Well, Somebody’s Got to Pay for the Dahlgren Guns
From The New York Times Archive (published March 5, 1861):
… Correspondence of the New-York Times.
CHARLESTON, C.S.A., Friday, March 1, 1861.
While waiting for Mr. LINCOLN to show his hands, we do nothing but anticipate the worst. The famous Dahlgren guns, which were specially ordered by Gov. PICKENS, have arrived from Richmond. They are of the heaviest calibre. The necessities of the public service will not permit me to tell you where we shall place them; in other words, I cannot violate private confidence. We persist in thinking that coercion is intended, and therefore we are unwilling to “let on” about those ugly fellows that are intended charitably to blow you up, if you ever come near enough to them.
This morning the Northeastern Railroad brought in twelve ten-inch mortars and fifty thousand more pounds of powder. We have now ready for the expected emergency four hundred and eighty-seven thousand pounds of powder. When the Star of the West was fired into, there was barely enough powder to charge the guns at Morris Island. Ah, you threw away a magnificent chance then, if you really mean to do anything, which some of us, the more temperate, begin really to doubt. …
John Rutledge - elected President of South Carolina in 1776
Have you ever heard of Secessionville? It is a famous place just now. The political virus of secession was planted there long before the disease broke out here. It is right back of Fort Johnson, and occupies historic ground. As we never had a Peter Parley, very few people in your part of the world, or here either, are aware that on that spot the Charlestonians seized a ship from England, loaded with teas, and brought the boxes up to town, where it laid and rotted. It was done, too, in broad daylight, without any Indian disguise, like the Boston fellows, right in face of the guns of Johnson, where there is now an immensely strong battery frowning upon Sumter, a mile and a hall distant. Here, top, the stamps were seized in an equally bold way, by the order of JOHN RUTLEDGE, who was proclaimed Governor in the very teeth of the British authorities. This was in March, 1776. If we are “Rebels” now, we were taught the lessons a good many years since. …
William Washington - married flag maker
I was yesterday introduced to one of the lieutenants of the Regular Army of South Carolina, who is a lineal descendant of WILLIAM WASHINGTON, the brother of the “Father of his Country. MCPHERSON WASHINGTON owns that celebrated “crimson flag of Eutaw,” which was carried at that famous fight, as well as at Cowpens. There is a story connected with that famous piece of cloth that deserves narration. Just before the battle of Eutaw, WILLIAM WASHINGTON called upon a lady and asked her for something red, to inspire the boys in the coming light. She withdrew, and returned with the desired color, carefully wrapped up. Our Revolutionary mothers wore red petticoats in those days, and not being able to obtain anything else, she sacrificed her crimson jupe on the altar of her country. The jupe was carried into many a hotly contested field, and wherever it was seen, the boys thought of their sweethearts and wives at home, and struck for freedom with terrific force. That little flag is still borne by the Palmetto soldiers, being in the present custody of the Washington Light Infantry.
Washington (William) at Cowpens
The old Norfolk tug, the James Grey, has been selected to propel the Iron-plated Floating Battery. The Grey was purchased in Norfolk recently for $38,000, paid in cash in good coin that passes, anomalously enough, as well in Palmettodom as in Boston. After she has performed this duty she will be stationed as a gunboat, being now pierced for the requisite gumber of guns. …
We have a tax on dogs, which you might imitate with advantage. I recommend it to the Booles, Bradys, &c. The slaves are taxed $1 for every canine owned by them, which their masters have to pay. Free negroes are required-to pay $2. The tax-gatherers evidently do not appreciate the “free gemmen.”
Our doctors seem to think that they ought to be exempt from the taxation on horses and vehicles and they have recently prayed for a “let up” on that head. Our Mayor, with the mighty name, MACBETH, has refused to grant the doctorial prayer. The medicos are getting to be as bad as the divines, who seem to think (very many of them) that their cloth should exempt them from paying for anything — free railroad passes, free newspapers, and freedom to speak in the pulpit of what does not belong to that holy place. …
South Carolina continues to prepare for war and there is a tax on dogs to help pay for it. Doctors and clerics want to be exempt from some taxes. South Carolinians were rebels long before 1860.
You can view the “crimson flag of Eutaw” at CRW Flags. Jasper, The Times’ correspondent, says the fabric for the flag came from Jane Elliott’s petticoat; CRW Flags saysit was cut from a curtain.
John Rutledge was elected President of South Carolina in 1776.I think Jasper got his facts wrong about when the Palmetto citizens destroyed the stamps – according to Wikipedia it happened in 1765. So there is no way Rutledge was governor when this happened. Rutledge ordered the construction of Fort Sullivan (now Fort Moultrie) in 1776. Toward the end of his career John Rutledge served as second Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.
There was a Battle of Secessionville (or First Battle of James Island) in 1862.
The Wikipedia article about William Washington discusses his role in the Battles of Cowpens and Eutaw Springs and his marriage to Jane Elliott.
