[for the Richmond Dispatch.]
Callaghan's, Alleghany Co., Va., August 1, 1861.
Messrs. Editors of the Dispatch:--In your paper of the 30th ult. you speak, upon the information of an intelligent gentleman, of ‘ "Governor Pierpont"’ as being a member of the Methodist Protestant Church, and of a minister of that denomination being the head and brains and ruling spirit of the traitors in the Northwest.
All this may be so. Yet an idea is probably conveyed by that article, to persons unacquainted with the facts, that is incorrect.
The reader would infer that the Methodist Protestant Church in Northwestern Virginia is abolition, which is not the case.
Living there as I do, and being well acquainted with the membership of said church, I feel that I am safe in saying that the members thereof, agreeably to their numbers, voted for the Ordinance of Secession at the rate of two hundred per cent. over and above any other denomination; at least, that was the case as far as my knowledge extends, (I should except the Methodist Episcopal Church South, whose membership in that section is small) I have met with members of the Methodist Protestant Church since I left my home, who were compelled to flee from the Northern invaders, or be arrested by them.
Some of them have told me of the manner in which their property was destroyed, or deliberately taken by the Yankees.
Among those who thus suffered, is P. B. Righter, of Marion county.
I ask the insertion of the foregoing, for the the reason that said church is comparatively a young, but rapidly growing church, its creed and government not generally known by those who might have read the article above referred to. A Member of the M. P. C. 