May, 1863.
1st may, 1863 (Friday).
I called on
General Scurry, and found him suffering from severe ophthalmia.
When I presented
General Magruder's letter, he insisted that I should come and live with him so long as I remained here.
He also telegraphed to
Galveston for a steamer to take me there and back.
We dined at 4 P. M.: the party consisted of
Colonel and
Judge Terrill (a clever and agreeable man),
Colonel Pyron,
Captain Wharton,
quartermaster-general,
Major Watkins (a handsome fellow, and hero of the
Sabine Pass affair), and
Colonel Cook, commanding the artillery at
Galveston (late of the U. S. navy, who enjoys the reputation of being a zealous Methodist preacher and a daring officer). The latter told me he could hardly understand how I could be an Englishman, as I pronounced my h's all right.
General Scurry himself is very amusing, and is an admirable mimic.
His numerous anecdotes of the war were very interesting.
In peace times he is a lawyer.
He was a volunteer major in the
Mexican war, and distinguished himself very much in the late campaigns in
New Mexico and
Arizona, and at the recapture of
Galveston.
After dinner, the
Queen's health was proposed; and
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the party expressed the greatest admiration for Her Majesty, and respect for the British Constitution.
They all said that universal suffrage did not produce such deplorable results in the
South as in the
North; because the population in the
South is so very scattered, and the whites being the superior race, they form a sort of aristocracy.
They all wanted me to put off going to
Galveston till Monday, in order that some ladies might go; but I was inexorable, as it must now be my object to cross the
Mississippi without delay.
All these officers despised sabres, and considered double-barrelled shot-guns and revolvers the best arms for cavalry.
2d may, 1863 (Saturday).
As the steamer had not arrived in the morning, I left by railroad for
Galveston.
General Scurry insisted upon sending his servant to wait upon me, in order that I might become acquainted with “an aristocratic negro.”
“John” was a very smart fellow, and at first sight nearly as white as myself.
In the cars I was introduced to
General Samuel Houston, the founder of Texan independence.
He told me he was born in
Virginia seventy years ago, that he was
United States senator at thirty, and governor of
Tennessee at thirty-six.
He emigrated into
Texas in 1832; headed the revolt of
Texas, and defeated the Mexicans at
San Jacinto in 1836.
He
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then became
President of the
Republic of
Texas, which he annexed to the
United States in 1845.
As
Governor of the
State in 1860, he had opposed the secession movement, and was
deposed. Though evidently a remarkable and clever man, he is extremely egotistical and vain, and much disappointed at having to subside from his former grandeur.
The town of
Houston is named after him. In appearance he is a tall, handsome old man, much given to
chewing tobacco, and blowing his nose with his fingers.
1
I was also introduced to another “character,”
Captain Chubb, who told me he was a Yankee by birth, and served as coxswain to the
United States ship
Java in 1827.
He was afterwards imprisoned at
Boston on suspicion of being engaged in the slave trade; but he escaped.
At the beginning of this war he was captured by the
Yankees, when he was in command of the
Confederate States steamer
Royal Yacht, and taken to New York in chains, where he was condemned to be hung as a pirate; but he was eventually exchanged.
I was afterwards told that the slave-trading escapade of which he was accused consisted in his having hired a colored crew at
Boston, and then coolly
selling them at
Galveston.
At 1 P. M., we arrived at
Virginia Point, a
tetede-pont at the extremity of the mainland.
Here
Bates's
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battalion was encamped-called also the “swamp angels,” on account of the marshy nature of their quarters, and of their predatory and irregular habits.
The railroad then traverses a shallow lagoon (called
Galveston Bay) on a trestle-bridge two miles long; this leads to another
tete-de-pont on
Galveston island, and in a few minutes the city is reached.
In the train I had received the following message by telegraph from
Colonel Debray, who commands at
Galveston: “Will
Col. Fremantle sleep to-night at the house of a blockaded rebel?”
I answered:--“Delighted;” and was received at the terminus by
Captain Foster of the
Staff, who conducted me in an ambulance to headquarters, which were at the house of the
Roman Catholic bishop.
I was received there by
Colonel Debray and two very gentlemanlike French priests.
We sat down to dinner at 2 P. M., but were soon interrupted by an indignant drayman, who came to complain of a military outrage.
It appeared that immediately after I had left the cars, a semi-drunken Texan of
Pyron's regiment had desired this drayman to stop, and upon the latter declining to do so, the
Texan fired five shots at him from his “six-shooter,” and the last shot killed the drayman's horse.
Captain Foster (who is a Louisianian, and very sarcastic about
Texas) said that the regiment would probably hang the soldier for being such a
disgraceful bad shot.
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After dinner
Colonel Debray took me into the observatory, which commands a good view of the city, bay, and gulf.
Galveston is situated near the eastern end of an island thirty miles long by three and a half wide.
Its houses are well built; its streets are long, straight, and shaded with trees; but the city was now desolate, blockaded, and under military law. Most of the houses were empty, and bore many marks of the illdirected fire of the
Federal ships during the night of the 1st of January last.
The whole of
Galveston Bay is very shallow, except a narrow channel of about a hundred yards immediately in front of the now deserted wharves.
The entrance to this channel is at the northeastern extremity of the island, and is defended by the new works which are now in progress there.
It is also blocked up with piles, torpedoes, and other obstacles.
The blockaders were plainly visible about four miles from land; they consisted of three gunboats and an ugly paddle steamer, also two supplyves-sels.
The wreck of the
Confederate cotton-steamer
Neptune (destroyed in her attack on the
Harriet Lane), was close off one of the wharves.
That of the
Westfield (blown up by the
Yankee Commodore), was off
Pelican Island.
In the night of the 1st January,
General Magruder
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suddenly entered
Galveston, placed his field-pieces along the line of wharves, and unexpectedly opened fire in the dark upon the
Yankee war vessels at a range of about one hundred yards; but so heavy (though badly directed) was the reply from the ships, that the field-pieces had to be withdrawn.
The attack by
Colonel Cook upon a Massachusetts regiment fortified at the end of a wharf, also failed, and the
Confederates thought themselves “badly whipped.”
But after daylight the fortunate surrender of the
Harriet Lane to the cotton-boat
Bayou City, and the extraordinary conduct of
Commodore Renshaw, converted a Confederate disaster into the recapture of
Galveston.
General Magruder certainly deserves immense credit for his boldness in attacking a heavily armed naval squadron with a few field-pieces and two river steamers protected with cotton bales and manned with Texan cavalry soldiers.
I rode with
Colonel Debray to examine Forts Scurry, Magruder, Bankhead, and
Point.
These works have been ingeniously designed by
Colonel Sulokowski (formerly in the Austrian army), and they were being very well constructed by one hundred and fifty whites and six hundred blacks under that officer's superintendence, the blacks being lent by the neighboring planters.
Although the blockaders can easily approach to within three miles of the works, and although one
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shell will always “stampede” the negroes, yet they have not thrown any for a long time.
2
Colonel Debray is a broad-shouldered Frenchman, and is a very good fellow.
He told me that he emigrated to
America in 1848; he raised a company in 1861, in which he was only a private; he was next appointed aid-de-camp to the governor of
Texas, with the rank of brigadier-general; he then descended to a major of infantry, afterwards rose to a lieutenant-colonel of cavalry, and is now colonel.
Captain Foster is properly on
Magruder's Staff, and is very good company.
His property at New Orleans had been destroyed by the
Yankees.
In the evening we went to a dance given by
Colonel Manly, which was great fun. I danced an American cotillion with
Mrs. Manly; it was very violent exercise, and not the least like any thing I had seen before.
A gentleman stands by shouting out the different figures to be performed, and every one obeys his orders with much gravity and energy.
Colonel Manly is a very gentlemanlike
Carolinian; the ladies were pretty, and, considering the blockade, they
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