Notes of the War.
The
Raleigh (N. C.) State Journal corrects some of the rumors that have been set afloat in connection with the fall of
Newbern, as follows:
‘
Our troops have neither been all fettled nor captured at
Newbern.
They were routed, it is true.
Forty-five hundred men could not withstand a body of twenty thousand well-armed and disciplined troops, with every appliance they could desire.
But they rallied as quickly as any routed body of soldiers ever did or could.
They are not demoralized in the slightest.
They are again ready to meet the enemy, and are anxious to do so?
It is an abominable falsehood to say they behaved badly.
No body of troops ever fought with greater gallantry.
The losses have been ridiculously exaggerated.
The loss in killed will not exceed 50, we think; nor will the number captured reach over 100, if the late reports from
Kinston be correct.
The only field officer killed or wounded is
Maj. Carmichael, of the 26th regiment, killed — unless the rumor that
Colonel Avery, of the 23d, is wounded should turn out to be correct, which we do not credit — We incline to the belief that he is captured, and, we fear, a considerable portion of his command.
Several company officers are sold to be killed and wounded, but there is no certainly of it as yet. Several pieces of artillery were saved, a complete section of
Captain Brem's battery amongst the rest.
This we learn from a private letter that was brought away by
Lieut. Col. Burgwynn, of the 26th.
The
Journal speaks in highly complimentary terms of the conduct of
Gen. Branch, but denounces
Gen. Gatlin, "who," it says, ‘ "should be at once ordered by the people to leave the
State, if the authorities at
Richmond refuse or neglect to remove him." ’
All the engines and rolling stock of the
Atlantic Railroad were brought away, and it is asserted that all the cotton and naval stores in the town were burnt before the enemy took possession.
’
Newbern
The following is the
general order in regard to the interment of the remains of the gallant
McCulloch:
Fort Smith, March 9, 1862.--The brave
General McCulloch is no longer on earth.
He fell while bravely fighting at the head of his division, in a hardly contested battle with the enemy near
Cross Hollows, on the 7th inst. His remains will be interred with military honors, on Monday at 12 o'clock. The officers and troops of the command will hold themselves in readiness to perform this melancholy duty.
Officers of this command will report in person at the
Adjutant's office, at nine o'clock. Sojourning officers of the army are invited to participate.
Officer and soldiers of the battle of
Oak Hills are invited to participate, also, the command of
General Pearce.
The invitation is likewise extended to all citizens to unite in the procession.
All colors and flags will be at half-mast and draped in mourning.
Officers will wear the usual badge of mourning.
Geo. W. Clarke,
Major Commanding Post.
Our enemies.
The Charleston
Courier, in a summary of the wrongs and insults endured by the
South, thus sketches the atrocious conduct of our enemies in the present war:
The atrocities they have committed constitute one of the blackest pages in the book of crime.
They have imprisoned women, and treated them with brutal rudeness; rough hands have smitten little children in the face for the crime of wearing certain colors; they have entered houses at the dead of night, dragged gray-haired men out of their beds and thrust them into prisons; they have condemned prisoners taken in war to suffer death on the gallows, exposed them to the mockery of the vulgar head, and kept them in dark, loathsome dungeons on felons' fare, and would long since have executed the unrighteous sentence by the hand of the headsman if our
President had not tied the rope around the necks of some of their own citizens, they have set fire to houses while the inmates were asleep, and forced tender women and prattling children into the bitter cold, while the snow was falling; they have plundered and destroyed, in order to gratify their demoniacal malice; they have trampled under foot every principle of honor, every feeling of humanity, and in their mad pursuit of an impossible object, have piled up sins as high as heaven.
And not content with perpetrating these horrid enormities, they have, by an act of the meanest cowardice, excited the contempt of all nations, and reduced themselves below the level of the most feeble and unprincipled foreign power.
This is the people that menaces us with chains and death.
It is to expel such a people from the soil which they pollute, to punish them for the injuries they have inflected upon us, and to protect ourselves from greater evils than any we have suffered, that we have girded on the sword.
Loathing the vile creatures, whose offences smell to Heaven; proud of the heritage bequeathed us by our fathers; nerved by the remembrance of brilliant successes; assured of our ability to accomplish the work we have begun, we stand to our arms, resolved to conquer.
The Valley.
The Staunton
Spectator says:
‘
Gen. Thomas J. Jackson has moved the "
Stonewall" from
Winchester to
Mount Jackson, in Shenandoah county, where he will give the enemy fight if they pursue him to that place.
The militia are flocking in great numbers to his assistance, and in a few days he will have a strong force, in numbers at least, if not in efficiency.
The militia are brave, and, if furnished with arms, will do good execution.
’
The production of grain.
Alluding to the resolution passed by Congress recommending planters to refrain from the production of cotton his year and apply themselves vigorously to the production of grain, the
Raleigh State Journal says:
‘
The subject needs no argument.
If the people of the
South want independence, they must work for it. The cotton plant is their chief weapon, and they now know how best to employ it. They must rely solely upon themselves for food during the continuance of the war. The States of
Kentucky and
Tennessee cannot be relied on for a pound of bread or announce of meat.
To prevent starvation, then, and to sustain their armeis in the field demands of them the employment of their means to procure the necessaries of life.
Abandon cotton, then, and produce bread.
It is no use to mince matters.
If the cultivation of cotton be not abandoned for the present, and breadstuffs be raised instead we are a conquered people, and had far better at once lay down our arms and quit the contest.
’
The Staunton
Spectator remarks:
‘
Every planter owes to his neighbors and to his country to plant all the corn he can, and to make as little cotton and tobacco as possible.
The soldiers must have meat and bread, and their families at home must be provided for. Plant corn ! it is the staff of life.
A good corn crop this year will do more for the
South than anything else.
’
A Defiant spirit.
Capt. B. F. Saunders, of
Coahoma county, Miss., who lost one of his arms in the
Mexican war, is among the
Fort Donelson prisoners.--The Memphis
Avalanche says that‘ when his sword was demanded by the
Federals he refused to surrender it. A squad of armed soldiers were ordered to disarm him of it, when he, defiantly, sticking it in the ground, and by the aid of his foot severed the blade, and throwing it as far as he could, said to them "now, d — n you, if you want it, go and get it" ’
Abandoning their homes.
The
Fredericksburg Herald hears of many large farmers in the upper country who have left their beautiful estates, and with the negroes have gone further into the interior.
Families from Londoun,
Fauquier and
Culpeper, have been impelled to these hasty retreats from hearthstones dear to them and their little ones, by the approach of the ruthless invader.
