The Bombardment of Pensacola

 

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Civil War Harper's Weekly, December 7, 1861

We have posted our collection of original Civil War Harper's Weekly newspapers online for your study and enjoyment. These newspapers allow you to gain a more in depth understanding of the war, and the attitudes of the day. We hope you enjoy browsing this collection, and find the content enlightening.

 

(Scroll Down to see entire page, or Newspaper Thumbnails will take you to the page of interest.)

 

Fort Warren

Fort Warren

The Slavery Question

The Slavery Question

Pensacola

Bombardment of Pensacola

Southwest Pass

Battle of Southwest Pass

Southwest Pass

Fight at Southwest Pass

Santa Rosa

The Battle of Santa Rosa

Advertisements

Advertisements

 

Belmont

Battle of Belmont

Mississippi River

Mississippi River Southwest Pass

Camp Nevin

Camp Nevin, Kentucky

Steamer Constitution

The Steamship "Constitution"

Review of the Army

Review of the Army

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DECEMBER 7, 1861.]

HARPER'S WEEKLY.

771

(Previous Page) barbarism of the rebellions section, and of the ferocity with which they wage the war. War is in itself so terrible that it may be said, a little ferocity more or less makes no difference. But even war has certain rules. Quarter upon surrender, for instance, and respect to a flag of truce.

At Guyandotte there was the same kind of treachery shown as in the plot of the mine at Port Royal. We are dealing with men who have little of the honor of a civilized people. They show the temper and method of savages, and we should bear it constantly in mind to avoid all the traps we can. Civil wars are peculiarly fierce, and ours is not an exception to the rule. The tone and temper of General Sherman's proclamation were at singular variance with the mine in the fort and the known sentiment of South Carolina. It showed that the Government is animated by no hate, no insane and stupid fury, like that of the rebels ; but that it means to be respected by all citizens, and that those who are armed against it will feel its power. The proclamation was too long, but it ended well.

The mine at Port Royal and the massacre at Guyandotte should leave no man in doubt that every blow that can be dealt the nation, and in every savage way, will not be spared by the rebels. They are frenzied and desperate, and why should we think they are to be soothed? They are not to be pacified, they are to be subjugated. They are to be forced by such means as the Wabash used, and such means only, to lay down their arms. They are not to be entreated, they are to be compelled. And as Secretary Cameron says, every weapon that the Government can honorably use—and it may honorably use any, short of treachery—will be leveled against the rebellion.

This tremendous purgation of fire and sword will not harm the nation, it will help it. A civil war is a terrible tonic. But a peace which is rottenness of principle and a decay of manhood is death. If we are slow to understand this, we are sure. The rebels themselves have taught us step by step. And we have learned. Dishonor, theft, treachery of every kind, and at the cost of precious lives, have shown us more and more distinctly the character and fury of our foe. They have strained every nerve to harm us. But they have not yet felt the full weight of our hand. That they will feel it in the ground quaking beneath them, no one who studies the course of events and the progress of opinion can doubt.

Meanwhile let every honest man reflect upon the methods of the rebellion, and ask himself whether he feels a call to be peculiarly charitable to such an enemy.


THE WISDOM OF ACTION AND INACTION.

WHEN, early in the Revolution, Major Barton crossed Narragansett Bay at night and captured General Prescott upon Rhode Island, the general satisfaction among the patriots was not only that a prisoner of high degree had been secured, but that the circumstances of his capture showed that heroic audacity and ability which were the sure prophecies of ultimate success.

We have all been looking for similar enterprises in this war. We have been expecting to see the American shrewdness, and skill, and rapidity of movement vindicate themselves anew. To take responsibilities daringly, yet wisely, is to command success. And Commodore Wilkes showed it in stopping the Trent, "putting the San Jacinto into position," and walking Messrs. Slidell and Mason over the side into the custody of the United States.

It is precisely what Major Barton would have done had he been in command. It is precisely what Napoleon Bonaparte and Andrew Jackson would have done. It was the wise promptitude which does the necessary deed and leaves the explanation and justification to follow.

In Saint-Beuve's "Causeries de Lundi" there is a remarkable letter of Napoleon's, and one of the

most characteristic he ever wrote. He was discontented with the inertness of Augereau, who was organizing an army at Lyons. The date is February 21, 1814.

"....What! Six hours after receiving the first troops from Spain you are not in the field ! Six hours of rest is quite enough for them. I conquered at Nangis with the brigade of dragoons coming from Spain, who from Bayonne had not drawn rein. Do you say that the six battalions from Nimes want clothes and equipage, and are uninstructed? Augereau, what miserable excuses! I have destroyed 80,000 enemies with battalions of conscripts, scarcely clothed, and without cartridge-boxes. The National Guards are pitiful ? I have here 4000 from Angers and Bretagne in round hats, without cartridge-boxes, but with good weapons: and I have made them tell. There is no money, do you say ? But where do you expect to get money, but from the pockets of the enemy ? You have no teams ? Seize them. You have no magazine? Tut, tut ! this is too ridiculous! I order you to put yourself in the field twelve hours after you receive this letter. If you are still the Augereau of Castiglione, keep your command. If your sixty years are too much for you, relinquish it to the oldest of your general officers. The country is menaced and in danger. It can be saved only by daring and alacrity, and not by vain delays. You must have a nucleus of 6000 picked troops ? I have not so many, yet I have destroyed three armies, captured 40,000 prisoners, taken two hundred pieces of artillery, and thrice saved the capital. The enemy are in full flight upon Troyes? Be before them. Act no longer as of late. Resume the method and the spirit of '93. When Frenchmen see your plume waving in the van, and you, first of all, exposed to the enemy's fire, you will do with them whatever you will."

So prompt, so bold, was Napoleon. Yet he knew when to wait as well as to move. At Austerlitz Soult and the other generals begged him to advance. "Stop," replied Napoleon ; "never move when your enemy is destroying himself."

We have wisely waited. And who does not feel that under M'Clellan we shall move as wisely ?

HUMORS OF THE DAY.

DOMESTIC COOKERY.

To make a Sausage Roll.—Carry your sausage cautiously to the top of the nearest hill, and trundle it carefully down.

To make a Trifle.—Buy Fun for a penny, and sell it at its true value.

Jam Tart.—Place your tart in the hinge of the door, and close briskly.

Open Tart.—Insert your knife carefully, and lift off the upper crust.

To Collar Beef—Watch your opportunity, snatch up briskly, and carry home under your coat.

Rum Shrub.—Pull up your gooseberry bush, and plant upside down.

Hardbake.—Place your pastry in a fierce oven, and forget all about it.

Dripping Dumplings.—Pop into water, and snatch out again.

Honey Drops.—Place your honey in a cullender, and watch the effect from beneath.

[Advertisement.]

UNMANAGEABLE BOYS.—An Unmanageable Boy wishes to meet with a few more boys of tastes and habits (jackets or tails no object) similar to his own, in

order to make up a pleasure party for a visit to the tutor of "persuasive powers" who has lately been advertising. N.B. Each unmanageable boy must bring his own peashooter, India-rubber bands, slings, catapults, sticks, popguns, and the latest inventions.

Address—" TOMMY," care of Nemo, Smash Hall, U.C.

ADVICE GRATIS.—How to bear your tooth being extracted without crying out : Hold your jaw.

A GRAND DRESS REHEARSAL.

It is a pretty dress rehearsal when a young lady takes a visitor up to her bedroom, and begins showing her all the beautiful new dresses she has lately been buying. She should try them all on, one after the other, before the looking-glass, and press her dear friend, in the most persuasive manner, to give her opinion upon each. The performance is all the more effective when the visitor happens to be in an inferior position of society, so that the pieces which are brought forward for her flattering notice are so nicely arranged as to be above the reach of her pocket. However, the best time without comparison for a Grand Dress Rehearsal is when a young lady is going to a Queen's

Drawing-Room. Too many young friends can not be invited to witness the eclat of so delightful a performance, taking care of course to avoid any inconvenience from overcrowding, and even upon so rare an occasion servants have been known to be kindly admitted to witness the grand finale.

THE SONG OF THE YOUNGER SON.

I would gladly marry,

Could I but chance to find

A girl of tastes and habit

Inexpensively inclined:

One who for more pin-money

Will not weekly press,

And will even love her husband

Better than her dress.

Who will share his fortune,

Nor complain of his close fist,

And without a pair of ponies

Will manage to exist.

Who in London after August

To be seen won't be afraid,

And can finish off her toilet

Without a lady's-maid.

Who'll not think a mile of walking

A cause for fight or fuss,

And even on emergency

Will travel by a 'buss.

Who'll mend a shirt or stocking,

And a pie or pudding make,

And will not want a doctor

If her little finger ache.

A wife who'll not look sulky

If carte blanche she be denied

With her milliner and jeweler,

And fifty shops beside.

Who'll not lie in bed for breakfast,

Nor of cruelty complain

If she lunch without hot jelly,

And dine without Champagne.

To fancy fairs and flower-shows

Who will not sigh to go,

Nor will deem a quiet evening

With her Henry " dreadful slow."

Who can live without French novels,

And without an opera stall,

Nor will want three parties nightly,

And twice a week a ball.

Who can go out on a visit

Nor want six new gowns a day,

And won't turn her lovely nose up

At a sixpenny bouquet.

Who'll walk out with her husband

If he can't afford a horse,

Nor will deem a year old bonnet

A fit ground for a divorce.

Who will be content with Margate, When taken to the sea,

Nor will think her Henry vulgar

If he order shrimps for tea.

Find me such a charmer,

With health and temper good,

And then ask me if I'd marry?

I should rather think I would!

ONE OF THE WORST ASPECTS OF THE WAR.—Since the great scarcity of cotton the Parisian milliners have been charging fifty, and seventy, and as much as eighty-two per cent. extra for padding. If the scarcity should still continue, it will be frightful to contemplate upon the thousands and thousands of French beauties that will be pinched by the want of it during the coming winter.

LAST LINE FROM THE FRENCH KORAN.—There is but one Napoleon, and the Moniteur is his prophet.

An ingenious friend of ours says he has discovered the secret of Nessus's Shirt. He says it was a shirt with all the buttons off. It was sent to Hercules purposely to annoy him, and the effect was that every time he put it on the absence of the buttons used to put Hercules into such a burning rage that ultimately it was the death of him !


NO POPERY!
[A Joke made on Guy Fawkes' Day.]

Pam says that it is to please the Roman Catholic population of Canada that he has sent out, as Governor-General, a Monck. He adds that this bad excuse is better than nun. Really, the joke's as objectionable as the appointment, and that is saying a good deal, as will be found out one of these days.

Rousseau used to say : "To write a good love-letter you ought to begin without knowing what you mean to say, and to finish without knowing what you have written."

Dobbs says he has one of the most obedient boys in the world. He tells him to do as he pleases, and he does it without murmuring.

Love partakes so much of modesty, confidence, and fidelity, that it awakens these virtues in the bosoms of those w>ro were previously strangers to them.

DOMESTIC INTELLIGENCE.

BOMBARDMENT OF PENSACOLA.

WE learn through rebel sources that the steamers Niagara and Colorado and the guns at Fort Pickens have opened a heavy fire on the rebel General Bragg's forces and the Pensacola Navy-yard—that the town of Warrington has been totally destroyed by the hot shot poured upon it from Fort Pickens. General Bragg, in dispatches which he has widely circulated all over the South, describes the affair as a rebel victory, and reports that the United States steamers had to haul off, being badly damaged by the fire of the rebel batteries. It is admitted that the destruction done by the shells from the fort and ships was very considerable, and that the Navy-yard was set on fire three times by the hot shot from Fort Pickens. General Bragg boasts that the walls of the fort were breached in several places, a fact which, from the calibre of the guns he had to bring to bear upon it, and the immense strength of the fort itself, is highly improbable.

THE REBELS SHIFTING QUARTERS.

The important event of the day is the sudden flight of the rebel Government and Congress from Richmond to Nashville, Tennessee. The rebel Congress assembled at the former place on 18th, and received the Message of Jeff Davis there on 19th. It appears from the Richmond Enquirer that a resolution was passed to remove the seat of government to a more secure locality in the interior of Tennessee.

THE REBEL ARMY AT MANASSAS.

A deserter reports the rebel force about Centreville, where head-quarters are established, as numbering 60,000 men, and as many more all along the Potomac lines. Centreville, he states, is well defended, but has no siege gums. At Manassas, however, there are some heavy guns. He describes the troops as being in good spirits, pretty well fed, clothed, and armed, and under the impression that the war is one of subjugation, devastation, and abolition. This impression they receive from their officers and chaplains.

TWO MORE VIRGINIAN COUNTIES IN THE UNION.

The War Department received information last week that the Union forces in Accomac and Northampton counties, Virginia, have taken nine cannon belonging to the rebels. It is further stated that the people there express themselves as being tired of rebel rule, and anxious to reopen trade with the Northern States. County meetings have been held to take into consideration the future disposition of the two counties. The Government has fully responded to the spirit of General Dix's proclamation, and

Mr. Chase has ordered the restoration of the light-house at Cape Charles. The postal connection of both counties will be at once renewed, the Postmaster-General having sent a special agent there for that purpose.

NORTH CAROLINA RE-ENTERING THE UNION.

The Provisional State government for North Carolina, the establishment of which has been contemplated for months, was formally instituted on the 18th inst. by a Convention of delegates and proxies representing forty-five counties of the State. Ordinances were passed acknowledging the Constitution of the United States; appointing Marble Nash Taylor provisional Governor of North Carolina; proclaiming the secession act illegal and of no force or effect, and empowering the new Governor to order special elections for representatives to the Federal Congress.

A NEW BLOCKADING FLEET.

Seventeen old whale ships have been purchased by the Government at New Bedford, Massachusetts, and loaded with what the soldiers of the Massachusetts Sixth regiment call "Baltimore rations" (stones and brickbats), and taken South to be sunk at the entrance of certain harbors. The following are their names: Arctic, American, Archer, Amazon, Cossack, Courier, Frs. Henrietta, Garland, L. C. Richmond, Rebecca Simms, Kensington, South America, Herald, Potomac, Maria Theresa, Leonidas, Harvest. The following named whalers have also been purchased at New London for the same purpose : ship Lewis, bark Fortune, ship Corea, bark Tenedos, ship Timor, ship Meteor, ship Robin Hood, ship Phoenix. The vessels of this fleet sailed for their destination on the 20th inst.

It is understood that they are going to Savannah and Charleston.

AFFAIRS IN MISSOURI.

General Halleck has given orders to exclude fugitive slaves from the camps, as they have been detected giving military information to the rebels. General Price's rebel army is moving toward the centre of the State, and General Harris's division is said to be about to enter Kansas for the purpose of ravaging the southern counties. It is supposed that General Lane was on his track, and would doubtless force him into an engagement. Intelligence has reached Jefferson City, Missouri, by a train from the West, that the rebels had burned down the town of Warsaw to prevent its being made winter-quarters for the Union troops. A large quantity of Government stores were destroyed in the conflagration.

OUR ARMY.

It has been ascertained that the volunteer forces of the Union army now amount to six hundred thousand men.

JEFF DAVIS'S MESSAGE.

Jeff Davis's Message to the rebel Legislature is contained in the Richmond papers of 20th. He finds cause for congratulation in what he calls the success of the Confederate arms, and declares that in men, military means, and financial condition, the Confederate States are much stronger now than when the struggle commenced. He alleges, as a reason for the invasion of Kentucky, that the National forces were about to enter Tennessee over Kentucky soil. He declares that the Union can never be reconstructed, as the causes which primarily induced a separation have been strengthened; characterizes the nature of the hostilities on the part of the United States as barbarous, and denounces the National soldiers as incendiaries and robbers. He glosses over the financial condition of the rebel States in a very hasty and imperfect manner, and is disposed to apologize for imperfect mail facilities. He sees in the capture of Messrs, Mason and Slidell on board a British vessel a cause for war between the United States and Great Britain—declaring that the seizure might with equal propriety have been made in the streets of London. The blockade he pronounces to be totally ineffectual, and says that sufficient proof of this fact will be furnished at the proper time. He seems, however, to have forgotten to mention the little affair at Port Royal, and the recent Union demonstrations in Eastern Tennessee seem to have escaped his observation entirely.

A NEW MOVEMENT AT THE SOUTH.

On 21st a flag of truce came down from Norfolk, with dispatches to General Wool, informing him that no more flags of truce will be received until further notice. It is inferred that the major portion if not all the rebel troops stationed at Sewall's Point, Tanner's Creek, and Craney Island are to be withdrawn and sent post-haste to South Carolina, to crush out our troops before any reinforcements can reach them.

AFFAIRS AT HILTON HEAD.

Information has been received from Hilton Head relative to the progress made by the Union troops in that locality. Port Royal Island had been surveyed for strategical purposes, a dock built, storehouses erected, stores, etc., landed, a hospital established, and other work accomplished, of a nature vast and surprising when it is taken into consideration that the troops had not occupied the place ten days. A large quantity of sea-island cotton is yet ungathered. The Baltic, which reached this port last week, brought a quantity of the staple with her.

PANIC AT THE SOUTH.

The panic caused throughout the sea-board rebel States by the success of the national fleet at Port Royal appears to be much greater than the rebel papers care to acknowledge. They print enough, however, to give us a tolerably fair idea in reference to it. For instance, a dispatch from Charleston, dated November 17, which we find in a Richmond paper, says that the, failure of the shore batteries to demolish at least one of the attacking vessels, has sadly shaken the popular confidence in the efficiency of the rebel guns, and so alarmed are many of the "sordid souls that infest all the Southern cities," that this effect may already be seen in "the burdening of freight-trains which leave almost hourly for the interior." Savannah is especially pointed at as a city where the panic has been general, whole neighborhoods having been deserted.

MASON AND SLIDELL IN FORT WARREN.

The San Jacinto reached Boston on 23d, and landed Messrs. Mason and Slidell, and their secretaries, Eustis and M'Farland, at Fort Warren.

FOREIGN NEWS.

ENGLAND.

LORD PALMERSTON ON OUR TROUBLES.

AT the Lord Mayor's dinner in London on Lord Mayor's day, November 9, the chief magistrate of that city proposed the " Foreign Embassadors," coupling the same with the name of Mr. Adams, the American Minister. That gentleman, in his reply, stated that his mission was to promote and perpetuate the friendly relations of the two countries. Lord Palmerston said, although circumstances may, for a time, threaten to interfere with the supply of cotton, the temporary evil will be productive of permanent good, England would find in various portions of the globe a sure and ample supply, which would render her no mere dependent. He stated that the country witnessed with affliction the lamentable differences among her American cousins; but added, it was not for her to pass judgment in their dispute. He expressed a hope of the speedy restoration of harmony and peace.

THE EXPEDITION TO MEXICO.

The allied expedition to Mexico is fairly on the move. The British war ships Conqueror, Sanspariel, and Donegal sailed on the 13th instant for the Gulf, with a well-appointed force of marines and some heavy Armstrong guns on board. Napoleon had ordered his contingent to leave from whatever ports the vessels designated were stationed, while Spain was burning with impatience for the moment of action.

SPAIN.

THE MEETING OF THE CORTES.

The Session of Cortes has been opened in Madrid. Queen Isabelle, in her speech, refers in the most laudatory strain to the recent successes of her diplomats and troops both in Venezuela and San Domingo, and is quite hopeful of her prospects in Mexico.

OUR MODEST FERNANDO.—(An Engraving on Wood.)

"I did intend to let BROTHER BEN have this, as it's getting a little threadbare, and to try one of my new ones. But one must sacrifice something for one's country in these times."

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