Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1864-06-04
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Trou The RIohnOud HzGainsr, Nay p.

4AS ! AuA6e NAElhE6 oeCOu1luR ueSpBtS
etc. The press report from North Georgia
declares that in their advance through the
country, "they levy heavy contributions as
they march, and burn oil the mills, facto-
ries, and residences" One can Imagine
the devastation. What stealing Of spoons
aud forks; what chopping up of pianos;
what burning Of libraries, appropriation of
pictures aud wearing apparel! Women
taking shelter, covering and shivering, 10
the woods, With their little ones, and look.
Ing out from their covert upon the bIazing
roOfitrees of their own houses. Such is
the great feature Of the campaign every
where. ., ~ .....1s .s.....-. . 81.
In the Peninsula, also, and on either
bank of the York and James rivers, de-
structton of private property and outrages
upon peaceful ciuEens have been reduced
to more perfect system than ever before;
and the constant employment of negroes in
these operations OF war has given them an
additional character of brutal ferocity
which is grateful to the Yankee soul in its
present mood. Seeing that they cannot
subjugste the South, they meaa to leave IL
a desert and wilderness Of ruins and
ashes; they are happy in the thought that
they can avenge the slaughter of their
troops in open battle by torturing the help
less, unarmed people along their line of
march; it they cannot trust their negro bri.
gauds to 6ght. they can trust them at least
to born, murder, cruelty and rRVish. This
we call desperation.
1t must be that they have given up all
hope of conqueriug these Confederate
States; and that feeling the effort of this
year to be the last, and that effort failure
| their malignant hearts can devise nothing
better than to hurt and harm us to the very
utmost extent in their power, and make
our Independence cost US dear. 1t is very
true that they are making it cost US dear;
and the costis the very bitterest we could
be called on to pay-the aggoniss aud ter
rors and tears of eur unprotected people.
II it be any pleasure or glory to them, we
may freely avoW that we have been deeply
hurt in our affections and in our pride, on
hearing the continually recurring tale of
our noble and devoted people subjected to
the brutal ATROCITIES OF that offscouring of
creation which makes up the Yankee ar.
mics. TG,s.-4
1t is sad enough to have our people
burned out and pillsged, our women bull
lied and insulted; but it is doubly humiIi.
ating TO suffer such evil at the hands of a
people We have always despised. It does,
indeed, cost US heavily to rid ourselves of
all connection with the Yankee nation; but
then this radiance is worth the cost.
And perhaps No should never have set
the right value upon the independence we
6ght for if it had not cost US SO dear We
might never have been so fully and deeply
conscious Of the great necessity which was
upon us, for our own honor and our chill
dren's we'll being, to cut of that abandon
ed patton from our society, If It had not
| been permitted to develop and display, at
so many points and for so long time, all
the dark depths of its hateful character, all
its bastard cruelty and mean thievery, and
unparalleled fertility of falsehood.
Now, we know fully from what . rotten
carcass We have cut ourselves loose; and
to escape it's pollution no price Is too
great. Rather than submit to that foul
embrace again, we would bid higher, and
still higher, until nothing were left to the
few Survivors of us but bare life.
In this sense We may almost be said to
be in some sort obliged to the Yankee ma.
ton. 1t has more than justified our 90
cession, and has left in the regions of our
country which have once fallen within
its military lines, certain bitter and burn.
log memories which, in ages to come, will
cause mothers to teach their little chill.
dren to thank God in their nightly prayers
for the rescue OF their native land out of the
| clutches Of Hn evil generation.
The many uumistakable symptoms of
| desperation visible in this years campaign
Tho employment of Grant himself with
absolute dictaLorial powers, because be was
known to be the man who would either
Effect his purpose or throw away his army
the insane drunkenness in which he
drowned the senses Of bis troops before
hurling them up against the muzzIes OF
Confederate cannon-Ihe reckless and uu.
sPaFing terocity With which quiet country
places are devastated and covered with
smoking ruins and soaked with blood of
unresisting people-Rll these things ought
TO- encourage Us; they consist we'll with
what the enemy's public press has at any
rate plainly avowed; that If the grand com .
6ined movement of 1864 should fail, then
all WAS losIi that armies could no logger
oe raised to continue the invasion that
anarchy and financial ruin would break up
their whole social aud political system
and that the United States would be no
more nation.
And that campaign (may Wa not already
say has failed; It's force is expended and
broken. Gifts four grand armies, one, in
the Trane. Mississippi, is no longer 40 ar.
my; another in Bermuda Hundred. has no
care but to protect itself from distraction
IN front by intreuchments, in rear by a
feet; the two other armies, and the two
greatest, have advanced indeed with tire.
uendous waste of men and material to the
points at which Lee and johnson at the
head OF fresh and eager troops say to them,
mo further, hitherto shalt thou po!p All
the clan, all the drunken Tieor of the
opening campaign is goue; the pluck is
taken out of it; and the iuvincible Yankee
hosts, or what is left Of them, can do no
better than turn upon the already pluuder-
ed population in their rear, rob a few
houses, ravish q few women, cruelty few
secesh planters, aud go home.
IT this be indeed the last grand effort Of
the enemy, as We hope aud believe, then.
how dear soever our Independence shall
have cost us, we shall still say it was
cheap. We do mot anrr nnr n,arS.s. 49,,