Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1863-03-20

A Voice from the Army,
We are indebted to q friend for the SUBJ
joined interesting document. It's, as will be
seen, an appeal from soldiers in the field to
"peace" men of the Empire State to cease
their babbling and support those who have
gone forth to battle for the Union. Itapplies
as we'll to Iowa as to New York-as well to
the men Of the Mahony and Thayer stripe as
it does to Fernando Wood & Co. 1t was
signed by men and officers alike, and is q
most conclusive refutation of the cry that
soldiers are anxious for peace on any terms"
The correspondent of the New York World,
who was present, endorsed every word of it,
VIC are told, and openly declared that his pa
per was getting too much identified with
treason to suit him. The appeal is ably
written, and will repay careful perusal:
AN APPEAL TO THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE
OF NEW YORK
We can no longer keep silent. A sacred
devotion to our country, an ardent love for
our homes, and above all, an abiding faith in
God, bid us speak. For nearly two years we
have suffered all things, peried all things,
endured all things, for the sake of our COM
mon country. We have left our business,
our kindred, our friends, the firesides of our
youth, the sacred places of prayer, and all
the nearest and dearest relations of life, to
serve our country. We have endured hun
ger, cold, thirst and heat. By day and by
night we have borne the weight Of our KNAPP
sacks and the WEAKNESS Of the march. We
have worked late and early in the trenches
have bivouacked in the swamps; have suf-
fered sickness in the hospitals. We have
not been spared from "the pestilence that
walketh in darkness" nor from "the destruc-
ton that wasteth at MONDAY" We have
never shruk from duty, but have rather again
and again cheerfully sought death, even at
the lannon's mouth, to save our country from
destruction, our homes from disgrace and you
and your children from eternal shame.
When we came to the field we came with
your blessing. You told us to go-that God
would be with us, and that your most fervent
prayers should follow us.
Encouraged by your words of patriotism,
of hope, of faith, we came to the war. And
after suffering thus much in behalf of you
and your children, and the Nations honor
dear alike to us all-will you withhold from
us now your sympathy and support? Will
you join with those, worse than traitors, at
the North, who cry "peace!' when they
know there is no peace, nor can be none, till
this unholy rebellion is crushed?
Will you ally yourselves with those, who
by words of discouragement are prolonging
this war and who are thus becoming in the
sight of both heaven and earth, the insiduous
murderers of your sons and brothers in the
field?
Why should you, who suffer none of the
dangers, none of the privations of field OF
camp, be less patriotic, less faithful, less
hopeful, less confident in God and the holy
cause in which we are engaged, than we who
endure all? Shall the future historian, in
writing the record of this great struggle, de-
clare with truthfulness, that the people of the
North having sent their sons to the field tc
peril their lives for the safety of their homes,
their property and the national government
having poured out, at the first blush of their
patriotism, their treasure and their blood with
the freeness Of water, at length through indif
| ference and apathy, and the love of ease and
luxury, which the war engendered, sought
the unstable terms of an ingloricus peace and
| nnally became only suDservlent to those Whon
they attempted to subdue?
| That this shall not be the record of the PEG
Of the Empire State, with your sympathy and
CO. operation, we, the undersigned officers
non-commissioned officers and privates of the
Forty-fourth Regiment of New York State
Volunteers, representing every county from
Lake Erie to the Ocean, here pledge anew oul
lives and sacred honor.
Forlwe feel assured if you seek peace now
upon any other terms less than those Of an
entire submission on the part of the traitors
in arms, to the Government of the United
States, that that peace will only be temporary
and that sooner or later, you will be obliged
to send your younger sons and brothers te
enrich the soil, already fertile with the dead
younger and fresher blood to re-crimson those
streams already red with slaughter.
Headquarters, 4ith N. Y. g. ", Camp Falmouth
Va, March 9th, 1868.