Heavy Bill--Railway travelling--Introductions--Assassinations
--Tennessee--“Corinth”--“Troy”--“Humbolt”--“The Confederate
camp”--Return Northwards--Columbus--Cairo--The slavery question
--Prospects of the war--Coarse journalism.
_June 19th._ It is probable the landlord of the Gayoso House was a
strong Secessionist, and resolved, therefore, to make the most out
of a neutral customer like myself--certainly Herodotus would have
been astonished if he were called upon to pay the little bill which
was presented to me in the modern Memphis; and had the old Egyptian
hostelries been conducted on the same principles as those of the
Tennessean Memphis, the “Father of History” would have had to sell
off a good many editions in order to pay his way. I had to rise at
three o’clock a.m., to reach the train, which started before five.
The omnibus which took us to the station was literally nave deep
in the dust; and of all the bad roads and dusty streets I have yet
seen in the New World, where both prevail, North and South, those
of Memphis are the worst. Indeed, as the citizen, of Hibernian
birth, who presided over the luggage of the passengers on the roof,
declared, “The streets are paved with waves of mud, only the mud is
all dust when it’s fine weather.”
By the time I had arrived at the station my clothes were covered
with a fine alluvial deposit in a state of powder; the platform was
crowded with volunteers moving off for the wars, and I was obliged
to take my place in a carriage full of Confederate officers and
soldiers who had a large supply of whisky, which at that early hour
they were consuming as a prophylactic against the influence of the
morning dews, which hereabouts are of such a deadly character that,
to be quite safe from their influence, it appears to be necessary,
judging from the examples of my companions, to get as nearly drunk
as possible. Whisky, by-the-by, is also a sovereign specific against
the bites of rattlesnakes. All the dews of the Mississippi and the
rattlesnakes of the prairie might have spent their force or venom in
vain on my companions before we had got as far as Union City.
I was evidently regarded with considerable suspicion by my fellow
passengers, when they heard I was going to Cairo, until the conductor
obligingly informed them who I was, whereupon I was much entreated to
fortify myself against the dews and rattlesnakes, and received many
offers of service and kindness.
Whatever may be the normal comforts of American railway cars, they
are certainly most unpleasant conveyances when the war spirit is
abroad, and the heat of the day, which was excessive, did not
contribute to diminish the annoyance of foul air--the odour of
whisky, tobacco, and the like, combined with innumerable flies. At
Humbolt, which is eighty-two miles away, there was a change of cars,
and an opportunity of obtaining some refreshment,--the station was
crowded by great numbers of men and women dressed in their best, who
were making holiday in order to visit Union City, forty-six miles
distant, where a force of Tennesseean and Mississippi regiments
are encamped. The ladies boldly advanced into carriages which were
quite full, and as they looked quite prepared to sit down on the
occupants of the seats if they did not move, and to destroy them
with all-absorbing articles of feminine warfare, either defensive
or aggressive, and crush them with iron-bound crinolines, they soon
drove us out into the broiling sun.
Whilst I was on the platform I underwent the usual process of
American introduction, not, I fear, very good-humouredly. A gentleman
whom you never saw before in your life, walks up to you and says, “I
am happy to see you among us, sir,” and if he finds a hand wandering
about, he shakes it cordially. “My name is Jones, sir, Judge Jones
of Pumpkin County. Any information about this place or State that I
can give is quite at your service.” This is all very civil and well
meant of Jones, but before you have made up your mind what to say,
or on what matter to test the worth of his proffered information,
he darts off and seizes one of the group who have been watching
Jones’s advance, and comes forward with a tall man, like himself,
busily engaged with a piece of tobacco. “Colonel, let me introduce
you to my friend, Mr. Russell. This, sir, is one of our leading
citizens, Colonel Knags.” Whereupon the Colonel shakes hands, uses
nearly the same formula as Judge Jones, immediately returns to his
friends, and cuts in before Jones is back with other friends, whom
he is hurrying up the platform, introduces General Cassius Mudd and
Dr. Ordlando Bellows, who go through the same ceremony, and as each
man has a circle of his own, my acquaintance becomes prodigiously
extended, and my hand considerably tortured in the space of a few
minutes; finally I am introduced to the driver of the engine and
the stoker, but they proved to be acquaintances not at all to be
despised, for they gave me a seat on the engine, which was really a
boon considering that the train was crowded beyond endurance, and in
a state of internal nastiness scarcely conceivable.
When I had got up on the engine a gentleman clambered after me in
order to have a little conversation, and he turned out to be an
intelligent and clever man well acquainted with the people and the
country. I had been much impressed by the account in the Memphis
papers of the lawlessness and crime which seemed to prevail in the
state of Mississippi, and of the brutal shootings and stabbings
which disgraced it and other Southern States. He admitted it was
true, but could not see any remedy. “Why not?” “Well, sir, the
rowdies have rushed in on us, and we can’t master them; they are
too strong for the respectable people.” “Then you admit the law is
nearly powerless?” “Well, you see, sir, these men have got hold of
the people who ought to administer the law, and when they fail to do
so they are so powerful by reason of their numbers, and so reckless,
they have things their own way.”
“In effect, then, you are living under a reign of terror, and the
rule of a ruffian mob?” “It’s not quite so bad as that, perhaps, for
the respectable people are not much affected by it, and most of the
crimes of which you speak are committed by these bad classes in their
own section; but it is disgraceful to have such a state of things,
and when this war is over, and we have started the Confederacy all
fair, we’ll put the whole thing down. We are quite determined
to take the law into our own hands, and the first remedy for the
condition of affairs which, we all lament, will be to confine the
suffrage to native-born Americans, and to get rid of the infamous,
scoundrelly foreigners, who now overrule us in our country.” “But are
not many regiments of Irish and Germans now fighting for you? And
will these foreigners who have taken up arms in your cause be content
to receive as the result of their success an inferior position,
politically, to that which they now hold?” “Well, sir, they must; we
are bound to go through with this thing if we would save society.” I
had so often heard a similar determination expressed by men belonging
to the thinking classes in the South that I am bound to believe
the project is entertained by many of those engaged in this great
revolt--one principle of which indeed, may be considered hostility to
universal suffrage, combining with it, of course, the limitation of
the immigrant vote.
The portion of Tennessee through which the rail runs is exceedingly
uninteresting, and looks unhealthy, the clearings occur at long
intervals in the forest, and the unwholesome population, who came
out of their low shanties, situated amidst blackened stumps of trees
or fields of Indian corn, did not seem prosperous or comfortable.
The twists and curves of the rail, through cane brakes and swamps
exceeded in that respect any line I have ever travelled on; but the
vertical irregularities of the rail were still greater, and the
engine bounded as if it were at sea.
The names of the stations show that a savant has been rambling about
the district. Here is Corinth, which consists of a wooden grog-shop
and three log shanties; the acropolis is represented by a grocery
store, of which the proprietors, no doubt, have gone to the wars, as
their names were suspiciously Milesian, and the doors and windows
were fastened; but occasionally the names of the stations on the
railway boards represented towns and villages, hidden in the wood
some distance away, and Mummius might have something to ruin if he
marched off the track but not otherwise.
The city of Troy was still simpler in architecture than the Grecian
capitol. The Dardanian towers were represented by a timber-house, in
the verandah of which the American Helen was seated, in the shape of
an old woman smoking a pipe, and she certainly could have set the
Palace of Priam on fire much more readily than her prototype. Four
sheds, three log huts, a sawmill, about twenty negroes sitting on
a wood-pile, and looking at the train, constituted the rest of the
place, which was certainly too new for one to say, _Troja fuit_,
whilst the general “fixins” would scarcely authorise us to say with
any confidence, _Troja fuerit_.
The train from Troy passed through a cypress swamp, over which the
engine rattled, and hopped at a perilous rate along high trestle
work, till forty-six miles from Humbolt we came to Union City, which
was apparently formed by aggregate meetings of discontented shavings
that had travelled out of the forest hard by. But a little beyond it
was the Confederate camp, which so many citizens and citizenesses
had come out into the wilderness to see; and a general descent was
made upon the place whilst the volunteers came swarming out of their
tents to meet their friends. It was interesting to observe the
affectionate greetings between the young soldiers, mothers, wives,
and sweethearts, and as a display of the force and earnestness of
the Southern people--the camp itself containing thousands of men,
many of whom were members of the first families in the State--was
specially significant.
There is no appearance of military order or discipline about
the camps, though they were guarded by sentries and cannon, and
implements of war and soldiers’ accoutrements were abundant. Some
of the sentinels carried their firelocks under their arms like
umbrellas, others carried the butt over the shoulder and the muzzle
downwards, and one for his greater ease had stuck the bayonet of his
firelock into the ground, and was leaning his elbow on the stock
with his chin on his hand, whilst Sybarites less ingenious, had
simply deposited their muskets against the trees, and were lying
down reading newspapers. Their arms and uniforms were of different
descriptions--sporting rifles, fowling pieces, flint muskets, smooth
bores, long and short barrels, new Enfields, and the like; but the
men, nevertheless, were undoubtedly material for excellent soldiers.
There were some few boys, too young to carry arms, although the zeal
and ardour of such lads cannot but have a good effect, if they behave
well in action.
The great attraction of this train lay in a vast supply of stores,
with which several large vans were closely packed, and for fully
two hours the train was delayed, whilst hampers of wine, spirits,
vegetables, fruit, meat, groceries, and all the various articles
acceptable to soldiers living under canvas were disgorged on the
platform, and carried away by the expectant military.
I was pleased to observe the perfect confidence that was felt in
the honesty of the men. The railway servants simply deposited each
article as it came out on the platform--the men came up, read the
address, and carried it away, or left it, as the case might be; and
only in one instance did I see a scramble, which was certainly quite
justifiable, for in handing out a large basket the bottom gave way,
and out tumbled onions, apples, and potatoes among the soldiery, who
stuffed their pockets and haversacks with the unexpected bounty. One
young fellow, who was handed a large wicker-covered jar from the
van, having shaken it, and gratified his ear by the pleasant jingle
inside, retired to the roadside, drew the cork, and, raising it
slowly to his mouth, proceeded to take a good pull at the contents,
to the envy of his comrades; but the pleasant expression upon his
face rapidly vanished, and spurting out the fluid with a hideous
grimace, he exclaimed, “D---; why, if the old woman has not gone and
sent me a gallon of syrup.” The matter was evidently considered too
serious to joke about, for not a soul in the crowd even smiled; but
they walked away from the man, who, putting down the jar, seemed in
doubt as to whether he would take it away or not.
Numerous were the invitations to stop, which I received from the
officers. “Why not stay with us, sir; what can a gentleman want to go
among black Republicans and Yankees for.” It is quite obvious that my
return to the Northern States is regarded with some suspicion; but I
am bound to say that my explanation of the necessity of the step was
always well received, and satisfied my Southern friends that I had
no alternative. A special correspondent, whose letters cannot get
out of the country in which he is engaged, can scarcely fulfil the
purpose of his mission; and I used to point out, good-humouredly, to
these gentlemen that until they had either opened the communication
with the North, or had broken the blockade, and established steam
communication with Europe, I must seek my base of operations
elsewhere.
At last we started from Union City; and there came into the car,
among other soldiers who were going-out to Columbus, a fine
specimen of the wild filibustering population of the South, which
furnish many recruits to the ranks of the Confederate army--a tall,
brawny-shouldered, brown-faced, black-bearded, hairy-handed man,
with a hunter’s eye, and rather a Jewish face, full of life, energy,
and daring. I easily got into conversation with him, as my companion
happened to be a freemason, and he told us he had been a planter
in Mississippi, and once owned 110 negroes, worth at least some
20,000_l._; but, as he said himself, “I was always patrioting it
about;” and so he went off, first with Lopez to Cuba, was wounded
and taken prisoner by the Spaniards, but had the good fortune to be
saved from the execution which was inflicted on the ringleaders of
the expedition. When he came back he found his plantation all the
worse, and a decrease amongst his negroes; but his love of adventure
and filibustering was stronger than his prudence or desire of gain.
He took up with Walker, the “the grey eyed man of destiny,” and
accompanied him in his strange career till his leader received the
_coup de grace_ in the final raid upon Nicaragua.
Again he was taken prisoner, and would have been put to death by the
Nicaraguans, but for the intervention of Captain Aldham. “I don’t
bear any love to the Britishers,” said he, “but I’m bound to say,
as so many charges have been made against Captain Aldham, that he
behaved like a gentleman, and if I had been at New Orleans when them
cussed cowardly blackguards ill-used him, I’d have left my mark so
deep on a few of them, that their clothes would not cover them long.”
He told us that at present he had only five negroes left, “but I’m
not going to let the black republicans lay hold of them, and I’m
just going to stand up for States’ rights as long as I can draw a
trigger--so snakes and Abolitionists look out.” He was so reduced by
starvation, ill-treatment, and sickness in Nicaragua, when Captain
Aldham procured his release, that he weighed only 110 pounds, but at
present he was over 200 pounds, a splendid _bête fauve_, and without
wishing so fine a looking fellow any harm, I could not but help
thinking that it must be a benefit to American society to get rid of
a considerable number of these class of which he is a representative
man. And there is every probability that they will have a full
opportunity of doing so.
On the arrival of the train at Columbus, twenty-five miles from
Union City, my friend got out, and a good number of men in uniform
joined him, which led me to conclude that they had some more serious
object than a mere pleasure trip to the very uninteresting looking
city on the banks of the Mississippi, which is asserted to be
neutral territory, as it belongs to the sovereign state of Kentucky.
I heard, accidentally, as I came in the train, that a party of
Federal soldiers from the camp at Cairo, up the river, had recently
descended to Columbus and torn down a secession flag which had been
hoisted on the river’s bank, to the great indignation of many of the
inhabitants.
In those border states the coming war promises to produce the
greatest misery; they will be the scenes of hostile operations; the
population is divided in sentiment; the greatest efforts will be made
by each side to gain the ascendancy in the state, and to crush the
opposite faction, and it is not possible to believe that Kentucky can
maintain a neutral position, or that either Federal or Confederates
will pay the smallest regard to the proclamation of Governor
McGoffin, and to his empty menaces.
At Columbus the steamer was waiting to convey us up to Cairo, and
I congratulated myself on the good fortune of arriving in time for
the last opportunity that will be afforded of proceeding northward
by this route. General Pillow on the one hand, and General Prentiss
on the other, have resolved to blockade the Mississippi, and as
the facilities for Confederates going up to Columbus and obtaining
information of what is happening in the Federal camps cannot readily
be checked, the general in command of the port to which I am bound
has intimated that the steamers must cease running. It was late in
the day when we entered once more on the father of waters, which is
here just as broad, as muddy, as deep, and as wooded as it is at
Bâton Rouge, or Vicksburg.
Columbus is situated on an elevated spur or elbow of land projecting
into the river, and has, in commercial faith, one of those futures
which have so many rallying points down the centre of the great
river. The steamer which lay at the wharf, or rather the wooden
piles in the bank which afforded a resting place for the gangway,
carried no flag, and on board presented traces of better days, a list
of refreshments no longer attainable, and of bill of fare utterly
fanciful. About twenty passengers came on board, most of whom had
a distracted air, as if they were doubtful of their journey. The
captain was surly, the office keeper petulant, the crew morose, and,
perhaps, only one man on board, a stout Englishman, who was purser
or chief of the victualling department, seemed at all inclined to be
communicative. At dinner he asked me whether I thought there would be
a fight, but as I was oscillating between one extreme and the other,
I considered it right to conceal my opinion even from the steward of
the Mississippi boat; and, as it happened, the expression of it would
not have been of much consequence one way or the other, for it turned
out that our friend was of very stern stuff, “This war,” he said,
“is all about niggers; I’ve been sixteen years in the country, and I
never met one of them yet was fit to be anything but a slave; I know
the two sections well, and I tell you, sir, the North, can’t whip the
South, let them do their best; they may ruin the country, but they’ll
do no good.”
There were men on board who had expressed the strongest secession
sentiments in the train, but who now sat and listened and acquiesced
in the opinions of Northern men, and by the time Cairo was in sight,
they, no doubt, would have taken the oath of allegiance which every
doubtful person is required to utter before he is allowed to go
beyond the military post.
In about two hours or so the captain pointed out to me a tall
building and some sheds, which seemed to arise out of a wide reach in
the river, “that’s Cairey,” said he, “where the Unionists have their
camp,” and very soon the stars and stripes were visible, waving from
a lofty staff, at the angle of low land formed by the junction of the
Mississippi and Ohio.
For two months I had seen only the rival stars and bars, with the
exception of the rival banner floating from the ships and the fort at
Pickens. One of the passengers told me that the place was supposed
to be described by Mr. Dickens, in “Martin Chuzzlewit,” and as the
steamer approached the desolate embankment, which seemed the only
barrier between the low land on which the so-called city was built,
and the waters of the great river rising above it, it certainly
became impossible to believe that sane men, even as speculators,
could have fixed upon such a spot as the possible site of a great
city,--an emporium of trade and commerce. A more desolate woe-begone
looking place, now that all trade and commerce had ceased cannot
be conceived; but as the southern terminus of the central Illinois
railway, it displayed a very different scene before the war broke out.
With the exception of the large hotel, which rises far above the
levée of the river, the public edifices are represented by a church
and spire, and the rest of the town by a line of shanties and small
houses, the rooms and upper stories of which are just visible above
the embankment. The general impression effected by the place was
decidedly like that which the Isle of Dogs produces on a despondent
foreigner as he approaches London by the river on a drizzly day in
November. The stream, formed by the united efforts of the Mississippi
and the Ohio, did not appear to gain much breadth, and each of the
confluents looked as large as its product with the other. Three
steamers lay alongside the wooden wharves projecting from the
embankment, which was also lined by some flat-boats. Sentries paraded
the gangways as the steamer made fast along the shore, but no inquiry
was directed to any of the passengers, and I walked up the levée and
proceeded straight to the hotel, which put me very much in mind of
an effort made by speculating proprietors to create a watering-place
on some lifeless beach. In the hall there were a number of officers
in United States’ uniforms, and the lower part of the hotel was,
apparently, occupied as a military bureau; finally, I was shoved into
a small dungeon, with a window opening out on the angle formed by the
two rivers, which was lined with sheds and huts and terminated by a
battery.
These camps are such novelties in the country, and there is such
romance in the mere fact of a man living in a tent, that people
come far and wide to see their friends under such extraordinary
circumstances, and the hotel at Cairo was crowded by men and women
who had come from all parts of Illinois to visit their acquaintances
and relations belonging to the state troops encamped at this
important point. The _salle à manger_, a long and lofty room on the
ground floor, which I visited at supper time, was almost untenable
by reason of heat and flies; nor did I find that the free negroes,
who acted as attendants, possessed any advantages over their enslaved
brethren a few miles lower down the river; though their freedom was
obvious enough in their demeanour and manners.
I was introduced to General Prentiss, an agreeable person, without
anything about him to indicate the soldier. He gave me a number of
newspapers, the articles in which were principally occupied with
a discussion of Lord John Russell’s speech on American affairs:
Much as the South found fault with the British minister for the
views he had expressed, the North appears much more indignant, and
denounces in the press what the journalists are pleased to call
“the hostility of the Foreign Minister to the United States.” It is
admitted, however, that the extreme irritation caused by admitting
the Southern States to exercise limited belligerent rights was not
quite justifiable. Soon after nightfall I retired to my room and
battled with mosquitoes till I sank into sleep and exhaustion, and
abandoned myself to their mercies; perhaps, after all, there were not
more than a hundred or so, and their united efforts could not absorb
as much blood as would be taken out by one leech, but then their
horrible acrimony, which leaves a wreck behind in the place where
they have banqueted, inspires the utmost indignation and appears to
be an indefensible prolongation of the outrage of the original bite.
_June 20th._--When I awoke this morning and, gazing out of my little
window on the regiments parading on the level below me, after an
arduous struggle to obtain cold water for a bath, sat down to
consider what I had seen within the last two months, and to arrive
at some general results from the retrospect, I own that after much
thought my mind was reduced to a hazy analysis of the abstract
principles of right and wrong, in which it failed to come to any very
definite conclusion: the space of a very few miles has completely
altered the phases of thought and the forms of language.
I am living among “abolitionists, cut-throats, Lincolnite
mercenaries, foreign invaders, assassins, and plundering Dutchmen.”
Such, at least, the men of Columbus tell me the garrison at Cairo
consists of. Down below me are “rebels, conspirators, robbers, slave
breeders, wretches bent upon destroying the most perfect government
on the face of the earth, in order to perpetuate an accursed system,
by which, however, beings are held in bondage and immortal souls
consigned to perdition.”
On the whole, the impression left upon my mind by what I had seen in
slave states is unfavourable to the institution of slavery, both as
regards its effects on the slave and its influence on the master. But
my examination was necessarily superficial and hasty. I have reason
to believe that the more deeply the institution is probed, the more
clearly will its unsoundness and its radical evils be discerned. The
constant appeals made to the physical comforts of the slaves, and
their supposed contentment, have little or no effect on any person
who acts up to a higher standard of human happiness than that which
is applied to swine or the beasts of the fields “See how fat my pigs
are.”
The arguments founded on a comparison of the condition of the slave
population with the pauperised inhabitants of European states are
utterly fallacious, inasmuch as in one point, which is the most
important by far, there can be no comparison at all. In effect
slavery can only be justified in the abstract on the grounds which
slavery advocates decline to take boldly, though they insinuate it
now and then, that is, the inferiority of the negro in respect to
white men, which removes them from the upper class of human beings
and places them in a condition which is as much below the Caucasian
standard as the quadrumanous creatures are beneath the negro. Slavery
is a curse, with its time of accomplishment not quite at hand--it is
a cancer, the ravages of which are covered by fair outward show, and
by the apparent health of the sufferer.
The slave states, of course, would not support the Northern for a
year if cotton, sugar, and tobacco became suddenly worthless. But,
nevertheless, the slave owners would have strong grounds to stand
upon if they were content to point to the difficulties in the way of
emancipation, and the circumstances under which they received their
_damnosa hereditas_ from England, which fostered, nay forced, slavery
in legislative hotbeds throughout the colonies. The Englishman may
say “We abolished slavery when we saw its evils.” The slave owner
replies, “Yes, with you it was possible to decree the extinction--not
with us.”
Never did a people enter on a war so utterly destitute of any reason
for waging it, or of the means of bringing it to a successful
termination against internal enemies. The thirteen colonies had a
large population of sea-faring and soldiering men, constantly engaged
in military expeditions. There was a large infusion, compared with
the numbers of men capable of commanding in the field, and their
great enemy was separated by a space far greater than the whole
circumference of the globe would be in the present time from the
scene of operations. Most American officers who took part in the
war of 1812-14 are now too old for service, or retired into private
life soon after the campaign. The same remark applies to the senior
officers who served in Mexico, and the experiences of that campaign
could not be of much use to those now in the service, of whom
the majority were subalterns, or at most, officers in command of
volunteers.
A love of military display is very different indeed from a true
soldierly spirit, and at the base of the volunteer system there lies
a radical difficulty, which must be overcome before real military
efficiency can be expected. In the South the foreign element has
contributed largely to swell the ranks with many docile and a few
experienced soldiers, the number of the latter predominating in the
German levies, and the same remark is, I hear, true of the Northern
armies.
The most active member of the staff here is a young Englishman
named Binmore, who was a stenographic writer in London, but has
now sharpened his pencil into a sword, and when I went into the
guard-room this morning I found that three-fourths of the officers,
including all who had seen actual service, were foreigners. One,
Milotzky, was an Hungarian; another, Waagner, was of the same
nationality; a third, Schuttner, was a German; another, Mac
something, was a Scotchman; another, was an Englishman. One only
(Colonel Morgan), who had served in Mexico, was an American. The
foreigners, of course, serve in this war as mercenaries; that is,
they enter into the conflict to gain something by it, either in pay,
in position, or in securing a status for themselves.
The utter absence of any fixed principle determining the side which
the foreign nationalities adopt is proved by their going North or
South with the state in which they live. On the other hand, the
effects of discipline and of the principles of military life on rank
and file are shown by the fact that the soldiers of the regular
regiments of the United States and the sailors in the navy have to
a man adhered to their colours, notwithstanding the examples and
inducements of their officers.
After breakfast I went down about the works, which fortify the bank
of mud, in the shape of a V, formed by the two rivers--a flêche with
a ditch, scarp, and counter-scarp. Some heavy pieces cover the end
of the spit at the other side of the Mississippi, at Bird’s Point.
On the side of Missouri there is a field entrenchment, held by a
regiment of Germans, Poles, and Hungarians, about 1000 strong, with
two field batteries. The sacred soil of Kentucky, on the other side
of the Ohio, is tabooed by Beriah Magoffin, but it is not possible
for the belligerents to stand so close face to face without occupying
either Columbus or Hickman. The thermometer was at 100° soon after
breakfast, and it was not wonderful to find that the men in Camp
Defiance, which is the name of the cantonment on the mud between the
levées of the Ohio and Mississippi, were suffering from diarrhœa and
fever.
In the evening there was a review of three regiments, forming a
brigade of some 2800 men, who went through their drill, advancing in
columns of company, moving _en echelon_, changing front, deploying
into line on the centre company, very creditably. It was curious to
see what a start ran through the men during the parade when a gun
was fired from the battery close at hand, and how their heads turned
towards the river; but the steamer which had appeared round the bend
hoisted the private signs, by which she was known as a friend, and
tranquillity was restored.
I am not sure that most of these troops desire anything but a long
residence at a tolerably comfortable station, with plenty of pay
and no marching. Cairo, indeed, is not comfortable; the worst
barrack that ever asphixiated the British soldier would be better
than the best shed here, and the flies and the mosquitoes are beyond
all conception virulent and pestiferous. I would give much to see
Cairo in its normal state, but it is my fate to witness the most
interesting scenes in the world through a glaze of gunpowder. It
would be unfair to say that any marked superiority in dwelling,
clothing, or comfort was visible between the mean white of Cairo or
the black chattel a few miles down the river. Brawling, rioting, and
a good deal of drunkenness prevailed in the miserable sheds which
line the stream, although there was nothing to justify the libels on
the garrison of the _Columbus Crescent_, edited by one Colonel L.
G. Faxon, of the Tennessee Tigers, with whose writings I was made
acquainted by General Prentiss, to whom they appeared to give more
annoyance than he was quite wise in showing.
This is a style of journalism which may have its merits, and which
certainly is peculiar; I give a few small pieces. “The Irish are
for us, and they will knock Bologna sausages out of the Dutch, and
we will knock wooden nutmegs out of the Yankees.” “The mosquitoes
of Cairo have been sucking the lager-bier out of the dirty soldiers
there so long, they are bloated and swelled up as large as spring
’possums. An assortment of Columbus mosquitoes went up there
the other day to suck some, but as they have not returned, the
probability is they went off with _delirium tremens_; in fact, the
blood of these Hessians would poison the most degraded tumble bug in
creation.”
Our editor is particularly angry about the recent seizure of a
Confederate flag at Columbus by Colonel Oglesby and a party of
Federals from Cairo. Speaking of a flag intended for himself,
he says, “Would that its folds had contained 1000 asps to sting
1000 Dutchmen to eternity unshriven.” Our friend is certainly a
genius. His paper of June the 19th opens with an apology for the
non-appearance of the journal for several weeks. “Before leaving,”
he says, “we engaged the services of a competent editor, and left a
printer here to issue the paper regularly. We were detained several
weeks beyond our time, the aforesaid printer promised faithfully to
perform his duties, but he left the same day we did, and consequently
there was no one to get out the paper. We have the charity to suppose
that fear and bad whisky had nothing to do with his evacuation of
Columbus.” Another elegant extract about the flag commences, “When
the bow-legged, wooden shoed, sour craut stinking, Bologna sausage
eating, hen roost robbing Dutch sons of ---- had accomplished the
brilliant feat of taking down the Secession flag on the river bank,
they were pointed to another flag of the same sort which their guns
did not cover, flying gloriously and defiantly, and dared yea! double
big black dog--dared, as we used to say at school, to take that
flag down--the cowardly pups, the thieving sheep dogs, the sneaking
skunks, dare not do so, because their twelve pieces of artillery were
not bearing on it.” As to the Federal commander at Cairo, Colonel
Faxon’s sentiments are unambiguous. “The qualifications of this man,
Prentiss,” he says, “for the command of such a squad of villains
and cut-throats are, that he is a miserable hound, a dirty dog, a
sociable fellow, a treacherous villain, a notorious thief, a lying
blackguard, who has served his regular five years in the Penitentiary
and keeps his hide continually full of Cincinnati whisky, which he
buys by the barrel in order to save his money--in him are embodied
the leprous rascalities of the world, and in this living score, the
gallows is cheated of its own. Prentiss wants our scalp; we propose
a plan by which he may get that valuable article. Let him select
150 of his best fighting men, or 250 of his lager-bier Dutchmen, we
will select 100, then let both parties meet where there will be no
interruption at the scalping business, and the longest pole will
knock the persimmon. If he does not accept this proposal, he is a
coward. We think this a gentlemanly proposition and quite fair and
equal to both parties.”