The Alleghanian. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1859-1865, 1862-04-24
From the Cambria Regiment.
GREAT CAcAPoN, VA, Bait. & Ohio RR.,
April 8, 1862


GREAT CAcAPoN, VA, Bait. & Ohio RR.,
April 8, 1862.
Correspondence of The Alleghanan.
It has been some time since [ wrote
you last, but 1 have by no means forgot
ten you My last epistle was dated from
Camp Campbell. Since then, We have
taken the notion that, like all good Penn
sylvanians, we would have to make.a move
about the first of April. So we moved,
and are now posted as guard along the
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. We had a
very tedious time Of it from Camp Camp
bell until we got ourselves located by
companies at nine stations along the road.
The B. & 0. RR. was once one of the
principal thoroughfares for freight and
passengers from east to west and uice GER
so, but Secesh took the liberty of making
it one grand track of wild desolation as
far as they had means and power so to do.
have been destroyed; the track torn up
and carried far away into the interior, and
in fact everything that could possibly be
rendered useless passed through fiery
ordeal. The government, | believe, has
built trcstle work over the streams where
once were handsome bridges, and these
we are charged with the protection Of
1t requires us to be yIgilant TO prevent
the Secesh from applying the torch, for
the country around is full of Rebels who
are ever ready to do any act of violence
that would be of the least benefit to their
unholy cause, or Of the least disadvantage
to the Federal Government.
From my own personal observation, and
from conversations | have had with many
persons here tinctured with Secession pro-
clivities, l find gross Ignorance of the
causes of the war and the intention of the
government toward the Rebels. l used
to regard the newspaper stories about the
ignorance of these people IS bosh, but l
can now vouch for their correctness. In
fact, l have been told even by intelligent
persons here that the South had always
been heavily taxed by the North-that
the North made all the money, whilst the
South furnished the material. "The
South raises the cotton it is then taken
North and manufactured, and after sent
back to the South, and we have to buy
it," said an intelligent Southron to me a
few days since, sand this Ia one cause for
Secession p "Well," said /, "why don't
you build your own cotton-nills aud man
utacture your own goods This you cod
have dono easier without Secession than
with it, AS to your being taxed heavily,
all the taxes you pay go into the treasury
of your own county and State !; and be-
sides, we of the North have to make up
your postal deficits, which amount to a
}arco cnrn
All this is true. The South would
have been thousand times more able TO
have built their cotton-1nills before they
entered upon a terribly exhaustive war,
which has beggared thousands of them,
than they will in any event be for twenty
years to come. AS to their postal deficits,
every intelligent man knows. that the
North really keeps up the post-of1ice in
the South. And again; as to their being
SO heavily taxed by the North, how very
shallow the assertion how childlike the
lie /. But these are indeed the flimsy ar
guments used by JEFF Davis and his crew
to lead q people into suicidal war upon
a government the most bene6cent in the
world Poor, misguided uen when will
We learn that you have been duped- and
blinded by men whose only object In
leading you into this war Is to crafty |
their own selfsh ambition
The further we penetrate into the South
the more arc we convinced that the great
mass of the people are entirely ignorant
Of the cause of the present war and the
designs of our Government In waging it.
And, as step by step our forces sweep over
the South, and the people see fer them
selves the manner in which the Union
troops demean themselves, there will un-
doubtedly be revulsion of feeling which
will grow stronger aud stronger until it
eventually breaks out in an uncongucra- |
BILE rebellion against the Rebels. More |
powerful indeed than Northern bayonets
and bullets will be this tide of popular
feeling in working the downfall of Trea- |
son. Before it the foeman of constitu- |
tional liberty will pale, as does the silvery |
light of the slowly sinking moon before
the bright rays of morning. Then will
this Union be once more united as firmly |
as the polar star is fixed in the armament
above US. Ashamed of their past folly, |
the people of the South will be more de- !
voted to the Union than they were when
they secuted the very idea of the New
States seeding, in the earlier
days of the Government.
Attached to our regiment for the pres
ent, assisting in defending the railroad,
are four companies of the First Maine
cavalry Thev are all we'll armed md |