Year: 1865

-I


A correspondent of the Cincinnati
Gazette, travelling through the Southern
States, gives some interesting notes of
observation in the State that inaugurated
secession and suffered more severely than
any other from the results that followed.
We make a few extracts


The cars ratified over a bridge across a
muddy creek and we were in free South
Carolina. It was like awakening from Q
Rip Van Winkle slumber to think of the
change which the war has brought. It is
one thing to sit at home and read that
this birthplace of secession is freesoil now,
that not stakeholder treads its fields; 1t
is another thing to ride through the State
and feel all this. IF nothing else had
been accomplished than this to establish
right, and humble the pride of this
stlrrer-up of seditien. the sacrifices of
the war would not seem in yain.ra ss5


And this was South Carolina, and we
were free to talk of slavery as we chose;
to point out its blighting effects upon
public enterprise, upon morality and re-
hgion; we were free to compare the want
Of thrift and energy, everywhere appar-
ent, with the blessings which free labor
brings; we were free to boast of New
England; free to glory in tha4Iosts--f free
to tell any Tud III. That In everything
which goes to make up a great and pow
erful nation the South was a century be-
hind the North when rates of progress
were considered. We were free to de-
nounce secession, and especially its orig
inators; free to affirm that no shadow of
an excuse existed for the rebellion; free
to extel the virtues of the President
whom they had despised and murdered;
free to say that Mr.. Davis ought to be
hung for his treason.


When a Northern man can thus travel
alone in South Carolina. away from all
military posts, unprotected by soldiers on
the train, and thus freely express him
self, it shows state of things which the
veriest dreamer would scarcely have
dared to predict twelve months ago
Unlimited freedom of speech has been
forced upon the South, and it is ne less
boon to its own citizens than to the
land at large. Its introduction has freed
the citizens here from a slavery as op-
pressive as that in which the blacks were
held. @ E.


There is a wide gulf between South
Carolina leading off in treason, arrogant,
confident and boastful-and South Caro-
lima garrisoned by her own slaves, wear
ing the National uniform and marching
under the flag she tore down and tramp
led upon-a gulf which seems too wide
to be bridged over even by four years of
war. Truly righteous retribution has
fallen upon these people, and none can
pity them when the magnitude of their
crimes rises before the mind.


At Chester the Kings Mountain road
intersects the main branch. Over 1t
trains run occasionally to Yorkville.-
Here a great quantity of rolling stock
1Iook,1 1nJ haav, rY,v, o,,k 20
Sherman's way. Its worn condition told
of the strait to which the South was re-
duced before it gave up the struggle
Much of it looked as if it might have
run in the Revolution and stood in its
present place since the battle of Kings
Mountain was fought. e =


An hours ride below Chester the track
strikes the trail of Sherman's army
Those who wrote that it was only like
the fight of an arrow, or the path of a
ship, or the passing of a bird, should
come and see. Those who believe war a
trihing matter, those who think national
sins escape punishment, should all visit
this desolated South, and search for
fences, look for stock, and count the lone
=ehimneys-o less numerous than the
trees, and look at a people once naughty,
wealthy, and tyrannical, brought down to



lated beyond measure. o 7iz


From a point sixteen miles above
Winnsboro to Columbia, a total distance
of forty-six miles, the railroad was ut
terly destroyed. Not single tie remains,
and not dozen rails that escaped break
ing, and of the whole, over half were
rendered incapable of being straitened
without being taken to iron works again,
and works of this character are not nu-
merous along the line of march. All
bridges and culverts are gone, and nothing
but the road bed remains. Thousands of
the rails were twisted around trees, tele-
graph posts, and the gate posts of private
residences; thousands more were tied to-
gether in knots and skeins that must have
taxed the ingenuity Of our soldiers only
in less degree than it will tax the brains
of those who attempt to unravel them, or
unite or even cut these stronger than
Gordian knots. a


The work of repairing this road has
been in progress four months. and as yet
only fourteen miles and half has been
relaid. Workmen are busy at little fires
along the road, heating the rails least
bent and putting them in order again,
| but it is a slow process, and only seventy
five yards of track is now replaced per
| day. This shows the thoroughness OF
the destruction. Below Columbia the
rate of progress is about the same, and
depends almost entirely upon the amount
of rail that can be Strengthened each day
The rebuilding of the bridges destroyed
will be even less rapid than the relayinp
of the track. Nearly all but main lines
had been taken up during the war, and
this resource is no longer left, and the
companies are too poor to buy new iron
Without help from the North the main
roads of the South could not be put in
ieven fair condition for Ave years to come
Bridges must be rebuilt, and rolling stock
land rail supplied on credit, or none o.
the roads in South Carolina can be in.