1862.]

AT SOUTHAMPTON.

163

Borussia had not yet arrived. The passengers from France were put on shore at Southampton to await the arrival of the Hamburg liner. Thus, for the second time, and for the last time in his life, John Mitchel found himself in England. The reader will recollect that the former occasion was when he went over to present an address to Smith O'Brien in the cellar of the House of Commons.

They learned that the Borussia was not to arrive till the next day, the 10th of September. Mitchel and his son took up their abode in a neat hotel near the quay. The landlord is described as a "fat and jolly man, disposed to be quite talkative." He treated his guests remarkably well. When he heard that Mitchel was going to New York next day by the Borussia, he at once concluded, from these somewhat insufficient premises, that his guest must be a southern Confederate. Next morning, Mitchel sauntered out to see the town. At a newspaper office, he saw a large placard announcing that "the second battle of Manassas" had just been fought, and that the rebels had been totally defeated. This was, of course, a northern despatch, and it would seem that by this time people in England had learned to take northern despatches cum grano. Mitchel heard various incredulous comments from the crowd in front of the placard. And when he returned to the hotel, the fat and jolly landlord at once proceeded to interpret the despatch for him. Here is the account in the "Journal":—

Returning to the hotel, I was met by my landlord, who was rubbing his hands, and his cheeks were inflamed with the energy of his smiling.. "Bravo, sir," he cried, "you have heard the good news?" "No, landlord--what news?" "Lord bless youglorious victory; the enemy thrashed to death." "But on which side is the victory ?" "Why, on yours, of course. Old Lee has

punished the Yankees; given them their gruel, sir; routed their whole army before him; and he's now driving them all through

the upper end of the State of New York! It would seem that the lying style of news cannot answer; for people soon come to interpret it, like dreams, by contraries. Here was the reading which the worthy landlord put upon the New York despatch; whereby I found that it must also be the common reading accepted by the general public who used his house. I was pleased, at any rate, that the old fellow set me down as a southerner.

By two o'clock in the afternoon of the 10th of September they were on board the Borussia. Nothing special occurred on the voyage. On September 23, 1862, John Mitchel with his son Willy, once more landed at New York.

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CHAPTER V.

IN THE CONFEDERATE STATES.

1862-1865.

FOR the period of John Mitchel's life which we are now entering upon the biographical material is somewhat scanty. The best material for writing his life I always find to be his own letters. Even that portion of Mitchel's correspondence which is not reproduced here (by much the greater part of it) has been of the greatest use in furnishing facts and suggestions for this biography. Now, during his residence in the Confederate States, his letters to friends and relations were necessarily few. None of his customary correspondents resided in the Confederate States, and the blockade was so close that it was only now and then an opportunity occurred of getting a letter out. With a very few exceptions, the only letters of John Mitchel, written between the date of his arrival in America and the close of the Civil War, that have come to my hands, are letters. to his sons, then in the Confederate army. These letters are interesting, but they do not furnish much material for biography. They are mainly taken up with discussions of the military situation.

No sooner did Mitchel arrive at his hotel in New York than he became aware that there was some important war news. "Many absurd-looking officers, with plumes in their hats, were strutting around in the reading-room and office,

expounding to civilians some startling newspaper army reports." It proved to be the news of the great battle of Antietam. General Lee had advanced into Maryland after Pope's defeat. McClellan had met him at Antietam, and if he had not gained a decisive victory, he had, at least, stopped Lee's advance and forced him to retire.

Life in the United States had changed much during Mitchel's absence. He was at once struck by the change, and he thus comments on it in the "Journal":

Am I in Austria? or in Ireland? It would not have surprised me if some of these fellows had stopped me and invited me to go before some provost-marshal and give an account of myself; but, in fact, we passed on quite uninterrupted and took our places. Many officers and soldiers were in the cars; and at every station there was an unwholesome air of military surveillance. All night we travelled through the well-known and, to me, rather ugly country; and I have seldom made a more disagreeable journey. The military creatures-all of them, as it happened, most vulgar persons-talked loud slang and told anecdotes of camp and field, not always savoury. It is a changed America! These shoulderstrapped beings are of the sort that would have travelled in modest silence or quiet talk with an acquaintance three or four years ago, but now talk loudly to one another at the distance of all this long car, and attract attention by their questionable semi-military jokes.

The night journey here referred to was from New York by rail to Baltimore. At Baltimore, Mitchel had been told, there was a kind of committee of southern gentlemen who facilitated in various ways the process of crossing the lines, here the river Potomac. To some of these gentlemen Mitchel had introductions. He saw these, and by them was introduced to others. They all consulted together, and various plans were discussed for getting Mitchel through the lines. It was finally decided that he should go on to Washington, where some other persons of Confederate sympathies would find means to

1865.]

WASHINGTON IN WAR-TIME.

167

convey him through the lower parts of Maryland and across the broad estuary of the Potomac near the sea. To go to Washington was somewhat risky, as Mitchel had lived there a considerable time, and was pretty generally known. It is true Mr. Seward was an old friend of his; but just then John Mitchel was not at all disposed to renew the acquaintHe ran the risk, however, and went to Washington. The first experiences there were not encouraging. Mitchel went to an obscure hotel, and sent a message to a friend of his a young lawyer, whom he knew to have Confederate sympathies. The result is thus told in the " Journal":—

ance.

My friend did not come very soon; and when he did it was with a face as pale as death. "What is all this?" he said almost in a whisper. "Why are you here? You will be seized and imprisoned. This place is peopled with spies; they are in every man's house; they dog every man's steps. I could not come here at once after receiving your note; but went round to various other places; came to this hotel from a direction contrary to that of my office; and even so I fear I am traced, and you are lost." And this is the free and easy Washington of old days! Not Washington, but Warsaw! Willy went out to walk through the streets, never dreaming that he would be recognized after two years and more of growth. He was hailed by his name all across Seventh Street, by a gentleman who inquired very kindly all about the family in Paris. So he came back, and gave me his decided opinion that Washington was an untenable position. My friend the young lawyer was clearly of the same mind; advised me to return to Baltimore for the present, and assured me he would make such an arrangement in a few days as would be almost certainly successful in getting us through the lines.

Mitchel and his son returned that same evening to Baltimore. There they stayed at the house of an old friend, a Limerick man, who welcomed them very cordially, and did all he could to forward their plans.

At this time the greater part of the population of Baltimore sympathized with the Confederates. The city