From Petersburg.
[special Correspondence of the Dispatch.]
Petersburg, April 23, 1861.
At a meeting of the Common Council last evening, a resolution was unanimously passed appropriating $20,000 for arming and equipping the new companies of volunteers that have just been organized--$5,000 for immediate use, and the balance as needed.
The war spirit pervades all ranks and all ages, and the civil authorities liberally respond to it. In a late letter I gave you a list of three new companies; I have now to add another, gotten up by Col. James S. Gilliam within a day or two past.
The Cockade will not fail to maintain her prestige.
The Home Guard, under the command of Capt. Potts, numbers 175.
They are active in the performance of duty; and in the absence of so many of our citizens, the safety of the city may be committed to their charge without the least apprehension.
Large numbers of free negroes have offered their services, and will be sent to Norfolk to erect batteries.
Many of the poor creatures are out of employment, in consequence of the closing of the tobacco factories, and it would be a mercy to give them some useful work to perform, if only for their bread and meat.--Some of the more thrifty of the class have subscribed liberally to bear their expenses--one of them as much as $100; others smaller sums.
Hon. Roger A. Pryor has just returned from the South, and is authorized by President Davis to raise a regiment of infantry, 1,000 strong, for the service of the Confederate States.
He will proceed immediately to recruit, and will doubtless easily find the desired number in the surrounding counties.
It is an old saying, that in times of revolution there are no Sabbaths.
The truth of this was practically illustrated last Sunday.
A number of ladies, including members of churches, were busily engaged in making garments for the volunteers who left the preceding day, many of whom had no time to provide suitable changes.
Hugh Nelson, Esq., a most respected citizen, and somewhat advanced in years, and who occupies the position of Treasurer of the South-Side R. R.
Co., tendered his resignation that he might be at liberty to go to Norfolk to join his company.
The Directory would not receive his resignation, but permitted him to go. The blood of the old revolutionary Nelsons courses in his veins, and it has fired him up with all the ardor of youth.
With such a spirit pervading the old as well as the young, who shall doubt the capacity of Virginia to maintain her position?
Mon CŒur. 