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Title: Experience of a Confederate States Prisoner

Author: Beckwith West

Release date: July 9, 2018 [eBook #57475]

Language: English

Credits: Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
        http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
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Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
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                          Transcriber's Notes

Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. Variations
in hyphenation and consistent non-standard spelling remain unchanged.

Italics are represented thus _italic_.




                              EXPERIENCE
                                 OF A
                     Confederate States Prisoner,
                                 BEING
                             AN EPHEMERIS
                           REGULARLY KEPT BY
              An Officer of the Confederate States Army.

                               RICHMOND:
                     WEST & JOHNSTON, PUBLISHERS.
                                 1862.

  G. W. GARY, PRINTER.




PREFACE.


The gallant Morgan has said that our independence is an achieved fact.
“Privation and suffering have won it.” It is true that the noble
South has been deprived of many of its wonted necessaries, not to say
luxuries, by the present invasion of those disciples of Satan, commonly
called “Yankees.” Paper, among other things, is scarce in the South,
and paper may be turned into excellent account in the composition of
cartridges, while metal that might be moulded into bullets is run
into type. Yet newspapers and books are printed, and most of them
eagerly read, especially any that have the most remote bearing upon the
present contest. In these stern times of war’s realities, plain facts
challenge our attention rather than the gaudy fiction of novels. Honey
from Mount Hybla, or Nectar from Olympus, would fail on the palate,
unless relieved by homelier viands; and it would certainly require
considerable stoicism to sit down to a tale of imaginary woes and
sorrows while one great wail is going up from our sick and wounded—an
incredible amount of apathy to sit leisurely down to such a book under
the shade of a tree while the nation is sending out a heartcry for
reinforcements to our brave legions, in order to _speedily_ defeat the
unscrupulous enemy. This little book is intended as, and professes no
more than a plain statement of facts, so that others may learn what I
have read, seen and heard, without undergoing the pain of incarceration
in the hands of Yankees, whose tyranny increases in proportion to the
power they possess over their victims.




                              EXPERIENCE
                                 OF A
                     CONFEDERATE STATES PRISONER.


_May, 1862._ A “heavy march” on the 6th and 7th instant resulted in
a Confederate victory at McDowell, Highland county, at which place
a battle was fought on the 8th. General Jackson routed and drove
the enemy, commanded by the Yankee Generals, Milroy and Schenck,
twenty-five miles into Pendleton county, and captured a large amount
of ammunition, commissary stores, arms, and many prisoners. Our
forces afterwards completely routed Banks’ column at Winchester,
and thoroughly defeated Fremont and Shields at Cross Keyes and Port
Republic. After the battle at Front Royal, I remained at that place
upon the recommendation of the regimental surgeon, on account of
having strong symptoms of the Typhoid fever, which turned out to be
the genuine disease. Dr. Brown, the resident physician, attended me;
and a member of my own company, Mr. Oxford, nursed me faithfully from
the 23d May, the day our forces entered Front Royal, to the 30th May,
the day that the Yankees under General Shields recaptured it. The 12th
Georgia regiment was the only force left at Front Royal. The Provost
Marshal, or the Colonel commanding the 12th Georgia, gave us notice
but _one hour_ before the Yankees were in the town that they were
advancing. When Mr. Oxford informed me of the near approach of the
Yankees, I quickly jumped out of bed, and we hastily made a retreat
towards Winchester. The salutary and kind attentions of Dr. Brown and
Mr. Oxford had much improved me in strength, but I soon discovered
that I could not keep pace with the latter in our eager efforts to
escape. We succeeded in getting about one mile and a half from the
town when the Yankee cavalry were heard closing on us so fast that we
leaped over a fence on the left of the road, thinking that we might
conceal ourselves in the high grass until the cavalry passed, and
be enabled to elude them by getting into the woods near by. In the
confusion, however, Mr. Oxford and I became separated, and by this time
the Yankee cavalry were close enough to fire twice on myself and two
others from the 33d Virginia, who attempted to make their escape in
the same direction. The cavalry soon after had surrounded us, and we
were compelled to surrender, and were marched into town under a heavy
guard. The commissioned officers were carried before General Shields,
and the non-commissioned officers and privates to the building used by
our army as a hospital, where we had some hundred sick at the time.
The commissioned officers at first confined to any house they might
select, were afterwards paroled the town. I was taken to Mr. John B.
Petty’s house, and ordered to remain there “for the present” by one of
General Shields’ staff. About an hour after I was left at the above
named house, a Pennsylvania Major came into the room where I was, and
very abruptly asked me, “What are you doing here?” I informed him
that by order of General Shields I was to remain there “until further
orders;” he would not believe me, and placed _two_ sentinels in the
room until he found that my statement was correct. Captain Keogh (on
General Shields’ staff) gave me the following note, saying, when he
did so, that I would not be “any further annoyed by officers in other
regiments” that had nothing to do with my case:

  “HEADQUARTERS, SHIELDS’ DIVISION, MAY 30, 1862.

 “Captain W. is allowed to remain at the house of Mr. John B. Petty
 (until further arrangements are made,) the said Captain W. being a
 prisoner of war. By order of Major General Shields.

  MILES W. KEOGH,
  _Ass’t Adj._”

After the lapse of two days I was allowed the limits of the town,
but being sick I did not go out of the house for five days after I
was captured, when I walked down to the barbers’ shop. While passing
the hotel I was called by a Federal officer, whose name I learned
afterwards was General Duryea, of New York. I went into his room,
around which were sitting several other Federal officers, and the
General addressed me, “What are you doing walking about the streets?
Are you not a Southern officer?” I replied “I am,” and told him that
Major Shedd, the Provost Marshal, had paroled me the town. General
Duryea then said, “I understand, sir, that when the Rhode Island
cavalry had you in their power, and could have killed you, that as
one of the cavalry dismounted to take your sword, and was proceeding
to mount again, you fired your pistol twice at the back of his neck.”
I replied such could not be true, for I had no pistol about me when
captured. General Duryea then said, “I may be mistaken, but I wish
to find out what Captain it was, and visit the proper vengeance upon
him.” The day before the Yankees entered Front Royal, a colored man
died of small pox in a small frame house near the railroad depot, and
by general consent of both citizens and the Yankee paroled prisoners
in the town, it was agreed as advisable to burn the house and body, in
order to prevent the spread of the dangerous and contagious disease.
The Yankees were told by some traitor, or else themselves originated
the lie, that we had burned up two of the Yankee prisoners in our
hands, and they swore vengeance against us—declared that they intended
to “put the town in ashes,” and nothing but a special order of General
Shields to the contrary, and forbidding interference with any property
whatever, prevented the soldiers from giving vent to spleen engendered
by a false and malicious report. General Shields was informed by Major
Collins, (Vermont cavalry,) in my presence, that while a prisoner
in our hands he was treated most kindly, and that all reports to
the contrary had no foundation in truth; and all the other Federal
prisoners endorsed the statement of Major Collins.

_June 6th._ We have been told from day to day that all “General
Jackson’s men” would be paroled until exchanged, and yet at the same
time preparations are being made to take us to Washington, _i. e._,
about nineteen officers, and one hundred and fifty non-commissioned
officers and privates. The kindness of the people of Front Royal,
and especially the ladies to the Confederate prisoners, deserves the
highest praise. Devoted to our cause, they omit no opportunity to show
their regard for those who are endeavoring to rescue them from the
obnoxious presence and depredations of the Yankees. They keep aloof
from the Yankees as much as possible, and are always on the alert to do
something for the relief of our sick and wounded.

_June 7th._ Among the Yankees I made the acquaintance of Adjutant
Griffin, 5th New York cavalry, who treated me kindly, as also Captain
Abraham Moore, Captain Isaac S. Tichenor, and Major Shedd, 105th New
York regiment, and Lieutenant H. Hobert Mason, of General McDowell’s
staff. Met with the celebrated Miss “Bell Boyd” to-day. Miss B. is
a sprightly, intelligent lady, _au fait_ in all the movements of
our army, and moderately good looking. Her general information, and
nonchalant mode of fluent conversation, renders her _tout ensemble_
quite interesting. _It is said_ she has obtained valuable information
from Yankee officers in regard to their movements, and conveyed the
same to our army. A great many soldiers talk to me every day, and they
all so far have expressed themselves tired of the war, but say that it
will soon be ended, inasmuch as they have General Jackson “in a trap,”
out of which he cannot escape. They say “Stonewall” is our greatest
General—incomparably so—that he is cunning and strategic, but that it
is not within the range of human possibility for him “to elude us this
time;” that they would like to capture him, but under no consideration
would they kill either him or Ashby if they knew it.

_June 8th._ They say we are to be sent to Washington city on to-morrow,
but we have been told so many things that have failed to come to pass,
that we are too reluctant to believe any more reports. _Nous verron_,
to-morrow. Mr. and Mrs. Petty have been untiring in their attentions
to the sick and wounded prisoners here. They will never be forgotten
by those who have been the recipients of their kindness, especially
those who had the fortune to be under their roof. Mr. P. has been made
to pay the Yankees a heavy penalty on account of being “Secesh;” they
have stolen three of his most valuable negroes, any number of horses,
cattle, &c., besides laying waste his two farms. One of his negro men
left him one day, and the next time he saw him the negro was dressed
in the cavalry uniform, with a sabre hanging to his side, and passed
his master with silent contempt on the street. The negro was now a
member of the “Michigan cavalry,” a company notorious for its success
in robbery and plunder of every description. This same negro visited
Mr. Petty’s house afterwards in company with three Yankee officers, and
demanded of Mrs. Petty (Mr. P. was absent) the key to the wine room;
Mrs. P. told them that she had only a few bottles of wine, which she
kept for medicinal purposes, and requested them not to disturb it, but
the negro persisted with threats in having it, and told Mrs. P. “she
lied” in saying she only had a few bottles. Having obtained all the
wine in the house, by frightening this excellent lady they drank it in
her presence, when they smashed the bottles on the floor, exclaiming,
“the damned Secesh don’t deserve to have anything.”

_Monday, June 9th._ To-day the prisoners were put on the cars to be
taken to Washington city. A lady gave one of the prisoners a boquet
with a small Confederate flag attached, which, as he was about to get
into the cars, was noticed by General Duryea, of New York, and as soon
as the latter saw it he quickly severed the flag from the boquet, and
with an air of contempt and triumph tore it into fragments, at the
same time trampling each fragment under his feet. The people of Front
Royal manifest the greatest interest in the Confederate prisoners.
They carry provisions to them daily at the hospital, while those
prisoners who are paroled are invited to their houses. It would seem
that interest would sometimes prompt them to court Yankee favor,
but they spurn it, and remain loyal and true in their deportment at
the sacrifice of thousands of dollars worth of property, for Yankee
regiments camp on the wheat fields, and steal the horses and negroes,
and kill the hogs, and commit every sort of depredation upon the
property of those who are known to be Secessionists. The ladies avoid
the Yankees whenever they can, and when thrown into their presence,
treat them with that reserve with which they might be expected to
treat those whom they regard as the deadly enemies of their dearest
friends and interest, but whose presence they cannot avoid. The people
seemed sad when the prisoners left Front Royal; the ladies filled their
haversacks with refreshments, and loaded the cars with flowers.

_June 10th._ We arrived at Alexandria at 2 o’clock this morning—saw the
depot which was burned by the bold General Geary, when he _imagined_
that he saw 50,000 rebels advancing on him, when, in fact, the rebels
were no where near him. The 104th New York regiment in their fright
burned up everything they had. A fellow prisoner informs me that he
was lately a prisoner in the hands of Geary, who had him hand-cuffed,
and kept him without food for four days, and that he led his command
to believe, by repeated assurances, that Richmond was in possession of
the Federal army. At daybreak this morning a crowd assembled around the
cars, and many were eager to talk with us, but were not permitted to do
so. Nor were our friends allowed to give us anything to eat, although
they had provided various refreshments, and although the Yankees had
furnished us nothing to eat since yesterday morning, or it may be said
with nothing at all, for what we eat _then_ was given by the people at
Front Royal. At 7 o’clock in the morning the crowd became very great,
and the guards were increased in proportion. The ladies could not
be prevented from kissing their hands to the prisoners. A young man
attempted to throw an orange in the cars for a lady, who requested him
to do so, but he was contemptuously thrust aside, and had to leave in
“double quick” time. Our friends had provided for us coffee, bread and
butter, ham, eggs, cakes, pies, candies in variety, and tobacco and
cigars in profusion, but like the thirsty Tantalus, and the water we
were almost in reach, without being able to enjoy them. Boquets were
thrown in showers into the cars, while there was the greatest demand
for our buttons. Some cut all the buttons off their coats, and then
could not gratify all who requested to be given “one.” This scene, and
the sympathy manifested for our cause by so many Alexandrians, made us
feel happy, while at the same time we were sad in knowing that they
were then writhing under the heel of Lincoln despotism. The Yankee
soldiers seemed to envy the attentions sought to be lavished upon the
prisoners by the people of Alexandria; some cursed us, some shook the
United States flag in our faces, &c. One fellow remarked, “If the
11th Massachusetts was in those cars, you would not get to Washington
city.” Others vented their spleen by insulting remarks to the ladies.
We arrived at Washington at 12, M., having started from Alexandria in
a steamboat about 11. We were then marched in two ranks (with a strong
guard of infantry on either side and rear, and a display of cavalry in
front) to the “old capitol military prison.” We were very wet when we
arrived at the latter place, on account of the rain which commenced
before we left the steamboat, but were compelled to stand out in the
yard from 12, M., to 5, P.M., when we were assigned our quarters.
The room in which seven officers and myself were confined was about
twelve feet square. My prison companions are Captain Samuel M. Sommers,
quartermaster, Lieutenants Chas. E. Bott and John F. Everly, 33d
Virginia regiment, and Lieutenant James K. Decrow, Newton T. Johnston,
James M. Brown, and Edward Waterman, of the 12th Georgia regiment. Roll
was called to-night, and our names, rank, regiment, company letter,
and State, taken in full. Our door is locked all the time, except when
officers come in, or when we are allowed to go into the yard an half
hour for exercise.

_June 11th._ The superintendent of this prison is William P. Wood, and
the officers in command Captain Benjamin Higgins, and Lieutenants J.
Miller and —— Holmes. Mr. Wood is an infidel, who so far from blushing
to proclaim it, takes frequent occasion to do so. When endeavoring to
enforce his doctrines, he addresses his opponent as “You mullet-headed
Christian,” and speaks in the greatest derision of our Saviour, while
he denies the existence of a God, or hell. He is a sharp-featured,
serpentine-looking specimen of humanity, medium height, and by trade
a cabinet maker, before his black republican proclivities secured him
his present position. Mr. Wood, a prisoner, soon finds out to be the
most important among “the powers that be” connected with the prison,
and all “privileges” must be reached through him. He professes to be
a great Southern man, and sometimes demonstrates this by knocking
down a contraband, who does not wait upon him in accordance with his
fastidious notions.

It is cloudy, and my close confinement, together with the continual
sight of dark blue uniforms makes me feel as gloomy as the sky is
in appearance. I would that I could be with our army in the “Old
Dominion.” From my prison window I see an old United States soldier
cultivating flowers in a row of flower pots. One knows him to be a
soldier by his regular walk, and the style of his grey moustache, not
to speak of his uniform. Indeed one might have guessed as much from the
care he takes of his little garden, for there are two things I have
noticed especially, loved by old soldiers, viz: flowers and children.
They have so long been obliged to look upon the earth as a field of
battle, and so long cut off from the peaceful pleasures of a quiet lot,
that they seem to begin life at an age when others end it.

_June 12th._ Have been here a day and a half and two nights, and can
form some idea of the way things are managed at this prison. Roll is
called night and morning, and as to fare, we are allowed a tin cup
of what is called coffee, but which is really mock-coffee, a slice
of bread six inches long, five inches wide, and a quarter of an inch
thick, and a piece of beef or fat bacon twice a day—forming a repast,
the sight of which is almost enough to cause any respectable stomach to
revolt, so unclean seems both it and its surroundings. A lady came into
our room to-day leaning on the arm of Dr. Stewart, the prison surgeon.
As the Doctor ushered her in, he remarked, “This is the room in which
Mrs. Rose O. N. Greenhow was confined.” Lieutenant D., of the 12th
Georgia regiment, was lying on a blanket in one corner of the room, and
the lady seemed to recognise him, and asked “What’s your name?” “Are
you from Georgia?” Being answered promptly by the Lieutenant, and in
the affirmative as to the latter question, the surgeon observed, “You
have a remarkable recollection of faces,” and they left the room, which
was then quickly locked. It is supposed that she is the correspondent
of some Northern journal. No doubt she will say that we live in a
palace, and have hotel fare, thus emulating the editor of the “Evening
Star,” who a short time ago informed its readers that we “fared equal
to any hotel in the city.” If a sentinel is caught in conversation with
a prisoner, the punishment is two weeks in chains. The prisoners are
allowed an half hour in the yard after each meal. After dinner to-day,
the surgeon, Dr. Stewart, a coarse, vulgar mean Yankee came among us in
the yard, and had the audacity to say, “All who desire to take the oath
of allegiance to the United States Government, and thereby obtain their
liberty step this way.” A deserter and two men of Northern birth obeyed
the call. I am informed by prisoners, who have been here sometime, that
the greatest effort is constantly made to induce prisoners to take the
infamous “oath of allegiance.” At roll call to-night I was informed
that “several friends” called to see me. I was not told who the friends
are, and I infer that they do not intend to tell me, or allow me to see
them at all.

_Friday, June 13th._ Among the prisoners confined here, is Charles C.
Randolph, Esq., a venerable looking old gentleman, seventy-five years
of age, from Fauquier county, Virginia. He served in the war of 1812
as Captain, under General Parks’ command, and received his commission
through the influence of the celebrated “Harry Lightfoot Lee,” of the
revolution. He says that he went to Richmond about the first of April
last, and when he returned to his home he found that the Yankees had
devastated everything about his valuable premises. They stole his
horses, sheep and cattle, and destroyed his crops, and took everything
of value he had from a library worth $5,000, to his bed, and even his
wife’s likeness, and the family bible, besides breaking all the hinges
of the doors, and committing waste and robbery generally. He, himself,
was arrested as soon as he arrived home, and brought here, for what he
knows not, unless it be for implied sympathy for the cause of the soil
of his birth and the people of his blood. There was a prisoner here
named Wharton, a Californian. He was a Lieutenant in the United States
Navy at the beginning of the war, when he resigned, and started for
the South via Washington city, but was arrested on his arrival here
and brought to this prison. A short time since he cursed one of the
sentinels for insulting language used towards him, when the sentinel
called for the “corporal of the guard,” who being equally insolent, was
in turn treated in the same way by Lieutenant Wharton. The “officer of
the guard” was then called, who proving equally offensive in language
to Lieutenant W., the latter cursed him in the heat of anger, whereupon
said Lieutenant Wharton was shot, and soon afterwards died of his
wounds. A respectable gentleman, Mr. Stewart of Maryland, who was
incarcerated here, was promised by the guard to be allowed to escape,
on condition of the payment of $50; but although the sentinel pocketed
the money, when Mr. Stewart was effecting his escape the sentinel shot
him, and this sentinel was immediately promoted from a private to a
sergeant.

_Saturday, June 14th, 1862._ It is reported this morning that Colonel
Ashby is killed, and General “Stonewall” Jackson a prisoner, and the
Yankees profess to place great reliance upon the report. From Northern
sources, I learn that when the war-tax was being collected in Southern
Illinois, it required three regiments to accomplish the task. It seems
plain that Southern Illinois would like to break the chains that now
bind her. In the beginning of the war the people of that section were
told by Yankees that wished to raise regiments of soldiers to fight us,
_that the Mississippi would be blocked against them_, when the very
first act of the Confederate Congress insured the free navigation of
the Mississippi river.

The Yankees say that by the first of July their public debt will be 650
million dollars! It is now 1,500 millions!! They have 65,000 sick from
their own account. Who will pay their pensions?

This is a struggle on the side of the Yankees for supremacy, and on
our side for independence. It is urged that the Northern States are a
great deal stronger than the Southern States, and therefore must win
in this contest. England was a great deal stronger than Scotland, but
when it was the object of England to establish by force a supremacy
over Scotland, they found the Scotch very ugly customers. In this war
the North has had certain successes in the field. But how was it with
England in the revolutionary war? It was not for want of victories
in the field that England did not conquer the American colonies, for
England found when most successful in the field, the object desired
was as distant as before. It is not the question when endeavoring to
conquer a country, whether you can break up its embattled armies and
drive them off the plain, where they have contended with you in the
fight. The question is this, and this alone, whether that country is
set upon separation. If it is bent upon separation, it is impossible
to conquer it, and if the North could conquer us, the political and
civil difficulties remaining would render that success a curse and a
misery to those who achieved it. It seems but homage to an abstract
principle that has caused England to bear the misery consequent upon
not recognising the Confederate States. There has been a sense of the
danger and mischief of interference in intestine quarrels in other
countries, and England has so far paid deference to that principle of
international policy, but it will not last a great while longer.

The Yankees admit a loss of 10,000 men at Fort Donaldson—more I believe
than we had engaged in the fight.

_Sunday, June 15th._ My cousin, S. M., called to see me to-day;
also, my friends J. C. H. and F. N. B. I was allowed fifteen minutes
conversation with each in the presence of a Federal commissioned
officer, such being the rule established here. A sermon was preached to
the prisoners to-day by the Rev. Mr. Nourse, from Leesburg, Virginia,
himself a prisoner. William J. Mills, Company D, 12th Georgia regiment,
died to-day, and was buried at the “Congressional burying ground” in
presence of a Confederate commissioned officer, taken there “for the
purpose of witnessing” the same. A lady friend sent me a bottle of wine
by the “Underground railroad.” I cannot say with Hawthorne, to drink it
is more a moral than a physical enjoyment, and that like whatever else
which is superlatively good, it is better appreciated by memory than by
present consciousness. It is decidedly physical in its effects, and far
better in reality than in anticipation.

_Monday, June 16th._ Captain L. F. Whitney, United States cavalry,
called to see me to-day. Captain W. and myself were associated in
the “draughtsman’s room,” United States Patent office, for nearly
four years—every day engaged in the same calling, and upon terms of
intimate friendship. One of his men now stands as sentinel to the room
in which I am confined. Strange the mutations of time! Two years ago
we would have laughed at the prophecy that we would at this time be in
our present relations to each other. We talked only of the pleasures
of the past without any allusion to our present difficulties, and the
interview was, under the circumstances, short but agreeable. An old
man was brought into our room to-day, and the officer who ushered
him, remarked, as he did so, “Here is a man that wishes to see a live
rebel.” Lieutenant D. replied by informing him that “the man with
horns” was out, but would soon be in. I presume the old fool became
satisfied that we are beings of flesh and blood, who eat, drink, sleep,
and wear clothes like other civilized people.

A fellow prisoner from Charlestown, Virginia, says when General Banks
was at that place he stopped at a lady’s boarding house without giving
her any compensation. He sent the lady a few delicacies to eat while in
her house, but when he went away he presented her a bill of $5.

_Tuesday, June 17th._ The Yankee newspapers claim a victory at
Williamsburg. If that battle is a Federal triumph, they are welcome
to all such. The fact is, that they have so much at stake, that they
cannot afford to report their defeat, and do not scruple to lie! I
feel very lonesome in this close room to-day, for those who share my
captivity are reading, writing or sleeping, and I cannot do much of
either, not more than record in my diary my present feelings. Solitude
has the advantage or the danger of making us search more deeply into
the same ideas. As our discourse is only with ourself, we always give
the same direction to the conversation; we are not called to turn it
to the subject which occupies another mind, and so an involuntary
inclination makes us return forever to knock at the same doors. There
are eight officers in this room, and we take turns in putting it in
order, that is, folding up the blankets, sweeping out the room, &c.,
&c., and some take great interest in keeping the room clean, which is
commendable. I distrust the intellect and morality of those people to
whom disorder is of no consequence—who can live at ease in an Augean
stable. What surrounds us, reflects more or less what is within us.

_Wednesday, June 18th._ A fellow prisoner, Mr. B., the able
correspondent of the “London Times,” handed me the following
interesting article to read from the “London Morning Herald” of April
25th. The Herald is the organ of Earl Derby:

“The Southern Confederacy has nearly completed its sixteenth month of
existence. In common parlance, in universal conviction, in actual fact,
in everything but formal diplomatic recognition, the Confederate States
are an independent power. The armies that have so long ravaged their
frontiers, and at last emboldened by a great superiority of numbers,
and a still greater advantage in arms and material, have ventured on
an advance into their territory—_come there not as partizans in a
civil war, but as invaders_; they are and act as the enemies not of
a faction but of a nation—nay, of the entire population. They find
little sympathy, far less than was enjoyed by the French invaders
of Spain. They obtain no information except that very scanty supply
which the most hated enemy can always obtain from deserters; they get
no provisions except what they take by force; they have no friends,
and no power beyond their own lines. In saying this, we except, of
course, that strip of mountains in Kentucky, Tennessee and Western
Virginia, occupied by Northern colonists, and which is part of the
Confederate States, simply by geographical position. It is very rare,
as is evident to the most ignorant and violent of Northerners, to
find a man that is within the Confederate lines who is not a devoted
adherent of the Confederate Government, and a resolute defender of
a country invaded by foreign armies. The Confederate Government has
raised in proportion to its population as large an army as any country
ever yet mustered; it could have a still larger force if it had arms
to put into their hands. It has sustained several great battles,
won several brilliant victories, and rallied without difficulty or
discouragement after one or two severe defeats. There is no division
among the people; no Unionist faction; there is no voice raised in
favor of surrender. As the United States and the Confederate States
form two separate and hostile nations, so the Confederate Government
is clearly as independent of that of the Union as the Crown of Denmark
of the Germanic Confederation, and is as completely organized and
absolute within its own dominions as that which is waging war against
it. It is no question now of “Secession” or Rebellion, but of a war
between two distinct powers, _unequal in numbers_, but perfectly equal
in _strength and status_, equally sovereign and equally national. One
may wrest territory from the other, may plunder its lands, burn its
towns, and blockade its ports by virtue of superior naval and military
force; but the relation in which they stand to each other is not rebel
and tyrant, not subject and sovereign, but that of wholly separate and
independent belligerent nations. The Northern armies in Virginia or
Tennessee are as the French in Spain, or Russia in Turkey—the soldiery
of a foreign government engaged in the invasion of a soil to which they
have no other claim than may be established by the strong hand, or
bestowed by the fortunes of war. The conquest of one nation by another,
rarely as it has occurred, is not wholly unknown or impossible. Poland
is a conquered country, but for western intervention Turkey might have
been. But the conquest of a country as large as half of Europe, which
brings three or four hundred thousand of her sons to her defence,
which is _fortified by primeval forests and impenetrable swamps_, and
impregnable by sheer extent of uninhabitable surface, is one of the
wildest schemes ever proposed by the wickedness of demagogues, or
entertained by the madness of conceit. A Napoleon with a half million
of soldiers would recoil from the task. Is a Lincoln with a half a
million of disorderly ruffians to achieve it? The subjugation of the
South is impossible, provided only the citizens of the Confederate
States display in defence of their hearths and homes, of their rights
and their country, the valor and the resolution which have always
characterized the race from which they sprang. They are a superior
race, and the children of cavaliers, and can never yield to such an
enemy. They have shown as yet no signs of wavering or discouragement,
and they have only to be resolute in endurance, as they have shown
themselves courageous in action, to be sure of a final victory. We
see in the surrender of Island No. 10, in the doubtful operations in
Virginia, in the battle near Pittsburgh, no signs whatever of any
approach to the termination of the war in that way in which the North
proposes to terminate it, viz: by the total prostration of the Southern
States, the dissolution of the Confederacy, and the reconstruction of
the Union. The Northern Government must be aware of the futility of
its promises, the utter impracticability of its professed designs; but
the ignorant and fanatical North believe absolutely and passionately
in their own omnipotence, and its rulers are not the men to undertake
the unpopular, difficult and dangerous task of bringing the people
to a more modest frame of mind. Nothing but a severe lesson, either
a crushing defeat, or a long, expensive, result-less and disastrous
war will enlighten a people whose virtues or Weakness alike make them
obstinate and unreasonable in such a contest as the present. If
left to themselves, _i. e._, without foreign intervention, they will
probably prolong the war into another year. One thing at least appears
certain, that the summer must stay for some months, even under the
most favorable circumstances, the onward march of the Federal armies.
If they are able then to hold their actual positions—if they retain
possession of the greater part of Tennessee, Kentucky, and Northern and
Western Virginia—they will remain encamped on Southern soil, wasting
the crops, burning the houses, taking property of the unhappy citizens
of those rich States, but making no progress whatever. Their vessels
may continue to keep up a nominal blockade of the Southern coast, and
a real embargo on the cotton supply, which affords bread to South
Lancastershire, England. In the meantime the Confederates will be daily
gaining strength, recruiting their forces, and receiving supplies of
arms and ammunition, the want of which has done more to thwart their
heroic efforts than either the valor or bravery of Northern troops
or skill of Northern commanders. On the return of cold weather their
position will be better, and the termination of the war still more
remote. In the interval they cannot invade the South, and cannot hope
to hang the Confederate leaders, but they will still be starving
English operatives, unless England and France grow weary of seeing
their subjects made the victims of the war, and insist on terminating
a struggle, which, while it cannot lead to the result desired by
the aggressors, inflicts on neutrals losses almost as great as the
immediate objects of the aggression.”

A fellow prisoner showed me a beautiful love-letter he received from
his affianced this morning by the “Underground railroad.” The object
of his affections is not permitted to visit him, because she has been
herself a prisoner on account of her “Secession” convictions, but she
brings a letter from Alexandria nearly every day, and sends to the
“handsome Lieutenant:”

                            The letter! aye, the letter!
    “’Tis there a woman loves to speak her wishes;
    It spares the blushes of the love-sick maiden,
    And every word’s a smile, each line a tongue.”

_Thursday, June 19th._ The only event of interest to me to-day has
been the visit of an attached lady friend, Miss E. A., who brought
me some necessary articles of clothing, quite acceptable under the
circumstances, but more appreciated on account of the motive which
prompted the mission. This lady has two brothers in the 17th regiment
of Virginia volunteers. As an old friend, our interview of fifteen
minutes afforded me much pleasure; but the Yankee officer present
seemed desirous to institute an espionage, more to annoy than to
discharge his orders, and which caused me to wish him in a climate
where we are told that the heat is intolerable—at all events during
my short interview with this to me beautiful angel of mercy. In this
despotic government I have noticed the ladies as well as the sterner
sex fear to express a sentiment against the tyranny of him whom they
call a Republican President. On the contrary all must praise Abraham
Lincoln, or be considered a traitor! Great God, it seems as if they
wish to honor themselves through their master; they elevate him on
their shoulders as a pedestal; they surround him with a halo of light,
in order that some of it may be reflected on themselves. It is still
the fable of the dog, who contents himself with the chain and collar,
so that they are of gold.

_June 20th._ I received some excellent smoking tobacco and cigars this
morning, a present from a lady in Prince George county, Maryland. God
bless the ladies!

The “New York Times” of yesterday contains the following in reference
to my friend Captain Monaghan, of the sixth Louisiana regiment, who
was paroled in the city during the first three or four days after he
arrived here:

                         (COPY OF PARAGRAPH.)

                        “THE LOUISIANA TIGER.”

 “Captain Manahan, of the Louisiana Tigers, who has been lionizing at
 Willard’s hotel for several days, has been sent to the old capitol
 prison by order of Secretary Stanton. A gentleman, formerly of New
 Orleans, and well acquainted with the Captain, states that he does not
 wish to be exchanged, and is loyal to the “Stars and Stripes.””

The Captain being anxious to correct a statement so devoid of truth,
and which impeached his loyalty to the South, wrote to the editor of
the “New York Times,” but as the sequel shows he was not permitted to
send the letter, and thus the ignorant of the North were led to believe
this lie, as they have thousands of others circulated in the same way,
and without the shadow of foundation in truth:

  “OLD CAPITOL PRISON, WASHINGTON, D.C., JUNE 20, 1862.

  _To the Editor of the New York Times_,

 SIR: A paragraph appeared in your edition of yesterday, headed “the
 Louisiana Tiger,” and I infer that the informer, who furnished matter
 for this paragraph, must have been made the dupe of a joker. I am
 no tiger, but the Captain of Company F, sixth regiment Louisiana
 volunteers. I have been on parole some days, anxiously awaiting an
 exchange. “Lionizing” is no amusement to me, but a great bore. My
 convictions, as well as my heart, are with my brethren, who are
 fighting in defence of my invaded country. I would that my strong
 right arm were there also. I trust this will be a sufficient answer
 to the New Orleans gentleman, who has _dared_ to cast a stigma upon
 my loyalty and _devotion_ to the _South_; and if further proof of the
 fact were necessary, it may be discovered in the act of Mr. Secretary
 Stanton, who has ordered me to be incarcerated in this place.

  Respectfully your obedient servant,
  WM. MONAGHAN,
  _Captain Company F, 6th Regiment Louisiana Volunteers,
  Prisoner of War_.”

This letter was sent to the Provost Marshal for approval, but was
returned with the following note from Mr. William P. Wood, the
superintendent of the prison:

  ”OLD CAPITOL PRISON, JUNE 25, 1862.

 The foregoing communication was placed in my hands by Captain
 Monaghan, to be examined at the Provost Marshal’s office, and has been
 returned to me marked “not approved,” and is returned to Captain M. by
 me, such being the usual procedure with letters “not approved.”

  WM. P. WOOD,
  _Superintendent_.”

_Saturday, June 21st._ P. C. H. called to see me to-day. He is a clerk
in the Adjutant General’s office, but was formerly with me in the
United States Patent office. A member of Company F, 35th Georgia, died
in prison to-day, but I could not learn his name.

_June 22d._ The Rev. Father Boyle, (Catholic Priest,) called to see
me to-day. He was allowed to come into my room alone, upon a promise
not to talk about war matters. He brought me a copy of the “National
Intelligencer” of June 12th, from which I extract the following:

                           “COTTON BURNING.”

The London Star of May 27th thus appreciates the Confederate policy of
cotton burning:

  “If it be true that thousands of bales of goods—incapable of
 being converted into munitions of war, and absolutely secure, as
 private properly, from confiscation by the Federals—are being burnt
 or rolled into the river, the Confederates are committing social as
 well as political suicide. It is an act that has no comparison in
 modern history. It is not, like the destruction of Moscow, an act of
 desperate patriotism, for it impoverishes the vanquished, without in
 the least injuring the victors. If all the cotton, tobacco and sugar
 between Richmond and Mobile were given to the flames, it would not
 retard by an hour the fall of those cities, nor enhance by a dollar
 the cost of the conquest. Neither can it be supposed, except by men
 whose offences and disasters have phrenzied their intellects, that
 these huge incendiarisms will attract the slightest favor to their
 cause from across the Atlantic. They must be mad, indeed, to reckon
 that England and France will come to the help of men who are wantonly
 injuring themselves and the subjects of those powers. The only
 kindness that Europe can show them, is to advise that they abstain
 from such barbarous outrages, and make their peace as quickly as they
 can with the government that is as superior in right as in strength,
 having both the right and the power to retaliate upon such atrocities
 by a splendid act of mercy to mankind.”

                  ANOTHER BATTLE WITH JACKSON’S ARMY.

 Advices received at the War Department state that Jackson’s army
 attacked General Shields’s advance on Monday morning, near Port
 Republic. The conflict is said to have been maintained for about
 four hours by about two thousand of our men against the main body of
 Jackson’s army. The enemy’s force became so overwhelming in number
 that our advance was compelled to fall back, which it did in good
 order, until it met the main body of General Shields’s Command, near
 Conrad’s store. As soon as this was effected, the enemy in turn
 retired. The fighting is said to have been very severe, and the
 loss heavy on both sides. No further particulars have reached the
 department.

                       AN ACCOUNT OF THE BATTLE.

  LURAY, VA., JUNE 10, 1862.

 Colonel Carroll, commanding the fourth brigade, consisting of the
 eighty-fourth Pennsylvania, the eleventh Pennsylvania, the seventh
 Indiana, and the first Virginia regiments, altogether about sixteen
 hundred strong, reached Port Republic on Sunday, and reconnoitered
 and found the enemy in the town. They had a skirmish, and concluded
 to hold the bridge. They ordered it not to be burned, and put guns in
 position commanding it.

 At six o’clock on Monday this battery was opened upon by some twenty
 heavy guns, which were placed in position during the night. Our forces
 tried to reach the bridge repeatedly to destroy it, but were met by
 storms of bullets, and had to retire. A large cavalry force crossed
 and attacked our troops, while their infantry followed our men,
 opposing them at every step, after driving them back with heavy loss;
 but our numbers, after General Tyler’s third brigade arrived, were so
 much inferior to the enemy—theirs being at least five to one—that our
 position became so untenable, that it was impossible to hold it. We
 were therefore compelled to fall back, our boys fighting every foot
 of the way. After falling back some three or four miles, a body of
 cavalry were sent to attack us, but were received in such a manner as
 to compel them to retire, after which the engagement ended, having
 lasted about five hours.

 Our loss in killed and wounded is not known, but it is large, as is
 also that of the enemy. We lost a large number of prisoners.

 Colonel Carroll’s horse fell, injuring the Colonel badly, and Captain
 Kelly, of General Shields’s staff, was also much injured in the head.
 He received praise from all who witnessed his conduct in the action.

 Colonel Buckley, of the 29th Ohio, was badly wounded. His men charged
 three times to obtain possession of his body, but it was carried off
 by the enemy.

 General Ashby, of cavalry notoriety, was positively killed during the
 fight at the bridge over Middle river. Captain Keogh charged with a
 body of cavalry, and held the bridge some time during a terrible storm
 of grape.

 This was one of the most hotly contested engagements of the whole war,
 as is indicated by the loss compared with the numbers engaged, who
 fought like demons.

 Two regiments from the first brigade arrived in time to assist in
 covering the retreat. The pioneer corps also assisted. Colonel Buckley
 has arrived here wounded.

           THE RETREAT OF GENERAL BANKS—HIS OFFICIAL REPORT.

 _Report of the march of the first division fifth corps d’armie from
 Strasburg, Virginia, to Williamsport, Maryland, on the 24th and 25th
 days of May, 1862._

  HEADQUARTERS ARMY SHENANDOAH.

  HON. E. M. STANTON, _Secretary of War_.

 Information was received on the evening of May 23d, that the enemy, in
 very large force, had descended on the guard at Front Royal, Colonel
 Kenly, first Maryland regiment, commanding, burning the bridges and
 driving our troops toward Strasburg with great loss. Owing to what
 was deemed an extravagant statement of the enemy’s strength, these
 reports were received with some distrust; but a regiment of infantry,
 with a strong detachment of cavalry and a section of artillery, were
 immediately sent to reinforce Colonel Kenly. Later in the evening
 despatches from fugitives who had escaped to Winchester informed
 us that Colonel Kenly’s force had been destroyed, with but few
 exceptions, and the enemy, 15,000 or 20,000 strong, were advancing by
 rapid marches on Winchester.

 Orders were immediately given to halt the reinforcements sent to Front
 Royal, which had moved by different routes, and detachments of troops,
 under experienced officers, were sent in every direction to explore
 the roads leading from Front Royal to Strasburg, Middletown, Newtown
 and Winchester, to ascertain the force, position and purpose of this
 sudden movement of the enemy. It was soon found that his pickets were
 in possession of every road, and rumors from every quarter represented
 him in movement, in the rear of his pickets, in the direction of our
 camp.

 The extraordinary force of the enemy could no longer be doubted. It
 was apparent, also, that they had a more extended purpose than the
 capture of the brave little band at Front Royal.

 This purpose could be nothing less than the defeat of my own command,
 or its possible capture by occupying Winchester, and by this movement
 intercepting supplies or reinforcements, and cutting off all
 possibility of retreat.

 It was also apparent, from the reports of fugitives, prisoners, Union
 men, and our own reconnoitering parties, that the three divisions of
 the enemy’s troops, known to be in the valley, and embracing at least
 25,000 men, were united and close upon us, in some enterprise not yet
 developed.

 The suggestion, that had their object been a surprise, they would not
 have given notice of their approach by an attack on Front Royal, was
 answered by the fact, that on the only remaining point of attack—the
 Staunton road—our outposts were five miles in advance, and daily
 reconnaissances made for a distance of twelve hides towards Woodstock.

 Under this interposition of the enemy’s plans, our position demanded
 instant decision and action. Three courses were open to us: First,
 a retreat across Little North Mountain to the Potomac river, on the
 west. Second, an attack upon the enemy’s flank on the Front Royal
 road. Third, a rapid movement direct upon Winchester, with a view
 to anticipate his occupation of the town by seizing it ourselves,
 thus placing my command in communication with its original base of
 operations, in the line of reinforcements by Harper’s Ferry and
 Martinsburg, and securing a safe retreat in case of disaster.

 To remain at Strasburg was to be surrounded; to move over the
 mountains was to abandon our train at the outset, and to subject my
 command to flank attacks, without possibility of succor; and to attack
 the enemy in such overwhelming force could only result in certain
 destruction. It was, therefore, determined to enter the lists with the
 enemy in a race or a battle, as he should choose, for the possession
 of Winchester, the key of the valley, and for us the position of
 safety.

                              THE MARCH.

 At three o’clock, A.M., the 24th instant, the reinforcements,
 infantry, artillery and cavalry, sent to Colonel Kenly, were recalled;
 the advance guard, Colonel Donnelly’s brigade, were ordered to
 return to Strasburg. Several hundred disabled men, left in our charge
 by Shields’ division, were put upon the march, and our wagon train
 ordered forward to Winchester under escort of cavalry and infantry.
 General Hatch, with nearly our whole force of cavalry, and six pieces
 of artillery, was charged with the protection of the rear of the
 column, and the destruction of army stores, for which transportation
 was not provided, with instructions to remain in front of the town as
 long as possible, and hold the enemy in check, our expectations of
 attack being in that direction. All these orders were executed with
 incredible alacrity, and soon after nine o’clock the column was on the
 march, Colonel Donnelly in front, Colonel Gordon in the centre, and
 General Hatch in the rear.

 The column had passed Cedar creek, about three miles from Strasburg,
 with the exception of the rear guard, still in front of Strasburg,
 when information was received from the front that the enemy had
 attacked the train, and was in full possession of the road at
 Middletown. This report was confirmed by the return of fugitives,
 refugees and wagons, which came tumbling to the rear in fearful
 confusion.

 It being apparent now that our immediate danger was in front, the
 troops were ordered to the head of the column, and the train to the
 rear, and, in view of a possible necessity of our return to Strasburg,
 Captain James W. Albert, Topographical corps, who associated with him
 the Zouaves D’Afrique, Captain Collis, was ordered to prepare Cedar
 creek bridge for the flames, in order to prevent a pursuit in that
 direction by the enemy. In the execution of this order Captain Albert
 and the Zouaves were cut off from the column, which they joined at
 Williamsport. They had at Strasburg a sharp conflict with the enemy,
 in which his cavalry suffered severely. An interesting report of this
 affair will be found in the reports of Captain Albert and Captain
 Collis.

                          THE FIRST CONFLICT.

 The head of the reorganized column, Colonel Donnelly commanding,
 encountered the enemy in force at Middletown, about thirteen miles
 from Winchester. Three hundred troops had been seen in town, but it
 soon appeared that larger forces were in the rear. The brigade halted,
 and the forty-sixth Pennsylvania, Colonel Knipe, was ordered to
 penetrate the woods on the right and dislodge the enemy’s skirmishers.
 They were supported by a section of Cochran’s New York battery. Five
 companies of the enemy’s cavalry were discovered in an open field
 in the rear of the woods, and our artillery, masked at first by the
 infantry, opened fire upon them. They stood fire for a while, but
 at length retreated, pursued by our skirmishers. The twenty eighth
 New York, Lieutenant Colonel Brown, was now brought up, and under a
 heavy fire of infantry and artillery the enemy were driven back more
 than two miles from the pike. Colonel Donnelly being informed at that
 point by a citizen, in great alarm, that four thousand men were in the
 woods beyond, the men were anxious to continue the fight; but as this
 would have defeated our object by the loss of valuable time, with the
 exception of a small guard, they were ordered to resume the march.

 This affair occurred under my own observation, and I have great
 pleasure in vouching for the admirable conduct of officers and men. We
 lost one man killed and some wounded. The loss of the enemy could not
 be ascertained.

 This episode, with the change of front, occupied nearly an hour, but
 it saved our column. Had the enemy vigorously attacked our train
 while at the head of the column, it would have been thrown into such
 dire confusion as to have made a successful continuation of our march
 impossible. Pending this contest, Colonel Broadhead, of the first
 Michigan cavalry, was ordered to advance, and, if possible, to cut his
 way through and occupy Winchester. It was the report of this energetic
 officer that gave us the first assurance that our course was yet
 clear, and he was the first of our column to enter the town.

                          THE SECOND COMBAT.

 When it was first reported that the enemy had pushed between us
 and Winchester, General Hatch was ordered to advance with all his
 available cavalry from Strasburg, leaving Colonel De Forrest to
 cover the rear, and destroy stores not provided with transportation.
 Major Vought, fifth New York cavalry, had been previously ordered to
 reconnoitre the Front Royal road to ascertain the position of the
 enemy, whom he encountered in force near Middletown, and was compelled
 to fall back, immediately followed by the enemy’s cavalry, infantry
 and artillery. In this affair five of our men were killed and several
 wounded. The enemy’s loss is not known.

 After repeated attempts to force a passage through the lines of the
 enemy, now advanced to the pike, General Hatch, satisfied that this
 result could not be accomplished without great loss, and supposing
 our army to have proceeded but a short distance, turned to the left,
 and moving upon a parallel road, made several ineffectual attempts to
 effect a junction with the main column. At Newtown, however, he found
 Colonel Gordon holding the enemy in check, and joined his brigade.
 Major Collins, with three companies of cavalry, mistaking the point
 where the main body of the cavalry left the road, dashed upon the
 enemy until stopped by a barricade of wagons, and the tempestuous fire
 of infantry and artillery. His loss must have been severe.

 Six companies of the fifth New York, Colonel De Forrest, and
 six companies of the first Vermont cavalry, Colonel Tompkins,
 after repeated and desperate efforts to effect a junction with
 the main body—the road now being filled with infantry, artillery
 and cavalry—fell back to Strasburg, where they found the Zouaves
 D’Afrique. The fifth New York, failing to effect a junction at
 Winchester, and also at Martinsburg, came in at Clear Spring, with a
 train of thirty two wagons and many stragglers. The first Vermont,
 Colonel Tompkins, joined us at Winchester, with six pieces of
 artillery, and participated in the fight of the next morning. Nothing
 could surpass the celerity and spirit with which the various companies
 of cavalry executed their movements or their intrepid charges upon the
 enemy.

 General Hatch deserves great credit for the manner in which he
 discharged his duties as chief of cavalry in this part of our march,
 as well as at the fight at Winchester, and in covering the rear of our
 column to the river; but especially for the spirit infused into his
 troops during the brief period of his command, which, by confession
 of friend and foe, had been equal if not superior to the best of the
 enemy’s long trained mounted troops.

 From this point the protection of the rear of the column devolved upon
 the forces under Colonel Gordon.

                           THE THIRD COMBAT.

 The guard having been separated from the column, and the rear of the
 train having been attacked by an increased force near the bridge
 between Newtown and Kearnstown, Colonel Gordon was directed to send
 back the second Massachusetts, Lieutenant Colonel Brown to rescue
 the rear of the train and hold the enemy in check. They found him at
 Newtown, with a strong force of infantry, cavalry and artillery.

 The second Massachusetts was employed in the field, supported by the
 twenty-eighth New York and twenty-seventh Indiana, and ordered to
 drive the enemy from the town, and the battery was at the same time so
 placed as to silence the guns of the enemy.

 Both these objects were quickly accomplished. They found it impossible
 to reach Middletown, so as to enable the cavalry under General Hatch
 to join the column, or to cover entirely the rear of the train. Large
 bodies of the enemy’s cavalry passed upon our right and left, and the
 increased vigor of his movements demonstrated the rapid advance of
 the main body. A cavalry charge made upon our troops was received in
 squares on the right and on the road, and in the line of the left,
 which repelled his assault, and gained time to reform the train, to
 cover its rear, and to burn the disabled wagons. This affair occupied
 several hours—the regiments having been moved to the rear about six
 o’clock, and not reaching the town until after twelve.

 A full report by Colonel Gordon, who commanded in person, is enclosed
 herewith. The principal loss of the second Massachusetts occurred in
 this action.

                       THE FIGHT AT WINCHESTER.

 The strength and purpose of the enemy were to us unknown when we
 reached Winchester, except upon surmise and vague rumors from Front
 Royal. These rumors were strengthened by the vigor with which the
 enemy had pressed our main column, and defeated at every point efforts
 of detachments to effect a junction with the main column.

 At Winchester, however, all suspicion was relieved on that subject,
 all classes—Secessionists, Unionists, Refugees and Prisoners—agreed
 that the enemy’s force at or near Winchester was overwhelming, ranging
 from 25,000 to 30,000. Rebel officers, who came into our camp with
 entire unconcern, supposing that their own troops occupied the town,
 as a matter of course, and were captured, confirmed these statements,
 and added that an attack would be made on us at daybreak. I determined
 to test the substance and strength of the enemy by actual collision,
 and measures were promptly taken to prepare our troops to meet them.
 They had taken up their positions on entering the town after dark,
 without expectation of a battle, and were at disadvantage, as compared
 with the enemy.

 The rolling of musketry was heard during the latter part of the
 night, and before the break of day a sharp engagement occurred at the
 outposts. Soon after four o’clock the artillery opened its fire, which
 continued without cessation till the close of the engagement.

 The right of our line was occupied by the third brigade, Colonel
 George H. Gordon commanding. The regiments were strongly posted, and
 near the centre covered by stone walls from the fire of the enemy.

 Their infantry opened on the right, and soon both lines were under
 heavy fire.

 The left was occupied by the third brigade, Colonel Dudley Donnelly
 commanding.

 The line was weak, compared with that of the enemy, but the troops
 were posted, and patiently awaited, as they nobly improved their
 coming opportunity. The earliest movements of the enemy were on
 our left, two regiments being sent to move, as with the purpose of
 occupying a position in flank or rear. General Hatch sent a detachment
 of cavalry to intercept this movement, when it was apparently
 abandoned. The enemy suffered very serious loss from the fire of
 our infantry on the left. One regiment is represented by persons
 present during the action and after the field was evacuated as nearly
 destroyed.

 The main body of the enemy was hidden during the early part of the
 action by the crest of the hill and the woods in the rear.

 Their force was massed apparently upon our right, and their manœuvres
 indicated a purpose to turn us upon the Berryville road, where it
 appeared subsequently they had placed a considerable force, with a
 view of preventing reinforcements from Harper’s Ferry. But the steady
 fire of our lines held them in check, until a small portion of the
 troops, on the right of our line, made a movement to the rear. It is
 but just to add that this was done under the erroneous impression
 that an order to withdraw had been given. No sooner was this observed
 by the enemy, than its regiments swarmed upon the crest of the hill,
 advancing from the woods upon our right, which, still continuing its
 fire steadily, withdrew towards the town.

 The overwhelming force of the enemy, now suddenly showing itself,
 making further resistance unwise, orders were sent to the left by
 Captain De Hauteville to withdraw, which was done reluctantly, but in
 order, the enemy having greatly suffered in the wing. A portion of the
 troops passed through the town in some confusion, but the column was
 soon reformed, and continued its march in order. This engagement held
 the enemy in check five hours.

 The forces engaged were greatly unequal. Indisposed to accept the
 early rumors concerning the enemy’s strength, I reported to the
 department that it was about 15,000. It is now conclusively shown that
 not less than 25,000 men were in position, and could have been brought
 into action. On the right and left their great superiority of numbers
 was plainly felt and seen, and the signal officers, from elevated
 positions, were enabled to count regimental standards, indicating a
 strength equal to that above stated.

 My own command consisted of two brigades of less than four thousand
 men, all told, with nine hundred cavalry, ten Parrott guns, and one
 battery of six-pounders, smooth bore cannon. To this should be added
 the tenth Maine regiment of infantry, and five companies of Maryland
 cavalry, stationed at Winchester, which were engaged in the action.
 The loss of the enemy was treble that of ours in killed and wounded.
 In prisoners ours greatly exceeded theirs.

 Officers, whose word I cannot doubt, have stated, as the result of
 their own observation, that our men were fired upon from private
 dwellings in passing through Winchester; but I am credibly informed,
 and gladly believe, that the atrocities said to have been perpetrated
 upon our wounded soldiers by the rebels are greatly exaggerated, or
 entirely untrue.

 Our march was turned in the direction of Martinsburg, hoping there to
 meet with reinforcements—the troops moving in three parallel columns,
 each protected by an efficient rear guard. Pursuit by the enemy was
 prompt and vigorous, but our movements were rapid, and without loss.

 A few miles from Winchester the sound of a steam whistle, heard in the
 direction of Martinsburg, strengthened the hope of reinforcements,
 and stirred the blood of the men like a trumpet. Soon after two
 squadrons of cavalry came dashing down the road with wild hurrahs.
 They were thought to be the advance of the anticipated support, and
 were received with deafening cheers. Every man felt like turning back
 upon the enemy. It proved to be the first Maryland cavalry, Lieutenant
 Colonel Metschky, sent out in the morning as a train guard. Hearing
 the guns, they had returned to participate in the fight.

 Advantage was taken of this stirring incident to reorganize our
 column, and the march was continued with renewed spirit and order. At
 Martinsburg the column halted two and a half hours, the rear guard
 remaining until seven in the evening in rear of the town, and arrived
 at the river at sundown, forty-eight hours after the first news of
 the attack on Front Royal. It was a march of fifty-three miles,
 thirty-five of which were performed in one day. The scene at the river
 when the rear guard arrived was of the most animating and exciting
 description. A thousand camp fires were burning on the hill side; a
 thousand carriages of every description were crowded upon the banks of
 the broad river between the exhausted troops and their coveted rest.

 The ford was too deep for the teams to cross in regular succession;
 only the strongest horses, after a few experiments, were allowed
 to essay the passage of the river before morning. The single ferry
 was occupied by the ammunition trains, the ford by the wagons. The
 cavalry was secure in its form of crossing. The troops only had no
 transportation. Fortunately the train we had so sedulously guarded
 served us in turn. Several boats belonging to the pontoon train, which
 we had brought from Strasburg, were launched, and devoted exclusively
 to their service. It is seldom that a river crossing of such magnitude
 is achieved with greater success. There never were more grateful
 hearts in the same number of men then when at midday on the 20th we
 stood on the opposite shore.

 My command had not suffered an attack and rout, but accomplished a
 premeditated march of nearly sixty miles in the face of the enemy,
 defeating his plans and giving him battle wherever he was found.

 Our loss is stated in detail, with the names of the killed, wounded
 and missing, in the full report of Brigadier General A. S. Williams,
 commanding division, to which reference is made. The whole number in
 killed is 38, wounded 155, missing 711. Total loss 905.

 It is undoubtedly true that many of the missing will yet return, and
 the entire loss may be assumed as not exceeding seven hundred. It is
 also probable that the number of killed and wounded may be larger than
 that above stated, but the aggregate loss will not be changed thereby.
 All our guns were saved.

 Our wagon train consisted of nearly five hundred wagons. Of this
 number fifty-five were lost. They were not, with a few exceptions,
 abandoned to the enemy, but were burned upon the road. Nearly all of
 our supplies were thus saved. The stores at Front Royal, of which I
 had no knowledge until my visit to that position on the 21st instant,
 and those at Winchester, of which a considerable portion was destroyed
 by our troops, are not embraced in this statement.

 The number of sick men in the hospital at Strasburg, belonging to
 General Williams’s division, was 189, 125 of whom were left in the
 hospital at Winchester, under charge of surgeon Lincoln R. Stone,
 second Massachusetts, or were left in hospital at Strasburg, including
 attendants, under charge of surgeon Gillespie, seventh Indiana, and
 assistant surgeon Porter, United States army.

 Eight of the surgeons of this division voluntarily surrendered
 themselves to the enemy, in the hospitals and on the field, for
 the care of the sick and wounded placed under their charge. They
 include, in addition to those above named, brigade surgeon Peale, at
 Winchester; surgeon Mitchell, first Maryland, at Front Royal; surgeon
 Adolphus, Bests’s battery, United States army; surgeon Johnson,
 sixteenth Indiana; and surgeon Francis Leland, second Massachusetts,
 on the field.

 It is seldom that men are called upon to make a greater sacrifice of
 comfort, health and liberty, for the benefit of those entrusted to
 their charge. Services and sacrifices like these ought to entitle them
 to some more important recognition of their devotion to public duty
 than the mere historical record of the fact.

 The report of the medical director, surgeon W. S. King, exhibits the
 disposition of nearly one thousand sick and disabled men left at
 Strasburg by Shields’s division upon its removal to the Rappahannock
 valley.

 My warmest thanks are due to the officers and men of my command for
 their unflinching courage and unyielding spirit exhibited on the
 march and its attendant combats. Especially to Brigadier General
 A. S. Williams, commanding the division, General George S. Greene,
 and General L. W. Crawford, who had reported for duty, but were
 yet unassigned to separate commands. They accompanied the column
 throughout the march, and rendered me most valuable assistance.

 My thanks are also due to the gentlemen of my staff—Major D. D.
 Perkins, chief of staff; Captain James W. Albert, of the Topographical
 Engineers; Captain Wm. Sheffler, Captain Frederick Munther, and
 Captain Frederick De Hauteville—for their arduous labors.

 It gives me pleasure also to commend the conduct of Colonel Donnelly
 and Colonel Gordon, commanding the two brigades. I would also
 respectfully ask the attention of the department to the reports of the
 several officers commanding detachments separate from the main column,
 and to the officers named in the report of General Williams, as worthy
 of commendation for meritorious conduct.

 The signal corps, Lieutenant W. W. Rowley commanding, rendered most
 valuable service on the field and in the march. There should be some
 provision for the prompt promotion of officers and men so brave and
 useful as those composing this corps. The safety of the train and
 supplies is, in a great degree, due to the discretion, experience, and
 unfailing energy of Captain S. B. Holabird and Captain E. G. Beckwith,
 United States army.

  I have the honor to be, with great respect,
  Your obedient servant,

  N. P. BANKS,
  _Major General Commanding_.

_June 24th, 1862._ Subjoined is a letter from that Southern traitor
and unscrupulous scoundrel, “Parson Brownlow,” to the “Philadelphia
Enquirer:”

                   _Extracts from Northern papers._

                            EAST TENNESSEE.

  _Editor Philadelphia Inquirer:_

 SIR—I have two letters of recent date, and from reliable sources,
 giving me news from East Tennessee, which I desire to place you in
 possession of, and through you the public generally.

 The persecutions of the Union men continue, and really increase
 in severity, The property of all Union men in the Federal States
 and army was being sold at auction, including furniture, stock,
 grain, agricultural implements, &c., no attention being paid to the
 necessities of their families. The Union citizens and soldiers, who
 are in the prisons of Salisbury, Tuscaloosa and Mobile, are dying
 rapidly from the effects of tainted meat, rotten food, and starvation.
 The Rebel authorities seek to dispose of Union men in this way.

 The whole country in East Tennessee is filled with guerrilla bands,
 who are committing all sorts of depredations on Union people, and
 destroying their property. The Union men in the United States army, at
 Cumberland Gap, are breathing threatening and slaughter against the
 despoilers of their homes, the consumers of their substance, and the
 murderers of their parents and relatives, and nothing but the direct
 interference of Providence will prevent them from executing their
 threats. No military discipline will be sufficiently strong to prevent
 these men from the indiscriminate slaughter of those Secession leaders
 and soldiers who have done all this mischief.

 One of the letters before me is from a Union officer at Cumberland
 Gap, and is dated June 27th. It gives this information: “Duncan McCall
 is just over from Knox county, and reports eight thousand Rebel troops
 at Knoxville, who were going to Atlanta, Georgia, by way of Maryville,
 distant only sixteen miles from Knoxville. The Secesh citizens had
 their goods packed up and marked for Atlanta, and were themselves
 crossing the river at Knoxville. The Rebels had arrested Montgomery
 Thomburg, Lemuel Johnson, Esquire Galbraith, Oliver p. Temple, John
 Baxter and others, and sent them to Tuscaloosa. Thomburg and Temple
 were dead, and the remains of the former had been brought back. Others
 were lying at the point of death.”

 Colonel Thomburg was the commonwealth’s attorney, and visited my
 bedside the night before I was started out of the bogus Confederacy,
 upon a pass granted him by the commanding officer. When he took leave
 of me he held me by the hand, and with tears in his eyes, made this
 remark: “Brownlow, I am glad you are going out, and I hope you may
 arrive safe; but God only knows what will become of those of us who
 remain!”

 Colonel Temple was a good lawyer, in comfortable circumstances, and as
 noble a man as lived in Tennessee. He was a Bell Everett elector for
 that district in the late election for President. He leaves a wife and
 one child to mourn his loss. He had been my friend through evil and
 good report.

 Colonel Baxter is a wealthy lawyer, of fine talents, and a citizen of
 Knoxville. He has been my friend for years, and I sympathize with his
 wife and ten interesting children. Certainly nothing short of an old
 fashioned orthodox _hell_ will suit as a place of confinement for the
 persecutors of these Union men.

  _July 9, 1862._         W. G. BROWNLOW.

                   _Extracts from Northern papers._

                   THE CONFEDERATE GENERAL JACKSON.

 General Jackson was educated at West Point, and was afterwards a
 professor for fifteen years at the Virginia Military School at
 Lexington. He is a cousin of the Jackson who was once Lieutenant
 Governor of Virginia, and of the Jackson who is now the United States
 District Judge for Western Virginia. The family settled early in that
 region, and furnished its representative in Congress for about thirty
 years, commencing with the administration of General Washington. It
 has become a numerous family in the Valley of Virginia and in Western
 Virginia, and its members are about equally divided by the present
 struggle. After his hard fight of last Sunday with General Fremont, in
 which he was compelled to leave the field, he attacked the next day
 and drove back an advanced force of two thousand men of the army of
 General Shields. Such persistency proves that he has the confidence
 of his troops, and he doubtless deserves it. He has been the fighting
 hero of the war on the Confederate side.—_Washington Republican._

                THE REVEALING OF THE GRAVES AT CORINTH.

 Suspicions of the contents of some of the graves found in the
 vicinity of Corinth, caused an investigation and exhuming of the
 deposits. Neatly made graves, with necessary head and foot boards,
 bearing the names of colonels and majors were visited, and the loose
 earth covering them was ordered to be removed, when, on arriving to
 the depth of four feet, a solid substance was struck, which upon
 clearing the earth around, was found to be contraband Secesh, in
 the shape of siege guns. One grave with the head-board designated
 as “Colonel somebody,” was found to contain a 64 pounder siege gun.
 “Quite a heavy colonel that.” Others were found, but in what number
 I have not learned. Some have been found buried in the swamps beyond
 Corinth.—_Correspondent Cincinnati Times._

                          THE BLACKEST PAGE.

 When the truthful historian shall write the history of this sad and
 unholy civil war, there will be in the volume many pages over which
 a shadow of blackness will forever rest; but the blackest page will
 be that which hands down to future generations the record of General
 Butler’s order in regard to the women of New Orleans. Like the shadow
 of a great wrong, it will forever darken the fair brow of the Goddess
 of Liberty. The millions yet unborn will read it with commingled
 feelings of shame and pity, and doubt our boasted claim to freedom,
 civilization and Christianity. True, it is but the act of one man, but
 that man commissioned and paid by his country for the enforcement of
 the laws and the preservation of society. If the government retains
 him in commission, it becomes responsible for his acts, and endorses
 his infamy.

 No man respects more than we do the well-earned reputation of the
 American army:

                  “It is a school
    Where every principle tending to honor
    Is taught—_if followed_;”

 but in the name of that distinguished army we solemnly protest against
 an act which would blight its greenest laurels, and lay its trophies
 prostrate in the dust. If they war, let it not be done on domestic
 happiness; if they invade, be their country’s hearths inviolable; let
 them achieve a triumph wherever their banners fly, but be it not over
 morals, innocence and virtue.

 Let the government remove this stigma from its name by removing
 General Butler from his command.—_Ohio Dayton Empire, June 7._

       *       *       *       *       *

 There is a United States Court at Washington city which makes a
 business of catching and surrendering persons claimed as fugitive
 slaves, and refuses to hear evidence that the claimants are traitors.
 If anybody wants to be taxed for the support of such a court, let him
 be so taxed; we don’t. How many judicial functionaries, beginning with
 Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, are taking pay from the United States,
 while their hearts are with the Southern Confederacy, we cannot say;
 but we think the number ought to be reduced. Who shall devise the
 proper mode?—_New York Tribune._

_June 25th._ To-day a lady from Alexandria, Virginia, called to see
a prisoner, and the latter remarked to her that he had suffered very
much since his confinement from sickness and privation, and the lady
replied, “Well, you must bear it manfully, you are doing what you
believe to be your duty,” whereupon the Yankee Lieutenant present,
whose name is Holmes, told her she “must leave the room, or she would
be arrested.” The Rev. Mr. Nourse, heretofore permitted to preach
funeral sermons over prisoners who have died here, has been superseded
on the charge of uttering Secession sentiments. Having heard every
sermon he has preached, I can truthfully record that he has not at
any time said anything which could be _tortured_ into “Secession
sentiments.” They must have objected to the repetition by Mr. Nourse
of the commandments: “Thou shalt not steal,” or “thou shalt not covet
thy neighbor’s man servant, nor his maid servant,” &c.; for no doubt
their guilty consciences caused them to feel pain upon the utterance of
these imperative injunctions from Holy Writ, and some one of them were
compelled to be present on such an occasion:

                   _Extracts from Northern papers._

         FROM THE SHENANDOAH—HOW MATTERS STAND IN THE VALLEY.

               _Correspondence of the Cincinnati Times._

 WINCHESTER, June 18.—At the present writing, I think it is safe, in
 consideration of the time which must elapse before the publication
 of my letter, to state that, though I have industriously sought for
 information, I have yet to find the first officer of any military
 importance who has any hesitancy in stating that he considers their
 condition of the most critical character. What renders it the more
 so at present is the fact that the whereabouts of Jackson is not
 known. He may be moving on Front Royal to attack Shields, or he may be
 circumventing the Strasburg Mountain to get in the rear of Fremont.
 Every precaution is being used that human or military ingenuity can
 invent, in the way of scouts and videttes, but the troops are limited
 in number and worn out by their late duties, while the country is
 extensive and well suited for the purposes of war, to a people who
 know the windings of every mountain road, and whose spies are like the
 cattle of Ossian’s hero “on a thousand hills.”

 Further than this, Secessia fights its battles in the valleys, in the
 midst of its friends. The farmer who refuses a particle of food to the
 Union traveler, although the latter is willing to pay for it, is ever
 ready to turn out all he has to the Confederate army—first, because
 he really sympathizes with the Confederate soldiers, and, secondly,
 because he fears to withhold what he is confident they will take
 whether he is willing or not.

                          MORE FORCES WANTED.

 As I have said in almost every letter I have ever written you from
 this quarter, the general cry is “We want more troops in the Valley.”
 An application, as I stated, has been made to Secretary Stanton, and
 I understand it is now to be backed by the urgent persuasions of two
 other members of the Cabinet, who are convinced of the insufficiency
 of the force in this section.

 A small portion of the force here has been sent to Hagerstown,
 Williamsport and Martinsburg, to guard those points, and I think the
 movement is a very wise one. The 84th Ohio Regiment, one of the new
 Regiments, has arrived at Cumberland, and it will probably take the
 place of some of those more experienced, and act as post garrisons,
 while those heretofore engaged in that duty will be called to more
 active service.

 Rumors are abroad as to the expected arrival of a portion of General
 Halleck’s force in this quarter, but I can see no reliable foundation
 for the rumor.

                     FRONT ROYAL OR MOUNT JACKSON?

 Public opinion, and by that I mean military speculation, is just now
 strongly divided as to whether that arch traitor, Jackson, is still
 in front of Mount Jackson, or is wending his way toward a meditated
 attack on General Shields, at Front Royal. I am somewhat inclined
 to think it is toward the latter. As I am now situated, I am an
 “intermediate circumstance” between the two points.

     WHERE WILL JACKSON STRIKE?—TROUBLE AMONG THE FEDERAL TROOPS.

 MIDDLETOWN, June 19.—Everything to-day bears the appearance of a
 “muss,” to come off somewhere in this region almost immediately.
 Whether this will be on the Mount Jackson road, or at Front Royal, as
 I stated in my former letter, it is impossible for me yet to say, but
 I listen for the tidings hourly which shall announce the opening of
 the battle. Matters point most directly to Front Royal, yet with the
 acuteness of General Jackson to manage Secession affairs, it may break
 upon us from some of the mountain defiles either beyond that point or
 over on the Mount Jackson road, or just as likely in the immediate
 vicinity of this place, or, again, between here and Winchester, in our
 rear.

 _With the condition of feeling that I know to exist among both
 officers and men on the National side, I have no hesitation to state
 that after a hotly contested field, the result of the battle will
 be another grand “skedaddle.”_ The knowledge that Jackson has been
 heavily reinforced is patent to every private in our ranks, and that
 consequence must ensue which attends as a certainty upon the efforts
 of men who fight under discouraging circumstances. The retreat
 of June 2d is still fresh in their minds, and the failure of the
 War Department to properly reinforce the division in the Mountain
 Department, I believe, will be productive of results greatly to be
 deplored. I may be mistaken in my conjectures, but I give you my
 impressions, and leave to time to prove their correctness or falsity.
 The electric wire may have notified you before this reaches you,
 relative to what I say. I repeat, something is on the eve of being
 accomplished, and only a change produced by unforeseen circumstances
 will prevent its accomplishment.

           ARRIVAL OF CONFEDERATE PRISONERS AT PHILADELPHIA.

              _From the Philadelphia Inquirer, June 25._

 Four hundred and ninety Confederate prisoners, taken recently at
 various points in the Shenandoah Valley, arrived from Harrisburg last
 evening, and at half past eight reached Washington street wharf,
 whence they left the cars for the steamboat Major Reybold, which
 transported them to Fort Delaware. Of these men four hundred and
 thirty-four arrived in Harrisburg on the 16th instant, and fifty-eight
 the day before yesterday, making in all four hundred and ninety-two,
 of whom two still remain sick in Harrisburg. They had among them but
 one officer, Major Davis, of the 2d Virginia Infantry, who had been at
 the battle of Bull Run, and in all the engagements since fought in the
 valley, under Jackson.

 He is a native of Jefferson county, Virginia, is very prepossessing
 and gentlemanly, and about 35 years of age. His coat was of fine grey
 cloth, with abundant gold lace on the arms and collar; his pantaloons
 were of light army blue, and his cap of the same color. The prisoners
 were under charge of a guard, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel
 Thompson, of the 115th Pennsylvania Regiment, and appeared in good
 spirits, taking their present and anticipated confinement with great
 philosophy. Many were from Northern States, and not a few from
 Massachusetts. Irishmen were by no means unfrequent among them.

 The account given by Northern men and foreigners generally was, that
 they were pressed into the service, or enlisted through want of
 employment and the means of living. The whole gang were exceedingly
 sun-burnt and rugged through exposure and incessant marching, and
 in an inconceivably filthy state, their clothing being filled with
 vermin. The prisoners were in sixteen cars, of which nearly all were
 freight cars. Each of these, on arrival, was surrounded by crowds who
 entered into conversation with the prisoners. One Confederate was
 asked if he would take the oath of allegiance, and answered, “I’ll see
 you —— first.”

 Another asked if it was true that McClellan was dead. “You’ll hear
 about that when he gets into Richmond,” said one of the crowd. “He’d
 better hurry up, then,” was the reply. “You know he said he was
 going to be there on the 4th of July, he has only nine days ahead of
 him.” In answer to the numerous charges of cruelty urged against the
 Confederates, both towards wounded men and towards prisoners, this was
 denied as regards the mass of the Confederate army, but it was allowed
 that individual cases might have been perpetrated by the “Pineys,” or
 ignorant backwoodsmen of the South. The prisoners claimed that the
 Confederates were men, as were the Unionists, and would act towards
 their fellow-creatures fully as well.

                           THE REBEL ASHBY.

                     _From our own Correspondent._

  BALTIMORE, June 16, 1862.

 Turner Ashby belonged to Fauquier county, where his family was
 influential, if not wealthy. In Washington, Baltimore and Richmond,
 the Ashbys were well known among people of superior social position,
 and were everywhere esteemed for their intelligence, courage and
 honor. But the refinement which seems to have been a characteristic
 of the same, must have met with an exception in the “Black-Horse”
 Colonel, who is always described as brusque, stern, soldier-like.

 His earliest military experience, beyond the mere soldier-playing of
 Virginia horsemen, was in command of a company of cavalry, whom he
 led to Charlestown immediately upon the apparition of John Brown at
 Harper’s Ferry. It was then and there that Ashby’s “Black-Horse” had
 their name; his men were mounted on blooded black chargers, and the
 chargers were mounted by “blooded” white riders—horse and man alike
 were of the first families. His men were picked for their equestrian
 accomplishments, and many of their horses were bred and trained on
 his own plantation. As for himself, his name as a horseman is famous
 from Washington to Winchester, his repute in this respect being equal
 to that of the gallant, but reckless Randolph Ridgely, of Baltimore,
 to the exploits of whose battery in Mexico, Colonel May is mainly
 indebted for his dragoon reputation.

 During the John Brown affair, Ashby scouted the Shenandoah county for
 negro conspirators, and effectually checked the spirit of servile
 uprising. He was one of the first to enlist in the Rebellion, and
 waited in Richmond with a proffer of his services, till the ordinance
 of Secession was passed. That same day, he hurried to Harper’s Ferry,
 by way of Washington the “Relay,” and followed by several Virginians,
 was the first mounted Rebel to rush into that storied little town. It
 is believed that the movement against Harper’s Ferry was proposed and
 organized at Richmond by him.

 Turner Ashby was a _gentle_ man—so quiet, taciturn, and reticent, as
 to be thought morose by those who did not know him well. If a Rebel
 can be pious, he was so. I have heard from two intelligent residents
 of Harper’s Ferry, that he especially abominated profanity, and when
 in that place, last fall, he was excited for a moment into _damning_
 something, he openly expressed his regret and mortification.

 It was certain that he was not ambitious of military honors, for he
 was twice offered the shoulder-straps of a brigadier general, but
 declined, on the ground that he had no special military fitness, save
 for the command of cavalry, composed of men whom he knew, and in a
 region with which he was familiar. When, finally, he did accept the
 brigadier’s commission, it was for expediency, and in compliance with
 urgent appeals.

 His younger brother “Dick,” a captain in his own corps, was
 peculiarly endeared to him by his fine horsemanship, and his personal
 intrepidity. Dick Ashby, you remember, was killed in a desperate
 affair with Wallace’s Indiana Zouaves, near Patterson’s Creek, on
 the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. After his horse was killed, and he
 was shot, he refused quarter, and kicked at our men as he lay on the
 ground. It is said by all who knew him, that Turner Ashby has been a
 silent, but a savage, man ever since.

 He was about thirty-seven years old, of medium height, weighing,
 perhaps, 150 pounds, of very dark complexion, with deeply set black
 eyes, surmounted by shaggy eye-brows, and with a most imposing beard
 and moustache, covering half of his face, and falling half way down
 his breast.

 He was devoted to General Jackson, and frequently declared that he
 should be proud to follow him in any character, and for any duty. As
 for his personal courage, it is enough to say that the very morning
 General Banks entered Winchester, Ashby went to his headquarters
 disguised as a market man, and in reply to questions from staff
 officers, described his Rebel self.

 The day before the battle of Winchester, he rode through the streets
 of that town, with one of his Captains, in Union uniform.

 One of the most gallant Colonels in Shields’s command, who has
 observed Ashby in three engagements, said in a verbal report to
 Government, a few days ago, that the Black-Horse General had of
 late become the most reckless man to be found on either side; that
 he seemed to plunge into all forms of danger with delight, riding
 wherever the fire was hottest, waving his sword, discharging his
 pistol at our best officers, and continually inviting hand-to-hand
 encounters. Our Colonel saw him leap his horse over an abandoned gun,
 to make such an attack. So peculiar, by its skill and daring, was
 his horsemanship, that he long ago became a marked man, and General
 Shields predicted that Ashby would surely be killed before Jackson was
 driven out of the valley. It was no doubt an intelligent bullet that
 took him off. A lady at Winchester said to us, “Ashby is a _devoted_
 man; this war has well nigh broken his heart.” ALTAMONT.

                            JESSIE SCOUTS.

 When General Fremont took charge of the Mountain Department, he
 proceeded to follow his notion derived from experience in the Western
 frontier. He knew that the safety and efficiency of his army in a wild
 wooded and rugged region, depended upon the accuracy with which he
 received information of the plans and movements of the enemy.

 He at once called around him a set of Western frontiersmen, who had
 served all through the campaign in Missouri. Some had been in the
 border wars of Kansas; some had served long years on the plains,
 hunting the buffalo and the Indian; men accustomed to every form of
 hardship, thoroughly skilled, not only in the use of the rifle, but
 drilled in all cunning ways and devices to discover the intentions,
 position, and strength of a foe. The best of these men were selected
 and placed in a small organization called the Jessie Scouts.

 Their name is taken from General Fremont’s wife, who remained with
 her husband until his army reached New Creek, Virginia. During her
 stay she frequently saw these men, and became very popular with them.
 Hence their present attachment to her. They swear by her, and wear her
 initials upon their coats, inserted in very modest but coarse style.
 They are not made prominent or ostentatiously conspicuous. The men—and
 I have talked with a number of them—seem equally devoted to Fremont
 himself. Their number when full is twenty-four.

 Three of them have recently been taken, and three have been detached
 for service in Halleck’s Department. Hence they number for some days
 only eighteen. They have, however, been recruiting up to the full
 number. One of the recent recruits whom I have seen, is a bold,
 dashing, fine-looking young man, a son of Brigadier General Kelly, who
 has been in service in Virginia for more than a year. He, therefore,
 has had frontier experience enough to qualify him for the undertaking.
 He certainly possesses the pluck. Doubtless he inherited that. Their
 Captain, by the way, a most remarkable character in this line of
 business, is Charles Carpenter, of Kansas. Born in Ohio, he went, at
 the age of 16, to the border of Missouri. Then (1854.) Kansas was
 wild and comparatively unsettled. He at once, with the ardor of his
 character, entered upon a wild, roving life. He has tried his hand
 at everything—hunting, farming, roaming, fighting Indians, Missouri
 border ruffians, and occasionally “Jay-hawking.” He was at one time
 with Montgomery, at another with Jennison, and again with Cleveland.
 He left the last named, because, as he terms it, “things began to get
 too heavy even for him; he has yet some ‘bowels of compassion left.’”

 At the opening of the war, he was employed by Fremont, and went with
 him to Springfield, actively scouting during the whole of the “Hundred
 days.” Before Fremont left St. Louis, he detected, in company with
 another scout, two men, who had ingeniously connected a wire, over
 1,100 feet long, with the regular wire over the North Missouri Road,
 and took off regularly the despatches sent by Fremont to his officers
 in North Missouri. Through these men Price obtained information of
 Fremont’s order to Sturgis to advance to the assistance of Mulligan
 at Lexington. These two men these scouts were compelled to kill ere
 they could get possession of the wire. Their bodies were found in the
 bottom of a neighboring river.

 Once he entered Jeff. Thompson’s camp, when he threatened to take
 Cape Girardeau, and cross the Mississippi River, upon a foray into
 Illinois. The agreeable time he spent there was luxuriated in a
 san-insane prison, amusing the men and officers by his curious antics
 and monkey tricks. For two days he drove a team for Sterling Price,
 leaving his lines to procure forage, taking care not to return. Taken
 prisoner with his present Lieutenant, Robb, back of Paducah, they were
 carried for some distance toward Union City.

 At night, they escaped by killing three men of the guard and the
 proprietor of the house, a violent Secessionist. Taking their horses,
 and assuming the garb of Confederate soldiers, they passed by Forts
 Henry and Donelson without the slightest interruption. Robb’s ability
 to forge passes was of signal use to them in reaching Louisville.

 Since he has been in the valley, he has sold a horse _suspected
 of Secession proclivities_ to a man purchasing horses for Ashby’s
 Cavalry, and then tolled him and his horses into Fremont’s camp.
 The purchase money, (consisting of good Confederate notes,) and two
 horses, were thus restored to the Union, and a candidate for promotion
 to a permanent residence at Fort Delaware procured.

 He is bronzed, so that his neck is black by exposure to the weather
 and sun. The eye is light blue, and the hair dark, with an inclination
 to curl. The face bears a youthful appearance, but looks like thirty
 instead of twenty-five, the real age of Carpenter. He is not above
 five feet six, and of high, sinewy mould. His weight is certainly
 not over one hundred and thirty-five. The careless, frank, Western
 style of manner and address belong to him. Heady for fight, fun or
 frolic, he is said to have mingled with his dash and boldness a
 remarkable prudence and caution. These qualities, united to his almost
 slavish devotion to Fremont, make him and his band invaluable to that
 commander.

 His dress consists of a pair of pantaloons of a dark earthen hue,
 darker than buckskin. The coat is made of the dark grey material of
 which frontiersmen’s hunting shirts are mostly made; it is a loose
 sack, trimmed in the cape and sleeves with fringe, gathered in the
 back, immediately under the shoulders, in folds or plaits. This is
 bound at the waist with his pistol belt. His only arm of defence,
 besides the six-shooter, is a breech-loading rifle, weighing about
 ten pounds, and good for eight hundred yards. Such is a short outline
 of the career and appearance of one of the most marked and eccentric
 characters now in this valley, waging war for the restoration of the
 Union.—_Correspondence Philadelphia Inquirer._

_June 26th._ Judge Charles Mason, late United States commissioner of
patents, called to see me to-day. The Judge will endeavor to have me
paroled or exchanged, so he says. From our window we can daily see
Yankees looking through opera glasses or telescopes at us, as if we
were inhuman curiosities. To burlesque them, the boys hold bottles up
to their eyes as if gazing at them.

The following letter from Hon. Charles Sumner, the Massachusetts
negro-worshipper, shows the intimate relations, political and social,
existing between him and “Abe” Lincoln. “Birds of a feather flock
together.” They are two peas from the same pod:

              _From The New York Tribune, June 26, 1862._

  SENATE CHAMBER, JUNE 5, 1862.

 MY DEAR SIR: Your criticism of the President is hasty. I am confident
 that, if you knew him as I do, you would not make it.

 Of course, the President cannot be held responsible for the
 malfeasances of subordinates, unless adopted, or at least tolerated
 by him. And I am sure that nothing unjust or ungenerous will be
 tolerated, much less adopted, by him.

 I am happy to let you know that he has no sympathy with Stanly in his
 absurd wickedness, closing the schools, nor again in his other act
 of turning our camp into a hunting ground for slaves. He repudiates
 both—positively. The latter point has occupied much of his thought;
 and the newspapers have not gone too far in recording his repeated
 declarations, which I have often heard from his own lips, that slaves
 finding their way into the national lines are never to be re-enslaved.
 This is his conviction, expressed without reserve.

 Could you have seen the President—as it was my privilege often—while
 he was considering the great questions on which he has already
 acted—the invitation to emancipation in the States, emancipation in
 the District of Columbia, and the acknowledgment of the independence
 of Hayti and Liberia—even your zeal would have been satisfied, for you
 would have felt the sincerity of his purpose to do what he could to
 carry forward the principles of the Declaration of Independence. His
 whole soul was occupied, especially by the first proposition, which
 was peculiarly his own. In familiar intercourse with him, I remember
 nothing more touching than the earnestness and completeness with which
 he embraced this idea. To his mind it was just and beneficent, while
 it promised the sure end of slavery. Of course to me, who had already
 proposed a bridge of gold for the retreating fiend, it was most
 welcome. Proceeding from the President, it must take its place among
 the great events of history.

 If you are disposed to be impatient at any seeming short-comings,
 think, I pray you, of what has been done in a brief period, and from
 the past discern the sure promise of the future. Knowing something
 of my convictions and of the ardor with which I maintain them, you
 may perhaps derive some assurance from my confidence. I say to you,
 therefore, stand by the administration. If need be, help it by word
 and act, but stand by it and have faith in it.

 I wish that you really knew the President, and had heard the artless
 expression of his convictions on those questions which concern you so
 deeply. You might perhaps wish that he were less cautious, but you
 would be grateful that he is so true to all that you have at heart.
 Believe me, therefore, you are wrong, and I regret it the more because
 of my desire to see all our friends stand firmly together.

 If I write strongly, it is because I feel strongly; for my constant
 and intimate intercourse with the President, beginning with the 4th of
 March, not only binds me peculiarly to his administration, but gives
 me a personal as well as a political interest in seeing that justice
 is done him.

 Believe me, my dear sir, with much regard, ever faithfully yours.

  CHARLES SUMNER.

_June 27th._ Subjoined is an account of the scene in Baltimore on
the arrival of the Confederate prisoners taken at Kernstown, near
Winchester, March 23d last; also, an article from the “New York
Express” on the “Freedom of the press:”

                        “FREEDOM” OF THE PRESS.

 The New York Express of yesterday afternoon indulges in some
 courageous comments on the new rescript of the Secretary of War,
 putting further and more onerous restraints upon the publication of
 intelligence in the newspapers. We subjoin a few extracts:

 “What the personal risk is remains to be seen before a court martial
 selected and created by the party that arrests. It is clear to see,
 that under such ‘Law,’ or rather suspension of all Law, the business
 of newspaper publishing, or Journalising, is as perilous as any
 on earth. Both the Property and the Life of the Journalist are in
 peril—if he chances to err, in the judgment of the War Department—from
 which judgment, in the matter of Property, there is no appeal, and
 from which court martial selected by this War Department, there is
 no judicial relief, if death be the sentence. Prudence, of course,
 forbids all comment upon these very extraordinary proceedings, beyond
 saying that Journalism in this country, under such martial law, must
 run down to what it is in Constantinople, Rome, or Vienna—that is into
 mere criticisms upon the opera, or the fine arts, or puffs of court
 movements.

 “What deserves especial reprehension, is—if we may be allowed thus to
 criticise, with a halter around our necks,—the indulgence given such
 men as Wendell Phillips, to roam the country, teaching the subversion
 of the Constitution and the Laws,—while other men, of opposite
 politics, for exactly the same thing, are incarcerated in Fort Warren,
 Fort Lafayette, or other prisons, therefor. The partiality, the
 inequality, the injustice of this mode of treatment are so signal,
 that we marvel the common sense of the President does not see this
 wrong of his ministers, and arrest it. Upon all such partialities, and
 injustice, he should remember, History is making up its record,—and
 that the stern Muse, which records facts, will hold him responsible
 for these repeated inequalities of his Ministers.”

       *       *       *       *       *

 The army news,—what there is—the reader cannot be half as well
 informed of as are the Confederates in Richmond, who now know much
 better what our army is doing, than the true and loyal people of the
 United States. Hence, our streets are full of all sorts of gossip, and
 of all sorts of lies.

 “It was yesterday currently reported in Wall street (says the
 Tribune,) that a dispatch had been received at the Navy Yard,
 Brooklyn, stating that the Confederate steam battery Merrimac had
 left Norfolk, and was seen from our vessels in Hampton Roads, just
 off Craney Island. We learn that the report was wholly unfounded.
 Doubtless it was set afloat for stock jobbing purposes.”

 The reports from the battle about Winchester, on Sunday, and of the
 skirmishes, the days preceding and succeeding, are yet so obscure as
 but to increase the anxiety of parties having friends and relatives on
 that arena. It leaks out through Harrisburg, that the Colonel killed
 was Colonel Murray, of the 84th Pennsylvania, in consequence of which
 the Legislature of that State adjourned on Monday—but who are the 14
 captains and lieutenants, and the 100 soldiers, none in this quarter
 know.

 Under the new rescript from Washington, or the practical translation
 of it, that copying army news is as criminal as the original
 publication of it—it is next to impossible to know what to publish,
 or what not to publish. For example, we are not exactly sure—that the
 publication we make of the death of the Pennsylvania Colonel is not
 a criminal publication of army news—as it does not reach us by the
 Government wire.

 The newspapers in this country are to be printed, it would seem by
 a fresh rescript from the War Department, on rather more ticklish
 conditions than exist in any other country, viz:—that of “warning,”
 “suppression,” or “imprisonment”—because here, the summary court
 martial is to try offenders, and the execution of a drum-head court is
 threatened.

 Well, when any of our craft come down town in the morning, it would be
 well to say “adieu” to wife and family,—for it is not at all certain,
 under this rescript, that one may not be shot under drum-head law
 before night.

 The proper way to put a stop to the publication of war news, is to
 cut off the mails for a few days—and shut up all the channels of
 intelligence. But under this rescript, a journalist is completely in
 the power of what, or what not, may be set down as the publication of
 army news.

 This sort of departmental fulmination, is, to say the least, as much
 without decorum as without precedent. The offenders should be named,
 and dealt with—while this is but a fulmination _in terrorem_.

 The above is all very good and sensible, but our cotemporary is really
 silly enough to quote an obsolete instrument called the Constitution
 of the United States, about “free speech,” abridging the press,
 redress of grievances, etc., etc. We must, however, do it the justice
 to say that it adds:

 “But _cui bono_? Why thus vainly parade Constitutions and the
 Civil Law? We are struggling—(are we not?—answer, Free Speech
 Abolitionists!) for the emancipation of four million of Blacks,—but at
 what cost, Abolitionists? THE ENSLAVEMENT OF 20,000,000 OF WHITES, are
 we not?”

 It is scarcely invidious, in this connection, to remind our friends
 of the Express that the independent journals of this city have long
 since become used to this “gag” business; and we think, so far as the
 Constitution and personal liberty are concerned, they went out of use
 about the time of the Merryman habeas corpus case? Did not the Express
 approve and sanction the action of the President in that case? We do
 not remember that it ever condemned the suppression of the press in
 this city. If, therefore, it has itself fallen into the same coils,
 may we not enjoy its “wry faces” with something of the relish we
 should those of a physician who is forced to take his own medicine?

 We find the following, pertinent to the same subject, in the Boston
 Post.

 The Washington correspondent of the New York Evening Post says:

 “Free speech and free press is something which is not yet fully
 understood by pro-slavery men in this vicinity.”

 We should think they might understand “something” about them after
 reading the report of the Judiciary Committee on the censorship of the
 Press, as practiced by the Post’s political friends, or by conversing
 with editors whose papers were denied transportation in the mails,
 or by conversing with men _suspected_ of having said “something” not
 agreeable to certain officials, and who have been imprisoned without
 accusation or trial.

        ARRIVAL OF CONFEDERATE PRISONERS—THEY ARE CONSIGNED TO
                            THE CITY JAIL.

                      VISITORS DENIED ADMISSION.

 Shortly before 5 o’clock yesterday afternoon a special train arrived
 at the Camden Station, from Sandy Hook, near Harper’s Ferry, having
 on board 236 Confederate prisoners, said to have been captured in and
 about Winchester, Va., in charge of company B, 4th Ohio regiment,
 Captain Bourning.

 No notice had been given that the prisoners were expected, and the
 fact was not generally known, but immediately upon the arrival of
 the train, and in fact before it had fairly entered the depot, the
 news became circulated, and spread like wildfire. The crowd around
 the depot rapidly increased, and in a very short time the train was
 completely surrounded by persons all anxious to catch a glimpse of the
 strangers; some out of morbid curiosity, but a majority being desirous
 of grasping them by the hands, or searching among the crowd for some
 familiar face.

 Leaving the depot, they filed into Howard street, and took up the
 line of march to the quarters provided for them, at the City Hall. As
 they passed up Howard street, the passers-by thronged the sidewalks
 and street corners, and the ladies, with that independence which
 characterizes the Baltimore ladies, waved their handkerchiefs to the
 prisoners, which was politely acknowledged by them, and many raised
 their hats and returned the salutation with beaming faces and smiles
 of heartfelt thanks for the sympathy expressed.

 The demand for cakes, apples, refreshments, and everything in the
 shape of edibles, was astonishing. In a very few minutes the entire
 stock on hand about the depot was bought up by those assembled, who
 distributed them freely among the unfortunate soldiers.

 A large force of police soon arrived in charge of Marshal James L.
 McPhail, and the crowd was forced back from the cars to enable them to
 disembark. They were formed in line two abreast, the Federal soldiers
 and the police flanking them upon either side. As they passed out of
 the depot, the multitude, which had increased to several thousand,
 pressed forward, and shook hands with many of them, expressing
 sympathy for them in their misfortune.

 Many of the dwellings along the route presented a lively appearance,
 as the windows were occupied by men, women, and children, many of
 them waving hats and handkerchiefs; others, however, gave vent to
 their feelings by hooting, hissing, and giving vent to all sorts of
 disapprobation; some exclaiming, “There’s a specimen of your Southern
 chivalry;” “Oh, what a set of ragamuffins,” &c. The prisoners looked
 defiance at them, however, and treated all such, who so expressed
 themselves, with the utmost contempt.

 Passing into Madison street, they proceeded towards the jail, followed
 by an immense crowd. When near the jail building, a citizen living
 in the vicinity appeared at his window, with several children, who
 shouted vociferously for Jeff. Davis, whereupon several of the
 prisoners turned towards them, and became so excited as to take up the
 shout, and, despite the presence of the armed guard, cheered for Jeff.
 Davis with a hearty good will, raising their caps to those in the
 windows.

 The crowd caught the infection, and shouts of “Go it boys; them’s my
 sentiments;” “We ain’t all Yankees here, nary a time;” “We’re with you
 if we had a chance;” and similar exclamations were heard. Arriving at
 the jail gate, the crowd made another rush to get an opportunity to
 shake hands, but were pressed back, and the prisoners were marched
 inside the jail building and delivered over to Captain James, who
 provided them with quarters in the northern corridor of the building.

 The outside gate was soon besieged by a large number of people, all
 claiming the right to enter upon various pretexts. Quite a number did
 obtain ingress, and conversed freely with the prisoners, who seemed
 quite communicative and gratified at the attention paid to them.

 A majority of them are very young men and are very intelligent. A
 great many present the appearance of being farmers and laborers, many
 of whom state that they were only “Home Guards,” and not attached to
 the regular army, and were captured at their homes, and not in the
 battle at Winchester. Of this, however, we know nothing, except that
 the Federals claim them as prisoners of war. They are nearly all from
 the neighborhood of Staunton, Va. So far as we have been able to learn
 there are no Baltimoreans among them, as reported. They are a very
 hardy looking body of men, but rather rough in outward appearance,
 having doubtless been in active service for several months past. The
 uniforms, which are of grey, are warm and comfortable.

 They were provided last evening with refreshments by the gentlemanly
 warden of the jail, Captain James, who renders them as comfortable as
 circumstances will admit.

 At an early hour this morning numbers of persons assembled at the jail
 to obtain an interview, and among them many of the first ladies of
 the city, who were anxious to relieve their wants, but an order was
 received to close the gates, and all communication even to the press
 was denied. We are informed, however, that any packages of clothing or
 delicacies sent to them will be delivered to them by the authorities.
 Among the party are eighteen non-commissioned officers, who are very
 intelligent and gentlemanly, and all of whom seem thoroughly wrapt up
 heart and soul in the Southern cause.

I am more and more disgusted every day at the very sight of dark blue
uniforms—in proportion to my attachment to the South, is my indignant
wrath at her enemies. Let us have no terms to make with the hordes and
vandals who seek to destroy us by the most unscrupulous and barbarous
warfare the world has ever known. Would that I had the power to scatter
them like chaff with the breath of my mouth!

_June 29th._ It is generally believed by the prisoners that we have
badly whipped the Yankees before Richmond. Yankee newspapers try to
conceal it, but their conflicting accounts of battles betray their
efforts to pervert the truth. May it be so, and if so, _Deo Gratias!_
The Yankee officers here say that General McClellan is certainly on
“Church Hill.”

_June 30th._ The editor of the “Baltimore American” has been arrested,
it is said, for publishing the accounts of the battles before Richmond
_too soon_. Having met with the subjoined address, I record it as a
part of the current history of the times:

_Address of the Democratic Members of Congress to the Democracy of the
                            United States._

FELLOW-CITIZENS:—The perilous condition of our country demands that we
should reason together. Party organization, restricted within proper
limits, is a positive good, and indeed essential to the preservation of
public liberty. Without it the best government would soon degenerate
into the worst of tyrannies. In despotisms the chief use of power is
in crushing out party opposition. In our country the experience of
the past twelve months proves, more than any lesson in history, the
necessity of party organization. The present administration was chosen
by a party, and in all civil acts and appointments has recognized, and
still does, its fealty and obligations to that party. _There must and
will be an opposition._ The public safety and good demand it. The
Democratic party was founded more than sixty years ago. It has never
been disbanded. To-day it numbers one million five hundred thousand
electors in the States still loyal to the Union. Its recent numerous
victories in municipal elections in the Western and Middle States
proves its vitality. Within the last ten months it has held State
Conventions, and nominated full Democratic tickets in every free State
in the Union. Of no other party opposed to the Republicans can the same
be said. Shall the Democratic party be now disbanded? Why should it?
Are its ancient principles wrong? What are they? Let its platforms for
thirty years speak:

“_Resolved_, That the American Democracy place their trust in the
intelligence, the patriotism, and the discriminating justice of the
American people, That we regard this as a distinctive feature in our
political creed, which we are proud to maintain before the world, as
the great moral element in a form of government, springing from and
upheld by the popular will; and we contrast it with the creed and
practice of Federalism, under whatever name and form which seeks to
palsy the will of the constituent, and which conceives no imposture
too monstrous for the public credulity. That the Federal Government is
one of limited power, derived _solely_ from the constitution, and the
grants of power made therein ought to be strictly construed by all the
departments and agents of the government; and that it is _inexpedient_
and _dangerous_ to exercise doubtful constitutional powers.”

And as explanatory of these the following from Mr. Jefferson’s
inaugural: “The support of the State Governments in all their rights
as the most complete administration of our domestic concerns, and the
surest bulwarks against anti-Republican tendencies. The preservation of
the General Government in its whole constitutional vigor, as the sheet
anchor of our peace at home and safety abroad.” Such, Democrats, are
the principles of your party, essential to public liberty, and to the
stability and wise administration of the government, alike in peace and
war. They are the principles upon which the Constitution and Union were
founded; and under the control of a party which adheres to them, the
constitution would be maintained, and the Union could not be dissolved.

This morning Lieutenant Holmes (one of the Yankee officers) came up to
our room and enquired “who has been talking to a man outside through
the bars?” “No one in this room,” was the reply, when he went out,
looking as if he believed we were falsifying. Soon Lieutenant Holmes,
or “Mullet-head,” as the “boys” call him, returned and said, “I have
the _culprit_.” The gentleman on the street to whom the prisoner
was talking was arrested, and the prisoner himself put in solitary
confinement. Some two weeks ago two little girls were arrested for
waving their handkerchiefs to prisoners, and a little child who could
not speak plainly for saying “Hoowaugh for Bowaygard.”

_July 2d._ A little girl, 12 years of age, was arrested to-day for
wearing an apron like the Confederate Dag. The surgeon of this prison
is known as “Cyclops” among us. A week ago “Cyclops” said “our forces
are about now in Richmond—the Anaconda is gradually coiling around
the last vital point of the rebellious monster.” What does he think
now? The “New York Times” acknowledges the loss of upwards of twenty
pieces of artillery in one fight. The Yankee papers a week ago reported
General Thomas C. Hindman, of Arkansas, as certainly dead.

In yesterday’s paper is the following telegram:—“Advices from Arkansas
are to the effect that General Hindman, with some five thousand rebels
was in the immediate vicinity of the St. Charles,” and that Colonel
Fitch had abandoned the forts, spiking the guns. The situation of
General Curtis is said to be critical, he being unable to obtain
supplies, and his army having been on half rations for a week:

                         THE FATE OF RICHMOND.

 We expected to have been able to announce in our yesterday afternoon’s
 edition the important fact that Richmond was, in possession of
 General McClellan’s army. From sources of information which we deemed
 trustworthy, we, however, believe that the fact was known in this city
 yesterday afternoon, and also communicated by the authorities here
 to Washington, but for reasons no doubt satisfactory, an official
 recognition of the fact was withheld by the War Department. Our theory
 of the case is this: Although the city is in our power or possession,
 yet the Rebel army is still in arms, but is so situated that it can
 neither escape from the coils of the anaconda with which McClellan
 enfolds it, nor has it the means of obtaining supplies; neither can
 it attack our forces, who hold the possession of the bridges over the
 Chickahominy, which are controlled by our heavy artillery, and there
 is no other means of access to McMillan, it being impossible for the
 Rebels to get through the marshes adjacent to the river. The result
 must be that the Rebels must surrender or starve, as they can neither
 fight or skedaddle. They are in a _fix_.

 This, as before remarked, is our theory of the matter, and the
 government withholds the official intelligence of the taking of
 Richmond, until it can accompany it with the additional gratifying
 announcement, which probably they may be able to make in time to send
 to England by the steamer which sails to-day, of the capture not only
 of Richmond, but of the entire Rebel army. For giving this _opinion_,
 we hope we may not be called upon to keep our neighbor company at Fort
 McHenry.—_Baltimore Clipper, July 2._

_July 3d._ Parson Brownlow, of Tennessee, delivered a speech last night
at Ford’s Atheneum, in this city, to a large audience. The meeting
closed with lusty cheers for the Parson, State of Tennessee, and the
Union:

                   _Extracts from Northern papers._

                  FUGITIVE SLAVE CASE IN ALEXANDRIA.

We take the following particulars of a slave case in Alexandria,
Virginia, from the News of June 24:

 John Hunter, a citizen of Prince George county, in the State of
 Maryland, applied to Lewis McKenzie, a justice of the peace of
 Alexandria county, Virginia, for a warrant to arrest certain slaves
 of his, supposed to be in this city. Having taken and subscribed the
 following oath, required before the magistrate would grant a warrant:

 _State of Virginia, Alexandria County:_ I, John Hunter, of the county
 of Prince George, in the State of Maryland, do solemnly swear that
 I am a true and loyal citizen of the United States, and that I will
 support the constitution thereof as the supreme law of the land; and
 that I will, to the extent of my abilities, uphold and maintain it.
 I will, to the utmost of my power, give information of every danger
 which may threaten it, so help me God.

  JOHN HUNTER.

 Sworn to before me this 21st day of June, 1862.

  LEWIS McKENZIE, _J. P._

 A warrant was accordingly granted, and one of Mr. Hunter’s negroes,
 on Saturday last, was apprehended, and the officers were conveying
 him to the ferry boat for transportation home, there being no doubt
 of its being Mr. Hunter’s servant from the evidence of parties
 present, satisfactory to the magistrate. Not pleased with the summary
 proceedings of the parties executing the warrant, the negro refused to
 accompany them, when they essayed gentle “coercion.” This not meeting
 with the approbation of the negro, was creating some excitement, and
 promised to lead to serious difficulty, when some of the provost
 guard interposed and carried the case before Colonel Gregory, the
 Provost Marshal, who retained possession of the negro until the 23d,
 when a decision was rendered. After receiving the statements of
 Mayor McKenzie, Mr. Hunter and his friends, the negro and others,
 in connection with the report of the guard, the Marshal refused to
 acknowledge the claim of Mr. Hunter, and released the man, stating that
 he would not permit the arrest of any fugitive from labor while in
 command of this post, thus setting aside the lawful authority of the
 State of Virginia. The case will be reported to the President at an
 early day.

                            A SECESSIONIST.

 A friend in this city tells us of a little boy, a neighbor of his,
 who took great pleasure in a beautiful play-ball painted with our own
 national colors. While enjoying his play on the sidewalk recently, the
 ball accidentally rolled into a neighbor’s basement. It was returned
 to him after a while, with the red, white and blue washed off, and a
 Secesh flag painted on instead. Comment is needless.

        *       *       *       *       *

 A gentleman from Chicago relates a remarkable fact in connection with
 the Rebel prisoners at Chicago. The Rebel prisoners number about eight
 thousand, and, of course, there are among them men of intelligence
 and education, but the great numbers are deplorably ignorant. Colonel
 Mulligan has these Rebels in charge, and as they have considerable
 leisure time he has established a Yankee school for their instruction.
 The educated prisoners were assigned as teachers, and the work is
 progressing rapidly.

 Two discharged members of the fourteenth regiment of regulars, who
 have just arrived at Syracuse, New York, from Perryville, Maryland,
 state that about the first of last February the Rebel sympathizers in
 that town poisoned the wells, from which the men were in the habit of
 procuring their drinking water, and that, as a consequence, two hundred
 members of the regiment died, and of the remaining seven hundred,
 hardly one has recovered his health.

Mr. Wm. P. Wood, superintendent, informed us this evening that the
prisoners here will be removed to Fort Delaware on to-morrow.

_July 4th._ Captain Higgins and Lieutenant J. Miller have treated us
since our confinement here with comparative kindness, and all the
prisoners have become somewhat attached to them on that account. Their
conduct towards us has been a pleasing contrast with the uncouth
bearing and tyranny in petty things of other officers. The following
will explain itself.

At a meeting held this morning, in room No. 3, the following preamble
and resolution were unanimously adopted:

“Whereas Captain Benjamin D. Higgins and Lieutenant J. Miller (as
officers connected with this prison) have by their gentlemanly,
courteous and soldierly bearing towards us, won our esteem and respect,

_Therefore, be it Resolved_, That it is with regret that we part with
these gentlemen, inasmuch as they have exemplified that urbane and
respectful bearing, even in our present relations with each other, is
not incompatible with the faithful discharge of a soldier’s duty.”

Captain E. Pliny Bryan was called to the chair, and a committee of
three was appointed to hand these resolutions to the above named.

About half past 10, A.M., we started in charge of Lieutenant J. B.
Mix, of “Scott’s nine hundred,” for the depot, where we were detained
an hour. United States soldiers and citizens crowded around the cars.
Beyond the expressions of a few intoxicated men, nothing insulting
was said to us, but great anxiety was manifested to converse with us,
which, in every instance, was prohibited. Several persons, however,
stepped up under the windows of the cars, covered their mouths with
their hands, and said in an under tone, “I’m Secesh, and sympathize
with you.” One, while he did this, dropped two gold dollars into the
hands of a prisoner, enquiring audibly, “How are you, brother Jim?”
A lady requested the officer in charge to allow her to speak to her
_cousin_, and she was permitted to do so. Her cousin, Lieutenant S.,
then received from her a card, on which was written the name of a
lady he had known in Charleston, South Carolina, In return he handed
her a card, on which was a likeness of President Davis, and she
seemed delighted at the exchange. On the departure of the train from
the depot, the prisoners vociferously cheered for Davis, Beauregard
and Johnston. Arrived in Baltimore at 2, P.M. As we moved along the
streets in the same cars, drawn by horses to the Philadelphia depot,
the prisoners sang Southern songs, and cheered for Davis, while men
and women, concealed behind obstacles and windows, were seen to
waive handkerchiefs at them. Notwithstanding the array of bayonets
and swords, down-trodden Southern feeling was thus made apparent. At
this time a Confederate Lieutenant hallooed for Beauregard, and a
Yankee officer replied, “D—n Beauregard, I wish he was in h—ll, where
you ought to be.” As we advanced towards Philadelphia, we found the
Secession feeling growing less. Passing a small town in Pennsylvania,
a “Louisiana Tiger” cried out, “Hurrah for Jackson,” and a woman
replied, “Go to h—ll.” At Havre de Grace, in Maryland, the “tiger”
above mentioned, displayed a small Confederate flag, whereupon an
overgrown inebriated fellow said, “I can whip the man that showed that
flag if the officer in charge will let us have a fair open fight.” The
officer took the flag away from the “tiger,” and told the man, in a
joke, that he might “have a fair open fight,” but the man, I suppose,
thought discretion the better part of valor, for he declined to accept
the privilege. Lieutenant J. B. Mix, the officer in charge, proved
himself a very clever gentleman, and did all he could to make us as
comfortable as circumstances would allow. We arrived in Philadelphia
at 12 o’clock at night. As late as it was a small crowd had collected
at the depot, and there was a great disposition manifested to talk
with us—some few seemed inclined to talk rationally and calmly, while
others made this an occasion to vent their venom freely, which latter
invariably recoiled upon them with “good measure pressed down, heaped
up and running over.” Had not an officer interfered, they would have
torn a Louisianian “to pieces,” as they said. An old woman remarked,
“My husband and three sons are before Richmond, and I wish I had more
to send. I wish they would let me kill them rebels. Why don’t they kill
’em?” Many loose remarks were made, such as “they have no free schools,
and are so ignorant,” “they want a monarchy,” &c., &c. Lieutenant Mix
went to get us something to eat at a restaurant, but was refused, the
keeper saying he would sell nothing to rebels, and he hoped we would
starve. Some of the people said that the “Southerners” treated their
prisoners very badly, which was stoutly denied. Mr. Olden from Aldie,
Virginia, told them that he was kept four days handcuffed without
anything to eat, and the crowd agreed that “he ought not to have had
anything to eat—any man that would turn traitor to his country.” In a
conversation with a Federal officer the latter was frank enough to say
that he wished we had peace; he was tired of the war; would resign if
he could do so without disgrace; that if the North backed down now,
they would be a ruined and a disgraced people, and that they were
fighting for their very existence.

At 5 o’clock we left Philadelphia for Fort Delaware, which is forty
miles south-west of “the city of brotherly love?” We were evidently
brought this circuitous rout for display—to lead the people to
believe we were prisoners from Richmond. Arrived at the fort at 10
o’clock, A.M.—a gloomy looking place. At the west end of the fort
the roll was called immediately on our entrance in the yard. As the
names were called the officers were ordered inside the fort, and
the non-commissioned officers and privates to an enclosure like a
sheep-pen. Captain A. Gibson, commandant of the post, seemed to
endeavor by harsh expressions and manner to intimidate the prisoners.
Assuming us much ferocity as possible, he would say, “Why don’t you
answer to your name, sir?” “Speak louder, walk along faster,” &c., &c.;
but he always had thrust back at him as harsh language as he could
adopt. A Louisianian, after replying “here,” in a stentorian voice, as
his name was called, _gave old Gibson a look of vengeance_, and the
latter remarked, “A damned impudent scoundrel.” Lieutenant Mix, (the
officer in charge of the prisoners from Washington to Fort Delaware,)
told us that the train in which we came to Philadelphia was expected
at the latter place four hours earlier than it arrived, and that had
we been up to time, we would probably have been mobbed, for about two
thousand had assembled and waited an hour at the depot for us for that
purpose. As it was, two of the prisoners were struck with rocks, one on
the head, and the other in the side.

_July 6th._ Our monotonous confinement furnishes but little worthy of
record, but memory leads me back to our experience at the Philadelphia
depot; and I laugh at what was said and done by the bitter and
misguided fanatics. An old woman came up under the car window and
asked Captain S. very seriously, “When will this war end?” to which
the Captain replied, “Madam, when all of your troops are withdrawn
from our soil”—a man who standing by, who had been boring us for some
time with his Bombastes Furiosi talk, said to Captain S., “I wish I
had you out of the cars, I’d take your heart out”—this same man had
the impudence to try to draw Major H. into conversation with him,
but the latter told him, “I want nothing to say to you—you insulted
my friend, and you might insult me,” and the man walked off like a
dog with his tail between his legs. A pleasant-looking fellow, with
a seemingly inexhaustible flask of whiskey in his pocket, and good
humor issuing from every pore of his jolly countenance, was passing
from car to car, (while we were waiting so long at the Philadelphia
depot,) and discussing with evident satisfaction to himself the great
question which divided the late “United States.” At length we all
became heartily tired of his witticisms, and one after another “poohed”
and “pshawed” at him. At this he became very angry, and began to use
Billingsgate language pretty freely, but throughout his antics he came
off No. 2.

_July 7th._ The New York Herald attempts to prove Horace Greeley a
Secessionist, by quotations from his own paper:

                _From the Tribune of November 9, 1860._

 If the cotton States shall become satisfied that they can do better
 out of the Union than in it, we insist on letting them go in peace.
 The right to secede may be a revolutionary one; but it exists,
 nevertheless. * * * We must ever resist the right of any State to
 remain in the Union and nullify or defy the laws thereof. To withdraw
 from the Union is quite another matter; and whenever a considerable
 section of our Union shall deliberately resolve to go out, we shall
 resist all coercive measures designed to keep it in. We hope never
 to live in a Republic whereof one section is pinned to another by
 bayonets.

               _From the Tribune of November 26, 1860._

 If the cotton States unitedly and earnestly wish to withdraw
 peacefully from the Union, we think they should and would be allowed
 to do so. Any attempt to compel them by force to remain would be
 contrary to the principles enunciated in the immortal Declaration of
 Independence, contrary to the fundamental ideas on which human liberty
 is based.

               _From the Tribune of December 17, 1860._

 If it (the Declaration of Independence) justified the secession from
 the British empire of three millions of colonists in 1776, we do
 not see why it would not justify the secession of five millions of
 Southerners from the Union in 1861.

               _From the Tribune of February 23, 1861._

 We have repeatedly said, and we once more insist, that the great
 principle embodied by Jefferson in the Declaration of American
 Independence, that governments derive their just power from the
 consent of the governed, is sound and just; and that, if the slave
 States, the cotton States, or the Gulf States only, choose to form an
 independent nation, they have a clear moral right to do so. * * * *
 Whenever it shall be clear that the great body of the Southern people
 have become conclusively alienated from the Union, and anxious to
 escape from it, we shall do our best to forward their views.

_July 18th._ There is said to be about 3,000 prisoners confined at
this fort, the majority of which are in a pen, which is called “the
barracks,” and which I shall more fully describe hereafter. The men
sleep two on a board, about three feet wide—are compelled to cut their
hair short—are marched and countermarched about an hour every day—felt
all over by the Dutch sergeants, and made to bring water and do other
work about the garrison. They have “coffee-water” sometimes, and a
piece of bread six by three inches, and a small piece of meat scarcely
fit for a dog to eat, for breakfast; “soup-water” for dinner, with
bread about the dimensions above, and “coffee-water” for supper, and
bread same as at breakfast and dinner. They drink river water, which
is really offensive to the smell. The privy they use is intolerably
filthy, and accommodation for three thousand is not large enough for
three hundred.

A Yankee soldier who attempted to escape from this fort, where he was
on duty, was sentenced to carry the ball and chain four hours every
day for five months! He has been carrying it three months now. I see
the poor fellow every day from my window, and he appears to be in
much suffering. The following, in regard to this fort, is from the
“Philadelphia Enquirer.”

 FORT DELAWARE AND THE REBEL PRISONERS.—There are, at the present time,
 3,181 rebel prisoners confined at Fort Delaware, and about 3,000
 more expected at the end of next week. The steamer Baltic arrived
 at the Fort on Saturday last, having on board 1,200 prisoners, who
 were transferred from Governor’s Island, New York, to Fort Delaware;
 they comprise the whole number quartered at Governor’s Island. The
 rumors of an outbreak recently of the prisoners at the Fort have no
 foundation in fact. While it is conceded by officers of the Fort that
 a determined attempt at capture would create trouble, no ultimate good
 to the rebels could possibly result.

 The prisoners, with the exception of the rebel officers, who are
 about one hundred in number, and who have quarters inside the Fort,
 occupy barracks on the upper end of the Island. These barracks are
 commanded by heavy casemate guns in the Fort, and also by shotted
 field pieces. A strong guard also patrols the Island at all hours, to
 prevent any attempt at escape. The barracks erected are capable of
 accommodating 2,000 men. Other barracks are in course of erection,
 intended to accommodate 5,000 more. The guard consists of about 250
 men, comprising portions of three batteries.

 Recruiting is going on in this city to fill these batteries to the
 required standard, and with flattering success. Lieutenant Wm. G.
 Rohrman is employed in this service, and a considerable number are
 recruited and sent down daily. The troops are encamped on the meadows
 near the Fort. One company, numbering about sixty men and about thirty
 regulars, are stationed inside. A hospital has been built near the
 barracks for the sick and wounded rebels, and every attention given to
 them.

       _Extracts from proceedings in the United States House of
                           Representatives._

_Mr. Mallory, of Kentucky._ I think the slaves of Southern rebels
should be used as our armies advance in all menial service, such as
boating and assisting in the fortifications. My reasons against arming
them are—1st. That when armed they would be turned against those who
had been their masters, and their practice will be an indiscriminate
slaughter of men, women and children. 2d. You cannot for your lives
make of slaves an army whose services in the field will pay the expense
of organizing them. One shot from a cannon would disperse thirty
thousand of them.

_Mr. Stevens, of Pennsylvania._ Then they will do injury to the rebels
who fight them. I am for employing them against their masters. I
suppose the gentleman wants to employ the slaves in a menial service,
and after the war return them to their masters under the fugitive slave
law. I would raise 100,000 to-morrow. They are not barbarians, and are
as much calculated to be humane as any class of people. It is false
to say they will not make good soldiers. I would seize every foot of
land and dollar of property, and apply them to the army as we go along.
I would plant in the South military colonies, and sell the land to
soldiers of freedom, holding the heritage of traitors, and building up
institutions without the recognition of slavery.

_Mr. Wickliffe, of Kentucky._ It is a miserable policy to muster
runaway blacks into service. If twenty million of freemen cannot
suppress a rebellion of six millions of white men, let the
acknowledgment at once be made.

_July 9th._ On the 4th of July President Davis, dressed in full
regimentals, after the ceremony of a mock trial, was hung in effigy in
west Philadelphia.

A prisoner, attached to a Virginia regiment, was taken sick last night,
and carried from the barracks to the hospital _at 9 o’clock_, _and was
buried at 10 o’clock_. Quick work!

I shall have been here a week the day after to-morrow. We are so
closely confined that it seems like a month on account of the “weary,
lagging hours.” A fellow prisoner says he has been here a month, and
he has to write 1862 every day, so as not to forget it, for it appears
like 1863.

_July 10th._ One of the modes adopted here, in order to tantalize us,
is to tell us we “are to be paroled or exchanged to-morrow.” This once
had the effect to fill the prisoners with the roseate hues of hope, but
disappointment had so often been the result of such announcements, that
we no longer listen to them with credit.

The Yankees certainly do not desire the release of Colonel Corcoran,
nor have they ever desired it. His confinement appeals too strongly to
the Irish to volunteer, and about this time particularly volunteers are
much needed.

_Mr. Fessenden, of Maine_, said in the Senate yesterday, “There is
another thing I think a great mistake, and that is the attempt to
deceive the people by calling a defeat “a great strategic movement.””
He thought the people should be trusted, and told the whole truth as to
what was wanted by the country. Deal with them honestly, and every true
Northern heart will respond, deal with enemies as enemies, and friends
as friends. It is folly to hesitate to tell the people of this country
exactly what the state of things is. He had been amused by seeing a
call upon the different Governors for 300,000 troops, which simply
meant that the President and Government thought they would want more
troops. The enemy knows this, everybody knows it, then why not tell the
truth?

_Mr. Rice, Senator from Minnesota, said_: “The time had come when
we must either recognise the Southern Confederacy, or speedily put
it down—use all the means in our power to do so. Must we, when the
rebels resort to all sorts of means, fail from any sickly notions, and
refrain from using all the means in our power to meet and suppress the
rebellion? He would not hesitate for a moment to vote for any measure
that would put the rebellion to an end.”

_Mr. Wilson, of Massachusetts_, was in favor of fighting the battle to
a successful issue, and drafting if necessary, but he agreed with the
Senator from Maine that this style of rose-water must cease, that it
would be better to tell the whole truth to the people, and not attempt
to deceive them. _It seemed as if we had an organized system of lying
in this country._ “He thought the censorship of the press had been a
great disadvantage.”

Most of the articles in the newspapers in reference to the war are
simply malicious falsehoods, the creation of base minds and evil hearts.

The Washington correspondent of the Philadelphia Enquirer says:
“Lieutenant Clure, of the 92d Ohio, with 28 rebel prisoners from the
Shenandoah Valley, arrived to-day, and while en route to the Provost
Marshal’s office they were taken to a Secession house on C Street,
and feasted for several hours, and then taken to a number of drinking
saloons by Secesh sympathisers.”

_July 11th._ Joseph C. Paul, a private in Company K, Pennsylvania
Zouaves, says in a letter dated James river, July 5th, to a friend in
Philadelphia, “We are now lying near James river, and rest assured that
if the enemy attack us again before we are prepared, it will not be a
loss of five nights’ sleep to us as before, as we will occupy Richmond
as sure as fate. This is the opinion of distinguished officers.”

Lincoln has gone on a visit to the army of the Potomac, accompanied by
P. H. Watson, assistant Secretary of War.

The “Philadelphia Evening Bulletin” says General Burnside has promptly
brought his fine division of veterans, who have won laurels at Roanoke
Island and Newbern, to James river, and they are now joined to the army
of the Potomac.

Captain Gibson tells us to-day that arrangements have been made for an
immediate exchange of prisoners.

The Philadelphia Enquirer says, “Major Trumbull, of the first
Connecticut artillery, has arrived in town, and is fast recovering from
an attack of the Chickahominy fever.” It is presumed that the Major
referred to is not the only one suffering from the Chickahominy fever
about this time.

_July 12th._ Gold is riz, and, in the language of the poet, it
threatens to be rizzer. Some Yankee financiers argue that gold is not
up, but that paper is down! This question between pecuniary tweedledee
and tweedledum seems to puzzle the _quid nuncs_ since the retreat of
McClellan.

A sergeant escaped from the barracks last night. He lives in Baltimore.
To all intents and purposes Captain Gibson, in command of this post,
is a prisoner on the island, whose only consolation seems to be to
exercise his petty tyranny over “rebel” prisoners. There are men whose
nature has a peculiar affinity for anything petty, mean, and bad. They
fly upon it like a vulture upon carrion. I discover that it is the
policy of the Yankees to allow those in immediate attendance on the
inmates of prisons to _seem_ to grant them some indulgences _at times_,
in order to gain their confidence, and arrive at their secrets. Some
ladies from Delaware visited the Fort yesterday, and when concealed
behind pillars, so as not to be seen by the officers of the Fort, they
waved their handkerchiefs at the prisoners. After they left, they sent
a request, clandestinely, to them for “Secession buttons.” The ladies,
as a general thing, North and South, seem to be with us. This speaks
well for the _heart_ of the Southern people, for this is the commodity
ladies deal in.

_July 13th._ From Yankee newspapers it seems that gold has become
scarce, since it has risen so in value:

    The Gold and the Silver
      Have vanished and fled,
    And people must carry
      Shinplasters instead.

A gentleman from Florida, who has been a prisoner at Fort Lafayette,
in New York harbor, was brought here yesterday. At Fort Lafayette he
has been in double irons since the 27th of April last, because it was
alleged that he was a captain of a band of guerillas to hang Union men.
He is a private attached to the 3d Florida regiment, Colonel Dilworth.
The Yankees have threatened to hang him several times. He was captured
at St. Johns, while within an hundred yards of his house, whither he
was going on furlough. A sermon was preached in the Fort this evening,
and my friend Lieutenant W., who has fortunately a religious turn of
mind, heard it, and informs me that it was a fine effort, although
emanating from a Yankee. The gist of it was that religion is not
incompatible with a soldier’s life. For my own part, I believe that as
no good can come out of Nazareth, or pure water from a foul spring, so
nothing sincere can fall from a Yankee’s lips.

Look at “Old Gip” (Captain Gibson) as he winds about the yard of the
fort! His slim figure is made all the slimmer by tight pantaloons.
He walks with as quick a step as his left leg twisted at an angle of
forty-seven degrees will permit. He carries his chin as if conscious
of a stiff cravat, and his old palm leaf hat is set with a knowing
inclination to the left ear. “Old Gip” is a tall, spare and ungainly
looking man, of about fifty years of age, with a pale ascetic
countenance, which carries with it an expression vibrating between
low suspicion and vulgarity. His hair is cut tolerably close, close
enough to display in their full proportions a large pair of ears,
which stand out in “relief” like turrets from a watch-tower, and with
pretty much the same object. His beard is short, and of pepper and salt
color, and he has a malicious twinkling eye. Most persons have some
prevailing characteristic, which usually gives tone and color to all
their thoughts and actions, forming what we denominate _temperament_.
The temperament of “Old Gip” seems to take delight in being as rough,
uncouth, and disobliging as possible to all whom cruel fate has brought
with the unfortunate limits of his tyranny. Occasionally the officers
are allowed to walk on the parapet of the fort for recreation for
about an half hour. Any conversation with the sentinels is strictly
forbidden, and for not observing the rule in this respect, some
officers have been placed in solitary confinement. Not long since,
while the Confederate officers were walking on the parapet, they
noticed a vessel approaching with a flag, which, at a distance, looked
exactly like the Confederate flag, and the conversation became general
upon the subject, in the course of which, one of the officers observed,
in a jocular way, that he believed it was the “stars and bars,” and
said, “Hurrah for Jeff Davis.” Soon the sentinel informed us, “Your
time is up,” and we had scarcely reached our quarters when the officer
above referred to received a note from “Old Gip,” in which the Yankee
functionary used this language: “For this, your first offence, I _warn_
you, but for a repetition of the crime, may God have mercy on your
soul!” The sentinel must have informed Captain Gibson of the _crime_,
for the latter was not within hearing when the remark was made.

_July 14th._ An old Dutch soldier in the fort said to-day, “I don’t
care which side whips by Got, so I gets my thirteen dollars a month.”
Another Yankee soldier remarked to a prisoner, “You have plenty of
friends in this yard, but we must keep mum.” Captain Gibson has just
issued an order preventing prisoners from receiving money from their
friends, but allows them to buy necessaries from the sutler, and give
an order on him when he has funds in his hands belonging to a prisoner.
This is caused by the escape of several prisoners lately, for it is
supposed that the sentinels were bribed by the parties who escaped.

The Black Republican members of the United States Congress are as
far from mixing with the Democrats as oil with water. The two are
always quarrelling in spite of the fact, that the Black Republicans
are ever trying to be a little more Democratic, while the Democrats
make constant efforts to be a little “Republican.” In this way the
Black Republicans are like onions rubbed with Democratic spices; the
strong original nigger odor is blended with new and foreign matter.
However much the Democrats aim to conceal the fact, it is quite plain
that Black Republican Onion offends Democratic nostrils, while the new
Democratic spice is quite unwelcome to the genuine Black Republican.

_July 15th._ Ten prisoners escaped last night. From a Northern paper
I learn that the following dispatch has just been received at the
War Department, “Nashville,” July 14th. It was the ninth, instead of
the eleventh Michigan regiment, that surrendered at Murfreesboro’,
Tennessee. The eleventh arrived at the camp near the Davisville Fair
Grounds, yesterday afternoon, after an unsuccessful three days’
chase after Morgan. Three members of Hewitt’s battery, who escaped
from Murfreesboro’, report that the battery and the third Minnesota
surrendered to the rebels. Colonel Duffield is mortally wounded, and
General T. A. Crittenden, of Indiana, taken prisoner.

Mrs. Phillips, who was not long since released from the old capital
prison at Washington city, and sent South, has been again arrested by
an order from “Beast Butler,” on the charge of “mocking” at the funeral
remains of Lieutenant De Kay, and imprisoned in one of the houses on
Ship Island, intended for hospital purposes, where she is to be allowed
one female servant, and no more, and a soldier’s ration a day, with the
means of cooking it. Another order from the same source sentences Fidel
Keller or Kelti to two years’ hard labor on Ship Island for exhibiting
in his bookstore window a skeleton labelled “Chickahominy.” A third
order sentences John W. Audins to hard labor for two years, for having
exhibited a cross, which he said was fashioned from the bones of a
Yankee soldier.

Lincoln has just had an interview with the members of Congress from
the border States, the object of which is said to have been to impress
upon them the necessity of urging their respective States to adopt
the gradual emancipation policy, in order to avoid, says the New York
Express, “immediate and bloody abolition.” The telegraph reports that
General Curtis, (who is endeavoring to retreat through Arkansas to
the Mississippi river, opposite Memphis,) is suffering terribly for
want of forage and supplies. Also, on Monday, his command was at
Jacksonport, and General Hindman had ordered the railroad bridge at
Madison to be burned, to prevent Curtis from passing in that direction,
and had also required all the inhabitants near Gauley bridge to burn
their provisions and shoot their cattle, lest they should be seized
by foraging parties sent out by Curtis. Charges have been preferred
against General Mitchell by the division formerly commanded by him
in North Alabama. He is accused of having permitted a portion of his
troops to perpetrate upon the people of North Alabama “deeds of cruelty
and of guilt, the bare narration of which makes the heart sick.”
Ex-President Fillmore says “that the Abolitionists in Congress had
undone what the army had done.”

The New York Express says: “Adjutant General Thomas came to this
city a day or two ago to make arrangements concerning Confederate
prisoners at Governor’s Island and Fort Lafayette. After a thorough
examination, it was found inexpedient to permit any considerable
number of Secessionists to occupy Governor’s Island. It is one of
the largest ordnance depots in the United States. The arsenal on the
island contains millions of dollars worth of war material, and as the
different fortifications constitute a part of our harbor defences, and
the armaments constantly ready for use, a comparatively small number of
Secessionists, should the guard in any event be overpowered, could do a
vast amount of damage. The prisoners, numbering 1,100, have been taken
to Fort Delaware.” They have arrived.

_July 16th._ The papers report the thermometer at 90° in the shade.
It must be 100° in the room in which we are confined. We are losing
flesh and health rapidly. A call for a mass meeting in New Jersey
says, among other things: “While the waning ranks of the rebels are
furnished by conscription, let it be our boast that we defend the
nation by the heroic volunteer.” The New York Tribune says: “There are
upwards of three thousand prisoners on that island, (Pea Patch Island,)
among which is the notorious Colonel Pettigrew. Colonel Gibson, with a
sufficient force at his command, has charge of the prisoners. One of
the finest forts in the country is being constructed on that island.
The island is located forty miles south of Philadelphia, and two and
a half from the nearest point of the main land.” A correspondent of
the Buffalo Express, writing from Old Point Comfort, under date of
July 4th, says: “The 44th, (Ellsworth Avengers,) which I persist in
calling the finest regiment that ever took the field, is a mere wreck.
On Wednesday, after the last of their many fights, they stacked arms
with only 90 muskets—a sad remainder of the original 1,040 men. Of the
greater portion, some are killed, more are wounded, and still more are
home on sick leave.”

Horace Greeley says: “The proper cure for a guerilla is hemp, looped
over the first tree, guerilla pendant.” The following also is from
that infamous sheet, the New York Tribune: “There is much excitement
in Nashville, and there is great fear of a rebel attack on that city.
At the Murfreesboro’ fight $30,000 worth of army stores were lost on
our side. The Pennsylvania 7th lost 200 men—only three or four of their
officers escaped. _The rebel loss is said to be greater than ours._”
The latter is what the Yankees always record. In all their reports of
battles they wind up by saying, “the rebel loss is said to be greater
than ours.” In the case above referred to, a more disgraceful lie was
never recorded even by a Yankee.

The Northern papers stated a week ago, and we were assured, that
a general exchange of prisoners had been agreed upon by the two
governments. In yesterday’s Tribune I find the following: “We are
assured that the report of an agreement for a general exchange of
prisoners is premature. Yet it is thought that both sides will favor
some immediate arrangement.” The bill for the admission of the “State
of Western Virginia,” after a long discussion, was yesterday adopted by
a vote of 23 to 17. In the House the Ways and Means Committee reported
the Miscellaneous Appropriation Bill, with the donation to Gales &
Seaton _stricken out_. The Yankee Congress adjourned to-day.

_July 17th._ From the Baltimore _Sun_, of July 12th, I extract: “A
Washington paper states that the government has agreed upon a general
exchange of prisoners of war, and that arrangements will speedily be
made for the sending South of the prisoners now held on the seaboard.
All the prisoners confined at New York were taken on board a steamer
yesterday.” A western correspondent of a Yankee paper, under date of
Vicksburg, July 7th, says: “General Hindman is reported to be at Little
Rock with a large force. He has with him a million dollars in gold and
silver, which he obtained ‘by the authority of the sword’ from the
banks in Memphis. He is disliked by his troops for his oppressiveness
and tyranny. His last order was for the impressment of every man in
Arkansas capable of bearing arms. This, of course, has created a great
deal of indignation among the people, and has made many enemies to
the cause of Secession. Hindman, as a General, is the same swaggering
bombast that he was as a Congressman. In his own town of Helena he is
despised worse than the meanest and most contemptible citizen. He took
advantage of the temporary insanity of the people to put himself in a
position that would not have been assigned him at any time since. His
debut in the rebellion was made at the head of the “Hindman Legion,”
which he raised immediately after his return from Washington City,
after the secession of his gallant State.”

“Simon Cohen was arrested in Baltimore on Monday, by officer Scott,
charged with displaying a Secession flag at his store, No. 185 Gay
street. He was held for the action of the provost marshal. Also,
Leonard Strikpon spent the day at a lager beer saloon on the Belair
Road, and imbibed somewhat freely, so much so, that he lost his senses,
and hurrahed for Jeff. Davis. Officer Smith took him into custody,
and Justice Spicer sent him to jail in default of bail to keep the
peace.”—_Baltimore News Sheet._

Colonel Hanson, of Kentucky, was to-day transferred to Fort Warren,
according to his own request.

_July 18th._ Anniversary of the battle at Bull Run. The prisoners
seem in fine spirits to-day in recollection of our victory a year
ago, though it’s hard to be cheerful in a room so dull as the one in
which we are confined! There is nothing in it that can awaken the mind
or call up a sentiment of solace! “The dawning of morn, the daylight
sinking,” generally furnishes us the same monotony! But the moody
silence our thoughts shed over us in this comfortless confinement is
often broken by the cheerful songs of Lieutenant S., who forces us to
ask ourselves,

    “Why, soldiers, why
    Should we be melancholy, boys?”

The daily promises of “Old Gip,” that Jackson’s men shall be paroled
in a few days, are not believed; yet, with this unbelief is blended a
ray of hope, and for one I say, “for God’s sake destroy not the hopes
that man holds out to me; upon them I live.” Dr. Reid says if we cannot
imbibe the spirit, it is often profitable to put on the appearance of
cheerfulness. “By _seeming_ gay, we grow to what we seem.”

Thousands of dollars worth of clothing have been sent to the
Confederate prisoners by Secessionists, and very little do they get.
“Old Gip” refuses to give it to many who are in a destitute condition,
but he makes the impression outside, that all clothing sent to us
by Secession friends is given to us. A box was sent to Captain R.
(a prisoner) with clothing in it, to distribute among the destitute
prisoners, but Gibson refused to allow him. The clothing is given to
Yankee soldiers. The Dutch Captain _Mtowlowski_ paid us a visit to-day.
He is a florid, fat, happy-looking, short fellow, with legs so thick,
that they very much resemble an elephant’s. His face is large and rosy,
and its general expression a mixture of good humor and inexhaustible
drollery. He wears a moustache _a la militaire_. On the whole, he
presents the appearance of a migratory lager beer keg. He would be
muscular, had not lager beer enervated his strong build, by placing a
superabundance of useless fat where muscle ought to be. The Captain
says that he was a prisoner in Europe, and that our fare is a paradise
to what his was, which is very hard to believe.

To-day my thoughts have turned to my early friends—those who have
been weighed in the balance and found not wanting. The thoughts of
early friendship! what a world of tender memory they suggest. For what
are all our later successes in life, however bright out fortunes,
compared with the early triumphs of boyish days? Where, among the
jealous rivalry of some, the cold and half-wrung praise of others, the
selfish and unsympathizing regard of all, shall we find anything to
repay us for the swelling exstacy of our young hearts, as we pledged
ourselves to each other in prosperity or adversity in the noble bonds
of friendship? Some moments we have which half seem to realize our
early dreams of ambition, and rouse the spirit within us. But what were
all compared to our boyish glories—to the little world of sympathy and
love our early friendships teemed with as we pledged ourselves to each
other? No, the world has no requital for this! It is like a bright day,
which, as its glories gild the east, display before us a whole world of
beauty and promise. Then our hopes have not withered—false friendships
have not scathed—cold, selfish interest has not yet hardened our hearts
or dried up our affections, and we are indeed happy; but equally, like
the burst of morning, it is short-lived and fleeting, and equally does
it pass away, never to return.

_July 19th._ My thoughts this morning have been engrossed upon the
subject of being exchanged or paroled—on being again among congenial
friends in the “Old Dominion!” But I shall no longer allow my fortune
or lot to be the sport of my temperament. I shall not give way to that
April-day frame of mind which is ever the jest and scoff of those
hardier and sterner natures, who, if never overjoyed by success, are
never much depressed by failure; for the glimpses of sunshine the world
has afforded me, fleeting and passing enough, in all conscience, I am
not so ungrateful as to repine, because it was not permanent. On the
other hand, I am thankful for those bright hours, which, if nothing
more, are, at least, delightful souvenirs. They form the golden thread
in the tangled web of our existence, ever appearing amid the darker
surface around, and throwing a fair halo of brilliancy on what—without
it—were cold, bleak and barren.

Lieutenant -—-, since he has been in prison here, wrote to his cousin
at York, Pennsylvania, a friendly letter, and received the following
reply:—“Cousin, I can hardly call you dear cousin, for were I in the
Union army you might have shot me if you would have had the chance,
which I do think you would do if you get the chance; so as it is your
thoughts to kill all Northern men that you can, relation or not,
and which I do think it is a shame for you to do, being as all your
relations lives in the North, and are all Union people, so far as I
know of, which place I seen yesterday you was born in twenty years ago,
and eighty years ago your grand father fought for the glorious country,
and now you want to turn right around to drive it to nothing at the
point of the bayonet, which I do think that you are doing wrong. Had I
a hold of you I know I would make you git—if you was pressed into it I
can forgive you, but if you fight against this country free-hearted I
can’t forgive you, and don’t fear you neither. It is right that they
have taken you a prisoner, and I hope they will deal with you as they
ought, being as they have you, and all such friends and relations as
I have in the rebel army, if there are more of them. I hope in some
future day you may see how wrong you have done to trample down that
banner which waves over once so glorious a country as this. Now, as
a rebel, you want to destroy it. Shame on you as a Christian, as you
wanted to be in days gone by. I still thought you had more respect for
this country than you show for up to this time. Think of this letter
whenever you write to me—think that you are writing to a Union cousin,
_which has more sense in his big toe than you have in your head_. For
me to come to see you is impossible for me to do. If you was there,
and I knowed you was doing write, I might come, but so I cannot; and
you must think hard of me for writing such a letter to you, for I have
no sympathy for a man that will do such a villainous act as you have
done to this country. If you had any thoughts for yourself and your
relations you might have got out of that rascally rebel army as well
as you have got into it. Your relations that you enquire about are all
well. If I had Jeff Davis, and you together, I would hang both of you.
So now you can do as you please; you can write, or leave it alone; but
that is what I think of you. If you write, tell me where your father is.

  J. S. B.”

This is the Lieutenant’s rejoinder:

“Cousin J., this is a wicked world, and there are many strange people
and funny things in it. Your recent letter might be classed among
the latter, if it were possible for a thing to be curious, without
possessing some interest. And now, for yourself, you might be a strange
man if you were not precisely like all the rest of the cowards, “Full
of sound and fury, and doing nothing.” Why are you not in the army
battling for that glorious country which you charge your rebel cousin
with attempting to destroy. Your President wants men, and just such
laggards as yourself will compel a draft upon the whole people before
your army is complete. ’Tis nice talk and little labor to say pretty
things about the cause in which you pretend to be heartily enlisted
with your _pen_; but before all the rebels are destroyed, you may
discover that many such windy patriots as yourself will be required to
lay aside the pen, and buckle on the sword. The draft which will soon
be resorted to in your State may bring you into the field, and the
fates of war may place you in the hands of my government. Then, if you
will let me hear from you, I will teach you a Christian’s duty; and
while you have scoffed at my calamity, I will endeavor to alleviate
your suffering, not because you happen to be my cousin, but for the
sake of humanity. Before you write to me again, I would have you leave
off such vulgar notions as you now entertain of me and my brother
rebels. After nine days, even, a puppy’s eyes are opened. May not
cousin Josiah hope for light?”

_Sunday, July 20th._ It is said that the small pox has broken out in
the barracks. There is certainly a case of small pox at the upper part
of the island, whither he has been taken from the barracks.

The most insidious schemes are constantly resorted to by the Yankees
to lead men to take the oath of allegiance. Their present condition
is placed before them in colors as dark as they are; and in contrast
a most captivating picture of happy freedom, in flowers of rhetoric,
is presented to them, provided they throw Secession to the winds,
and assume the garb of “the Union, the Constitution and the laws.”
Gold is also offered them as an inducement to become traitors. Very
few, comparatively, have been thus seduced to treason, and those few
have been mostly of Northern birth, or else outcasts from society at
home, who joined the army not from principle but from necessity. On
the contrary, to the large majority of the prisoners these seductive
devices are as the storm to the oak, which, though it may scatter the
leaves, and snap the smaller branches, serves but to rivet the roots,
and to harden and condense the fibres of the tree.

Last night there was great excitement in the garrison on account of
the attempt of prisoners to escape. Several companies were called out,
and great noise prevailed, while getting the men into line of battle.
Cannon was turned on the barracks. Several prisoners, I understand,
escaped.

_July 21st._ Anniversary of the battle of Manassas! The disturbance
last night has been denominated the “Pea Patch battle.” Mysterious
as it may seem, Captain S. succeeded to-day in getting a bottle of
whiskey, to the astonishment no less than the delight of our mess. A
quart of whiskey! How charming to chase away dull care! The Captain
brought it into the room, with a commingled air of joy and self
congratulation, as he exhibited the evidence of his prowess, while he
repeated the lines:

    “How sad and short were this life’s dull day,
    Were it not brightened with pleasure,
    I then, for my part, will sport it away
    In friendship, love, and of folly a measure.”

Lieutenant D. said if he meant by folly the whiskey, he heartily
endorsed the sentiment, and with a general exchange of wit, the bottle
was soon discussed among so many.

A Baltimore paper states that “no little excitement was created in
Baltimore yesterday by the public display of a “Secesh rag” by Miss
Mattie Gilpin, daughter of John Gilpin, of Elkton, Cecil county. Miss
Gilpin was first observed passing from the President street depot in
company with her sister, and in addition to the flag, which is about
twenty inches in length, she wore a large Secesh rosette on the bosom
of her dress. Two policemen followed them some distance, and finally
took both in custody, conducting them to Marshal Van Nastrand’s office.
A warrant was issued by Justice Hess, and after a long conversation
with the Marshal, in which Miss Gilpin manifested no regret at the part
she was playing, she was released on security to await the action of
the grand jury on the charge of violating the treason act of the recent
General Assembly of this State by displaying a Secession flag with the
view of exciting seditious feelings.” The most important news to-day
is, that Major General Halleck has been called to Washington, and
put in chief command of all the armies of the Union. The tone of the
papers, however, indicate that this does not affect Generals McClellan
and Pope, who retain their present position.

The Tribune says: “General Pope’s advance, upon reaching Gordonsville,
destroyed all the railway material at hand. As a great portion of the
rebel supplies come by this route, the blow to them will be a serious
one.” The same paper says: “The Richmond papers are much disturbed
at the consolidation of the army of Virginia. Pope is reckoned a
fighting General—hence their trouble.” General Pope has ordered his
troops to subsist on the enemy, but adds that any man who is loyal
from the date of the seizure of his property shall be paid. Dates from
Fortress Monroe, to Wednesday last, give no news from McClellan’s army.
“Cynthana, Kentucky, has been captured by the rebels under Morgan.”
The difficulty about the exchange of prisoners seems to be about
settled, if it be true, as reported in the papers, that General Dix
had a satisfactory interview with General Hill, and then went up the
James River to have an interview with General Lee to that end. The
trouble all along has been that the Yankees have been _fools_ enough
to suppose that they might capture some of the leaders of our cause,
and have the pleasure of hanging them, or exercising their malice in
some other way, and they know that the Confederate Government will not
exchange, except in prospective or upon a cartel, that will occasion
no trouble hereafter, by adopting the principle of the war of 1812. It
is all a humbug about General Buckner standing in the way of exchange,
for he has been treated as a _prisoner of war_; and what objection,
in a civilized warfare, can they have to exchange him with the other
prisoners of war?

_July 22d._ A Pennsylvania soldier Writes from Tuscumbia, Alabama, to
the Philadelphia “Evening Bulletin:” “The people are, of course, very
extensive slaveholders, few of them owning less than eighty slaves. Of
course they are, without exception, the rankest kind of Secessionists,
and bestow upon us looks anything but affectionate as we pass along.
One old rebel, in whose clover meadow we encamped on our last day’s
march, perfectly raved at the damned Yankees. His slaves were out in
the cornfield when we came, and he ordered them in, and told them he
would whip them within an inch of their lives if they attempted to
escape.”

The noise and bombast of the Yankee editors over victories, large or
small, or oftener over defeats, (for they always have some excuse
other than cowardice,) is most remarkable and illaudable. For
instance, General Jackson’s army advanced upon Front Royal, and the
first Maryland and Wheat’s battalion on our side took prisoners, all
but fifteen of the first Maryland and the Vermont cavalry, on the
Yankee side. This the Yankee papers most plausibly distorted into a
Confederate defeat, as it “placed Jackson in a position from which he
cannot escape.” The sequel has proved that Jackson not only escaped,
but whipped Banks most completely at Winchester, Fremont at Port
Republic, and McDowell and Shields at Cross Keyes. The Yankees are ever
bragging about their grand army—the number of their men. While boasting
what they are going to do in one breath with this “grand army,” with
the next, they call for volunteers.

The Wheeling Intelligencer says: “All the merchants in the city, except
one, have taken the oath of allegiance. One physician, enjoying a
large practice, gave it up, rather than take the oath.” Nearly all the
Virginia merchants had left before the Yankees had the power to offer
the insult. The physician, who would not take the oath of allegiance,
is Dr. Hughes. The merchants, who did take it, had the alternative of
taking the oath or being imprisoned, and lose all their property. It
is hard for a man to work all his life, and then to give up all and go
to prison, leaving his family destitute. The merchants took the oath
_under protest_. The abolition editor does not state this however, for
the object of the Yankees is to deceive, and such a mark of magnanimity
would not be in accordance with their character. Nearly all the
regiments, which the bogus Pierpont government call Virginia regiments,
are filled with Ohio Abolitionists.

_July 24th._ A lady, in Washington city, sent me the following by the
“Underground mail carrier,” saying she “heartily endorsed the words:”

                                REBELS.

                              BY A. P. T.

    Rebels! ‘tis a holy name!
    The name our fathers bore
    When batting in the cause of right,
    In the dark days of yore.

    Rebels! ’tis our family name!
    Our father—Washington—
    Was the arch-Rebel in the fight,
    And gives the name to us, a right
    Of father unto son.

    Rebels! ’tis our given name!
    Our mother—Liberty—
    Received the title with her fame
    In days of grief, and fear and shame,
    When at her breast were we.

    Rebels! ’tis our sealed name!
    A baptism of blood.
    The war-cry and the dire of strife,
    The fearful contest, life for life,
    The mingled crimson blood.

    Rebels! ’tis a patriot name!
    In struggles it was given;
    We bore it then, when tyrants raved,
    And thro’ their curses ’twas engraved
    On the Dooms-day Book of Heaven.

    Rebels! ’tis our fighting name!
    For peace rolls o’er the land,
    Until they speak of craven woe,
    Until our rights receive a blow
    From foe’s or brother’s hand.

    Rebels! ’tis our dying name!
    For although life is dear,
    Yet freemen born, and freemen bred,
    We’d rather lie as freemen dead,
    Then live in slavish fear.

    Then call us Rebels if you will,
    We’ll glory in the name;
    For bending under unjust laws,
    And swearing faith to an unjust cause,
    We count a greater shame.

“A perfect love of a man” is Parson Brownlow. The Louisville Journal
says: “He has repeatedly assured us that he never swore an oath, never
played a card, never took a drink of liquor, never went to the theatre,
never attended a horse-race, never told a lie, never broke the Sabbath,
never voted the Democratic ticket, never wore whiskers, and never
kissed any woman but his wife.” He is a black-hearted traitor, besides
being an unprincipled liar.

A Western editor says his paper is located immediately over a
_recruiting_ office, and that the fifing and drumming “drives
everything out of his head.” What a scampering there must be over his
shirt collar!

All the Yankees talk about is “the Union and its laws.” Of all
injustice, that is the greatest which goes under the name of law; and
of all sorts of tyranny, the forcing of the letter of the law against
the equity is the most insupportable.

Many Yankee soldiers have assured me that they entered the army while
intoxicated with drink, being victims of the wiles of those who do not
scruple to do anything in their mad efforts to conquer the South. Wrong
being at the root of their great armies, has caused them so often to
bite the dust before inferior numbers:

    “Although the ear be deaf, and will not hear,
    There is a voice in conscience which appeals
    Unto the heart of guilt. A still, small voice,
    Which, like the mountain streamlet, wears its way
    Over the hardest rock.”

The small armies of the Confederates have the advantage of _right_ on
their side, and

    “How weak an army can strike a giant’s blow,
    When Providence directs it.” * *

_July 25th._ Gold to-day is a peg higher, closing at 120⅛, with a
sharp demand for export. Flour, wheat and corn, following the law of
attraction, are “up” too. Inflation is the order of the day, and under
the exhilarating influence of plenty of paper money, nobody appears
to dream of the possibility that the bubble is ever going to burst. I
glean the following from Northern papers: The news from Louisville,
Kentucky, concerning Morgan’s movements is, that between Crab Orchard
and London he destroyed several wagons of a Federal train destined
for General Morgan’s command at Cumberland Gap. Of course the wagons,
whose number is indefinitely stated, were not empty ones, but whether
they contained commissary stores, or material of war, is not mentioned.
The “Courier” and “Eugene,” whilst ascending Green River, Kentucky,
with troops, were fired into by a party of cavalry. At McAllister’s
landing, two miles beyond Newburg, Indiana, the steamer Commercial was
also attacked in a similar manner; whilst at Randolph, Missouri, the
Belle, on her way from Memphis to St. Louis, was likewise fired upon.
“The result,” we are told, “was unknown.” At Hudson, Missouri, Porter’s
guerrillas were attacked and routed by a detachment of Federal cavalry
under Colonel McNeill. The Federal loss is set down at fifteen killed
and thirty wounded. The guerrilla loss is said to be much heavier.
There was renewed excitement at Nashville, Tennessee, on Monday evening
last—the Federal pickets on the Lebanon having been captured by the
guerrillas under Colonel Forrest, who was reported to be in force
within five miles of the city. The Confederates have also broken up the
railway communication between Corinth and Tuscumbia. As the Tennessee
river is no longer navigable, in consequence of the low stage of water,
great difficulty, it is said, will be experienced in providing with
adequate supplies those portions of Buell’s army which are at or near
Tuscumbia.

We know but little concerning the present condition of the army now
encamped under cover of the gunboats on the James river, beyond what
is furnished by the correspondents of Northern journals. From these
sources, however, we learn that the furlough fever has somewhat abated,
that many of those who contemplated asking for leave of absence have
concluded to remain, but that many other officers, surfeited with war
and its horrors, have sent in their resignations, and “want to go
home.” The Confederates are reported to be in considerable force on
both sides of the James river, from four to eight miles below the mouth
of the Chickahominy, whilst above, at Turkey Island Bend, Curl’s Neck,
and at Dutch Gap, they are constructing large and massive batteries. On
several occasions the gun boats have driven them from their work, but
it was resumed again as soon as the boats retired, and the batteries
are now supposed to be “fully prepared, equipped, and ready for future
action.” It is not surprising, then, that it should be rumored “that
the troops would receive orders, in the course of a few days, to
evacuate their present position,” where they suffer terribly for want
of pure and wholesome water, and are weakened down with diarrhœa and
dysentery. It seems scarcely probable, however, that McClellan will
abandon the “secure” position he has already sacrificed so much to
attain. The report to that effect is, nevertheless, gravely announced
by the correspondent of the Philadelphia Enquirer, and is reproduced,
without comment, in the New York papers. The War Department has issued
an order authorizing the military commanders within the States of
Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana,
Texas and Arkansas, to seize any real or personal property which may
be necessary or convenient for their respective commands, and also to
destroy property for military purposes. It is further ordered that the
negroes within and from the above States shall be employed as laborers
for military purposes, giving them reasonable compensation for their
services, and that a record shall be kept, showing from whom the
property and persons are taken, as a basis upon which compensation can
be made in proper cases.

_Saturday, July 26th._ The papers say that McClellan remains quiet,
while his officers are resigning as fast as they can. He may fly from
our brave soldiers, and seek shelter under his gunboats, but he cannot
flee from the retributive justice of heaven, let him go where he may:

    “In vain he flies—the furies still pursue.
    Avenging justice on the murderer’s track
    Follows to claim her due.”

It is with a loathing, sickening sensation, similar to that with which
men regard the bloated toad or slimy reptile, that I view the Yankee
officials who come round daily, often with no other object but to
tantalize the prisoners. The idea that their treasonable invasion of
the just rights of the South has placed me in my present position,
sends the warm blood rushing to my heart and brain—my shattered nerves
resume their elasticity, and feel as if they were suddenly transformed
to steel. More than once I have clenched my hands with nervous
impatience, till the nails almost cut the flesh, for the Yankees, from
their very nature, seem to feel an almost inhuman joy in contemplating
our imprisonment; and what is more calculated to vex? We were allowed
to go a swimming this evening. Saw two young ladies—nearer than I have
seen a lady for two months, for they passed directly by us. They were,
indeed, fair and good-looking, but as they did not condescend to notice
me:

    “Why should I, wasting in despair,
    Die because a woman’s fair;
    What care I how fair she be,
    If she be not fair to me.”

It was told us on Friday that we would certainly be sent to Dixie
to-day, but to-day they say we are not to go until Monday. I believe
the sole delight of the Yankee authorities here is to tantalize us
as much as they can. I read somewhere that the word tantalize thus
originated—a man named Tantalus had been found guilty of a crime in
Germany, and as a punishment for the same he was denied water for a
certain length of time, although water, by machinery, passed nearer
every moment to his parched lips—every moment the cooling draught
suddenly swept by him in pipes, and became more and more close to
his mouth, but yet never near enough for him to quench his thirst.
Afterwards whenever a man had expectations of a flattering nature held
out to him and was frustrated, he was said to be tantalized. Truly, the
Yankees are fond of tantalizing—they like to deceive and tyrannize over
those in their power. All cowards are prone to do the same.

On the 15th of July, Sergeant J. J. Cox, first battalion Louisiana
volunteers, and John A. Toole, 9th Virginia cavalry, made their escape
from Fort Delaware under the following circumstances: At 8 o’clock,
P.M., when the sergeants were calling the roll in the enclosure, they
a squeezed out of the apertures left for the passage of air throughout
the quarters, and concealed themselves in the long grass outside the
barracks. They now had about ten paces to crawl in order to reach the
path on which the sentry walked, and they passed this point in safety
and unobserved by the sentinel, with their knives between their teeth,
ready to use at any moment. They then crossed the moat and embankment
in safety. It was now seventy-five yards to the river. On the way there
they discovered a board on which they tied their clothes. As they were
about to get into the water, they saw a boat full (as they supposed)
of soldiers rowing towards the shore, and in about ten minutes another
came. This delayed them an hour, when they leaped into the water, and
swam half way across the river. Here a government transport passed
so close to them that they could discern every rope on board. Having
eluded this boat they had no further trouble, and reached the shore
between Delaware City and New Castle on the marsh, after being five or
six hours in the water, and having swam a distance of three and a half
miles on a board! They remained on the marsh until the night of the
16th, when they started on their journey South—paused the town of St.
George, Delaware, the same night. They went to Baltimore and Washington
to look round, and from the latter they made their way to Dixie, easy
enough, in the character of stock buyers.

_July 28th._ This day has been spent in reading the “life of
Washington,” loaned me by a fellow-prisoner. The war for independence
has always been considered the heroic age in American history, and
while many despaired of peace ever again smiling upon the land,
Washington placed his confidence in God, and overcame all difficulties.
In September, 1775, Washington wrote in relation to a proposed
attack upon the enemy at Boston and Roxbury: “The success of such
an enterprise, I well know, _depends on the All-wise disposer of
events_, and it is not within the reach of human wisdom to foretell the
result, &c.” In January, 1776, he wrote: “For more than two months
I have scarcely emerged from one difficulty before I have plunged
into another. How it will end God in his great goodness will direct.”
Those who fight the battles of a country may derive their loftiest
inspirations from trust in providence. In July, 1775, Washington said
in an order to the troops: “The fate of unborn millions will now
depend, under God, on the courage and conduct of this army. Let us rely
upon the goodness of the cause, and the aid of the Supreme Being, in
whose hands victory is.”

_July 29th, 30th and 31st._ Nothing of interest enough to record has
transpired during the past three days, unless it be the arrival of
transport boats to convey us to “Dixie,” which latter is the only
evidence to our minds that we are really to be exchanged, for we have
ceased to believe the Yankees any longer. And I might add, the general
happiness manifested by the prisoners in anticipation of once more
realizing that freedom which allows one to move about at pleasure,
and untrammelled by a sentinel at every step. No one can entertain
an adequate idea of what liberty is, until he has been confined in a
Yankee prison, and then he will understand both liberty and tyranny.

_August 1st._ About three thousand Confederates were put on board boats
to-day, and started for the South—landed at “Aiken’s Landing,” August
5th.

My prison experience has taught me that the Yankees are one grand
bundle of lies and inconsistencies. The newspapers, particularly, have
begun, and kept up, a wholsale system of lying, under the military
censorship and direction of the Secretary of War. In spite of their
disclaimers to the contrary, their own acts and words betray their
purpose to steal all the negroes they can. It is true that some have
pleaded, and are now pleading for peace under the old government,
offering the South all she ever had, and claiming nothing that is not
common to all. But this is simply because they have seen the folly of
their undertaking, and would like now to slip out of the difficulty,
especially since they believe they have about as many slaves as they
will probably get. But those who are now causing all the bloodshed
around us, will, if they persist, find the bounds of slavery yet spread
beyond limits heretofore held. The Confederate Government, however, is
fighting for _Constitutional Liberty_—the liberty of our forefathers
against all things, and nothing but annihilation can prevent them from
upholding it; and to the Yankees it may be said:

    “The purpose you undertake is dangerous;
    The friends you have named uncertain;
    The time itself unsorted;
    And your whole plot too light for the counterpoise of so great an
      opposition.”







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