Year: 1863

L.


SMITHLAND, KY, Dec 81.


EDS. JOURNAL:-The following is a
copy of a letter sent in care of the Pro-
vost Guard at this post, to a guerrilla
lately captured near here. Thinking
that it contains some good advice appli-
cable to many others, as well as to the
one addressed. send it to you. Ifyou
deem it worthy of publishing do so; if
not. cast it aside. B..
To-, a rebel prisoner at Smithland,


Kentucky:


l understand by letter addressed
to, few days ago, that you are
prisoner of war. Although your rela-
tions here have great cause to lament
over your recreancy and entire want of
principle, yet they have abundant reason
TO rejoice that you are now in such safe
keeping and in such good company.


Now that you have ample time for re-
Election, let me suggest few thoughts
for your consideration. In the first place,
your relatives on your mothers side are
all of them lovers of their country, her
constitution and laws, while you are a rile
traitor Your grandfather was an Amer
lean soldier in the revolution from its
beginning to the end, while the proieni-
tors of most of the leading rebels of the
South were Tories of the basest sort; and
this bad blood has been transmitted to
their offspring and the result is the pres
ent rebellion. In the time of our revo-
la.
the cradle of Toryism, and she has been
maturing and bringing up Tory imps
ever since. They attempted to raise
rebellion in the days of President Jack
son, but the old hero of New Orleans
nipped it in the bud, and if he had hung
Calhoun and few more in South Caro-
lima at that time, perhaps the present
outbreak might have been prevented.
When you were a poor little crippled
boy you came to Illinois, and after en-
jOying the hospitalities of your friends
here until you had so far recovered as
that you might have been of some help
to your poor widowed mother, you re-
turned to Kentucky and there, under the
influence and by the assistance Of your
unprincipled and drunken half broth
IL
order of guerrilla thieves and robbers
under Forrest, the rebel chief, and at
Fort Donelson you were among those
who killed your own brother, and posi-
bly,, if your craven heart did not fail you
1 say perhaps your fratricidal finger
pulled the trigger that sent the ball
through the heart Of your loyal patriotic
brother, thus leaving his wife a widow
and his children orphans. Think of this
in your solitude. And in addition to this
your poor old mother. widow and hav-
ing buried nearly all her children, now
cast upon the cold charity of the world
pennyless, and her only son a traitor to
is country, murderer, a thief and rob-
Der, shut up in gloomy prison not fit
to associate with even free 'niggers p"
You say in your letter that you often
think of the advice your mother gave
you before you left her am glad of it,
and hope it viii haunt you every moment
of your life, that it will ring in your
guilty ears louder than the roar of the
artillery in the battle where your brother
fell.


Think of that poor old woman as
she goes about from house to house,
amoneA her friends. How she breads
that some one may ask her, "Where is
William? What must her answer
be? William was found among the enc
mics of his country i'll league with band
of thieves, and is now a prisoner. She
says that the death of your sisters and
your brothers is pleasure to her. com
pared with the deep-stained disgrace that
her only living son has brought upon her.
From present appearances she will be
able to endure the disgrace and shame
but little longer, but will soon sink into
the peaceful grave, "where the weary
are at rest" If our Government should
spare your life long enough to hear
| OF your mothers death-when the news
reaches you-how can You avoid know
ing that you have murdered her also
| want you to think of these things,
not that have any hope of your reforma-
ton, but that it may wear on you, con-
tinually narrowing your waking aud
sleeping hours


| would tell you about your friends in
this region, but you are SO unfortunate
as not to have any, not one. l herewith
transmit to the Provost Marshal Informal
ton respecting the part which ---
has taken in the war; also where he may
be found. l think it would be well to
have him associated with you in your
confinement You could take sweet coun-
sci together, though it might interfere
with his business in connection with
---- & Co, in trying to cheat your
mother out of her property in Kentucky


When you are hung, l hope you will
leave it strictly enjoined upon some one
to let me know 1t Immediately, so that
can have the privilege of rejoicing over
the annhilation of another rebel


Without anything resembling the mos
remote respect Of any kind, except dis