Posted inUS Civil War

December 7, 1861 – The Mountain Empire

The Philadelphia Press calls attention to an article by Rev Dr Breckinridge, the loyal uncle of the great Kentucky traitor, published in the Danville Review, and entitled The “Civil War; its Nature and End.” A very striking portion of it describes the Union feeling existing in the mountain regions of Western Virginia, Maryland, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia and Alabama, which Dr Breckinridge aptly terms “the mountain empire.”

Posted inUS Civil War

December 6, 1861 – Uniforms of the Army

The uniforms of the United States army was reduced to the plainest possible standard by Jeff. Davis, when Secretary of War, and there is but a trifling difference between the costumes of dragoons, artillerymen, infantry, or engineers, all of whom wear clothing of the same color and cut, different trimmings alone distinguishing each arm of the service. This is economical, but it fails to inspire the men with a soldier-like pride by fostering a commendable rivalry between different corps.

Posted inUS Civil War

December 4, 1861 – The Camp Kettle, Port Royal

The Camp Kettle is the name of an enterprising publication established by the “mudsills” at Hilton Head, S. C. The following is the title and imprint of the paper:—

THE CAMP KETTLE.
WE KNOW ONLY OUR COUNTRY.
Vol. 1. Nov. 21, 1861. No. 6.

The Camp Kettle is published every opportunity by the Field and Staff of the Roundhead Regiment, Col. Lesure commanding.

It is printed on board the steamer Ocean Queen, of which it speaks as follows :

The Chief engineer has given us a fine room right in among the machinery, partly over the immense cylinder which confines the spirit that rules the wave, for a printing office, where we, queerly enough, are printing our Kettle. Beneath us groans and hisses the pent demon, that shrieks to break his narrow cell. Beside us on one hand rises and sinks the huge piston rod, on the other the connecting rod that wearilessly drives around the crank to give motion to the great monster of the deep, freighted with some sixteen hundred souls, and stores of munitions of war, and instruments of death intended tor the benefit of traitors. We could philosophise here, but prefer to say what we intended to say in the beginning—that Capt. Seabury and his crew are men to be remembered, and if we should never meet again, may God bless them for their kindness to us.

Posted inUS Civil War

December 3, 1861 – The Contrabands

A Port Royal correspondent of the Times writes:

One of the most remarkable features of the new life in South Carolina is afforded by the negroes. Black servants have been hired by many of the officers as waiters, and washermen and women. Black gangs have worked on the shore, or been used as oarsmen ; blacks have served as scouts and guides in the reconneissances. Crowds of the women and children may be seen in various parts of the camps, but especially near head-quarters, where they inhabit their own huts still. There they receive their rations, there they build fires to cook their food or to do their washing, and cluster into odd-looking groups, picturesque for all their squalor. The men and boys join them at night, and always, after supper, in a dilapidated out-house, is held a, prayer-meeting. I listened outside, last night, and heard ardent ejaculations or thanksgiving for the favorable chance God had given to “my colored bruddren.” The jargon was absurd, but It was earnest; the singing was out of tune and time, but it was fervent. In some quarters the blacks are less religious, and held a ball to celebrate the coming of the Yankees. I have talked with nearly half of those I have seen; have asked them which they preferred, the new or the old order of things, and though some here and there spoke kindly of their masters, there was no mistaking the genuineness of their gratitude for the change.

Posted inDaily News Local Histories True Crime

Hold “Conny, the Rat” in Shooting of Boston Policemen

Boston, Dec. 1—Cornelius Moriarty, known in Boston’s South End district, the police said, as “Conny, the Rat,” was booked at police headquarters shortly before midnight tonight on a warrant charging him with assault with a dangerous weapon on a police officer in performance of his duties, in connection with the shooting last Saturday night of Patrolmen Thomas K. McCabe and Joseph F. Condon. Both officers are still on the danger list in a hospital here as a result of bullet wounds received following a holdup in the Back Bay district.

Picked up in the police dragnet after several witnesses had said that pictures of him resembled the man who shot down the two officers and then forced a taxi driver at gun point to drive hint away. Moriarty tonight denied any connection with the crime.

“I didn’t shoot those cops,” he told the Inspector who arrested him, and a moment later said, the detective asserted, “If I’d known you were out to get me it would be you and I all over the street and it would be you going to the station house.”

Posted inUS Civil War

December 2, 1861 – Applications for Passes

Among the regularly recurring incidents of the present state of affairs here, few strike the passer-by with more force than the very large crowd that gathers, on each Monday morning, at the door of the military headquarters, on St. Asaph street, opposite the Post Office. Hundreds of people wait there for hours for “passes,” making the sidewalk impassable for a considerable distance. Men, women and children—white, black and mulatto—all form a compact mass which collects about nine o’clock, increases until about ten, and then gradually diminishes until the last applicant is heard, the “pass” granted or refused, and then all is quiet as before.