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facts and Incidents — war matters-- Choice extracts from Northern journals, &c., &c.


The Rev. H. R. Scott has addressed a letter to Dr. Tyng, date St. Paul's Rectory, Va., August 12th, 1861, giving some facts in connection with the battle of Manassas, which is published in the Baltimore Exchange. We make some extracts:

‘ Never has any army been more deluded than that ‘"grand army"’ which retreated so hastily from Manassas. In trying to minister to the spiritual comfort of the many wounded that have been left behind, I have had frequent opportunities of hearing, from their own lips, an account of the gross deception which had been practiced upon them. They were told that the great body of the people in the South were Union men, ready to rally around the ‘"Stars and Stripes"’ as soon as they could do it with safety. While, on the contrary, there never has, in the history of the world, been seen a greater determination in any people to struggle, even unto death, for what they regard as their constitutional rights. They were told by their leaders that we could bring into the field no force to stand against the ‘"grand army"’ of the North; while now the whole North attempts to explain the shameful defeat at Manassas, on the ground of our superior numbers and generalship.

And, in this connection, you will pardon me, sir, for referring to another false impression, which you, perhaps unintentionally, have assisted in producing. I need hardly say that I refer to your recent speech before the Bible Society, in which you, in a sneering manner, express the opinion that not five hundred Bibles could be found in the whole of the Southern army; while at the same time you speak in the most glowing terms of the religious character of those you have sent forth to subjugate us. In most fervid language you exclaim, ‘"Has the world ever seen such an army? How their names will glisten in glory!"’ And in the ardor of your deep feeling, you even suggest that ‘"the rare birds of Billy Wilson's flock"’ may secure their salvation by the consecration they are now making of themselves to the cause of their country.

A stranger might infer, from this remarkable speech, that the contrast between the two armies must be most discreditable to the South. He might naturally expect to see a horde of barbarians contending with the most enlightened Christian army that ever went into a field of battle. But what do we see, when this vaunted army treads upon the soil of the Old Dominion? Robbery, house-burning, rape, desecration of churches and even graveyards have followed in its train. Already, horrors enough have been committed to degrade any civilized people on the face of the globe. * * * * *

The Rev. H. R. Scott From what I had seen, in the papers, of the Christian character of the great army, and of the many thousand copies of the Bible that had been distributed among the soldiers, I naturally expected to find a good number taking consolation in their afflictions from its blessed teachings; but I have no recollection of having seen among them a single copy of the Bible, and I certainly conversed with no one who seemed to have clear views of the Gospel. I would not be understood to intimate that I think there are no pious men in the Northern army. There are, doubtless, many sincere Christians to be found among the many thousands who have been drawn into this vile war; but, certainly, the facts which I have mentioned clearly show that the army, generally, is very far from being controlled by Christian principles.

And now, in conclusion, sir, I will take the liberty of saying to you, that it is impossible for the South to be subdued by any army you can bring against us. The world has never before seen such an army as that which has been raised here to resist this unjust and unholy invasion. Every class and every profession, from the highest to the lowest, is represented in this army. And a very large proportion of the men not only pay their own expenses, but contribute very large sums towards the prosecution of the war. It matters not what force you may bring against us — we can easily raise man for man; and the experience of the past few weeks clearly shows that a larger number will not be required to drive the invaders from our soil.

We will be, with God's blessing, a free and independent people, and when separated from the poisonous influences of Northern abolitionism, we hope and expect to do more than we have ever done for the temporal and spiritual elevation of the race over whom God, in His all-wise providence, has placed us.


Imbecility of Lincoln's Cabinet.

Thurlow Weed, of the Albany Evening Journal, lately published an editorial in which he gave the Cabinet a severe castigation for its want of vigor in the prosecution of the war. Sawney Bennett is delighted with the article, endorses every word of it, and hugs the savage Thurlow to his bosom in a loving embrace. Says the Herald:

‘ The imbecility and incompetency of a portion of the present Cabinet have for a long time awakened the serious apprehensions of many of the leading men of the country.--They have felt the loss of millions upon millions through the inefficiency of the blockade, and the fact that with the exception of the short and brilliant campaign of General McClellan in Western Virginia, and the success of Gen. Lyon in Missouri (I) disaster has been our fate everywhere. For all this they consider some one at Washington responsible. A train of events has traced it to the heads of the different departments, and it is not at all surprising that the demand for a stop to this boy's play is becoming so earnest that even Thurlow Weed should be compelled to speak out in decisive tones, declaring that such proceedings will not longer be endured. Let the authorities at Washington take heed in time. The public want no more Big Bethels, Bull Runs, or even such slaughters as have lost them the gallant Gen. Lyon.


Lincoln Puts on a Clean Shirt.

We had entirely lost sight of the sentimental Nathaniel Potiphar Willis since the commencement of the war, until a day or two since, when we ascertained that he is sustaining the character of a true ‘"Jenkins"’ in the city of Washington. He was loafing about the grounds of the Presidential mansion on the day of the Prince Napoleon's visit, and his description of what he saw beat anything we ever read. A small dose is sufficient to produce nausea:

‘ I chanced to be one of three who occupied, for the last half hour of the performance, a long settee, which stood opposite the Presidential mansion — not the least interesting portion of the beautiful picture before us being a chance view of the President himself, who sat at the window of his private room, on the second story, reading his letters and listening to the music, but evidently wholly unconscious of being visible to the public.

Of course, neither our own party nor the rest of the gay crowd had the least expectation of seeing any portion of the royal entertainment that was to take place in the great white Mansion before us; but, as it approached within thirty minutes of the dinner hour, (which Mrs. Lincoln had chanced to mention to me the night before,) I could not help wondering, to the friend sitting at my side, whether ‘"A be,"’ lounging there in his grey coat, with his knees up to his chin, would have time enough for his toilet. But the words were scarce out of my mouth, when up jumped the lively successor of George Washington, and took a seat in another chair — the body servant, who had entered the room, proceeding immediately to put the cloth around the respected throat and shave that portion of the honored face which had not ‘"taken the veil."’ In three minutes more, said holder of the executive by the nose shook his official napkin out of the window, giving to the summer wind, thus carelessly, whatever bad fallen from the inaugurated beard; and the remainder of the toilet was prompt enough. The long arms were busy about the tall head for a moment, probably with brush or comb — there was a stoop, probably for bi-forked disencumberment, and, immediately after, a sudden gleam of white linen lifted aloft — a momentary extension of elbows with the tying of the cravat, and a putting on of the black coat — and then the retiring figure of the dressed President was lost to our sight. The toilet of the sovereign of the great realm of the West--which we had been thus privileged to see through the open window of his dressing room — had occupied precisely twenty-two minutes by my anxiously consulted watch.


A savage Jerseyman.

The Patterson (N. J. Guardian insists upon it that the ‘"rebels and destroyers of the Union"’ are at work in the Middle States; that agents of the Southern Confederacy have been visiting various sections of New Jersey, inaugurating movements for systematic peace meetings throughout the State. The fiery editor thus empties his vial of wrath:

Beware of these emissaries of the Southern foe. Beware of these agents of treason from abroad and their tory sympathizers here.--Mark them well, and remember each our for all time to come. Let the stain of his treachery rest on him as did God's mark of infamy upon the murderer Cain. Let the memory of Judas be his, and learn his children and his children's children to curse him as the enemy of his country. Know that wherever these peace meetings are hold they are the infernal machines of an unscrupulous foe and that the Secession newspapers of New Jersey are receiving pay from the Montgomery Secret Services Fund — the blood money old stated by the rebels to seduce wash keep and weak process from their duty in their country in the hour of peril.


A Story of want and war.

We copy the following from a late number of the New York daily News:

Among the hundreds of soldiers' wives and

others who daily apply for relief or information at the Mayor's office, a woman yesterday, of unusually respectable appearance, though haggard from evident want, called in reference to a refusal on the part of the committee of her district or ward, to pay the little stipend her ticket called for. They had for some reason — her husband's regiment not having yet left for Washington, as is understood was the case — turned the cold shoulder upon her and refused all relief. She stated her case simply but earnestly. Her landlord was about to eject her for non-payment of two or three dollars rent of a room. She had locked two small children in her apartments and left them actually crying for bread — the third and sick one, some two years of age, she had borne to the residence of the committee man, where she was denied relief, and from thence to the Mayor's office Here she pleaded in tones of eloquence which hunger alone could give utterance to With anxious eyes steadily fixed upon her evidently fast sinking child, and while she was yet speaking and inquiring what she could do, the spirit of the child took its flight to a better world, literally dying from starvation! It was a painfully sad, a sickening sight, and could any man of feeling have witnessed the terrible agonies of that mother and the cold, lifeless form of that child — followed her trembling steps out of the hall with a dead babe in her arms, wending her way to other starving, perhaps dying, ones at home — surely they would have offered up urgent and sincere prayers for peace, instead of the savage cry for war and blood. And this is but one of ten thousand cases with which our city abounds.


Hessian vandalism.

Here is what Thos. F. Meagher, of the 69th New York Regiment, says about the vandalism of the Federal troops at Germantown, when on their march toward Manassas:

‘ "That house is on fire," Father O'Reilly, our chaplain, hurriedly observed, as he whipped his horse up beside the Colonel.

The words had scarcely fallen from his lips when a round mass of black smoke rolled out of the windows of the house and buried it in darkness. Another moment, the red flames were leaping through the smoke, and the crackling of timbers, pierced and rifted with the fire, was heard distinctly above the tramp and tumult of the march. The only ornament of the village, in hot haste and fury, was plunging into ashes. In half an hour it would be, at best, a heap of smouldering charcoal. Whose was the scurvy and malignant hand that fired the deserted homestead? It is for the regiments of the brigade in advance of the 69th to answer. With them rests the responsibility of this savage riotousness and mischief. The house was doomed irrevocably when the 69th came up. The Irish regiment swept by the blazing ruin, cursing the ruffians who had played the barbarous prank, and maddened with the thought of the disgrace it would bring upon the Federal flag.


Kentucky cavalry.

From a late number of the Louisville Courier we copy the following:

Capt. Frank Overton's cavalry company, composed of members from Meade and Hardin counties, passed through Elizabeth town yesterday, en route for the Southern Confederacy. We understand that they are all, or nearly all, of the best and wealthiest families of the two counties, and are as fine looking a body of men as ever went into camp. They were met by a large number of the citizens of Elizabeth town, with a Southern flag, and escorted to town amid the cheers of the populace and the smiles and heartfelt greeting of the ladies, to Haycraft's Hotel, where they took dinner, prepared for them at the instance of the citizens.

This company was equipped at the expense of Col. Forrest, of Mississippi, with sandies, bridies and blankets, and each armed with a pair of large sized Navy revolvers, a sword, and an escapee gun. The company numbers eighty-five men, and they are all well mounted.


Western Virginia.

A correspondent of the Louisville Courier, writing from Camp Bartow, Highland county, Virginia, speaks thus hopefully of our cause:

‘ A few days more will suffice to rid Western Virginia of every Yankee that now desecrates her soil. The heads of volunteers, as they arrive at Lynchburg, are turned in the direction of Staunton, from whence they proceed by different routes to cut off and surround the few scattering Yankee camps that are still left; and citizens here, breathing freer, are offering us valuable service as scouts, spies, guides, and sharp-shooters. Their mountain rifles are as unerring at the hearts of our enemy as Cupid's darts from blooming mountain lasses are fatal to ours.

Lieut. Col. Bartow, who is looked upon as possessing the head of a general — whose predictions and calculations are being developed and verified by daily occurrences — yesterday bet a basket of champagne that a body of Southern troops would be encamped on the Ohio river in thirty days or less time, basing a prophecy upon his knowledge and experience. Though anything like ‘"telling tales out of school"’ at present is objectionable, I tell you that ere long the notorious John Carlile will be dangling at a rope's end.


The Tiger Rifles.

The New Orleans True Delta publishes a letter from a member of the Tiger Rifles, giving a graphic account of the battle of Manassas. We copy a peculiarly emphatic portion:

‘ After pouring in a volley, we rushed upon the enemy and forced them back under cover. We fought them for some time, but they were too strong for us; they drove us back beyond our old position. The battle was raging by this time on every hand, and upwards of sixty thousand men had mingled in the strife for victory. Our major was shot through the body and carried from the field in a dying condition. Our captain had his horse shot from under him, and we thought he was killed. Our first lieutenant, gallant old Tom Adrian, was laying on the ground shot through the thigh, and numbers of our men lay around dead and dying. We gained a piece of woods, and the New York Fire Zouaves, whom we had been fighting against, seeing our momentary confusion, gave three cheers; it was the last cheer many of them ever uttered. Our lieutenant, old Tom Adrian, than whom a braver man never wore hair, shouted out ‘"Tigers, go in once more, go in my sons, I'll be greatly, gloriously God d — d if the s — s of b — s can ever whip the Tigers."’ Our blood was on fire, life was valueless, the boys fired one volley, then rushed upon the foe with clubbed rifles beating down their guard; they then closed upon them with their knives. ‘"Greek had met Greek;"’ the tug of war had come. I have been in battle several times before, but such fighting never was done, I do believe, as was done for the next half hour; it did not seem as though men were fighting, it was devils mingling in the conflict, cursing, yelling, cutting, shrieking; no thoughts of nor chance for backing out.


The Blockading steamer Brooklyn.

The following is an extract from a letter received in Cincinnati, dated United States steamer Brooklyn, off Pass a P Outre, July 13, 1861:

‘ I thought something of sending you my large batch of ‘"jottings"’ to-day, by a coal schooner, which is to leave us; but a little while ago a schooner was made in the offing flying a rebel flag and a pennant, evidently a privateer, and so I shall not risk them. I am of the opinion that she is after the coal vessel, and that she will likely take her, as she is compelled to go around to Southwest Pass to coal the Powhatan. Why Captain Poor did not get under way and go after her, as she was only a little way off, we cannot conceive. It is not only very strange, but very disheartening. Very queer things are done here all the time. I want to go home now as quickly as possible. You know how enthusiastic I was, and how hopeful my letters were a mouth since, when I felt so sure that the gloriously beautiful Brooklyn was commanded by a true blue patriot; but now, alas! all seems changed; distrust, doubt, luke warmness, efficiency. I hope our suspicions may prove groundless — that Captain Poor may be able to explain away his strange behavior. All hands on board are disgusted and disheartened.


Muttering of the Abolitionists.

Under the heading of ‘"something to be looked after,"’ the New York Times of the 16th inst. says:

‘ We have reason to believe that there is a good deal more than meets the eye in the proceedings now going on in Brooklyn, having for their object the release of the Baltimore Police Commissioners, now confined in Fort Lafayette. Justice Garrison, it will be remembered, has issued the writ and made some significant suggestions about serving it by aid of the military power. His antecedents are not such as to encourage the hope of any very high-toned devotion to the interests of the country in the management of the affair. And we have information from a source entitled to credit, that a Southern gentleman is now in the city for the express purpose of pushing the matter forward, with a view to bring about a collision between the civil and military authorities of Brooklyn. He is said to be well supplied with money, and to be acting with great zeal and caution in the steps he is taking. The Secessionists would be very glad to create some disturbance of this kind in this vicinity, and can afford to devote a good deal of labor and of money to its accomplishment.


A Dismal Foreboding.

The New York Times advocates a combined effort to get rid of the unemployed and starving population of that city by sending them to the West. It owns up to the condition of affairs, thus!

Our citizens may as well now take into serious consideration the social burdens they will be obliged to carry during the approaching winter. The unemployed poor are interesting upon our hands at as starting rate. Already we are informed that thousands of able-bodied women are under charge of the Commissioners of Charity and supported at public expended — women who ask for no charity, but

only work. Many families of volunteers have not been relieved by the liberal sums expended, and will be forced soon to become burdened on the city. The swarm of unfortunate children — the offspring of people impoverished by the business prostration, or of fathers who have abandoned everything for the war — in creates in the streets. The agents of such as cities as the Children's Aid Society, report that numbers of destitute and orphan little ones beset their office or their schools and seek shelter and employment. All sings forebode a severe and gloomy autumn and winter for the poor.


Maryland.

The Planters' (Md.) Advocate, alluding is the action of the Maryland Legislature, tuning towards the defeat of the Lincoln dynasty in that State, says:

‘ They invite the co-operation of all who agree with them to unite in the formation of a party in this State, which may be able to defeat the aims of those who have so earnestly endeavored to sell us out to the Lincoln dynasty.--The existing war being the primary source of all other existing wrongs, the restoration of peace is to be the main idea of the party — it will demand nothing short of an instant cessation of this most wicked, illegal and unnatural struggle. It will make the issue fairly and squarely before the people, separating those who, upon what pretence soever, favor the war policy, from those who look upon that policy as the sum of all misfortunes. It will thus, upon this head, seek and obtain a declaration at the ballot-box, from the people of Maryland, whether they are in favor of fending their assistance to prosecute the war against Virginia and the South--whether they are willing and anxious to be taxed and drafted for that purpose, or whether the Legislature did not properly represent their position when it recently declared by resolution that the war was unauthorized and monstrous, and that they would have no part nor lot in its prosecution. This is the main and leading issue — peace or war — hostilities to the bitter end, or a peaceful solution of existing difficulties. And in the solution of this principal question, our people will indirectly express their opinions upon others which, to them at least, are of the highest moment for the future. They will decide whether they approve of the course of the Lincoln Government in abolishing our laws, by suspending the police system of Baltimore and appointing therein a Federal police, paid from the Federal Treasury.--They will decide whether they approve of the arrest and imprisonment of the Police Commissioners and of Marshal Kane, their long and weary confinement at Fort McHenry, and their subsequent clandestine removal to a fort in New York, where they are kept close State prisoners, without communication even with friends or counsel. They will decide whether they approve of the military occupation of our territory; of the passage of laws confiscating the property and forfeiting the liberty of all who may be denounced as ‘"suspected"’ by base and hired informers; of the passage of other laws imposing upon us the most onerous direct taxes, for the purpose of waging the war against our friends, brethren and neighbors across the Potomac; of the arrest of private persons, the seizure of private property, the practical enforcement of martial law, and the abrogation of our chartered rights and liberties. These and numberless other similar issues are to be met and decided in the momentous issue of Peace or War.


A voice from Boston.

A Boston correspondent writes to the Baltimore Exchange:

‘ Battles have been fought and lost. Change has followed change. All these have had their influence here among the Yankees, and no doubt with you. Here, one can talk more freely, and the public will hear more will jingly. Many who were honestly acting heart and hand with this administration are now stopping to discuss the whereabouts of the Constitution and constitutional guarantees under ‘"honest Abe."’ In fine, intelligent men with us are opening their eyes, and a good many proudly swear they hope ‘"Jefferson Davis will take Washington, drive out the Abolitionists and reconstruct the Government."’ Depend upon it, matters can't go on till Jan. 1st as they have gone with us since May 1, without an outbreak.--It may be I am mistaken, but I don't believe I am.

Business dull. We are all ruined and sinking deeper every day.

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