The Portage County Democrat. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1863-06-10
vaIIandigham i'm the Army.

A letter from Rosecrans' camp gives the
following account of the passage of Vallan-
digham, en- route to Dixie, through the army
at Murfreesboro
None save those Immediately surrounding
Gen. Rosecrans knew anything about the
time when the prisoner would arrive, or when
he would be sent South, and consequently
there was no stir and no excitement. This
secret proceeding was precautionary meas
ure for the personal safety of Mr.. Vallandig-
ham. No army in the United States is in
better state of discipline than the army of the
Cumberland. None is more easily controlled
by its officers, and kept within the strictest
bounds of propriety and law. But had it
been publicly known throughout the camps.
that the notorious copperhead, Val!andigham,
had arrived in town, it is the belief of those
accustomed to reason most coolly. that all
sense of discipline and restraint would have
at once been lost. and, that a crowd of ten
thousand men would have collected instantly
round the Provost Marshal's, swayed by the
widest and most ungovernable excitement
What might have followed no human
tongue can tell; but it is certain that each SOL
dier in the army entertains for that man VAL
landighanl, an intense and burning hatred,
which can find expression only in curses.-
True, they feel stern indignation against the
armed rebels in their front, and at the risk of
limb and life itself are determined to subdue
them but their especial detestation is reserv-
ed for the Shiny reptiles of the North, who,
with base ingratitude, hiss at the very soldiers
whose sufferings and blood have thus far pur-
chased for these ingrates exemption from the
woes of war. Our soldiers are willing TO fight
the traitors of the South, knowing that al
though thousands of them may fall in the
contest, their bravery and perseverance must
at last prevail, Liberty be saved, and the
Union restored but they are not willing and
do not feel able to Withstand the cowardly as
saults of those miscreants in the North who
are continually striving to stab them in the
back, or to deliver them, bound hand and foot
to the guilty murderers of their ceuntry's
peace.
OF these ungrateful and most mischievous
copperheads, the intelligent soldiery of this
army know that Vallandigham is chief. They
know that every speech he made, for the last
two years, both in and out of Congress, has
tended to encourage the rebels, to render more
difficult and dangerous the task of their sub
! jugation, to indefinitely prolong the war, and
thus to increase the perils of the nation and
put far off the happy period when, in the
midst of peace, the soldier may return to
friends and home Hence the bitter personal
hatred which every soldier felt for Vallandig-
ham and hence the wisdom of bringing him
into and through Murfreesboro while SLEEP
and quiet overspread the camps.
imagine, however, that had the man real
ly been brought into the presence of the sol.
diers, their feelings of personal destatior
would have given way, and that high above
every other consideration would have riser
their idea, which I heard expressed by sol
dier yesterday, that the nation was wrong
ing itself in sparing the life of Vallandig
ham," An effort to right this wrong, IRE.
sistible by human power, would then have
been made, and Vallandigham would proba
bly, have purchased with his blood that crown
of martyrdom which he has so anxiously
longed for, but which he has been so desirou
of obtaining at cheaper rate.