Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1862-12-05
foccssionai Correspondence Of the Daily Journal
From Washington.
Thanksgiving Day at Washington The
Contrabamds Singing and Eating = Hon.
Mahony and Sheward we're Honorably
Discharged !"-Personal Matters.

Discharged !"-Personal Matters.
WASHINGTON, Nov. %, 1862.
Yesterday was joyous day fer the eaters,
and regular abolisher of bivalves, turkeys,
chicken-fixings and hot whisky punch. The
weather was serene = the very clouds being
fringed with the gorgeous silver, which, in
these days of utter absence of small change,
was enough to satisfy the Imagination of a
hard-money, anti-bank, specie-basis Vallan-
dighammer, let alone patriot who would
rather have currency of old ten-penny nails
than see the country broken up by jeff. Davis
or any other man. So, people having deter
mined to enjoy themselves, put in the day
religiously, happily and thankfully. The
GROWERS, of course, staid at home, and found
fault with the price of turkeys = and can
didly confess that precisely three dollars for a
fowl which would have gone for about forty
cents in the good city of Muscatine ,oas lit
tie steep.
Religious services were held in the churches
not used as hospitals, and were perfectly
crowded with strangers and citizens All the
hospitals in the city were treated to sumptu-
GUS dinners, no less than fifty turkeys being
served up at the Patent Office Hospital alone,
and at others in the same liberal ratio. At
least thousand turkeys, and like abund-
ance of chickens, pies, ct ceteras, were eaten
by the sick and convalescent soldiers, who are
doing as well to-day as could be expected,
which is better than the day before yesterday
A good dinner, with lots of pretty women to
wait on you, would very nearly cure awooden
leg. 1t would have done your very soul good,
my patriotic reader. to have seen how much
the sick and wounded soldiers enjoyed them
selves yesterday.
And then the contrabands - they were as
happy as larks, and as musical There are
about fifteen hundred of them at "Contraband
Quarters" head of 18th street. They are Of
both sexes, of all sizes, and of all imaginable
colors, from the beautiful brunette to the dark
ness which can be felt. Young and old, they
enjoyed their newborn freedom with all the
zest of hearty appreciation. Their very
chains and they had not grown friends. The
dining hall for the contrabands was a church,
which was gracefully festooned with ever
green's, and adorned with many pictures. The
most conspicuous was fine engraving of the
President, surrounded with the evergreen in
scription "God bless Abraham Lincoln
The dinner was very fine, and was eaten by
the colored people by the same means used
by us glorious Caucasian fellows. After
dinner the contrabands came out, and, in a
body, sang" Go down, Moses, away down in
Esypt's Land" in such style of glorious mu-
steal abandon as no camp-meeting ever heard
since the days OF Wesley. 1t was regular
de prcfundis-strong, deep harmony, where
in, in natural power, the race stands first by
general admission. Bishop Payne, a mulatto,
addressed the negroes in short, pithy, sensi-
bic sermon, and was followed by Senator
Pomeroy in very able address in favor OF
colonization. Others spoke, and among the
rest one of Mr.. Lincoln's private secretaries
but my own turkey was waiting for the car
yer, and departed, but not until I had seen
the rather plain face and fine curls of Mrs.
Harriet Beecher Stowe, who was present, and
received marked attention from those in whose
behalf she had written the great book CT the
century.
Happily the days of Thalaba went by,'
And so did Thanksgiving day at Washington.
Mahony and Steward, to get out of prison,
followed the example of the hero Of the
Mackerel Brigade, and 'took the OATH" which,
in their case, was good deal more humilia-
ting, and, l dare be sworn, less agreeable
than the whisky toddies usually administered
on such occasions. They swore that they
had never belonged to any secret organization
opposed to the war, that they would support
the government heartily in the future, and
that they would not prosecute anybody who
had induced their arrest, or been instrumental!
therein. Such is the substance of their oath,
which l will endeavor to give you in my next,
just to let your readers know what sort of
humble pie that brace Of amiable bed-fellows
partook of, so that they might enjoy Thanks
giving without the grim Accomplishments of
crowbars for windows. Just how many
sweet smiles Judge Mason managed to get on
his rather jaundiced physiognomy when tell
ing the Associate Press reporter of that famous
" honorable discharge" do not know. All
l know is that he did smile sweetly and that
the oath was taken again, and this time in the
" natural way''
Senators Grimes and Harlan and Represent
alive Wilson are now in the city, ready to do
hard work at the coming session.
Capt. Frank Reno, of Iowa City, late chief
of staff to his brother, the lamented General,
is here, having just been appointed Assistant
Quartermaster, with the rank of Captain.
Alfred Thomas, ESQ.,, lately with the Army
of the Potomac, whence he wrote very inter
esting and spicy letters to the State Register,
Of Desmoines, tcok the oath at the National
yesterday, as near as I could observe, through
glass. almost regretted, for once, that
my teetotal principles made my own oath
precisely as thin as Potomac water
LINKENsALE.
TABLE OF DISTANCES. The following table
of distances will prove interesting in view of
military events likely to transpiree
Distances. Miles
From Mobile to State line. ga
From to Meridian. ..134
From g. to Corinth 800