Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1862-09-05
our ARMY CORRESP0.NDE ENCE.
MEXICO, Missouri, Aug. 25.

has given YOU accounts OF the battle of Moore
Mill and Kirkville, as we'll as of the dozt
q might say daily skirmishes which OF
troops have had with the rebels.
Rebels are getting rough handling on ever
hand, ard, although they spring up lii
mushrooms, the day is surely in the near Fl
ture when we will annihilate the degenerat
race. North Missouri is to be one vast graz
gard. They have sown the wind and mo-
the whirlwind is surely coming.
Months ago it could easily be seen that tn
oath of allegiance, administered to tainte
Union men and returned rebels from Price
army, was not regarded by those who took
as any thing sacred or binding; and sire
these guerrilla leaders came among them, the,
have, nearly to a man, joined in and taken NJ
arms against the Government. Around thei
camps they laugh at our 9alvanizing them
as they term it, and say that their oath ha.
,core out. Sometimes they exhibit their al
most worn-out parole to our men who they
have as prisoners, and laugh over the whole
matter as a joke. Rather serious joke they'll
find it, for every one who took the oath havt
signed their deaih worrant; and every one
who violates it and is afterwards caught, will
be executed.
Last spring they threatened to begin their
work as soon as the leaves came out, so they
could hide in the brush and woods And
they have done it; and those who have stayed
at home and solcmnly pledged themselves not
to assist by word or act, have gave them all
the aid and comfort they possibly could
They are to-day taking provisions to them in
the brush, and their wives and daughters arc
going to Illinois and other States every few
weeks to see their friends, and then returning
with powder and shot for these rebel gangs
One young Miss, living in the county north
of this, went not long since to see an aunt
in Illinois; and when she returned she had
on a quilted something, corded, not with
cotton cord such as the ladies generally use,
but with .fve thousand gun caps, which she
delivered over to Poster, the leader of one Of
the guerrilla bands.
Although to-day all is quiet and the bands
are dispersed, so far as we hear, yet they are
in every thciket and piece of woods in the
State, and will band again when the proper
day arrives, Es!erminanon is the only eff
fectnal mode of getting quiet in this State;
and as soon as the leaves falllrom the trees so
as to open their hiding places, this will be the
motto. The whole country north of the Mis-
souri, River will be laid waste and its desola-
ton completed within the next six months,
unless reason comes to these rebels who a,e
feeding the guerrillas-and have no hope of
that The decree has gone forth that every
rebel shall leave the State or occupy hole
''two by six" beneath the sod. They have
sinned away the day of grace; the harvest
has come and they are rebels still; and now
their property is to be used to o.subsist our men
on Ga thing that should have been done long
ago., and those who have disregarded the
honor the "chivalry'' was supposed to have,
are to be promptly executed.
To-day Missouri is not safe. Twenty thous-
and more men rushed in would not any more
than make sure our cause. The whole State
is rank with rebellion,-scarcely a county
where the rebels do not run with impunity,
and we have only men enough to hold the
principal towns. Our men have been dis
arming the people every few months since the
war began; but there are enough arms (and
plenty Of ammunition to go with them) to
equip thirty or forty thousand men against
us. do not speak at random about this, but
make calculations from what has actually been
done. Here in this town of not more than
one thousand inhabitants-a place that has
twice before been disarmed- surrounded by
our military all the time for months-a search
was ordered a few days ago among only the
noted rebels of the place, and in less than
three hours seventy effective guns, several re-
volvers, over two hundred pounds of powder,
several hundred pounds of balls, and five or
six thousand percussion caps, were found
All this, and yet the officers in command at
St. Louis, when our men break up band,
all is safe They will find before long that we
are not safe. JVe are today acalkin9 on a
volcano smothered now, but ready at mo-
ment's call to send out death and destruction
to us ALL
: We do not at all despair, but we do not de-
sire to see our men in such perilous situa-
ton. Arkansas and Tennessee are in the
same situation, and we must have help or else
the expense of peace will be greater than it
need be- Then say to every able-bodied man
all over the land, more men ore 0anted.-
Your friends who have been out more than a
year now, enduring the hardships and priva.
tons which only soldier can tell of, ask you
for assistance. They have shed their blood
freely; they have faced death many times
have been where towards never go-and now
while the rebellion is in its death -throes anC
help is needed, they ask you to come in ant
share equally with them the glory of saving
| the Nation. In the name of our brave brethren
whose bones repose at Wilson's Creek ant
Belmont, at Donelson and Shiloh, they cal
YOU to come and march with them beneath
the folds of our loved flag to other fields o
conflict. Help them to bear aloft that fla
beneath which your fathers fought to gail
your liberty Oh! let not the historian sa
you failed to defend it. By all the associa
tons that cluster around your country's brigh
history, rally to its support. Let aged father
bid God-speed to their sons, as they determin
to respond to the call of the Nation. 1t
lrootharc thouph II he with tears in their eve.