Adjournment to Richmond.

MILITARY

DRESS.

DISAPPOINT

FRIENDS.
NORTHERN SOLDIERS.

DEFAMATION OF

SOUTH.

INTO VIRGINIA FROM THE CONFEDERATE STATES.

Military Organizations

MOVEMENTS in the Southern States during the latter part of April and in May, indicated great activity in military circles. Much excitement prevailed among the people. The call of Davis for thirty-two thou- | sand five hundred troops, soon following the requisition for nineteen thousand five hundred men, absorbed most of the organized militia and independent companies. "Home Guards" organizations then became popular, into which great numbers of the well-to-do citizens of the South found their way. The enthusiasm of the people seemed to grow with the gathering danger of the hour; and if, in any of the seven "original" Seceded States, any persons entertaining Union sentiments still remained, they were thoroughly awed into silence by the implacable spirit which swept over that whole country like a simoon. The several States prépared to meet the requisitions of the Confederate authorities by creating reserves and a thorough organization of their separate military establishments. The large numbers of officers who had "re

tired" from the United States army afforded good men in plenty for the work at hand. Many, too, had seen service in Mexico, and on the Texan border. Commissions to competent men did not go begging. The Confederate service already embraced Beauregard, Bragg, McCullough, Ripley, Hardee, Huger, Magruder, Whiting, and others of equal capacity; and the rapidity with which they put their forces in the field, in an ef fective shape, reflected creditably upon their capacity. The direction of the revolution eventually was committed to the hands of the men whom the United States had nurtured; and the extraordinary obstinacy with which the Southern troops met the fortunes of reverse may be credited as much to their good discipline as to their asserted propensity for fighting.

Defiance and Defamation of the North.

thousand men can never conquer us.

We have now Maryland and Virginia, and all the Border States with us. We have ten millious of people with us, heart and hand, to defend us to the death. We can call out a million of people, if need be; and when they are cut down, we can call out another, and

still another, until the last man of the South finds a

bloody grave, rather than submit to their foul dictation. But a triumphant victory and independence, with an unparalleled career of glory, prosperity, and progress, awaits us in the future. God is on our side, and who shall be against us? None but his omnipotent hand can defeat us in this struggle."

He also added, to strengthen his point of exciting disgust of the "Vandals" in the minds of the Southern people, the following interesting incidents connected with the occupation of Washington by "Lincoln's hirelings":

"Lincoln has occupied Georgetown Heights. He has from fifteen to twenty thousand soldiers stationed in and about Washington. Troops are quartered in the Capitol, who are defacing its walls and ornaments with grease and filth, like a set of Vandal hordes. The new Senate Chamber has been converted into a kitchen and quarters-cooking and

sleeping apparatus having actually been erected

and placed in that elegant apartment. The Patent Office is converted into soldiers' barracks, and is ruined with their filth. The Post-office Department is made a storehouse for barrels of flour and bacon. All the Departments are appropriated to base uses, and despoiled of their beauty by those treacherous, destructive enemies of our country. Their filthy spoliations of the public buildings and works of art at the Capital, and their preparations to destroy them, are strong evidence to my mind that they do not intend to hold or defend the place, but to abandon it after having despoiled and laid it in ruins. Let them destroy it-savage-like-if they will. We will rebuild it. We will make the structures more

the cities-the degraded, beastly offsecuring of all quarters of the world, who will serve for pay, and run away as soon as they can when danger threatens." Hundreds of similar notices were set afloat, until the great majority of Southern people were led to believe in their truth. The effect of such shocking falsehoods, upon the minds of the men of the North, who had answered their country's call, was only to aggravate a rapidlygrowing detestation of their enemy.

Atrocious Aspersions

of the President.

The aspersions of course reached the President. The opinion was assiduously disseminated that Mr. Lincoln was a drunkard and a lascivious man, degrading, in his daily conduct, his high office. Thus the Richmond Whig, (April 20th,) had "reliable infor mation" that "Old Abe had been beastly intoxicated for the previous thirty-six consecu tive hours, and that eighty border ruffians from Kansas, under command of Lane, occupied the East Room, to guard his Majesty's slumbers." This, coming from a paper which had held out for the Union to a late day, only marked the depth of degradation to which the press of the South was reduced in order to satisfy the demands of the secession spirit. The New Orleans Delta (April 29th) repeated the wretched fabrication in this strain: "A gentleman arrived here this morning, who, with several others, was arrested, while passing through Washington, for being Southerners, and were taken into the presence of the august Baboon. He declares that Lin coln was so drunk that he could hardly maintain his seat in the chair. It was notorious in Washington that he had been in a state of intoxication for more than thirty-six

structures will rise from its ashes. Planted anew, under the auspices of our superior institutions, it will live and flourish throughout all ages."

It would be interesting to show to what an extent Secession orators and presses proceeded in defamation of the character, courage, and strength of the Free State people. The Raleigh Banner, in urging the attack on Washington, said: "The army of the South will be composed of the best material that ever yet made up an army; while that of Lincoln will be gathered from the sewers of

and few people, in that city, are in a better condition." That these scandalous inventions passed uncontradicted by those who well knew their infamous falsity, is only one of a thousand evidences of the designed deception practiced by the leaders to work the heart of the Southern masses up to a point of frenzy against the Northern people and Presi dent.

139

Movement of Troops North.

The First South Carolina regiment of volunteers, Colonel Maxcy Gregg, started "for the seat of war on the Potomac," April 23d. The Charleston Courier said: "The call made upon South Carolina has been promptly responded to. Governor Pickens has been perfectly overwhelmed with offers of brigades, battalions, regiments, and companies, all desirous of being accepted as volunteers for Virginia. The reverence felt for her soil by South Carolinians, is only equalled by the spirit and enthusiasm of the people to be the first to defend her, and, if necessary, with the best blood of the State." This sounded large; but, considering that the State, according to the census of 1860, contained only fifty-seven thousand white male adults, it was certain that the "overwhelming" offers would not greatly exceed the entire male population. Yet, this same journal--to illustrate the irresponsible character of Southern journalism -in a previous article assumed that the State had (in April) ten thousand men under arms at Charleston, and twelve thousand in other portions of the State, and had, besides, fiftyeight thousand enrolled and organized troops -in all eighty thousand effective men, or twenty-three thousand more than the entire male adult population of the State! Such assumptions were made in the interests of “the cause,” and were among the instrumentalities used to inspire the people with confidence in regard to their own resources and abilities to overcome opposition.

The New Orleans papers of April 30th gave glowing accounts of the grand military display of the day previous. Between three and four thousand troops, of all arms of the service, participated. The people of the city

The Women of the South.

And here we may say that the female portion of Southern communities was quite as devoted to the war as the most ardent Secessionist could desire. It, ere long, became their pride and boast to say—“my husband,” or “my son" or "my brother is in the Confederate army." The making of lint and bandages, the manufacture of clothing, the gathering of funds for the support of the families of volunteers, became their chief occupation. If men faltered in their hope or faith, they had only to hear the not always sweetly worded invective of their maids and matrons against the "ruthless invaders," the "hirelings of old Lincoln," the "barbarians of the New England mills," to re-inspire their wavering ardor in the cause of secession.

The Richmond Inquirer of April 27th gave the number of Confederate troops at that point as three thousand and twenty-two. By May 1st the number was increased to sixty-two hundred, and by the middle of the month the force was so large that the permanent line of defense facing the Potomac, was discussed. Norfolk and Harper's Ferry were made secure, Yorktown was occupied; batteries were located on the Potomac, and sufficient troops were posted in the vicinity of Arlington Heights to excite much uneasiness—a feeling only relieved by General Scott's first grand stroke (May 24th), the occupation of the Potomac from Alexandria up to Georgetown, the seizure of the Loudon and Hampshire railway terminus, with cars, locomotive, &c., and of the terminus of the Orange and Manassas Gap railroad.