Correspondence of the Richmond Dispatch.
enthusiastic demonstration in Smythe county.
Marion, Smythe County, Va.,April 15th, 1861.
Last Saturday was a gala day in our village.
Our new military company, the ‘"Smythe Blues,"’ numbering 60, rank and file, paraded in the morning, and certainly exhibited a degree of proficiency in the drill which was remarkable, considering the short time which has transpired since the organization of the company.
At 2 o'clock P. M., the members of the company, desiring to give a public manifestation of their way of thinking, unfurled to the breeze the flag of the Southern Confederacy on a pole ninety feet high, fired a salute of forty guns, and gave three cheers for Jeff. Davis and the Southern Confederacy.
Loud calls were then made on Capt. A. G. Pendleton, Jr., of the Blues, for a speech, who responded gracefully, in his usual felicitous and eloquent manner.
Several other gentlemen were then called upon, all of whom made patriotic and eloquent speeches, and advocated the doctrine that Virginia should at once secede, and join her fortunes with her sisters of the sunny South.
After the speeches were over, the company was dismissed, and the large crowd of spectators dispersed quietly.
The secession feeling has gained ground daily in this county, and I have no doubt that if an Ordinance of Secession was submitted to the people, this county would give a large majority in favor it; certainly, judging from the large number of secession flags floating from nearly every house-top, there are very few Unionists in our village at least, and from conversations I have had with prominent gentlemen from all parts of the county, I have good reason to believe that this one sentiment pervades the hearts of a majority of the people, who feel restless under the yoke of a Black Republican President.
The people of this once proud Old Dominion have been under the rule of Abraham Lincoln quite long enough, and I am sure that none feel more keenly the humiliating position occupied by Virginia than the people of the much abused Southwest, and I know that when the tocsin of war is sounded, our gallant mountain companies will be among the first to respond to the call, and go north to battle for ‘"Southern Rights,"’ and or the preservation of Southern honor; and assure you they will prove formidable foes the weakly city soldiery of the North. G.
