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Civil War Harper's Weekly, June 13, 1863

Welcome to our collection of original Civil War Harper's Weekly newspapers. These papers are online, and you can dig in and study all the important details of the war. The illustrations were created by eye-witnesses and give new perspective on this historic conflict.

(Scroll Down to See Entire Page, or Newspaper Thumbnails below will take you to the page of interest)

 

John Logan

General John Logan

Cavalry Poem

Cavalry Poem

Flag Poem

Flag Poem

Treatment of Prisoners

Treatment of Prisoners

Brashear City

Brashear City

Pocket Watch

Pocket Watch Advertisement

General Grant on Horseback

Battle of Raymond

Battle of Raymond

Union Prisoners

Home From the War

 

 

 

JUNE 13, 1863.]

HARPER'S WEEKLY.

371

(Previous Page) to favor submission to the rebels, was so strong in that city that he was protected in speaking by two hundred "minions of Abe Lincoln," who were also the municipal "tyrants and despots" of Philadelphia.

In the course of his speech the orator said that if the North, which is the stronger of the belligerents, did not offer overtures of reconciliation the war would become one of subjugation and annihilation. Of course it will. When some citizens arm to overthrow the Government of the people, and the people accept the war, there can be but one of three results: either the rebels must be subjugated by the superior power of the Government; or they must conquer the Government; or the war must continue until the weaker party is exhausted or annihilated. The proposition that the Government shall offer terms of reconciliation is merely the second of these alternatives. For what is a Government which, after two years' hard fighting with citizens who refuse to obey laws constitutionally made, asks them what they want, and agrees to do what they desire? It is merely a power which says, "You are stronger than I." It is a Government dishonored and destroyed, after a conspicuous failure to enforce its authority.

That is exactly the feast of "Peace" to which Messrs. Vallandigham, Wall, Wood, Rynders, Brooks, & Co. invite the country.

THE FLAG.

DEDICATED TO COLONEL ROBERT G. SHAW AND THE MASSACHUSETTS FIFTY-FOURTH REGIMENT.

AT last, at last, each glowing star

In that pure field of heavenly blue,

On every people shining far,

Burns, to its utmost promise true.

 

Hopes in our fathers hearts that stirred;

Justice, the seal of peace, long scorned:

Oh, perfect peace, too long deferred,

At last, at last, your day has dawned.

 

Your day has dawned, but many an hour

Of storm and cloud, of doubt and tears,

Across the eternal sky must lower

Before the glorious noon appears.

 

And not for us that noontide glow:

For us the strife and toil shall be;

But welcome toil, for now we know

Our children shall that glory see.

 

At last, at last, oh, Stars and Stripes!

Touched in your birth by Freedom's flame!

Your purifying lightning wipes

Out from our history its shame.

 

Stand to your faith, America!

Sad Europe, listen to our call!

Up to your manhood, Africa!

That gracious flag floats over all.

 

Pure as its white the future see;

Bright as its red is now the sky;

Fixed as its stars the faith shall be

That nerves our hands to do or die.

SLANDER.

MR. BENJAMIN N. MARTIN has performed a public service in writing to the New York Times that General Benham "uses no spirituous liquors when in active service." The Times upon the previous day had discoursed of damaged reputations, and imputed to General Benham a "proneness to strong drink."

Now strong drinking is a great evil, but a public charge of drunkenness is not a small one. And it has become a charge which is alarmingly universal. Many of the most conspicuous civil and military leaders of the war have been its victims. For a long time it was stoutly asserted that Mr. Seward's "habits were shocking." Then he smoked opium in his cigars. And the Lounger has been assured, by breath that was extremely "liquorish," that the most important dispatches which have emanated from the State Department were prepared under the stimulus of strong drink. Innumerable Generals have also been painted in the same colors. Miss Dickinson so far forgot herself as to insinuate that General McClellan was intoxicated during a battle. General McDowell, who never drinks any thing stronger than lemonade, was at one time currently represented as overcome with liquor upon the field. So strong was the national tendency to charge drunkenness upon every public man that the President, whom we all knew to be a teetotaller, was described by our gentlemanly slaveholding brethren, who can not associate with vile Yankees, as "a drunken baboon." The habit of imputing intoxication has gone so far that we have often heard the question asked of a person, when some act was singular or inexplicable, "Does he drink?"

It is beyond question that many public men do seek the relief of stimulating drink, and to excess. The history of the country, of every state and city, is full of the melancholy warning. But surely writers for the press should be more careful how they insinuate or state what should be unsaid until its truth is beyond cavil. There is a certain responsibility upon all newspaper writers of which we are all too forgetful. It is easy to stab reputations—to suggest plausible suspicions—to ask pregnant and suggestive questions. It is as easy as to say that our liberties are lost and that the President is Genghis Khan, because Vallandigham is sent across the lines. And in such a case as Benham's it appears to be just as true.

LONDON LITERATURE.

How absolutely literature has become a profession in London is curiously illustrated by an advertisement in a late literary paper. "To authors. Tales wanted. Good original stories, MS., containing 5000 to 50,000 words, will be liberally paid for: and rejected MSS. returned at the author's risk. Of short stories most are required; and when religious opinions are involved, they should be in favor of the national church. Translations quite unsuitable."

And another in the same paper: "To authors. A Publishing House, who (sic) intend to publish a

popular history of England from 1688 to the present time, will be glad to receive proposals from competent writers for the preparation of the work."

It would be interesting to know the final result of such advertisements. Their appearance is not surprising, for the circulation of small weekly papers in London devoted to stories is enormous. The London Journal, for instance, the most popular of the class, circulates three hundred thousand copies weekly. There is a vague impression that the poorer Londoners do not read much; yet Lloyd's penny paper circulates half a million of copies, issuing three editions, on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, respectively. It is edited by Blanchard Jerrold, son of Douglas Jerrold, and has been steadily and strongly in favor of the Union cause in this country. It is a paper of sixty columns, and is very influential with the laboring poor. The Daily Times, on the other hand, the rebel Thunderer, circulates about forty thousand. A single copy sells for threepence. The Daily Telegraph sells for one penny, and circulates 120,000 daily. The principal owner of the Times is a Mr. Walter, although, as Kinglake tells us, it is largely owned by a company. The Telegraph belongs to a Mr. Levy, a Hebrew of Fleet Street, and George Augustus Sala is its editor. Percy B. Singer is also an editor.

Of Sala the letter to the Washington Chronicle, in which we find these statements, draws a very unattractive portrait, which may be the result of some personal difficulty. "Sala writes one leading article daily for the Telegraph, for which he receives three guineas per diem. He is also the editor of Temple Bar (a magazine) and he will write for any thing that pays. He was the boon companion of Train—drank his Champagne, puffed his tramway, borrowed his money, and when Train lost his prestige, he lost Sala. Sala has reputation here, but he is simply a wordy, mercenary pretender, coarse in his manners and corrupt in his tastes."

Of his "Captain Dangerous," which this writer calls "a flimsy sketch of rubbish," the Atheneum says: "As a life-like reproduction of an obsolete form of literature, setting forth with much vigor and freshness of humor a living writer's ideal of the views and ways of life taken by an adventurous rover some generations since, the book will delight those who are familiar with the sources from which its stores of information have been drawn."

Doctors disagree.

A COMMON COMPLAINT.

   "NEW YORK, Monday, June 1,1863.

"DEAR MR. LOUNGER,—Will you, like a chivalric and good-natured Lounger, incline your ear to the grievances of the fair sex? Will you bestow upon us the meed of a little sympathy and a little advice while we lay our cause of complaint before you? Our patience has been tried beyond endurance—in fact, it has ceased to be a virtue.

"We wish simply to know whether it is well-bred or gallant for a crowd of elaborately-dressed men—not gentlemen—to post themselves in front of the Fifth Avenue Hotel every Sunday when people are en route to and from church, for the sole purpose of criticising the ladies. Is it polite for them to make audible comments on our dress or looks, and our style generally? If we're good-looking, we don't care to be told of it in that public fashion; if we're plain, we certainly can dispense with a proclamation of the fact. Sunday after Sunday this petite comauy is re-enacted, until the Fifth Avenue Hotel is positively dreaded by the ladies. Nor can we avoid the infliction, situated as the hotel is on the thoroughfare leading to our principal churches. Now, dear Lounger, won't you give these fashionable loafers a gentle hint on behalf of a host of your lady readers? Do, and we'll be your firm friends and allies ever after.

"ONE OF THE SUFFERERS."

It is an old complaint, dear ladies. In Thackeray's "Pendennis," you will remember the charming poem at "the Church Porch," which is not indeed the hotel porch, but the lounging around both places is the same. And what can he done? Here is a man at the Lounger's elbow this moment who says that the world never moves; that nothing ever changes; and that what has been will continue to be forever. What do you think of that? There will indeed, we fear, for a long time be plenty of men who will affect to be gentlemen, and criticise audibly or inaudibly the aspect of the ladies who pass before them. The only way of avoidance is very simple, but it is quite effective. Cross to the other side of the street, ladies; and reflect that in the public streets of a great city there must be a great many inconveniences and nuisances which you can not wholly escape.

A PICTURE AT BARNUM'S.

IN the gallery with the Aquaria at Barnum's Museum there is a large picture, painted by Louis Ransom, of John Brown on his way to execution. He is just leaving the jail under military escort and meets the negro woman and her child. "They were of the despised race for whose sake he had suffered so much, and was now about to lay down his life. He paused for a moment, stooped, and kissed the child tenderly." It is one of the incidents that history will always fondly record and art delineate The fierce and bitter judgment of the moment upon the old man is already tempered. Despised and forsaken in his own day, the heart of another generation may treat him as he treated the little outcast child. In the picture his head is conspicuous against the yellow ground of a flag which surrounds it like a halo. The eager officer by his side pushes the mother away, and the bedizened soldier in the fore-ground scowls at her. The fussy parade which the authorities made at his execution is admirably suggested by these figures, and however sharply the work might be criticised by the connoisseur, there is a solemnity and pathos in it which is wanting in many a finer painting.

When the Lounger was a boy and went to museums, the chief and terrible attraction was the murder of old Mr. White in Salem, done in wax. But here for the boys of to-day is a terrible scene of another kind, to which the artist has brought an earnest and loving hand, and which—such is the constant throng at the Museum—more than many books or orations, will repeat the significant story to

the popular heart. That heart will remember long that those who were fiercest in their condemnation of John Brown are faintest in their censure of the rebels.

LITERARY.

MR. WALTER LOW, the bookseller at No. 823 Broadway, has the good and most useful habit of advertising in every Saturday's Evening Post the new books of the week. Readers and buyers will find his bulletin a great convenience.

Mr. Low has also for sale the admirable photograph by Rockwood of Darley's characteristic drawing, "The Story of a Battle."

Bayard Taylor has a novel in press, called "The Strong-Minded Woman: a Romance of American Life."

Donald G. Mitchell, "Ik Marvel," has a new book nearly ready—"My Farm: a Book on Rural Topics." When Rubens was sent as minister to a foreign court he said that he was a painter playing embassador. Mr. Mitchell would probably call himself a farmer playing author.

HUMORS OF THE DAY.

WHEN Mademoiselle Arnault, the actress, went to visit Voltaire, he said to her, "Ah! Mademoiselle, I am eighty-four years old, and I have committed as many fooleries." "Quite a trifle," replied the actress; "I am only forty, and have committed a thousand."

Some poet says the wind kisses the waves. That, we suppose, is the celebrated "kiss for a blow," about which we have heard so much.

The young man who asked the daughter's hand and got the father's foot, had the consolation of knowing that his wooing was not bootless.

"Ah," said a teacher—"ah, Caroline Jones, what do you think you would have been without your father and mother?" "I suppose, mum," said Caroline, who was very much struck with the soft appeal, "I suppose, mum, as I should ha' been a horphan."

On hearing a clergyman remark, "the world is full of change," Mrs. Partington said she could hardly bring her mind to believe it, so little found its way into her pocket.

Often at fashionable balls we have seen a good many goats, and a pair of kids to every goat.

A young gentleman having made some progress in acquiring a knowledge of Italian, addressed a few words to an organ-grinder in his purest accent, but was astonished at receiving the following response, "I no speak Inglis."

"I am like Balsam," said a dandy, on meeting a pretty girl in a passage, "stopped by an angel." "And I am like the angel," said she, "stopped by an ass."

"Any thing to please the child," as the nurse said when she let the baby crawl out of the nursery window.

"We've only met to divide," as the guillotine said to the criminal.

Tomkins considers that a briefless barrister ought never to be blamed, "for it is decidedly wrong to abuse a man without a cause."

If a man uses a cork-screw too often at a sitting, his movements are as likely to get as crooked as the instrument.

"Honesty," says Archbishop Whately, "is the best policy; but he who acts upon this principle is not an honest man."

"I am surprised, wife, at your ignorance. Have you never seen any books at all ?"—"Oh, yes, in a number of cases."

It is said, that, with a Yankee, every day is a day of "reckoning."

The loud tones in which some people appeal to reason imply that reason is a great distance from them.

The worst and most unendurable of all our ills are the imaginary ones.

"I think I must look over it," as the horse said to the gate of the clover field.

Persons dead to shame may not unfrequently prove alive to the horsewhip.

What is the use of an eclipse?—Why, to give the sun time for reflection.

DO YOU GIVE IT UP?

My first is a carriage in England that's seen,

But in foreign parts more does abound,

In my second we'll find that few have not been,

If we search all the country around,

My whole's in position as low as can be,

Yet the poor seldom have me you plainly will see.

Car-pet (Carpet).

Why should a gouty man make his will?

To have his legatees (leg at ease).

My first in music forms a graceful part;

My next the Cossack whirls with dextrous art;

My whole's a bard whose well-known name

Will live forever in the rolls of fame.

Shake-spears.

Why is a man giving alms to a beggar like a cart-horse?

Because he stops at woh (woe)

When do sheep become stationery?

When they are turned into pens.

If an old woman in a red cloak were to overtake a fierce ram in a narrow lane, what transformation would take place?

The ram would turn to butter (butt her), the old woman into a scarlet-runner.

What man had no father?

Joshua, the son of Nun (none).

Why is a clever detective like a precocious genius?

Because he possesses great quiekitess of apprehension.

I take the lead in government, yet have no part in law;

I terminate every undertaking, yet am never in action;

and though never wanting in guineas, am always out of cash?

The letter G.

DOMESTIC INTELLIGENCE.

VICKSBURG.

UP to 27th, three assaults had been made by our forces on the rebel strong-hold, in all of which we were repulsed. The last assault was made by General Sherman, with twenty thousand men, in which we lost six hundred killed and a large number wounded. Our outer line is within

one hundred yards of the rebel works. Our sharp-shooters prevent the rebels from working their guns. The rebel works in the rear of the city are far more formidable than those in front. General Joe Johnston is in the neighborhood of Jackson with about fifteen thousand men, and is reported to be short of provisions and ammunition. General Grant has taken 8400 prisoners and 84 pieces of artillery.

LOSS OF THE "CINCINNATI."

News from Memphis to the 1st inst. recounts the destruction of the United States gun-boat Cincinnati by the fire of the rebel batteries on the 26th ult., and the loss of from fifteen to forty killed and wounded.

PORTER ON THE YAZOO.

The following dispatch was received last week at the Navy Department:

FLAG-SHIP "BLACK HAWK," MISSISSIPPI SQUADRON,

NEAR VICKSBURG, May 25, via CAIRO, May 30, 1863.

To Hon. Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy:

SIR,—I have the honor to inform you that the expedition under the command of Lieutenant Commander Walker, after taking possession of the forts at Haines's Bluff, was perfectly successful.

Three powerful steamers and a ram were destroyed at Yazoo City. The ram was a monster, 310 feet long, 70 feet beam, to be covered with four-inch iron plates. Also a fine navy-yard, with machine shops of all kinds, saw-mills, blacksmiths' shops, etc., were burned up.

The property destroyed and captured amounted to over two millions of dollars.

Had the monster ram been finished she would have given us some trouble.

One battery was destroyed at Drury's Bluff.

Our loss on the expedition was one killed and seven wounded.   DAVID D. PORTER,

Acting Rear-Admiral, Com'dg Miss. Squadron.

GENERAL BANKS'S OPERATIONS.

Advices front the Department of the Gulf to the 24th ult. state that Port Hudson, like Vicksburg, is in a state of siege. A preliminary reconnoissance was made from Baton Rouge on the 12th, Colonel Grierson with his famous cavalry co-operating. It was further continued on the 13th, and the rebel pickets at Port Hudson were driven in. Colonel Grierson proceeded to the railroads and telegraphs communicating with the place, and succeeded in destroying all communication. On the 19th the reconnoissance was pushed to within a mile and it half of the rebel works without bringing on an engagement. On the 21st, however, a heavy force having been brought up from Baton Rouge, on the Bayou Sara Road, the advance in earnest against Port Hudson commenced, and the enemy, under General Gardner, was encountered on the Port Hudson Plains, two open tracts of smooth country four miles east of the fortifications. The rebels were in ambush, but were soon uncovered, and, after a warm engagement, were defeated and driven back within their works, leaving a large number of killed and wounded on the field. Port Hudson by this time is fully invested by our forces, if it has not already fallen into our hands.

A FIGHT AT FLORENCE.

A dispatch from Cincinnati, dated June 2, says that Colonel Cornyn defeated General Roddy at Florence, Alabama, on the 27th ult., capturing one hundred men, eight officers, four hundred mules, and three hundred negroes. Colonel Cornyn then proceeded northward, destroying foundries, mills, and every thing else useful to the enemy that he could lay his hands on.

THE REBEL ARMY OF THE POTOMAC.

It is stated that the enemy is in motion, their trains being observed moving toward Culpepper, followed by a heavy column of troops. General Lee, it is said, has issued an address to his army congratulating them upon their past achievements and foreshadowing a raid into Maryland. He tells them that they are to have long and rapid marches through a country without railroads, and calls upon every man to be prepared for the severest hardships.

BURNSIDE AT WORK.

A correspondent of the Chicago Tribune, by authority of General Burnside himself, denies the statement that he has asked to be relieved of the command of the Department which he now controls. When he accepted the command it was with the understanding that he should take the field with his Ninth Army Corps, and other troops that were to be forwarded to him, and pierce through Kentucky to East Tennessee. He did not intend to remain in Cincinnati more than ten days, but has been detained until now. He proposes to leave for the front in a few days, and will take immediate command of the troops. His troop, are to co-operate with those of Rosecrans, and also with those of Grant, as soon as Vicksburg is taken.

THREATENED RETALIATION.

A dispatch was sent under a flag of truce last week by General Burnside to General Bragg, stating that if any retaliation for the hanging of two spies, executed recently according to the usages of war, should be resorted to by the rebels he would hang all the rebel officers in his hands.

UNION PRISONERS HELD BY THE REBELS.

It appears that the rebel authorities refuse to parole the officers of Colonel Streight's command, recently captured near Rome, Georgia; but still retain them as prisoners of war at Richmond.

EXPLOITS OF THE ENGLISH PIRATES.

The British pirates Alabama and Florida, acting in conjunction, have lately destroyed no less than nine vessels, namely: The Oneida, Louisa Hatch, Nora, Charles Hill, Commonwealth, Henrietta, Lafayette, Kate Cory, and Kingfisher, in all making five ships, two barks, one brig, and a schooner.

ELECTION IN WESTERN VIRGINIA.

The following are the names of the loyal State officers who were elected in Western Virginia on the 28th ult.:

   Governor—F. H. Pierpont.

   Lieutenant-Governor—L. U. P. Cowper.

   Attorney-General—J. R. Bowden.

FOREIGN NEWS.
ENGLAND.
SEIZURE OF BRITISH VESSELS.

EARL RUSSELL, in the House of Lords, defended the American prize courts and the course of policy of Secretary Seward relative to the cases of captured British vessels off the blockading coast against a severe attack of the Marquis of Clanricarde. The Earl stated that the law officers of the Crown had considered almost every case of seizure, and "they reported that there was no rational ground of objection" to the action of the American prize courts.

MEXICO.

REPORTED FALL OF PUEBLA.

It is reported that the French have ultimately succeeded in the capture of Puebla, with its commander-in-chief (General Ortega), a large number of inferior officers, and thousands of soldiers. The garrison artillery, by the same accounts, are said to have also fallen into their hands. It is said that immediately on the arrival of his heavy siege artillery General Forey opened a tremendous bombardment on the city, and on the 17th ult. ordered a general assault. The garrison, however, is said to have made but little resistance, and the whole force, commander, officers, soldiers, and artillery, unconditionally surrendered. The whole story needs confirmation.

BRAZIL.

HOW AN HONEST GOVERNMENT ACTS.

The recent raids of the privateer Alabama off the coast of Brazil have provoked the authorities of that country to remove the commander at Fernando de Noronha for permitting her to commit depredations in Brazilian waters, and her presence in that region was forbidden by his successor.


 

 

 

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