Rebellion Record: a Diary of American Events: Poetry and Incidents., Volume 6.
Frank Moore, Ed.

Bushwhacking and the Black flag.--Now is the time for bushwhacking and the black flag. Now is the time to punish, with the full measure of retributive justice, the Vandals who have dared to desecrate our soil for purposes of rapine, murder, and every manner of cruelty and outrage which illustrates the depravity and wickedness of human nature in its most degenerate form. It is not improbable that, by means of iron-clad boats, they will succeed, occasionally, in effecting landings upon the Mississippi River, with a view to predatory incursions into the interior. Nothing better could be desired. It will give each man, of whatever age, calling, or occupation, an opportunity to become at once an efficient soldier. He can take his gun, ascertain the places most likely to be frequented by the Yankee thieves, conceal himself in ravine, thicket, or undergrowth, and pick them off by the wholesale. This will be fine sport — better, indeed, than hunting wild game. And those engaged in it will have the satisfaction of knowing that whenever they bring one of these prowling beasts to the dust, the number of our remorseless enemies will be that much less. We know of one quiet but shrewd and resolute citizen in a certain region infested with these plunderers from Yankee land, who has bagged about a dozen of them. His example is commended especially to the people of the river counties; but not to them alone. Where the base hoof of a Yankee leaves its impress, there let his carcass be made to enrich the soil which he has come to plunder. Nor must their coming be awaited. Every part of our territory should alike be held sacred from such a loathsome presence. The Yankee generals, dreading the guerrilla and bush-whacking system of war, have indicated their purpose to retaliate, by seizing non-combatants and destroying property indiscriminately. It is not for our people to be deterred by this expedient. We must remember that our condition cannot possibly be made worse than it will have become should the Yankees succeed in their scheme of subjugation. As for the rules of civilized war, we have this to say: A people who, for no justifiable cause whatever, have come to place a yoke of iron on our necks, are not entitled to their benefit. Moreover, those rules, as well as the ordinary obligations of humanity, have been entirely disregarded by the Yankees wherever they have succeeded in obtaining control. Witness their inhuman conduct at Nashville, Huntsville, New-Orleans, and elsewhere. Witness their attack with shell and shot upon Chattanooga, without a warning for the removal of the women and children.

In addition to pitched battles upon the open field, let us try partisan ranging bushwhacking — and hence-forward, until the close of this war, let our sign be, The Black Flag and no Quarter!--Jackson Mississippian, June 10.