Affairs at the South.
From our Southern exchanges we gather the following items:
The following stirring address has been issued by
Gen. Van-
Dorn:
Headq'rs Trans-Mississippi District, Dept. No., 2, Pocahontas, Ark., Feb. 1862.
The question is before us: shall we organize, arm, and march to join the army of Missouri, and battle for independence on her soil, where she invites, nay, implores us, to come; or shall we wait to see that gallant and struggling State down-trodden in the dust, manacled and lost — her broad fields and rich granaries opened to supply the tyrant's hordes as they march triumphantly and unopposed to invade our own homes?
Shall we strike down the enemy whose grip is upon our brother's throat, and who only waits to see his last gasp to attack us; or shall we stand by and see our brother perish and meekly await a similar doom?
The case is before us for our decision, and it is no dream of the imagination, but a stern reality, and we must decide it. We have voted to be tree.
We must now fight to be free, or present to the world the humiliating spectacle of a nation of braggarts, more contemptible than the tyrants who seek to enslave us.
The flag of our country is waving on the southern borders of
Missouri--placed there by my hands under authority from our
Chief Magistrate.
It represents all that is dear to us in life.
Shall it wave there in melancholy loneliness as a fall leaf in our primeval forests, or shall its beautiful field and bright stars flaunt in the breeze over the proud battalions of
Arkansas, of
Texas, and of
Louisiana, as they are marshalling to do battle with
Missouri for victory, for honor, and for independence.
Awake! young men of
Arkansas, and arm!
Beautiful maddens of
Louisiana, smile not upon the craven youth who may linger by your hearth when the rude blast of war is sounding in your ear!
Texas chivalry, to arms!
Hardships and hunger, disease, and death, are preferable to slavery subjection, and a nation with a bright page in history and a glorious epitaph is better than a Vassall land with honor lost and a people sunk in infamy.
Earl Van-
Dorn,
Major-General.
Attempt to Run the blockade.
The New Orleans
Bulletin says:
‘
The steamer
Victoria,
Capt. Forbes, appeared off
Fort Livingston at the entrance to
Barataria Bay, on Tuesday night, and in attempting to run in got aground in the
Swash Channel, a mile distant from the fort.
On Wednesday morning the
United States steamer
South Carolina hove in sight and taking a position some three miles from the
Victoria (she could not approach nearer owing to the shallowness of the water) commenced firing at the vessel.
Up to three o'clock Wednesday afternoon, about two hundred shells had been fired by the enemy, but not one struck the
Victoria, most of them falling short.
The cargo of the
Victoria is a valuable one, consisting of arms, powder, and coffee, and as the vessel is under the guns of
Fort Livingston and within range of the light artillery on shore, it is thought the enemy will not be able to capture it. A party left here last evening to go to the assistance of the
Victoria.
The telegraph has since announced the safe arrival of the
Victoria at her wharf in New Orleans.
’
Outrages of the enemy.
The Abingdon
Virginian, of the 21st inst, says:
‘
We are informed by a gentleman direct from
Wyoming that a party of Union men and Yankees advanced into that county last week, and set fire to the dwellings of
Messrs. Joseph and
Wm. McDonald, destroying everything they contained.
Besides this, they stole some 16 or 17 horses from the latter.
’
The Knoxville
Register, of the 19th inst., concludes an article deprecatory of alarms and sudden panics among the people, as follows:
‘
East Tennessee to-day, is safer than any portion of the Southern Confederacy, yet when troops from the
South and from the Old Dominion are crowding the railways leading into
East Tennessee, when before another sun rises and sets,
Gen. Bragg will take charge of the armies being concentrated here, when the roads are such that a month must elapse before an army could make even an unresisted march to
Knoxville, notwithstanding all this, because a mob frightened out of their wits come howling into this city.
divers old women have fits, and ye gods!
what shall be said of these denominated men?
The terrified should be shipped to
New England, where the doctrine of non-resistance is fulminated by crazed enthusiasts from a thousand pulpits.
’
The Richmond correspondent of the Memphis
Appeal writes:
‘
I learn from
Centreville that
Gen. Beauregard expects to return to the army of the Potomac in two months from this time, and that be only consented to assume the command in
Kentucky upon condition that he should be allowed to come back to his old companions-in-arms in time for the opening of the spring campaign.
He has not forgotten his promise to ‘"the prettiest girl of
Baltimore,"’ that he would plant the battle flag, wrought by her fair fingers, upon the top of the
Washington monument in that city.
’
A Suspected spy.
A man named
Briggs, who has been a constant attendant on the telegraph office at
Charleston, S. C., during the past week, and who is an expert operator himself, was, a few days since, arrested in that city on suspicion of being a spy.
