St. Charles City Republican intelligencer. [volume] (St. Charles City [Charles City], Iowa) 1857-1861, 1861-05-23
Southern ("Gentlemen'D Soldiers.

The Mobile Advertiser in noting the move
mcnts of the New Yok troops, says " Most OF
the 7th Regiment are tolerably decent sort of
men for Lincolnites, but hardly worthy the
honor of being slaughtered 10y the gentlemen
we have sent to do it.
Mn. EDITOR Please allow me to
describe what all have not seen-
these southern gentlemen" detailed
to slaughter our volunteers.
have lived in Georgia, gained a resi-
dencc there, been engaged in manu-
featuring in the city of Savannah, am
at home in all the towns within three
hundred miles of there, and have trav-
clled up and down and across, by
horse and rail, the States of Georgia.
Alabama, Florida and the two Carroll
mas, until | am familiar with every
old sand hill, ferry and swamp from
Tampa Bay to Gold Hill, and from
Thunderbolt to Lookout Mountain.
These gentleman" must necessa
rily be thrcc-fourths Crackers, and
their city connections, a class but a
step removed in point of education,
habits and manner, for that term in
cludes seven eighths of all the native
whites in these States.
To see a Cracker, let us stand q
moment at early morning by the Sa-
vannah Market. The Crackers are
pouring into the square through Jefler-
son street, every man of them mount
cd upon an cmaciated, miniature mus
tang pony, who patiently staggers
under his masters weight the rider
lolling two feet above, and four below
the saddle, and the starved beast tug
ging after him Il whitc-covcrcd, two
wheeled cart, frcighted with jcrked
beef, wild hog, sweet potatoes, char
coal, or perhaps diminutive bale of
cotton. Few of them ever raise more
than one bale in season, and the
proceeds of that are adequate to the
purchase of suppl y of whiskey and
gunpowdcr, the two things indispens-
able. These men come to market
from places varying from nine to sixty
miles distant, and except when they
haul the crap" the one bale, the
value of the load rarely exceeds two
dollars. The Cracker always wears
very short jacket and very broad
hat almost invariably stands ) it. 9
in his stockings, weighs about l20
lbs, and is the most STOPPING, long
strided, lantern jawcd, croOked-backed,
man that a strong Imagination can
picture. He is always armed, is a
capital rifle shot, hates Yankees, and
believes Charleston to be the most
opulcnt and powerful city in the uni.
verse. Not one in seventy OF them
could read his own printed name,
much less write it, Most of them own
a black woman remarkably prolific of
yellow children, and herself scarcely
distinguishable from the white wife
so eternally begrimed with the smoke
of "lite'od." (lightwood.) They rare
ly cultivated more than ten acres OF
ground, keep few shadowy, half
wild, woods-fed things with horns
beside sundry porkers' frames, (wild
too) that hardly mustang in lower
Georgia could catch i'll two mile
heat.
l was once in the Northeastern
edge of the Okefnokee, having lef
Traders Hill for Jacksonville, by Ger
tain trails and blazes," branches
and runs" aiming to strike the Kings
road. At 9 P. NJ. my buggy broke
down in "branch," and being wedg
ed immovably between the banks,
abandoned it, and mounting, fortu
nately bore out of the swamp, anI
after a half hours gallop discover
cd light, and refined up as | sup
posed at Crackers log house bu
it proved to be owned by man VIII
came from Connecticut 80 years be
fore. With him was a son about 2
years of age, q specimen Cracker
with a wife whom naturally enoug
mistook for the negro woman, an
was only undeceived after she ha
performed an ablution in what seen
cd to me the only large vessel in tn
house, Daring the cook pot.) | too
it to be the water-pail, but might hav
been mistaken. After indulging m.
} appetite with the ever ready hog an'
hominy, the old man related his expe
rience, signing often for old Connect
, cut, and declaring that for % year
| nothing had prevented his return Du
/, the want of money enough to pay hi
I passage. | being Yankee, was
/, welcome guest. The young ma
Q went into the woods in the mornin
g and shot a hog for me to beakfast OF
/ aud solemnly aver that the only re;