Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1864-03-17

From she Daily of March Is,
Darbnrity of Raids.

/
the 'raiding" business, it was in their
estimation not only legitimate mode
OF warfare but the gallantry and dash
OF the brilliant fellows engaged in il
We're the especial objects of southern
pride and themes OF southern admira-
ton. What more petted heroes at the
south than Mosby, Stuart and John
Morgan Even the cold blooded and
atrocious massacre of two hundred OF
the defenceless citizens of Lawrence, by
Quantrell and his cut-throats, was open
ly exulted in by the rebel press and UNI
rebuked by the rebel government. And
this southern "chivalry" have all along
been prosecuting, hunting, hanging and
shooting in cold blood citizens old and
young at the South for entertaining I'm
ion sentiments; Strengthening negroes;
starving to death Union prisoners; muir
dering wounded Union soldiers on the
field, and assassinating Union troops
natives of the South, captured by them
in battle. Guerrilla warfare has not on
ly been encouraged by them, but they
nave threatened to convert the whole
struggle into guerrilla raids, bushwhack-
| ing and murder, should their large ar
mics be routed, The great Beauregard
announced as long ago as August. 1862,
that 1--WE 1.-THE rebels) will yet have to
| come to proclaiming this war "a war to
he knife" when no quarter will be ask
ed or granted" The New York Even
ing Post youches for the genuineness of
Il dispatch it has seen, signed by Beau
regard, disclosing plan of opening the
war by the surprise and burning of
Washington and assassination of Pres
ident Lincoln and Gen. Scott, a plan
which was frustrated by the capture of
the dispatch. Whether this be true or
! not, we have certain evidence of enough
to justify Col. Streight's mild assertion
that we have an inhuman enemy to deal
with.
Now the federal forces have learned
something from the enemy about aids.
and have practiced them with some sue
cess. They have committed no cold
blooded massacres like Quantrell, and
have destroyed such property only as
directly crippled the enemy. This fede-
raj success at "raiding" is frightening
the enemy out of their wits. They forge
documents pretended to have been found
on the body of a murdered federal officer,
with which to fire the southern heart"
and shudderingly demand that the
monsters" who dared to follow Kilpat-
rick so near Richmond be summarily
butchered The assassins under Guam
trell were gallant fellows. The soldiers
under Fitzpatrick were, in the language
of the Richmond Wing, "a band of rob-
berS, incendiaries and murderers. -
How desperate must be cause which,
under the above circumstances, requires
such expressions as the following from
the Richmond papers. Says the Wing
care these men warriors Are they
soldiers, taken in the performance of du-
ties recognized as legitimate by the loos-
est construction of the code of civilized
warfare or are they assassins, barbara
ans, thugs, who have forfeited land ex-
pect to lose) their lives Are they not
barbarians redolent of more hellish pur-
poses than were even the Goth the Hun,
or the Saracen? The consentaneous
voice of all Christendom will shudder-
ingly proclaim them monsters, whom
no sentimental idea of humanity, no tim
erous views OF expediency, no trembling
terror of consequences, Shonld have
shielded from the quickest and the stern
est death. The English blow brutal and
fierce Sepoys, who disregard and exceed
the just limits of war, from the mouths
of cannon the French fusilade them.-
If we are less powerful, have we less
pride and self-respect than either of these
nations These men have put the capat
lapD,um on themselves. They are not the |
victims; they are volunteers for remorse-
less death. They have rushed upon fate,
and struggled in voluntary audacity
with the grim monster. Let them die,
not by court martial not as prisoners,
but as hostes humani gene,ts by general
order from the President, commander
in-chief"
And the Examiner fires the southern
heart" in this style:
"Our government. owes to its own ar
my and to its own people, if it cannot at
the moment retalliate such atrocities in
kind, at least to bring to condign pun
ishment the robbers who, in the guise of
soldiers and under the pretense of war
have been caught lurking about Rich
mond with their oakum balls and tur-
pentine, and their written programme
for numbering the chief magistrate and
setting fire to all the houses till the CITY
is burnt in hundred places at once and
then inviting eight thousand lustfuI
blood thirsty ruffians to gut the blazing
mansions, rape their mistresses and
knock their masters in the head in
the dreadful confusion. But if we
hang these wretches then the enemy
will select an equal number for
the gallows Not while we hold six
teen thousand hostages. But if we
shrink from that there is another alter
native, and the only one left us-hang-
ing and massacre all on one side. We
can choose between the two; other
choice there is none"