The daily Evansville journal. (Evansville, Ind.) 1862-1863, 1863-06-26

the Combahee, and stolen a Thousand
negroes; 1t was but few days ago tina
they raVaged the county of Matthews in
this State; and even while we write
tidings come to us that they are burning
private houses and destroying every
grain of corn they can lay their hands
on IN the counties of King and Queen.
El.'cugh has been said of the barba-
rism OF tSis mode of warfare, and too
mn CD has 60 s,e confessed of the entire
;nnuni,r with. etich it is carried on.
Opr ontcr;e, aud t}lr admissions of the
weakness or the iu.becility of our forces
in the field but add to the hellish Joy of
the foe, without stimulatieie troops, Gov
ernment, or people to the pltch OF retr'-
butive vengeance The belt OF deso'aton
widens hourly, nor is there much pros
pcct of an abatement Cf the evil CItI-
zens complain Of the Government, which
in turn complains of the citiz ans Mean
time com non inquiry is MA as to the
) existence and present wheI bouts of
the organized forces of the Goa ederacy.
We may be sure that this state Of
things will continue so long as the war
is waged exclusively on Confederate soil
Every day the enemy remains in our ter
ritorv will add to the width OF tie belt OF
desoiation, and they who now fancy them
selves out Of danger will soon discover
their mistake. if thousand Yankee
cavalry can ride entirely through the,
State of Mississippi without molestation,
what is to hinder Il like number from 60
ing through Virginia, North and South
Carolina to Port Royal? Certainly, un-
armed and unorgani2ed citizens will not
hinder them
The belt of desolation serves many
purposes of the Yankee nation. 1t opens
n way to free labor and Northern set
tiers; it diminishes production and con-
tracts Southern population within limits
inadequate to their support; it prepares
a place for Yankee emigration if peace
on the basis of separation is declared.
But this is not all. 1t answers the pur-
pose of war as well as peace, by inter-
posing a country destitute of supplies
between our own and the Yankee bor-
der Thus it is a safeguard against il
vasion. If Lee would advance, he must
move through a desert, dragging i'm
mense trains of food behind him. The
case is the same with Bragg, with John
ston, with Price.
Indeed. we hear that Price viii find it
difficult, if not impossible, to enter Mis-
souri,. In front of all our large armies
lies q waste, where there is food for
neither man nor beast. Girded by belt
of desolation, the North is safe from in
vasion; the broader the belt the greater
its security. AS the months wane and
the years roll on, the South, unless some
thing be done, will become, in the lam
guage of Scripture, the abomination of
desolation." We believe that something
will be done-the necessity of the case
demands it imperatively; would that we
could be sure that it will be done speed
lily. The cup can be returned to the
lips Of the North, drugged with ten-fold
bitterness. Mercy to ourselves demands
this act of retrlbutive justice to them.
A letter from Richmond, of June I'd,
reports the current rumor that Lee was
about to march either for Washington or
Philadelphia. The writer says that the
Notifications of Washington are such as
to render it well nigh impregnable, and
" if General Lee invadeS Maryland, it is
not probable he will not Immediately
make an attack on the well defended
Capital of the Union, out upon other
places, with view to cut off its supplies,
and thus, by stratagem, ultimately com
pei its surrender"