A GUARDSMAN IN SECESSIA. (From the "Spectator," Dec. 19.)

Otago Witness, Issue 642, 19 March 1864, Page 18

A GUARDSMAN IN SECESSIA . (From the " Spectator," Dec. 19.)

Having three or four months of " leave" — a commodity with which the officers of the Guards are abundantly supplied — Colonel Fremantle determined to spend the greater part of it in gratifying a wish he had formed to see the aristocratic slaveowners in fighting trim. Originally, his sympathies, such as they were, leant " rather" to the North, but solely because he had the natural dislike of an Englishman to Blavery. From this he was converted by the spectacle of gallantry and | determination displayed by the South, | especially as in contrast to that there was only "foolish bullying conduct" on the other side. In this conversion there was more of sentiment than logic. Slavery became all the more formidable when upheld by great gallantry and determination; and it does not become less an object of dislike to an honest man because the opponents of the South are painted as bullies and cowards. It is possible to admire the bravery, resolution, and skill of the Southerners without admiring their cause ; but it was not possible to Colonel Frecmantle. He may have had a natural dislike to slavery, but he evidently had a natural liking, and this was the stronger feeling, for the pluck and energy of the slave-owners. As a guardsman, he was bound to sympathise

• Three Months in the Southern States, By T.iautpnant-Colonel Fremaat'e, Uoidalream Guards. Blackwood a»d Sons.

with an aristocracy, and the South^a slave-owners are an aristocracy, though in the worst form. To see these men, and their soldiers, and their ways, our author crossed the Atlantic, and traversed the Confederacy from end to end. It was a very commendable way of spending his time, and his friends were quite right in prevailing on him to publish his diary. With characteristic caution, as became a Queen's officer, he entered Texas by way of Matamoras, having with him a Texan trader ag a comrade and guide. He crossed the river, and came up with Duft's cavalry — " a group of Confederate officers seated round a fire, contemplating a tin of potatoes, and dressed in flannel shirts, very ancient trou3ers, jack -boots, with enormous spurs, and black felt hats, ornamented with the ' lone star of Texas.' " Among these gentry, the first thing he noticed was that one was a great boaster, just as if he were a Northerner. The next, that one of this same boaster's comrades — whose name we guess — was a murderer. He had a few days before crossed the Rio Grande, kidnapped what he called a " renegado," that is, a Unionist, and left him on the road ; that is, had murdered him ! A very good beginning. Meeting General Lee, that soldier said he had not sanctioned "the Montgomery affair," that is, the murder ; and soon after Colonel Fremantle actually stumbled on the half-buried body of the murdered man, whose "head and arms were above the ground." The young Guardsman was rather struck by this sudden experience of Lynch law within three hours after he had landed on Confederate soil, but he was somewhat consoled by being assured that, after all, Montgomery was a " bad character." While on theEio Grande, Colonel Fremantle was in the thick of speculating merchants, and it is plain from his account of their prosperity that General Banks, by occupying Brownsville, has spoiled a thriving trade and blocked up a door whereby entered large quantities of supplies for the Confederates. His new, friends, the Texan Colonels, admitted that Brownsville was the rowdiest town and Texas the most lawless State : but although " the shooting-down and stringing-up systems are much in vogue" not only there, but on both banks of the Mississippi, inoffensive people are not shot or hung. This was the boast of the Texan Colonels who said that, from time immemorial, " the Yankees had been despised by the Southerners as a race inferior to themselves in courage and in honorable sentiments." Another band of these fine fellows came in. They had only been engaged in the honorable occupation of scalping Indjans. This band had beea employed in quelling a counter-revolution of Unionists in Texas, and it is easy to guess how they did their work. Colonel Fremantle pays we know nothing of the South, and we admit that he is telling us news. Quitting the Rio Grande, he set out on hia way through Texas to the Mississippi, with a Texan, who was a judge and an M.P., and entitled to be styled " Honorable," for an assistant mule-driver. The driver, Mr Sargent, was, during th c mid-day halts, in " the habit of cooling himself by removing his trousers. Havinggorged himself, he laid down and issued his edicts to the judge as to the treatment of the mules." He was eleven days going 330 miles in Texas, during which period he "camped out" every" night. The judge and Mr Sargent furnished some amusement, but the event of the trip was a meeting with General Magruder. After he had passed through San Antonio he had clearly become used to the country and the people. "In spite of their peculiar habits of hanging, shooting, scalping, &c, which seemed to be natural to a people living in a wild and thinly populated country, there was much to like in my fellow-travellers. They all had a sort of bonhommie honesty and straightforwardness, a natural courtesy, and extreme good nature, which was very agreeable" to a Guardsmen, a real " swell," who had taken the trouble to go so far to see them out of pure sympathy for their cause. It would have been monstrous had even these Texans been rude to a colonel of the Queen's Guards. But he had to submit to some rather severe trials. He had to share his bed I with another person, and when he slept, to i sleep in his clothes on a bed sometimes dirtier than his boots after a day's travelling. He had to be introduced to a man who, having engaged a colored crew at Boston, bad carried them to Galveston and sold them there. On the road from Crockett to Rusk, passengers came aboard. " Among them was Major — — , brother-in-law to another person not named,who hangedMongomery atßrownesville. lie spoke of the exploits of his relative with some pride." Another passenger was a Government agent. This person «| informed us that he still held a commission as Adjutant-General to [Quantrell?] The latter, it appears, is a cross between a guerilla and a horse thief, and even by his Adjutant- General's account he seems to be an equal adept at both professions," Of course he met with some decent people, and these were, as they always are, anxious to persuade

Englishmen that slave owners are not so black as they are painted, and that they are fighting not for slavery but independence. They admitted, however, that v&ay slave owners are cruel, but these, it appears, are all Yankees. With great courage, and a perseverance that does him credit, Colonel Freraantle passed through Texas. He did not crane at the passage of the Mississippi, although Banks was near Alexandria, with his gunboats in the Wachita, and Grant was routing Pemberton and Johnston on the Big Black. His narrative of the passage of the Mississippi shows how arduous that transit was even then to the Confederates. Arrived at Natchez, he hired a carriage, and boldly drove on to Jackson, which he entered just as Grant had retired from it. He found the inhabitants greatly enraged at the destruction of the town, and, arrested as a spy, our author owed his life to the intervention of a Confederate officer. Grierson had just ridden through the State. Johnson was vainly trying to collect a force capable of coping with Grant. The nakedness of thp land is shown by the fact that General Johnston's *' cooking utensils consisted of an old coffee-pot and frying-pan. There was only one fork (one prong being deficient) between himself and his staff, and this was handed to me ceremoniously as the guest." In Texas, Colonel Fremantle had found the people " speaking with horror of the depredations committed in that part of the country by their own troops on the line of march;" and in Mississipi "several natives complained that soldiers were quartering themselves upon them and eating everything." At Galveston he heard a drayman or carter complain that a Texan soldier had fired five shots at him, because he •would not stop, the fifth shot killing his horse. The officer only said that "the regiment would probably hang the soldier for being such a disgraceful bad shot." On the road from Meridian to Mobile our traveller was delayed, owing to a difficulty which had occurred in the up train. " The difficulty was this: — The engineer had shot a passenger, and then unhitched his engine, cut the telegraph, and bolted np the line, leaving his train planted on a single track. He had allowed our train to pass by, shunting himself until he had done so, without any suspicion. The news of this occurrence caused really hardly any excitement amongst my fellow travellers ; but I heard one man remark that " it was mighty mean to leave a train to be run into like that." It is not wonderful that the Southerners are so ferocious in battle. Their whole lives, in time of peace, seem to be passed on the brink of an open grave. Colonel Fremantle went to Mobile and Chattanooga and She)byville, thence back through Chattanooga to Charleston and Richmond, and from Richmond he made his way to Lee's army, then, in Pennsylvania. He was present at Gettysburg, he ' retreated with Lee into the Shenandoah Valley, and then made his way through the Federal lines, by Hancock, to New York. He confesses with some naivete that he found the Federal officers " gentlemen," and this must have been a great relief to him, as he, like many others of his class, had imbibed the notion that gentleman are only grown in the land which gave birth to Preston Brooks, and holds that man's memory in honor. He found, however, for the credit of humanity, that that there were gentlemen in both camps. There are in his books some »eryagreeable sketches of persons and incidents, and we enabled to see some of the Southern leaders in the mo3t favorable light. In Tennessee he met several conspicuous men. Mr Vallandigham, "called the apostle of liberty," a good looking man, had just been "dumped down" on the neutral ground between the two armies, and was receiving Confederate hospitality as a " destitute stranger," whom neither would own. There was General Hardee, "a fine eoldier-like man, broad-shouldered and tall," and a great admirer of the ladies ; General Bragg, Bishop Polk, and General Cleburne. The sketch of Bragg is just nowworthhaving— "l calledon General Bragg, the commander-iu-chief. This officer is, in appearance, the least prepossessing of the Confederate generals. He is very thin 5 he stoops, and has a sickly, cadaverous, haggard appearance, rather plain features, bushy black eyebrows, which unite in a tuft on the top of his j nose and a Btubby iron-grey beard ; but 1 his eyes are bright and piercing. He has the reputation of being a rigid disciplinarian, and of shooting freely Tor insubordination. I understand he is rather unpopular on this account, and also by reason of his occasional acerbity of manner." General Cleburne is the son ot an Irish doctor. He ran away from home at 17, and enlisted in the 41st Regiment. Buying his discharge, he went to Arkansas, studied law, and got a good practice. When the State seceded, he became a soldier, and rose to command a division— " the highest rank obtained by a foreigner in the Confederate service." He ascribed his advancement to his training in the 41et. Bishop Polk is the finest figure in theee parts. He is a good looking

man, with all the manners and affability of a "grand seigneur," tall, upright, and " looks much more like a soldier than a clergyman." He hoped " his brethren in England did not much condemn big present line of conduct." When he had done fighting he intended to go back to his other profession. He is a very brave man, whereof here is a specimen incident extracted from him by our ingenious Guardsman. Bishop Polk loquitur, in a modest yet graphic manner:—" Well, sir, it was at the battle of Perryville, late in the evening, in fact it was almost dark, when Liddell's Brigade came into action. Shortly after its arrival I observed a body of men, whom I believed to be Confederates, standing at an angle of this brigade, and firing obliquely at the newly arrived troops. I said, ' Dear me, this is very sad, and must be stopped ;' so I turned round, but could find none of the young men, who l were absent on different messages, so I determined to ride myself and settle the matter. Having cantered up to the Colonel of the regiment which was firing, I asked him in angry tones what he meant by shooting his own friends, and I desired him to cease doing so at once. He answered with surprise, ' I don't think there can be any mistake about it ; I am sure they are the enemy.' 'Enemy !' I said ; ' why I have only just left them myself. Cease firing, Sir ; what is your name?' 'My name is Colonel ,of the Indiana ; and pray, Sir, who are you?' Then for the first time I saw, to my astonishment, that he was a Yankee, and that I was in rear cf a regi ment of Yankees. Well, I saw that there was no hope but to-brazen it out ; my dark blouse and the increasing obscurity befriended me, so I approached quite close to him and shook my fist in his face, saying, ' I'll soon show you who I am, Sir. Cease firing, Sir, at once.' I then turned my horse and cantered slowly down the line, shouting in an authoritative manner to the Yankees to cease firing ; at the same time I experienced a disagreeable sensation, like screwing up my back, and calculating how many bullets would be between my shoulders every moment. I wa3 afraid to increase my pace until I got to a small copse, when I put the spurs in and galloped back to my men. I immediately went up to the nearest Colonel, and said to him, « Colonel, I have reconnoitred those fellows pretty closely — and I find there is no mistake who they are ; you may get up and go at them." And I assure you, Sir, that the slaughter of that Indiana regiment was the greatest I have ever seen in the war."

While Colonel Fremantle was at Shelbyville, he saw Bishop Elliott, of Georgia, baptise General Bragg. "The Bishop took the General's hand in his own (the latter kneeling in front of the font), and said, ' Braxton, if thou hast not already been baptised, I baptise thee, &c.' Immediately afterwards he confirmed General Bragg, who then shook hands with General Polk, the officers of their respective staffs, and myself, who were the only spectators." Ever since then Bragg regenerate has rather "mulled" his military business.