Southern determination — a noble patriot.
[For the Richmond Dispatch]
Messrs. Editors: I have just returned from the
South, on a trip connected with our Government, and find that the
Gulf States are true as steel to our cause.
In
Louisiana, nearly opposite
Vicksburg, 40,000 bags of cotton were recently burned by the owners.
On the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, and
Mississippi Southern Railroad, there are numerous piles of cotton, with ropes cut, ready to receive the torch, on the approach of the enemy.
The city of
Mobile is strongly fortified by the guns of
Fort Gaines and
Fort Morgan, also by obstructions in the river near the city; but in the event of either, or all, of these strongholds being carried by the enemy, and a surrender of the city being demanded, our military commanders have determined to make a hand-to-hand fight in the streets of the city.
The same policy is also determined on in reference to
Vicksburg.
The citizens of both places boldly aver that New Orleans shall enjoy, single handed, the
honor of permitting her soil to be polluted by the footprints of an unprincipled foe.
Stores are closed at 3 o'clock P. M., each day, to give the citizens an opportunity of meeting for drill and other military exercises peculiar to camp life.
While passing through
Central Georgia I met a respectable gentleman, a country farmer, 61 years of age, by the name of
Henry Philips, of
Campbell county who informed me that he had nine sons in the army, aged from 18 to 39 years, and that he had two more to go in a few days; and that if his country needed
his scrutces he was ready to respond to his country's call, and ‘"shoulder arms"’ in defence of Southern rights and honor.
Mr. Phillips also had an
only daughter, whom he represented as a ‘"ship of the old block"’
If our Confederacy had many such sen as
Henry Phillips, the ‘"universal Yankee nation"’ would find Southern soil a hard road to travel."
