January 24, 1861, The Charleston Mercury
Our Vicksburg Correspondence.
VICKSBURG, Miss., Jan. 14, 1861. Guarding the ‘Father of Waters.’- Suspended Steamboats brought to. – A Six Gun Battery upon the Mississippi Firing into a Cincinnati Steamboat. – The Resistance Feeling in the State, etc., etc.
A despatch was received here on Friday, from Memphis, to the effect that it was expected that General HARNEY, with a body of five hundred Federal troops, would soon come down the Mississippi on the steamboat Silver Wave, to recapture the Louisiana forts and arsenals. Instantly the whole city was astir. It did not take long for our people to determine that no troops should ever pass here on such an errand. A half a dozen twelve pounders were immediately brought out and planted upon the bluff commanding the river. A company of Minute Men, manned the battery, and a rigid watch was kept upon the stream, night and day. Every boat passing downward toward New Orleans was hailed and examined, and most of them took the necessary interruption in good part.
Thus matters wore along until 10 o’clock yesterday morning, when the steamer J. O. Taylor, of Cincinnati, made her appearance, downward bound. As she paid no attention to the hailing, a blank cartridge was fired at her to give her a hint that she must stop. This, too, being disregarded the shotted guns were brought to bear upon her. This had the desired effect. She speedily rounded to, and after submitting to the proper investigation was permitted to pass on. This watch, so necessary at a time like the present when old SCOTT is at his tricks, will be resolutely maintained, and the coercionists, if they mean to subjugate the South, must take some other route than the Mississippi.
Since this State has been out of the Union all party lines have been obliterated, and the people are daily growing more united and determined for resistance. Hundreds of our young men are eager to help to fight the battles of your State if she should need their services.