The Nashville daily union. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1862-1866, 1864-05-03

A correspondent who evidently un-
dorstands the habits and character Of
the animal well, thus delineates a rebel
bushwhacker
Itwould require an artist Of superla-
tive skill to paint to You tho bush
whaclSer as be is. lie comes from the
dregs Of degraded population. lie
cannot write his name. His speech is
q mixture of falsehoods and impudence
expressed in the worst English spoken
by white men, and apparently culled
from the corruptions of plantation
slang. He belongs to gang of from
five to forty in number His family
occupy cabin remote from the high
way; or the families of several throng
together, and occupy the large house
by the way side of some abseonded
rebel He never owned a negro, but he
may have been a negro driver on some
neighboring plantation He has a
sandy complexion; has for whiskers a
number Of struggling dirt-colored hairs
hat grow straight downward; he sell
dom washes his hands or changes his
shirt He visits his wife, a woman as
dirty and ignorant as himself, and who
chews tobacco and dips snuff, as often
as it is safe for him to do it, the balance
Of the time he spends in the brush, or
in committing robberies on unprotected
Union families. He has leader little
more intelligent and little more dar-
ing than himself
Ten of them dare not attack three
armed soldiers, but FIVE will 90 to the
house of a man who has a little money,
and torture him by setting him on live
Goals of fire, or pulling out his toe nails
with bullet moulds, till he tells them
where his treasure is concealed; and
the robbery completed, they retire to
their rendezvous. His fare is the sim
plest and the coarsest-a shoat which
lives half wild in the woods, which is
lank, poor, and runs like a deer, which
is brought down by rifle shot, badly
dressed, boiled to rags, and eaten fresh,
with little corn bread He has half a
dozen dogs, and as many dirty, tow
headed children, lives in wretchedness,
squalor and crime But he is q good
Judge of horse, and has one superior
in speed and bottom to those of any of
his pursuers, and it is often of the best
Kentucky or Louisiana blood. All sea
sons are alike to him, but his most dar-
ing feats are performed when the leaves
are on the trees, and effectually hide
the approaches to the thickets in some
ravine, which is his hiding place. His
arms are a big knife, and one or two
navy revolvers, and rife or shotgun,
or possibly a carbine captured from
some struggling soldier whom he had
murdered and stripped. His original
uniform is, of course, a ragged suit Of
butternut; but he now often has blue
coat or pants, the spoil of some unusual
and fendish butchery
He obtains ammunition through some
who visits Provost Marshal
says he was always Loyal" takes the
oath and obtains permit to carry arms,
including, of course, the right to buy
powder and lead When the Federal
army is in the vicinity he may be seen
planting corn in the day time-at night
he will be shooting the pickets. If his
house is visited, and his wife asked
where he is, the uniform answer is, A."
have no husband; or, he has gone
South" or, 80, he is with your'ns," in
timating that he is in the Federal army
And she is so ready with the lie that
she often names the command towhich
she says he belongs, and states where it
is stationed. He owns allegiance to no
is bound by no laws; is a
common bandit and robber with no
sentiment of chivalry to make his adj
ventures romantic; no generosity to
divide him from the beasts of prey. If |
this cruel war is ever over, he will still |
for his life time, haunt the scene of his |
and walk amid the rude |
graves of his Victims his gang will de
fly the law and its minions; he will be
the curse; "the curse to kill with, which |
the rebellion invoked, and till his gen
Grafton pass away, he will be the terror |
TO the neighborhood quiet and the foe
10 civil government