Letter from Charlie Barre - 1863

Letter from Charlie Barre

Chenango Telegraph, November 11, 1863

We have been handed the following letter from Charles S. Barre, formerly a compositor in this office, and son of Mr C. Barre of Kings Settlement [Chenango Co., NY].  He went South before the rebellion broke out.  He tells his own story of what he saw and suffered:

 

New York, Oct. 31st, 1863

Friend J.:  "Only tolerable, thank ye--how's all!"  "Poorly, Massa!"  Just arrived from that "rebellious hell" in which I have been blockaded for three years.  But thank God and a few "Yankee" prisoners that passed through Raleigh, North Carolina, I succeeded in getting some "Green backs" which enabled me to "run the blockade" ... and an outlandish run it was.  Was just three weeks from the time I left Raleigh, that I found myself in New York City.  I can assure you I made as good time as anybody ever made, and I believe the "best on record."  I tell you what it is, all those who think they would like to try corn bread, pork and kollards a while, why tell 'em to "pitch in."  Now perhaps you don't know what "kollards" are?  I did not when I first went South, but the Lord knows I very soon found out to my sorrow-- aye! (no tragedy intended) to the tune of thirty pounds of good solid goose fat.  But to "Them are things."  Well, where I was raised, cabbage would sometimes grow up "sort o wild"--without any head--big leaves, etc., that's what they call [kollards] (perhaps I do not spell the word right, fact is I think so little of them that I prefer not to know how to spell it.) 

 

Affairs in Rebeldom are very considerably awful.  By "affairs" I mean everything--social and political and all other calls.  What you may chance to see in Southern papers or extracts from them copied into our own papers, give many lies in order to make their side appear bright as possible.  Of course that is expected. To prove what I say, take the markets as published in the Richmond papers. They are the prices--one third lower, and often times one-half--the market price is not given.  They quote gold at about $11,50.  It is selling there now at $15, with now and then a rise and fall.  In Raleigh, when I left it was $13, silver, $10.  "Green backs" were sold in Richmond from $5 to $9.  They are in nearly every bankers shop in sight at the window. Think of it--giving $9 of the stuff they call money for one of ours, shows confidence in the confusion.  They have no belief that they will be successful--the mass--the soldiers and citizens.  But the Jeff D. clique have the military power under their control and of course control the whole thing....Ever your friend, C.S. Barre

 

Chenango Telegraph, November 25, 1863

 

Charles S. Barre, who recently escaped from the south, reached home on Tuesday.  He left Raleigh, North Carolina, October 7th, and was nearly two weeks in getting from that city to our lines at Newberne.  His trip to New York cost him $285.  When he visited us on Tuesday, he was wearing a pair of very "ordinary boots" that cost him $100, and a pair of pantaloons, of fair blue cloth, that cost him $100.  He says that the accounts we get in Southern papers of the destitution and want that prevail in the South do not disclose the whole truth.  The leading men at Raleigh make no secret among themselves of the fact that starvation must soon force them to "give in" if the Federal armies do not.  Indeed, they are unable to tell how they are to live through the winter--there is literally nothing to eat.

 

Mr. Barre says that at the time, last year, when our army made a raid to within twenty-five miles of Raleigh, there were no rebel troops in the city, and it might have been taken by merely marching in a regiment.  The Union men--and there are many--were praying for the advent of the Federals.  The city has since been partially fortified, but good troops would now find no trouble in taking it.

 

Mr. Barre gives an account of the riot during which the Standard--a Union newspaper--office was destroyed.  It was done by a company of Georgia soldiers, at the instigation of the editor of the secesh organ. The next morning the citizens of Raleigh destroyed the office of the secesh concern.

 

Mr. Barre was at Raleigh when the rebellion broke out, and he has seen the whole "machine."  He says the common people were induced to join the army at first by appeals to their worst passions--now they are forced to join by the bayonet.  He represents the state of society as "perfectly awful."