Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1861-11-26
Correspondence Of the N. Y. Express.
A Visit TO Acknowledgement PnlaRe
and PIunder-scenes Of DesOlatIon.


1t is a small place, occupied in summer by
many Of the wealthiest planters in South Caro-
lima, who rerort to IL for its delicious ocean air;
1000 or more are usually there as late in the
season as November, but in the winter the pop
ulation is not more than 500. The houses are
mostly wooden, with succeed fronts, spacious
verandas and high porches; they stand along
the shores in gardens crowded with orange and
lemon trees, fragrant jessamines, magnolias
and huge osetuses, gorgeous in crimson and
yellow.
No sooner had we put foot on shore than the
melancholy experiences of the day began. A
warehouse on the wharf had been broken in
and its contents pillaged; the relics Of stores
Of food were strewn around, empty barrels, bro
ken doors and windows, cases of liquor or oils
ovtrset, and wanton destruction Of every sort
peIpeIated upon tbs property, and this was
but sample of what we were destined to meet
at every step. All the shops and stores were
Iifled; the Postofice despoiled, and on the door
steps some fragments only told what had once
been written. Not q white maA was to be
seen, besides those of our own party. Captain
Rodgers, Of the Wabash, immediately distribu-
ted his men around so as 10 guard against eur
prise, and gave strict orders that not en- article
should be removed from the village. Negroes
whom we had seen before landing had got
away with their plunder, but other groupes
lovDged around, touched their hats to US, or i
default Of hats, pulled their shaggy wool, an I
seemed anxious to talk. We asked wher
were the white people2 Gan gone, massa; gone
the day ofthe fight; left We behind" Their
story was uniform. Their masters had fed
with the greatest precipitation so soon as the
firing commenced at Port Royal. Some in
deed had left even earlier, but not one now re-
mained. They endeavored to persuade orforce
the blacks to accompany them, but in vain.
The negroes had remained, and others had
come from the surrounding country, aud an
indiscriminate pillage Of the town had taken
place. The testimony of the blacks was unan-
imous that the "niggers" were robbing and de-
stroyiDg every thing they could lay their hands
on, until on the 10th, Captain Ammen, of the
Seneca, bad arrived, and his officers threatened
to shoot them unless they desisted.
We went through spacious houses where only
a week age families were living in luxury, and
saw their costly furniture despoiled; books and
papers thrown out on the floors, mirrors broken,
cafes smashed, pianos on the sidewalk, feather
beds ripped open, and even the filth of negroes
left lying about ia parlors and bed chambers
The destruction had been wanton; in many in
stances no purposes of plunder could have been
served, but simply love of mischief grstifed.
The fight must have been very rapid, for the
curtains were sometimes at the windows, and
in nearly every house the private papers and
lolbefb CaIUs huu llElJd-
tiops to dinner sometimes lay on a drawing
room table, while the walls were defaced and
the furniture broken all around, by the slave
population. Many of the officers went into the
| houses Of their friends, some into mansions
| even, where they bad dined and slept in other
days. Mr.. Nat Heyward's house was one Of
the finest we entered; another was that of Ed
ward Rhett, where Barnwell Rhett himself had
| often resided.
q The blacks told us that the rebels returned
nearly every day, but only early in the morn.
| iu e before sunrise, and in small numbers. Gen
| erals Drayton and Gonzales were said to have
been in Beaufort that morning with thirty OF
forty horsemen.
| We came down the river slowly, havieg lef
| two gun boats near the town, and stopped OF
the way to examine the remains of an oil,
Spsnisb fort, on the property Of Mr.. Johl
Joyner Smith, and live oak grove, said to b
the finest in South Carolina. The grove i
spacious and magnificent beyond any thing o.
| The sort to be seen elsewhere. The grea
| branching oaks stand each apart, so that thei
I growth is not obstructed, and broad prone
nades beneath them lead out to the cotton
fields. Pendent from the boughs hangs tn,
parasitical moss which clusters so thickly ol
| the orange, the lemon, the live oak, and tn
zig tree; and here and there. on the green swar
beneath, the little niger babies were at play
| Beyond the grove, which was pronounced b.
those most familiar with the South, superiO
to any in Florida or Georgia, stretched out
plantation of cotton, partly picked. We Visite
lhe storehouse, where thirty or forty bales wer
found, as yet unginned two of Mccarthy
gins and a steam engine were there ready t
our hands, and crowd of negroes offered thei
services in ginning. In the quarters of tn
blacks we bought turkeys, and poultry, an
eggs, and saw two men grinding corn at a mill
exactly as the Egyptians ground it two thou
sand years ago. The planters house wa
deserted by its owner, but we did not enter
for the slaves had apparently left its content
undisturbed; only at Beaufort has there bee
known to occur any of the sad ravages hav
described. 1t was nightfall before we returne
from the excursion, so full of melancholy an
even appalling suggestiveness.