Year: 1862

I


An Insight into RichmOnd---The Condition


Of Affairs.


lady who has lately reached New


York from Richmond furnishes the New.


York Times with an interesting report Of


life in the rebel capital, as she saw and


knew it. The whole report is of the great


est interest. We copy the following par


agraphs:


No attention whatever has, for mouths,


been paid 10 the sanitary condition Of the


city. The habits of portion Of the SOL


diers are filthy TO the last degree, and soap


and water are, in most instances, strang-


ers, not to be introduced or tolerated in the


camps, and too often in the hospitals.


Added to this, there has been, for a long


time past, scarcity Of provender for tho


mules and horses connected with the army
/ Owing to their ill-fed condition, the fam


ished brutes very often drop down in their


tracks from sheer exhaustion. Wherever


they fall they are permitted to die and de-
cay No attempt is made to remove them
no effort used to cleanse the streets Of
that losthsome mass of decaying matter,
which thus rapidly accumulates.


The whole atmosphere in and around the
city she represents as highly charged with
this horrible malaria, and, to use her own
expression, "the air seems thick with dis
ease, and heavily laden with death" Eve
ry tobacco warehouse-and the city is full
Of them-is used either as hospital or q
prison. In addition to these, very large
number of wholesale stores and other
buildings have, since the weeks battle in
front Of the city, been appropriated to the
use Of the sick and wounded. Very little
business Of any kind is transacted, and
hour all the stores and shops are closed,
and every male able to bear arms, and
eUen many Of the females, go to drill.


Food is very scarce and very high. For
three months past no citizen, however
wealthy, has been able to procure parti-
Gle of fresh meat of any kind; what little
of that article could be obtained was given
to the sick soldiers. The only vegetables
which our informant has seen there since
the beginning of June, were few half
grown cabbage-heads, all of which were
readily sold for the sum of 81 so each
The only kind of meat is salt pork, which,
though not really putrid, has a taste so
bitter and rancid, that no one can eat it
unless nearly starved. Tea cannot be had
at any price. Three months ago, our in
formant purchased pound Of ordinary
6s tea for the sum of SIS, since which
time none could be obtained There was
a little coffee in the market, at from 81 to
So per pound. The only article of food
which can be obtained readily, and at any
where near like an ordinary price, is
-four; but the citizens are in constant fear
lest their supply of this be suddenly cut
short, in which event starvation and fam
inc will indeed meet them face to face.


Our informant has often seen JEFF Da-
Wis. For some months he had his head
qurrters directly opposite her residence,
across the Green, IA narrow park. She
has been accustomed to hear him at his
morning and evening devotions. He is
represented as a man of many long pray
ers, which, although they are uttered in a
loud voice, she does not think that, Phar-
isee-like, he thus worships to be seen and
heard by men. He is a prominent mem
Der of the Episcopal iChurch, and, aside
from the reasonable course which he has
pursued in this rebellion, she regards his
daily life as entirely in accordance with
the principles of the Christian religion.


Our informant is strong in the convic-
ton that the rebels, to use her language, " are
fedrfulIy, terribly IN earnest, in the prOsecu-
ton Of this 1Ddr" From all that she has
seen and heard during her sojourn among
them, it is her belief that nothing less than
the utter determination of the leaders of
this rebellion, will ever bring them to sub
NIT to the good old Government. But she
says there is no danger of the South ever
arming the slaves for the purpose Of fight
ing her battles. On the contrary, they in
variably exercise the most scrupulous care
to prevent arms of any kind from falling
into the hands of the negroes. The latter
do all the drudgery, build all the fortifca-
tions, &C., but as to their fighting, that is
out of the question.


So far as social life is concerned, every
thing thing there is dead. No mirth or
festivity of any kind. No spirit or incli-
nation to enjoy the cOmpsnionship of
friends. Churches are the only places
where people meet, except it be in the drill
room, or around the couch Of the dying.
There are no funerals, except occasionally
on the decease of a very wealthy or noted |
parsonage. As rule the body Of the de-
ceased is hurriedly rolled into a sheet,
thrown into a cart, and driven away to
large field, q little out Of the city, where n
shallow hole has been previously prepared
for its reception. Then, without prayer,
without one consolatory word to the few
mourning friends who may perchance have
followed the body to its rude resting place,
the corpse is hastily thrown in, dozen
spadesfull of earth are unceremoniously
hurled upon it by an attendant negro, and
the funeral rites are completed. The body
is left in its shallow sepulchre to become
the prey Of ravens and buzzards, which are
often seen RECALLING themselves upon this
banquet of human flesh. The air becomes,
if possible, still more pestiferous when
these bodies are exposed to the heat of a
Summers sun.