competence by the drudgery of a
lawyer's office in spite of a defective education, and that he never hand
led a company in the field in his life. Apparently, he is selected to be
a colonel because he can make good, homely, telling speeches to his
men, and he may think he will be a good officer just as he may imagine
he is an excellent artilleryman because the first time he ever laid and
fired a gun the other day the ball hit the tree at which it was aimed.
The bulk of the troops are encamped in wooden sheds, provided with
berths like those in a ship, which are disposed longitudinally, so as to
afford the maximum of sleeping room. These sheds run continuously
along the inward side of the levees, the tops of which are broad enough
to serve as carriage roads. They answer well enough for temporary
purposes, but would not do for a lengthened residence. There can be
no drainage, as the ground on which they stand is below the water
level. The parade is spacious and level enough — the bottom of a swamp
which the troops have cleared, cutting down trees and removing stumps
with great diligence and labor. Our drive extended up the Mississippi
shore, past two field guns in position and some infantry tents, up to the
¦camp of a company of Chicago light artillery and of Hungarian and
German volunteers, under Major Milotsky. The guns fired a salute on
the arrival of the general, and the company were drawn up to receive
him— an unequally-sized body of men, most of whom, however, were

PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE. 135
quite fit for any military duty. The captain, Mr. Smith, is, I should
judge from his accent, a Scotchman, and he told me the men in his
company represented a million and-a-half of dollars in property. The
guns of the company (brass six-pounders), the horses and equipments
were clean aud in good order ; the firing was well-timed. While seated
in his tent several of the privates came forward outside and sang " The
Star Spangled Banner," " God Save the Queen" (to their own words),
and other airs very pleasingly ; but a severe reception awaited the
guests on going outside, for the whole of the company were drawn
up in line, and they then and there set up a shouting for " Washburne,"
so that the honorable member was fain to comply and make a speech-;
and then General Prentiss made a speech under similar compulsion ;
and next Colonel Oglesby; and then your own correspondent, who has
had quite enough of speaking in America, in his first and last effort,
was forced to say he could not make a speech ; and after other ora
tions, in which the audience were always called " gentlemen !" we got
off (with " three cheers") to the Hungarians, who were waiting for their
turn — a fine, soldierly-looking set of men, of whom our Kentucky editor
writes as follows :
When the bow-legged, wooden-shoed, sourkrout-stinking, bologne-sausage-
eating, hen-roost-robbing Dutch sons of  from Cairo had accomplished the
brilUant feat of taking down the Secession flag on the river bank, they were pointed
to another flag of the same sort, which was flying gloriously and defiantly about
two squares distant (and which their guns did not cover), and defied, yea, double-
big, black-dog dared (as we used to say at school) to take that flag down. The
cowardly pups, the sheep-dogs, the sneaking skunks dare not do so, because those
twelve pieces- of artillery were not bearing upon it. And these are the people who
are sent by Lincoln to "crush out" the Southl
The officer in command put them through light infantry drill, ad
vance of line of skirmishers, charge, rally, retreat, etc., all well done,
and they marched back singing to camp and gave three good cheers for
the general. In our way back the party stopped at another camp
which was enlivened by the presence of ladies, who had come some
hundreds of miles to see husbands and brothers, and in the evening the
usual parade took place near the hotel. Four regiments of about seven
hundred each were on the ground, and never, perhaps, did any force
only a few weeks in the field look more like soldiers, march more
steadily in line, or present a better appearance in the ranks. When
drawn up in line the difference in uniform in various companies struck
the eye as a disagreeable novelty — one with white cross-belts between
two companies with black cross-belts, for example ; but the line of

136 PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE.
bayonets was unwavering and uniformly sloped — all the ordinary work
of a very ordinary regimental parade was performed by each with pre
cision and rapidity, and the men were as fine fellows as could be seen
in any infantry regiments of the line in any part of the world. The
officers, however, did not seem very quick — orders were carried at a
trot — the combined movements were slow, and a little clubbing took
place in forming into line from columns of companies marching in
echelon. Just as it was dark there came into camp, with a good band
at their head,, a remarkably stout-looking set of fellows, armed with
rifle and bayonet, very tall, in heavy marching order, and stepping out
like men who knew their business. Alas ! that it should be so. But
these are Colonel Schuttner's " Dutchmen," as they are called, who
have been a little eccentric at Bird's Point, going on scouting parties,
and making themselves generally active cither without or with the
colonel's sanction, and so they are marched to camp as a punishment
for their want of discipline, and their place is taken by another battal
ion. I am infoimed the conduct of the troops on the whole has been
very exemplary'.
June 21. — I visited the earthworks at the end of the levee. Colonel
Waagner was ill with the usual camp diarrhoea, but he would insist on
getting up and showing me his performance. He has fought in many
hard fields in Europe, served in the Hungarian war, and accompanied
Kossuth to the United States. His right-hand man, Lieutenant O'Leary,
was formerly a petty officer in the British navy, served in the Furious
in the Black Sea, and was in the Shannon Brigade, under the ever-to-
be-deplored sailor who led them to the relief of Lucknow, and finally to
the reduction of that ill-starred city. Mr. O'Leary told me he was not
much credited here when he recounted the manner in which Sir William
Peel taught his sailors to toss about 68-pounders as if they were field-
pieces. The work I found to be rather " crowded" with guns, but it
gives promise of such strength as to enable the occupants to command
both rivers effectually. The armament is quite adequate to all purposes,
and consists of one 8-inch howitzer, two 24-pounders, two 32-pounders,
and some lighter guns, the whole being dominated by a 10-inch colum-
biad in the centre, on a circular traversing slide, not yet mounted. The
magazine is well made and lighted ; it is the safest and best I have seen
in the States. The practice I saw with a field-piece from the work, at
a small target 500 yards off, in order to try ricochet fire, was by no
means bad, and would have speedily sunk a boat in the line of fire.
Whenever a steamer is made out approaching Cairo a gun is fired from
one or other of the ports. The steamer then gives the private signal

PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE. 137
agreed upon, and if she does not answer, is fired upon and brought to
by round shot.
In the evening, as I was walking up and down the levee after a day
of exhausting heat, an extraordinary tumult attracted my attention,
and on running to the hotel, whence the noise proceeded, I discovered
a whole regiment drawn up two deep without arms, and shouting
out in chorus, " Water ! water 1 water !" The officers were powerless,
but presently' General Prentiss came round the corner, and mounting on
a railing proceeded to address the soldiery in energetic terms, but in
substance his remonstrance would have been considered, in a French or
English army, as much a breach of discipline as the act it had censured.
These men had broken out of barracks after hours, forced their officers
and the sentries, and came up shouting to tho head-quarters of their
general to complain of a deficiency of water. The general addressed
them as " gentlemen." It was not his fault they wanted water. It was
their officers who were to blame, not he. He would see they had water,
and would punish the contractor, but they must not come disturbing
him, by their outcries at night. Their conduct was demoralizing to
themselves, and to their comrades. Having rated the " gentlemen"
soundly, he ordered them back to their quarters. They gave three
cheers for the general, and retired in regular line of march with their
officers. The fact was, that the men on returning from a hot and thirsty
drill, found the water-barrels, which ought to have been filled by the
contractor, empty, and not for the first time, and so they took the
quartermaster's business into their own hands. Their officers did not
wish to be very strict, and why ? Thp term of the men's voluntary ser
vice is nearly over, they have not yet been enrolled for the service of
the state ; therefore, if they were aggrieved they might be disposed to
disband, and not renew their engagements, and so the officers would
be left without any regiment to offer to the state. But they went off
in an orderly manner, and General Prentiss, though much annoyed by
the occurrence, understands volunteers better than we do. There is no
doubt but that the quartermasters' department is in a bad condition in
both armies. Mr. Forstall has proposed to the Southern authorities to
hang any contractor who may be detected cheating. There would prob
ably be few contractors left if the process were carried into effect at the
North. The medical department is better in the Northern than in the
Southern armies. But even here there is not an ambulance, a cacolet, or
a mule litter. When General Scott made his first requisition for troops
and money, or rather when he gave in his estimate of the probable re
quirements to carry on the war, I hear the ministers laughed at his

138 PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE.
demands. They would be very glad now to condone for the original
figures. Little do they, North or South, know what war must cost in
money, in life, in misery. Already they are suffering, but it is but a
tithe of what is to come, for the life and misery have not been expended
and felt. In the Memphis papers two days ago I saw a notification that
drafts would be issued by the magistrates to families left in distress
by the departure of their heads and supports to the seat of war. In the
Cairo papers to-day I observe an appeal to the authorities to do some
thing to aid the citizens reduced to pauperism by the utter stagnation
of trade. Saturday, June 22, 1861.
The information which Brigadier-General Prentiss received, of move
ments on the part of the Missouri secessionists, induced him, in pursu
ance, I presume, of instructions from the head-quarters of his district,
or, possibly, on his own responsibility, to send out an expedition secretly
this afternoon to break up their camp, and disperse or make them pris
oners. It is in that sort of guerrilla enterprises that much of the time
and strength of the federalists will be consumed. A good map of the
S4ates may fail to show the little village of Commerce, on the Mississip
pi, but it is about sixteen miles east of the town of Benton, and is about
two hours' steaming from Cairo. Here the Confederates, or " rebels," as
they are called in my present latitude, have collected in two or three
small camps, in numbers to which report adds and deducts ciphers at
pleasure. But General Prentiss does not think they can be over a few
hundred men, judging from the force he sent against them. It is sup
posed these bands are the debris of Governor Jackson's followers, who
have been encouraged by promises of support from Memphis, to assem
ble as rallying centres for the secessionists of Missouri, who would, no
doubt, collect in considerable numbers if they were permitted, and
would summon their defeated governor, now an exile in Arkansas, to
their head. But the position they occupy is very important in a strat
egical sense, as it commands the Mississippi above Cairo, and if they
succeeded in getting a few guns, they could stop the navigation of the
river, and cause serious embarrassment to the right flank and rear of the
federalists posted on the junction of that river with the Ohio, as well as
neutralizing the work at Bird's Point. In despite of their great violence
of speech, the secessionists, like other men in most parts of the world,
abate their rage in the presence of armed force — inter arma silent ; and
the process which is going on in Missouri may be equally successful if
it can be applied elsewhere. Any way, the results must show the gov
ernment at Washington, that if they could have acted on the same prin-

PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE. 139
ciples elsewhere they would now be in a very different position. The
outcry which would have been raised against them could not be louder
or stronger than it is at present. Why, Cairo itself was a centre of disaffec
tion and secession till the Illinois volunteers occupied it militarily with
artillery and a strong force of infantry ! For days they were threatened
with an attack, and were subjected to abuse and insults. All that has
died away, and outwardly, at least, Cairo is Unionist, although South
ern Illinois is by no means of the same mind, and General Prentiss
finds it necessary to station troops along the railroad, at the bridges,
to prevent any playful pranks in sawing the timbers or setting them
on fire.
It was nearly dusk before the expedition started. It consisted of
about seven hundred men and one six-pounder field-piece, under the
command of Colonel Morgan, an officer who saw service during the
Mexican war, and who has the reputation — I should think well-deserved
— of being a skilful, brave, and prudent officer. I saw the companies
paraded, and I must say their appearance was most creditable to
the officers and the men themselves. Making allowance for diversity
of arms and uniform, company by company, they were well set up,
stout, powerful, infantry-looking, cheerful, and full of confidence, and
among them were many old soldiers, particularly Germans and Hunga
rians. The field-pieces were very well horsed, probably provided with
tumbril, spare wheel, and a full compliment of well-equipped gunners.
As they marched on board the huge river steamer — a Pelion of light
carpentry on an Ossa of engines and boilers — the men cheered in the
old English style, and gave three thundering "hurrahs" as the steamer
backed out and set her bow against the stream. But now comes what
seemed to me a little of the recklessness and want of foresight, or, at
least, of precaution, which has been evident in more than one of the
federalist expeditions, with the usual consequences of disaster and loss.
These men and horses and the gun were put on board this big tinder-
box, all fire and touchwood. One small boat, capable of carrying a
dozen men at most, hung at her stern. Imagine an explosion, and her
engines are high-pressure ; a shot from a masked gun into her boiler,
and her boilers are exposed; even heavy musketry fire opened suddenly
from the wooden bank on the beehive-like deck, where the solitary gun
could scarcely be worked, and the men could not be landed, and see
what a catastrophe might ensue. To use a homely simile, there were
" too many eggs in one basket." And there was no necessity for doing
this, inasmuch as many steamers lay at the disposal of the authorities,
and the steamer could easily have towed up flats or boats for the gun

140 PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE.
and men. A handful of horsemen would have been admirable to move
in advance, feel the covers, and make prisoners for political or other
purposes in case of flight ; but the Americans persist in ignoring the
use of horsemen, or at least in depreciating it, though they will at last
find that they may shed much blood, and lose much more, before they
can gain a great victory without the aid of artillery and charges after
the retreating enemy. From the want of cavalry, I suppose it is, the
unmilitary practice of " scouting," as it is called here, has arisen. It is
all very well in the days of Indian wars for footmen to creep about in
the bushes and shoot or be shot by sentries and pickets ; but no civi
lized war, if there be such a thing at all in civil conflicts, recognizes such
means of annoyance as firing upon sentinels, unless in case of an actual
advance or feigned attack on the line. No camp can be safe without
cavalry videttes and pickets, for the enemy can pour in impetuously after
the alarm has been given, as fast as the outlying footmen can run in.
In feeling the way for a column, cavalry are invaluable, and there can be
little chance of ambuscades or surprises where they are judiciously cm-
ployed ; but " scouting" on foot, or adventurous private expeditions on
horseback, to have a look at the enemy, can do, and will do, nothing
but harm. Every day the papers contain accounts of " scouts" being
killed, and sentries being picked off. The latter is a very barbarous and
savage practice ; and the Russian, in his most angry moments, abstained
from it. If any officer wishes to obtain information as to his enemy,
he has two ways of doing it. He can employ spies, who carry their
lives in their hands, or he can beat up their quarters by a proper recon-
noissance on his own responsibility, in which, however, it would be ad
visable not to trust his force to a railwa}' train. In talking to General
Prentiss, this evening, I was informed that the enemies' spies visit Cairo
every day. Strict precautions are used to prevent access to the camps
— a close chain of sentries is posted all around, and in the day a pass is
necessary for admittance, unless one belongs to the force, and at night
no one is admitted without the countersign. An Irish gentleman, who
had been evincing his satisfaction at the receipt of his wages more Hiber-
nico, just now attempted to get past us — " Who goes there ?" " A
friend — shure you know I'm a friend!" "Advance three paces and
give the countersign." The gentleman approached, but was brought
up by the bayonet. " Send for the captain, and he'll give you the word
bedad." The intercession was unnecessary, for two policemen came up
in hot pursuit, and the general, who was sitting by, ordered the guard
to deliver their prisoner to the civil power. For some extraordinaiv
reason this act moved the prisoner to the greatest gratitude, and, taking

PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE. 141
off his cap, he exclaimed, " Thank you, general ; long life to you. In
deed, general, I'm greatly obliged to you on this account." Another
sentry who challenged an officer in the usual way, was asked by him,
"Do you know the countersign yourself?" " Indeed I don't, sir ; it's
not nine o'clock, and they havn't given it out yet." A very tolerable
military band played outside the hotel in the evening, and I was pleased
to see the quiet manner in which the bystanders, of all ranks, sat down
in the chairs as they were vacant, close to the general, without any
intrusion or any sense of impropriety arising from their difference in
rank. June 22. — The expedition had not returned at four this evening
when I started in the train for Chicago. I bade General Prentiss and
the officers of his staff good-by, and I doubt not, if the brigade is en
rolled in the United States army it will do good service. At the pres
ent moment these officers are without pay, and they make a joke of
their empty pockets ; but it is one of those jokes which spoil by itera
tion. I saw more of Cairo from the windows of the carriage than it
was my lot to behold during my stay in the place. The rail is laid on
the levee, and I looked down on a flat land, which would become a
swamp if Ohio and Mississippi were not kept out assiduously, dotted
with wooden houses, a church or two, and some poor shanties, in won
der that people could live in it on any food but quinine. The lower
story of the houses built along the levee must be below water level,
and proper drainage cannot be effected. A short way outside the
" city" there is, indeed, a veritable swamp, out of which a forest of
dead trees wave their ghastly leafless arms. But Cairo is to be a great
place when all the land between the two rivers is filled up, and raised
above inundation.
Mound City, the first station, is occupied by an outpost or small
camp. It consists of several log-huts, some tumbling rotten wood
hovels, and a fine growth of trees — white oak, &c. Land here is
to be had at $10 to $25 an acre. Better land lay further on, and
through fields and cleared ground, where the "army worm," how
ever — not a soldier, but an insect of that name — had been at work —
we passed on to Jonesborough, a large village of houses and stores,
with an " eating and drinking saloon ;" and next came to Cobden,
named after one who is better known than the Jones who founded the
former settlement. The name of the great political economist and re
former has not worked a spell upon the place, for it has more drinking
saloons than manufactories, and the houses — vote and all — would not
be thought much of even by a Dorsetshire peasant. The inhabitants

1-12 PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE.
of Cobden are to be counted by the dozen rather than by the hundred.
It may be " great hereafter." Carboudale, still further on, is a more
flourishing looking and larger village, and it possesses a "bank," which
does its business in a small wooden house resplendent with the names
of " cashier" and " president," painted on a sign-board. In spite of
the name there is no coal here, but a large field of bituminous deposit,
good for domestic purposes, crops out in the prairie at a nice little
place called Dugoyne, some miles further on, and is sold at the pit's
mouth for $1 25, or about 5?. 2c?., a ton. Here, out of compliment to
Cairo, perhaps, is a store rejoicing in the style and title of " The Com
mercial Emporium of Egypt," and, in keeping with the primitive
habits of the people, there was an announcement on the boards that
the terms were " cash or produce."
June 23. — A large-bodied Yorkshire man, who had a full share of
most of the attributes of his shire folk, in the service of the land de
partment of the Illinois Central Railroad, gave me all the information
necessary about the country. He was called " major" by his intimates,
and, said he, with a wink, " Once I was a major, but, unfortunately,
there was a word before it— I was troop sergeant-major in the Queen's
Bays." He pointed out the fat places where " we put our English
men" when they come to settle on the prairie lands on which we were
just entering as morning broke, and seemed hopeful of a grand future
for the vast plains, which only stand in need of a little wood to render
them fit for the reception of despairing agriculturists when the war
fever is over. How pleasant it was to see white faces in the fields, to
gaze on the waving corn, and on the martial rows of wheat-sheafs 1 to
behold the villages and the Christian spires rising in the distance; to
observe, as it were, under one's eyes, the growth of civilized communi
ties ; the village swelling into the town, and the town grasping the
dimensions of a city.
And how wonderful has been the work of the rail ; in a night it
has spanned the interval between war and peace, between swamp
and harvest-fields, between sedition and contentment. Last night
we travelled through lines of outposts, over danger-haunted bridges,
by camps where the soldiers watched eagerly for their supply of
bread, and cheered lustily as it was delivered to them from the train,
for without its aid they could get none. This morning Union flaws
floated from the little stations. Corn is abundant. The vast plains
are rich with crops, or are ready to yield to the tilth. A city worthy
of such a name rises above the waters of the sea-like lake whose waves
roll from the boundless horizon in crisping foam on the smooth sandy

PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE. 143
beach. The pure clear air invigorates the frame, weakened by the
warm clammy breath of the South. The notes of the mocking-bird
are heard no more, but the prairie hen gets up with a sharp whirr from
the roadside, and drops with her brood into the deep, flowering clover ;
the partridge calls from the stubble, and instead of the foul turkey-
buzzard and his lazy wheels, swoops the gray falcon over the broad
meadow in rapid curves. Chicago receives us, and comfort, cleanli
ness, quiet, good meat, butter and bread — of which, indeed, we had
a foretaste at the refreshment rooms at Centralia, where I took tea
last night — assure the traveller that he is not the inmate of a Southern
hotel.

ELEGANTLY ILLUSTRATED EDITION

OF

COOPER'S NOVELS
EMBELLISHED WITH FIVE HUNDRED ORIGINAL DRAWINGS
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