An incident.
--A correspondent of the New Orleans Delta writes as follows from
Virginia:
‘
"I have heard of a significant incident on the upper Potomac, which goes to show that the hearts of many of the
Union soldiers are far from being warm in the work of invasion.
A part of the enemy's pickets, it is said, called across the river to a party of our pickets, and proposed that delegations of two from each side should meet in the middle of the river and take a drink together.
The proposition was accepted, and accordingly two of the ‘"Yankees"’ stripped off their clothes to prove their peaceful intent, and armed with nothing but their canteens, took a canoe and paddled out into the stream, where they were met in like fashion by a couple of Confederate soldiers.
After a due interchange of drinks and compliments, the
Confederates jestingly remarked that they had a strong mind to take the
Yankees prisoners.
The latter replied that they would rather be prisoners than not. They were heartily sick of the war, they said, since it proved to be a war of invasion.
They were willing to fight for defence, but they could only be dragged by force of military discipline to go with an invading army into Southern territory.
Their time of service would be out on the 10th of July, and, with thousands of others, they would go home with an unalterable determination not to take up arms again in the same cause.
This is only soldier's talk, it is true, nor was this meeting of equal pomp and consequence to that of
Napoleon and
Alexander on a raft; but such testimony tells more in regard to the
morale of the enemy's army than the magniloquent bulletins of its
Generals.
’
