Indiana State sentinel. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1864-04-25

/
Quixottc Features of the Proposed
Movement upon RIch Inn ond--r orty
Thousand Troops ef tanned To & uard
Washington.
Especial Correspondence OF the Chicago Times.
WASHINGTON. April ID
The progress of the social equality of nggers
with white people is making fearful Roadway in
this part of the world. The fiat has gone forth
from the White House that all who expect to find
favor in the eyes OF his Majesty Abraham the
First must be ready on all occasions to bow down
and worship this idol OF the Republican party.
! Gen Butler (whO feels that his head is in some
danger since the appointment of Gen. Smith to
command the troops in his Department. has Just
taken step in this direction that will no doubt
restore him to full favor with our would be
monarch. The daily line of mboats which
run between this city, Baltimore and Fortress
Monroe have always had among their rules, one
which forbade the presence of coIored people at
the same table with The passengers This rule
was enforced on a recent occasion. But when
the boat arrived at Fortress Monroe the friends
of the colored person who had been refused
seat at the table complained 10 Gen Butler of
the "indgnity" thus offered to of "our COL
ored fellow citizens The Hero of Big Bethel
at once issued an order that in future negroes
should be allowed to sit and eat at the same
table with the passengers board of these
boats and that no distinction whatever should
| be made in the treatment of any person on ac-
count of his color. Henceiorth therefore, the
ladies and gentlemen who travel On these steam
boats will have the exquisite pleasure of sitting
at the table side by side with filthy, greasy ne
groes.
The cases that are often referred TO in this
connection, of Southern families travelling with
their negroes are very different Previous 10
| 1860, AMI particularly before 1860, nothing used
to be more common than to see Southern fami
! lies travelling i'm the North, attended by from two
to four negro servants. The latter were always
neat in their persons, quick and industrious in
their habits, obliging and respectful i'm their man.
ners. Like the servants so often spoken of in
the Bible, "they loved their master and their
mstress;" and, between them and the children
they had seen born and brought up under their
masters roof, an attachment existed, the nature
and strength of which can never be unders TODD
by those who have not seen life at the South for
themselves Death alone had power TO weaken
the bonds of affection and regard which existed
between the members of a we'll regulated South
ern household Thus it was that in spite of all
| the Establishments of Northern Abolitionists, not
one servant out of hundred who accompanied
their masters in a journey to the North, could be
induced to run away.
| And no trouble or annoyance was ever expert
enced in travelling with them. Whether in the
railroad car, the steamboat, or the stage coach,
their respectful manners. neat appearance aud
obiging disposition made them iavoriteS with ALL
! They knew their place, and were happy in their
| appropriate sphere
But all that was in a past age-the golden age
of the republic This generation, perhaps the
generation after will never see those happy days
again We have got to go through the revolu
| ton. When il is all over, hOwever,-when the
usurper has been hurled from power and the
Constitution and the Union restored as they
were-then all these things will come back
again
Military matters remain in about the same state
as at the date of my last letter. The regiments
| that have been home on furlough or that have
been fighting 1.-The copPerheads" in the northern
States, have continued 10 return every day for
the last month, and being dispatched home
daily in various directions Burnside's corps at
Annapolis IS growing to colossal proportions. and
it is nov said that il will be landed at Beaufort,
in North Carolina, and will march thence to
attack Godsborough, point on the WILMINGTON
and Weldon Railroad, co operative move
ment in the anticipated attack upon Richmond
Ii this has really been determined on il requires
no prophet to foretell that sach movement can
only result in defeat This railroad is ibe one
over which all the blockade goods received at
Wilmington transported to Richmond. It's
importance-the vital necessity of its safety-to
the Clufedera ties, is such that body Of rebel
troops. considered fully adequate to its defence.
has been constantly mtintaIBed upon il Tor many
months past Ii Burnsde's movement toward
this railroad IS made therefore. il appears be
made under the impression that il is inadequately
defended, the butcher of Fredericksburg will
meet with signal defeat in North Carolina
as he did in December, 1862.
The idea that such movement can he a co
operative part of an attack on Richmond proves
that the attack by three armies, moving upon the
rebel capital by three different routes, has not
been planned hv General Grant. by any other
soldier bnt by Lincoln and Stanton.
The effect Of the terrible raiu-storm Of last
Saturday has been even more disastrous than in
timNted i'm my last letter. All communica ton
with the Army of the Potomac has been sus
pended. aud must remain so. so far ms any good
can be accomplished, Tor many days yet. Sup
pose the movement on Richmond in three
columns" had been commenced, and this army
had got as far Mine Run the Wilderness,
when thus oyertakeu by such storm; what thenl
And such storm is quite as likely to happen
any time before the end of May. Are the disas-
tiers OF Charlottesville the Wilderness, and Nine
Run to be repeatedf IL looks very much as if
they would be, unless this Quixotie "mov ement
in three columns" is abandoned.
Besides eight smaller redouts and earthworks,
there thirty folr principal forts around this
OF the guns mounted on these works it might be
improper TO speak, further than TO say that they
are numerous the space will allow, and of
the largest calibre, the longest range, and the
most effective description known in modern war
fare. The artllerists. most of whom have been
in the works ever since their construction in 1861
are kept in daily practice, and, suppose, are as
well drilled ms any in the world. They number
about Is, 900 m,p. Even that Is twice as many
as is necessary to work the guns efectually. But
in addition to these there haye been, ever since
Popes retreat in the fall Of 1862. about thirty
regiments OF infantry. numbering in the aggre
gate 25 900 men. sho have been retained in aud
near these forts. and between them and the city,
"for The protection Of the capital" as it IS sad
but really for the protection of the great ex Rail
Splitter. There is no more use for them here
than at Philadelphia and New York Gen. Grant
understands this, and wishes them to be ordered
to take the field To this Lincoln demurs, and
80 strongly that as yet Gen. Grant has not in
sisted upon il. "a -.