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 luka said to
a friend of mine
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 | tell you, sir, we
shall be successful We will hold Virgin
ia. We will take Kentucky-with her
consent if we can--,ouhOm IL il IRE must.
And with our northern line on the Ohio
we will build up the most magnificent ar
istocratic republic the world has ever seen.
Damn democracy, we want an arlstocracy
capital must own its labor" g
Yet when my friend reported this speech
to another rebel officer at Vicksburg, the
latter clenched his teeth and said: =
IL am q poor white, never owned ne
gro, never want to-;nd can tell you
that when rich shareholders try to set up
an aristocracy there will be another rebell-
ion here on Southern soil -
| Another curious fact On our journey
from Tupelo to Vicksburg we twice drank
with rebel officers this toast : ''The resto-
ration of the Uuon.'
We were told, of course, that there
were no Union men in the South. Yet
two companies of Mississippans were late
" 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 a 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 especially observed III con
yersation with soldiers and citlzens--mod-
| crate and radical--an intense desire for
peace. "When will the war end" was
the sad. weary question addressed to me
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 inqulr-
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 confident countenance, on IA
weak hand, and so frightening your advcr-
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:
q reckon he'll be shot by his owmmen
in the first fight"
THE FUTURE.
Supplies are strangely scarce in Dixie.
have spoken of boots and hats. Flour
is worth $52 barrel in Vicksburg, bacon
Is cents pound, coffee from 81 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 ! was told at
headquarters at Tupelo; yet when Prices
forces captured some OF our stores at luka,
his men were seen running about the
streets with their hands full of salt and
licking it up like oxen. They also captured
five eases 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
sold for a dollar, and waternelons from
one to five dollars apiece. \ 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 lnola-ses, bore corresponding
price.
Now, what is ouj' 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 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 q rat in a 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
If not. it is an easy matter to 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.