Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1863-08-14
a conssript's Rpistls TO Jen. Davis


The following quaint epistle has been
furnished for publication by member OF
the Mounted Rifles, who picked it up in a
deserted Rebel camp on the GhOwau River
about thirty miles nom Winton' in North
Carolina, while out on o scouting expedi.
ton last spring. The letter was addressed
in this wise:-2
Read, ifyou want to, you thieving scalp
hunter, whoever you are, and forward, post
paid, to the lord high chancellor OF Tue
DEVILS exchequer [2) on earth.
JEFF. DAVIS, Richmond, Va.
HEADQUARTERS, SCALP HUNTER, OAAP
OHowAN, N. c., Jan, 11.-Excellency pa
Wis sit is with feelings of undeVeloPeo
pleasure that an affectionate oonscript en-
trusts this sheet of confscated paper 70 tue {,
tender mercies Of Confederate STATES
mail carrier, addressed, as it shall be, 70
Yourself, o, jeff, Red Jacket of the Gulf,
and, Chief of the Six nations, more or less.
He writes on the stump ofa shiyered mon
arch of the forest with the "pine trees
wailiug round him., Toyou, o Gar OF all
ChivaIry aud Kahn Of Cotton Tartary, he
appeals for the privilege of seeking, on MS
own hook, a land less free, q home among
the hyenas of the North. Will you not mart
your .'brave columns" and stay your gor-
geous career for thin space and while
an admiring world takes brief gaze at
YOUR glorious aud God forsaken cause, pen
for the happy conscript furlough without
end /? Do so, and mail it, if you please, to
that city the windy, wandering Wigtaii
didn't winter in, called for short Phlladel-
phia.
The Etesian winds sweeping down the
deEiles of the Old Dominion, and over the
swamps of Suffolk, come moaning through
the pines of the Old State laden with the
music, and sigh themselves away into
sweet sounds Of silence to far-of South.
Your happy conscript would go to the TAR
leave you to reap the whirlwind, with no
one but your father, the Devil, to rake and
bind after you. And he's going.
1t is with intense and simultaneously
proud satisfaction that he gazes for the
last time upon our holy hag-that symbol
and sign of. our adored trinIty-cotton,
niggers and chivalry. He still sees in it
the little camp on the Chowau, tied to the
the peak of its palmetto pole, and floating
out over our boundless Confederacy; the
reviled relic of ages gone, banner OF
our king, of few days and full of trouble.
And that pole in its tapering uprightness,
testitytng some of the grandest beauties OF
of our nationality its peak pointing hope
fully forward to tropical stars, and its big.
gest end-run into the ground. Relic aud
pole, good bye. TITS best the conscr1pt
goes; his claim to chivalry has gone before
him. Behind he leaves the legitimate chiv-
airy of this unbonnded nation conferred in
the legitimate son of a Kentucky horse
thief.
But few more words, illustrIous Presi-
ident, and he is done-done gone.
Elevated by their sufferings and SURFACES
to the highest Office in the gift of great
and exceeding free people, you have held
your position without a change Of base, or
purpose of any sort, through weary months
of war, and want, and woe; and though
every conscript would unite with the thou
sands of loyal and true men in the South
in grand old grief at your downfall, so
too will they sink under the calamity OF
an exquisite Joy when you shall have reach
ed that eminent meridian whence all pto-
gress is perpendicular.
agAnd now, bastard President of politi-
cal abortion, farewell.
Scalp hunters, J" relic, pole, and chiy-
alrous Confederates 10 crime, good bye
Except IL be in the arrny of the Union, you
viii not again see the conscript,
NoHM HARRoLD,