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Civil War Harper's Weekly, June 1, 1861

This Harper's Weekly newspaper features General Butler on the cover. It also has a nice full page illustration of the entire Confederate Cabinet. It also has a nice story on the first Soldier to die in the Civil War, and various other news of the War.

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

 

General Butler

General Butler

Civil War Editorial

Charleston Blockade

Luther Ladd

First Soldier to Die in Civil War

Fort Pulaski

Fort Pulaski

Artillery

Civil War Artillery

Jefferson Davis and the Confederate Cabinet

Confederate Cabinet

Troops in the Patent Office

Troops in the US Patent Office

Albany Armory

The Armory at Albany

St. Louis

Saint Louis Battle

Camp Defiance

Camp Defiance

Slaves in Montgomery

Slaves in Montgomery, Alabama

 

 

 

 

 

 

JUNE 1, 1861.]

HARPER'S WEEKLY.

339

(Previous Page) a simple consideration of consequences for other nations to determine whether they will acknowledge the new Government. But if any nation does so before the acknowledgment of the Government from which the new one is trying to separate, it undertakes a war with that Government. If the steamer which arrives on Saturday should bring the news that England had recognized the rebellion in this country, the steamer which leaves on Wednesday would carry instructions to Mr. Adams instantly to withdraw from the English Court; and Great Britain would have to try her hand at thrashing us again.

"OUR OWN."

"W. H. RUSSELL, LL.D., Barrister at Law," writes a letter to the Mobile Register, in which he says that he shall claim for himself " the utmost freedom in the expression of my convictions and of my observations in the journal which I have the honor to serve." Mr. Russell may claim what he chooses. But if his " convictions and observations" should lead him to the conclusion that a rebellion so wanton and wicked as this was never known, he should take good care that his amiable friends the rebels do not hear of it while he is still among them. Nothing but the imposing fact of an English fleet, and its unquestionable willingness to defend him as an English subject, would save him from the fate provided for all who do not treat a rebellion for the meanest of purposes as if it were a revolution for the highest.

A GENTLEMAN OF ENTIRE RELIABILITY.

IT is to be hoped that the gentleman of entire reliability, who arrives every day from Virginia in Washington, will soon remain permanently in the capital, or make up his mind definitely as to the exact number of Southern troops he has seen or heard of.

On Monday this entirely reliable gentleman arrives, having traveled through the whole length of Virginia, and reports fifty thousand men assembled at various points, and General Beauregard at Richmond. On Tuesday this indefatigable traveler, who is perfectly reliable, has heard of the concentration of immense bodies of men at Culpepper Court House, and he has authentic intelligence that Gen. Beauregard is in Montgomery. On Wednesday the gentleman of entire reliability comes in at full speed, and perfectly fresh from Virginia, and has seen vast numbers of troops moving about, and has heard of the assembling of many thousands at Harper's Ferry. On Thursday the inevitable gentleman of the highest character and credibility—in short, an entirely reliable person—estimates that there are about six thousand troops at Richmond, and two or three Southwestern and as many Southern regiments, very hungry and furious somewhere in the State. And on Friday this invaluable gentleman arrives by the latest conveyance, and imparts the most reliable information that there is an army of a hundred thousand men perfectly appointed marching rapidly upon Washington.

Now we submit that the gentleman of entire reliability, who has just arrived from Virginia, has fairly done his duty for the present campaign.

There is one moral to be drawn from his entirely reliable but utterly conflicting reports, and that is, that the enemy manage their movements with masterly secrecy, and that there is a large number of them in motion. Meanwhile, it is consoling to reflect that the Commander-in-chief of the American army probably knows quite as much of the enemy's force and operations as the gentleman of entire reliability who communicates his startling intelligence to our amiable fellow-men, whose function in life it. is to furnish us every morning with the most exciting dispatches.

HUMORS OF THE DAY.

A FATAL MISTAKE.—Fool-hardy buffoons sometimes attempt too much. They risk their necks as extraordinary acrobats, and turn out to be mere tumblers.

SCENE—A QUIET STREET. TIME, 9 P.M. M`PHLIMSEY (who has just succeeded in collecting his thoughts for an hour or two's quiet work). " Oh, dear, dear, there's that dreadfully powerful Volunteer Band coming by again! Do oblige me, Maria, by keeping that child quiet!"

VOICES OF OUR NIGHTS.

SUBMITTED TO THE AMERICAN POET, BY MR. WRONG- FELLOW.

I HEARD the feline footsteps in the night Pad through the court and hall !

I saw the sable wretch in the moon's light Climb Mrs. Coxe's wall !

I felt her (that I did!—I'm sure I'm right!) Step o'er me just above;

With shrill pathetic mewings through the night, As of a cat in love.

I heard the sounds of passion and of fight, The caterwauling chimes,

That fill each attic chamber in the night, Where some starved poet rhymes.

My night-capped head in the cool midnight air Sought vainly some repose;

The echo of perpetual squalls rose there—From the new cistern rose.

Peace! peace! Orestes-like I breathe this prayer! Descend, you green-eyed fright!

I hate, while thus you screech, and spit, and swear, The cat-infested night!

NOT SO FAR OUT, AFTER ALL.

'''Asked lately a young lady, " Pray, dear Mr. Punch, as people say that you know every thing, can you tell me why the modern waltz is called the deuxtemps ?"

Replied the gentleman, " Well, really, I scarce know if I can say; unless it is that, as a rule, the music plays in one time and the men dance in another."

THE WISCOUNT'S LAST.—When the Wiscount heard the gratifying intelligence that no parson had been killed or wounded at the destruction of Fort Sumter, he exclaimed, with a tremendous giggle, "Why, it was quite a pianoforte affair!" What on earth this means nobody knows.

SCENE IN BROADWAY ON SUNDAY MORNING.

SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHER. "Oh, Johnny, I'm shocked to see you playing with your top. You should leave your toys at home on a Sunday!"

JOHNNY (quick, but impudent). "Then why do you come out with your hoop?"

THE GREATEST COQUETTE IN THE NATION.

Of all the coquettes that are found in our nation, There is none that more cheats us than AN-ticipation; She coaxes and flatters with prospects of gain; Then blasting our prospects, she fills us with pain; She wheedles all sexes, conditions, and ages, The grave and the gay, and the politic sages; The young and the old, the rich and the poor, All live on her smiles till she turns them out-door.

In a recent trial in London George Cooper, the superintendent of a fire station in Tooley Street, was asked by Mr. James, " How long was it before the engines began to play?"

WITNESS. "I should say we were at work, Sir, within five minutes of being called. We don't call it play." [A laugh ]

MR. BARON BRAMWELL. "I thought the playing of an engine was an expression well understood."

MR. E. JAMES. "I thought so, too. I thought the engines played while the fire was at work." [Laughter.]

TABLE TACTICS.—Old Francis was a wag; and once, when early pease were on the table, he emptied the contents of his snuff-box over them. "Francis, Francis!" they exclaimed, "what are you about?"—"I like them that way," was the answer. He, of course, had the dish to himself, and when he had concluded, exclaimed, " You thought it was snuff, did you? Nothing but black pepper!

The more checks a spendthrift receives, the faster he goes on.

"BATING" THE HORSE.—A gentleman traveling in a one-horse trap chanced to stop at a small roadside inn, which rejoiced in the possession of a very intelligent Irish hostler. Handing the reins to this worthy as he alighted, the traveler requested the man to "take his horse to the stable and bait him."—" Sure an I will, your honor," answered the Milesian, briskly, and away he went. In about half an hour the gentleman, having refreshed himself sufficiently, naturally concluded that his four-footed servant was in equally good care, and accordingly ordered his trap to the door. The horse was panting and trembling. "What's the matter with my horse?" asked the traveler. " What have you been doing to him?"—" Only what yer honor ordered me."—" He don't look as if he had had any thing to eat."—"Is it ait your honor said?"—"To be sure."—" Sorra the word like it did yer honor say to me. More betoken your honor tould me to bate the beast, and not to ait him!"—" Why, you stupid rascal, what have you been doing?"—" Och, I just tied him up to the stable with a halter, then out with use stick, and bate him till me arm was used out!"

RAILROAD WAGGERY.—Waggs went to the station of one of our railroads the other evening, and finding the best carriage full, said, in a loud tone, " Why, this carriage isn't going!" Of course these words caused a general stampede, and Waggs took the best seat. The train soon moved off. In the midst of the indignation, the wag was questioned.—" You said this carriage wasn't going?"—" Well, it wasn't then," replied Waggs; "but it is now."

A captain of a rifle company was guilty of an unheard-of barbarity on one very cold day recently. He actually marched his men to the very brink of the canal, and then coolly commanded them to " fall in."

A cooper, finding considerable difficulty in keeping one of the heads of a cask he was finishing in its place, put his son inside to hold the head up. After completing the work much to his satisfaction, he was astonished to find his boy inside the cask, and without a possibility of getting out, except through the bung-hole.

A reporter of experience gives the following instructions for making one's way in a crowd: " Elevate your elbow high, and bring it down with great force upon the digestive apparatus of your neighbor. He will double up and yell, causing the gentleman in front of you to turn half way round to see what is the matter. Punch him in the same way, step on his foot, pass him, and continue the application until you have reached the desired point. It never fails."

" Job printing !—Job printing !" exclaimed Mrs. Partington, the other day, as she peeped over her spectacles at the advertising page of a country paper. " Poor Job ! they've kept him printing, week after week, ever since I larnt to read; and if he wasn't the patientest man that ever was, he never could have stood it so long, no how."

" Colonel W. is a fine-looking man, ain't he?" said a friend of ours, the other day. "Yes," replied another; "I was taken for him once." "You! why, you're as ugly as sin!" "I don't care for that; I was taken for him : I indorsed his note, and was taken for him—by the sheriff."

The loveliest faces are to be seen by moonlight, when one sees half with the eye and half with the fancy.

An Irishman, just from the sod, was eating some old cheese, when he found to his dismay that it contained living inhabitants. " Be jabers," said he, "does your chase in this country have childer?"

A cat caught a sparrow, and was about to devour it, but the sparrow said—" No gentleman eats till he washes his face." The cat, struck with this remark, set the sparrow down, and began to wash his face with his paw, but the sparrow flew away. This vexed puss extremely, and he said—"As long as I live I will eat first and wash my face afterward"—which all cats do even to this day.

STRICT INTERPRETATION.—" John, I am going to church, and if it should rain, I wish you to come with the umbrella for me; however, you need not come unless it should 'rain downright.' " The gentleman went. It did rain, but John had gone to the other end of the town to see Mary. His master came back with drenched garments and a look of implacable anger. "John, John," said he, " why didn't you bring the umbrella?"—"Because, Sir," replied John, "it rained slanting !"

DOMESTIC INTELLIGENCE.

THE FIRST FIGHT AT NORFOLK.

The first fight in that quarter came off on Saturday afternoon, between two United States vessels and the rebel battery at Servall's Point, in Hampton Roads, six miles from Old Point Comfort. The battery is still unfinished, and is the eighth and last of the works now in the hands of the rebels, which defend the approaches to Norfolk, and is regarded as a very important work of offense against the blockade of James River, where there are now lying twenty prizes laden with tobacco. The United States steamer Star (formerly the Monticello), commenced cannonading the fort at noon on Saturday with shell from the ten-inch mortars, which seemed to have good effect. The flotilla from New York, commanded by Captain Ward, arrived during the action, and the steamer Freeborn immediately joined in, opening a heavy fire with her 32-pounders, driving out the rebels, who were commanded by a mounted officer. She then hauled off, and proceeded to Washington with dispatches by orders of Commodore Stringham.

CAPTURE OF LIGHT-SHIPS.

The brilliant and successful feat by detachments of the Eighth and Thirteenth regiments, now at the seat of war, in their expedition to the Ycomico River, and the recovery of the light-ships stolen by the revolutionists from the Chesapeake Bay, has been warmly applauded. The Ycomico is a small river which rises in Sussex County, Delaware, and flows southwestward through Somerset County, Maryland, and empties into Flushing Bay, an arm of the Chesapeake.

PRIZES OF WAR.

Three prizes have been brought into Philadelphia by the steam-tug Yankee. They were all schooners, laden with tobacco. Other prizes are said to be coming to New York.

STATE OF AFFAIRS AT HARPER'S FERRY.

Two thousand troops from Mississippi arrived at Harper's Ferry on Sunday, described as a "hard"-looking set —poorly clad and dirty. Two regiments had arrived from Alabama on the day previous, to whom the same description would apply. To make the situation of the rebels there still more agreeable, the small-pox has broken out among them. A company of cavalry had left the Ferry and proceeded to Martinsburgh, with the intention of keeping watch over the Union men there, and preventing their voting at the election which takes place on the 23d.

FURTHER SEIZURES AT ST. LOUIS.

Further seizures were made last week at St. Louis, of two pieces of cannon, several hundred muskets and rifles, a number of pistols, and a quantity of ammunition. The State tobacco warehouse has also been visited by the United States authorities, and a considerable quantity of arms and munitions were found there. St. Louis is now environed by a line of military posts, extending from the river above to the river below—the object being to prevent the entry of any secession troops into the city, and to assure the public peace.

A detachment of Union volunteers was sent to Potosi, Missouri, from St. Louis, on Tuesday night, under the command of Captain Cole, who placed sentinels entirely round the town, and in the morning captured the entire population. Those among them who were known to be Union men were of course immediately released, and about fifty of the secessionists were subsequently set at liberty on parole—their leaders being marched to St. Louis as prisoners of war and confined in the arsenal. A lead manufactory was also taken possession of at Potosi, and about four hundred pigs of lead were seized.

 

CHARLESTON BLOCKADED.

The port of Charleston is now under blockade, and no inward-bound vessels are allowed to pass the barriers of steam and iron which the Government have erected at the mouth of the harbor. We find in the Charleston papers of the 13th and 14th accounts of the operations of the steam-frigate Niagara, the first of the blockading fleet which had arrived there. On the 12th the British bark Hilga was refused entrance, and the British ships Monmouth and Gen. Parkville were also ordered off. Another British ship, the A and A, was pursued, but she managed to get into shoal water, where the Niagara could not follow her, and the latter, under the supposition that she was aground, left the chase, and a steam-tug from the city subsequently towed her up. The Susan G. Owens, and other outward-bound vessels were allowed to pass freely, and will be until the fifteen days allowed by the terms of the blockade have expired.

The Niagara is since reported to have left Charleston for parts unknown.

A CALCIUM LIGHT FOR FORT MONROE.

Information has been received that Professor Grant is about to leave this city in the steamer Coatzacoalcos for Fortress Monroe, for the purpose of placing one of his largest calcium lights upon that work. The reflector of the lamp will have a diameter of three feet.

ANOTHER SOUTHERN OUTRAGE.

A telegram front Boston announces the arrival there, on board the steam gun-boat Pembroke, from Fortress Monroe, of Captain Charles Gale, of the bark D. C. Price, belonging in Cleveland, Ohio, and Captain Johnson, of the bark Ida, belonging in Boston. The former reports that his vessel was sunk by the rebels at Norfolk on the 5th inst., and besides losing his vessel, her cargo, and $3000 in specie, in all valued at $75,000, he was thrown into prison and kept there several days. He finally made his escape with nine other persons, including his daughter, in a small boat, and reached the steam-frigate Minnesota. Captain Johnson reports that his bark, the Ida, was wrecked near Cape Henry, and that, having saved the cargo and rigging and shipped it to Norfolk, he was then robbed of every thing he possessed and imprisoned several days.

MORE MONEY WANTED AT MONTGOMERY.

Among the bills passed by the Confederates at Montgomery, on Friday, was one authorizing the issue of $50,000,000 in bonds, payable in twenty years, at an interest not exceeding eight per cent. per annum. In lieu of $20,000,000 of this loan, however, the bill authorizes the issue of Treasury notes for that amount, of small denominations, to bear no interest.

RICHMOND TO BE THE REBEL CAPITAL.

The Montgomery Advertiser, which is recognized as the "organ" of Jeff Davis's Government, announces that the Confederates have decided to remove their Capital to Richmond. It does not intimate, however, when the removal is to take place.

TWO GREAT CAMPS.

The Government has decided to establish two large camps on the French system, partly for instruction and for the purposes of a reserve force. The camps will consist of from fifteen to twenty thousand men each. One will be formed at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, near the Maryland border, and the other in the vicinity of New York, most probably at Staten Island. The troops at Gettysburg are designed for action on the Southern border when necessary, and those at Staten island will be required for coast service, to be used at any moment and at any point the Government may direct. For this purpose orders have been issued for a fleet of transports to be kept in readiness in the harbor.

AID AND COMFORT.

An important letter from Secretary Seward to J. G. Heineken has been published. It was written in answer to a letter from Mr. Heineken, asking for Mr. Seward's reasons in writing for considering an acceptance of Governor Letcher's proposition to buy the steamships Yorktown and Jamestown, recently seized by his order, as an act of treason. The Secretary holds that the receipt of money for the steamships, after they have been seized, would be to convert the unlawful seizure into a sale; and to sell vessels to an enemy is to give aid and comfort, and therefore treason; and any person so offending would be brought to punishment by the Government.

PERSONAL.

General Cadwallader, of Philadelphia, who is about to take command of the Baltimore and Annapolis department, in place of General Butler, promoted, is possessed of large property in Maryland, and is well known and much esteemed by the citizens of Baltimore.

The four regiments of Missouri Volunteers, of one of which Frank Blair is Colonel, have been formed into a brigade, and Captain Lyon. who commanded them when they captured the Secession forces, has been elected Brigadier-General.

The wife of Lieutenant Slemmer is at Washington, where she receives very marked attention.

Senator Douglas is very ill of typhoid fever; his condition is still critical.

Mr. Lincoln occupied himself one day last week in making a personal reconnoitre on the banks of the Potomac. He visited Great Falls, sixteen miles above Washington, crossed the chain bridge, and passed the pickets of the secessionists twice without being recognized.

Leroy P. Walker, Secretary of War, and Judah P. Benjamin, Attorney-General, in Jeff Davis Cabinet are to change places.

United States Senator James A. Bayard, of Delaware, has written an address to the people of his State, in which he announces his intention to resign.

Colonel Vosburgh, commander of the New York Seventy-first Regiment, now at Washington, whose illness from hemorrhage of the lungs has been before noted, died at the Navy-yard in Washington on Monday morning.

Ross Winans, of Baltimore, recently arrested on suspicion of treason, by order of General Butler, was yesterday discharged by order of the authorities at Washington.

FOREIGN NEWS.
ENGLAND.

BRITISH OPINIONS ON OUR WAR.

THE affairs of America have again been discussed in the British House of Commons, with reference to the effect of the contemplated blockade of the Southern ports upon British interests. Lord John Russell, on the 4th, stated that all legal questions connected with the subject had been submitted to the Attorney-General, who had not yet rendered his opinion. A fleet had been dispatched to watch the entire American coast. On the 6th, the opinion of the Crown law officer was given upon several of the points, substantially to the effect that every thing depended upon the efficiency and completeness of the blockade ; and that circumstances alone would determine the practicability of collecting revenue from vessels before they had broken bulk. He also said, in regard to privateering, that the Southern Confederacy would have to be regarded as belligerents.

A meeting of the Privy Council and law officers of the Crown was held at Whitehall on 12th for the purpose of preparing a proclamation from the Queen; to be issued on the Tuesday following, warning British subjects against illicit or overt complicity in the civil war now raging in America. Lord Derby had expressed the hope in the House of Lords that British subjects interfering in our contest would get no redress front their Government, but that their blood should be on their own heads. Lord Granville replied that such would be the natural result, of course.

BRITISH PRIVATEERS.

It was confidently believed, when the Persia left Liverpool on the 11th inst., that letters of marque from the Montgomery government had reached Liverpool and London, and that vessels had actually left Liverpool with these letters.

SORT OF RIG ADVISABLE FOR VESSELS EMPLOYED INN THE CHASE OF SOUTHERN PRIVATEERS.

Privateer Chasers

 

 

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