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THE
CAPTURE OF HATTERAS
FORTS.
WE illustrate on
pages 584 and
585 the DEPARTURE OF GENERAL BUTLER'S EXPEDITION AGAINST HATTERAS, and on the
preceding page we give a View of the BOMBARDMENT, and Portraits of
GENERAL BUTLER AND
COMMODORE STRINGHAM.
The following account of this
brilliant affair is from the report of the special reporter of the Herald :
Minnesota, Commodore Stringham; Wabash, Captain
Mercer; the gun-boats Pawnee, Captain Rowan;
Monticello, Commander Gillis, and
the Harriet Lane, Captain Faunce, with the transports Adelaide and George
Peabody, conveying troops to the number of about a thousand, left
Fortress Monroe last Monday, and reached the
rendezvous off
Hatteras Inlet, fifteen miles below Cape Hatteras, on Tuesday
morning, the Minnesota and Wabash coming in in the afternoon, and the Cumberland
joined the fleet the same day.
Preparations were immediately
made to land the troops the following morning, at which time the transports ran
near the beach, two miles north of the Inlet, and, covered by the Monticello,
Harriet Lane, and Pawnee, about three hundred men were landed through a heavy
surf, the force consisting of Captain Larned's company of regular artillery,
Captain Jardine's company Ninth New York, two companies of the Twentieth New
York, with Colonel Weber and Lieutenant-Colonel Heiss; a detachment of marines
from the frigates, under command of Majors Doughty and Shuttleworth, and a
detachment of sailors from the Pawnee, under Lieutenants Crosby and Blue, with
Drs. King and Jones.
The gun-boats swept the beach and
neighboring copse of scrub oaks. All the boats being swamped and bilged in the
surf, no more men could be thrown ashore. Meanwhile, the Minnesota and
Wabash—the latter with the Cumberland in tow—steamed up to the front of one of
the rebel batteries and took their position at long range.
At ten o'clock the Wabash fired
the first gun, the eleven-inch shell striking near the battery and bursting with
tremendous force. The battery, which was of sand, covered with turf and mounting
five long thirty-twos, instantly returned the fire, the shot falling short. The
Minnesota and Cumberland immediately opened fire and rained nine and eleven inch
shells into and about it. The fire was terrific, and soon the battery's
responses were few and far between, save when the frigates suspended fire for a
while to get a new position, when the enemy's fire was most spirited.
No damage was sustained by our
ships, and when they again took their position the cannonading was intensely
hot, the shells dropping in the enemy's works or falling on the ramparts,
exploding in death-dealing fragments, and carrying death and destruction with
them. The small wooden structures about the fort were torn and perforated with
flying shells. At eleven o'clock the immense flag-staff was shot away and the
rebel flag came down, but the fire was still continued by them. At twelve
o'clock the Susquehanna steamed in, and, dropping her boats astern, opened an
effective fire. The cannonading on our part was incessant, and the air was alive
with the hum and explosion of flying shells; but the enemy did not return the
fire with any regularity, the battery being too hot for them, from the explosion
of shells that dropped in at the rate of about half a dozen a minute.
The enemy ceased firing a little
before two, and after a few more shells had been thrown in the Commodore
signalized to cease firing.
The troops had meantime advanced
to within a short distance of the fort, and before we ceased firing some of our
men got in and raised the
Stars and Stripes. The place was too hot for the men,
but the flag was left waving. Coxswain Benjamin Sweares, of the Pawnee's first
cutter, stood for some time on the ramparts waving the flaw amidst a flight of
shells.
When the firing ceased the fort
was occupied in force, and held afterward.
The Monticello had proceeded
ahead of the land force to protect them, and had reached the Inlet when a large
fort of an octagon shape, to the rear and right of the small battery, mounting
ten thirty-twos and four eight-inch guns, which had till then been silent,
opened on her with eight guns, at short range. At the same instant she got
aground, and stuck fast, the enemy pouring in a fire hot and heavy, which the
Monticello replied to with shell sharply. For fifty minutes she held her own,
and finally getting off the ground she came out, having been shot through and
through by seven eight-inch shell, one going below the water-line. She fired
fifty-five shell in fifty minutes, and partially silenced the battery. She
withdrew at dusk for repairs, with one or two men slightly bruised, but none
killed or wounded.
The escape of the vessel and crew
was miraculous. Until this time we supposed the day was ours; but the unexpected
opening of the large battery rather changed the aspect of affairs. Things did
not look cheerful at dark. We had men ashore who were probably in need of
provisions, and in case of a night attack no assistance could be sent them from
the Harriet Lane.
As we lay close in shore we saw
the bright bivouac fires on the beach with groups of men about them. The night
passed without an alarm, the enemy, as we have since learned, lying on their
arms all night, expecting an attack.
At early daybreak on Thursday the
men went to quarters in the fleet, and at a quarter past eight, the vessels
having borne down nearer than the previous day's position, the action began, the
Susquehanna opening the day's work by a shell from one of the eleven-inch guns.
The Minnesota and Wabash joined in immediately, and again the hum of shell and
their explosion were heard. They fired nearly half an hour before the battery
responded, when it answered briskly. Our fire was more correct than on the
previous day. The range had been obtained, and nearly every shot went into the
battery, throwing up clouds of sand and exploding with terrific effect.
At twenty-five minutes past ten
the Harriet Lane opened fire, and soon after the Cumberland came in from the
offing and joined in the attack. The Harriet Lane, with her rifled guns, did
good execution, several projectiles from the eight-inch shell going into the
battery, and one going directly through the ramparts. The fire was so hot that
all of the enemy that could do so got into a bomb-proof in the middle of the
battery.
Finally, at five minutes past
eleven A.M., an eleven-inch shell having pierced the bomb-proof through a
ventilator and exploded inside, near the magazine, the enemy gave up the fight
and raised over the ramparts a white flag.
General Butler went into the Inlet, and landed
at the fort, and demanded an unconditional surrender.
Commodore Barron, Assistant
Secretary of the Confederate Navy, asked that the officers be allowed to march
out with side-arms, and the men be permitted to return to their homes after
surrendering their arms. These terms were pronounced inadmissible by General
Butler, and finally the force was surrendered without condition.
OUR BROTHER!
CALL him not "Brother," whose
unhallowed hand
Hacks down the roof-tree of our
common home! Call him not "Brother," who, with sword and brand,
Lays waste the heritage of our
fatherland!
Call him not "Brother," who, 'mid
cannon's boom, Beats down old land-marks, shrouds in endless gloom
The hapless ones his greed hath
bared and bann'd ! He is a Cain ! Cain-like must be his doom. The Prodigal,
repentant, may return?
Repentant? Yes Recusant—never!
No! The renegade from freedom all men spurn.
Who strikes for slavery makes the
world his foe: Who draws the sword shall by the sword be slain: And whoso "
raises cane" must reap the hurricane.
HARPER'S WEEKLY.
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 1861.
THE BEGINNING OF THE END.
ON Saturday, 31st August,
Major-General Fremont, commanding at St. Louis, Missouri, issued a proclamation
placing the whole State of Missouri under martial law, and further stating :
"All persons who shall be taken
with arms in their hands within these lines shall be tried by court-martial,
and, if found guilty, will be shot. The property, real and personal, of all
persons in the State of Missouri who shall take up arms against the United
States, and who shall be directly proven to have taken active part with their
enemies in the field, is declared to be confiscated to the public use; and their
slaves, if any they have, are hereby declared free."
It has been stated by some of the
papers that in thus pronouncing the emancipation of the slaves of rebels General
Fremont was only carrying out the Act known as the Confiscating Act passed by
Congress at the extra Session. An examination of that act will, however, show
that its provisions do not warrant the step taken by the General. The only
section in which any reference is made to slaves is the following :
SEC. 4. And be it further
enacted, That whenever hereafter, during the present insurrection against the
Government of the United States, any person claimed to be held to labor or
service under the law of any State shall be required or permitted by the person
to whom such labor or service is claimed to be due, or by the lawful agent of
such person, to take up arms against the United States ; or shall be required or
permitted by the person to whom such labor or service is claimed to be due, or
his lawful agent, to work or to be employed in or upon any fort, navy-yard,
dock, armory, ship, intrenchment, or in any military or naval service
whatsoever, against the Government and lawful authority of the United States,
then, and in every such case, the person to whom such labor or service is
claimed to be due shall forfeit his claim to such labor, any law of the State or
of the United States to the contrary notwithstanding. And whenever thereafter
the person claiming such labor or service shall seek to enforce his claim, it
shall be a full and sufficient answer to such claim that the person whose
service or labor is claimed had been employed in hostile service against the
Government of the United States, contrary to the provisions of this act.
It thus appears that the only
slaves who can be forfeited under this Act are those who have been " employed in
hostile service against the United States Government;" whereas Major-General
Fremont's proclamation grants freedom to the slaves of every rebel, whether they
have been employed in military service or not. The General, therefore, has
evidently based his action, not upon the law of Congress, but upon something
else.
That something else is THE WAR
POWER, which is inherent in the Government, and is exercised by its delegated
officers commanding the forces of the United States. What the nature of this war
power is, and what it may do with slavery, may be gathered from the following
extract from a speech delivered by ex-President John Q. Adams, in the House of
Representatives, on April 14, 1842 :
When your country is actually in
war. whether it be a war of invasion or a war of insurrection, Congress has
power to carry on the war, and must carry it on according to the laws of war,
and by the laws of war an invaded country has all its laws and municipal
institutions swept by the board, and martial law takes the place of them. This
power in Congress has perhaps never been called into exercise under the present
Constitution of the United States. But when the laws of war are in force, what,
I ask, is one of those laws? It is this, that when a country is invaded, and two
hostile armies are set in martial array, the commanders of both armies have
power to emancipate all the slaves in the invaded territory. Nor is this it mere
theoretic statement. The history of South America shows that the doctrine has
been carried into execution within the last thirty years. Slavery was abolished
in Columbia, first by the Spanish General Morillo, and secondly by the Americal
General Bolivar. It was abolished by virtue of a military command given at the
head of the army, and its abolition continues to be law to this day. It was
abolished by the laws of war, and not by municipal enactments. I might furnish a
thousand proofs to show that the pretensions of gentlemen to the sanctity of
their municipal institutions, under a state of actual invasion and of actual
war, whether servile, civil, or foreign, are wholly unfounded, and that the laws
of war do, in all such cases, take the precedence. I lay this down as the law of
nations. I say that the military authority takes, for the time, the place of all
municipal institutions, slavery among the rest. Under that state of things, so
far from its being true that the States where slavery exists have the exclusive
management of the subject, not only the President of the United States, but the
commander of the army, has power to order the universal emancipation of the
slaves.
John Quincy Adams thus held that,
whenever a war grew out of slavery, martial law might be proclaimed in any part
of the Union, and that such proclamation " swept by the board" all municipal and
local laws establishing or recognizing slavery. It may seem superfluous to quote
authorities in support of the assertions of so sound a jurist as Mr. Adams. We
may mention, however, that he merely repeats, in the speech above quoted, the
views of the recognized expounders of the common law. Sir Matthew Hale (Hist. C.
L. c. 2), says that martial lacy is built upon no settled principles, but is
entirely arbitrary in its decisions; it is in truth and reality no law, but
something rather indulged than allowed as a law." Blackstone quotes this passage
(Comm., I. 413) and emphatically approves it ; adding that in time of war
court-martials have " almost an absolute legislative power." Modern jurists
confirm these views, and admit that in actual warfare the powers of the general
commanding are dictatorial.
We run no risk, therefore, in
stating that, in decreeing the emancipation of the slaves owned by rebels in the
State of Missouri, General Fremont has neither, on the one hand, relied upon the
recent Act of Congress relating to confiscation,
nor, on the other, exceeded the
proper limits of his authority as General commanding. Under his proclamation of
martial law, all state and municipal laws were at once suspended, and he, as
commanding General, was practically invested with dictatorial powers over
persons and property, for the just use of which powers he tacitly undertook to
render account when martial law ceased to exist in his Department.
The direct consequences of his
decree, so far as slavery in Missouri is
concerned, can not be of much importance. Missouri does not contain 125,000
slaves, and of these considerably more than one half are believed to be held by
loyal men. Moreover, under the terms of Fremont's proclamation, no slave can be
emancipated until it is proved that his owner has been actually in arms, or
laboring actively in aid of those who are in arms against the Government : a
large number of slaves may thus be defrauded of emancipation through the want of
evidence to establish the treason of their masters. It is doubtful whether
25,000 human beings will exchange slavery for freedom under the proclamation of
General Fremont.
But its moral effect must be
signal. It is a solemn warning to the inhabitants of the rebel States, that
wherever the armies of the United States are resisted in the interests of
slavery, the cause of the resistance will be removed. It is a pregnant hint that
the rebels who have falsely accused us of being abolitionists may, if they
choose, make their accusation true. It is a notification to Kentucky, which
seems to be on the eve of explosion, that open treason will necessarily involve
the extirpation of slavery. This rebellion has more than once recalled the old
adage, " Those whom the Gods wish to destroy they first render mad :" we shall
now see how far the madness extends. The cost of rebellion is abolition. Those
who choose may purchase.
Another important result of
General Fremont's proclamation has been the discovery of the fact that the
people of the North are much more solidly united on the question of slavery than
was imagined. It had been generally supposed that the first utterance of the cry
of emancipation would divide the North into two hostile camps. How this strange
delusion came to be entertained it is difficult to discover; the least
reflection should have satisfied every one that it was impossible to build up at
the North a party based on protection to slavery any where. But, however the
notion originated, there is no doubt it did exist, and that leading men and
journals in the confidence of the Administration were so thoroughly imbued with
it, that they indignantly repudiated the imputation of being friendly to freedom
under any circumstances. It seems, from the temper in which the public receive
General Fremont's proclamation, that they are not so tender on the subject. They
seem very well satisfied with the prospect. We hear no complaints, no
lamentations over the downfall of slavery in Missouri. The respectable Democrats
of this part of the country express themselves rather pleased than otherwise. Of
course, it must be expected that the lottery-policy dealers and the profligate
vagabonds who pretend to represent the Democracy in convention will testify
their sorrow at the event, as they will do at every success of the National arms
: but neither in this nor in any other particular do they express the sense of
the rank and file of the Democracy.
What people want now is decided,
startling, effective successes on the part of the United States. If these are
achieved, no one will complain of what they may cost. Our Generals may
emancipate every slave in the country, and lay waste every field from the
Potomac to the Rio Grande-the people will sustain them, provided they crush out
the enemy and restore the supremacy of the Government. But there will be no
mercy for the general who, for fear of breaking a law or dividing a party,
suffers the rebels to progress from victory to victory, and the Stars and
Stripes to endure defeat after defeat, and disgrace after disgrace.
A CORRECTION.
IN a notice of
General McCLELLAN,
published in our
paper of August 31, we did injustice to Colonel DELAFIELD,
United States Army, by stating that he had gone over to the rebels. This
erroneous statement originally appeared in a city journal, and was promptly
contradicted by Governor MORGAN, who wrote as follows :
" Colonel Delafield reported to
me for duty, by order of the Chief Engineer, General Totten, seen after the
bombardment of Fort Sumter, and this State and Country will be largely benefited
by his valuable aid. There is not a more Union loving and supporting citizen
living."
We now learn that the Colonel is
still on duty with Governor MORGAN, in addition to being charged with the
Defenses at the Narrows, which are at this moment in active operation, progress
being made with a large force on both Forts Richmond and Tompkins. We learn also
that the Colonel has superintended the construction of a large supply of rifle
field-artillery that have gone into service; and that he has at this time upward
of three hundred mechanics at work in this city on gun-carriages, caissons,
forge and battery wagons, for additional rifle field-guns that he is ordered by
the Governor to have made without
unnecessary delay. We also learn that the Colonel has found time to prepare
Special Reports for the information of the Sanitary Commission.
We avail ourselves of this
occasion to inform our readers of the recent distribution, by the Senate
printer, of Colonel Delafield's report on the Art of War in Europe in 1854, '55,
and '56—a work of great labor and research, and embellished by numerous graphic
illustrations.
THE LOUNGER.
TALK BY THE WAY.
As all roads, according to the
proverb, lead to Rome, so all conversation now ends in the war. We all ask each
other anxiously how we feel today, and the fluctuations of emotion are curious
to observe. The public mind is as sensitive as a mirror. Each breath of doubt
tarnishes it. An unhappy glance makes it unhappy. A cheerful face cheers the
foolish reflector. On the bluest Monday, if a man persistently carries a smile
in his eve and a spring in his voice, the gloomiest circle of friends, which has
just demonstrated the inevitability, of national destruction, revives and takes
heart, and suddenly sees that things are not half so bad as they were an hour
before. On the other hand, a skillful array of the dismal statistics, which
every war must needs present, clouds the well-meaning soul that was trying to be
cheerful, and all is utterly hopeless and forlorn.
Petted and cockered by peace for
two generations, we come very slowly to believe that we must really fight. In
order to secure unfading gold in our harvest fields, those fields must be
changed into camps, and we do not like it. When we see it plainly, we shall do
it cheerfully and effectually. Meanwhile we look in wonder and doubt. We listen
for the guns from Western Virginia; for Fremont's orders; for McClellan's bugle.
Suppose that bugle should sound a retreat to the Susquehanna. The strain would
bring every loyal man to its banks.
There is no mistake so great as
the supposition that another
Manassas would end this war. End it ! Why, we
should only then fully perceive that we are fighting. Like the Catholic priest
who said that he could never really work for his Church until the Pope, under a
misapprehension, had excommunicated him—like the old sailor who, when the waves
hiss and the winds roar, and the ship plunges on in chaotic gloom, smiles as he
takes the helm, and turns his tough face to the storm, so the quality of our
race, the fine fibre of our manhood, would rise to meet our fate, and twist it
to our good fortune.
If it were possible that a defeat
or two could seriously harm us, we should never have fought. For that would show
such a fatal inward rottenness that the conspiracy would have been unresisted.
That was the very thing upon which the rebel leaders counted. They believed that
the poisonous breath of slavery, which a great political party and the whole
country had breathed so long, had corrupted the very sources of our national
vitality, and that the seemingly vigorous frame would crumble under a rigorous
blow. They dealt the blow at
Sumter. The smoke cleared away, and they saw that
frame stretching its giant thews and clenching its mighty hands with a roar of
indignation. They repeated the blow at Manassas, and looked to see the lifeless
hulk along the ground. But they behold only a firmer setting of the lip, as that
vast form perceives that it must use as well as own its strength.
When our earnestness equals their
desperation the end of the war, although not the settlement of the question,
will be evident enough.
PEACE MEETINGS.
THE " peace meeting" business is
just now about the flattest of all business. The people know so well that what
is called a " peace meeting" is simply a meeting to give aid and comfort to the
war which
Jeff Davis is waging upon the Government of his country, that they
stop them as they would stop a man whom they saw sending off powder and shot to
the rebel army. A "peace" man is a man who is in favor of war against the
Constitutional Government of this country. Whoever talks of compromise is, as
Mr. Holt truly called him in Boston, a traitor. For no man can be a friend of
the Government which he advises to yield to an enemy.
Of course every body understands
the work which the "peace meetings" are meant to do. They are called in those
few small places which are supposed to be somewhat disaffected to the United
States. In such places there will be a certain number ready to countenance
treason, and it is the intention of the managers of these meetings, who are the
most notorious political profligates in the country, to excite a forcible
collision between traitors and true men. The " peace meetings," let it be well
understood, are instigated by the agents of Jeff Davis, for the purpose of
bringing war and bloodshed to the doors of the hitherto happy homes of the
country. Whoever helps a " peace meeting" aids and abets Jeff Davis. If a man
goes to such an assembly because he sincerely prefers peace to war, let him ask
himself who has broken the peace, and then whether the way to secure peace is to
yield to the demands of those who do not hesitate to break it to gain their own
ends.
The Davis agents resort to the
rural districts for their experiments in aiding treason, hoping that the quiet
farming population will be deluded by the words "Peace," "Union," and
"Fraternity." They forget that from that population march the hardy soldiers who
have gone to defend that peace, union, and fraternity against the friends and
allies of the agents who get up " peace meetings" to denounce the cause for
which the soldiers gladly offer their lives.
Thus far these worthy gentry have
not succeeded in provoking any bloody collision. They have (Next
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