Notes of the War.
The subjoined summary, compiled, from late papers, will be found interesting:
A Stringent order from Gen. Marshall.
Brigade Headq'rs, Lebanon, Va.,March 14, 1862.
General Order, No. 6The Brigadier-General Commanding directs that hereafter all passage and communication across the Cumberland range of mountains between Kentucky and Virginia, within the boundaries of Lee, Wise, and Buchanan counties, Virginia, either way, shall cease, unless the same shall be conducted under military permit from brigade headquarters. Any future infraction of this order will, if detected at any time, be summarily punished. The General relies upon his officers to assist him in the execution of a requisition so palpably connected with, and necessary to, the welfare of the people as this is. The country is infested with as spies. Unless a man now comes from Kentucky to join the army and to assist to defend his country, and to secure the independence of the South, he had better remain at home. If he is living at home subdued by tyranny or satisfied with Lincolnism, and has only enterprise enough to come into the Southern States to collect money or to arrange business connected with property, such a man had better stay away from a people whose whole energies now belong to their country. Any man who wishes to enlist will sign the articles of enlistment and put himself at once under orders at the out- post. Let no others pass, and if any others do pass, arrest them and put them into camp under the instruction of a drill master to teach them the school of the soldier, until they become ready to be attached to a company. Good men, who are friends to the South, will not regret such coercion; enemies will thus be harmless, and we may convert them into friends by healthy exercise and continued association.
No distinction of persons will be made in the execution of this order. No ties of friendship or relations of kindred shall justify an infraction of it. No pies of business or of interest will serve to avoid it. The man who is defected hereafter in stealing through the lines of this army, knowing that he is violating this order, shall be treated as a spy, summarily.
The Kentucky line.
The following is from the Abingdon Virginian, of the 21st inst.:‘ We learn, from good authority, that on Sunday last Maj. Thompson, who has command of the five companies from Scott and Lee, who volunteered for the protection of the gap, had a brisk brush with 2,500 of the enemy, which lasted several hours. After driving the enemy back, Maj. Thompson learned that the enemy were attempting to flank him at a gap a few miles below the Pound. He immediately removed the most of his force to that point, where a fierce battle ensued, and the enemy were repulsed. Our loss was none killed and eight wounded--the enemy's loss in killed was supposed to be heavy. The Federals fell back to Pikesville, and Major Thompson to Gladeville.
* * * * * *
The rumor has obtained currency that the Federals were at Cumberland Gap. No such good luck. We should like to hear of them marching up to that place, where their carcasses would make a Golgotha. They may be in the vicinity, but will not dare to venture within striking distance.
’
Wendell Phillips on the War.
Wendell Phillips, the arch-demon of Abolitionism, recently delivered a lecture at Rochester to a large audience, embracing ‘"many of the intelligent and influential citizens."’--The lecture was replete with atrocious sentiments. We take an extract or two from it to show the spirit which still actuates one of the leading men of the North:"The present war is the result of no accident, nor is it the result of the action of any particular person or party. In one sense, 'nobody was to blame, ' for the war was the result of the national policy for the last sixty or seventy years. Slavery is the real cause.
"I have been a disunionist and an honest disunionist. It was only last year that I began to see how the Union could mean justice, and I am Yankee enough to refuse union if I can get enough with it. If we can have justice in the Union, as we can if we will, then I am for the Union. The Union mean peace, prosperous commerce and manufactures, and extended nationality. Seeing so much depends upon it, I would have the nation like that course which will make its preservation certain. The Union, simply by coercion, would be a worthless bond, threating to the South, and unprofitable to ourselves. The plan of subjugating the South by force would result in a bald, barren conquest, hearing no fruit, because changing no convictions. If Gen. McClellan could, tomorrow, plant the Star and Stripes on Richmond and Montgomery, and all the principal points in the South, and have a force large enough to hold them there, what then? The elephant would be ours, but what should be done with it? The people of the South would be left angry and ready to rebel at any time. He is merely a barbarian who would conquer with bayonets alone. He is a statesman who would conquer a people by changing their conviction and thus removing the cause of hostility.
‘"How should we do this? The answer is simple. Issue a proclamation of emancipation, and we shall checkmate the interests of England by an appeal to her conscience.-- * * I would have a liberal compensation to all slaveholders who were loyal. And I would not have too close a scrutiny as to their loyalty. I would pour money into the South. This would stimulate industry and enterprise, and thus, with freedom, Virginia and South Carolina would soon become like New York, I would leave none of the ten million people of the South out of these blessings, but about 50,000 traitors and rebels, who must die or go into exile. All this is now possible, because we have act into this war, and I am glad the war has come."’
Mr. Charles MacKAYAYayay.
The New York Tribune has the following paragraph concerning Dr. Charles Mackay, an English song-writer and author of several compositions of Abolition tendencies:‘ The Boston journals are discussing with a good deal of feeling the presence of Dr. Chas. Mackay in this country, that personage, it seems, having arrived here by a recent a steamer. He has of late identified himself with secession intrigues in London, and with secession agents of the most disreputable sort — such, for instance, as Mr. Hiram Fuller, formerly of this city. Very probably Mackay is now here as an agent of Jeff. Davis, the fact that he is a fool not rendering him any the less eligible for that purpose.
’
The Creatures we have to fight.
In order to let the civilized world know the character of the enemy we are fighting, Brigadier-General Evans transmits to the Charleston Courier the following instructions found on the person of the captive, Benjamin willis, of the State of Maine, U. S.;
Headquarters U. S. Resident Agent, Hilton Head, S. C., February 8, 1862.
Mr. Benjamin Wittle. Port Royal--Sir:
You will proceed to North Edisto Island with Col. Noble, and assist Mr. Gideon Reynolds and Mr. Bratton in collecting cotton and other property on that Island, and performing such other service as they may require.
Mr. Benjamin Wittle. Port Royal--Sir:
(signed) Wm. H. Reynolds,
Lieut. Col. 1st Reg't. R. I. Artillery, C. S. Resident Agent.
Commenting on the above, the Courtier says:
‘ The revelations that have been made at Port Royal, Hatteras, Roanoke, Newbern, Nashville, and other places that have fallen into their power temporarily, show us the real character of this war.
These depredations cannot give us any deeper conviction of the thorough degradation of the large mass of the race that in urging this war against us. We have long been convinced that our language had no terms low enough to measure and record that degradation.
These who have doubted, or who have believed, against all indications, that our enemies were only mistaken, and were honestly waging a war for supposed necessities of political position, will now see their error.
Planters who remain exposed to the visits of the cotton stealers, will see the necessity of prompt measures for removal of destruction. Planters who are hesitating about the next crop, will see, also, the imperative necessity of immediate decision, which we hope and believe will by a large majority, if not by unanimity of all true Southerners, be against cotton planting for a crop.
’
"Speaking out."
The editor of the Milton (N. C.) Chronicle deems some sledge-hammer blows at certain classes of individuals, which have a general application:‘ We want to tell the people of the South a couple of secrets, and briefly narrated, they are these! You will never achieve Southern independence so long as one half, if not two- thirsts, of our Southern men fit for the field hold back from it and wait for a draft; and, when a draft comes, dodge, squirm, and try to get off if we get liberty and independence, every man able to kill a Yankee must manifest an anxiety to pitch into the fight, and his city should be, "let me at the enemy instead of trying to avoid the field. The other secret is equally important to our cess. This desire of one-half of our people to make fortunes out of the war by estimative to other half up must be stopped. Men having the necessaries or life to sell, must let them go at moderate prices, and be willing to give them away to the post and needy unable to buy. The a rich man must himself pitch into battle, if he is physically this, and generously throw open his pocket book, corn-crib, and meat house to his poor neighbors instead of skulking the battle-field, locking up his money and throwing the key away and demanding the most exorbitant prices (in cash) for everything he has to sell. We have too many Shylocks — too many Southern Yankees, mean of by far than a Northern Yankee ever dared to be. They must be put down — crushed out — or all our struggles for independence will be value. The farmer who have corn and meat to sell, and who studies how to make people pay him three prices for them, thinks that he is helping along to whip the Yankees. He is a fool, and is doing more to defeat the cause of the South than a whole Yankee regiment can do. The same may be said of the merchant, whose patriotism consists in asking enormous prices on his goods. To get independence we must study how to make sacrifices — how to help each other along — and not how big a pile of money we can make by extortion, gouging, suffering, robbing, or stealing from each other. You must throw open your corn-cribs and meat- houses to the poor, you must open your pocket-books and generously shell out your dimes to the families of poor men fighting for you. You must not promise to do great things for a poor man's family to get him to do that which you are afraid to do for yourselves, and when he has gone to the battle-field refuse to half-fulfill your copious promised. We speak as unto wise men — judge ye what we say."
’
A bad Prophet.
Immediately after the battle of Fort Donelson, the New York Herald indulged in the jubilant language which we copy below.--‘"Days and weeks"’ have elapsed, and yet the ‘"rebellion"’ is not crushed, nor is ‘"treason"’ in its last throes; on the contrary, the South is more determined than ever to fight on against the hated despotism of the North:The delight which the whole North has felt over the victory of Roanoke and the capture at Fort Donelson can only be equalled by the final satisfaction, which, we shall soon experience, of having completely re-asserted the Federal authority in every portion of the revolted Stares. We have indeed real cause for congratulation, for virtually the game of rebellion is already decided, and the flag of the Union floats proudly in all but three of the rebellious States. The fate of the Southern Confederacy is scaled; treason is in its last throes, and the restoration of the integrity of the Union is inevitable, and only a matter of time-- a few days or weeks, sooner or later. The loyal are triumphant, the traitors are defeated and driven back in confusion, and the great republic has survived the trying ordeal intended for its destruction. Have we not, then, occasion for rejecting and thanksgiving? Let us unite in a general and hearty expression of national feeling, and, while commemorating the yesterday of the illustrious Father of the republic, look forward hopefully to the speedy re-establishment of the Union whose foundation he left to us as the glorious us legacy of his labors.
