The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1862-10-24

Yet, underneath this external sameness,
lie the forces of dissent and revolution "A
Lieutenant of rebel cavalry at hka said to
a friend of mine s. r, ~ ~ q
81 am from Memphis owe New York
city $50, 900, which am able to pay when
peace comes. am secessionist from
the ground up. And I tell you, sir, we
shall be successful. We will hold Virgin
ia. We will take Kentucky-with her
consent if we can--,oiht0ut IL If zoe mast.
And with our northern line on the Ohio
we will build up the most magnificent ar
istOoratic republic the world has ever seen.
Damn democracy, we want an aristocracy
capital must own its labor" $50 ? D 70 6
Yet when my friend reported this speech
to another rebel officer at Vicksburg, the
latter clenched his teeth and said
81 am poor white never owned ne
gro, never want to-and l can tell you
that when rich shareholders try to set up
an aristOcracy there will be another REBEL
ion here ON Southern soil !"t1gom sea -cE
Another curious fact On our journey
from Tupelo to Vicksburg we twice drank
with rebel officers this toast: 'sThe resto-
ration of the Uuion. '1 .'" '..- ..''-.'
We were told, of course, that there
were no Union men in the South. Yet
two companies of Mississppians were late
ly recruited and drilled by our officers in
Iuka, and many more individually joined
Northern regiments. An Illinois captain,
who helped to drill them, told me that
two hundred cavalry at his command he
could have gone into the hill country of
Alabama and there raised brigade of
four thousand men. The prayer of North
Alabama, as of East Tennessee, has been,
from the beginning, "Come over and help
us"
One thing l especially observed in con-
yersatiOn with soldiers and citizens-mod
crate and radical--an intense desire for
peace "When will the war end ?" was
the sad, weary question addressed to me a
hundred times. In Vicksburg | replied
solemnly:
"Well, | am no prophet, but / think
that in two or three years the Union forces
of the nation will fairly get under way,
and begin to prosecute the war in earnest. !"
1t was amusing to see the look of dis
may which clouded the face of my inquir-
ing enemy. No wonder they desire peace.
A self-indulgent people, reduced to desti
tuition and an almost total abstinence from
the material comforts of life, they cannot
but sigh for the good old times.
The fact is that the rebellion is gigan-
tic game of bluff In cards, that is the
representative game of the South, and par
ticularly the Southwest. Its greatest tri
umphs are achieved by betting largely,
and with a confident countenance, on
weak hand, and so frightening your adver-
sary into surrender of the stakes.
Nor is the rebel army unit. heard
several times an expression of the opinion
that full half its officers ought to be shot.
Bragg is especially odious. A private sol
der said in my hearing:
81 reckon he'll be shot by his owmmen
in the first fight. f1
THE FUTURE
| Supplies are strangely scarce in Dixie.
I have spoken Of boots and hats. Flour
is worth $52 barrel in Vicksburg, bacon
Is cents pound, coffee from ST. so to SIS
a pound, and none to be had. There is no
tea, even for hospitals All the salt is
taken up for the army-so l was told at
headquarters at Tupelo; yet when Prices
forces captured some of our stores at Iuka,
his men we're seen running about the
streets with their hands full of salt and
licking it up like oxen. They also captured
| five cases of luciter matches, and one of
their officers remarked there were more in
one of those boxes than in all the rest of
the Confederacy.
On the line / travelled chickens were
| e. Io11or opl
one to five dollars apiece. A decent coat
for an officer was worth one hundred and
forty dollars But will not be tedious
suffice it to say that everything else, save
sugar and molasses, bore a corresponding
price. ~-
Now, what is on. best plan for the flu
ture? Make the blockade still more strict
capture more seaport cities-keep the
rebels out OF Kentucky and Tennessee,
and drive them from Virginia-patrol the
Mississippi with fifty light draught gun
boats, SO as to cut off supplies of men and
provisions from Texas, and secession will
die like rat in hole. Conquer as much
territory as we can, but by all means hold
the northern line of Alabama and Missis-
sippi river. Vicksburg may be taken but
| III HOU, IL Is I'LL easy AHatIer W prevent
any crossing at that point, by statiOning
one gunboat above the narrow peninsula
which stretches opposite the town, and
another below, and, if necessary, drawing
a line of pickets across
The following summing up Of Stew
arts raid into Pennsylvania and his valor-
GUS reception, we clip from the Chicago