Mobile Register
July 9, 1861
Page 2
Letter from Pensacola
[From Our Own Correspondent]
Pensacola,
Sunday night, July 7
This has been a good, old fashioned, hot day—thermometer
standing above the flag staff till six o’clock.
The Advertiser and Register, this morning, brings us a
synopsis of Old Abe’s message. The “old
fell” is still for war, and I hope he’ll have it to his heart’s content—but
about that money and those soldiers there’s some doubt.
Last night, as one of Capt. Lowell’s harbor police boats
was on a cruise, she discovered in the bay, a few hundred yards distant, and
near the shore, an eight-oared boat from Fort Pickens,
which she hailed; receiving no answer, she put after the stranger, which
immediately struck for the shore. The
chase was quite interesting for a few minutes, but the corsair succeeded in
beaching their boat, and reached terra firma in safety. No shots were exchanged, and as our boats
have instructions not to visit the Island, of
course further pursuit was not attempted.
Two nights ago one of our little boats, while beating
about, went up to the wharf at Fort
Pickens, and was hailed
by one of the sentinels, but no shot was fired or attempt made to overhaul her.
I was rather fast in saying the troops had been paid off below. None but the Louisiana State
regulars have yet been paid off. There
has been some delay in getting the proper form of muster rolls. They are now mostly ready, I learn. The money has been here for some time, and
there is plenty more where it came from.
W. H. Lamberton, whose arrest I mentioned in my last,
was for the second time sent off last night.
He left on the cars—destination I know not.
The little schooner Octavia, of this port, ran the
blockade yesterday. She is now on the
high seas, and can show her heels to the fastest of the blockaders. Mr. Abe, you’ll have to stop your holes
faster, or quit.
The “Pensacola Artillery” completed its organization
yesterday, by the election of the following officers:
Captain, C. P. Knapp; 1st Lieutenant, F. B
Bobe; 2nd Lieutenant, J. E. Woolsey; Junior 2nd
Lieutenant, H. C. Bedell; 1st Sergeant, J. C. Creene; 2nd
Sergeant, A. Gerard; 3rd Sergeant, J. M. Blake; 4th
Sergeant, K. L. Berry; 1st Corporal, Jos. Wilkins; 2nd
Corporal, Jos. Rosique; 3rd Corporal, J. Walsh; 4th
Corporal, G. Quina; Quartermaster, J. J. Moore; Civil Engineer, W. H. James;
Secretary and Treasurer, A. J. Mathews.
On Friday Lieut. Howard sent a 42-pound cannon ball
through a target a mile distant. The
shot was fired from one of the guns of the “Bradford Battery,” which ricocheted
within two hundred yards of the opposite shore, a distance of near four
miles. Look out, “Mister Ingion.”
Hundreds of our citizens attended the dress parade of
the State Artillery this evening. The
men, their horses and pieces, looked perfection in “their Sundays.”
There has been no addition to the fleet outside
to-day. The flag-ship, with Com. Mervin,
occupies her same position.
[Transcribed by Sharon Strout]
