March 8, 1863, The New York Herald
Our New Orleans Correspondence.
NEW ORLEANS, La., Feb. 27, 1863.
In consequence of an announcement in the official journal that the steamer Empire Parish would leave the foot of Canal street at one o’clock on the 20th ult., with such paroled rebel prisoners as were desirous of being exchanged, long before that hour a dense mass of living humanity was seen moving along the several streets leading to the place of embarkation. As is usual on such occasions the feminine element was predominant, while here and there were seen the gray uniforms of the rebels all wending their way to the centre of attraction.
By ten o’clock the levee was densely crowded, leaving scarcely room to stir. Every window was ornamented with faces in all styles of beauty and ugliness; and as each rebel soldier passed by handkerchiefs would be waved and cheer after cheer would resound on all sides.
In order to check any hostile demonstration that might be made a battery of field pieces was placed in position and the services of a military guard were held in requisition. In consequence of this arrangement the secessionists have promulgated the absurd story that General Banks had the artillery down to the levee for the purpose of shooting down the women; and a story that five or six women had been run over by the gun carriages was industriously circulated. There is not one word of truth in the report, which was gotten up undoubtedly for the purpose of inflaming the passions of the men, and to stir them up to the commission of some desperate act which could have resulted only in their own destruction. Great has been the manoeuvring at this supposed act of atrocity. General Banks has been stigmatized as being worse than Butler, who, the secessionists declare, would never have done such a thing, […..]as he is.”
As on the last occasion of a flag of truce being sent to Madisonville, the representatives of the press were furnished with one general pass for the whole body; and it was intimated to the gentleman to whom it was given that the hour of departure had been changed to three o’clock. At that hour I went on board, when the first thing that attracted my notice was a rebel soldier undergoing the operation of being searched by a special officer, who had been detailed for that duty. The process was not a very pleasant one, and could not be borne without wincing. Pockets, cap, the linings of coats and other garments, including even that precious article of attire, sacred to the sterner sex – namely, the toga virili – were all subjected to the manipulation of the officer. Nay – and my modest pen blushes as it records the fact – that same sacred garment underwent, in more than one instance, the desecration of a partial removal. The search, however, did not result in the discovery of anything very dreadful – only a few small parcels of medicines, some newspapers, vials of ink and nineteen miniature flags. The newspapers, medicines and some of the flags were seized; but a number of the latter escaped seizure, for they were triumphantly, but not defiantly, displayed by their owners on gaining the deck of the rebel flag of truce boat.
I took a survey of the motley crowd with which the saloon was filled. There were present a goodly proportion of Union officers, many of whom were engaged in conversation with the rebels. Among these latter I recognized a number of my old acquaintances with whom I made the passage from Donaldsonville some few months ago, after the fight by Bayou Lafourche, where they were taken prisoners. Towering aloft among his comrades, whom he overtopped by the head and shoulders, was a private of the Crescent regiment, named Lee, but whom his comrades designate as General Lee. The “General” is stout in proportion to his height, and consequently is a good mark for a bullet. But though a Shiloh man, and though he has been engaged in several other battles, he has not yet been wounded. All the rebels – both officers and privates – sported new uniforms, and several of the officers wore their side arms.
At five minutes to four o’clock in the morning we left the levee, a pilot having come on board: but our sorrows were not at an end. We had scarcely left the dock when we ran foul of a ship, damaging our port paddle wheel to such an extent that we were compelled to run over to Algiers, not a mile above where we had started from, where we remained till Sunday afternoon. Expectations were rife during the day that the Samuel Hill would come out and take us all off and up to Baton Rouge; but there was no appearance of her. Besides, Boreas Aeolus and other fellows of that ilk seem to have had some extra hands at the bellows who knew their business. It blew very hard all day right in the teeth of any vessel that should attempt to get up the river.
We had several sensations on the 21st. On that morning, shortly after breakfast, a great commotion was heard on the upper deck; on examining the mater it was found that what was thought to be a secession flag was waving at the end of a wharf on the New Orleans side. The Union officers were naturally very indignant at this open insult to the Union flag, and they were not backward in expressing themselves to that effect. Special Officer Connell, who was on board, was ordered to go over and arrest the ringleaders, which resulted in the arrest of John Crebbin, Jacob Samuels and Jane Binch, the woman who waved the flag. Samuels is a mere boy, and ought to have received a good birching, to teach him to behave himself in future. Crebbin made some show of resistance, and dared the officer to arrest him, but the sight of a persuader, in the shape of a revolver, brought him to his senses, and he surrendered at discretion. A launch belonging to one of the vessels-of-war was put in requisition, and the prisoners were taken on board the Empire Parish. On examining the supposed rebel flag it was found to be merely a red handkerchief, with a yellow fringe, while a couple of small white handkerchiefs tacked down the centre formed the […..]. There was no Union – that being probably, considered unnecessary by those who repudiate the Union in toto. Altogether this improvised flag seems to be more appropriate, from the absence of the Union, than that adopted by Secessia. The political conclave at Richmond, styling themselves the Congress of the Southern confederacy, could adopt it very advantageously.
I should have mentioned before that the military guard on board the Empire Parish consisted of Company A and Company C of the Twenty-sixth Massachusetts regiment. Company A is commanded by Captain Dickerman, and Company C by Captain Hyer. The other company officers in the boat were First Lieutenant E. W. Eastman, Lieutenant T. Fitzgibbons and Second Lieutenant C. W. Dickerman, of Company A; Lieutenant J. T. Robinson, of Company C. Colonel Clarke was in command. Major Frye was the exchange officer. He it was, too, who attended to the commissariat department.
During the whole of the 21st we were anxiously expecting either the Laurel Hill or the Iberville to come to our relief; but neither of them made their appearance. It transpired that both of them were required to take troops up to Baton Rouge, which they did – the latter during the night and the former on the following morning. Late in the afternoon Colonel Clarke went over to New Orleans and had an interview with General Banks on the necessary of providing transportation for the prisoners. The matter was becoming serious, as the provisions on board the vessel were exhausted and the prisoners’ rations had to be restricted to a couple of biscuits. To do them justice, they did not complain, but philosophically made the best of a bad job. That night there was no noise, and people were enabled to indulge in the luxury of a good sleep.
Next morning, by some means I did not ascertain, some salt mackerel were procured for the prisoners’ rations. It was quite amusing to witness the jollity of the men over what they facetiously termed their sumptuous fare, consisting of mackerel and […..] tack.” Presently we received the welcome intelligence that a steamer would come to our relief at ten o’clock that morning. Nor were we disappointed, for precisely at ten o’clock the fine seagoing steamship New Brunswick ran alongside of us, and shortly after the prisoners and the Union troops began to remove to their new temporary floating house. At twelve o’clock everything was in readiness for a start; but we had to await the arrival of Colonel Clarke, with orders.
Previous to the departure of the New Brunswick, the three prisoners who had been brought on board, together with three rebel soldiers who had not been properly registered, were taken back to New Orleans, where it is probable they were let at large, the soldiers, of course, on parole.
This is a good opportunity of taking a glance at the personnel of the persons. They were nearly all young men, and a great number of them were quite good looking. There was one old fellow among them, however, upwards of sixty years old, who had the rank of full private. He possessed all the fire of youth, and had fought at Shiloh. In his more youthful days he was a great traveller in the far West, and had had many a brush with the Indians. He had in him at the time a bullet from an Indian’s rifle, which (the bullet, not the rifle) had never been extracted. The old man possesses a beard that Aaron himself would not have been ashamed of. But of him more anon. I learned from one of the prisoners that nearly all of them were married men.
At about three o’clock Colonel Clarke arrived, and a quarter of an hour after the New Brunswick cast off from the Empire Parish and proceeded up the river, amidst the waving of innumerable handkerchiefs from the shore and on board the Empire Parish, to which vessel quite a crowd of women had obtained access.
We found the accommodations of the New Brunswick, though more limited, far superior to those of the Empire Parish. There were means of separating the more noisy privates from the more quiet officers, which the Empire Parish does not possess. The result was the enjoyment of a quiet night.
All the way up I had an opportunity of witnessing how nearly the river had risen to the top of the levee, in some places the water and the levee were nearly flush. Two or three feet more rise will serve to flood the entire country. At such an elevation the back country could be seen to great advantage. The large forest trees back of the clearing were visible to the roots; but when the river is low you cannot see much below their middle. The consequence of the present height of the river is an optical illusion; which a stranger to the perfectly level character of the country would labor under – that is, the trees in the background present the appearance of a range of hills, with trees growing on their sides and summit. But of course those who are posted know very well that there are no hills to be seen for several hundred miles.
I may observe that all this time, and until we parted with the rebel prisoners, the best feeling existed between them and the Unionists, and the utmost harmony prevailed among both parties.
During that night we stopped at Donaldsonville for two hours, in order to take on board some more prisoners for exchange. We were to have received fifteen, but only seven were forthcoming. With these we again started, and arrived at Baton Rouge about half past nine o’clock on Monday morning, the 23d. Here we waited for a few minutes, when we resumed our course a mile further up the river, where we found the rebel flag of truce boat Frolic awaiting our arrival. Running alongside of her the preparations were soon made for the transfer of the prisoners. We had none to receive in exchange. The officer in command of the rebel boat was Colonel Comanche. He is a tall man, with florid countenance and rather sandy beard and hair. Major Watt, a stout, aristocratic man, with gray hair on his head and all over his face, but good looking withal, putting one in mind of a good dinner, with a bottle or two of excellent port – that much-to-be-regretted tradition of the past – was the exchange officer. The Major wore a spotless white vest and a citizen’s black frock coat, on each side of the collar of which was a five-pointed star – the rebel insignia of the rank of a major. The rank and file presented a marked contrast to the prisoners we had on board. The former were very shabbily attired in all sorts of poor attempts at uniforms, which were all exceedingly dirty, as were the faces of their owners. Soap seems to be as scarce as salt among them, and the men looked as if they had not washed for a twelvemonth, or, perhaps, which is nearer the mark, they had washed so often in Mississippi water that they had become veneered in its mud, without receiving any of the benefit traditionally supposed to belong to the cleaning properties of water in general.
Preliminaries having been arranged, the rolls were called alphabetically, and each non-commissioned officer and private, on hearing his name, stepped on board the Frolic.
The commissioned officers were the last to go on board the Frolic. Their names were not called out, but each gentleman reported himself as he stepped on board, and his name was ticked off on the list. General Clarke was the last to leave. He was very carefully removed on a mattress. His wife and two or three other ladies followed immediately.
All this time the most friendly feeling existed between the Unionists and the rebels, between whom a constant interchange of visits were kept up on both vessels. When the business was all over Colonel Clarke invited all the rebel officers on board the New Brunswick, where a parting glass was drank in some excellent champagne. This was followed by a general handshaking all round, and the rebel officers left, impressed, no doubt, with the idea that a Yankee is not such a very dreadful animal after all.
The New Brunswick was now cast off from the Frolic, when three hearty cheers for the Colonel Clarke burst from the rebels. Cheers were about being given for some of the other officers when an accident, which might have proved fatal, occurred, effectually precluding any further demonstration of the kind. The wave caused by the paddles of the New Brunswick made the Frolic careen slightly to the port side, throwing down a pile of fuel wood, which struck five rebel soldiers who stood on the guards, carrying them overboard. Two of the men were instantly grasped by their comrades, and rescued with some difficulty. The other three caught hold of the starboard paddlewheel of the New Brunswick, upon which a cry was raised, “Stop the wheel.” This was done with admirable quickness, or the men must have been inevitably lost. Fortunately the boat of the New Brunswick had been lowered. It was quickly manned, and the three men were rescued, apparently none the worse, a good ducking, and, perhaps, all the better for the washing, which they sadly needed. No lives were lost.
We left Baton Rouge at four o’clock in the afternoon of the 23d, and arrived at Carrolton about eleven o’clock, remaining there for the night. At daylight next morning we started for New Orleans, which was soon reached.
The total number of prisoners transferred to the Frolic was three hundred and thirty-nine, of whom twenty-five were officers. They embrace members from the Crescent regiment, the Eighteenth, Twenty-third, Thirtieth and other Louisiana regiments, with a sprinkling of artillery and infantry.
The Iberville returned from Baton Rouge on Wednesday, bringing with her six hundred and thirty-three exchanged Union prisoners from Galveston, Texas, viz: – two hundred and fifty of the Forty-second Massachusetts Volunteers – with the Rev. Mr. Sangler – who were captured at Galveston on New Year morning; two hundred and seventy three men of the Eighth regulars, who were basely surrendered by the traitor Twiggs at the commencement of the rebellion, when he was in command of the Department of Texas. There arrived also eighty five of the crew of the Harriet Lane make up the sum total.
These men give full accounts of the disaster at Galveston, but the HERALD has already published such graphic descriptions of the affair that it would be a work of supererogation to repeat the story, even if space admitted. There is one feature worth noticing, however, and that is that an intelligent soldier of the Forty-second Massachusetts and apparently an equally intelligent sailor of the Harriet Lane unite in saying that during one period of the fight the rebel General Magruder was in full retreat, to which end he had spiked and abandoned nearly all his guns, numbering many batteries. The terrific attack on the Harriet Lane by the rebel gunboats, however, turned the tide of victory and enabled the rebels to rally, when the Harriet Lane was overpowered by the sheer force of overwhelming numbers.
The following interesting account of the adventures of the Union prisoners is given by Sergeant William H. Hunt, the soldier already referred to: –
On Thursday, January 22, the prisoners were removed from Houston by railroad, and made fifty-three miles in fifteen hours. They passed through a wild and desolate country, and arrived at Beaumont on Friday, and were quartered in an old sawmill, which was full of hogs and vermin. The hogs were turned out, but the vermin remained. Prices in Beaumont were no improvement on those in Houston. Lard, $1 per pound; butter, $2; coffee, ditto; flour, $120 per barrel; calico, $2 per yard; white cotton cloth, $2 per yard; tobacco, $2 and $3 per pound; black pepper, $5 per pound; cream of tartar, $3.50; whiskey, $300 per barrel, and poor at that.
The prisoners left Beaumont January 29, embarking on the steamer Roebuck, a miserable old craft. They went down the Neches river and across Sabine Lake, plainly descrying one of our gunboats with the glasses.
The original design was changed, and the prisoners were taken to BurrFerry, the furtherest point up the Sabine river accessible with the steamboat. The prisoners were six days on this wretched old vessel, and one of their number, David Chapin, private, of Company I, died on the passage, and was buried by his comrades at StarkLanding.
The soldiers were here put into deserted old log huts of the filthiest description, and kept five days, during which Henry C. Sella, private, of Company D, died from sickness contracted on the voyage.
Monday morning, February 9, the bugle sounded at an early hour, and the prisoners took up their line of march for Alexandria. It was fine travelling for twenty four hours, through a high pine country. It gradually grew lower, and the travelling became bad. The prisoners were urged on constantly, and even some of the mules of the baggage train dropped with exhaustion. One rainy morning the road lay for five miles through a swamp, where the water was above the knees of the men.
This wearisome march continued without interruption until the 13th in the afternoon, when the prisoners came in sight of Alexandria – a handsome little village, once prosperous, but, like everything else in Dixie, about […..] out.” They remained here, awaiting orders, until Sunday morning, when they were turned out very suddenly at half-past three o’clock in the morning, and hurried off up the river to get out of the way of Uncle Sam’s gunboats, which they said were coming up the Red river to take the place. They went twenty miles and remained until afternoon, when word came of the capture of the Queen of the West, and all returned.
The same night everything was put on board the steamboat, and they started for Vicksburg direct, as it was supposed; but the order was countermanded, and the teams were put on shore, and the steamer left with the prisoners and sailed direct for Port Hudson. Here a lieutenant colonel came on board, took command and examined the papers, and ordered the vessel to the other side of the river, where she remained over night, within two and a half miles of the Union pickets.
GOING OVER TO THE UNIONISTS.
During the night the two stewards cut down the lifeboat and deserted over to the Union lines. Two of the engineers, one deck hand, five of the guard and two negro firemen also deserted the rebel craft at Baton Rouge.
On Tuesday morning the prisoners were transferred to our flag of truce boat, having come down to the point fixed for the exchange. They had been previously paroled at Alexandria.
MRS. LINCOLN’S BROTHER AT HOUSTON.
The rebel officer who called the roll of our prisoners at Houston is Lieutenant Todd, a brother of the wife of President Lincoln. He is a tall, fat and savage against the “Yankees.”
KILLED AND WOUNDED.
The following is a list of the killed and wounded of the Forty-second Massachusetts: – . […..]
The following are the prices in Houston, which the Sergeant says were not improved on in Beaumont: –
Molasses, 50 ¢. and 65 ¢. per quart; bread, 25 ¢. and 50 ¢. a loaf, such as can be bought in Boston for 4 ¢.; butter, $1.25 per pound, made of goats’ milk, and strong enough to draw a handcart; army shoes, such as are given to our soldiers at $1.87 per pair, are sold at $8 and $9. A good pair of boots brings $35, and shoemakers charge $12 for topping a pair. Flour $60 per hundred; meal $6 a bushel, ground cobs and all; nails, $125 a keg, worth $5 in Boston.
The prisoners seem to have enjoyed tolerably good health.
Washington’s birthday passed off quietly in this city, but not without some attempt at celebration. Precisely at noon on the 22d a national salute was fired from all the vessels of war in port, keeping up a continual roar and enveloping the locality in clouds of smoke for several minutes. As the day fell on Sunday this year, the annual ball did not take place until the evening of the 23d, when a large concourse of beauty and fashion graced the Union ball in Masonic Hall. The ballroom, which was handsomely decorated, was crowded. All passed off as […..]as a marriage bell,” and the party separated at a late hour (next morning) well pleased with the entertainment.
On Saturday night Colonel Jonas H. French, Chief of Police and late Provost Marshal General of Louisiana, was presented with a magnificent testimonial, in the shape of a massive service of plate, by the members of the police force. The testimonial, which consisted of eleven pieces, of exquisite workmanship, was manufactured at a cost of $1,390, and accompanied by resolutions eulogistic of the manner in which the Colonel had performed the duties of his officer. The presentation was made in the City Hall, the speech being made by Colonel French in appropriate terms.
The following is the inscription on the salver: –
Presented to Colonel Jonas H. French, Chief of Police and late Provost Marshal General of Louisiana, by the Police of the city of New Orleans, and employes under him as Provost Marshal General of Louisiana, as a mark of confidence and esteem in him as an able and meritorious officer, February 24, 1863.
I regret to have to record another loss in the navy. The gunboat Kinsman is no more, having been snagged and sunk a mile and a half below the mouth of the Atchafalaya river, on Monday night, while proceeding to her regular nightly picket duty. Captain Wiggins made the most strenuous efforts to save her, but without avail, for she sunk in about seventy feet of water, after having been run on a bank, from which, however, she swung off into deep water. Nine men are reported drowned, the rest – officers and crew – having been rescued by the steamers Diana and Estrella. The Kinsman was an iron- clad boat, which has done good service, especially in the recent fight on the Teche. She carried one thirty-two-pounder Parrott gun and two thirty-two-pounder brass howitzers.