Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1866-09-08
!, NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTY, pENN'A.
OLD SERIES, VOL. .26, NO. 4S.


city. The old aristocracv do not mean thai
their number shall be increased bv Yankee
merchants and manufacturers from Tho Nortb
If thew can help il. So tbev march str,;gbt
by the store-do of the Yankees. and carry
their custom to those who worship the sa.
cred bones of the dead Cpnfederacy. Few
Yankees have yet "struck lie" in Richmond.
Polite society locks its doors in their faces.
zone of my secesh neighbors," said a
Northern merchant, "came in to our house
for water, when theirs gave out !; but when
my children went i'm to play with theirs,
they were sent home in hurry" No Ad-
nittance here for Yankees is practically writ
ten over the great majority of Richmond's 8
drawing rooms and ner.tables. Northern
people ure not often insulted in Richmond /;
they are simply let alone, and that most
severely. .rg. .Ho'ul a,i r-lf.
The aristocracy of the city--exceptinG
those who hold large rural estates--arc gene
rally impoverished. An old Petersburg re-
sldent said, II have barrclful of Confederate
money at home." Four years of dealing in
such trash does not leave n community with
much portable property" to fill their flour
barrels and meat casks with, just now. But
the soil remains, and kindly nature is already
hiding the wounds of war under her green
ropes of grass and corn. Many Of the large
planters are employing their former slaves,
at decent wages; and thousands of negroes
are hard at work wish the hoe for themselves
all through the interior of the State. The
most active industry of Old Virginia to, day
wears black skin. The dainty white hands
of treason hold the ballot the honest black
hands of loyalty hold the hoe. Is that the
reconstruction that was purchased at Five
Forks and Appomattox Court House
In Richmond there is q surplus of negroes,
and no small antipathy toward them on the
part of the most virulent rebels. The intel
ligent freedman who showed me the deserted
capitol building, and Aleck Stephens empty
chair, remarked, my old master at Bottoms
Bridge would kick me off his premises, if l
went there" He told me that the great ma
jority of the blacks in Richmond are, at pre-
sent, worse off in material comforts than
before the war That is easily accounted
for. Business is dull; the whites are poor !;
and city-servants are not skilful tield.hands.
In the rural regions, the negroes know how
to work, are glad to work, and are bettering
their condition every day. The crops along
' the Frcdericksburgh Railway generally look
well. The road itself is in good order
Richmond contains some very suggestive
scenes. Among them arc jeff Davis Exc
cutive Room" lin the custom housc) now
occupied by the clerk of the U. s. Court |;
the execrabe Libby Prison, now guarded by
blue coats, one imprisoned there and the
blackened ruins OF the Rev. Charles Reads
ro-slavery church. There must have been
pitch enough in that pulpit to have made it
burn briskly. 1t is a sorrowful fact that the
soldiers of the disbanded Southern armies
are at this moment more Loyalty disposed
than the ministers of the dismantled South
crn churches. Freedmens Bureaus and
Civil Rights bills are valuable expedients
for the hour; but the vital wants of the
South are new plough, new pulpit and
new school l-house. ~.
| The Notifications around Richmond are of
little interest, except in the direction Of
Drury's Bluff. But those who wish to sec
the most remarkable field.works in the
world must hasten to Petersburg before the
storms have washed down those intermlna-
BILE entertainments of sand and filled up the
rifle pits. We spent memorable day there;
our Yankee friend Bidwell, of "Jarratt's
Hotel" supplying us the horses and the in
telligent guide for the field We had Swim.
tons valuable volume on 1.-THE Army of the
Potomac" in the carriage. We sat down
and read his account of the frightful slaugh.
! ter of the rebels on the bare sand, where the
large hole was when the mine exloded. A
couple of skulls were lying in the bottom Of
the horrible "crater." The farmer who
owns the spot has enclosed it, and makes his
living by exhibiting it for a dollar to every
party of visitors, and by selling another sort
of "crate" from a rude drinking shop. On
that farm fifteen thousand human beings
were slaughtered 1t was the focus of the
nine months fight. Fort Steadman is in
good preservation; against its sharp abattis
and cart hen breast works the rebellion made
its last onset When Lee fell back from this
final assault, on the 25th of March, the
doom of the Confederacy was sealed. For
humanity's sake he ought to have surren.
dered that day. The exposure of every life
from that day onward was downright mur-
| make Boou MS retreat on tue oouthsluc