Mineral Point weekly tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1859-1868, 1864-06-01
Things in AIabama---Letter from Col. Howe,
of the 32d Wisconsin.

lniugS III ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 1TUH N0I. tUNe.
of the 32d Wisconsin.
The Green Bay Adgocate takes the liberty
of copying the following from private let
ter recently received from Col. j. II. HOWE,
of the 32d Wisconsin, then at Decatur, Ala.
1t is interesting as the testimony of truthful
and observing witness to the condition of the
South:
"The situation is unchanged this morn
ing. The pickets of the 32d had a sharp lit
tie skirmish with some rebel cavalry this
morning, but nobody was hurt. Twenty-Five
deserters came in, in body, chased by
squad of rebel cavalry. The fugitives were
protected by the picket and are safe. Since
we have been here, assertions from the enc
N.Y. at this post, have averaged about so a
day. Many of them enlist at once in our ar.
my The I'd Alabama Cavalry has nov Tear
" 200 men, all natives. Some of these de-
serters are filed with the fercest hatred
against the rebels. The testimony of these
men, coming from different armies, or at diff
ferent times, is substantially the same. They
say the people at home, are tired of the
and viii gladly have peace on any terms.
The majority of the rank and file of the army
Will desert as fast as possible, but that the
great majority Of the officers of the army are
determined to fight it out, to the last man.
All concede the hopelessness of the cause,
from the preponderence of men and re
sources, unless something interyenes. They
are ardent walters on Providence ard will
fight while they wait.
Evidences of the terrible despotism under
which the South groans is apparent every
where, when you penetrate the rim of the
Confederacy. There are no able bodied men
white or black in the Confederacy. They
are either all in the army or in the woods,
hiding from conscript officers. The conscrip-
ton is mercilessly enforced. There is no
civil government anywhere. Bands of armed
soldiers patrol the entire country, and their
will is the only law. In that part of Mssis-
sippi lying north of Vicksburg and west of
the Mississippi Central railroad, brigade of
Texas cavalry is stationed, doing patrol duty
There is a complete reign of terror. The
soldiers live upon the inhabitants and seem
to enjoy life The few citizens / found to
talk with expressed greater dread of their
friends" than of us. Those Texans declared
that they never intended to stop fighting.
Union men and conscripts are hunted with
blood-hOuuds. On a march, the other dav
we found a bloodhound dead and hung up to
a tree, in little town iii West Tennessee
Our guide, an old man of over 50 and a resi-
dent of the neighborhood, explained its his
tory. We were in that part of west Tennes-
see where the 18th Tenn. (Union) cav, Col
HURST : regiment, was raised. NOl. HURST mad
been ordered to Memphis. The rebels when
he was gone, sent away and got this hound
to hunt this old man and one of his sons who
was unfit for service. He had two other sons
in Hurst's regiment. The old man laid out,
watched his opportunity, and shot the hound.
The rebels had public funeral and buried
the beast with the honors of war 4 few
Union men rallied, dug him up and hung him
in front of a rebels house in the village.
This operation had been twice repeated by
each party Unionism was in the ascendant
the day marched by, and there hung the
hound, a stencil in the nostrils of all The
rebels wreaked a terrible revenge, however,
a few days before. Two of them suddenly
rode up to the old mans house, found the son
there, with his wife, three little children and
his mother. They shot the young man dead
on his own doorstep, and one miscreant snap
ped his musket three times at the very breast
of the mother. l stood in the door-yard and
heard the story from the widow, and three
pretty children near her. She showed me
the bloOd-stains of her dead husband The
story ran thrsugh the command. I am quite
sure some good fighting would have been done
most any time that day, and but few prisoners
taken, had the opportunity offered.
On this same march, we went to Purdy,
Tenn, where Col. Hurst resides He was
an old citizen, very wealthy, a lawyer, a
planter, large stakeholder, and a Douglas
democrat. He stood out for the Union, made
many and strong speeches for it. When
west Tenn, was occupied by rebel troops
from Miss, and thus forced out, Hurst re
manned quietly on his plantation. At the in
stance of some of his own neighbors, rebels,
he arrested and thrown into Jail, OF
charge of being a suspected person" y
Among other indignities heaped upon him,
he was led by halter around his neck, by
his own neighbors, round the public square
of the town After long confinement he
made his escape to the Tenn, river, when
our gunboats went up after Donaldson and
Henry were taken. He subsequently went
back, raised a strong regiment of his own
neighbors, the 18th Tenn, Cav, burned eve-
ry building around the square, part which he
was marched excepting one owned by
Union man, and gave the inhabitants notice
that for any propertyof his injured or taken
by them, he would exact fearful retribution
His family live unmolested in the town, and
he is in command of his regiment on active
duty in the field. His regiment take very
few prisoners.
THE HosPITALs-CARE FOR THE WOUNDED
A late correspondent from Washington in the
New York Commercial AdleTtiSer has the fol-
lowing: Occasional showers have cooled the
atmosphere, and thus alleviated the sufferings
of the fourteen thousand wounded soldiers
here and hereabouts. Never were patients
better cared for, and there is not one who has
not on the little table at his bedside, flowers.
or fruits, or cooling beverages, Oh custards-
many have all of them-prepared and brought
to him by some ministering angel. If the
church pews have been rather empty to-day,
1t has been because those who have generally
occupied them have been at the HOSPITALS.
~ The day before Gen. GRANT left Wash
ington to join the army and open the cam
paign against LEE, he wrote in private let
ter to friend in Chicago:
Ny army is in fine condition. | feel con.