Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1862-01-21
LETTER FF.OM TIKI CGNREDER-
ArFE CAPITAL.
Correspond noe Of the Memphis Appeal

lie SOtdteTS-GeH. JGcESOH'S Column IN Nor
gan County-True Heroism-4 Trophy Of The
Mareb into Berkeley Springs Flying Rn-
mors-GeH. Van Dorm.
RICHMOND, January Is, 1862.
The weather has at last reached the worst pos
sible condition of the elements. We're it colder
or less cold, wetter or less wet, windier or less
windy; were it, indeed, anything else than just
exactly what it is, it would be. far more endura-
bic. There is snow on the ground to the depth of
four inches. Upon that there is an inch of hail
The rain pours down upon all from a pitiless
heaven. As it falls, it is converted into ice. The
trees in the public square look like sprays of
diamonds, or crystalizations of sugar candy, &C
cording to the taste and fancy of the beholder.
You may readily suppose that the congealng
moisture which decks the trees with jewelry,
after this fashion, is not favorable to locomotion
over the hily streets of Richmond. Accordingly,
the unhappy beasts of burden in the army wag-
Ons are falling down every moment, and the
luekless people who are compelled to go out of
doors, all have the air Of having been to a din
ner party. Such of US as can keep in the house
look out of the windows and pity the poor beasts,
The unfortunate pedestrians, as they stsgger
about, perhaps deride them as they tumble 'on
the slippery surface. This is all very well, or all
very bad in town. But the soldiers-ah, the
soldiers What of them, in their desolase
bivouac on the ice7 1 saw a~colonel to day who
had just returned from Jackson's command in
Morgan county, and his account of the hard
ships of that dreary march upon Bath or Berke-
ley Springs and Hancock was enough to draw
tears from Diogenes. The column is now
at Unger's store, sixteen miles south of Berke-
ley Springs, where they have no other shelter
that their ragged tents, no better protection
against the vigors of winter than their blazing
log fires in the snow. Truly, this is bitter Janu-
airy campaigning against the Yankees. A force
marches to attack them and they are gone like
MI. Longfelow's Arabs, before our men can get
within gun shot Of them. They ran off precipi-
lately from Bath, leaving two field pieces be-
hind them and a considerable quantity of subsis-
tence stores, and though jackson remained sixty
hours before Hancock, they would not march
out to give him battle. Why he did not make
an assault upon the place, is not easily under
stood. Some are swift to censure him, and de-
clare that nothing has been accomplished by his
difficult movement toward the Potomac. Let us
not be so inconsiderate. Criticism is very easy
in the comfortable parloT and the w~ell,frnished,
wellprovided dining-room. Much ras accom-
plished after all. A dam was destroyed, a bridge
was burnt, a long stretch Of railway track was
torn up, and a large body Of stores wss captured.
The loss in killed and wounded by the enemy
was considerable-perhap the hospital records
at Winchester will tell a sadder story hereafter,
but of that, let US hope for the best. IL it is af-
fecting to know how much our. gallant volun-
teer5 in that dismal region have suffered, it is
cheering to be assured Of the accomplishing
spirit in which they have borne up against their
trials. When the heroism of this dreadful war
comes to be written down in history and sung by
the poet, its highest manifestations will not be
found on the field of battle. A sharer in the re-
cent hardships in Northern Virginia tells mt
that the volunteers, one and all, ffoin the highest
in command to the humblest private in the
ranks, bore the exposures and privations o.
the march without a murmur Of complaint Of
dependence. The brave old Gen. Anderson, O
Tennessee, wrapped his blanket areu I'd him and
lay down upon the frozen ground wish the boy
of D~iueteen, with as light a heart as he would
have retired to a couch in a luxurious chamber
God bless our noble defenders The debt w
owe them cannot be estimated.
More is their due than more than all Gun pay"
Your correspondent has an interesting trophy
of the occupation of Bath by Gen. Jackson
command, sent him by a young relative who &C
eompanied it. This is an old United States pass
port, issued more than twenty years ago, an,
covered with European visas, belonging tt
David H. SrOther, the famous " Porte CrayOn'
Of Harper's Magazine. This disloyal and un
worthy son Of Virginia lives in the village 0
Bath, and fed with the Yankee troops, it is sup
posed, in their retreat to Hancock. Our general
visited bis house, where they found his family
and took possession of several maps Of the coun
try, drawn by him, doubtless for the benefit 0
the enemy. His pictures, many Of them of grea
merit, and other property they left undisturbed
not desiring to emulate the invaders in their hab
its Of pillage. As for the passport, all l have t
/, say is that "Porte CrayOn shall have it when
ever ne may make personal application for it il
I Richmond.
The m of the capture Of the jamestown
having turned out a caHaTd, as I supposed, W
D have another current to-day to the effect that tn
Burnside feet is ascending james river. Amor
f agreeable, and 1 hope more trustworthy repor
is in circulation concerning a victory over tn
Federals, gsinedsby Gen. Humphrey Marshal
at Cumberland Gap.
! Gen. Earl Van Dom is in town, recently fror
/ Centerville. Heis on his way to take the com
3 mand in Missouri and Arkansas, as l wrote you
E several weeks ago, be would be sent to do, b!
f the administration, instead of Gen. Henry Hell
, not Heath. DIXIE.
~ An exchange thinks that the high prem.
UNI on gold and silver Is occasioned By partie
in the South who are buying it up topay fc
r goods that they are smuggling through from tn
t North. Persons who are buying up coin, an
e thus depreciating Confederate notes as veil q
81 r. -s--.1o4-,, -L,.aTd \