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Civil War Harper's Weekly, February 4, 1865

This site features an online archive of Harper's Weekly newspapers published during the Civil War. These old newspapers make fascinating reading, and present first reports of the battles and key events. The woodcut illustrations were created by eye-witnesses to the events and shed new light on this important conflict. This material is simply not available anywhere else.

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

 

Fort Fisher

Battle of Fort Fisher

Sherman March

Editorial on General Sherman's March

Pardon

Pardon of Mrs. Hutchins

Surrender of Fort Fisher

Surrender of Fort Fisher

Soldier's Diary

Soldier's Diary

General Ames

General Adelbert Ames

Destruction of the Savannah Ram

Transatlantic Telegraph

Transatlantic Telegraph

Celebration

Soldiers Celebrating

Battle of Fort Fisher

Battle of Fort Fisher

John Bull Cartoon

John Bull Cartoon

 

 

 

 

 

HARPER'S WEEKLY.

[FEBRUARY 4, 1865.

78

fight in Washington Thursday, and was knocked down by his opponent." Neal Dews and John B. Goughs are not so much needed to effect a reform as a higher tone of popular feeling respecting such things at the capital. Barnum may laugh at the Washington Monument as the humbug of Washington ; but there is a moral slough in this city more shameful than this stump of an unfinished Washington Monument, and darker and fouler than the natural one from which the elder ADAMS redeemed the pride of the country Pennsylvania Avenue.

But let us change the atmosphere, and, crossing the Potomac at the Aqueduct Bridge, enjoy this beautiful winter's prospect of the capital from Arlington Heights. We get a fine view from the piazza of the Custis Mansion, now left alone and an untenanted possession of the Government. As we walked through that grand oak forest an army of crows were cawing their ill bodings to him whose late home crowns the eminence. The grounds about the Custis Mansion are occupied as a graveyard for Union soldiers, while in the house itself is the head quarters of the captain superintending.

We pass by Forts Albany, Corcoran, and others, crowning these heights with their high flags afloat, and, as a more interesting and instructive object, devote our time to " Freedman's Village," a colony of eighteen hundred liberated slaves. It is under the control of Government, and a sentinel takes your " pass." You scarcely enter before you perceive in their countenances of joy that both old and young appreciate the opportunities they have here for getting an education and learning the arts of civilization. Here we see the deserted Lee Mansion and the happy Freedman's Village side by side. " How are the mighty fallen !" The master and freedman have exchanged places. " What God hath wrought!" is the message which now comes over the Potomac from Arlington Heights.

Mr. H. E. SIMMONS, of Rhode Island, superintends the schools here. He is assisted by half a dozen male and female assistants, and a casual call at the school convinces one that the children of Ham can become bright scholars. But Freedman's Village has another and quite as powerful teacher in that well known lecturess SOJOURNER TRUTH. We found this veteran laborer for the slave in one of the little cottages, her hands in the flour. We congratulated her upon the rescue of this fragment, like that of the Israelites from the land of Egyptian darkness. But SOJOURNER replied with energy that this was only a " large Government poor house." She wanted " her folks to be learning habits of economy, to be earning something, to become real Yankees." We bought one of SOJOURNER'S pictures, and she desired our autograph in her memorandum book, in which a few days before had been inscribed, " For AUNTY SOJOURNER TRUTH, A. LINCOLN." Some horse cars labeled " Colored persons not admitted" collect fares from far less sensible ones than honest, earnest, and God-worshiping SOJOURNER TRUTH.

WASHINGTON, January, 1865.   C. P. O.  

THE ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH
CABLE.

THE new Atlantic Telegraph Cable is in rapid progress at the works of the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company, formerly Glass & Elliot's, at East Greenwich. This work, if successfully completed, will be the triumph of the century; and to the accomplishment of this end the engineer and the electrician are exhausting their combined energies. It is not chiefly the powerful machinery by which fourteen miles of the " core," or gutta percha coated copper wire, are worked up into cable every day that excites our astonishment, but the more minute and complex operations those, for instance, by which tons of material during the manufacture must undergo the trial of those exquisite instruments over which the man of science bends watchfully hour after hour, ready not only to detect a fault, but to apprise the engineers at what exact distance in the cable it has occurred.

The core of the cable is fabricated from iron wire and Manila yarn, which is afterward steeped in a seething compound of tar and gutta percha. A section of the perfected cable measures an inch and one eighth in diameter, the seven conducting wires lying close together in the middle. These wires are surrounded by layers of gutta percha. This is then covered with an additional protection consisting of ten closely twisted strands, having iron wire in the middle. Fifty tons of this iron wire are used every week in combination with Manila at the rate of six and a half tons per day. The wire is twisted around by machinery from bobbins, the machines each turning out 140 miles of the Manila covered wire in a day. As it is twisted it goes through the hot solution of tar and gutta percha above mentioned, when it is passed through a trough of water to cool it. The noise of the machinery in the factory where this process goes on is absolutely deafening. It should be observed that before being worked into cable by the ten strands of wire and yarn the core is wrapped in a twisted fold of jute.

From the gutta percha works the cable is then carried to the Morden Wharf factory. Here the core is received on large reels, and is sunk in circular openings, which are then filled up with water. From first to last, we may here observe, the cable is in all its processes of formation at this factory kept in water, that any flaw in the coating may the more quickly be made apparent. For twelve hours the coils of core are subject to electrical tests, their continuity being ascertained and their complete isolation proved beyond a doubt. The joining of the ends is a very delicate operation, and in ninety nine cases out of a hundred if any fault is detected it is found in one of the joints. Hitherto the superintendents of this anxious work have been very fortunate ; but it has sometimes happened that a great length of cable has had to be uncoiled, the defective joint cut out, and the whole made good. An account is kept of the daily progress, and there were six hundred and twenty-nine miles completed December 16,1864. More than twelve miles are added

daily, so that now there are over a thousand miles completed. The distance from the west coast of Ireland to Trinity Bay, Newfoundland, is one thousand six hundred and forty nautical miles. Two of the eight tanks are nearly full, and will soon be ready for embarkation by the Amethyst and Iris, two ghostly looking hulks which lie alongside, near the wharf. The decks of these vessels have been knocked about considerably, and in great part got rid of, to make room for tanks in which the cable will be stowed in the same manner as at the factory. The hulks, when laden, will be towed to the Medway, where the Great Eastern is now lying, with three enormous tanks on board, occupying, by comparison with the surrounding bulk, so little space as to deceive experienced eyes as to their actual dimensions. The Iris and the Amethyst have each two tanks on board. They will have to make nine trips to get all the cable alongside the " big ship." Mr. Canning and Mr. Clifford, under whose control the operations have been conducted at East Greenwich, will accompany their precious charge on board the Great Eastern, and will direct the laying of the cable across the Atlantic Ocean. Our statement of the mileage of perfected cable gives but little idea of the length of all the materials taken separately. For example, to make up the 2300 miles of cable which, allowing for various contingencies, will be required, 16,000 miles of copper wire are used. The insulating material is equal to an aggregate length of 18,400 miles ; the jute, being in ten strands, will extend to 23,000 miles, which will also be the length of the iron wire ; and as each wire is separately covered with five twists or strands of yarn, 135,000 miles of the latter will be worked into the cable, making together a length of material which amounts to 215,500 miles. What these figures really signify may be understood by reference to the astronomical fact that the distance of 237,000 miles is that from the earth to the moon.

PETROLEUM.  THE New York and Liverpool Petroleum Company, whose advertisement appears elsewhere, offers unrivaled guarantees of safety and good management in the fact that it is so largely owned and conducted by real men of oil not mere speculators in corporations. Mr. Anger, one of its trustees, belongs to the Titusville firm of Brewer, Watson, & Co., whose wealth counts by millions. Mr. Myers, another, is an extensive well proprietor and oil shipper ; and others of them, so to speak, " live and move and have their being" in oil. Such features show that a company is real, and meant for permanence.

ADVERTISEMENTS.

TWELVE YEARS AGO HOSTETER'S STOMACH BITTERS was struggling into notice against the prejudices which every thing new, however excellent, is doomed to encounter: TODAY it stands at the head of all the tonic and alterative preparations in existence. Its celebrity has evoked many imitations, but no rivals. Physicians pronounce it the ONLY SAFE STIMULANT that has ever been introduced into the sick chamber. In the Hospitals of the Army and Navy the surgeons find it the very best tonic for convalescents, and report it as invaluable for sustaining the vigor of troops on the march, as a remedy for scurvy and all scorbutic affections, and as the only specific for sea sickness. California and Australia have emphatically indorsed it as the MINERS' MEDICINE par excellence, and in Spanish America and all the tropical climates it is considered the only reliable antidote to epidemic fevers. There is no mystery about the causes of its success. It is the only stomachic and alterative in which are combined the grand requisites of a mild, pure, and unvitiated vegetable stimulant, with the finest selection of tonic, antibilions, antiscorbutic, aperient, and depurative herbs, plants, roots, and barks that have ever been intermixed in a medicinal preparation. The Bitters have this distinctive quality, which is not shared, it is believed, by any tonic, tincture, or extract in the world: they do not excite the pulse, though they infuse a wonderful degree of vigor into the nervous system, and strengthen and sustain the whole physical organization. New York Tribune.

Itch! Itch! Itch! SCRATCH ! SCRATCH ! SCRATCH! WHEATON'S OINTMENT WILL CURE THE ITCH IN 48 HOURS. Also cures SALT RHEUM, ULCERS, CHILBLAINS, and all ERUPTIONS OF THE SKIN. Price 50 cents. For sale by all Druggists. By sending 60 cents to WEEKS & POTTER, Sole Agents, 170 Washington St., Boston, it will be forwarded by mail, free of postage, to any part of the United States. RITTER'S Patent Portable DESK, Portfolio, and Checker Board combined, containing 20 writing and sewing articles for Soldiers, Sailors, Miners, &c. at CUTTER, TOWER & Co.'s, 128 Nassau St. Sample mailed free for $2, by A. J. RITTER, Rahway, N. J.

" THE PEN IS MIGHTIER THAN THE
SWORD."
THE GOLD PEN—THE BEST OF ALL PENS, MORTON'S GOLD PENS, THE BEST PENS IN THE WORLD. On receipt of any of the following sums in Cash, the Subscriber will send by return mail, or otherwise, as directed, a Gold Pen or Pens selecting the same according to description, viz.: GOLD PENS WITHOUT CASES. For 50 cents, the Magic Pen; for 75 cents, the Lucky Pen ; for $1 00, the Always-Ready Pen ; for $1 25, the Elegant Pen ; and for $150, the Excelsior Pen. These Pens are not numbered, but correspond in sizes to Numbers 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 respectively. THE SAME PENS IN SILVER-PLATED EXTENSION CASES WITH PENCILS. For $1 00, the Magic Pen; for $1 25, the Lucky Pen; for $1 50, the Always-Ready Pen ; for $2 00, the Elegant Pen ; and for $2 25, the Excelsior Pen. These are Well Finished, Good Writing Gold Pens, with Iridosmin Points, the average wear of every one of which will far outlast a gross of the best Steel Pens; although they are unwarranted, and, therefore, not exchangeable. MORTON'S WARRANTED PEN. The name, " A. Morton," " Number," and "Quality," are stamped on the following Pens, and the points are warranted for six months, except against accident. The Numbers indicate size only; No. 1 being the smallest, No. 6 the largest, adapted for the pocket; No. 4 the smallest, and No. 10 the largest Mammoth Gold Pen, for the desk. Long and Medium Nibs of all sizes and qualities. Short Nibs of Nos. 4, 5, 6, and 7, and made only of first quality. The Long and Short Nibs are fine pointed ; the Medium Nibs are Broad, Coarse Business Points. The engravings are Lc-similes of the sizes and styles. GOLD PENS WITHOUT CASES. For $1 25 a No.1 Pen, let quality ; or a  No. 5 Pen, 2d quality; or a No. 6 Pen, 3d quality. For $2 75 a No. 5 Pen, 1st quality ; or a No. 6 Pen, 2d quality. For $3 50 a No. 6 Pen; $4 50 a No. 7 Pen; $5 75 a No. 8 Pen; $6 50 a No. 9 Pen ; $7 50 a No. 10 Pen—all 1st quality. THE SAME GOLD PENS; IN SILVER EXTENSION CASES, WITH PENCILS. For $2 00 a No. 1 Pen, 1st quality ; or a  6 Pen, 3d quality. For $4 50 a No. 5 Pen, 1st quality; or a No. 6 Pen, 2d quality. For $5 75 a No. 6 Pen, 1st quality. GOLD PENS, ALL FIRST QUALITY, IN SILVER- MOUNTED DESK-HOLDERS. For $2 75 a No. 4 Pen; for $3 25 a No. 5 Pen; for $4 00 a No. 6 Pen ; for $5 75 a No. Pen. For $7 a No. 8 Pen; for $8 a No. 9 Pen; and for $9 a No. 10 Pen. The "1st Quality" are pointed with the very best Iridosmin Points, carefully selected, and none of this quality are sold with the slightest imperfection which skill and the closest scrutiny can detect. The "2d Quality" are superior to any Pens made by him previous to the year 1860. The "3d Quality" he intends shall equal in respect to Durability, Elasticity, and Good Writing Qualities (the only true considerations) any Gold Pens made elsewhere. In regard to the Cheap Gold Pens, he begs leave to say that previous to operating his New and Patented Machines, he could not have made as Good Writing and Durable Pens, for the Price, had the Gold been furnished gratuitously, Parties ordering must in all instances specify the "Name" or the " Number" and " Quality" of the Pens wanted, and be particular to describe the kind they prefer whether stiff or limber, coarse or fine. All remittances sent by mail in registered letters are at my risk, and to all who send twenty cents (charge for registering), in addition to the price of goods ordered, I will guarantee their safe delivery. Parties sending Gold or Silver will be allowed the full premium on the day received. TO CLUBS.—A discount of 10 per cent. will be allowed on sums of $12, of 15 per cent. on $24, and of 20 per cent. on $40, if sent to one address at one time. Address   A. MORTON, No. 25 Maiden Lane, New York.

Gold Pens 50 cts. to $2. Pens in silver extension cases, $1 to $3. Send stamps for circular. GEO. F. HAWKES, Agt., Manufacturer, 64 Nassau St., New York. Also for sale the only perfect Fountain Pen in the world.

AGENTS, COME and EXAMINE An Invention urgently needed by every body, or samples sent free by mail for $1, which retails for $12 easily, by R. L. WOLCOTT, No. 170 Chatham Square, N. Y.

HOW TO MAKE MONEY EASY ! An Art Worth Knowing. On Receipt of One Dollar, I will send to any lady or gentleman a valuable SECRET ART, the knowledge of which will enable any active person with ordinary intelligence to make from $20 to $25 per week. BUSINESS HIGHLY RESPECTABLE, and is invaluable to all correspondents. Costs but $1 for material to make $50. JUSTICE TO ALL. Address J. WESLEY BRADFORD, 25 Park Row, N. Y.

J. H. Winslow & Co.

THE GREATEST OPPORTUNITY EVER OFFERED
TO SECURE GOOD JEWELRY AT
LOW PRICES.

100,000

WATCHES, CHAINS, SETS OF JEWELRY, GOLD PENS, BRACELETS, LOCKETS, RINGS, GENT'S PINS, SLEEVE BUTTONS, STUDS, ETC.,

Worth $500,000,

To be sold for ONE DOLLAR each, without regard to value, and not to be paid for until you know what you are to get. Send 25 cents for a Certificate, which will inform you what you can have for $1, and at the same time get our Circular containing full list and particulars ; also terms to Agents, which we want in every Regiment and Town in the Country. J. H. WINSLOW & CO., 208 Broadway, New York.

INDISPENSABLE ! THE NEW HAND BOOB; How to Write, How to Talk, How to Behave, How to Do Business. One vol., by return post, $2 25. AGENTS WANTED. Inclose stamp, and address FOWLER & Warms, 389 Broadway, New York.

STAMMERING; its Causes and Cure, 20 cents. BASHFULNESS, How to overcome it, 20 cents. THE PHYSIOGNOMY of INSANITY, 20 cents. Address FOWLER & WELLS, 389 Broadway, New York.

Inclose two red stamps, and send for circular, to Y. DELAFIELD, 35 Maiden Lane, New York.

ALL ARTICLES FOR SOLDIERS At Baltimore, Washington, and all places occupied by Union troops, should be sent by HARNDEN'S EXPRESS, No. 65 Broadway. Sutlers charged low rates.

PUBLISHED BY
HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK.

HARPER & BROTHERS, will send any of the following Works by Mail, postage prepaid, on receipt of the price. HARPER'S CATALOGUE and HARPER'S TRADE LIST sent by Mail on receipt of Five Cents. THE BOUND VOLUME OF HARPER'S WEEKLY, 1864. Harper's Weekly for the Year 1864, with over 1000 Illustrations. 852 pages, 4to, substantially bound in Cloth. Price $7 00. Also, now ready, complete sets, Vols. I. to VIII., bound in Cloth, $7 00 per vol. CAPTAIN HALL'S ARCTIC RESEARCHES AND LIFE AMONG THE ESQUIMAUX. Arctic Researches and Life among the Esquimaux: being the Narrative of an Expedition in Search of Sir John Franklin, in the years 1860, 1861, and 1862. By CHARLES FRANCIS HALL. With Maps and 100 Illustrations, beautifully engraved from Designs by CHARLES PARSONS, HENRY L. STEPHENS, SOL. EYTINGE, W. S. L. JEWETT, and GRANVILLE PERKINS, after Sketches by Mr. HALL and Photographs. 8vo, Cloth, $4 50 ; Half Morocco, $6 50. DICKENS'S NEW CHRISTMAS STORY: MRS. LIRRIPER'S LEGACY. 8vo, Paper, 10 cents. QUEENS OF SONG: being Memoirs of some of the most celebrated Female Vocalists who have performed on the Lyric Stage from the Earliest Days of Opera to the Present Time. To which is added a Chronological List of all the Operas that have been performed in Europe. By ELLEN CREATHORNE CLAYTON. With Portraits of Mrs. Billington, Madame Pasta, Madame Sontag, Madame Garcia Malibran, Madame Giulia, Grisi. Madame Clara Novello, Madame Viardot Garcia, Madame Marietta Alboni, Madame Jenny Lind Goldschmidt, and Madame Marietta Piccolomini. 8vo, Cloth, $3 00 ; Half Morocco, $4 50. MY BROTHER'S WIFE : A Life History. By AMELIA B. EDWARDS, Author ,of "Barbara's History," "The Ladder of Life," &c. 8vo, Paper, 50 cents. QUITE ALONE. A Novel. By GEORGE AUGUSTUS SALA. 8vo, Paper, 75 cents. (The new edition will be ready in a few days.) THE PERPETUAL CURATE. A Novel. By the Author of " Chronicles of Carlingford," "Margaret Maitland," "The Laird of Norlaw," "The Days of my Life," &c. 8vo, Cloth, $150; Paper, $100, MARGARET DENZIL'S HISTORY. Annotated by her Husband. A Novel. 8vo, Paper, 75 cents. "FROM DAN TO BEERSHEBA:" or, The Land of Promise as it now Appears. Including a Description of the Boundaries, Topography, Agriculture, Antiquities, Cities, and Present Inhabitants of that Wonderful Land. With Illustrations of the remarkable Accuracy of the Sacred Writers in their Allusions to their Native Country. By Rev. J. P. NEWMAN, D.D. Maps and Engravings. 12mo, Cloth, $1 75. CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE "CENTIPEDE." A Pirate of Eminence in the West Indies: his Loves and Exploits, together with some Account of the singular Manner by which he departed this Life. A Novel. By HARRY GRINGO (H. A. WISE, U. S. N.). With Illustrations. 8vo, Cloth, $2 00; Paper, $150 MAURICE DERING; or, The Quadrilateral. A Novel. By the Author of " Guy Livingstone," "Sword and Gown," &c. New Edition. 8vo, Paper, 50 cents. NINETEEN BEAUTIFUL YEARS; OR, SKETCHES OF A GIRL'S LIFE. Written by her Sister. With an Introduction by Rev. R. S. FOSTER, D.D. New Edition. 16mo, Cloth, $100.

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