Butler in North Carolina.
Beast Butler is furnishing admirable Illustrations of reconstruction for the encouragement and instruction of North Carolina, which is now under his command so far as it is under Yankee rule. A correspondent of the Wilmington Journal, writing from Hamilton, N. C., gives a specimen of how the beast is working the oath:‘ The oath is Lincoln's, and the parole is added by the beast himself. The time set for the people of Eastern North Carolina is the 19th of January, inst. All persons who do not come forward and take the oath and give their parole within that time are to be seized and held as prisoners of war, and their property confiscated to the use of the United States Government. Persons can leave their lines within that time, but they will be allowed to bring nothing with them except fifteen pounds of meat to each member of families. These things which I have mentioned above are not in the extract, but they are in the General Order, No. 49, with much more, which I will endeavor to give you at length as nearly as I can recollect.
’ Having been engaged in scouting in the lower counties for some time past, I have had frequent opportunities of observing for myself the way in which the citizens of Eastern North Carolina are treated by the Yankee vandals. Near the posts of Plymouth and Washington they have established trading stands, and their trade is carried on in this way: Any citizen can pass the outer post, provided they carry anything to sell; at the next post, half a mile distant, is the trading mart, where their produce is bought by the Yankee soldiers at their own price. They pay a buffalo twenty cents to carry the order to Major E. H. Willis, in Plymouth, a miserable old buffalo, who for many years has been a citizen of the place, and had the esteem and confidence of the people. He, knowing every man in the country, signs the order, if he is a good Union man that sends it, and for this he receives twenty cents also. The order is then carried to Brig Gen. Wessels for approval, who also must have his twenty cents for writing his name. The order is then carried back to the picket stand, and before the owner can get what he wants he must give a buffalo, appointed for the purpose, one dollar to go and get the articles. Frequently the amount of one man's sales will not reach a dollar and sixty cents, and in that case he must go back home and bring something else in order to get his request through the proper channels. I merely mention this in order to show to what impositions the people in the enemy's lines are subjected.
General Order No. 49 is stuck up on the trees at the inner trading stand. In addition to what I have before mentioned is an order to "all persons between the ages of 18 and 45, both white and black," to report to the commanding General without delay. Another order makes it incumbent upon all persons to encourage the blacks to enlist in the service of the United States. This has been the order of things up to the present time; what it will be after the 19th January, God alone can tell. This section of country might have been easily defended, and would have amply repaid the Government for its defence. Before the fall of Roanoke Island the counties lying on the Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds furnished nearly all of the provisions consumed by the Army of Virginia; now they serve to feed an army of our invaders.
