June 26, 1861
Page 2
BELLAIRE, June 20, 1861
Messrs. Editors: I see in your paper of the 19th inst. an article signed a “City Father,” which contains a good suggestion, that the citizens of Mobile, on certain days, deposit on the sidewalks all the iron which they have, to be cast into cannon.
I can rummage up twenty or thirty pounds of iron, the pieces of steelyards, etc., which I suppose will answer the purpose of being cast into cannon or grape shot; also forty or fifty pounds of shot, which can be moulded into rifle balls. All these I will send down by the oars, if you will designate the individual to whom I may send them, he paying the freight.
I have no doubt that if the subject should be properly presented to the attention of the country people, many tons of old broken cast ploughs could be collected and sent to any designated house in Mobile.
If you think this worthy of a reply, be pleased to send me the paper containing it, with my name on it, and Mr. Symmes, the conductor, will attend to it.
Very respectfully, etc.
P. S. Shoot that fellow who signs himself “G” and says that peace is “ardently desired.” Why, the war ain’t commenced yet. The people in the country have heard nothing but a “rumor of war.” Their rural pursuits go on in the same old way. They have thousands and tens of thousands of hogs, cows and sheep, and everything else that heart can desire. I don’t want this war to be of shorter duration than the Trojan War. It is the making of the South.
Give my compliments to those Southern Rights men who compelled the return of a large quantity of meal that was attempted to be smuggled in from Madison. Let all confederates see to it, and lend their aid to enforce most stringently Lincoln’s blockade, from henceforth and forevermore, world without end. Don’t let the scoundrels commit treason S
[Transcribed by Sharon Strout]