Viewing page 14 of 15

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

March, 1863    DOUGLASS' MONTHLY    815
[[line]]

[[3 columns]]

[[column 1]]
was on Thursday, the 29th, while returning homeward, that he was shot.  He was standing outside the wheel-house, careless of the leading storm about him, when a minnie ball entered his brain and another struck him in the abdomen. He fell and never spoke again.  The fatal shot was fired by a sharpshooter concealed in a tree-top on the bank. The latters riffle had scarcely be discharged when one of the negroes drew a bead on him, and down he tumbled to the ground. 

Captain Clifton had served in this department since its occupation by our forces.  Having in former years been a pilot between Charleston, Savanah, and New York, his intimate knowledge of the coast rendered his services unvsually valuable. Added to this he was as genial and open hearted as he was brave and cool-headed. He was a true friend, as well as a true patriot. Upon his family, residents of Beauford, the new of his death must have fallen overwhelmingly. In common with every one in the Departmen, we tender then what condolences our heart-felt sorrow and sympathy may give.
[[line]]

MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS
[[short line]]

-The Boston Commonwealth says: "The whole country, outside of the impotent clique of her personal enemies, are coming to acknowledge the sterling qualities of Charles Sumner's statesmanship, as the Administration has already done by adopting the policy recommended by him a year and a half ago.  Let but this policy be carried out with firmness and energy, and the wisdom of his recommendations will be fully justified." The National Intelligencer, always against him, in an article upon his re-election to the U.S. Senate says:

"If we are not able to concur with Mr. Sumner in certain of his opinions on questions of domestic politics, it gives us only the greater pleasure to bear our cheerful and candid testimony tot he enlightened judgement and peculiar qualifications he brings to the discharge of the important duties [[illegible]]volved on him as chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations in the Senate. In this capacity he has deservedly won the confidence of the whole country. Mr. Sumner's views now predominate in the conduct of the present Administration, which may be said to have adopted, reluctantly, and at a late day, the political and military policy early recommended to us favor by himself."

THE FREEDMEN OF SOUTH CAROLINA.- It is understood, says the correspondent of the Tribune in the Southern Department, that General Hunter will direct the suspension of the cultivation of cotton on the plantations worked under the auspices of the government during the coming season.  He proposes to have all the soil devoted to the raising of corn, in order to afford some direct relief to the Subsistence Department, and decrease as much as possible the drafts of this Department upon the Federal treasury. One of the reasons for the change is the discrepancy between the financial profits of last year's cotton crop and the government capital invested in it. It is true, uncontrollable meteorological causes had most to do with the unsatisfactory crop: but in the present straitened condition of the national finances, it is well argued, similar investments of uncertain promise must be discountenanced. Another reason is the desire of Gen. Hunter to make as many of the able-bodied plantation hands available for service in the army and fatigue duty as possible.  Corn, potatoes, &c. can be well raised by the women. Col. Montgomery is already hard at work canvassing the various plantations for recruits. 

-ORGANIZATION OF BLACK REGIMENTS IN ARKANSAS. - Gen'l Curtis has organized one black regiment in Arkansas, and is making good progress with another. Private letters from the fleet of Rear-Admiral Porter state that he is filling up his crews with the able-bodied freedmen of Arkansas and Mississippi, of whom great numbers are seeking service under the United States. It is the thought that half the men who man the Western flotilla will soon be of African
[[/column 1]]

[[column 2]]
descent. Of their competency as sailors and gunners, no doubt is felt by our Admirals on the Mississippi, as none was experienced by our Admirals on the Atlantic during the last war. 

WELL SAID. - A correspondent of the Providence (R.I.) Journal - an officer in the Army of the Potomac - closes a letter to the editor of that paper as follows: "I am no negro worshipper. I have always believed that a white man is as good as a negro, if he behaves as well.  Negroes are as much interested in this war as white men are:they are able and willing to fight - why not let them do so? I would as soon see black men charging on hostile bayonets as white men, whom I call brothers; their lives are no more precious than ours. The rebels force them to fight against us; why do we not five them an opportunity to fight for us? If there are men in Rhode Island who are unwilling negroes should fight for us, let them come and fight themselves."

-PORT ROYAL, S.C., Feb. 3. - The 1st South Carolina negro regiment arrived here yesterday from an expedition 60 miles up the St. Mary's River, Ga., to the town of Woodstock, which they burned, after having repulsed the enemy in a severe engagement. They also destroyed some extensive salt works.  The regiment fought like veterans, and repulsed superior numbers. 

-FEDERAL STEAMER SAVED FROM CAPTURE BY COLORED UNION SOLDIERS. - A Fort Clinch, Florida, letter of the 31st ult., states that a fight took place on the St. Mary's river, at Scrubby Bluff, between rebel cavalry and three companies of colored South Carolina volunteers.  The rebels attempted to take the steamer John Adams by boarding, but the negro soldiers beat them off bravely.  The captain of the John Adams was shot, his murderer being shot immediately by a negro sergeant, Our loss was two men. We took seven prisoners.  The steamer was not injured. 

-A movement is already on foot among the colored people of the District of Columbia to organize a regiment among themselves, and when the bill now pending before Congress shall have become a law, to tender their services to the President, to "go wherever ordered." The colored population of the District of Columbia is between 15,000 and 20,000.

NEW YORK, Feb. 11. - It is understood that yesterday the President nominated Brig.-Gen'l. Phelps to be a Major General, vice ex-Governor Morgan, of New York, resigned, and dating his commission so that he will rank all the Volunteer Major Generals in the service, except Generals Dix, Butler and Banks.

-The Washington Republican says: "It may not be know that Mrs. Lincoln has contributed more than any lady in Washington, from her private purse, to alleviate the sufferings of our wounded soldiers; and it is but just to add that day by day her carriage is seen in front of the hospitals, where she distributes with her own hands delicacies prepared in the kitchen of the White House. The fear of contagion and the outcries of pestilence fall unheeded upon the ear of those whose mission is mercy.'

Gov. Stanley, of North Carolina, is said to have resigned, assigning as a reason his opposition to the President's proclamation. His administration has been a disgraceful failure - an offence to all truly loyal citizens, and an encouragement to the rebels. 

BLACK MEN READY TO FIGHT.- A correspondent in Pennsylvania thus writes us:

The probable passage of the Negro Enlistment bill is producing quite a stir, in a quiet way, among the colored people in and around Philadelphia. No doubt is entertained here that if the bill should become a law a large number of colored people, including the most respectable of the class, will be found ready to enroll themselves as soldiers in support of the country. 
[[/column 2]]

[[column 3]]
"Robert Purvis, of Byberry, has signified to his friends his readiness, if desired from the proper
, source, to do what he can in getting up a regiment to be placed at the disposal and used for the benefit of the government. 

"Mr. Purvis is a proper man for such a duty. He has intellectual ability, personal culture, pecuniary means, and enjoys alike the respect and confidence of the white and colored classes.  His high standing among the latter would afford him peculiar facilities int he performance of a task of this kind."

-An old secesh came within the Union lines at Newbern, N.C., a few weeks ago, looking after an escaped slave, a handsome girl of 16 years. Finding that a master's claim was not recognized, he claimed her by right of being her father.

-We hear that certain Union Volunteers at or near Norfolk, Va., have been guilty of the base crime of kidnapping Blacks there, running them across the lines, and selling them as slaves to traitors.  Rumor involves certain members of the Ninety-Ninth New York in the treasonable felony. If any shall be convicted of it, we trust they will receive the fill measure of the law's rigor. Caitiffs who can be guilty of such a crime will never help put down a Slaveholder's Rebellion. 

-A MASSACHUSETTS BLACK REGIMENT. - The proposed colored Massachusetts regiment will be numbered the 54th,and will go into camp at Worcester. Capt. N.P. Hallowell of the Mass. 20th, and Captain Robert G. Shaw, of the Mass. 2d. are to be field officers in it.  Dr. DeGrasse, a colored physician in Boston, it is reported, is to be Assistant Surgeon. 

-The Washington correspondent of the N.Y. Independent says: "The colored people of this District are moving in reference to the decision of the Government to employ colored troops in the prosecution of the war.  It is believed that a colored regiment will easily be raised in this city, and already white officers to command it are not lacking."

-Gen. Casy, it is stated, has been requested by the War Department to prepare a system of tactics for use in the negro regiments to be enlisted in the National service. 

-VALLANDIGHAM JOYFUL. - A gentleman who sat at the same table at Barnum's Hotel, Baltimore with Valandigham, and two other traitors, one of whom he supposed to be Honorable Henry May, informs us that the former scoundrel, who expects to be Governor of Ohio, expressed himself highly gratified at the news from Charleston, which the rebels had forwarded, that our fleet was destroyed and the blockade opened. 

-The Cleveland (Ohio) Leaders says it is proposed to hold an Emancipation Convention in that city on the 22nd inst. The Leader says the D.S. Dickinson and others "who, like him, have learned the leason (sic) of emancipation from the hard-teacher - war", will make speeches on the occasion. It is hoped also that General Butler may be induced to be present.

-The Emperor of the French having obtained a contingent of native born negoes, Nubians, from the Viceroy of Egypt, to be employed in the Mexican way, the Paris Moniteur natively explains that the plan has been adopted in the "interests of humanity!" Oh!
[[line]]

FREDERICK DOUGLASS gave a fine speech at the Cooper Institute, in this city, last Friday evening, on the President's Proclamation. - This lecture, carefully prepared as it was, and read from a manuscript, was marked by man of those sudden extemporaneous bursts with which, for twenty years past, Mr. Douglass has been in the habit of carrying his audiences by storm. His peculiar wit, sarcasm, drollery, dramatic intensity, and, more than all, his noble moral earnestness, set in strong relief by an indefinable and touching sadness of tone and mein, were apparent in this as in all his speeches. Thought he makes his listeners alternately cheer, laugh, and weep, yet they invariably carry away with them, as the chief impression of the evening, not the ornament or side-play, but the logical frame-work and solid sense of the discourse. Frederick Douglass, beginning his life as a bond slave, will lieve behind him an honest fame as one of the chief orators of this day and generation. - N. Y. Independent.
[[/column 3]]