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Washington Statesman
Walla Walla, Washington Territory
Friday, December 13, 1861
p. 2, col. 3:
IMPORTANT EASTERN NEWS.
We condense the following news from the Oregonian of Dec. 7. Dates are up to November 27th:
Advices from Great Britain represent that the movement in favor of strict neutrality in reference to the difficulties in the United States was daily gaining ground. In France the feeling towards us is cordial. Gen. Fremont's case had not been disposed of. Reports to the prejudice of Lord Lyons, relative the Mason and Slidell affair, are positively contradicted. The confederate legislature in session at Neshoe, Mo. have passed an ordinance of secession, united the State to the southern confederacy, and elected Gen. rains one of the senators to the southern confederacy. Kentucky has furnished the Government her quota of troops for national defense and proposes to furnish as many more for state purposes. Richmond papers contain the message of Jeff. Davis. He says:
The operations of the army are soon to be partially intermitted. The approaching winter has afforded protection to the country, and shed glorious lustre upon its arms through trying vicissitudes and of more than one arduous campaign. After seven months of war, the enemy have not only failed to extend their occupation upon our soil, but new States and Territories have been added to our Confederacy; while instead of their threatened march of unchecked conquest, they have been driven at more than one point to assume the defensive. upon a fair comparison between the two belligerents, as to men, military means, financial condition, the Confederate States are relatively stronger now than when the struggle commenced.The Confederate Congress has passed a bill for the removal of the capital from Richmond to Nashville.
Pensacola, together with all connected therewith, has been taken by the federal troops.
Ben. McCulloch is marching north from Arkansas with a large force. The object is evidently to create a diversion of the federal troops from Kentucky.
The Richmond Whig is desponding in regard to prospects of the Confederates, and sees nothing ahead but defeat, disaster and ruin.
The last heard of Gen. Price he was near the Osage river, marching his forces to the northward.
The government had given a permit for the re-opening of the trade between port Tobacco and Baltimore. [The second permit of the kind. The former one was to allow parties in Rhode Island to supply Union men in North Carolina with provisions.]
Intense excitement prevails in Charleston in relation to the threatened attack of the federals. The Government had advices that Richmond, Savannah, Charleston, Memphis and New Orleans were in a panic, and families were packing up to be in readiness to leave when the Yankees approached.
The steamer Fulton has arrived from England with 40,000 stand of arms for the Government.
Parson Brownlow and Major Gilham are in the mountains in east Tennessee in command of 3,000 Unionists, doing more mischief than the Yankees in Kentucky.
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p. 2, col. 4
Lieut. Mullan's Party
A friend has furnished us the following intelligence from Lieut. Mullan's party:
Parties who have recently arrived from Bitter Root valley inform us of the progress made on the military road during the past season, by the party which left this point in May last. Lieut. Salem Marsh and Asst. Surgeon George Hammond, with a portion of the command, had already arrived at the Big Blackfoot river, and fitted up suitable buildings and made all necessary preparations for spending the winter; while Lieut. Mullan, with a force of one hundred men, was still at work on the road as late as November 12th, expecting to reach the wintering point by the 1st of December.
The amount of work done this year may be stated as follows: Every stump is cup clean to the ground for one hundred miles; substantial bridges have been built over thirty-six crossings of the St. Regis Borgia river, the upper ten not needing any; all the crossings of the Coeur d'Alene are bridged to the forks, the north fork not requiring any. This has been heavy work, and is said to surpass anything of the kind ever done on the Pacific.
During the winter the working parties will be distributed along the Hellsgate river, at the points of the usual crossings, to grade the hill-sides, so as to avoid the bridging. The escort will not return to Walla Walla this winter, but may go the St. Louis in early spring via Fort Benton.
The command were in excellent health, and content with their mountain home. The Flatheads and Pen d'Oreilles were friendly and well-disposed — glad to see the party again among them.
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p. 2, col. 4
Letter from Portland — Particulars of the Flood
PORTLAND; Dec. 9th, 1861.
MESSRS. EDITORS: We were very much surprised, a few days ago, to find the Willamette river rising quite rapidly — still, no fears were expressed, though it was quite unusual for such a rise at this time; but the river went up and up, until it was higher than ever before3 known — at least so says that mythical personage, called the "oldest inhabitant." The highest water was on Thursday, Dec. 5th, about noon, when the water did not lack more than three inches of being over Front Street, by the Pioneer Hotel. It was up through the sewer on the west side of the street, and would have been over the street in several places were in not for filling in of dirt, which was done a few years back.The damage done here is slight, compared to what it is on the upper Willamette. The wharf being built by Messrs. Masters & Hull was washed away. That of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company, the piles only were driven, was cleared out also. Coflin's wharf was also "used up." There were fears expressed that the other wharves would depart for parts unknown; but they concluded to "wait a little longer." Large quantities of flour of various brands passed by, and a good deal was secured by various parties. The flour was only slightly damaged. A passenger by the Multnomah, from Astoria, says that you can see piles of flour at almost every house, some of them have over a two years supply.
We have had no mails from up the valley, and no reliable news from farther up than Salem; but from that we learn that the destruction has been immense. At Milwaukie the old saw mill is washed away, and Torrance's house, on the opposite side of the river. The "Standard Mills" remain uninjured. At Oregon City, everything on the island was swept away; the city mills, Oregon house and some stores. Abernethy's old brick building fell in. The water came in the lower part of the city so that there was but a small spot in Main street that was clear. Linn City is gone all but two buildings. The breakwater, at "the basin" is all gone; but the warehouse still remains. Many houses and barns were seen to go over the falls; and it is said that lights were burning in some of them. The steamer Onward was on her way to Salem about the hight of the rise, and reports that they took over forty persons off from houses as they went up. In many cases they would go up to a house and take the people off, and before they got out of sight the building was washed away. We have heard that a few persons have been drowned. Many odd stories are afloat about various things picked up, among others, a run of burrs from the Island Mills came ashore at Thos. Stephens' just above town, while the mills themselves went ashore below Oregon City, at Abernethy Creek.
There has been an increase of liquor shops, to accommodate the great number of strangers in town. Mr. J. P. Dennison has a minstrel troupe performing at the Willamette theater, which draw very good houses. The case of the City vs. J. P. O. Lownsdale, commonly known as the levee case, is now before the United States District Court, and will be decided next week — so supposed. This will determine the title of the levee. Col. Justus Steinberger, well known to this coast, and formerly agent for Adams & Col. in this place, is expected here on the Cortes, about the 12th inst. He comes with full power to raise a regiment of Infantry in Washington Territory. This regiment and the one of cavalry, to be raised by Col. Cornelius are intended to guard the frontier. All other troops to be withdrawn. We have nothing later from the east than that brought by the Pacific — and do not expect anything until the arrival of the Cortes, owing to the high water. This place will be almost depopulated in the spring — by the Salmon fever.
PORTLAND.
[In addition to the above, we are informed by a private letter from Portland that there is but one house left in Champoeg, and that the town of Orleans, opposite Corvallis, has been swept entirely away. Nothing definite has been heard from points above Salem. — EDS.]
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The mails from the Dalles, for the present and last week, have not yet arrived at this place. The delay has been an unavoidable one, however, caused by the general high water and the carrying away of the Deschuttes bridge. The mails will probably reach here today.
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p. 2, col. 5
Portland Correspondence
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A Slight Shower — The Great Freshet —
The damage done — No Late News — Our
Sleepy Anaconda — Traitors North and South.
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PORTLAND, Dec. 3, 1861.
DEAR STATESMAN — Rain, rain, rain! It has been raining slightly for a few weeks past! It would seem as though Dame Nature was endeavoring to outdo the great feat she performed in father Noah's time; or it may be that vexed and sorrowful at the sad state of affairs in our country, she has retired to this out-of-the-way place for the purpose of giving vent to her sorrows in a flood of tears. Whichever is the cause, I hope the old lady will son become convinced of the utter futility of the effort, and will immediately "dry up." Rain! Why, you have no idea how it has rained. In the morning, for weeks past, the good people of Portland would look out and assure their good wives as they turned back, that it was "raining a little;" at noon and at night they would come home soaking wet; and in the night-time, if they happened to awaken through over-anxiety for their country or their debtors, they could still hear that same eternal sound of rain, which a last would lull them to sleep. I have not time to describe all the phenomena of this great rain-storm, so suffice it to say that it has been severe and long continued, and as a consequence the Willamette has risen rapidly, and has done and is still doing much damage. The wharves of the city are overflown except those which are built
for use during the time of the spring freshets, and the cellars underneath the stores and ware-houses have had to be emptied of their contents. On Sunday night Harbaugh & Stitzel, of the lower saw-mill, lost six thousand dollars worth of saw-logs, by their boom giving way. The wharf that is being erected by the O. S. N. Company has been nearly demolished by the flood. the dry-dock that has just been completed by Mr. Clinton, broke from its moorings, and went down stream. The amount of drift-wood in the river is immense, and the wonder is where so much can come from, until we recollect that there has been no such freshet as this for seven or eight years. The water now is nearly as high as it ever has been, and is constantly rising. When or where it will stop, "deponent saith not."
It is a sight and no mistake to see the angry flood of waters as it moves along, hearing with it a perfect array of logs, trees, etc. There is no one manifestation of nature which can convey to us so complete a sense of her vast power and of our own insignificance, as a river swollen to its full extent. Nearly everybody taht has not been relieving the wharves and cellars of their goods, has been standing out on the bank enjoying the sight.
The ocean steamer which was expected Sunday has not arrived yet, and as a consequence we are not in the receipt of very late news from the East. I am anxious to learn the success of the great naval expedition. Our reports so far in relation thereto, have been most meager and unsatisfactory. It would seem as though that was considered the dernier resort of our government. Our huge army of two hundred and forty thousand men appear to indulge in "a masterly inactivity" at or near Washington. The huge anaconda must prepare once more his coils for a stroke, or we shall begin to believe that he is too well fed — which state you know always occasions torpor and stupidity. This unfortunate difficulty is constantly receiving new complications, and where we are drifting to, Heaven only knows; but it becomes every loyal citizen at this time to keep in full view the constitution of our government, that sacred charter of our liberty, for if we cut loose from that, we are adrift on an unknown sea without chart or compass. The unity of the government and the inviolability of the great charter of our liberty, must be maintained, and those traitors in the south that wish to destroy our Union because the believe the institution of slavery endangered thereby, and those traitors in the north that wish to destroy the constitution because it recognizes slaves, must both be rebuked, and the government must be preserved by a strict obedience to the laws of the land.
I learn that your first issue has reached town, but have not seen it.
HONEST JOHN.
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