Thoughtfully curated historical journalism
West Liberty, 9th month, 22d, 1861.
Friend Mahin:—It seems very strange to me, the present condition of this government, and very humiliating its future prospects.—On the one hand we see American slavery arraying a mighty host against this nation to give it battle, for to secure its own enlargement and perpetuation, no other principle whatever at stake, and no other pretence made, its war cry destruction, desolation and ruin, not only to this government, but to every principle of justice, humanity and virtue.
On the other hand, we with amazement be hold a once mighty government giving battle to this monster rebel, calling on “all true sons of freedom” to join the army to put down rebellion, and re-establish a Union (that never existed only on paper) between the north and south; and what for? Just for the sake of having the privilege of paying the expense of and sustaining in this government one of the most abominable systems that ever the sun shone upon. Why not behead the monster while he has his head on the executioner’s block, seeing he has laid it there himself? Why turn our army into slave catchers?
The following, written at the entrenched camp near Norfolk, is from a member of the Mobile Gulf City Guards, only seventeen years of age:
Dear Grand Pa If you only knew the monotony of camp life you would not wonder (coming from as feeble a pen as mine) at my letters being so dull and uninteresting.
No news, no excitement at all. Every day the same old thing—drill, drill, drill; and after that the men return to their quarters, and there remain in a kind of trance until some unlucky dog comes along, when he is immediately grabbed by some one, a canteen is tied to his tail, and away he flies amid the yells and cries of a thousand men, making the old woods ring for miles around and then just is suddenly, every thing is as quiet as if nothing had happened.
A lady who gave her name as Mrs. Mary Ann Keith, of Memphis, Tennessee, was arrested in Lynchburg on Wednesday. When arrested she was rigged out in a full suit of soldiers’ clothes, and had registered her name at the Piedmont House as Lieutenant Buford. She said she had been married twice—her first husband having been a member of Sherman’s famous battery; her second was in the Southern army; but she stated she was separated from him, for some reason she did not make known. She declared she was all right on the Southern question, and scouted the idea of being a spy. She said her reason for dressing in soldier clothes was, that she had determined to fight the battles of her country, and thought such disguise more likely to enable her to accomplish her object. She was sent on to Richmond for a further hearing on Thursday morning.
The First Aviation Day of the Hudson-Fulton Celebration Is Marked by Successful Demonstrations by Both Wright and Curtiss—Dirigible Balloons Come to Grief Very Quickly.
Yonkers, N. Y., Sept. 25—As the Clermont came within sight of the docks here the water in her boilers became exhausted and the engine became overheated. Her machinery was stopped, while a tug put a line aboard and towed the craft ashore.
New York, Sept. 29.—Wilbur Wright circled the great statue of Liberty at the entrance of New York harbor in his aeroplane today. while in the upper part of the city two dirigible balloons failed ingloriously in their task. This, the first day of flight of the Hudson-Fulton celebration, was a victory for the heavier-than-air machine.