Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1861-08-28
v Virginia. a.

We copy the following unanswerable state.
ment from the Richmond Examiner as well
for the strong and just light in which it
places the action of Virginia, as for the com
pliment 1t pays to North Carolina:
"The State of Virginia has furnished the
Confederate service E5e companies, uniformed
and equipped, according to law The aver
age humber OF men In these companies, is rs
to each. They make an aggregate of 55, 25O
volunteer soldiers from the State of Virginia
now in the ranksof the Confederate army and
actually in the field Besides this corps. this
State has furnished the temporary service of
large masses of militia, many thousands of
men for home defence, and great number
of persons who have employed themselves in
guerilla warfare, and in tending the wounded,
who are not numbered on the rolls of the
army. The actual numbers of Virginia troops
on those rolls, we repeat, are neither more
nor less than 55, ,250 privates and officers
So much of manhood In money the
State has not been less liberal. The Conven-
tion appropriated the sum 100000 of dol
lars to the public Defence and 100000 of
dollars have been actually advanced by the
State Government to the Confederate service.
Such is the official statement. The contri-
buttons of the various counties and of pri-
vate individuals cannot be stated with the
same accuracy. But they are sufficiently
well known to enable US to say with authori-
ty, that they exceed 1000, 900 of dollars.
But while the State of Virginia has thus
magnificently justified her great renown, and
made these munifcent contributions to the
Confederate service, they are the least of her
sacrifices to the war. This State deliberately
made itself the chopping block of the North
and the South, the cockpit of contendng ma
tions the Flanders of America The scenes
OF wars are always scenes of desolation; the
countries over which armies march and fight
are ever reduced to misery in all wars the
helds will ever be ravaged, the cattle and
wealth of the land will always be seized and
used by both parties, the houses be plnnder-
ed, the towns burnt, the poor be harrassed, the
rich ruined. Such is the experience of all
time. The proverbs of every people express
these truisms, and every man, woman and
child, IN this State of Virginia, was we'll
aware of the terrible fact that when she left
the Northern Union and placed herself be-
tween it and the Southern Confederacy, her
soil must be the battlefield of Continent,
and that all the real sufferings the war would
cause must be bornc5yaser devoted citizens.
They have borne them. They do endure
them. And ifthe Southern forces prove the
weaker catastrophe will befall the people of
Virginia unknown to modern times. The all
ternates were before the eyes Of ALTO STAY
in the Union and share the security AMI
the infamy of Kentucky, or to leave it and
encounter these certain evils and this sombre
chance. With this knowledge, at the first
threat of the Northern usurper, this old and
naughty nation, proud in arms, slept boldly
into the place of danger and the post of honor.
From that moment the weight of the war
fell on Virginia's shoulders. Her sister
States of the Southern Confederacy were at
once delivered from all the horrors that rem
der war curse. They have not heard