To day I am still in Liberty and still stopping with Capt. Peacock. The Steamers Mary Hill & Lone Star arrived from Houston. At home Hicks ground 4 bushels of corn. Weather cloudy & cool with an incessant rain throughout the entire day.
Thus closes my notes for the month of December and also for the year just passed and gone and now numbered with the things that were. Whether the Almighty will spare me to chronicle the daily events of the incoming year is more than I know but trusting in Him I shall enter upon the pleasing task, which is useful as a reference and may be profitable to those who have an interest in me.
GALVESTON WEEKLY NEWS, April 26, 1865, p. 3, c. 1
ReplyDeleteThe following dispatches were received yesterday by the Telegraph. There is no doubt of the fact that both Lincoln and Seward have been assassinated. . . .
GALVESTON WEEKLY NEWS, April 26, 1865, p. 4, c. 6
ReplyDeleteGalveston, April 18th, 1865.
Editor News — I am once more among the flowering gardens of the Island City. To witness the gradual destruction of Galveston fills the mind of an old citizen with sad and gloomy forebodings. Two or three years more of war, and but little of Galveston will remain, save its name and former pleasant memories. I was here in January last, and during the interval, it is astonishing how rapidly houses and fences have melted away before the necessities of the troops. There can be no excuse for such destruction. Had the officers done their duty and kept the troops well supplied with wood, the demolition of houses and fences would have been unnecessary. I have heard it said of Colonel Smith that he is determined to put an end to all marauding on the island, and that the officers shall do their duty. If he does so, the citizens of Galveston, at home and abroad, have great cause to congratulate themselves that Colonel Smith has been placed in command of its defenses. I find that the fortifications have been considerably strengthened since I was here. There are now on the island—well, ever so many troops. Enough for all purposes, as Mr. Yankee may find to his cost, if he attempts to come here. In other respects than the one I have mentioned, there are no changes. I noticed that a free negro, brought in her inadvertently on one of the blockade runners, has been hired out under the law for six months. After the expiration of that time, he will be given half the proceeds of the hire, deducting first all expenses, and be allowed to leave the country. I have also noticed that the negroes captured in different engagements with the enemy, are allowed to roam at will in this place and Houston. They mingle freely with our slaves and poison their minds with Utopian dreams of freedom—thereby rendering them discontented, lazy and impertinent. In fact from the great license allowed negroes in Houston, that place is becoming a nuisance. I have seen squads of negroes saunter along the sidewalks and rudely jostle white passengers, uttering loud and blasphemous language. This has become such a nuisance at one particular spot on the sidewalk of the restaurant near the Old Capitol, that ladies have been compelled to abandon that side of the street. In fact I have heard ladies assert that they were always afraid to walk on the street alone for fear of encountering impertinence from negroes. In Mobile, Savannah, Charleston and other Southern cities a negro would never dare stand on a sidewalk while a white person was passing, but would respectfully step aside and take off his hat. Street municipal regulations required this of them. The result was they were kept in a proper condition of subjection.
The case is very different in Houston, and there can be no doubt from the license afforded them, two-thirds of the robberies committed there are by negroes. If the municipal authorities of Houston cannot or will not keep the negroes in proper subjection, they must resign their positions, and let men take their places who are not afraid to do their duty. Of Galveston I say nothing. The place is a fortified camp and municipal authority is a natural nullity. . . . M.
GALVESTON WEEKLY NEWS,
ReplyDeleteApril 26, 1865, p. 3, c. 6
Galveston, April 21, 1865.
Ed. News:-- . . . General Hawes left Galveston on Wednesday's train, to provide, as we learn, for the removal of his family to another locality. He leaves many friends, but many of the soldiers and their families rejoice at his departure. — His interference with the civil authorities, and forcible arrest and expulsion of a number of soldiers' wives from the city, last summer, for clamoring to be allowed to purchase quarter rations of flour from the Commissary, which the General himself was buying by the hundred pounds, at $35, while the market price was $200, have left a bitter feeling with some who would otherwise have been his friends. — His unostentatious bearing, regular and domestic habits, and close attention to business, however, entitle him to much credit, at a time when these things have become rare in official circles. . . .
GALVESTON WEEKLY NEWS,
ReplyDeleteApril 26, 1865, p. 2, c. 2
A private letter, dated West Liberty, the 18th instant, gives the information that the house of Mr. B. F. Waring, of that place, was robbed and set on fire last Sunday, while Mr. Waring and his family were at Church, distant not over half a mile. Mr. Waring lost everything he had in the world, except the clothing he and his family had on. The lock of h is desk and every other lock was broken, and money, clothing, bedding, &c., all taken. It appears that the fire was extinguished before the house was entirely burned, so that the work of the robbers was plain to be seen, but who the perpetrators of this robbery are, is not known. Other robberies, we learn, have taken place in the vicinity, by jayhawkers and deserters. There seems to be safety nowhere. The entire destitution of Mr. Waring and his family demand prompt relief to prevent serious suffering. The letter states that the articles needed are scarcely to be had in the neighborhood, such as beds and bedding, a cooking stove, with the fixtures, a few knives and forks and plates, and such other articles as are required to prevent suffering. We would suggest to our citizens who have any such articles to spare, that they could hardly perform a more humane act than by offering them to the sufferers. We will take charge of any such articles, and pledge ourselves to see them properly delivered to the suffering family. We make this suggestion without the knowledge of, or any request on the part of the sufferers. The frequent accounts we now have of such outrages being perpetrated in all parts of the country, seem to call for some united action on the part of our citizens for mutual protection.