Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1863-09-04
Desertions from the Army.

1t is asserted by our enemies that the course OF
the Standard in urging our people to fight and talk
for peace at the same time has. encouraged deser-
ton from the army. Now, it is notorious that there
are more desertions from the Virginia Mississippi,
and Alabama troops than there are from the North
Carolina troops and our paper has little or no cir
culation among the former. 1t circuates freely In
those States, but not among their troops in Virginia.
What then is the cause of deseron in the troops of
those States? The Standard? Certainly not, for the
paper could not have influence, or such influence
where it has no circulation.
But we deny that our course has tendency to en-
courage desertion. Tell the soldiers, as we do to
stand by their colors and be faithful while their
friends at home are casting about to if something
cannot be done of an honorable character to shorten
the war, and they will be encouraged; but tell them
to fight on indefinitely until the enemy is conquer
ed and that every who talks of an armistice or
of peace is traitor and you will depress their en-
ergies and tempt them in their dependency to
abandon the flag Is not that so ? Is it not natu-
raj? Add to this the distress of their families at
home the tyranny of officers the denial furlOughs,
and the attempt recently made by certain officers to
repTeSS anu mlSTepEtSeHL OPIliOhSb uhuSA SuO
sanction if not by direct orders from the authorities
at Richmond, and we may imagine the result-a
result that every loyal man deplores, and which
nothing will really justify. 10
No, if the men desert zoe are not to blame for it.
We voted in the Convention, and we have warmly
sustained in this journal every measure calculated
to do Justice to the soldier, and to render him
tented with his lot We voted in that body for the
fifty dollar State bounty to both volunteers and con-
scripts; and we drafted, and advocated, and voted
for the ordinance to permit the soldiers to vote in
camp. And at the last session of the Legislature
we warmly advocated in the Standard the bill Of
fered by Mr.. Grissom, of Granville and which was
passed, appropriatng the sum of three hundred
thousand dollars for the benefit of our sick and
wounded soldiers. From the very beginning of the
struggle we have abored to do justice to soldiers
and to their families at home, and thus reconcile
them to their condition and their arms in the
day of battle Would an enemy to the cause have
pursued such a course? .7ReSurest sOay to preUent
deserton is to do justice to the soldier and to aoage
the ScGr Nth such UigOr and such oiSdO, adapting
means to ends to at the earliest day
possible. Has this been done? We fear not. The
responsibility for deserton rests those who have
wasted and msapplied the resources of the country
who, for the want of ordinary foresight, have fail
ed to provide for emergencies whose faVOritism,
and party schemes and party partialities, and pro-
scripton for opinions sake, have divided our peo-
pie, and almost made them aliens one towards an
other-and whose policy, if persisted in, must re-
sui: in continued disaster and depression. Incom-
potency at Richmond is the main cause of desertion
1t is idle to attribute so great result the melt
The cause is much deeper and much more serious.
1t exists in those wno raise and manage the armies,
not in US. We have done our duty, and shall con-
tnue to do IT. in urging the soldiers to stand by the
flag; but we cannot answer for the folly the short
sghtedness, and the imbecility Of the administra-
ton at Richmond.