Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1861-07-23

STATEMENT OF MIR WEST, OF THE CONDITION
OF THINGS IN ALABAMA,

OF THINGS IN ALABAMA,
From the Cincinnati Commercial l7thl
We met, yesterday, Mr.. Samuel West, for
merry OF Philadelphia, latterly of Montgomery
Alabama, from which place he fed on Wed.
neSday Of last week, lie was anxious to re-
main, but the fact that he was a man of north
ern birth subjected him to prosecutions which
were intolerable.
He informs us that there has heen a rapid
concentration of troops along the Louisville &
Nashville, and Nashville & Chattanooga rail
roads, There are camps at intervals all the
way from Atlanta to the Kentucky line,
About five miles from the Kentucky
line there is a camp said to contain
four thousand men. Taking this in con-
nection with the position of the Kentucky
state guard, the appearance is that the pos
session of Louisville is calculated upon. The
southern soldiers generally are poorly clad,
and in all respects i'll provided. Some regi-
ments are composed almost exclusively of
boys. There is still a strong Union feeling in
northern Alabama, and only one regiment has
been rliSed in that section of the state, and il
1.-THE fiflh) is n rabbe of boys, incapable of the
performance of the duties OF soldiers. Even i'll
Montgomery there are Union nen-plenty Of
them, who would be wild with joy to see the
old "banner Of beauty and glory floating again
over the dome of the capitol of the state
One great reason for the removal of the
government from Montgomery to Richmond,
was the insutierab!e rapacity of the people OF
the former town. They nut up rents enor-
mously, and were guilty Of all the greedy
tricks which they are SO ford of charging
upon the id yankees" The government
got even with the town, however. The Hon
orablcs-the president, secretaries &c.,-lett
without paying their rents and leaving such
mass OF rubbish of confederate bonds, that
gold commands twenty per cent. premium.
Mr. West gives shocking account of the
performances OF the Louisiana Zouaves as they
passed through Montgomery. Owing to
railroad accident, the regiment had been de-
tanned about thirty-sX hours at point where
ii was impossible 10 obtain provisions, and
they reached Montgomery frantic with hun.
ger They were also in a mutinous condition,
because they had not received any pay. They
declared with the most horrid impl ications
that they never would leave the town if
they were not paid. They excited a
general alarm. Tie confederate govern
ment had no money and though it
was Sunday, the state authorities and bank
officers were gathered together, and con-
trivrd to raise three thousand dollars, or
five dollars each for the six hundred men com.
posing the regiment. So internal were the
proceedings OF the Zouaves, that the ladies
were afraid to go to church. Mr. West men
toned the names OF half dozen citizens
whose houses were broken open ADD robbed in
daylight Every atrocity charged by Beaure
gard in his Virginia proclamation, upon the
northern troops, was committed by the Zou-
ayes of Louisiana. Wherever they found ne.
gro women they proceeded to use them VIC
Ienty. and there were scenes in the streets of
Montgomery, in sight Of the house of the con-
tederate president, that Sunday morning, un.
heard of heretofore, except where cities have
been stormed and sacked by drunken and
licentious sodiery.