Posted inUS Civil War

September 8, 1861 – Letter from Col. Vaughn

From the Knoxville Register

Munson’s Hill, in sight Washington City, August 31, 1861.

Dear Register:—Agreeable to my promise to you yesterday, I now write you a line from within full view of Washington City, Alexandria and all the encampments of Lincoln’s army this side of the Potomac. Since I wrote you last nothing has transpired on a large scale. We have had several skirmishes with their pickets; in a skirmish this morning, we killed two and took three prisoners.

We have now finished our fortifications on Munson’s Hill, also on Mason’s Hill, and we will commence fortifications to-morrow on Upton’s Hill, which will give us three strong positions some two miles apart, in plain view of Washington city, which we can hold against 40,000 Vandals with 15,000 Southern will-be freemen. We have been here since the morning of the 28th. We have been on picket duty and at work in the entrenchments all the time; but the East Tennessee boys can stand anything.

Posted inMaritime & Naval History US Civil War

September 2, 1861 – Important News from Coast of North Carolina

The Federal Fleet Attacking Two Sand Batteries—Their Capturing Six Hundred Prisoners, &c.

Capture of the Forts at Cape Hatteras inlet. Alfred Waud, artist, August 28, 1861

The steamer Louisiana, Capt. Cannon, from Old Point, arrived Sunday, A. M., and brings the following important advices from the Federal fleet, which sailed from Old Point on Monday last. The steamer Adelaide had returned from the fleet and proceeded to Annapolis on Saturday, having on board Major General Butler and fourteen wounded Confederate prisoners, bound to Washington. We understand that the entire fleet, consisting of five war vessels, surrounded and engaged two sand batteries on the beach, at the mouth of Hatteras Inlet, and after considerable firing on both sides, a shell from the frigate Minnesota, caused the explosion of the Confederates’ magazine, when the entire body, said to number six hundred, were forced to surrender, from loss of ammunition and no means of retreat. Included among those taken prisoners, was Com. Barron. They were all sent to New York.

Posted inUS Civil War

September 1, 1861 – Lincoln, the Woman-Tyrant

The world has never produced a man who is destined to receive the execrations of mankind and to merit the lash of the satirist, in a larger measure than ABRAHAM LINCOLN, first the low baffoon, and next the bloody tyrant. This man is, like all tyrants, weak of will and of a miserably contracted intellect. This weakness of resolution makes him the tool of the bolder and bloodier men that surround him. Having no clear views of statesmanship, and having devoted his mind and soul to dogma, he has surrendered himself as the read, victim of cruel counsellors, and of the vindictive party leaders who control his conduct. Day by day he issues some new decree by which constitutional liberty is crushed out and the way prepared for absolute despotism.