The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1863-09-26

REL1ABLE INFORMATION FROM THE
soUTH.-The following is from the pen of
gentleman just from the extreme South
ern States, who speaks of things of which
he has personal knowledge:
DEPRESSION AMONG THE REBELS
Since the fall of Vicksburg, the depression
among the rebels has been great and uni
versal in the region bordering on the Mis-
sissippi Valley. Nearly all the candid and
thinking citizens admit that, with that dis
aster, fell all rational hopes of ever secu-
ring the recognition of all the Confederate
States. The vigor with which the siege
was driven to a successful issue, had deep
ly impressed the Southern mind with a
conviction of the earnestness of the loyal
States in this struggle, and the vast powers
of the Union. ss e,a......,-
There are no more boasts of the superb
ority of Southern prowess. All the vain.
glorious talk that fumed in every seces-
sion mouth, and from every secession sheet
during the first year of the war, is effectu-
ally played out" The Union troops are.
generally admitted to be equal, regiment
for regiment, to the ''chivalry." What
they lack in dashing yalor, is made up by
superior hardihood and coolness.
The large slave proprietors admit that
ruin, hopeless and final ruin, is looking
them full in the face. Some meet it with
calmness, as one of the fortunes of war,
and the sequel of their act in secession.-
Others utter sentiments of desperation and
revenge. But a vast majority of the slave
holders of the seeded States would gladly
embrace any plan, by which the institution
could be made as secure to them as it was
in 1860.
They would willingly have matters 90
back in statu quo, and remit all hope of ex-
tending the area of slavery, if that institu-
ton could be made as secure as it was be-
fore the South Carolina madness became
epidemic.
The extentof reunion sentiments is much
greater than is generally supposed at the
North. OF course, do not speak of the
political or military leaders. Their atti-
tude is still defiant and their expression
bitter and revengeful. No newspaper has
yet dared to take any such motto as ''The
Union as it was," except Holden's, in
North Carolina, and for doing so he has
been reared to bad eminencc and classed
among arch-apostates, Benedict Arnold
and Judas Iscariot. Butin riding six hum
dred miles in rebel territory, and converS-
ing with nearly every man l met, two
thirds of all l saw, whether in or out Oft the
army, said: Davis and they all had bet
ter give it up, and let things go back as
they were, if they can get it SO. We never
can whip. The North is too strong for US.
They are breaking US down, and it's no
use to deny it, This sentiment prevails
in the greater part of Mississippi and
through twO-thirds of the State OF Ala abama,
and a portion Of Georgia. 1t is the ruling
sentiment in Tennessee and a large part Of
Arkansas.
AS the Union lines advance, the soldiers
from those positions occupied by Federal
troops become, in military phrase, "demor-
alized." That is, when their homes are no
longer protected from invasion, they see
nothing to fight for, worth the suffering and
dangers Of warfare.
Desertions from every corps of the Con-
federate service are on the increase. Great
er stringency of punishment, the adoption
of the death penalty, as urged by the organs
of the rebel Government, may check it to
some extent, but it cannot raise the morale
of the Southern troops.
Thousands who remain in the lines, and
drag along with Bragg from one set ofshal-
low rit1e-pits to another, have made up
their minds to stay and eat half rations Of
tough beef and coarse corn bread to pre-
they have also made up their minds to run
or surrender in the next open battle to
which they are led.
The evacuation of the greater part of the
valley of East Tennessee, and the pro-
spective reduction of Charleston have, of
course, disappointed as well as oppress-
ed the Southern heart. A very common
expression, before the evacuation of Chat
tanooga, was: 'if we give up that we might
as well give up all and say so, and be done
with it."
''It is not thought that Bragg, or rather
Johnston, will make a final stand before
falling back to Atlanta. During the fall
hold a line that will run diagonally south
west from little above Atlanta, embrace
Rome if they can, and pass off through AL
ALBANIA to the vicinity Of Demopolis, on the
Tombigbee, making Selma and Montgom-
cry the bases of supplies, and securing the
| railroads which connect all the considera-
BILE towns in that region.
The middle counties in Alabama and all
the Tombigbee country have produced
magnificent crops Of corn, to which john
| ston looks for his supplies. The wheat
| crop in Northern Georgia was more than
the average, and it may not be impos-
| sible for johnson to assemble and subsist
an army of 10000 men south of the line
described.
| This is probably not so great as North
ern readers have been led to suppose. The
South is not starring, although quite fre-
quently the troops are put for weeks upon
half or quarter rations, and now and then
a poor child or soldiers wife has nothing
but lump of corn-bread or a roasted po-
tato to eat.
| Generally speaking, there is enough of
cornmeal, potatoes and cow-peas, with
| meat at one or two meals. But there is q
great destitution Of all articles not of prime
heCeSSlty, SUCH as COute, YEA, SpiCSs, ilcul.
cines, silks and broad cloths.
The army is clad in rough and dirty
| homespun, for soap is on the list OF articles
''played out.' '.''''
| The private draws but eleven dollars a
month, vet gives fifteen dollars for pair
of rough shoes, and five dollars yard, at
the lowest, for common home-spun. The
commonest brown shirt that he can buy
will cost him fifteen or twenty dollars, and
pair of good boots, seventy-tive dollars.
| Confederate money, in most places, has
no market value as compared with gold.-
What few transactions occur in that line.
are at fifteen, twenty and twenty five Con.
federate to one of gold.
Greenbacks are eagerly purchased at
rates little below hard money, say at one
dollar for ten or twelve of rebel paper
] The negroes have been run in great num-
bers from Mississippi, North Alabama,
Middle and East Tennessee, and those Sec
| tons of Louisiana and Arkansas that bor-
der on the Mississippi River. 1t has been
estimated that $50, 900 have been taken to
| Georgia within q wear mast and nearly as