From the South.
The Southern papers furnish some Items of Interest.
One of the most important is the successful running into a Confederate port of a steamer laden with munitions of war. Among the articles are 13 batteries of rifle cannon, consisting of 78 guns, with all the necessary equipage for service, presented to the Confederate Government by merchants of
Liverpool.
Each the Captures Cities.
The New Orleans
Delta, of the 1st, contains two proclamations from
Butler--one sentencing
Fidel Keller to Lard labor on
Ship Island for two years, for ‘"exhibiting a human skeleton in his bookstore window, in a public place, labeled ' Chickahominy, in large letters, meaning and intending that the bones should be taken by the populace to be the bones of a
United States soldier slain in that battle, in order to bring the authority of the
United States and our armies into contempt, and for that purpose he stated to the passers-by that the bones were those of a Yankee soldier, whereas, in truth and fact, they were the bones purchased some weeks before of a Mexican Consul, to whom they were pledged by a medical student."’ The other imposes a similar penalty on
John W. Andrews for exhibiting a cross, the emblem of the suffering of our blessed Saviour, fashioned for a personal ornament, which he said was made from the bones of a Yankee soldier, and having shown this, too, without rebuke, in the
Louisiana Club, which claims to be composed of chivalric gentlemen."
The military commandant publishes an order governing the bakers of the city, which says:
‘
The price of flour being this day twenty-four dollars per barrel, bakers are requested to give, during the ensuing week, commencing on Monday, 23d instant, as follows, until further notice: Twenty-four ounces of bread for twenty cents, twelve ounces for ten cents, six ounces for five cents.
Purchasers of bread from whom a higher price is exacted will report their names, the name of the baker, and leave a loaf of the bread purchased, and a statement of the price paid, at any police station or with any assistant provost marshal.
No movements of Federal troops is mentioned.
’
A letter in the Petersburg
Express, from
Norfolk, says:
‘
In Norfolk and
Portsmouth at this time, there are not over 500 soldiers, in
Suffolk, about 3,000.
We very seldom learn of the arrival of a Petersburg or
Richmond paper, therefore are in total ignorance of the gallant deeds we feel assured that our boys are achieving.
Negroes are leaving in vast quantities; they are brought from
Isle of Wight and adjacent counties.
I wish you could have witnessed our Union Fourth of July celebration.
It contained 20½ citizens including the
Portsmouth delegation; 72 soldiers and 17 hacks with women and children decorated with flowers and Union flags.
These women were from Water street, principally.
On the steamboat that plies between
Norfolk and
Portsmouth, they have a Confederate flag painted on the deck of the steamer, so that passengers are compelled to trample it under foot.
A new order was issued last week to prevent the citizens from assembling on the streets in groups.
I would like to write you names of other Union men, but must refrain from doing so; as many have sons in the army, and to see or know their fathers in such company would mortify them.
Business in every department is dead; no store is selling five dollars per day. Many Yankee stores have been opened, but they have now pretty well gathered in all the
gold and
silver in circulation, which was and is the only currency received.
The
Yankees, in getting
Norfolk, certainly got five millions dollars which might have been saved by better management.
The poor old
Merrimac is still an object of great curiosity to visitors from
Fort Monroe.
So great a terror was she that when the boats pass
Craney Island they crowd the side to gaze on the spot where her honored bones are ignobly reposing, and exclaim, ‘"is it there ! is it there ! !"’
A gentleman, recently arrived at
Knoxville from
St. Louis, reports that only about the hundred
Lincoln troops are left to govern the city.
It is the opinion of the Lincolnites that the
South is nearly whipped out, and that the war will soon be over.
The most despotic Butlerism prevailed in
St. Louis.
Several young ladies, at the house of
Mrs. Gatist, who had sang and played the song ‘"My Maryland,"’ were notified to vacate the house in twenty- four hours, or suffer imprisonment in the common jail.
On the refusal of the ladies to leave, a guard of soldiers, none of whom could speak plain
English, surrounded the house.
Some ladies in another houses, for waving their handkerchiefs to some Confederate prisoners, had their house surrounded, and all communication with their friends cut off for several days, during which time they were served with regular soldiers' rations at meals.
’
The bombardment of Vicksburg.
The
Vicksburg (Miss.) Whig. of the 1st instant, describing the bombardment of the city, says that five gunboats succeeded in passing the batteries.
After describing the fight, it says:
‘
While this grand but heart-rending sight was being enacted on the river the scene in the city beggared all description.
Many families were still living in town — some loth to leave their homes, others who could not find houses to go to, and many who were too poor to move.
All were aroused from their slumbers about four o'clock by the shot and shell whistling and bursting around them.
Men, women, and children, both
black and
white, went screaming through the streets, seeking a place of safety — some dressed and others almost nude.
Mothers were running, with little babes in their arms, crying, ‘"where will I go,"’ and some would stop and crouch under the first hill, while the shell was bursting above them.
We noticed one man with his wife in his arms — she having fainted with fright at the explosion of a shell within a few feet of her. A shell-burst in the midst of several children who were making their way out of danger, and the dirt thrown up by the explosion knocked three of them down, but fortunately done no injury.
The little ones picked themselves up as quick as possible, and, wiping the dust from their eyes, hastened on.
In a short time the hills, three our four miles east of the city, were covered with people who had fled from danger.
When the firing was over, some few returned to the city, but the majority sought quarters a respectable distance from town.
Even the stock, and almost everything in the city was panic-stricken, and fled.
Horses, mules, cows, dogs, &c., could be seen speeding on through the town, out of reach of the missiles.
Such a scene we have never before witnessed, and we hope we never shall again.
The damage done in the city was pretty severe — a great many of the houses being struck and more or less injured.
Although the streets were thronged during the bombardment with the terrified inmates of the town, flying to places of safety and refuge, there was but one loss of life — the estimable
Mrs. Gamble.
The enemy must have suffered severely, as our shots told with fearful effect upon their vessels.
On Sunday forenoon three guns were fired from our lower batteries, in honor of the glorious news from
Virginia, which they construed into an attack and immediately opened upon us. They kept the fire up for several hours, doing considerable damage.
About nine o'clock that night they opened again on the city, and for about an hour and a half the shells from the mortar fleet fell into the city.
A few houses were damaged by them.
’
Capture of a Yankee Gunboat.
Information having been received of the passage of several Yankee gunboats up the
Santee (S. C.) river, two companies of sharpshooters were placed in ambush on the banks to intercept the marauders.
Upon their near approach, our men fired upon them; and, in attempting to turn and retreat, one of the boats got around and was captured, some 75 or 100 men on board being killed.
A few jumped overboard, and were either shot or drowned.
The other boats escaped.
The gallant exploit has probably saved the
North Eastern Railroad bridge, and given the base
Yankees merited punishment for their villainous raid.
The Raleigh
Standard says that
Col. Martin and
Lieut. Graham visited
Newbern last week under a flag of truce.
They had an interview with
Lincoln's Governor,
Stanly, when the subject turned upon the
Union sentiment which is alleged to exist in
North Carolina, and which was affirmed by
Stanly to exist beyond all doubt and to a large extent.
Col. Martin told his Yankee Excellency that not thirty men in the
State, of any intelligence or respectability, had any regard whatever for the old Union, or looked forward to its reconstruction but with feelings of horror and contempt.
Mr. Stanly insisted that
Col. Martin was greatly mistaken in the sentiments of his fellow-citizens, and, addressing himself to
Lieut. Graham, he told that officers that he had learned from a source nearly as respectable, high and influential as that of his (
Lieut. Graham's) father, that a majority (or a large portion, we can't say which) of the citizens of the
State were in favor of the
Union.
