Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1863-04-29

STARVING THEM OUr.-It has been SO com
mon a thing to speak Of the rebels as in state
approaching restitution, that many thought
less readers have very likely come to regard
statements of the kind as mere ''talk" and
nothing more. There seems to be no doubt,
however, that the cause of the rebellion is
really lettering from the lack of the coarsest
and most necessary food On the lower Mis-
sissippi our troops have recently seized vast
quantities of supplies, and Gen. Banks has
probably before this time cut off Vicksburg
from its graneries and markets in Texas. In
the west the same thing is being done and in
Virginia (already a desert) and North Caro-
lima it is impossible to raise or procure enough
food for the rebel armies. The following ex-
tract is from private letter received in Prov
idence, written at Washington, North Caro-
lima, by an officer in Massachusetts regi-
ment:
''But in one thing the testimony of both
prisoners and deserters is singularly unani-
nous. They represent their troops as in
great extremities, and utterly disheartened
about the war. provisions they are already
on the shortest rations, with no prospect but
from bad to worse 1t is really sad to hear
their accounts. These men before us have
been living on a morsel of pork, with a little
hard bread and crushed corn cakes, without
tea, coffee, sugar or salt. They had but few
blankets, and no tents, while the trenches, as
we found them, were full of water. They
confirm all the accounts of fabulous prices
which we have heard so long, and give you
pt ,loA 8
discontinued men, who long for nothing
so much as that the war may end. Of
course we must not accept all their color
ing but everything that we have learned for
the last few weeks and months, both from
soldiers and civilians, rebel sympathizers and
all, correspond with this, aud confirm it,
Ii North Carolina and Virginia are types of
the whole south, it is evident to me. almost
without question, that if we could simply stand
as we are for six months, avoiding defeat but
gaming no victory, and sacrificing no more
lives, the confederacy would fall to pieces
from its own rOttenness. When starvation
sets up its claim, there is no alternative, and
beyond the present crop, there is no visible
prospect OF further provision. Their army
is not in such a state of discipline and subor-
dination as ours. During this siege, our sem
tries have distinctly seen a soldier hung with
in their lines, and since | came we have heard
musketry firing, which can hardly be explain
ed, except as military executions"
The following, from another source, adds
more evidence to the fact of the southern des-
titution:-
Virginian farmer writes to the Richmond
Sentinel, that the rebel government can never
get the bacon it needs for the army except by
oeVlslng system of exchange. The farmers
and planters, he says, all want sugar; they
wiz give up large part of their store of ba-
o9n az once and gladly, if they are only offer
eu sugar Tor 1t. Therefore, he adds, send us
your sugar-for which part of their rations the
soldiers have no use, ''as thew have neither
tea nor coffee" This is an excellent ION
says the Sentinel; it would remove t ,r PI,1,
dificulty-only the rebel government bas "C ~
sugar. That does somehow, interfere 'ri itH
the Virginia farmers plan. WIN