Accessible Archives Inc.

This letter to the Editor of the Charleston Mercury, published under the pseudonym “Philanthropos,” ran on July 12, 1862.

To the Editor of the (Charleston) Mercury:

The possession of an immense number of Yankee prisoners, captured during the flight of the grand army of Gen. McClellan from the lines before Richmond, makes it an important matter to decide how the said captives can be used to most advantage. It is suggested:

1. To exchange for Confederate prisoners held by the enemy.
2. To give the foreigners (composing the larger part, probably of the late United States troops now held as our captives) for the first class to be exchanged.
3. To hold the native Yankee prisoners in our custody, and put them to manual labor in factories, to make brooms, leather, shoes, buckets, thread, cloth, clocks, etc., until they shall be exchanged for the negros stolen from the plantations.
4. That for each negro who has been sold or worked to death by the Yankees (exchange being impossible) a ransom of $800 be substituted
5. That the Yankee prisoners held for this purpose shall be subject to the negro law of the State in which they are imprisoned, or until exchanged or ransomed. The object of this is to recover the negros stolen, and to prevent future loss and injury to southern masters and servants.
6. That the negros be returned to their owners and the money distributed among those whose negros shall not be recovered.

I am, sir, &c.,

PHILANTHROPOS.

This article was reproduced in The Liberator on September 9, 1864. The report from Richmond sheds light on the feelings of many Southern supporters of the Confederacy to how to handle black combatants and prisoners of war.

Richmond Dispatch, Aug. 5th, 1864:

Among the eleven hundred prisoners taken by our forces last Saturday, before Petersburg, two hundred were negroes, many of them, perhaps all of them, stolen or runaway slaves. If any advertisement has yet been published in the papers, calling upon persons who have lost slaves to come forward and identify their property and take it away, we have not observed such advertisement.

Lately, there were many negroes recovered from the raiding party of Kautz and Wilson;, their names were very properly published, and their owners informed where they could come and take them. The two hundred black rascals taken alive in the Petersburg trenches, (most improperly taken alive, as they proclaimed “No quarter,”) now that they are in our hands, are worth half a million. It may be hoped that, strict examination will be made among them, and due notice given to such as have lately, been robbed of such property, with a view of making restitution of such of them as are slaves.

The right of the Yankee Government is undoubted to enlist, or to draft , or to procure how they can, free negroes whose residence is at the North.

They would have a perfect right to make war upon us with elephants, or to stampede us with wild cattle, or to set dogs upon us—and our men an equal right to kill them; a perfect right, therefore, to employ negroes as soldiers.  (more…)

(The Charleston Mercury – January 3, 1861) Every effort of the General Government to avert its dissolution, only hastens on its fate. Major Anderson abandons Fort Moultrie and garrisons Fort Sumter. The President approves and the Northern press praises the achievement. The New York Evening Post even declares that this step to coercion raises the price of Stocks in New York. But what follows in the South, where the great game of disunion is going on?

The people of South Carolina are made more resolute in their determination to throw off the Government. Our city is like an armed camp. Martial music fills the air. Offers of assistance come by thousands from the neighboring States. Fort Moultrie, Castle Pinckney, Fort Johnson, and the United States Arsenal, are occupied with our troops. Disciplined companies are arriving by the railroad from the interior of the State.

All our readers are familiar with the tremendous conspiracies to take the life of the President elect, and to put out of the way at the same time all his suite, including a lachrymose colonel of dragoons, and a major of artillery who had already suffered in the cause of Old Abe to the extent of a disagreeable dislocation. Mr. Lincoln’s night ride to Washington will make hereafter a splendid incident for the theatre, while his Scotch cap will be as famous as the green turban of the Prophet, and his long military cloak be placed with the uniform of Washington in the Patent Office.

When the news of the plots arrived the country shivered in its shoes; when the country was informed that the second Washington had been safely enfolded in the protecting arms of Mr. Seward, the country took a long breath, and felt relieved. Subsequently, the country desired to know all the particulars of these terrible conspiracies, and wished to be informed why the triumphal tour of the President elect had been so suddenly interrupted.

Among other things, the country has been a good deal exercised about Wood, not Fernando, but W. S. Wood, who officiated as the Grand Chamberlain for Uncle Abe. Nobody seemed to know who Wood was or by whose authority he acted.

The Civil War Collection Part I: A Newspaper Perspective contains major articles gleaned from over 2,500 issues of The New York Herald, The Charleston Mercury and the Richmond Enquirer, published between November 1, 1860 and April 15, 1865.  Since all major events are described in detail by both Union and Confederate newspapers, opposing perspectives are readily available for comparative evaluations.

This news item appeared in the The New York Herald on May 1, 1862.

The Capture of New Orleans – Its Effect Upon the Present War

The New York Herald – May 1, 1862

The earlier accounts of the capture of the city of New Orleans were subject to grave doubt and speculation in Wall street, and stock operations were consequently very carefully carried on. The subsequent despatches have, however, so fully confirmed the fact that all the doubts of the Wall street men have vanished into thin air, and now they are among the staunchest believers in the return of the Crescent City to its old allegiance. The financiers have given the most practical proof of their belief by the rapid upward movement of stocks – the unfailing indicator of public confidence – which have ascended from ninety-three some days ago to nine-eight, at which point they now stand. This is the most decisive evidence that can be given of the satisfaction with which the cheering news is now received. Public confidence was never stronger in the final success of our arms, and the loss of New Orleans to the rebels is regarded as one of a fatal and concluding blow.

We are now only awaiting the full details of this most important victory, which will doubtless reach us in a very short time. As yet we have had no tidings of General Butler, who, nevertheless, must be somewhere in the neighborhood. At the proper time the people will hear from him. The great feat of the capture of the city seems to have been accomplished by Commodore Farragut, one of the most distinguished and accomplished naval officers of the United States. It is seldom that the annals of naval warfare record so brilliant and successful an exploit, conducted under circumstances of the greatest disadvantage, but resulting in honor and glory to the brave men who participated in it.