Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1863-03-06
From the sixteenth.
The Rebellion TO be put Dswn.
NEAR FAIRAX STsTIon, VA,
Feb. oath, 1868.

OF nine months volunteers Is iikely 10 De-
come quite famous for letter-writing.
rarely take up Vermont paper which does
not contain one or more letters from some 4
of its members. have noticed that de-
spending tone pervades the sentiment of
many of their letters, which is calculated
to do harm, by impariing the same desro1d-
enoy to their friends at home, and giving |
comfort and hope to the deadly-fanced cop |
perheads who are clamoring for an igno-
minions peace. A peace which would leave
in worthless fragments the grandest empire
which the world has ever Witnessed.
The rumor comes 10 us from home, that /
the people are impressed with the idea'fhat |
we have lost cur patriotism. as some have
expressed it. 1t has ooged out at the ends
of our fingers. leaving US mere breathing
statues Of selfshness, waiting impatently
for our time to expire, to receive pay for
the duties which we shrink from performing.
Bat 1 say, we are not discouraged. The
rebellion can and will be put down, even If
it takes five years of hard fighting, and
Uncle Sam has to spend his bottom dollar
and mortgage his home farm besides. These
are the sentiments of the 10th regiment.
Homesickness is common with youn. men
on leaving home for the first time, as
many boys of the I'd Vermont brigade
have. Such, in writing to to their friends,
give only the darker features of camp life,
forgetting that the picture has light as well
as shade. But we are not all homesick.
Even in the worst weather we find many
ways to amuse ourselves, and make time
pass pleasantly. For instance, last Sab
bath we had a snow storm. Not one of
your freezing hurricanes of storms, such as
are common in Vermont, but a gently driv-
ing storm with fall of about eight inches
of as pure an article of snow as was ever
sfted down from the heavens. Perhaps
some of our boys would have been better
suited with three or four feet of snow, ac
companied by wind which would have
left the snow in drifts rendering the roads
impossible. But give me old Virginia
through all seasons, in preference to YER
mont. Impoverished as is her soil, she will
yet be the pride of agriculture, and per-
| haps the mother of future presidents. This
mild, middle latitude, believe develops a
mental and physical constitution superior to
those produced in any other latitude.
Yesterday was one of those bright mel
low days, such as are seen only in the South
The snow thawed just enough to make il
nice snow-balling, and the boys improved
the opportunity of engaging in that rare
sport. To-day has been beautiful, and the
snow has seen evaporating and thawing
fright smart" Capt Foster Of Co. c, i:
officer of the day. Snowballing is the sport
Co. g has had a fierce engagement with
Cos. and F, in which Capt. Foster came
near being carried away as prisoner by the
| ldtlCi w. CApSIl liC OWCS HIS CS1dpC IL
old Ed. Carlton, who is private at large
The "bully Boy with the crockery optic
Conld you have witnessed the sport yot
would have thought that dependency wa
a stranger to our camp, which in fact is tn,
case with occasional exceptions of sickness
Its said that military regulations requir
officers to hold themselves far above thei
men socially. But the 18th Regiment ha
officers who are not TO be gulled by an,
such nonsense. Accordingly they trea
their men as if they were composed not on
ly of flesh and blood, but also as thong
: possessed of feelings affections and jude
ment, the same as they were when living i
Vermont.
Copperheads think are getting. scare
in the 9Th Regiment. We have had som
= officers who believed the rebellion could nc
" be put down by fighting. But the Vernon
= brigade, think has been pretty much re
lieved of that class, which should be til
case, for peace men, traitors, copperheads G
Whatever you please TO term them, shoul
If not be allowed TO lead patriots to battle 9
a. has been too often the case in many of III
e slaughter fields (they cannot be called ba
ID tie fields,) of Virginia.
Is Our Regiment has had quite large sic
" list during the last month. Measles hav
o. prevailed. but the epidemic is subsidng
Of present. Typhoid fever is the scourge mo
v 10 be dreaded, and that could be preyente
It. in many instances by care and cleanliness
d. There is no Disgusting the fact that III