The Soldiers' journal. (Rendezvous of Distribution, Va.) 1864-1865, 1864-03-16


Their first act was to seize upon all the public
property within the so-called confederate States,
including all the forts and arsena1s, which the
patriotic foresight of Floyd stocked to repletion
with all kinds of arms and ammunition. When
Major Anderson, with his heroic garrison of less
than hundred men, refused to yield to the
mandate of the traitor Pickens, his place of ref
uge was beleaguered with a force of about five
thousand "sports of the patrician South, and
when they found that their usual braggadocio
would not avail to frighten him out of Sumter,
they opened fire upon the soldiers and property
of the United States, with guns and ammunition
stolen from United States arsenals. The result
of this overt act of rebellion was received with a
flourish of trumpets and shouts of chivalric de-
iance and triumph throughout the confederacy,
and close upon the heels of the announcement of
the evacuation of Sumter, came the manifesto of
jeff Davis proclaiming that the South did not
mean war, and called the world to witness that
they only wanted to be "let alone.'
After almost three years of the most devasta-
ting war that has ever been known to civiliZa-
ton during which they have frequently resorted
to this subterfuge in order to blind the people
whom they have grossly wronged, they add
another insult to the intelligence and forbear-
ance of their impoverished and Inundated con-
stituency in the form of an address that is
full of sophistry, treachery, and falsehood.-
This address is evidently the parting salutation
of the soon-to-be defunct confederacy, and al
though it's death-pangs may be very acute, and
prolonged for time, it's dissolution is none the
less certain. That the g time of the end" is ra-
pidly approaching is clearly foreshadowed in the
general dissatisfaction which everywhere pre-
walls throughout the South, produced by the
sweeping CONSUMPTION, unsound monetary sys-
tenn, and utter prostration of every department
of internal industry to say nothing of the abject
suffering and poverty which the war has entail
ed upon the people. 1t will require something
more potent than high-sounding manifesto to
restore public confidence and unite the people of
the South in their crusade upon human liberty
and sound political system. They are fully
convinced that the loyal States are determined
that the government of our common fathers shall
not be destroyed, though it cost the last dollar
and the sacrifice of the life of the last loyal
man in the nation, and seeing that the further
pro1OngatiOn of the war can only be attended
with additional and unnecessary expenditures of
life and treasure on both sides, and result in the
final submission of the confederacy they are
about ready to choose the 'lesser of two evils"
and submit to the government from which they
attempted to withdraw their fealty. Of one thing
we feel certain that the confederate congress has
issued it's last address, and it has been the sal
utatory it is confidently expected that it is the
valedictory of that distinguished Legislative body.
LIEUT.. GEN. GRANT arrived at Washington on
Tuesday of last week, and was everywhere
ceived with the most enthusiastic demonstrations
of popular favor. He visited the White House
on Tuesday evening, and his reception by those