Cincinnati, feeling the effects of the crisis

Here are three Covington Journal stories from May 18, 1861 discussing Cincinnati and some of the effects of the ongoing crisis that this paper claims that city was starting to feel and suffer from.  The paper did not title any of these reports. 

One report claims:

Cincinnati has driven off her Southern trade and Decay has already made its withering impress upon her wharves, her stately business houses and immense manufacturing establishments. As if bent upon self-destruction her money changers are now making strenuous efforts to discredit Kentucky currency, and it is not unlikely that they will accomplish the object. Whatever may be the effect of this measure elsewhere, the commercial interests of Cincinnati will suffer in a ten-fold degree. 

The second article says:

A correspondent of the Cincinnati Times, writing from Camp Dennison says:'

"There have been many depredations committed by soldiers strolling over the country, stealing chickens, calves and hogs. Not a farmer within two miles but has been visited. Many houses are guarded - also Milford and Miamiville. There has been considerable trouble at Milford; there are a good many drinking saloons in it all guarded now however. The villagers are trying to form a guard to protect themselves."

These are the chaps that are going down South to enforce the laws!

A third report:

There are only 15,000 barrels of pork in Cincinnati. The Enquirer says: "As strange as it may appear, if the war continues for over one year, instead of exporting provisions to Europe, we will be compelled to export from there here."


That's a pretty serious shortage for a town then known as "Porkopolis."

 

Reaction to the Seizure of Arms in Cincinnati

Please see a previous post about boatloads of arms being seized in Cincinnati 

The April 27 (1861) version of the Covington Journal publishes the following two stories related to this incident

Retaliation
The following is from the Cincinnati Times of Thursday:
"A telegraphic dispatch received in this city announces the seizure of the steamers 'Queen of the West' and "Mars" at Helena, Ark. They were bound from New Orleans to this port, and were loaded with groceries, principally for our merchants



The authorities at Helena declare that they will hold the boats and cargoes until the arms seized at this port are released."

(See this link for more information on the Queen of the West.)

(Untitled Article)
A recent letter from the Governor of Ohio to the Mayor of Cincinnati gives indication that Reason has, to some extent, resumed her sway in the Buckeye State. The Governor says: -

"To seize arms going to a State which has not actually seceded would give a pretext for assertion that we had inaugurated hostile conduct, and might be used to create a popular feeling in favor of secession where it otherwise would not exist, and end in involving us in a border warfare, which all good citizens must deprecate.

Until there are such circumstantial evidence as to create a moral certainty of an immediate intention to use arms against us, I should not be willing to order their seizure. Much less would I be willing to interfere with transportation of provisions."

The mob may denounce this sensible talk; but if we are not misinformed the mob is losing its power in Cincinnati. 


Arkansas would declare its secession on May 6.

War volunteers and affairs in Cincinnati

From the Covington Journal of April 27, 1861, I imagine this description was true of new volunteers throughout the land, north and south.

The Cincinnati volunteers, especially the lads started off on the march to camp in high glee. They regarded it as a holiday frolic, and anticipated "lots of fun." The fun of the thing is already over, if we may credit a dispatch from Camp Jackson to the Cincinnati Times. It says: 

"The dissatisfaction in regard to provisions in the camp seems to be very general; dishes were broken this morning, and potatoes were occasionally carried away on the points of bowie-knives. I am assured there will be no discrimination in regard to the disposition of troops. The slightest display of partiality will cause trouble in an hour."

"Fun!" Why, this looks like mutiny.


We are assured that at Camp Harrison, near Cincinnati, affairs are in much the same condition. It costs more a day, per man, than is charged at a first class hotel, and yet the "boys" say the rations are not fit for a dog.
---

The next brief article combines two reports from a Cincinnati newspaper. The first one - claiming that politics and whiskey led to violence - is quite believable, though I wonder how the differentiated "street-brawls" from "fights."


AFFAIRS IN CINCINNATI
Demoralization
The disorderly element was rife last night and street-brawls and in some instances fights, were the results. An undue pressure of politics and a large demand for whisky (sic) were the "head and front of the offending."  -- Enquirer

A brilliant achievement
The Sixth Ward Home Guard on Sunday evening captured a flatboat, in the Ohio River, hear the foot of Fifth-Street, having on board two hundred sacks of corn, consigned to a firm in Augusta, Georgia. -- Enquirer

 

The First War Achievement in Cincinnati

Here is another interesting article from The Covington Journal of April 20, 1861,

It takes this from a Cincinnati newspaper.

The First War Achievement in Cincinnati
The following is from the Cincinnati Times of Wednesday evening. The article furnishes its own comment:
"Soon after a great excitement was produced by a rumor that eight tons of holster pistols and guns were aboard of a steamer at the levee, having been shipped at Wheeling for the South.   An investigation was at once made by the proper authorities. It seems that the Ohio No. 8 has on board 23 boxes of guns and pistols. They were received at Parkersburg, Va., having come over the Baltimore and Ohio railroad. 


The boxes were directed to G.P.W., Little Rock, Arkansas, care of Johnson & Pen, (owners of the wharf boat,) Napoleon, Ark., and it was further discovered that seven boxes of a similar nature had been brought down on the Fannie McBurnie, and shipped on the steamer Glendale, marked G.R., Memphis, Tennessee.


The Chief of Police and the Committee of the Home Guard will see that none of the boxes are forwarded. Legal means will be taken to retain them so there is no necessity for popular excitement relative to them. It is stated that a great many boxes of similar style have lately passed through the city by the same route. All discovered hereafter will be stopped. They will server to arm our Home Guard."


It will be noticed that the goods were consigned to citizens of the United States. The infamous suggestion at the close of the article is altogether characteristic.

--
Note: the article itself does not make it clear, but that last paragraph seems to be a comment from the editor of the Journal though he had previously stated the story "furnished its own comment."

He was correct in that neither Arkansas nor Tennessee had announced their secession from the Union yet, so those individuals were still "citizens of the United States" at the moment of these seizures.