From southwest Virginia.
the fifty-sixth Virginia Regiment--encouraging news from Kentucky--the Charleston fire, &c.
[correspondence of the Richmond Dispatch.]
The news from Kentucky is highly encouraging. I had the good fortune to meet with a middle-aged citizen, of Bourbon, who has left his friends and home, rather than take the oath of allegiance to the monkey dynasty in Washington; and he assures me that great numbers will join the ranks of Marshall as he advances to West Liberty, Mount Sterling, and Paris. The admission of Kentucky into the Confederacy will have a most salutary effect. It will strengthen our cause almost incalculably. It will put a powerful friend at the back of the true-hearted Southron, and give them encouragement and courage to battle for the right. The march of Zollicoffer is likewise attended with the happiest results. Large accessions to his forces have taken place in Pulaski county, especially in the neighborhood of Somerset, near which the General is now encamping. The advance troops of the army of the enemy, intended to operate against Bowling Green, are on the North-side of Green River, confronting our advance, and no new movements are reported from that quarter.
Upon a careful analysis of the campaign ‘"on the dark and bloody ground,"’ we have no occasion to despond Buckner, Breckinridge, Crittenden, and Marshall are names whose very pronunciation thrills thousands; and with the powerful assistance of the Confederate Government these home-heroes will yet redeem and disenthral the land of their birth. While the preparations of the enemy to subjugate Kentucky have been gigantic, an enlightened wisdom has opposed means of equally formidable resistance, and when the great battle transpires we have every reason to expect customary victory to alight on our standard.
A detachment of Albemarle cavalry, under Col. Clarkson, have been in Abingdon for several days.
The burning of Charleston, which brought half of the noble city to dust, is the chief theme of conversation, and all unite in the expression of sincere sorrow at the mournful calamity. Occasional.
