part of both soldiers and sailors, were frequent, the action with the expectation that he would and prevented the siege from assuming a mono- soon be joined by General Getty's advancing tonous character. Many of these actions would column. adorn the pages of a romance, but the limited space of this sketch must exclude them. About midnight on the third, our troops under Corcoran, Dodge, and Foster started in pursuit of the retreating foe, but only succeeded in capturing a few hundred stragglers before the enemy crossed the Blackwater. Thus ended the memorable siege of Suffolk, resulting to the rebels in a gain of nothing and a loss of one thousand five hundred men, five guns, and a considerable quantity of small arms and stores. By the second of May, the approaching terrible conflict between the armies of Hooker and Lee, compelled Longstreet to raise the siege. Continually on the alert, General Peck did not intend that his enemy should steal off secretly and unmolested, and no sooner had the retreat fairly commenced than he resolved to test its reality. On the third of May, therefore, a column about seven thousand strong, under Generals Getty and The writer cannot relinquish his theme withHarland, crossed the drawbridge and advanced out allusion to contemporary events. As late as up the Providence Church road. Simultaneously the second of May, Lieutenant-General Hill conColonel Dutton was directed to cross two small fronted Suffolk with some thirty thousand men, columns six or eight miles lower down, and at Longtreet having gone by rail with one division, tack the enemy in flank. General Getty en- to aid Lee at Chancellorsville. Of this fact, the countered a powerful rear-guard of the enemy in writer who has every facility for information, a position of immense strength. From a cover speaks without fear of truthful contradiction. On of rifle-pits and abattis, and protected by impass- the same day Hooker and Lee fought their desable ground on either side, they poured a terrible perate engagement in the "Wilderness." Lee's fire of musketry and artillery across the plain army, thus depleted by Longstreet's diversion, over which our troops advanced. With un-numbered not far from fifty thousand, and Hooker daunted bravery, however, they moved onward knew that General Stoneman's operations would preceded by skirmishers and from noon till delay if not prevent reënforcements from Suffolk. night maintained an unequal contest. The The returns of the army of the Potomac for that rebels were forced from all their advanced and date exhibit about one hundred and twenty-five some of their retired positions, but at nightfall thousand men present for duty, yet notwithstandstill held their principal lines. During the night ing this disparity in numbers, our magnificent (which was excessively dark) they stole away army, the boast of the North, was ignominiously while our weary troops rested on the field. defeated, despite the high-sounding proclamation Meantime Colonel Dutton had sent the Twenty- that heralded its advance. This truth is mournfirst Connecticut with a section of artillery and a ful, yet it is no less a truth. Nor is it possible dozen cavalrymen, in all less than four hundred to review in connection the events of the last of men, across the Nansemond eight miles below. April and first of May on the Rappahannock and Advancing toward the village of Chuckatuck, on the Nansemond, without reflecting that had they encountered the rebel cavalry about four both Federal armies been commanded with equal hundred strong, who charged the column. Major ability, the united results might and could have Crosby commanding, instantly formed line and been one of the most glorious triumphs to our opened fire with musketry and artillery, prompt- arms that history has yet recorded. ly routing the enemy. Continuing his march, he was perpetually harassed by the enemy, who with skirmishers disputed his advance. But driving all before him, he arrived after a march of eight miles at the west branch of the Nansemond, which he had hoped to cross and feel the enemy's main force, but the bridge was burned, there was no means of crossing, and both banks of the stream were lined with the enemy. However, he advanced at double-quick, driving all those on his own side into the stream except eighteen whom he captured. Thus finding his further progress at an end, he marched down the West Branch to the Nansemond, where he bivouacked under cover of the gunboats. The Richmond Examiner of the twenty-seventh November, 1863, has the following in its leading editorial upon Lieutenant-General Longstreet and his Knoxville and Suffolk campaigns, which are pronounced as parallel failures: "Perhaps the result might have been different if Longstreet and his corps of the Virginia army had been in line. His operations in East-Tennesee afford little compensation for the reverse at Chattanooga, nor have the late bare and scanty news from that quarter sustained the high hope which the public justly based on the first intelligence briskly forwarded by General Bragg. His telegram declared that Longstreet's cavalry had pursued the enemy into Knoxville; that the inColonel Dutton with a small force crossed in fantry was 'close up,' and it was natural to row-boats at "Hill's Point." After advancing a suppose that the next news would be that of short distance he found the enemy in largely su- Knoxville's recapture. But the next news from perior numbers and strongly intrenched. Never- Longstreet contained a mention of intrenching, theless, the attack commenced, and resulted of which suggested disagreeable reminiscences of course in a repulse. The troops were then de- Suffolk. Since then, little or nothing has been ployed as skirmishers and as such engaged the heard from Longstreet, unless we are to receive enemy the greater part of the day without im- the 'unofficial' story of the telegraph this mornportant results. Colonel Dutton thus continueding to be trustworthy. Oh! that it may be so! alone." Honor to whom honor is due! Doc. 65. CAPTURE OF THE CALYPSO. UNITED STATES STEAMER FLORIDA, STATIONED His pressure on Burnside has, undoubtedly, black-with another thunder-storm that sweeps quickened Grant's attack on Bragg; while the upon us like mad. The storm throws up against absence of his whole corps from the confederate our bows long rolls of waves, and beats right line at the time of Sherman's arrival in the Fed- against us, making us lose a number of knots. eral host has given the enemy a great opportun- The tempest did not reach the blockade-runner, ity. It was during the parallel campaign of and when the clouds lifted she had left us far Longstreet against Suffolk that Hooker made his behind, and was almost out of sight. Only a coup at Chancellorsville; but he found there few more hours and it would be dark. The wind Jackson, while Grant had to do with Bragg that helped her on put us back dreadfully, and we began to despair of catching her; but we raised all the steam we could, used a little oil and wood to brighten up, and make a quick fire. Now we have a little wind and spread all the sail we can to advantage; hauled our guns from one side of the deck to the other, to keep the vessel in the best of trim; even spread hammock covers and table cloths to catch all the wind we could get. All these things told, and the THIS afternoon we gained permission from the staunch, good old Florida, catching the spirit of flag-ship Sacramento, to go off fishing a few miles the chase, like some high-blood horse in a race, outside the blockaders that lay huddled to- fairly flew through the water; every minute we gether some four miles off Fort Caswell and the gained upon the flying rebel, and in one short mouth of the Cape Fear River. The result of hour we regained all we had lost, and some good which was some fine fishing and finer catching; long miles besides, for her masts and hull and for, by getting well out from the land, we were smoke-stack all show quite plainly; she is withenabled to spy a rebel steamer which we saw as in six miles of us, and though she knows a stern a faint speck on the distant horizon, where she chase is a long one, yet she sees it is useless for lay waiting for nightfall to screen her as she ran her to try to keep us at it longer, and as a last in. We signalled to the fleet that we saw a sus resource heads in for shore. We make for a picious sail, and immediately got under way and point across her bows, and the race from that. gave chase. For the first half-hour we gained time on is one steady and rapid gain upon her, upon her fast, but then she espied us making and the captain said she would hardly get on for her, a line of black smoke streamed up into too shoal water for us to follow, ere we overthe sky and she took to her heels; but our hauled her. At seven P.M., we were within three steamer is fast, and continued to gain upon her; or four miles of her, and Captain Bankhead the first hour of the chase is nearly over now, orders the fifty-pound rifle to be fired to bring and we can distinguish a faint line almost as her to. It was done, but she paid no attention delicate as a hair standing up against the south- to it-he orders a solid shot to be fired across ern horizon-and we know it to be the smoke- her bows. It was fired, and struck the water stack of a steamer, for above it curls a hazy col-about a hundred yards ahead of her. Still she umn of smoke which, too, is barely distinguish- don't seem to heave to, and another shot is fired, able; she must be some twelve miles off, and which struck the water within twenty yards of already we have gained some two or three upon her, so we have since been told. This brought her; but now there comes up a wild thunder her to, and she showed the white flag. A few gust-the rain pours down in sheets almost, and minutes later brought us near enough to see her soon we can only see a few ship's lengths ahead, boats filled and shoving off from her, and a sickand we hardly know whether to keep straightening fear came over us that they had scuttled on, or whether to take a more easterly course, in her, or touched a slow match to her and we anticipation of her turning on her track under should lose her after all, and have nothing but cover of the storm, and like a hunted hare seek to elude and baffle us. Our captain knows all this coast, has surveyed, and sounded, and measured it out, till he knows it like a book; he knows, too, there is a reef to the eastward of us, and fears this steamer will try to cut across it, and thus escape us, for we draw too much water to cross it, and most of the rebel steamers are light draught enough to do so; accordingly we head so as to cut her off from that resort, if possible, and still keep as directly toward her as we can. After half an hour's anxious waiting, the storm clears up, and the man at the masthead can see her hull. We are overhauling her fast. Another half-hour brings us within eight or nine miles of her-and we are fast overhauling her, when our western sky grows fairly her crew to take back. Captain B. threatened, as soon as she got within hail, to blow her out of the water, if they made a single further attempt to scuttle her, or blow her up, or even throw her cargo overboard. Thus warned, the few that seemed to be left on board to do that work hesitated. Meanwhile, our boat, with officers and men, pushed off to the steamer, when lo and behold! we saw some half-dozen women in one boat, being pulled toward us. They were a good deal frightened, but a few words from us, and our manners, convinced them they would be treated with the gentlemanly, chivalric courtesy that the American officer and sailor and patriot knows how to do better than any other class of men on the face of the globe. The men on the rebel steamer had indeed begun to scuttle her, As the John Adams approached the village she poured a constant shower of shot and shell into the woods, along the shore, and into the town, as she came up to the wharf. The few "crackers" and paupers remaining in the place ran frightened and terror-stricken in every direc tion, and when Colonel Montgomery landed his troops, he found not a single armed inhabitant to dispute his right. Through the activity of some of the negro soldiers, a few of these poor "white trash" were caught, who told the story of there being a strong cavalry force within five miles of the place, which may or may not have been true. At any rate, Colonel Montgomery, from the information obtained from them, did not desist from his original purpose, but marched nearly his whole force into the town, posted his sentries and prepared to do his work. In a few hours all the valuable property he could find, of a movable character, was transferred to his boats. A large quantity of second-class furniture, considerable live stock, horses, cows, and sheep, and rice and corn, sufficient to feed his command for at least a month, was thus disposed of. but dared not run the risk of blowing her up Doc. 66. THE INVASION OF GEORGIA. HILTON HEAD, June 17, 1863. EARLY on the morning of the eleventh instant, Colonel Montgomery left St. Simon's Island, where his brigade is now encamped, to present his compliments to the rebels of Georgia, having the week before sent them to those of SouthCarolina. This force consisted of five companies of the Second South-Carolina, eight companies of the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts, Colonel Shaw, all negro, and the Third Rhode Island battery, Captain Brayton. The gunboat John Adams, Captain Smith, and the transports Sentinel and Harriet A. Weed, constituted the fleet. The inhabitants driven out and the town sacked, the next step in Colonel Montgomery's programme was to burn and destroy every thing he could not carry off with him. In a few moments the principal buildings were all in flames, and, a strong south-west wind prevailing at the time, the whole village was soon enshrouded in flame and smoke, and before the expedition returned, not a single tenantable habitation re Darien destroyed, Major Corwin of the Second South-Carolina took the Harriet A. Weed and proceeded up the river in search of a rebel craft he had heard of through some negroes. When four miles up the stream he found the report to be correct, and overhauled and captured a copper-bottomed schooner, a large flat-boat, and eighty bales of long staple cotton, estimated to be worth thirty thousand dollars. Major Corwin was absent from Darien two hours, and when he returned with his prize, was received by the Massachusetts and South-Carolina negro soldiers with nine tremendous cheers. These bold, rapid, and successful expeditions of Colonel Montgomery are spreading terror throughout the entire coast, and are compelling the rebels to abandon their rice and cotton fields and all the smaller villages which would be at all likely to be visited by him. A NATIONAL ACCOUNT. ST. SIMON'S ISLAND, GA., } When I last wrote we were just leaving BeauThe expedition ready, the order was given to fort, on the eve of an expedition into Secessia. sail through Dubois Sound, and up the Alta- That expedition has been made, was eminently maha River, the largest stream in Georgia, to successful and bloodless, but how far creditable the village of Darien, which is said to have con- to us, and fruitful in results, I leave you to judge tained before the war some two thousand in-after you have heard the particulars. All Sunhabitants, most of whom were wedded to the day afternoon of the seventh and until eleven rebel cause. o'clock at night, we were at work with ten teams and one hundred and twenty-five men, carrying our stores and luggage from the camp and stowing it on board the transport, from which it had only been removed two days before. The men worked like heroes, and by one o'clock the work was done, and we marched back to camp an "turned in" on the open ground. We had onl three hours' sleep, for we broke camp at four o'clock Monday morning, and took up our march to the wharf. It is a "big job" simply to march and stow away one thousand men on board a vessel. After several delays at last all was ready, and we swung off at nine o'clock, the men cheering and singing their "John Brown." At noon we reached Hilton Head, where the Colonel reported for orders. He got them, and to this effect: to proceed immediately to St. Simon's Island, and join Montgomery. By six P.M. we were off again, bound south-west, and on Tuesday morning at six o'clock, dropped anchor off the southern end of St. Simon's Island, in sight of the plantation of T. Butler King. Here several of us went ashore, the Colonel to ride across the Island to Montgomery's camp for further orders. I, with the Adjutant and Doctor, took the opportunity to look about the plantation. The house was occupied by a negro sergeant with a squad of men, but utterly deserted by its former owners. But it was a splendid place! It would make your eyes open to see things grow here, and to see what grows! Tamarinds and oranges were all about me, to say nothing of figs. but the men worked as if for their very lives... We proceeded down the river about five miles to Montgomery's camp. Here we joined the other vessels of the expedition, which made up as follows, all told: Flag-ship John Adams, (an old friend, to wit, East-Boston ferry-boat,) with part of the Second South-Carolina, numbering eight" hundred, on board; the Harriet A. Weed, with the rest of the Second, (formerly a North River boat, I should say ;) the Sentinel, with the Fiftyfourth Massachusetts volunteers; and the gunboat Paul Jones, carrying eight guns, two elev And then the whole catalogue of tropical plants and flowers, such as we only see at home in hot houses, are here so abundantly and luxuriantly spread before you, that you are lost in wonder and delight. But the live oaks are the most magnificent spectacle of all; they are large and sym-en-inch, three pivot, and three side. The John metrical, and almost invariably, too, festooned with a peculiar, dark, parasitic vine which adds a strange weirdness to their sturdy grandeur. The Colonel returned with orders to land at a place further up, called Old Frederica. The De Molay could not proceed, and we had to await a transport of lighter draught, which Montgomery was to send to us. It came alongside at noon, and proved to be the Sentinel, but looked like a New-York canal-boat built up a story. The Colonel, with eight companies, went on board and proceeded immediately to camp. Headquarters are established in a large two-story dwelling house close to the wharf; the line officers and men are in tents. Two companies (two hundred men) were set at work on the cargo, and I never saw men work so in my life. We all supposed we were going on an expedition the next day, and they had no idea of being left. We opened both hatchways, and put a hundred men at work on each. Consider, we were anchored in the stream, and the boat we were to transfer the cargo to, was off and would not be back for several hours. Of course we could hurry matters only by hoisting out the cargo and stowing it on deck. We fell to about three o'clock. At six the transport was alongside, and at ten we had every thing transferred to her decks! It was quick work, Adams also had four or five guns, including one large Parrott. It was truly quite a formidable expedition. All the vessels got under way, and proceeded down the river about sunset. The prominent idea of the expedition was to "run off" slaves, and also get what rebel stores we could. The plan was this: to sail with all speed up the Altamaha River to Fort Barrington, there disembark, send the boats below to Darien, and then march the regiment thither, sweeping. all the slaves on before us. Thus we would sweep a district of some twenty or thirty miles in length. Could we have carried this out, no doubt we should have been richly repaid, but we met with so many delays that it became impracticable. We had gone but a little ways down the river when our boat ran aground, and the tide being on the ebb, there she staid till morning. This was unfortunate, for it necessitated making the whole trip by daylight, in place of by night. We grounded several times in going up the Altamaha, and altogether consumed so much time that the rebels had leisure to spread the news all over Georgia. They made their preparations accordingly, deserting all the plantations near the river, and, judging from the smoke, burning many a rice-mill and store-house further in the interior. We shelled the woods on both hold, ought to be destroyed. If we must burn the South out, so be it. The store-houses along the river were fired last, and the burning of them was the signal for departure. We hurried on board, and well it was for us-it was so hot then we could not stay on that side of the boat next the wharf. Had the wind shifted, no power on earth could have saved us-we barely escaped as it was. It was sundown as we dropped into the stream. A whole town on fire, from one end to the other! it isn't often one sees it, and it's sel dom he wants to. But it is a spectacle grand in the extreme. When the rosin took fire a dense black smoke rolled up and almost shut out the sides as we advanced, but failed to find an ene- compunctions. And I suppose we should have.. my. The country for miles on both banks of the none any way. The South must be conquered river was flat and marshy, and of the most unin-inch by inch, and what we can't put a force in to viting kind. The river itself was so muddy and red you could hardly persuade yourself there wasn't an immense brick-yard underneath. It was full of alligators of all sizes and degrees of ugliness. It was past noon when we reached Darien, and, of course, from the warning we had given, it was useless to proceed further-we should find the country déserted, go where we would. Not a soul was to be seen in Darien. We were ordered to disembark and form in line of battle in the public square. Pickets were sent out to the limits of the town. Orders were then given to search the town, take what could be found of value to the vessels, and then fire it. Officers then started off in every direction, with squadsght of the conflagration. As night came on, a of men to assist. In a very short time every house in town was broken into and the work of pillage and selection was begun. The fire had begun, too, from the lower end of the town (caused by a shell thrown before we landed) and a high wind was driving it resistlessly up the main street. terrific thunder-storm came up, and heaven's artillery finished the havoc that ours had begun. We anchored in the stream for the night. Thus began, continued and ended the first expedition or raid into Secessia, in which the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts bore a part. We have all only this comment to make we pray God that the next town we burn we may first have to fight to get it. We reached camp next day, Friday, about three P.M. The next morning the plunder was divided, and now it is scattered all over camp, but put to good use, the whole of it. Some of the quarters really look princely, with their sofas, divans, pianos, etc. In place of the customary privations of camp, we have almost the comforts of home, with not a few of its luxuries. Don't get the idea that the rebels had taken themselves away only. They took every thing they could carry off in the time they had. Many houses had absolutely nothing in them of value to any body. Soon the men began to come in in twos, threes, and dozens, loaded with every species and all sorts and quantities of furniture, stores, trinkets, etc., etc., till one would be tired enumerating. We had sofas, tables, pianos, chairs, mirrors, carpets, beds, bedsteads, carpenters' tools, coopers' tools, books, law books, account books in unlimited supply, china sets, tin ware, earthen ware, confederate shinplasters, old letters, papers, etc., etc., etc. A private would come along with a slate, yardstick, and brace of chickens in one hand, a table on his head, and in the other hand a rope with a cow attached. (I here actually described Milo's state on his first return to the ship.) An immense pile of lumber lay on the wharf, and men St. Simon's Island is flat, but wonderfully prowere detailed to load it on the boats. Droves of ductive and beautiful. It has never been my forsheep and cows were driven in and put aboard. tune before to see its equal. Our camp is close Along the shore were large warehouses of rice on to the old town of Frederica, which in its and rosin-what rosin we could, we put aboard. palmy days had some three thousand inhabitWhile this was going on, the Harriet A. Weed ants. Now it has not one. The north end of steamed up the river and captured a schooner the island forms Pierce Butler's plantation-Fanand flatboat with eighty-five bales of cotton. ny Kemble's husband, and the man who had She was loudly cheered as she passed us on her that immense auction sale of negroes several way down. Darien contained from seventy-five years ago. It is deserted now, save by some doto one hundred houses, not counting slave cab-zen or two darkies, once Butler's slaves. "Ole ins, of which there were several to every house, the number varying evidently according to the wealth of the proprietor: one fine broad street along the river, the rest starting out from it. All of them were shaded on both sides, not with young saplings, but good sturdy oaks and mulberries, that told of a town of both age and respectability. It was a beautiful town, and never did it look so both grand and beautiful as in its destruction. As soon as a house was ransacked, the match was applied, and by six o'clock the whole town was in one sheet of flame. It was a magnificent spectacle, but still very few were found to gloat over it. Had we had a hard fight to gain the place, or had we taken a thousand slaves by its destruction, we would have had no massa run away, de darkies stay at home." Truly the "Kingdom is coming" to these poor blacks. The weather here is warm, and uniformly so. We have had nothing here yet hotter than our July's best at home. Thus far I have experienced no great inconvenience from the heat, and am in good health and good spirits day in and day out. A REBEL ACCOUNT. * SAVANNAH, June 16, 1863, Our readers have been informed that the city of Darien, one of the oldest towns in the State, the New-Inverness of Oglethorpe's time, has been totally destroyed by Yankee negro forces. We have been kindly permitted to make some ex.. |