The Norfolk post. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 1865-1866, 1866-02-01

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The following communication from
an officer of the United States army, in
reply to the attack of the Richmond Er-
.an,iner on the party given by the officers
at the Ballard House, is published by the
Examiner.
NORTH AND SOUTH.
To the Editor of the Examiner:
SIR: AS the Federal officers who are
on duty in this vicinity are unlimited
and unwilling guests, they are naturally
anxious to be ordered elsewhere. They
would leave here as willingly as you
would be happy to see them depart. But
your journal, by pursuing course cal
culated to embitter the people of Vir-
ginia against them and the Government
they represent, is certainly provoking a
hostility which will necessitate pro
longed military occupation Of this state.
I,wish, therefore, by your leave, to cor
rect certain misapprehensions you seem
to entertain as to their sentiments and
intentions.
You charge them with gloating over
the south in her fall yet you fail to state
when, where. or how they have shown
the haughtiness of cOnquer0rs. But a
military hop, given in Richmond last
week, seems to have filled you with
gloomy thoughts and bitter feelings.
Now. the truth about this awful affair
Is simply this: that a number Of mill
tary hops had lately been given IN the
camps in this district, and the military
gentlemen in the city returned the COM
| pliment by giving ball at the Ballard
None ofthe officers who gave this enter
tainment were in full uniform, and
several of them were In plain citizens
dress. Did this look like ostentation
The invited guests of course went, IN
honor of the occasion, in full feather
The huuqhty astral flag was, it is true
displayed in gracefold folds and festoons
Officers were there in blue and gold, re-
Winding you, no doubt unpleasantly, o.
| a new edition of Ticknor Il Fields. Yet
how all this could have been intended
to have hurt the feelings of the goof
people of Richmond am at loss TO see
as so uery fen of them were invited
And this brings me to another charg'
GERS are endeavoring to force their way
| into southern society. Now be just, Mr.
Editor, and acknowledge that no sucl
attempt has been made. When gentle
men wish 20 enter the best society of |
place in which they are strangers, thoy
always present credentials In the shape
of letters of introduction. ! think yol
| will find, upon enquiry among you
friends, that few, if any, such letters
have been presented.
We might as well understand eacl
other and 1 am confident that car
i \, fnr in oocArtit, n
| Federal officers do not wish to enter any
society in this country where we would
| be received as oOnquerors and not a.
gentlemen and fellow-citiGens.
Who claims TO have conquered Vir-
ginia? Not we of the army. We only
claim to have saved her from those who
constellation in which it was the morn
should the sdisplay of our banner OIL
beauty and glory fill the hearts of Viz
ginians with bitterness If it waved
there in 1883. If it was recently borne
through the Carolinas by Sherman, il
was once borne through the same states
by Green. Grant bore 1t through the
Old Dominion; as also did Washington.
And another Virgil alan, now almost for.
gotten in his native state, unfurled its
glories where Imperialism now has
sway, in the Halls of the Montezumas.
Nor have Virginians always looked
with disfayOur OH our national uniform.
Perhaps the two greatest leaders of the
Confederate armies will confess that the
saddest days in their lives were those in
which they laid aside their uniforms of
blue and gold forever, Why not "let
the dead past bury Its Dead" Mr.. Edi-
tor?
-" The past IL deaths
The future Is own"