This week’s North Carolina Biblical Recorder publishes a letter written by a North Carolina soldier stationed in Savannah, Georgia, in defense of the southern coastline. The anonymous soldier is confident of southern victory, placing the Union blockade of the Confederate coast in as good light as possible.
A native of N.C. spending the winter here, can not but notice the difference between this climate and that of the latitude of Raleigh and Wake Forest. I went into camp here on the 1st October last; and so mild has the winter been, that I have never seen any ice, and we have had only a few respectable frosts. I can now remember only three days that it has rained upon us; and the weather generally has been as balmy and pleasant as May or June. Indeed, the winter so far, is said to have been the mildest throughout the South, known for several years. Is there not a Providence in this? While God tempers the season to us, He opens his fists, and the fierce winds come with discomfiture and destruction upon the heads of our enemies in their great ships.
The anxiety felt heretofore for the safety of the Southern coast has measurably passed away; and even the coming of the Burnside, or any other expedition, is not looked to with any apprehension. The achievements of Hatteras and Port Royal may be repeated in an instance or two on a much smaller scale; but nowhere can the enemy inflict on us an injury that will be at all commensurate with his own expense and loss in the attempt. Every such pilfering enterprise tends to exhaust his resources, and does us no harm. As to the taking of any town or city of importance to the South, I regard that as improbable as the fall of Richmond or Raleigh.
Source: “Southern Correspondent,” Biblical Recorder, January 22, 1862 (link); illustration of scenes from Savannah, Harper’s Weekly, March 15, 1862 (link)
