The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1863-04-25
What q Bohemian saw In Mtseis'
eippi and Louisiana.


immediate activity in the vicinage of Vicks-
burg, deemed it well to join in foraging
expedition up the river in quest OF any adj
ventures that might result from the trip
Consequently, we have since been steam
ing up and down the Father of Waters, and
wandering through Louisiana, Mississippi,
and Arkansas, looking out for cotton, cattle
and guerrillas, and finding considerable OF
the first, but none of the last.
Adventures, strictly speaking, we have
not had, no armed foes appearing in sight;
but we have been afforded opportunities TO
see plantation life in three Of the principal
Cotton States, and obtain various glimpses
of the peculiar institutions as it exists dur
ing the war.
At this place. where reside several very
large cotton planters, the collection of the
Southern staples has been going on some
ten or twelve days, and nearly $500 bales
have been obtained from the interior, hav-
ing been concealed in swamps and cane
brakes by the Secessionists and .''discov-
ered'' by the negroes. Probably hve or
six hundred additional bales are in this
neighborhood, and viii be secured by our
forces.
Originally there were 5000 or 1000 bales
hereabout, belonging to the pseudo Confed-
eracy, the greater part, if not all, of which
had been pledged to the British Govern
ment at the rate of cents per pound, mark
ked with the Rebel and English flags and
the letters G. s. A: The Rebels, hearing
the Yankees were coming up here, burned
! 8 900 or 1000 bales, but had not time to des-
| troy the remainder Ferguson was hover
| ing about the neighborhood with 300 or 400
guerrillas about the middle Of the month;
but fearing capture, he hurried off to the
| region of the Yazoo, and since that time
the negroes and the soldiers have been
gathering in the cotton without the least
molestation, our pickets have had no oc-
casion to fire single gun at skulking
| Butternut.
The principal plantations at the Bend are
owned by DR.. VIM. w. Worthington and
his brother Samuel, both advanced in
years and having four sons in the insurgent
army. They were very wealthy before the
| Rebellion, owning three plantations each,
and some two or three hundred negroes,
MANY of whom have beeu taken back into
the swamps and to Texas. The Worthing-
tons are from Kentucky, but have lived
here for over thirty years, and accumulated
| in that time an immense fortune, or what
would have proved such, had the South not
been guilty of the supreme folly OF attempt
! ing to secede. The heads OF the families,
who are at home, say they have been ruin
ed by the war, to which, according to their
statement, they were at first opposed,
| though they now make very little preten-
sion to loyalty.
| The cotton and sugar planters of the
South generally took no active part at the
beginning in bringing about the present
troubles. Their large pecuniary interests
rendered them conservative in action,
whatever their sentiments; but the tide of
Rebellion set in so strongly that they were
borne out into the untried and treacherous
sea, where they have seen their untried
ships Of fortune go rapidly down.
The private residences and grounds OF
Won, for
to those one usually sees in the South.
They make some assumption to comeli-
ness, as well as comfort, and are on the
whole rather pleasant, which must be at
tributed the fact of their owners coming
from kentucky, which has been largely in
fluenced by the spirit and enterprise OF the
North.
The negroes in this country are very anx-
ious to get away, and have been crowding
the levee day after day, in the hope of be-
ing taken on some of the transports lying
here. They have shown themselves not
only willing but anxious to point out the
places where cotton and cattle were hidden,
and have worked like badgers in getting
them on board. Still, very few of the poor
Africans have been permitted to leave this
hateful shore, ardent as are their longings
after liberty The truth is, there is no pro-
vision for them at Young's Point, and
therefore Gen Grant has forbidden their be-
| ing taken on the boats unless they could
be employed as part of the crew.
This may be necessary, but it is unfortu-
nate for the negroes, who, after all the val
liable services they have rendered, and the
consequent danger they have incurred of
cruel punishment, or even death, from
their masters or the enemy, meet with no
| protection, and receive not the bare COM
pensation they had right to expect.
Whatever may be ones opinions on the
sibility can observe without pity the rep
resentatives of the long suffering race, as
they stand with wisttul faces and grief
, mOistened eyes upon the bank, looking
| suppliantly but in vain to the transports,
as they push out from the shore, leaving
the negroes to their desolation and dark
and brooding thoughts of the revenge that
| is in store for them from brutal overseers
and an inhuman foe.
| While here, the correspondents have had
| frequent talks with the contrabands, and
have found them without exception most
anxious for freedom. They are willing to
run any risks almost, provided they can
have any assurance of escaping bondage
They manifest the utmost aversion to Sla-
very, and declare they would rather be free
| if they had to toll harder and live upon the
merest pittance in the North, than be idle
and live in comfort in the South. i@
| An elderly negress, Harriet Garratt, told
me yesterday sad story, which, though
by no means novel, will, think, bear re-
| petition, and which Iknow to be true from
the names of persons and from circumstan-
ces she mentioned in Kentucky, where I
am quite well acquainted. She belonged
to a young woman residing in Macon
County, Kentucky, and after her rnistress's
marriage, was taken to Cincinnati, and
| there manumitted. Harriet, hearing soon
after that her husband was to be sent to
Mississippi, determined to follow him, and
accordingly accompanied him. with her
| free papers on her person. Arrived here, a
| slave dealer named Hines, in whose keep
ing she and her husband with other negroes
were, discovered and destroyed her papers,
and sold her to DR.. Worthington, since
| which time she has been working in the
cotton fields. 80
Harriet was very DESTROYS ofgoing North,
and her eyes moistened at the mere idea,
though she had long ceased she said to
hope for the freedom of which she had been
SO basely defrauded. Her tale interested
nay Bohemian companion and myself. and
we made an arrangement with the Captain
ofone ofthe transports to take her and her
VOL no ho1