The Abingdon Virginian. [volume] (Abingdon [Va.]) 1849-1883, 1863-07-31
From the Knoxville Register
Our Special C correspondence.
MERIDIAN, July 9th, 1868,

EhiD1A-S, cuiy I'LL, lSOO.7
With fire and sword Grant moves across
the country destroying everything in his line
of march. We can comnrehend tile motives
which would induce soldiers to plumber the
helpless inhahitants but how they are gratif
ed by the csslfagration of homesteads and
villages-what pleasure they derive from the
terrors and suferings inflicted upon women
and children ferd might imagine; man ere
ated in Gods own image cannot. Crowds of
fugitiyes, flying they know not whittier. are
driven before the invading host. The fields
and highways, swamps and railways, are the
resorts of homeless wanderers. Old men and
women, and little children, weary, famshed
and foot-spre, are to be seen on every hand.
The brutality of savage warfare. from which
our fathers ufored u century ago, Is ecllpscd
5 by the horrors which foreign hordeS, led by
Grant. in1ct upon the inhabitants of Missis-
sippi. The boosted christianity and civiliZa-
ton of the 18th century sends forth from its
central abode Il race If men more brutal and
bloodthirsty than the aerciless barbarians
who desalated aneient Italy. and in their
madness drankthe blood OF their victims from
. the skulls of she slain There is no cunceiva-
die suffering which is not inflicted upon the
helpless inhabitants Want anl hunger and
terror are the least of the evils which this nm
fortunate people must endure. Ignorant
slaves are guilty of all crimes, indulge all
passions, and are melted to the commission
of all excuses. If Mississippians have sinned,
the hour of retrihution has arrived; if God
avenges human wickedness. terrible calalni-
ties await the army of Grant
RcldtiUc Strength Of tie t,co A,mics.
For some weeks past Gen. Johnston has
been accommodating army supplies at different
points along the interior railway lines. He
has collected wagons from all parts of the
State, and made every preparation for the
very contingency which has now arisen. His
plans are.unknawn, and nothing has transpir-
ed which enables us to anticipate his move-
ments. A battle may occur In the vicinity of
Jackson, butt do not think .Jehnston's army
capable of meeting successfully that of Gen.
Grant. The disparity in strength is too
great, and Grants force, however great his
recent losses, lis now flushed with victory
have just seen a copy Of the Memphis Bulle1
] tin, two weeks old, which contains colunn
after column of closely printed names of sol
diers sent from Grant s aamy to hospitals Of
that city. The Federal authorities have upon
the Mississippi many steamers fitted up as
hospitals, of which the New York Pictorials
contain representations. These papers all
admit that the Yankee losses in all this cam.
paign along the valley of the Mississippi have
been enormous, and vet Gen. Grant sends ten
thousand men to Helena, an equal force to
Port Hudson, and then crosses the Big Black
with an army twice or thrice as strong as
that of Gen. Johnston.
Material OF. Grants Army.
The great mass of Grants soldiers are TO-
reigners OF one hundred and twenty prison
ers, whom have seen in body, there were
but three or four Americans. These are the
people who in former days made popular cleo
tions farcical in Menlphis-more absurd than
the superstition that the people governed a
country in which everything was surrendered
to cliques Of politicians, who distributed pub
lie Offices as spoils of victory. Grant is now
giving US an illustration in war Of what we
were wont to witness In, the political cam.
paigns of peace. He shows US, too, how
wisely we surrendered the government of
States to an element of our population that
held the balance of power between the old
parties throughout the country. 1t is well
enough to indicate the lessons of,poltical wis
dom taught by the rapidly TRANSPORTING events
OF this fearful revolution. If the mob of
Northern cities and European immigrants
were not permitted to ravage the country-if
they could not send to their homes the pro-
ducts OF their industry and valor, (?( there
would be no inducement for others to enlist.
am told thas the warehouses of Memphis,
and especially those belonging to Northern
Express Companies at Cairo, are filed with
the richest furniture of every descriptions sto-
len Dy Northern soldiers from the houses of
planters along the Mississippi. When any.
Uutchman's house, in any Northern city or
village - thus richly furnished, his neighbors
are impelled by the noblest impulses Of Yam
kee patriotism to enlist in the armies Of the
Union. 80 -
GencralsAip Of Johnston and Grant
It seems that it is Johnston policy to re-