[10]. On the 1st of August a single real estate firm in Raleigh advertised no less than sixty-three different tracts of North Carolina lands for sale at low rates, and on easy terms. Here are a couple of specimens:
“We offer for sale one of the finest rice plantations in the State of North Carolina, known as ‘Lyrias,’ and situated on the north-west branch of Cape Fear river, three and a-half miles above Wilmington. This plantation contains 275 acres, 250 of which are cleared, and 25 are river swamp lands. There is also an upland settlement attached, with a dwelling-house, all necessary outhouses, comfortable quarters for fifty laborers, and an excellent well of water.
“The rice lands, with the exception of about 20 acres, are of a clay soil, of unsurpassed and inexhaustible fertility, and capable of producing rice, corn, wheat, oats, peas and hay.
“It is every way susceptible of being also made a good stock farm, for cattle and hogs, and an excellent market garden.
“The entire plantation is in good order. It has on it two commodious barns, 100 by 40 and 75 by 60 feet, respectively. Also, a steam engine of ten-horse power, together with a powerful pump, or water elevator, worked by the engine, which throws out two thousand gallons of water per minute. Also, a threshing machine, in a building 25 by 85 feet.”
“All that really baronial estate, known as William S. Pettigrew’s ‘Magnolia Plantation,’ for sale cheap.—1,000 acres improved!—Over 600 acres in a high state of cultivation!—50, or over, bushels of corn per acre!—Rich alluvial soils, suitable for farms and vegetable gardens!—Only ten hours from Norfolk!—Water transportation from the barn.—The far-famed ‘Scuppernong’ grape is a native of this county, and grows in a luxuriant abundance unsurpassed in any country. The residence, barns, out-buildings, groves, etc., etc., are very superior. Good well of water, etc., etc.
“This very large, and really magnificent estate, contains seven thousand acres of those rich alluvial Scuppernong river lands; one thousand acres already drained, and most of it in a high state of cultivation, and the whole of the rest can be easily and effectually drained; thus opening up large plantations scarcely surpassed in fertility by the Mississippi bottoms, which they greatly exceed in proximity to markets, having cheap and easy carriage, almost, if not quite, from the barn door to Norfolk, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, Boston and the whole world!
“Sea-going vessels can now come within a few miles of the barn door, and by deepening one canal, this desirable result can be obtained.”
CHAPTER VII.
Charleston Harbor—Could Sumter have been Stormed—Negroes and Poor Whites.
We steamed into Charleston Harbor early in the morning; and one by one, Sumter, Moultrie, Pinkney, and at last the City of Desolation itself rose from the smooth expanse of water, as the masts of ships rise from the ocean when you approach them. Where, four years ago, before the fatal attack on this now shapeless heap of sand and mortar, the flags of all nations fluttered, and the wharves were crowded with a commerce that successfully rivaled Savannah, Mobile and every other Southern city save New Orleans, and even aspired to compete with New York in the Southern markets, only transports and Quartermasters’ vessels were now to be seen, with here and there a passenger steamer, plying to and from New York for the accommodation of Yankee officers and their wives! The harbor itself was dotted with insignificant-looking iron clads, mingled with an occasional old ship of the line, and, in ampler supply, the modern “Yankee gunboats,” of the double-ender type, which formed so potent a cause for alarm in the councils of the privates in the Rebel armies.