The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1866-01-10
The Shenandoah. j

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X The following extract from a letter writ
!tten. BY one ofthe officers Of the Shcnan
doah, resident in Trance; will be found in
teresting ~ ,sil,ea 4zn4 sw " Il -.
b. Ny Deer Gousia- As YOU have M
i doubt seenbyathe newspapers long ere this
5. we arrived at Liverpool, England, on TIL,
4 9th Of this month, all well. T could writ.
page; after page upon our cruise, bat / Zee
fthat by SO doins4 might tire you. So that
4 will only make abrief statement! in connec
ttion thereto before proceeding further
! While in the Arctic, making our captures
we learned from the prisoners and the few
/ papers they would give us, that Mr.. Lincolu
had been assassinated THAT Richmond had
beenscaptured aftet being evacuated; that
i Gen., LeeiwitH q small portion ofihis army
had surrendered, while the larger portion
some 100000 men, dad .reinforced y Gen.
JohnstonsateG Greensboro, in North Carroll
l|nasand that President Davis, with lis Cab.
i#esshadreucheds Montgomery, ana there
established himself,fso that we concluded
fthatss although thea South had sustained
great reverses, we might still look with
Ehope to- the armies Of Cen. johnson, Beau.
Iregari, Hood, Kirby Smith rand Magruder.
bWe finished our work there Oh the 18th OF
June, with no further information cxcept
the opinions ofsome Of our prisoners, based
Ilalone on hope that the war was over. We
lefts theaArcties the 29th Of June, and
Behring sea on the Istaof July. We shan
Eed our courses to intercept vessels from San
francisco to- China and Japan; but saw ii no
sail until the I'd of August, R;'heniii latitude
deerees:ilorh we saw q vessel which We
took to besasf Yankee; and gave chase. We
came up with her !; she proved to I'D the,
sEhglish bark Baracoata,l fourteen DAYS from
SAM francisco, bound TO LiverpooI 'rhe
captain gave us the sad and heartbreakinei
intelligence that bour cause was lost. our
country oyerTuri, andour people subjueated.
By comparing dates we found that some de-
predatiuns were committed aftef the war
had ceased, and .at~once saw and appreeia.
ted our position. Fall well tdidlwe know,
that our enemies would, call us pirates, and
were convinced that ,pleuty Of men, could
be found who would prejure themselves to
convict US if we fell into their hands, The
captain knew also that the world at large
would consider u, guilty, At once, we
struck our guns. pistols and muskets into
the hold, thereby disarming our vessel, and
a general notification to all on board was
given that all depredations wonld cease
We shaped orr course for Cape Horn and
then for Liverpool. We arrived there on
the 9Th Of November, and surrendered our
vessel, arms, munitions, all captured money.
instruments and articles to the captain oil
the English line-of-battle ship donegal,
which was lying in the harbor. We. were
detained on board until a plain statement
was made to the English Government, |
when, after q Cabinet Meeting, weswere UNI
conditionally released and taken on shore.
BY coming into d port Of one of the strong
est Governments in the.world and pursuing |
the course sa wedid, laying ourselves liable. |
and being perfectly willing to undergo anyI
trial before any tribunal IN that country, / |
Should think that tie most partial, minds |
would be convinced that, we were, innocent
Of the vile charges brought against JUS. |
Still some Of the English papers are most
abusive, and persist in calling rs piratest;al
b,ntt we simply want our friends to 5knows1
tls We have done Lr our duty like men and
have lost no honor. x FL
| have no faithin England, apd Ibelieve
that in this extreme case, il the two, alter-t
natives, war or rendition, were offered, her|
honor would be sacrificed md we would ,ba,l
and given up. Under these cir |
cnstanses VIII. VII remain 1 q, here until the
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