Camp-Fire and Cotton-Field | Page 4

Rebellion.--Trials of Speed.--The Great Race.--Travel During the
War.--Running a Rebel Battery on the Lower Mississippi.--Incidents of
the Occasion.--Comments on the Situation.

CHAPTER XLV.
THE ARMY CORRESPONDENT.
The Beginning and the End.--The Lake Erie Piracy.--A Rochester
Story.--The First War Correspondent.--Napoleon's Policy.--Waterloo
and the Rothschilds.--Journalistic Enterprise in the Mexican War.--The

Crimea and the East Indian Rebellion.--Experiences at the Beginning of
Hostilities.--The Tender Mercies of the Insurgents.--In the
Field.--Adventures in Missouri and Kentucky.--Correspondents in
Captivity.--How Battle-Accounts were Written.--Professional
Complaints.

CHAPTER XLVI.
THE PRESENT CONDITION OF THE SOUTH.
Scarcity of the Population.--Fertility of the Country.--Northern Men
already in the South.--Kansas Emigrants Crossing Missouri.--Change
of the Situation.--Present Disadvantages of Emigration.--Feeling of the
People.--Property-Holders in Richmond.--The Sentiment in North
Carolina.--South Carolina Chivalry.--The Effect of War.--Prospect of
the Success of Free Labor.--Trade in the South.

CHAPTER XLVII.
HOW DISADVANTAGES MAY BE OVERCOME.
Conciliating the People of the South.--Railway Travel and its
Improvement.--Rebuilding Steamboats.--Replacing Working
Stock.--The Condition of the Plantations.--Suggestions about Hasty
Departures.--Obtaining Information.--The Attractions of Missouri.

CHAPTER XLVIII.
THE RESOURCES OF THE SOUTHERN STATES.
How the People have Lived.--An Agricultural Community.--Mineral
and other Wealth of Virginia.--Slave-Breeding in Former Times.--The

Auriferous Region of North Carolina.--Agricultural
Advantages.--Varieties of Soil in South Carolina.--Sea-Island
Cotton.--Georgia and her Railways.--Probable Decline of the Rice
Culture.--The Everglade State.--The Lower Mississippi Valley.--The
Red River.--Arkansas and its Advantages.--A Hint for
Tragedians.--Mining in Tennessee.--The Blue-Grass Region of
Kentucky.--Texas and its Attractions.--Difference between Southern
and Western Emigration.--The End. CAMP-FIRE AND
COTTON-FIELD.

CHAPTER I.
ANTE BELLUM.
At the Rocky Mountains.--Sentiment of the People.--Firing the
Southern Heart.--A Midwinter Journey across the Plains.--An Editor's
Opinion.--Election in Missouri.--The North springing to Arms.--An
amusing Arrest.--Off for the Field.--Final
Instructions.--Niagara.--Curiosities of Banking.--Arrival at the Seat of
War.
I passed the summer and autumn of 1860 in the Rocky Mountain Gold
Region. At that time the population of the young Territory was
composed of emigrants from Northern and Southern States, those from
the colder regions being in the majority. When the Presidential election
took place, there was much angry discussion of the great questions of
the day, and there were threats of violence on the part of the friends of
the "institution." The residents of the Gold Region were unable to cast
their votes for the men of their choice, but their anxiety to know the
result was very great.
When it was announced that the Republican candidate had triumphed,
there were speedy signs of discontent. Some of the more impulsive
Southerners departed at once for their native States, predicting a
separation of Dixie from the North before the end of the year. Some
went to New Mexico, and others to Texas, while many remained to

press their favorite theories upon their neighbors. The friends of the
Union were slow to believe that any serious difficulty would take place.
Long after the secession of South Carolina they were confident our
differences could be healed without an appeal to arms.
My visit to the Rocky Mountains was a professional one. During my
stay in that region I supplied several Eastern journals with letters from
Colorado and New Mexico. One after another, the editors of these
journals informed me that letters from the Territories had lost their
interest, owing to the troubles growing out of the election. Wishing to
take part in the drama about to be enacted, I essayed a midwinter
journey across the plains, and, early in February, stood in the editorial
room of The Herald.
I announced my readiness to proceed to any point between the Poles,
wherever The Herald desired a correspondent. The editor-in-chief was
busy over a long letter from some point in the South, but his response
was promptly given. Half reading, half pausing over the letter, he
briefly said:--
"A long and bloody war is upon us, in which the whole country will be
engaged. We shall desire you to take the field; probably in the West. It
may be several weeks before we need you, but the war cannot be long
delayed."
At that time few persons in the North looked upon the situation with
any fears of trouble. There were some who thought a hostile collision
was among the possibilities, but these persons were generally in the
minority. Many believed the secession movement was only the hasty
work of political leaders, that would be soon undone when the people
of the South came to their senses.
That the South would deliberately plunge the country into civil war was
difficult to comprehend, even after the first steps had been taken. The
majority of the Northern people were hoping and believing, day by day,
that something might transpire to quell the excitement and adjust the
difficulties threatening to disturb the country.

Before leaving the Rocky Mountains I did not believe that war was
certain to ensue, though I considered it quite probable. As I passed
through Missouri, the only