From Winchester.
[special Correspondence of the Dispatch.]
Winchester, Va., June 14th, 1861.
Permit me to address you a short letter from this point, composed of a little news, small matters and things in general.
There is a good deal of excitement here, owing to the fact that a large body of the Northern despot's hirelings have taken possession of Romney, about forty- two miles distant, and are expected to march on this place.
However, this point will not be so easily taken as Romney, which in her patriotism and zeal for the Southern cause, had sent nearly all her men away to drive back the ruthless invader from the soil of the Old Dominion.
Troops are coming in great numbers, and it is believed that they will welcome those minions of tyranny at the point of the bayonet, and greet them to bloody graves.
Our company, the "Liberty Hall Volunteers," composed of the students of Washington College, Lexington, Va., numbering seventy, arrived here yesterday evening, together with a regiment from East Tennessee, with whom we fell in at Gordonsville.
The citizens here are very hospitable indeed to the soldiers, which, together with the smiles of approbation that greet them from the daughters of beauty, make it a delightful place for quarters.
We laid over in Staunton three nights and two days, and fared much better than soldiers generally do, owing to the kindness of the ladies, whose bright eyes and sweet smiles can gain a victory over our soldiers far easier than the swords of the North.
As we came on here from Lexington, at every cottage and village by the wayside we were cheered on by the citizens, and even the slaves pause amid their labors and bid the soldier go to fight the battle of liberty, to ‘"kill dem Yankees."’ And they were the ones whom the fanatical North expected to aid in the subjugation of the South.
And as I saw banners waved and bouquets showered upon us by fair hands, as we journeyed along, I thought that we would be recreant to the dictates of patriotism, of humanity, and of love, did we not go and fight the battles of our country, shed the last drop of blood in our veins, before the daughters of the South should be subjected to shame and degradation by a horde of Northern demons.
But our cause is a just and a holy one.
It is that of a people battling for independence, and our battles will be the battles of freedom and of God, for the God of Battles seems to smile upon our efforts, and be on our side.
The South will never be subdued by the North--no, never, never!
Victory is to be ours, and our new government, to be established on Southern soil, will be one of the best and the purest--one still higher in the great scale of human progress. L. H. V.
