The Abingdon Virginian. [volume] (Abingdon [Va.]) 1849-1883, 1863-07-31

LfeaI. UrantS army must be removed from
the Mississippi. The country through which
he must follow Johnston will not feed his
| troops. An immense force will be required
to keep openshis communication with the RI
4 yer. If a battle can be postponed till the two
armies reach Meridian. Johnston will then be
the stronger. From all that can learn, it
seems that Grant anticipated such strategy
! on the part of our leader, and hence his sud-
! den movement across the Big Black to point
! which, if mistake not, prevents Johnston's
relieving Gardner at Port Hudson, and may
cut off his retreat in the direction of Mobile
and Meridian. The events Of tomorrow will
determine how far Grant has in all this out
generated Johnston. Except to relieve the
suferings of an outraged people, there is no
reason why they should fight at jackson or
! in. its vicinity. We have everything to gain
| by delay and nothing by an immediate deci-
sion ola struggle which involves the fate, of
Mississippi and Alabama.
TIE Horrors Of Far.
The people Of Mississippi do not meet Inn
pending dangers with that spirit which twas
thought they would exhibit. Each citizen,
while he eyinces an extraordinary degree Of
zeal in assigning reasons why every man
should enlist, while inducements for all his
neighbors to rush to jackson are as plentiful
as blackberries, yet he can demonstrate the
necessity for. his remaining at home fhe
people of this State were thorouably obedent
+ to their leaders in time Of peace. Mankind
has thought the legislation Of Mississippi ex-
traerdinary in more instances than one, to
say the least Of it, but the people adhered to
the politicians, and party lines were rigidly
defined. The politicians have generally gone
into the army-they are Office holders still;
but it seems that their influence is lost. They
are not so closely followed as when cohesion
was effected by shouts and accla,nations, and
by depositing tickets in the ballot box. There
was no courage demanded in ali this; there
would have been in refu ing to obey
Men are accustomed to say that they must
remain at home to care for their families
when the Feder;ls approach and yet when
Grants army advances they are forced to-.
leave. Their presence ayails nothing They
are incapable of resistance. At home they
can accomplish nothing; in the army they
would fight well, since they thoroughly com
psehend the issue involved. If Tennesseeaus
have suffered at the hands Of Rosecrans; if the
country around Memphis has been pillaged
and laid waste, infinitely greater have been
the misiortunes and sttfsrings of the people
of Mississippi, wherever they have become
subject to Federal exactions.
know we'll an aged widow who, two years
ago, was possessed Of an estate worth $780,
600. A Federal garrison occupied little
village hard by. Her negroes were one after 1
another stolen. Those thatwcre left refused
to perform any labor. They were too worth |
less to take grain to a neighboring mill, and /
absolutely lived on parched corn. They quar-sI
relied and fought, and slept, and dozed away
the days OF spring and summer, till famine
drove them to the Federal camp. How they
live, Il know not. ManvI am told, have
died, the children by famine, men and wo-
men by fevers and the most loathsome dis /
eases contracted among the brutal soldiery.-
Their mistress lives upon ratiOns drawn from
the Federal commissariat.
If the same garrison remained at any given
place, its exactions would possibly cease OF
last; but when an Ohio regiment has stolen
everything, there comes one from the purliens
Of Chicago, n,addened by desire for plumber
and gold. Every house is again searched and
every citizen threatened In Germantown, a
little village in Tennessee, just beyond the
Mississippi border, there have been many diff.
ferent regiments garrisoning the place. With
each change the inhabitants have been SUBJ
jected to fresh exaction. The GLORIOUS ar
my Of the Union tore down the Masonic
Hail, in order to obtain the coins that were
deposited beneath the corner-stone They
destroyed two churches, after using them for
some time as barracks and then as stables
Four miles from the village there lived an old
man named Taylor, perhaps seventy years
old. He sold his cotton, and was known to
have s., 900 in gold. Federal soldiers went
to his house, dragged him forth, demanding
the gold. When he refused to designate its 1
place of concealment, he was hanged and left
to die. His negroes cut him down, and his
life was saved Not long afterwards the sol
diers returned, and as Mr.. Taylor again refuse
ed to give them the gold they hanged him till
he was dead. 1t is a fact, incredible as your
readers may deem it, that lady, whose false
teeth on palate of gold had excited the greed
of Federal officer, was halted on the high
way, knocked down and then the soldiers of
the Union" drew forth the gold and left the
bleeding woman, as they thought to de-
There were few Unionists about German
town when the village was first occupied by
Federal soldiers, but now all capable OF bear
ing arms have. fed. Many, even boys and
very old men, have joined the guerrillas. 1t
would seem that a knowledge of these facts
would induce people to resist before their
homes were occupied and their fields laid
waste, and yet men are accustomed to say that
the necessities Of their families require them
to remain at home.
1t is we'll to present these facts, not only to
Tennesseeans but to Georgians Mississippi
ans will soon comprehend them with all their
force -unfor tunately they do not, even at this
late hour It signifies nothing what losses
So. I'll