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:”