Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1863-06-02

Big BLACK
Writ Adams had spirited skirmish in Yazoo,
killing and wounding some twenty of the enemy.
Steadily and nolselessly but rapidly, the war
is assuming that final phase which indicates that
the passions of our foe have triumphed over the
conventional humanities of civilized war, and
that henceforth, the ferocity of the savage is to
minister to the aims ofa tyrant.
Our enemies have successfully relied on varj.
Gus agencies for accomplishing our snbjugation
each one of which has failed. The ssUnon SEN
timent'' of the South was every where to rise up
on the march OF their armed men. The rebels
were to be swiftly inundated into submission by
the display of force. They were to be speedily
crushed out under the heel of grand armies.
But all these have failed. They have found the
Cenfederates true and brave and powerful. They
next attempted to excite seryile insurrecticn,
and to make the poor negro do for them what
they had not the courage or the power co do for
themselves. This, too, has failed They have
now as their last resort entered upon course
of cruelty and policy of deSolation which throw
down the barriers of civilized hostilities. We
have met them as enemies of our country--we
have henceforth to meet them as enemies ofman-
kind.
Read the innumerabie accounts of nom comba.
tants, old men, and women, and little children,
driven from their homes without a reason in the
world, and threatened with instant death If they
dare to returr. Read the countless ssArmy Or
ders'' of Banks and Burnside and Rosecranz and
Hunter, not to speak Of such as Miroy and Nc
Neil. in which exile and confiseation are denoun-
ced as the punishment of honor, and the death
penalty is hung up in constant terror. And fol-
low the march of the enemy's armies; Private
property burnt, the implements of husbandry
sought out and destroyed, the food of the people
seized to the last meal, and the purpose OPENLY
PROCLAIMED to prevent the cultivation of the soil
or the harvesting of crops, as the means of
ssstarying'' us into subsection.
When the Russians desolated their own coun-
try before the march OF Napoleon, as means of
staying his advance, it was regarded as a savage
expedient OF rude and unpublished people and
as of very doubtful lawfulness. But no one pre-
tends that an INVADING army has right to blot
out the face of nature, and reduce country to
desolation. This, however, the Yankees are at
tempting to do. In addition to these things
they are assuming to visit death penalties, n al
legations of pretended treason, against citizens
and soldiers employed in our service. They are
still attempting to turn from their allegiance and
their duty the poor simple minded race, whom
Yankee cupldlty was permitted, under the Prov
idence of God. to introduce among us. To do
this, they are employing expedients which mark
them not as soldiers, but as brutal incendiares
utterly Indifferent of the fate of the negro and
anxious only to effect our ruin by whatever
means.
On all these questions we are new face to face,
with our enemies. Any days battle, or any
days skirmish, may precipitate upon us the is
sue which in any case is near at hand, relative
to the enemy's negro regiments and their Yankee
associates. The cries of our outraged citizens,
our aged men, our little children, our ladies, are
heard in all our borders. Burning homesteads
a ruined husbandry, desoIated land, and the in
fernal cry OF STARVATION to the rebels! - tell
US that We are now standing for our lives, a.
gainst demons lncarnate. Captive officers strip
ped OF their garments in the streets, old men
trotted like oxen through the mud, and the ago.
MES and horrors of Yankee prison houses, add
their colors to the picture.
Let US leave it to our Government to guide
our measures amid the grave scenes which are
upon US, and which we may not evade if we
would. Let US be vigorous but let us also be
careful to be RIGHT We must not yield our
selves to mere passion. We must not throw a.
way the guidance of reason at the very time that
we need all the lights of wisdom and experience
Let US do right for its own sake. We owe the
world small homage for favors or for its good O.
pinion. We appeal to history and to Cop
Sentinel.