June 3, 1863, The Charleston Mercury
FROM NEW ORLEANS.
ATLANTA, GA., June 2. New Orleans refugees arrived here state that it was believed at New Orleans that FARRAGUT, finding his ship, the Hartford, in a sinking condition and too weak to return past the batteries at Port Hudson, stopped the vessel and destroyed her near the mouth of the Red River. FARRAGUT with his officers and crew were at New Orleans.
THE WAR IN MISSISSIPPI.
The Jackson Mississippian, of Tuesday, 26th, says: ‘We learn from a gentleman who arrived from Vicksburg, that the most stubborn battle of the series around that devoted place took place on Saturday, in which the Federals were repulsed with terrible slaughter, our boys literally piling up their dead bodies in heaps.’
We have news from the Yazoo up to May 25th. The Yankee gunboats were reported as having left Yazoo City. Four steamers were sunk in the Yazoo by order of Capt. I. N. Brown, of the Confederate Navy – the Scotland, Golden Age and two others. All other steamers in the river are safe. Our forces have evacuated Fort Pemberton – bringing off all the guns safely.
It is said that Gen. Pemberton has been compelled to burn tar and other disinfectants in order to save his troops from the ill effects of the effluvia of the dead bodies of the Yankees that lie rotting in the sun in front of his works. It is hard to account for Federal neglect of such an act of common decency and humanity as the burial of their dead. The sight of them cannot be either pleasant or encouraging to the survivors, and will not render them over anxious to advance against a strong position, when the terrible results of former failures are so plainly before them. The postmaster at Montgomery has been telegraphed to send forward mails for Jackson and points beyond, as usual.
The Advertiser says: If the later reports of the assault on Saturday are correct, Grant’s army must now be badly cut up, and unless he has been very greatly reinforced, it would appear that the present is General Johnston’s opportunity to move on and attack him in the rear. The loss of fifteen or twenty thousand men in one assault would be sufficient to demoralize almost any body of men in the world, especially if they were within the enemy’s country, and Grant’s army must be suffering greatly in this respect. The desperate assault which Grant is making upon our works will hasten the time of his discomfiture, as each successive repulse must leave him weaker than before.
The Montgomery Mail hears a rumor that General Johnston has been reinforced by fifteen thousand militia, and that he had cut off the enemy’s supply train some where in that State.
The Jackson Mississippian, of the 26th, says: Our city is fast assuming its natural aspect. The various military departments have re-established offices and headquarters; many of our business houses have re-opened; and we meet almost every step some familiar face, that was lost during the trying scenes of the past week or ten days – confidence seems to pervade the whole community as to the safety and future well being of our town. We have been informed by a gentleman from Yazoo City, that the enemy has evacuated that place, after doing all the mischief they could, short of entirely annihilating the city.