Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1863-02-11
rhe pesolation of Northern Miss.

A correspondent of the Missouri Demo
crat, writing from Holly Springs, Janua-
nv 5th, gives the following description OF
the desolation in Northern Mississippi :
The roads are as silent and deserted as
the fields. Mile after mile you ride and
neither meet nor care to meet any one on
these solitary roads. On four-ffths of the
plantations YOU pass you see no living
souI On some the doors and windows
stand open wide, but there IS nothing but
emptiness within; and others moth
| ing bat the tall chimneys, whitened
by the flames, remain. As you 60
| fnrther and further over the hllly
roads. you glance suspiciously backward
and forward from every rise in the road.
You fancy you caught q glimpse OF some
thing moving there, far across the fields,
and YOU pause in some place out OF view
to reconnoitre. A squirrel leaps through
the dry leavesin the woods on the other
side. and your revolver is in your hand IN
in an instant.
In times of peace every traveller IS glad
to nick mn company on the road, but now
the sound of horses feet, the breaking OF
twig. the rustling of leaf, are signs OF
danger Such is the effect upon the coun-
try Of guerrilla warfare for this desc
Iation and silence is not wholly attributa-
BILE to the presence of the United States
Army. 1t is the people of the South that
suffer from guerrillas, not the United
States army. Under the delusion that
the whole North is about to tumble into
anarchy for want OF cotton, the guerril-
! las burn cotton, and ruin the planter to
nrevent some Northern man from risking
his money in a precarious speculation
this and the capture OF an occasional
struggling soldier, is the only harm they
can do the North.
The pay of the guerrilla Is what they
can pIunder, and so they get 1t, they are
not yerv particular who IS the paymaster
Now the old grudges between neighboTs,
family feuds for which the South has al
wavs been notorious, are being settled,
and every farmer is as apprehensiye OF
his neighbors as he is of the United States
troops. The people OF the South have
already discovered that they got more
| than they bargained for in initiating the
| euerrilla mode of warfare. In adopting
| the old Spanish name of ''guerrillas,
they now see thOt they also adopted the
| IaWlessness. anarchy and brigandage OF
Mexico and old Spain. This is the ser.
pent of secession biting itself with 1t;
own poisoned fangs.
If YOU 90 into one of the few houses
which are vet occupied, you lind large
landed proprietors who have nothing left
| 10 eat but a little corn bread, and whose
thread-bare apparel indicate that mer-
| chants and dealers in clothes have long
/ since become an extinct class. They all
/ tell Won that the army has taken then
cattle, horses, hogs, and their. corn that
/ their negroes have all ran away; that the
! guerrillas have burned their cotton, and
I that they are ruined. But if you talk to
/ the man a little while and let him know
/ that YOU want to buy cotton, and are will
| ing to send teams for it, you finally worm
ont of him the fact that his cotton Is
concealed in some neighboring swamp
and in some cases you might possibly sus
meet another fact not quite so pleasant
/ viz: that thessvery man you were talking
to did occasionally little guerrilla busl
ness himself. .a-e
The only- persons, except the cavalry
men. who venture out among these peo
ple are the cotton buyers, who have ad,
ventures not few. Their usual mode ol
lbuying is to visit the farmers at then
bouses. make contracts for the cotton
and then send teams for 1t. Some OF tht
BUYERS take teams with them-and wher
the safety of the neighborhood they are
in is doubtful-and the price OF cottor
consequently lower-buy load for then
teams, and go back to the army at
'double quick" Every few days some o
these venturesome wights and their team
are ''gobbled up" with the "damnrns
proof in their wagons that they are cot
ton buyers.