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SKETCH OF GENERAL T. W. SHERMAN.

GENERAL T. W. SHERMAN, commanding the land forces of the Port Royal expedition, entered the military service from the State of Rhode Island, and graduated at West Point, in 1836, the eighteenth in his class.

He was appointed a second lieutenant in the Third Artillery on July 1st, 1836; assistant commissary of subsistence, in March, 1837; first lieutenant of artillery, in March, 1838; captain, in May, 1846, and a brevet major in May, 1848, for "gallant and meritorious services, at the battle of Buena Vista," on the 23d of February, 1847.

Gardner's Military Dictionary says he was distinguished by his prudence and firmness in preventing a war with certain of the Sioux Indians, 1857.

He was for years in command of light artillery, well known as Sherman's Battery, and had always stood well, in the estimation of the army, for his skill and attainments as an artillerist.

On the breaking out of the Rebellion, when the new regiments were authorized to be added to the army, he was appointed a lieutenant-colonel of the Fifth Artillery.

He was among the first appointments of brigadier generals of volunteers; and soon after the battle of Bull Run he was assigned to the important duty of organizing the land forces of the Port Royal expedition, and established his Camp of Instruction at Hempsted, Long Island.

Prior to sailing on the Port Royal expedition, in consequence of an expected advance of the Rebels, his entire force was transferred to Washington.

STORY XXV.

CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE DEATH OF JOHN A. WASHINGTON-DESECRATOR OF A NOBLE NAME.

A CORRESPONDENT of the Gazette, writing from Cheat Mountain, Va., says: "I have the pleasure, and indeed it is a pleasure, to send you the news of the death of John A. Washington, who was killed yesterday afternoon, (September 15, 1861,) about seven miles south of Elk Water camp.

"The circumstances were as follows:-In company with three other officers he was approaching our fortifications with a view of making a reconnoissance. Secreted in the bushes by the road-side were a number of the 17th Indiana regiment, and, as Washington and his companions came up the road, the Indiana boys rose from their concealment and fired. Washington fell

from his horse on the first round, having received three bullets, two of which passed entirely through his body, entering at the right breast; and one of the others was also hit, but the two remaining unhurt managed to get him away by supporting him on his horse.

"The body of Washington was conveyed to the quarters of Colonel Waggoner. He lived for the space of half an hour, and never spoke, save to utter once, 'O, my God!' The next day his body was sent to the Rebel camp under a flag of truce. In the pockets of Washington was found one hundred dollars in United States gold currency, and a splendid gold watch. His dress was new, and of the most elegant make, broadcloth coat and pants, and a white satin vest. His

shoulder-straps denoted him to be a colonel-of one of the Virginia regiments, I suppose."

This was the same Washington who lived near Harper's Ferry, and figured somewhat as one of the unhurt victims of John Brown's raid. In the early stage of the war our authorities were so afraid of exasperating the Rebels that they strove to subdue them with bulrushes, as Homer's frogs fought the mice. Washington's money and watch were therefore taken from the captors and restored to his relatives, under cover of a flag of truce.

STORY XXVI.

PORT ROYAL CONTRABANDS.

THE negroes, as yet, show few symptoms of vindictiveness but in two instances they have assisted in the capture of their former masters.

A Mr. Cuthbert, the owner of several large plantations on St. Helena Island and the main, was caught by Captain Falkner with the assistance of his own negroes. A small reconnoitering party, on the Coosaw river, met a boat containing half a dozen blacks and a white man, a German. This boat was seized, the blacks interrogated—they belonged to Cuthbert, and were going to meet him at a neighboring point.

Captain Falkner took the place of the captured white man, (whom he left in the care of his troops,) and ordered the negroes to row him back to their master. Another boat, containing a squad of Union men, fol

lowed at a short distance. It was nearly dusk, and as Falkner approached the place where Cuthbert stood waiting his boat, the latter cried out, "Who comes there?" The negroes answered and were recognized. Captain Falkner at once jumped ashore with the blacks and seized the Rebel. A scuffle ensued, for the Southerner was armed, and a large and powerful man, Falkner small. The negroes took no part, (they had not yet gotten over their awe of a master,) and not till the second boat arrived was Cuthbert secured. While he was being rowed off, a prisoner in his own boat, and by his own slaves, they burst out into singing, to the tune of one of their own rude hymns, making the versicles as they went along :

"O massa a Rebel we row him to prison. hallelujah.
Massa no whip me any more, hallelujah.

We hab no massa now, we free, hallelujah.
We hab de yankees dey no run away, hallelujah.
O! all our ole massas run away, hallelujah.

O! massa gwine to de prison now, hallelujah."

Cuthbert, who had come to the island for the purpose of preventing the escape of his slaves, was a lieutenant of the boat-a patrol established for protecting the coast at once against the Nationalists and the negroes. He had, in conversation with Captain Falkner, scrupulously maintained that the negroes loved their masters, and wanted no freedom; but when the exulting chants were sung in his hearing, he acknowledged that so long as the Union forces remained, the South Carolinians were in danger from their slaves. He was sent North a prisoner.

STORY XXVII.

STORY OF THE WRECKS.

THE following account of the fate of the wrecked transports, during the terrible gale of the 1st of November, 1861, condensed from the correspondence of the Tribune, is deemed a proper appendage to the preceding account of the capture of Port Royal:

As our fleet slowly straggled into the harbor of rendezvous, after that most fearful tempest, and as we noted the continued absence of one after another of our noble vessels, we reluctantly made up our unwilling minds to the sad belief that at least six of our smaller steamers had gone down: the ferry-boats Ethan Allen and Commodore Perry, the transports Union, Peerless, Governor and Belvidere.

There was also much anxiety about the Ocean Express, though as she was a large and staunch sailing ship, it was hoped that she had merely been blown out of her course, and would weather the gale and yet make her appearance.

This latter vessel was, to a great extent, the right arm of the expedition, for she carried all the heavy cannon with which it was proposed to make our Palmetto foothold good. Upon the same ship also, by a strange oversight of the chief of ordnance (Captain McNutt), had been placed the entire stock of gunpowder with which it had been intended to fill the magazines, for the use of the siege-trains that might be organized from Port Royal for the benefit of Charleston or Savannah.

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