Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1861-12-04
A VISIT TO BEAUFORT.

The correspondent of the New York
Express gives an account of the visit of
Commodore Dupont and Gene,al Sherman
accompanied by Captain Davis, the fleet
captain, Captain John Rodgers and Capt
/ q. p. r. Rogers, Of the Wabash, and 9th
er officers of the navy, on the gunboat
Seneca, Capt. Ammen, to Beaufort, on the
18th. The correspondent accompanied
the party, and he thus tells about the
place and what he saw
at is a small place, occupied in summer
10y many of the wealthieSt planters in 5.
Carolina, who resort to il TO-: its delicious
ocean air; 1900 or more are usually there
as late in the season as November, but in
the winter the population is not more
than five hundred. The houses are most.
ly wooden, with succeed fronts, spacious
verandahs and high porches; they stand
along the shores III gardens crowded with
orange and lemon trees, fragrant ,jessa-
mines, magnolias and huge cactuses,
gorgeous in crimson and yellow.
No sooner had we put foot on shore
than the melancholy experiences Of the
day began. warehouse on the wharf
had been broken in and its contents pill
laged the relics Of stores of food were
strewn around, empty barrels, broken
doors and windows, cases of liquor or oil
oyerset, and wanton destruction OF every
sort perpetrated upon the property, and
this was tut a sample of what we wero
to meet ut every step. All the
Ihops and stores were ritled; the postot-
flee despoiled, and on the doorstpps some
fragments only told what had once been
written. Not white man was to be seen,
besides those of our own party. Captain
Rodgers, of the Wabash, Immediately
distributed his men around 50 as to guard
against surprise, and gave strict orders
that not an article should he removed
from the village. Negroes who we had
seen before landing had got away
with their plunder, but other groups
lounged around, touched their hats to US,
or in default Of hats, pulled their shaggy
wool, and seemed anxious to talk, We
. asked where were the white people: "All
gone, massa, gone the day Of the fight =
left we behind" Their story was uni
form. Their mate had fed " tn the
greatest precipitation 50 soon rs the firing
commenced AT po:t Royal, Some indeed
had left even er, but not one now re-
mained They endcuyored to persuade
or force the blacks to accompany thom,
but in vaia the negroes had remained,
and Others had COME from the surround
lnc country, and an :ndlscriminate piilage
OF the town had commenced. The tests
mony of the blacks was unanimous that
the niggcrs were robbiug and destroying
everything they could lay their hands on,
until on the 10th, Capt. Ammen, OF the
Seneca, had arrived, and his officers
threatened to shoot them unless they de-
sisted.
We went through spacious houses where
on a week ago families were living in lux
ury, and saw their costly furniture des'
poileu; books and papers thrown out on
the floors. mirrors broken, safes smashed,
pignoes on the sidewalk, feather beds
ripped open, and even the filth Of the ne
groes left lying about in parlors and bed
Chambers The destruction had been
wanton in many instances no purposes
of plunder could have been served, but
simply love Of mischief grauied. The
! fight mast have been very rapid, tor the
curtains were sometimes at the windows,
and in nearly every house the private pa
pers and letters remained. Wedding
cards and invitations to dinner sometimes
.ay on a drawing room table, while the
walls were defared and the furniture bro
ken all around 10y the slave population
| Many of the OIL GERS went into houses OF
their friends, some into mansions, even,
where they had dined and slept in other
Gays Mr.. Nat. Heyward's house was one
of the finest we entered; another was
that of Edward Rhett, where Barnwell
Rhett himself had often resided.
The blacks told US that the rebels re
turned nearly every day, but only early
in the morning before sunrise, and ~
smll numbers. Gems Drayton anu uon'
zaes we're said to haze been IN Beaufort
that morning with thirty or forty horse
men.
We came down the river slowly, having
lett two guc boats near the town. and
stopped on the way to examine the re-
mains of an old Spanish fort, on the
property of ohm Joyner Smith, and a
live oak grove said TO be the finest in
South Carolina. The grove is spacious
and magnificent eyond any thing of the
sort to be seen elsewhere. The great
branching oaks stand each apart, so that
their growth is not obstructed, and broad
promenades between them lead out to the
cotton fields. Pendant from the bonghs
hangs the parasitcal moss which clusters
so thickly ON the orarge, the lemon, the
! live oak and the fg tree and heee and
there, on the green sword beneoth, the
little niger babies were at play. Beyond
the grove which was pronounced by those
most familiar with the South, superior to
any in Florida or Georgia stretched out
plantation of Gotten, partly picked. We
visited the store house, where thIty or
forty bales were found, as yet unginned ;
two of McCmthy's gins and a steam engine
were there ready to our hands, and a
crowd of negroes offered their services in
ginning In the quarters Of the blacks
we bought turkeys and poultry and eggs,
and saw two men grinding corn at mill,
exactly as the Egyptians ground it 90
years ago. The planters house was de-