The daily Evansville journal. (Evansville, Ind.) 1862-1863, 1863-06-29
Information from the South.


The Cincinnati Commercial of Tues
day says:
We had an interview yesterday with
an observant and intelligent mechanic,
who has spent several years in the infe-
rior cities of Georgia and Alabama, and
has Just made his escape from that part
of the country We do not propose to
give his name, or the locality in Dixie
from which he took his departure, or to
state the means employed to get across
the military lines of rebeldom, for to do
so would involve some of his friends in
difficulty. He is we'll known to gentle
men residing in Ohio, with whom we are
acquainted, and we have no doubt as to
his truthfulLess. His story is not sensa-
tional, but he communicated some facts
worth telling the public. He had a sit
uation that as times go in the cotton
States nowadays, was good one, but
his sympathies were not with the rebel
lion, and he was tired of laboring for
six dollars per day in Confederate money,
and paying five dollars per day for board.
He has suffered no personal injury at
the hands of the rebels, and brings no
tales of crueties perpetrated by them.
He has had a good point of observation
of the public men and public business of
the rebellion, and seeing great many
things, has had very little to say of any
thing, and has forgotten nothing. He
bears strong testimony as to the unity
and desperate resolution of the rebels
There is hardly a symptom of party
of Reeonstructionists (of the Union, in
the South. They all declare themselves
! fighting for Southern independence"
and mean to fight for it to the last.
There is nothing that fires them with in
dignation more quickly than suggestions
of an armistice or treaty, on any other
basis than the unconditional recognition
of the Southern Confederacy. They
have no disposition to cooperate with
the Democratic party, but look upon that
party in its latter day developments,
simply as an element that will strengthen
them in their struggle for indene ndAn II:
and enable them 10 consummate the dis
solution of the Union The Southern
armies, our informant believes, are
larger than is thought in the North. He
asserts his knowledge that thirty thou
sand men exclusive of Breckenridge S
division, have passed through Atlanta to
join General Joe Johnston in Mississippi
Breckinridge's Division was detached
from Bragg army, and passed through
Atlanta on the way to Jackson, but they
were halted before they reached the Mis-
sissippi line, and sent back! He saw
Breckenridge as he went out and as he
returned. On the 1st and I'd of June
his troops were passing through Atlanta,
going back to Bragg, or to East Ten
nessee. He saw them at the time. He
has often seen Breckenridge, and reports
that he looks much as he did two years
ago, though he now shows many gray
hairs. The capacity of the railroads to
carry troops to Mississippi was equal to
the transportation of 5000 troops per
day, which is three times as great as the
estimate made by Mr.. Colburn, of the
New York World, and published all over
the country. The roads and running
stock are much worn, but still servicea-
BILE, and they have the great advantage
of common gange. Hi5h-rates of
speed are not tolerated owing to the in
creased wear and tear the danger from
defective rails, and the policy of making
the roads last as long as possible. The
railroad communication between the ar
mics of Bragg and Johnston is by way
of Chattanooga, Atlanta, West Point,
Montgomery, Selma and Jackson, great
circuit The gun that the rebels claimed
sunk the Keokuk, in the attack upon
Charleston, was 4 nine-inch rife, of Brit
ish manufacture, and called the Brooke
gun. After the Charleston affair, it was
sent to Vicksburg, where it is probably
the whistling Dick of which the be-
: siegers of Vicksburg write. Early in
the summer, large number of very
heavy guns, made at Richmond, and i'm
ported from England were sent to Vicks-
burg Several of these fell into our
hands at Haines' Bluff, and were hastily
destroyed by Commodore Porter
The rebels have recently received from
England several beautiful field batteries,
in which they take much pride. There
is not as much sickness in the rebel ar
} mics this summer as there was last, but
: the private soldiers are excessively I'M
clearly, being, as general thing, lousy.
Such is the extent of this peculiarly,
that the cars in which they ride become
] infested with vermin. The wheat crop
3 in the South is good, and in Georgia
, and Alabama has been harvested The
rich men and their sons keep out of the
army, unless they go in as officers, by
buying substitutes, and are making mon,
e ey, such as it is. The war is terribly hard
S on the poor whites. The conscription
9 has relentlessly swept them into ranks.
! in districts chiefly inhabited by them,
there is much distress, there not being
: men enough to put in crop or harvest
: it. Hence, in some quarters a scarcity
: food. In the regions where there are
l many slaves, agricultural labor is unin-
a terrupted so the slave owners can raise
and gather their crops, and live WELL
L while the families of men not owning
/. slaves are being sent in the army, and are
|, driven to extremities of want 1t is, in
). the South, emphatically the rich man
war and the poor mans fight.
n sG- A boy, twelve or fourteen years
of age, was drowned yesterday, opposite