NEWS:  The Alleghanian; 14 Apr 1864; Ebensburg, Cambria Cnty. PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Patty Millich
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The Alleghanian, Ebensburg, Pa.
Thursday, 14 Apr 1864
Volume 5, Number 29


Local Etchings 

The small pox is raging in Greensburg.

Mr. Isaac Wike has been sworn in as the new Treasurer of Cambria County.

Eggs sell at twenty cents per dozen in our market.  Who wouldn't be a hen in 
these latter days!

A patent has been issued to Mr. Henry Jacob, Loretto, this county, for an 
improvement in standards for lumber cars.

Cyrus Elder Esq., associate editor of the CAMBRIA TRIBUNE who has been quite 
unwell for several weeks past, is, we are happy to learn on his pins again.

We understand that the Penna. RR Company intends building a new and 
enlarged depot at Cresson station the coming summer.  Such an institution is 
badly needed there.

Major Hamilton, the indefatigable, has rented for a term of years the "Jefferson 
House," Wilmore, and refitted and refurnished it as a place of entertainment for 
man and beast.  When you visit that village, stop with him.


Local Correspondence 
Johnstown, April 10, 1864



"Love laughs at locksmiths" is an adage trite as true and one we had fully 
exemplified during the past week. A few months ago, a young man named Berry, 
from the vicinity of Wilmore, came to this place to work.  He remained but a 
short time; yet short as was his stay, he managed to form before he left an 
attachment for the stepdaughter of the proprietor of the house at which he 
boarded.  His attachment was reciprocated and when he returned to Wilmore, a 
short time ago, it was with the mutual understanding that they should be faithful 
to each other even unto death.  Time passed on and a new actor, in the shape of 
a young German, appeared upon the stage.  The latter wooed the maiden and 
the maiden, at the violent instigations of her friends, was constrained to look 
with favor upon his suit. He pressed her to fix "the happy day," but, upon one 
pretext or another, she refused to do so. The German, in the meantime, 
purchased a house, in anticipation of the event.  At length the lady was 
importuned so strongly to give her consent to an early celebration to the 
nuptials, that, in despair, she wrote to Berry, telling him that he must come soon 
and claim her - that she couldn't hold out much longer.  This on Friday last.  
Immediately on receipt of the letter, Berry started hither and upon arrival, laid 
claim to his betrothed.  The proprietor of the house aforesaid was unable to 
recognize the validity of his claim in the premises and a quarrel was the result.  
In the melee Berry was struck on the head with a poker and his skull slightly 
fractured.  A doctor dressed the wound.  The better to guard again the possibility 
of a reunion of the parties, all the clothing of the girl, except one old working 
dress, was locked up and a strict surveillance instituted upon her actions.  Late in 
the evening, however, she succeeded in eluding the vigilance of her watchers 
and in pursuance of an arrangement made by a third party, she and Berry 
dropped in on Esq. M'Kee and in a few minutes the twain were made one.  They 
took the first train thereafter for Wilmore.  The German lover was totally 
inconsolable at the turn events had taken and cried bitterly when the stern truth 
burst upon him that although the cage was prepared the bird had flown.  Every 
one conversant with the circumstances admired the spunk displayed by the girl 
and her young husband will doubtless love her none the less for the sacrifices 
she made for him.

The thanks of your correspondent are due a party of young ladies for the 
compliment of a serenade paid him one evening last week. The time and place - 
by the brink of a rippling water in the silvery moonlight of a balmy evening – 
were certainly propitious to a full appreciation of melody divine.  My heart is full 
– language to express my thanks for their kindness fails me.  However may their 
pathway through life be ever strewn with flowers and their vocal organs lose 
never a charm of their original sweetness.

I suppose in the absence of other topics it will not be amiss to jot down a few 
observations touching the weather. During the past week the clerk of the 
weather obviously got things considerably mixed or else he lost his reckoning 
entirely.  First we had a couple of days of snow; then we had about the same 
length of time of that kind of weather especially adapted to and no doubt set 
aside for lovers' moonlight walks; and then again we had two days of rain.  The 
effect of the latter has been a great rise in the rivers hereabouts and the 
development of untold quantities of mud in our streets.

Yours,
[Signed]  May Leon


Pardon of Joseph Moore 

In conformity with the expressed desire of four out of every five of the people of 
Cambria county, Governor Curtin has seen fit to accord an unconditional pardon 
to Joseph Moore, convicted of the murder of Jordan Marbourg at our late Court 
and sentenced to six years imprisonment in the Western Penitentiary. There is 
no possibility of mistake in the announcement - we have the very highest 
authority for saying the pardon has actually been granted.  We do not know that 
the official document has as yet been received by the Sheriff, if not, it may be 
expected at any time.

The pardoning power vested in the hands of the chief Executive of a State, is a 
prerogative the too free exercise of which is calculated to engender contempt for 
the Courts and to a certain extent to nullify the law.  It should be rarely 
exercised. Saying thus much, we have to further say that the case of Moore was 
one in which such interposition was eminently called for by surrounding 
circumstances, explaining away, as they do, a large measure of his responsibility 
for the crime committed.  Our readers are conversant with the facts of the case; 
we will say no more.


The New Nickels 

There will soon be an abundant supply of new cents.  The present small nickel 
cent weighs seventy-two grains and contains eighty per cent of copper and 
twelve of nickel.  The new cent will weigh only forty-eight grains, and will consist 
of ninety-five per cent of copper and five per cent of tin. They will be ready for 
delivery shortly.


Order by General Grant 

There is significance in a general order just issued by Gen. Grant from the 
headquarters of the Army of the Potomac. It directs that public and private 
property for which transportation is not furnished by existing orders, shall at 
once be sent to the rear; that all sutlers and private citizens shall leave the army 
by the 16th inst.; that only members of the Sanitary or Christian Commissions 
and registered newspaper correspondents can remain. All furlough and leaves of 
absence are stopped and all officers and men doing duty in other corps than 
their own are ordered to return to their regiments. Gen. Grant visited the 
extreme front of the lines on Friday. He made a close observation of the 
regiments and brigades as he passed along, expressing himself highly gratified 
with their condition.  He also made a careful reconnaissance of the enemy's 
defensive works on the Rapidan and returned to his headquarters the same 
evening.


How They Conduct the War In Dixie – [Prisoner's Account]

Gen. Neal Dow, a prisoner in the hands of the rebels for a time but now 
exchanged and at home, made a speech in Portland, Maine, on the 24th March 
from which we take a few extracts:

"You have heard from high authority that the people of the South are semi-
barbarians.  Educated, so far as they are educated at all, in a disregard of the 
rights of 4,000,000 of their fellow men; accustomed as they are to see the rights 
of others trampled in the dust and undertaking to subsist upon their 
unrecompensed labor, they learn to disregard the rights of everybody else in the 
intercourse with both whites and blacks. You see from their intercourse with 
each other.  The Union prisoners have come in contact with this feeling very 
largely.  I would not be understood that there are no cultivated people at the 
South.  The Union prisoners have come in contact with such people and they 
have experienced the most barbaric treatment.  From the Confederate soldiers at 
the front, they have experienced kind and courteous treatment.  But from the 
"Home Guards" it has been more barbarous than any prisoners of war have 
suffered since the days of the "Black Hole" of Calcutta.  I know of nothing in the 
history of the war to compare with the shameful treatment of the Union 
prisoners at Richmond and at Atlanta, Georgia.

"A large quantity of clothing and blankets was sent to my care to be distributed 
to the soldiers.  I was permitted to visit them for the purpose of distributing the 
articles.  Passing round the camp at Belle Isle, I saw the wretched condition of 
our soldiers as to clothing and quarters.  Nearly one half of them were without 
shelter of any kind and all were in extreme want of clothing.  As I passed around 
the camp, they cried to me to send them food.  Shelterless and almost naked as 
many of them were, their first want was food – their chief suffering was from 
hunger. On my return to Richmond I addressed a note to Gen. Winder in 
command there, stating that one half the soldiers were without shelter and all 
without sufficient food and asking his immediate attention to their miserable 
condition.  The result was that I was not permitted to visit the soldiers any more, 
their condition was not alleviated and these stores were put into the hands of 
another officer who would conduct himself toward the Rebel authorities with a  
great deal more forbearance than I was supposed to be capable of. Soldiers 
perished there at about the rate of 500 per month, during the winter months, as 
we were informed.

"As I was at Belle Isle I went into the hospital, consisting of tents without any 
floor, the sick lying upon the ground without blankets, without pillows, some of 
them with sticks of wood for pillows and on protesting to Gen. Winder against 
the treatment, I was refused permission to visit these poor creatures for the 
future.  The Government sent large quantities of provisions to the soldiers as 
well as to the officers.  Much of this was stolen so that Yankee overcoats were 
very common.  Soldiers in Yankee overcoats promenading the streets of 
Richmond drew so much attention that they caused these coats to be colored 
black.  They were ashamed to be seen with Yankee overcoats stolen from the 
poor suffering soldiers. Large quantities of food as well as of clothing were sent 
there by the Sanitary Commission also and these were stolen by the Rebel 
authorities and appropriated to their own use in large amounts.  A very small 
proportion of these reached our soldiers.

"Libby Prison was a great tobacco warehouse or rather three tobacco warehouse, 
three stories high upon the front, four stories upon the rear, separated by brick 
walls through which doors were cut. Our officers were placed in these rooms 
with bare walls, bare floors and without any blankets.

"When I arrived at Libby I was clad in the lightest summer clothes.  It was a cold 
October night and my sufferings must have been extreme but for the kindness of 
my fellow officers in supplying me with garments and blankets.  After a while a 
great number of blankets were sent by the Sanitary Commission which made us 
comparatively comfortable but we were treated to no other respect better than 
so many negroes sent to a barracoon for sale.  An officer who had a very 
extensive acquaintance at the South said we were not nearly so well treated as 
that for blacks sent for sale were kindly cared for that they might bring a better 
price. The Union officers were treated as so many cattle turned into a slaughter 
pen or barn to sleep.

"A little incident occurred to myself which will illustrate the point of the difference 
of treatment between their prisoners and ours.  I was exchanged for Gen. Lee.  
As I was called down to pass off, I had two large trunks to take away.  I could 
obtain no assistance in transporting them, no dray or other mode of conveyance.  
Some of my fellow officers kindly tendered their assistance and we carried them 
between us through the streets of Richmond to the steamer, on which we were 
ordered upon the forward deck and forbidden to come abaft the wheels.  We 
were situated on the steamer like so many cattle, slaves or swine on the way to 
market. At City Point we met Gen. Lee in the magnificent saloon of the Federal 
steamer, New York, we ourselves emerging from the forward deck of the dirty 
Rebel steamer.  When Gen. Lee and his fellow officers were ready to change 
steamers, the General stooped to take a small valise when the Union officer in 
command said to a soldier near, "Sergeant, take the General's valise on board for 
him!"  I mention this to show the art of treatment we received down South and 
that which the rebels meet when they fall into our hands; they are treated 
kindly, courteously; we rudely, barbarously.  We don't complain, because we will 
strike a balance with them one of these days. 

"There are a great many Union people down South, even in Virginia; Union men 
and Union women.  I shall not give any names. We had communication with 
Union people by writing and by signals and the Rebels could not prevent it.  
They threatened to shoot us if we looked out of the windows. One of their own 
men looked out and they shot him. They were resolved to shoot a Yankee as an 
offset to this and a Rebel sentinel fired at us several times but without success.  
They were exceedingly mortified at shooting their own man, the ball entering the 
right eye and stopping at the back of the head. These Rebel sentinels watched 
our men at the windows very much as boys hunt squirrels, looking into the trees 
for their game. But many of the guards gave us all the information that came to 
their knowledge as to the pressure for food in Richmond and other matters.

"The guard told us of Kilpatrick's raid.  On the 1st of March arrangements had 
been made to receive him. And what do you suppose the arrangements were?  
To defend Richmond.  Was that it?  No.  They mined Libby Prison with the 
intention of blowing it and us up to use their phrase "to bliss or to hell."  [A voice 
– "Is there proof that?"] That is capable of proof. I cannot tell you how the fact 
was intimated to us the next day without betraying those from whom the 
intimation came.  On the morning of Wednesday, March 2d, after we had been 
informed of the gun power plot, Dick Turner, the Inspector of Military Prisons, 
was asked by many officers at different times if we were correctly informed and 
he assured us it was true, that a large quantity of powder had been placed under 
the prison to blow us up if Kilpatrick had come in, and that it would be done yet 
if attempts were made to rescue us.

"The Rev. Dr. Smith, president of Randolph Macon College, well known down 
South and known in the North, too, as an able and influential man, came into the 
prison to visit Lieut. Col. Nichols of the 18th Connecticut Regiment, with whom 
he was acquainted.  He said that powder had been placed in the basement for 
the purpose of "blowing us to atoms."  Col. Nichols did not believe it. Dr. S. 
assured him it was so. He had then come from the office of Judge Ould, 
Commissioner of Exchanges who told him it was so.  The Rev. Dr. M'Cabe said 
the same thing to Col. Cesnola of the 4th New York Cavalry and others. Some 
officers were in the kitchen at the back window, directly over the door leading to 
the cellar.  Major Turner, commandant of the prison - Dick Turner – and four or 
five Rebel officers went into the cellar and on coming out they remained a few 
moments at the door and one of the officers said, "By G-d, if you do touch that 
off, it will blow them to hell, sure enough."

"On the morning we came away, Maj. Turner assured Capts. Sawyer and Flinn, 
who were exchanged in connection with myself, that powder was there and he 
said, "Rather than have you rescued, I would have blown you to h—l, even if we 
had gone there ourselves."  At first we could not believe it; not that we did not 
suppose them capable of it. We did not suppose them to be fools enough to be 
guilty of an act like that.  The destruction of nine hundred Union officers in that 
way would not have been a fatal blow to the Union cause, but it would have 
drawn down upon them the execrations of mankind; it would have united the 
Northern people as one man and would have fired the Northern heart with an 
intense indignation and when Richmond should be captured it would have been 
utterly destroyed and blotted out forever from the earth.  At first we could not 
believe that such an act could have been contemplated, but we now regard it as 
established by satisfactory proof.  Such is the temper of the leaders of the 
rebellion!  Such their character!"