Correspondence of the Richmond Dispatch.
affairs in North Carolina --troops in motion — enthusiasm of the people.
Raleigh, N. C., April 21st, 1861.
Notwithstanding to-day is Sunday, it has been a day of great rejoicing in the ‘"City of Oaks."’ At five o'clock P. M., a special train from the West arrived at the depot of the N. C. Railroad, containing four hundred strong arms and stout hearts en route for the most available points of attack, eager for the fight, and with the Confederate flag waving from each coach, with one star to the glorious seven, which glistens to the name of Virginia.
Hundreds of persons, old and young, had congregated at the depot to welcome them, and as the train approached containing these uniformed soldiers who had armed and equipped themselves for their loved South, one long, glad shout rent the air to the tune of three times three.
Such manifestations cannot fail to buoy the hearts and nerve the arms of these gallant patriots.
After remaining at the depot for a few moments, exchanging mutual congratulations of the crowd, the whistle announced the hour of parting, and as the train moved off three cheers were again given with a hearty good will.
The people of this State are entirely a unit.--There are no party lines now; all such distinctions are buried, and East, West, North, and South, of the Old North State, rally man to man, heart to heart, in defence of the liberties of the South.
In feeling and sentiment, North Carolina is out of the Lincoln Government, and instead of meeting under the once glorious Stars and Stripes, now the dirty insignia of Abraham Lincoln, she rallies her sons under the Confederate flag — determined to have liberty or death.
North Carolina will never turn back; her people have taken the honor and keeping of the State in their own hands, and they will not wait for the incitements of eloquence.
Their hearts leap to the summons and their blades to her defence, as to the cry of her mother.
I have attended many meetings since I arrived in Raleigh, brought about by this great crisis, and I firmly believe that no State in the world can surpass North Carolina in the wise and patriotic unanimity of her sons — a unanimity that embraces chivalrous loyalty to her honor, with that harmony of feeling and interest which must prove the perfection of virtue in the impending crisis, and lead her sons to victory.--Blood, language, religion in its most catholic sense, are one bond of Union, and they all feel and recognize one hope and one destiny, and are determined to prove to the usurper that the South is a country, not a bauble to be sported with, or a spoil to be plundered, to gratify the keen hate and gloomy fanaticism of a party or a selfish faction.
The sons of North Carolina are determined, with their Southern brethren, to cut loose from a Government which thus far, under its present rulers, has been marked by injustice and corruption, and to throw the shield of protection over themselves; to defend their interests alike from tyranny and anarchy, and to provide new guards for the future.
Ten thousand men have already volunteered their services to Gov. Ellis, than whom, I feel a pleasure in saying, no State ever marched to battle or to victory under a more gallant or worthy leader.
Long may be live and the people call him blessed.
Every citizen of Raleigh, old and young, have organized, and are ready and willing to go into active service — including merchants, lawyers, physicians and mechanics.
All meet as one brotherhood.
Before another sun will have set, the arsenal at Fayetteville, N. C., containing thirty-nine thousand stand of arms, will be in possession of the North Carolina volunteers.
It is reported here that twenty-five hundred volunteers will be in Norfolk to-morrow, to aid the Virginians in the most effective measures to gain possession of the Gosport Navy-Yard.
May the God of hosts be with them and crown them with victory. F.
