The Sun.
London, England, 1863-04-23 00:00:00

FEDERAL VANDALISM.

Jacksonville is in ruins. That beautiful city, which has
been for so many years the favourite resort for invalids from
the North, has to day (March 28) been burnt to the ground,
and, what is sad to record, by the soldiers of the national
army. Scarcely a mansion, a cottage, a negro hut, or a
warehouse remains. The long lines of magnificent oaks,
green and beautiful, with the thickest foliage, the orange
groves perfuming the air with their blossoms, the syca-
mores, the old century plants adorning every garden, the
palmetto and bayonet trees, ever tropical in verdure, the
rose and the jessamine—all that at this season, indeed, I
might say through all seasons, has made Jacksonville a
little Eden, has been burned, and scorched, and crisped, if
not entirely consumed to ashes, by the devouring flames.
I am now writing on the deck of the fine transport ship the
Boston. Three gunboats—the Paul Jones, the Norwich,
and the John Adams—are lying out in the river, with guns
shotted, ready to fire the moment a rebel appears in sight.
The transport vessels—the Boston, the Delavan, the Gen.
Meigs, the Tillie, and the Cossack—are at the wharfs filled
with troops. All are on board, except about 200 of the
6th Connecticut, who are on picket duty. Three blank
shots from the Paul Jones have just been fired, as a signal
for them to come in. From this upper deck the scene pre
sented to the spectator is one of the most fearful magnifi-
cence. On every side, from every quarter of the city, dense •
clouds of black smoke and flame are bursting through the
mansions and warehouses. A fine south wind is blow-
ing immense blazing cinders right into the heart of the city.
The beautiful Spanish moss, drooping so gracefully from
the long avenues of splendid old oaks, has caught fire, and
as far as the eye can reach through these once pleasant
streets nothing but sheets of flame can be seen, running up
with the rapidity of lightning to the tops of the trees and
then darting off to the smallest branches. The whole city,
mansions, warehouses, trees, shrubbery and orange groves
—all that refined taste and art through many years have
made beautiful and attractive—are being lapped up and de-
voured by this howling fiery blast. One solitary woman, a
horse tied to a fence between two fires, and a lean, half-
starved dog, are the only living inhabitants to be seen in
the streets. Fifty families, most of them professing Union,
sentiments, have bean taken on board the transports, and
provided with such accommodation as the tubs will afford.
I send a list herewith. Some of them have been able to
save a bed and a few chairs, but most of them have nothing
in the world but the clothes upon their backs. Is not this
war, vindictive, unrelenting war ? Have we not gotten up to
the European standard ? Yesterday, the beautiful little cot-
tage used as the Catholic parsonage, together with the
church, was fired by the soldiers, and in a short time burnt
to the ground. Before the flames had fairly reached the
church the soldiers burst open the doors, and commenced
sacking it of everything of value. The organ was in a me"
ment torn to strips, and almost every soldier who came out
seemed to be celebrating the occasion by blowing through
an organ pipe, To-day the same spectacle has been re-
peated, only upon a much grander scale. There must have
been some understanding among the incendiaries with re-
gard to the conflagration. At 8 o'clock the flames burst from
several buildings in different parts of the city, and at a later
hour still more were fired. The wind then rose to a still
gale, and the torch of the incendiary became unnecessarY
to increase the fire. The only mansions of any value left

standing as we move down the river are the elegant man"
sions of Colonel Sanderson and Judge Burritt, both rebels
and scoundrels of the deepest dye. Why so much property
known to belong to Union men should have been destroyed
and the mansions of those notorious rebels left standing it
is hard to understand. It gives me pleasure to report that
the negro troops took no part whatever in the perpetration
of this vandalism. They had nothing whatever to do with
it, and were simply silent spectators of the splendid bat
sad spectacle. The 6th Connecticut charge it upon the Bth
Maine, and the Bth Maine hurl it back upon the 6th Con-
necticut.—New York Tribune.