Weekly Trinity journal., 1864-06-04
NUMBER 81.
Iron.clad Vessels and Iron.colored Sol.
diers.

1t is shown by the following that Southern
chivalry and aristocracy have so degenerated
that the master and slave touch the elbow"
in the rebel army. comparison is also drawn
which is anything but complimentary to foreign
ers who sympath ize with rebels, or their meaner
allies, the Copperheads. The extract is from
the Richmond Enqurcr,--Jef. Davis official
gan-of April 18th:
$50 far we feel sure of the issue all else is
mystery and uncertainty. Where the first blow
will fall when the two armies of Northern Vir-
GINA meet each other once more face to face
how Grant will try to hold his own against the
master spirits of Lee, cannot even surmise
But it is clear to the experienced eye that the ap-
preaching campaign will bring into action two
new clements. not known heretofore in military
history, which may not unlikely decide the fate
of the gigantic crusade-the enemy will array
against us his iron-clads by sea and his
colored troops on land. Europe will watch with
nervous interest the first great trials made of
these improved Monitors, if it should be our
good fortune to finish and equip our own vessels
of that class in time to meet them on equal
terms.
The only serious encounter That can be called
a fair trial of ron-clads, resulted in the destruc-
ton of the Monitor Keokuk by the superiority OF
our prolectiles steel bolts and spherical shot,
devised by Brooke, the ingcnius inventor of the
deep. sea-sounding line. The Yankee gunboats,
occasionally iron-clad, with their light drafts
and powerful guns on pivots, have assembled our
rivers with impunity, frightened the people on
shore and controlled the country for miles
around The prestige that attended them at
first and cost us so dear has however complete
" vanished like every dreaded danger, they
succumbed as they fairly looked in the
face. Now we know fully their vulnerability
md = Of frun for
with their helplessness when attacked in boats.
Since these first trials, however, the Yankees
have made great efforts to remedy the evils that
attended their early iron-clads-their want of
buoyancy, their sinking too deep forward to ap-
proach well at certain landings the necessity to
tow them out at sea, and their slowness, which
would embarrass the feet to which they may be
| attached They claim now to possess vessels as
buoyant and free in motion as ordinary steamers,
impenetrabe to any known projectile, including
the new Whtworth guns, and provided with
heavier armament than the last built iron-clads
of the English. These they propose to carry
into our harbors and if we there can meet them
a conflict such as the world has not yet seen will
take place.
The other new feature likely to give a strange
coloring to the summer 5 campaign is the LARGE
FORCE OF ARMED BLACKS which OUR ARMY
proposes to employ. They have apparently re-
considered their first plan of using them merely
for garrison duty. And we see them in Virginia
and other points of attack, placed in the van, or
sent, well mounted, on foraging expeditions, in
order thus to season and harden them for war.
While it cannot be expecteA that they will ever
fight with the bravery or gallantry of our own
men, we are disposed to believe that they will
be, as soldiers, but little inferior to the RIFF
RAFF OF GERMANY and IRELAND, which en-
tiers so largely into the composition of the North
ern army.