The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1861-06-01
For the Richmond Dispatch.1
Letter from Volunteer of 1916.

Nearly thirteen years have passed since l
last visited your beautiful and tourishing
city. Then | came a discharged yolun teer,
having served my country III Il war with
foreign enemy. / am here now under very
different circumstances. We are RI the COM
mence,nent of a bloody war in which many
of those who TODD shoulder TO shoulder in
fierce conflict with Il common enemy, Will
hereafter meet AS enemies, prepared to shed
each the others blood.
1t is useless now to rehearse the causes
that led to the separation of States that com
posed our once GLORIOUS Union" and the
formation of the Confederate States Govern
ment. They are well known to your readers.
NV native State had been prime mover il
the struggle which achieved her frst indie
pendence, and that of her sister States. She
had stood by her Washington in the darkest
periods in the revolution, and was in fun
force at it's closing scene on her own soil III
October, ISL. She had powerfully aided in
the formation of q ''more perfect Union" Her
Madison, one of the chief trainers, became the
most lucid eXpoundtr of the Constitution.
Virginia was alWaSy true to the Union Nth
the Constitution She ALWAYS adhered to
a rigid construc ton of the Constitution. She
always responded, and cheertuily, TO the call
OF the whole country, when 1t needed her as
sistance against common foe. Her last Lee
gislature and her late Convention shO wed how
devo tediy she loved the Union; and she hoped
even against hope for its preservation or its
reconstruction, after the main pillars of the
Cons titution had been undermined, after seven
States had Withdrawn from the Union, and
until Lincoln had called for seventy-f five
thousand volunteers, to sustain him in his
infamous designs of coercion and subJugation
But Virginia, fully aroused, SHOWS that she
has lost none of her cbivalry. Her sons rush
to her assistance from her mountains, her
valleys ard her shores. Travelling hundreds
OF miles through the State, have everyw where
witnessed the greatest enthusiasm. Thou
sands of her sons, forsaking all else, rush to
the Capital to be transferred, in few days
to positions of danger on her invaded border
Within the last few days l have seen her ma
tive sons, who had sought homes IN eight DIFF
ferent States, returning, either in organized
military bodies, or as private individuals, to
render their assistance 10 her in this hour of
trial and peril.
Nor is this enthusiasm confined TO Firginia
M iddle and West Tennessee are Thoroughly
aroused. Governor Harris has, within tW 0
weeks time, and withouta proclamation, re-
ceived and accepted offers for active service,
and rs a reserve, 81, 900 volunteers, and could
if desired raise one hundred thousand in two
weeks more; and better material for soldiers
/ have never seen. They comprise men in
every calling and condition. Men of profess
sional reputation-men of wealth and char
acter are found cheerfully serving in the
ranks. The ladies, deeply interested in the
cause of the South, encourage their husbands,
bro theirs and lovers to volunteer, saying that
II would prefer being the widow of brave
man to being the wife of a c. ward;' or, 81
would rather be an Old maid than become the
Wife OF "A coward" The amiable widow of
IuOuSduUS
of dollars to equip volunteers and supply the
wants of the families OF such rs volunteer,
and presi1es over an association In Nash
VILE for that purpose. One lady bought
| one hundred horses, and another clothed
loo volunteers. Men OF wealth have con-
| tributed literally 10 the cause. John Over
| ton, wealthy citizen, besides giving his bond,
| with other men OF wealth, tor armng and
| equippng the State, has likewise donated
| $50, 000 10 the volunteers. Governor Harris,
though for time in advance of the public
| sentiment of the State, saw the impending
| danger before others perceived 1t, and urged
action is now fully sustained by the people,
and better man for his position cannot be
found. East Tennessee, through the malign
| influence OF Johnson, Etheridge, Brownlow,
and few others, may on ~lhe 9Th give a
Union ~ majority, but Middle and West
Tennessee will almost 10 man vote for Sc
ceSsion.
Kentucky has shown hardness in taking
her position with the South, but driven from
her position of armed neutrality" she Will
become right before two months Better late
! than never. Missouri, through the Fedora |
authority, exerted in concert with Il large
German Republican population, in her com
mercial emporium, will be crushed unless she
| can obtain help from her Sou thern friends -
| The Governor, the State officers, the Legisla-
ture and large majority of the ma tive Amer
lean population are anxious for secession,
| but III their defenceless state, having but few
efficient weapons of warfare, menaced in ey-
cry effort, we'll armed soldiery quar-
tered among them, what can they DO
The atrocities of the brutal German sodiery
on the 10th and llth of May, at Camp Jack
son and in St. Louis, tell what Meg will do
under their leaders when oppor tunity offers
The cause of Missouri awakens feelings OF
sympat thy wherever have been in the Sou III
and the Southern feeling in Missouri should
and will receive something more substan ii;tl
than mere words of sympathy.
Altogether, my Southern friends have reason
to congratulate themselves that such periec
4 y
South, the contest is no longer between Il
united North and Il divided South bat "A uni
ted South, standing forth manfuily in defence
Of all that man holds dear. -