A tribute to Gen. Beauregard.
Camp Near Centreville, Nov. 9, 1861.
Editors Dispatch.--Gentlemen: In your journal of yesterday I see a card copied from the Whig, from the pen of General Beauregard.
We, who are in the service as privates and non-commissioned officers, have not many opportunities of seeing the daily papers, and thus keeping on the surface of event, we thought not of the wrangling of politicians, but were credulous enough to imagine that those self-sacrificing patriots, who were filling lucrative offices, far out of range and "hearing of the enemy's guns," regarded our General as we regard him — the pride of our army.
But reading the card alluded to dispels the illusion.
The best efforts of our Government should be directed to but one object — the support of our Generals in the arduous work before them.
If it does this it will receive the support and confidence of all good men. But let partiality rule the day, and acknowledged incompetents be crowded into office, to the exclusion of better men, and it will receive the condemnation it deserves from every lover of his country.
Let the Government do its work wholly and unstintingly, and let Bull Run and Manassas testify how we will do ours.
General Johnston is regarded in this army as an accomplished soldier, capable of weaving a web of strategy which would defy the combined intellect of the old army to unravel, and as a chivalrous, high-toned gentleman, as his conduct on the 21st of July will testify.
But as the representative of the rank and file of this army, I say, without fear of contradiction, that General G. T. Beauregard is our man-- the man of the army. And let politicians beware how they charge him with ought incompatible with his character as a gallant soldier, pure patriot, and that grand old name, "a gentleman."
Your correspondent's acquaintance with General Beauregard extends to a "present arms" and a "raising of the cap," and being in action under his eyes as a Private
In the First Regiment of Va. Volunteers. 