The Charleston Mercury
April 24, 1861
HEADQUARTERS FOR PROVISIONAL ARMY, WARRINGTON, (Fla.) April 20, 1861.
In my last letter I reported to you that the mails were stopped to and from this place. I received my information from the Warrington Postmaster, who ought to be authority upon the subject. The information was partly true. The civil mails are stopped, the civil postmasters are displaced, and the mails are put under exclusive charge of the chief Quartermaster of the army. With this difference, I suppose that the mails will go on as heretofore. They will thus be under the surveillance of a military officer. The Postmaster here was suspected of being a traitor and spy. This may have been the immediate reason of the change, though there were other sufficient reasons. Last night, the Postmaster, who is also a leading merchant, was arrested, upon some proof of his guilt. He is still a prisoner. This place swarms with spies and traitors. General BRAGG has given them their choice—to join the ranks as soldiers, to work, or to leave. There has been for two days past a hurrying to and fro, a hasty packing of household goods, and a confused and motley exodus. There is a great deal of distress and poverty among the inhabitants of Warrrington and Woolsey. The latter is the name of the village on the north side of the navy yard; Warrington that on the south side. These people are laborers or mechanics, who have lived entirely on employment from the old Government. They have been thrown out of employment with arrears of pay due them. Like poor people the world over, they have numerous children. I have passed few houses at which I was not appealed to most piteously to buy furniture, or some of the odds and ends of housekeeping supplies. Disloyal as most of them are, their distress excited my sympathy.
It is strange that people are so incredulous of coming catastrophes. I have known only one person, except myself, since the dissolution of the Union, who believed that we should have war. For weeks past I have been telling these people here to get their houses in order to leave, or to die, and they have stared at me with wild eyed incredulity. Even now they linger and wish to remain, unbelieving that a collision will occur. Like the foolish people of Sodom and Gomorrah, they will not believe until the shower of ruin shall overwhelm them, and, like LOTT’S foolish wife, they will be turned, if not into pillars of salt, certainly into mangled corpses.
Yesterday Major (or Captain) VOGDES and Lieut. SLEMMER came over for a parley with Gen. BRAGG. They were not permitted to come within the lines. Gen. BRAGG had an interview with them in the Navy Yard. I have not been able to learn what was the subject of the conference.
Another war steamer, leviathan of the deep, arrived on the night of the 16th. Her name is said to be the Atlantic. The fleet now numbers seven vessels. There is no blockade yet, but no vessels can be chartered in Mobile or New Orleans for this port. The owners will not take the risk except for an enormous premium. It is a foolish apprehension, for even in case of a blockade, there would be no right to capture a vessel bringing freight. The cargo, if public property, might be seized, but the vessel would not be liable. An English ship came in yesterday.
There are now between six and seven thousand troops here. We shall have a long siege here probably of six months’ duration. The enemy have the advantage of us. They have more guns, and the advantage of position. They have command of the sea, and can reinforce and supply themselves without hindrance. We are in a barren country, without railroad or water communication. It will be very laborious and expensive to feed the army thus circumstanced.
LA PALMA.