The Memphis union appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1862-1862, 1862-07-19
THE GuERRILLA RAIDS.


THE GUERRILLA RAIDS.
3 The rebel resistance has almost wholly de-
generated into mere guerrilla work, if we ex-
eept the concentrated force now defending
Richmond, the petty corps assembled at No
bile, and the fifteen or twenty thous md men
at or near Vicksburg. In our issue of yester-
day we published narration from the Chica-
go Times, Of the retribution visited by Gen.
FrTcH on hostages in Arkansas; from mem
bers of CURTIS command, we learn that
throughout the immense country he has
Travelled, the guerrillas swarm like lice-de-
vouring and befouling all they light upon.
From Middle Tennessee come tidings of the
fall of Murfeesboro, while from Kentucky's
capital is heard the voice of alarm, at the Arab
raids of Morgan. Devastation and ruin mark
their progress, and the burning homesteads of
Union men, or those whom they consider
such, often light them in the preparation of
outrages from the narration of which common
the life blood runs cold.
While such are the evils they are now in.
ficting on their own native States which they
will soon leave waste TO the more civilized
bear and panther, every day affords additional
proof of their inability TO achieve any success
of magnitude sufficient to tell upon the ultimate
result the war. They may be occasionally
strong unto destruction, but they ever prove
inadequate to the nobler work of defense; and
the only palpable offspring of their ruthlessness
is the bestowal upon the contest of dread bar
barity from the contemplation of which
astonished civilization recoils Mortified.
With all the respect We entertain for the
present government of these States, with all
the confidence which the grand integrity of
ABRAHAM LINCOLN has evoked within u.s.
there are times when we cannot help feeli lg
that the cold blooded spectators on human
misery, who have aided the prosecution of
such a brutalizing system are passed over with
leniency which seems to partake of indiffer-
ence to the outraged women, murdered men
and orphaned children who trail their steps,
This guerrilla work is not the sponta-
neons progeny of this unholy rebellion it is
the creation of cool calculation. 1t was in
troduced into Arkansas, pushed into Northern
Missouri, in the hope of being used against
the rebel organization as much as against the
United States. Looking to ii, RECTOR issued
his anti-Davis proclamation; looking to it,
civilians, whose mortgaged possessions consist
of lands in Arkansas, joined in the plans of
RECTOR, and selecting HINDMAN as fitting
tool, provided funds at the bayonet's point for
its prosecution. These facts are no secrets
1.-THE need of a third empire in the West"
was plainly spoken by the conspirators in the
streets of Memphis. HIEDMAN was praised
in its press, and bid God speed in his under
taking. What has been done with such of the
conspirators as have fallen into the hands of
the government Nothing. THEIR DELuDED
TOOLS ALONE HAVE SUFFERED.
The holiness of the Union cause gives assur-
ance of justice here or hereafter, and we know
the day must come when the ire of the people
will call for an atonement, but to those who
know the innumerable woes that legions of
these desperate banditti have inflicted, still
more to those who have suffered them, the de-
spoiled widow, and the rifed child, the out
ragged maid and violated matron, the leniency
of the Government or the tardiness of its JUS
tice appears to possess quality too akin to in
difference.
Justice aoso for the sake of Humanity, and
for her sake, too, let Mercy wait on Peace.