Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1862-01-01
AFFAIRS AT PORT ROYAL.

SiiSh1 ny Rlt iOICS ttispsOy AuSfSs
Capt. Dupont won aurels by his very skillful
and triumphant attack on the forts at the en-.
trance, and he has since added TO his reputa-
ton by the ability and activity he has shown
in exploring the inland waters between
Charleston and the Savannah river. The
movements of Gen. Sherman have failed to
satisfy expectation. He has not done what it
was generally supposed would be done when
his army landed. Perhaps more has been ex-
pected than was possible. We print here
few extracts from letters dated at that point to
show the present Situation" there, and to
give some particulars connected with some of
the reconnoisances.
THE REGION OCCUPIED.
A Pert Royal correspondent, writing Dec.
oath, says 1.-THE entire coast from Warsaw
Sound, forty miles below Port Royal at least
to North Edisto Inlet, forty miles above the
same place, is deserted by its white iuhabt-
ants; the slaves are everywhere practically
free; the batteries, which are erected at every
point where ingress could be had by an invad.
ing force, were undoubtedly all abandoned
within week alter the fight at Hilton Head,
and the guns removed This state of affairs
exists inward for a distance at the least OF ten
miles, and in many places OF thirty. Half tile
cotton houses in this region must have been
burned, in a majority OF instances by troops,
| not by their owners. The only places where
| firing Of any importance has occurred against
! our forces are the Ossabaw Sound, and about
seven miles up Warsaw river. At these two
places batteries have still been retained. These
are both in Georgia, but, unless on Stone In
let, there is no place on the coast OF South
| Carolina below Charleston, where the rebel
flag yet tiaunts.
THE REBELS RUN AWAY.
The writer says:-"At no place in South
Carolina have the rebels showed fight since
their defeat on the 9TH of November. Beau
fort was at once abandoned and our reconnoi-
tering parties have nowhere encountered an
enemy. Button has been approached by the
Mayhower, an unarmed ferry boat, and no
gun fired pickets of the enemy have been
driven in, have been captured but never ex.
cept in one solitary instance on Port Royal
Island fired a musket. Al large reconnaissance,
made last week in gunboats, went within fiji.
teen miles i'll direct line from Charleston,
landed at town called Rockville, where five
hundred rebel troops had been posted, but
these scampered before the landing was COM
plete, and left their tens, camp equipage,
important letters and papers in the hands of
our troops, not firing gun, although their
numbers must at least have quadruped those
who went ashore. The slaves have. in various
instances, assisted in the capture OF their mas
tiers, have also, several times of late, asked to
be armed, which was not originally the case.
Colonies OF them have been established, not
only at Hilton Head, but on Otter Island i'll
st. Helena Sound, and at the mouth of Edisto
Inlet. At both these places they are protected
either by gunboats or by the gus OF the bat
teries put up by the rebels, but now occupied
by Union forces SchOoners belonging 10 the
rebels have been chased in these inland waters
and captured or burnt. The universal story
of the negroes is, that the poor whites are
unwilling TO fight, and certainly there seems
an unwlllingness somewhere. If ever South
Carolina desperation is 10 be manifested, one
would think it would be now; they talk in
their newspapers and in tile private letters |
have seen of hosting the black flag OF neither
giving nor asking any quarter; but we have
taken a number Of prisoners, who seemed not
averse to submitting 10 the fate of prisoners of
war"
A SOLDIERS COMPLAINT.
The following FROM a letter from a soldier in
the 9th Connecticut regiment, dated Hilton
Head, Dec. 2lst, is suggestive not only as to
the way Of doing things in that locality, butin
other localities Why were handful of
rebels, 1900 in all--worn out, panic stricken
men, allowed two days to escape from this
island Why were they not taken prisoners
1t could very easily have been done. They
left, even carrying most OF their wounded with
them, under the yer eyes of fleet carrying
| 800 guns and 1900 men. We ought to have
been in Charleston or Savannah in less 1han a
week after the landing here. 1t is well known
that they had no forces who could have sue
cessfully opposed us. But no ; wait; give the
enemy time to iortify and concentrate body
oil troops, aud be six months in doing what
could have been done in six days"
THE ''coNTRABANDs."
A letter from Hilton Head makes the fol-
lowing statement There are now in Beau
fort district alone, l am informed by official
personages, nearly 10000 slaves, whose mas
tiers have fled, and Beaufort district is but
small portion OF the country at present in our
| hands. have accompanied a number of the
reconnoisances made in all directions from
| this post, both by sea and land /; have witness.
| ed the exploration of the country from Tybee
| Island ON the south to North Edsto on the
| NORTH an extent of at least sixty miles, and
| have penetrated as far into the interior, on
| some OI THESE EXCURSIONS, as our troops nave
yet gone. Everywhere l find the same state
Of things existing; everywhere the blacks
hurry in droves TO our lines they crowd in
| small boats around our ships ; they swarm
upon our decks; they hurry to our officers,
| from the cotton-houses Of their masters, in an
| hour or two alter our guns are fired. | am
writing now not what | have heard but what
! | have seen. | am not sending you opinions
or conclusions at which / have arrived, but
facts that l have observed. | mean each
statement l make to be taken literally it is
not garnished for rhetorical effect, but put into
such a form as will most exactly convey to
the mind of reader the impression. made on
me. have seen negroes who reported them
selves as just escaped from their masters W no
Come GREATNESS to our forces, and said they
dared not go back for their masters would kill
! them; who told that their masters were at that
time armed and threatening TO shoot any slave
that did not fly with them; who declared they
had tIicked their owners and came away in
boats that they were hidden to take back to
the whites. / have tSlked with drivers and
field hands, with housemaids and coachmen,
and body servants, who were apparently as
eager to escape as any. / have heard the
blacks point out how their masters might be
caught, where they were hidden, what were
their forces / have seen them used as guides
and pilots. l have been along while they
pointed out in what house stores of arms and
ammunition were kept, and where bodies of
troops were stationed. In few hours have
known this information verified. 1 have ask
ed them about the sentiment of the slave pop.