Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1864-07-15
A Southern View of Cavalry Raids.
Fromthe Richmond Examiner, July l.

frOtnthe richmond EXAMINER, July l..
Cavalry raids, destructive as they are,
never conquer country. Rather, indeed,
they help to make it uncOnquerable, and
that in several ways, IN the first place,
they greatly tend to destroy that sneaking
"Uuionism," not yet quite extinct in some
regions of our country, which is waiting TO
take the oath "to save its property."-
Creatures of this crawling sort meet no IA
vor from the Yankee raider; his business is
to rob and devastate, to carry away what
is portable and destroy what he cannot
carry, in order to starve out the "rebel-
lion;" and he has no notion of being cheat
ed by these "Union" poor devils with their
free and easy oaths.
When they protest that they have always
been "Union mep," that they will take the
oath, aud all that, raiders reply indignant
ly las described by letter from Roanoke
county, that they are g. liars" and
thereupon proceed to rob their premises.
1t would be good idea truly, if wealthy
farmer of Western Virginia, with his barns
and meat-houses full, gold in his desk and
silver in his pantry, could turn away a reg
iment of furnishing horses and their hun
cry and greedy riders, By merely proclaim
ing "loyalty" and rendering an oath. Can
Federal soldiers eat and drink oaths2 Are
| Oaths good in n horses rack and Manager?
The Yankee gallant who has vowed to
| carry to Massachusetts some trophy fall
stolen articles they call trophies) of his
Southern campaign, can he bring home to
the miscegenitrix he loves planters oath,
when he expects his daughters Jewels or
his wife's forks and spoons IL Is there
fore with sincere pleasure, almost with a
| sense of obligation tothe very raiders, that
one hears of their contempIuous inatIen-
ton to professors of base "lOyally" and the
impartiality which they rob all round.
| Thus, every district of country which has
been hsrried by Yankee raid or two be-
comes a more staunch Confederate country
thereafter.
There is another way, too, in which raids
bring them certain compensation at least
in Western Virginia; they discover and
bring to light unexpected gransries, and
stores of provisions hidden in caves, litter
ally in caves of the earth, with which that
limestone country abounds. The prudent
farmers had hidden away those stores, to
save them, not from Yankee marauders,
but from their own Government and their
fellow citiZens. These are the suffering
farmers who never had anything when
Confederate Quartermasters, impressing Of
fcersIor purchasers on Government account
came roud, they had nothing to sell for
Confederate money; so far from that, they
were always in distress almost starving,
and anxious delegations used to come down
to Richmond, on their part, to plead that
-four should be sent up to the valley to sus
tain life; and especially that if the Gov
eminent should require from them a loan
of their surplus labor, or indeed make any
claim or demand upon them whatever in
the common cause, then all was lost. This
sort OF persons have probably helped more
to depreciste our Treasury bills than all
other classes together; to sustain the credit |
of that paper was to sustain the Govern |
ment and the cause, and the freedom and |
honor of their own children. But touch |
Confederate money they would not; only !
the glitter of gold and silver could draw |
forth some of their hordes. from the caverns, |
and behold, many of those secret grauaries |
have now been opened and their contents |
carried of, without money and without
price. Yankees have good noses, they are
also accomplished geologists, and know
what deposits may be expected to crop ont |
in calcareous formations indeed, the very |
negroes who had helped to stow away the |
produce went to the raiders and told them !
where to find it.
And so the prudent farmer finds that he
has been too cunning for himself; after all,
he has cheated himself lamentably; finds
that he might as well have taken the Gov
ernmont price, and helped to feed his
friends as feed his enemies for no price at
all; wishes that his last years crop had
been put, not into cave, but into four
per cent. bonds; finds that after all, it is
worth while to make some sacrifices to
keep those Yankees out of the country.
and when the raid has passed away, il /
leaves our farmer sadder and wiser man,