The Sun.
London, England, 1862-10-14 00:00:00

NEW ORLEANS•

The following letter is Written by an American
lady resident at New Orleans :
" New Orleans, Sept. 1, 1862.
" (Fifth month of the reign of terror,)
"My dear Air. ---,—Shortly after the opening
of the port of New Orleans, I received a kind letter
from you, which, bearing a date a year old, never-
theless gave me much pleasure. As all letters are
subject to military supervision, I did not answer it
until I thought I had found a safe opportunity of
sending a letter unseen by the authorities. Think-

ing I had found such an one, I wrote you a volume,
giving a detailed description of the taking of New
Orleans, and the treachery which led to it; I also
enclosed copies of orders and acts of Gen. Butler,
upon which the Northern press have made no com-
ments, preferring to appear ignorant that such acts
of barbarism are countenanced. by their Govern-
ment, to criticising them. I only heard a few days
ago that the person to whom I entrusted the pack-
age had found it necessary to destroy it to prevent
its falling into the hands of Government. I cannot
tell you how disappointed I felt on many accounts.
There were several inhuman threats made in the
official journal of Gen. Butler to make New Orleans
a second St. Doming% if there was any attempt to
retake it. . . . I cannot again undertake the
recital of the universal mutiny in the forts Jackson
and St. Philip; the garrison spiking the guns and
firing upon any officer who appeared upon the para-
pets. . . . As war absorbs all my thoughts, I
shall naturally write of nothing else ; in fact we
never speak of anything else. The excitement and
expectation we are constantly in are enough to wear
out body and mind. For three weeks past we have
daily, I may say hourly, expected New Orleans to
be attacked by the Confederates. The Yankees
have thrown down every house in the remote
suburbs, including the town of Carrolton, and
thrown open the country to the lake, that the Con-
federates may have no shelter from their fire, and
may be seen many miles off. They sleep under
arms, and are prepared at all times for an attack.
In the meantime, Butler refuses every one a pass
to leave town unless they take the oath of allegi-
ance, and amuses himself by telling all the women
who apply for passes that while he is fighting the
enemy in the suburbs he will deliver the town to
the mercy of 20,000 negroes, and adds that he will
leave the town a heap of ashes if obliged to eva-
cuate. He finds that the women are not to be
shaken in their devotion to their country's cause
by the threat of rapine and murder, and is tho-
roughly exasperated with the sex. He says the
women were the entire cause of secession, that they
tabooed and sent to Coventry every man who would
not fight, and that even if they took the oath he
would not grant them passes. It is true that we
recognise no man who has remained at home and is
able to serve in the army. You cannot conceive the
horrible position we are placed in here. I will en-
deavour to give you a faint sketch of what we have
to expect. In the first place, we are now subject
to the caprices of our servants. Imagine an army
where the officers were punished with fine and im-
prisonment for even enforcing ordinary discipline,
such as preventing their soldiers leaving for days
at a time, or resenting not only impertinence but
personal violence! This is the case with us ;we
are invariably told that the testimony of a loyal
negro' is preferable to that of a rebel, and no asser-
tion they make against their masters is too absurd
to obtain credence. In the presence of these facts
we are disarmed, not being permitted the smallest
weapon to defend our houses or persons. Forsee-
ing that many would not comply with this order,
Butler excites the cupidity of the slaves first, by
offering a reward for every weapon they may find,
and next by offering liberty (which they have al-
ready) if they will denounce their masters. This
has proved such an inducement to perfidy, that
many have hidden weapons in the house and then
denounced their master and mistress. Some of our
most respectable citizens have been sentenced to
one year's imprisonment with hard labour, drag-
ging a ball and chain, for having retained, some a
sword-cane, others a revolver, or bowie-knife.
While we are unarmed, Butler arms all
the free coloured population, while Phelps drills
the negroes in camp to be ready at a moment's
warning to be armed. Is it not dreadful ?
They endeavour to excite the revengeful passions
of the slaves by continually reminding them that
the hour of retaliation is come. You hear the
creatures in the streets boasting they will wade
knee deep in the white man's blood.'
" The fear of fire is now added to all these horrors.
Three days ago all the operators of the fire tele-
graph were removed, on the ground that they had
not taken the oath. The first day the Yankees had
possession two large fires broke out in the heart of
the business part of the city ; the flames had made
great havoc before the telegraph gave the alarm,
and the citizens who ran to extinguish the flames
Were kept back by the military. Since then fire
alarms continue, and we feel apprehensive that they
intend gradually to burn the town.
- -

" You have heard of the ' brilliant victory' of the

Yankees at Baton Rouge. Notwithstanding the
victory' they had to evacuate the place ; in doing
so they blew up the State-house, removed the State
library and Washington statue, laid the town in
ashes, threw open the doors of the Penitentiary,
and turned out about 500 convicts, who are now
loose on our community. Here also the gaols were
thrown open, and murderers and felons were turned
loose, a great 'number of slaves among them.
Don't think this is exaggeration. I can assure you
I write nothing but facts, which I can vouch for.
"The navy boasts of doing nothing against the
usages of civilised warfare. In returning from
Baton Rouge they endeavoured to destroy the towns
of Bayou Sara and Donaldsonville ; finding their
shells did little damage, they landed the crews with
buckets of tar, with which they smeared the houses
and then set them on fire, and
boasted in their
official paper that they had only
left a few sticks
where these towns formerly stood. The mayor of
Bayou Sara had informed them that guerillas were
near; they left hurriedly, but returned when the
guerillas had departed, and in return for the mayor's
kindness laid the town in ashes. It is hard to believe
that such things take place in a civilised country ;
but, nevertheless, every word I have written is
true. The fact is, we are such a mendacious nation
that I hesitate to write many things which would be
considered American exaggeration, to express it in
polite terms.
"You have heard of the imprisonment of Mrs.
Phillips. She •
is a charming woman, with a large
family of children, all of them unacclimated, many
of them very young, and thus deprived of a mother's
care. When eallec; before Butler, he simply asked
her if she did not stallof Captain de Kay p s when the funeral procession
plied, It was Possible, sassed her house ? She re-
that day.' Without turshes.rhterwas in good spirits
to close confinement on Ship Island
he sentenced hernd for an indefinite
period. Upon her husband end
for her, he told him that he wouldavouring to speak
have
if he opened his mouth again. -poor him gagged
has been more than two months onMrs Phillips
that
sand bank without a hope of release. desolate
wretched shanty, which neither keeps out
vahe isi in a
sun ; she has had to pass the entire night rain nor
in
under an umbrella ; she receives a soldier's rasionag
she was allowed a servant, but this poor women
not permitt :41 to leave the room, and has to share
the close confinement of her mistress. Mrs. Phillips
being dangerously ill a short time ago, her husband
was permitted to visit her. She bad concealed
from him her wretched condition ; they gave her
neither a bed nor chair ; she took one of each with
her, which comprises the furniture of her wretched
prison. She had been ill for a week, during which
time her servant eonlfi not, cross the threshold of her
-p entered to see if they required
door, and
litti
anything ; e frrowroot, cooked over a piece
of tallo -
candle, was all she could procure. Finally,
w
she sent for an officer,
send explained to him her
helpless condition, and the absolute necessity there
for .
was of her having hot water
someapplications imme-
He left her, promising to send her
some was
diately. In four hours after
sent. She had had time to die of her
agony. Mrs. Phillips had already been impri-
s°'aed in Washington, with two lovely daughters,
_
avPielen of corresponding with the nxionlY•

Though every search was made in their house, even
the soiled linen looked through, without any proof
against them, they were still retained prisoners
through the influence of friends, they were
released on condition of their selling everything

they owned within three days, and leaving Wash-

ington. They unfortunately came to New Orleans,

Where the brute Butler follows the example of his

Government in persecuting her. I have not a doubt

he had orders to seize the first opportunity of
punishing her. There are other ladies who have

been imprisoned on equally trivial pretences ; but
it is useless to cite them. One of our first creole
ladies, a Madame Le Beau, near 70 years old, was
denounced for having hidden arms. When called
before Butler he was most insulting to her, called
her that - woman, and sentenced her to a year's
imprisonment on Ship Island, but released her on
condition that her son would take the oath of
allegiance. A nephew of the same lady was sen-
tenced to a year's imprisonment, and hard labour
with ball and chain, for having thrown his arms in
the river instead of delivering them to the authori-
ties. Judge Andrews, one of our best citizens, was
sentenced to two years' hard labour, ball and chain,
on Ship Island for having shown at hie club a small
brooch in the form of a cross, which he laughingly
said ' was made of the bone of a Yankee.' This was
six months before the Yankees came here. A Mr.

Keller was sentenced to the same punishment for
having in the window of his bookstand a skeleton

marked ' Chickahominy.' To-day a poor druggist
has been sent to Ship island for three years' hard
labour, ball and chain, for having endeavoured to
smuggle quinine across the Yankee lines. His pro-
perty is also confiscated. He swears he is innocent,

and it is said to have been done by a Yankee spy.
If I were to undertake to tell you all the iniquitous
judgments they would fill a volume; I only men-
tion those people whom I know personally.

" Sept. 7.

" Since writing the above we have undergone
excitement and anxiety of various kinds. First, the
continued sound of cannon at Canalton led us to
believe the attack by the Confederates had begun.
It was only the death of some officer and the prac-
tising of artillery.

" Oa the 23d of this month the Confiscation Act
comes into force. The Government organ, the Delta,
has spread consternation through the community
by publishing the construction to be put upon the
terms ' aid, abet, or countenance the rebellion.'
According to their construction, there is not one
creature of the age of reason who can escape the
confiscation of his property. Butler says it will
particularly reach the women, and that they should
be turned out of their homes and made to work for
their daily bread, thus depriving them of the time
or disposition to be turning up their not very pretty
noses at Union solders.

"To give you an idea of the alarm and despair
among the timid and wavering is more than I am
able to do. We all know what the reasonable con-
struction of the law would be, but Butler has un-
limited power and will use it. He is applauded by
the populace in the North for his merciless treat-
ment of 'Southern rebels.' He has an eye to the
next Presidency, and is elated and flattered by the
popularity his course seemingly gives him, and he
will spare nothing. He has no family pride, no
honour to uphold. He is of the populace. His
brother, Col. Butler, who is at the head of the Com-
missariat Department, was formerly a negro trader;
he has realised a colossal fortune by speculating on
our miseries. He has made us pay 40 dols. a barrel
for flour, and when the port of New Orleans was
open to commerce he would not permit the Govern-
ment tow boats to bring any vessels up the Missis-
sippi, and the owners of cargoes gladly sold to him
at his own price rather than lose them altogether,of
which they were in danger by passing many weeks
at the mouth of the river. Thus for some time
he continued to keep the market in his own hands,
he being in partnership with his brother the Gene-
ral. At the same time, through the newspapers, he
appealed to the bad passions of the poor, assuring
them that the richer classes were the entire cause
of the dearness of provisions and of their miseries.
Confiscation has few terrors for us. We had long
since made up our minds to lose all for our country.
The worst feature of it is that we shall not be per-
mitted to go into the Confederacy, where friends
abound, but must starve in. the streets of this
wretched town. There is a worse fear haunting us
every hour—the black population ! There is no
longer a doubt that they are armed, and we are de-
fenceless. Last night theyhad a Union meeting of the
free blacks; slaves, of course, composed the majcrity.
I hear they discussed the wholesale massacre of the
white population. It is enough to render us maniacs
to live as we are now doing. The European nations
by merely recognising us would have given us a
different position. Ido not know what to make of
England. Certainly the whole legislation of the
North is ruinous to English commercial interests.
Fear of the power of the North seems to have para-
lyzed her. She is wrong if she imagines the pre-
sent struggle is going to exhaust the North. When
their debt becomes too burdensome they will by an
act of Congress wipe off the national debt. What
to them is national honour ? Who knows anything
of the rulers after they have passed away ? They
are obscure individuals placed in power by the po-
pulace. Scarcely one of them knows who his great
grandfather was ; many have never heard of their
father. Springing from the dregs of European po-
pulation, what do they care for sustaining either
their own or a nation's honour ? Had England and
France recognised us, and enabled us to break the
blockade and get arms, we should have desired no-
thing more. We have had everything to contend
against. We always depended upon the North and
England for all manufactured articles, and there-
fore had no manufactories. Cotton and sugar being
most profitable, we cultivated little else. Our ports
have been blockaded ; we have been thrown entirely
upon our own resources, The war has been carried
on in the most highly cultivated and most thickly
inhabited portions of the country. The ruin and
devastation of the Northern hordes have never been
equalled by a civilised people. Have you read the
Northern accounts of the terrible retribution for
what they choose to term the murder of General
M'Cook ? Seventy-five innocent men who were
pursuing their peaceful avocations were hung, 60
while the women and children were
and penniless upon the world!
thuoruns
ee
ds bruurendte, s s
M'Cook was a brute who committed many outrages
in Nashville ; among others, he caused a clergy-
man, a Mr. Elliot, who was President of the Female
Academy at Nashville, to be stripped and publicly
whipped. It is said he was shot by the brother of
at school at Nashville, and
a young lady who was
who had been insulted by M'Cook. You remem-
ber a dear friend of mine, whom you knew when
you were here; she told me that she saw last Sun-
day,
officers cross over the street, one of
while standing at her street-door, three Yankee
them walked up
to a young boy of 19 who is paralysed, a Mr. --,
curse him as a d
and slap him on the face, and
no
Southern rebel, and use other language I could not
answer.
write, to which the poor cripple made
He then put his hand on his revolver and threatened
to shoot him, though inside the door stood
a young
lady who must have been shot had he fired his
pistol. As soon as Mr, —43 agitation permitted
him to speak, ho demanded the officer's name ; the
coward replied, do not give my name to
rebels.' He then walked off, but evidently being
encouraged by the other officers, he returned and
Mministered another slap. Three weeks ago the
cowardly miscreants scarcely dared look us in the
can w u insultn s th
wit
Z know
face, but o
hundreds the insulta we are unharmed and they
impunity. I could multiply to
should only tire you. we
are daily subjected to, but
incoherent style, but I aulluuni half mad
excuse my excited,
contending feelings. We meet crilitd
:errfriends but to hear ,
.with a thousand
of new indignities, new dan
at 18 loss of
threaten
monster Butler is snrrounding N7wi,nll which the
life and property to the other evils -7:-
us? You English ought to feel germ:Q:l,
as the events of the Indian war must stintlasfBl"'
fresh
your memories.
" You have never read of such exalted patriotism
as the women possess. To give one's life for one's
country is quite natural, but they profess their readi-
ness to starve for theirs which from present pros-
pects there is probability of their doing, should
Butler earry out his threats, They never lose their