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-Richmond Sentinel.

RICHMOND, March 7.

battle. Several hundred of this last marauding to ravage and pillage us at pleasure, sure that gang are now in the confederate prisons at Rich- they will not be visited with the like in their mond. They are not chained up in a peniten- turn. tiary for felons, not handed over to be dealt with by the outraged laws of Virginia. Why not? Perhaps this State government at Rich- Perhaps the people-perhaps even the govmond is not the true government of Virginia; ernment of the confederate States-are now at perhaps the true government is the one at length awakened to the true nature of the strugWheeling, or at Alexandria, or at Norfolk, and gle in progress. We have been in the habit of these raiders and robbers have committed no regarding it as a war between nations; our eneoffence against that government or against the mies have all along looked upon it as a military people of the real State of Virginia-that is, the execution upon a mutinous crew. The means loyal" State. This is the theory at Washing- by which their soldiers are desired "to write ton; those in "rebellion" have no rights; and their names in ineffaceable letters on the hearts to do by those caitiffs as was done by Morgan, in of their countrymen," are by rushing at night Ohio, would not there be regarded as the legiti- upon a populous city, burning it down with turmate retaliation of belligerents, but as a new out-pentine and oakum in "soaked balls," turning rage by rebels; and, doubtless, if the wretches loose some thousands of ruffian prisoners, brutwere hanged, an equal number of confederate of-alized to the deepest degree by acquaintance ficers of the highest rank they have got would with every horror of war, who have been conswing; and our government knows it, and in its fined on an island for a year, far from all means humanity and Christian charity submits. of indulging their strong sensual appetites-inAgain, two Yankee officers are solemnly desig-viting this pandemonium to work their will on nated by lot to be executed in retaliation for two of ours most foully murdered. But, in the eyes of our enemies, we have no rights of retaliation, nor any other rights, so they coolly inform us that if we do as we have threatened, they will not regard it as retaliation, but as a new crime, to be severely punished. They choose out two officers of rank-one a Brigadier-General-and inform us that their lives shall answer for the two whom we propose to execute. Well, this government, after months of hesitation, gives way, yields all, confesses that it has no rights, and lets the condemned men go. In other words, it accepts for us, and in our name, the position of rebels and malefactors.

But "we are to consider," it seems, "not what wicked enemies may deserve, but what it becomes us, Christians and gentlemen, to inflict." O hypocrisy, and thou forty-parsonpower which alone can sound its praise through thy forty noses! What cant is this? We wonder whether Mr. Davis is aware of what many honest people begin to mutter and murmur.

They say, can this man be saving up for himself, in case of the worst, a sort of plea in mitigation of punishment? If the cause for which a hundred and fifty thousand of us have died, be borne down at last, is this Christian meekness of his intended to save his own life? They say, what comfort are these fine sentiments to the houseless families who have been driven from their homes in Tennessee or Virginia, when they find that our armies, even on the enemy's soil, are withheld from giving the invaders a taste of real war in their own quenched hearths and blazing barns? For what have we set over us a government at all, if it be not to protect us against our enemies; to avenge us of our enemies when need is; to uphold our cause in all its fulness and grandeur, and to keep our banner flying high? But this is lowering the cause and dragging the banner through the dust this is encouraging, inviting our invaders

the unarmed citizens, on the women, gentle and simple, of Richmond, and on all their property in a word, to sack, with the usual accompaniments attending that operation-to kill Jefferson Davis and his mutinous crew, and slip away as they came; to burn not only houses and bridges, but every thing else which might be of use to the rebels, barns, boats, stores, provisions, and to slaughter all horses and cattle which they could not carry away with them.

The results, indeed, of this tremendous intention of ravage and butchery, were contemptible. The "picked command, selected from brigades and regiments" for the thieving and murdering expedition, was not quite up to the mark. "The braves who were to have swept though Richmond" were very easily swept away from before Richmond; and their balls of oakum and turpentine, instead of hissing and flaming in our dwellings and amidst terrified women and children, as was expected, had to be thrown into the Pamunkey for the present. Nevertheless, the minute programme of that piece of business cannot fail to be instructive. After our government has existed for three years, and has all that time maintained large armies to meet and baffle their far greater armies in fair fight in the field, they think it still an allowable, nay, a virtuous and glorious proceeding, to steal upon our ChiefMagistrate and his Cabinet in their beds, and, after burning their houses, to hang them up on the next tree, just as the French in Algiers would do to a Kabyle chief and his encampment in the desert, or the English in India to some Nena Sahib or Ghoorka marauder.

Now it is as well to look our position straight in the face-we are barbarians in the eyes of our enemies. Our way of life is, according to the dictum of one of these philosophers, "the sum of all barbarism." Against us every thing is fair. We also, though we have newspapers and orators, and a certain command of the English language, are yet so hemmed in for the present by

blockading fleets and armies, that our protest, if we attempt any, dies away in silence too. It is the simple fact, let us take it as we will, that those enemies against whom we fondly believe we are waging an honorable war, as nation against nation, are carrying on against us the very same sort of warfare that English armies think good enough for the revolted Sepoys and mutinous hill-tribes.

sacre all on one side. We can choose between the two; other choice there is none.

-Richmond Examiner.

RICHMOND, March 7.

Presuming the documents found on the body of Dahlgren to be authentic, the whole question of the recent attempt to invade Richmond, burn and sack it, (with all the other horrible concomitants of such a scene,) can be stated and disposed of in a few words. It requires no fine disquisition to see our way clear as to what should be done with those of the banditti who have fallen into our hands. But it does require nerve to execute the palpable convictions of our judgment -a judgment which will be promptly sustained by the civilized world, including China, the most truculent of nations; nations not uncivilized.

If they can surprise, by any sort of artifice, our kraal of Richmond, and deliver it over to the mercy of their troops, and hold in it one good carnival of lust and rapine, they will write their names in imperishable letters on the hearts of their countrymen. This situation of affairs was always well known to us; but it was doubted or denied by many confederates of feeble brain. Do they believe it now, understand it now, that we have it under the hand of Federal officers charged with the task of breaking up this "hateful" den of Richmond, burning and robbing our houses, stripping and violating the virtuous and often refined Christian women of this place, shooting, stabbing, hanging the highest civil officers of the law, and massacring indiscrimin-lent with more hellish purposes than were ever ately the population ?

This is a wholesome kind of reflection for our own countrymen. We believe it will sting them. We think it highly probable that they will peremptorily demand of their government some practical, unmistakable assertion of our full determination to be treated as honorable enemies and civilized people. And what-some may ask -what then would you have our government do?-turn the war into a war of extermination? Certainly, certainly; it is already a war of extermination, of indiscriminate slaughter and plunder on the part of our enemies. Their sparing the lives of prisoners and occasional exchanges, form but a temporary suspension of the rule, necessitated by our holding prisoners also; but the true animus, the authentic Yankee theory of the war, is manifest in the actual proceedings of our enemy wherever he has the power, and especially, and most signally, in this code of instructions for sack and massacre in Richmond.

Our government owes it to its own army and to its own people, if it cannot at the moment retaliate such atrocities in kind, at least to bring to condign punishment the robbers who, in the guise of soldiers, and under pretence of war, have been caught lurking about Richmond with their oakum balls and turpentine, and their written programme for murdering the chief magistrate and setting fire to all the houses till the city is burnt in a hundred places at once, and then inviting eight thousand bloodthirsty, lustful ruffians to gut the blazing mansions, rape the mistresses, and knock the masters in the head, in the dreadful confusion.

Are these men warriors? Are they soldiers, taken in the performance of duties recognized as legitimate by the loosest construction in the code of civilized warfare? or are they assassins, barbarians, thugs who have forfeited (and expect to lose) their lives? Are they not barbarians redo

the Goth, the Hun or the Saracen? The consentaneous voice of all Christendom will shudderingly proclaim them monsters, whom no sentimental idea of humanity, no timorous views of expediency, no trembling terror of consequences, should have shielded from the quickest and the sternest death.

What more have we to dread from Yankee malice or brutality than we know now awaits us, if success attend them? What have we to hope from their clemency? Will justice meted out to these poor creatures stimulate either the brutality of the Yankees on the one hand, or increase their capacity and means for diabolism on the other? Both are now in fullest exercise. If these men go unpunished, according to the exceeding magnitude of their crimes, do we not invite Yankees to similar, and, if possible, still more shocking efforts? If we would know what we ought to do with them, let us ask what would ere now have been their fate, if, during a war, such a body of men, with such purposes and such acts, had made an attempt on and were taken in London or Paris? The English blow fierce and brutal Sepoys, who disregard and exceed the just limits of war, from the mouths of cannon; the French fusilade them. If we are less powerful, have we less pride and self-respect than either of these nations! These men have put the caput lupinum on themselves. They are not victims; they are volunteers for remorseless death. They have rushed upon fate, and struggled in voluntary audacity with the grim monster. Let them die, not by court-martial, not as prisoners, but as hostes humani generis by general order from the President, Commanderin-Chief.

But if we hang these wretches, then the enemy will select an equal number for the gallows? Not while we hold sixteen thousand hostages. But Will the Cabinet and President have the nerve if we shrink from that, there is another alterna- to do what lies palpably before them? This is tive, and the only one left us-hanging and mas the question in all mouths. What concerns the

people most now is not whether its public officers will come out of this war with brilliant European reputations-not whether, after leading the people out of Egypt, they shall have the reputation that Moses preserved, of being very meekbut they wish protection to themselves, their wives and children, and their honor.

-Richmond Whig.

A REVIEW OF THE EXPEDITION.
BY E. A. PAUL.

The rebels, through the newspapers, have had their say about the recent raid. As was anticipated, those located about the confederate capital very naturally were, and still are, fearfully excited at the audacity of Kilpatrick and his troopers-they had reason to be so. This is not only what was expected, but what was hoped would be the case by all who took any particular interest in the matter; and, by the degree of their exasperation over what the Richmond editors are pleased to call "the raid of barbarians," may we judge the amount of damage done them and their failing cause. The simple fact is, that in the so-called programme of operations found upon the body of the lamented Colonel Dahlgren, they have interpolated words of their own coining, to the effect that Jeff Davis and his cabinet were to be killed, thereby giving an importance to the proclamation (which, by the way, was never read to the troops) and the memoranda of operations which were found, not at all in accordance with the spirit actuating the instigators and leaders in the movement. The writer was privileged to see the documents which Colonel Dahlgren had the day he started on the expedition, and which have been spread before the public in a garbled shape through the Richmond press, to intensify, if possible, the infernal spirits of all rebeldom in their hatred to the Union cause and all its supporters; and although having no copy of these papers before him now, he is satisfied that there was no expression therein written which could reasonably be construed even so as to express a determination to murder any person or persons-even so great an outlaw as Jeff Davis. Stripped of this interpolation, the memoranda and proclamation do not exceed the bounds of legitimate warfare. The planners and participators in this raid are as high-minded and honorable men as even the conceited editor of the Examiner could wish, and the leaders of the expedition would go as far in preventing their men committing overt acts. And even if the worst was true, how illy it becomes the indorsers of Early in Pennsylvania, Morgan in Ohio, Quantrel in Kansas, and Beauregard in his plot to murder President Lincoln and LieutenantGeneral Scott, to take special exceptions to this raid! Either one of the confederate leaders named has been guilty of more doubtful acts than were ever contemplated by any body of Union raiders. Forgetting these things, they threaten to mete out condign punishment to the prisoners captured from Kilpatrick's command. The real animus, however, may be found-first, VOL. VIII.-Doc. 38

in the amount of property destroyed, some of which cannot be replaced-none of which can be well spared-and next the chagrin and mortification experienced by the bombastic South at the fact that an expedition on so important a mission should accomplish so much under the very noses and in defiance of the Richmond Junta; and, what is worse than all, by troops led on by Kilpatrick and Dahlgren-two men who, next to Butler, are most cordially hated and feared by all opposed to the Union cause, and for the rea-* son that they have so often humiliated the knights of the black flag. Kilpatrick, particularly, has been the special object of their vengeance for ruining the prospects of one of Virginia's best known chieftains-Stuart of cavalry fame. Whipped time and again by Kilpatrick, Stuart finds now among his people none so poor as to do him reverence. Plot upon plot, similar to that concocted and nearly executed at Buckland's Mills last fall, have been laid by Stuart, in the hope of destroying the hated and feared Kilpatrick, hoping thereby to gain that confidence of his associates in crime lost by battling with the man whom he seeks to ruin. In this, however, he will not be permitted to be successful.

From the rebel statements made, it would appear that Dahlgren lost his life by neglecting to exercise the usual precautions to guard against surprise, and was ambushed late at night. There was no moon on Wednesday or Thursday nights, (March second and third,) until toward morning; there was a cloudless sky both nights, and bright star-light, affording sufficient light to see objects. at a distance, except in woods. Dahlgren being: so near Gloucester, probably considered himself beyond all serious danger, and therefore it is possible was entrapped when least prepared for it, and almost entirely thrown off his guard. But I am inclined to think that Major Cook, his second in command, when at liberty to do so, will give an entirely different version of this lamentable affair. Dahlgren, though brave almost to rashness, always moved cautiously when there was the possibility of a lurking enemy being near.

He had passed beyond what he considered the most critical point. He could not have expected to find Kilpatrick beyond the Mattapony, for he must have heard his guns on Wednesday morning. The larger portion of his command rejoined the main column on that day at about two P.M.; he doubtless, in attempting to follow, ran upon the enemy, and was forced to cross the Pamunkey and Mattapony at a point further north. When, on Wednesday evening, he attempted to recross the Pamunkey at Pine-Tree Farm, he was within a very few miles of Kilpatrick, and must have seen the fires of his camp, for they were numerous and much extended by the burning of miles of basket-fence along the plantations within a few miles of the Pamunkey. supposed, however, they were fires in an enemy's camp, and therefore resolved to make his way to Gloucester. Would to God he had known whose hands kindled those extended lines of fire on that crisp March night!

He probably

The story of arrangements having been made flag of the free was the only emblem of their nato blow up the buildings containing Union pris- tionality. They remembered, too, when, in an evil oners, is simply ridiculous. No doubt the rebel hour, a combination of insane politicians forced heart is bad enough for any such atrocity; but their State into rebellion against their own Govthe prisoners were protected from this calamity ernment. Not one of the traitors had been by the fact that the humane design could not be wronged-not one of them had ever been decarried into effect without sacrificing a large prived of a right. On the contrary, they had number of rebel lives and property. Possessed always been protected in their special exclusive of more than Yankee cunning, the rebel authori-rights-especially in their right to hold slaves. ties, under the panic created by the shells thrown from Ransom's battery, doubtless did attempt to intimidate the prisoners by telling them that arrangements had been made to blow up the buildings they occupied, for the purpose of preventing any general attempt to overpower the guard-a result which would doubtless have been attained had the prisoners known how near their friends were. The rumors about blowing up prisoners has this foundation and no more.

In view of all the known facts, how puerile appear the indignities heaped upon Dahlgren's body! It was the old fable of kicking the dead lion. No man in all rebeldom would have presumed to offer him an indignity when alive; but when his mangled, mutilated, and bleeding body was lying dead before them, the self-styled aristocrats, the chivalrous gentlemen of the city of Richmond, could heap indignities upon that inanimate form with impunity. Was ever sneaking cowardice more palpable?

Kick the dead body of the gallant Dahlgren to your heart's content-obliterate every mark by which his resting-place may be known; heap all the indignities upon his name and fame that the incarnate fiend of secession may suggest-but it will be of no avail; his ghost won't down at your bidding; his spirit still lives in the hearts of thousands of his compatriots in arms, who have sworn to avenge the cowardly indignities attempted to be heaped upon his name and remains.

Doc. 135.

GOVERNOR MURPHY'S ADDRESS.

Yet, in their insane madness, they rejected that protection, and sought to overturn the Government that protected them in the possession of their slaves.

The results of the rebellion they now seeyou all see and feel; the slaves free; the masters fugitives or prisoners, or the recipients of the pardon of the Government against which they rebelled, and tried, but in vain, to destroy; all the families in the land in mourning; property pillaged and destroyed; poverty and desolation everywhere; happiness changed to misery; joy, to mourning and woe. They saw no way to escape the evils under which we were all suffering, but to return to the government of our ancestors, and remove the cause of our trouble. The Constitution was referred to the people on the fourteenth of March, and ratified by a very large vote, and is now the supreme law of the State. State and county officers have been elected. You have been deprived of the right by the presence of rebel forces in your counties.

The Convention provided, by an ordinance, that in such cases, an election may be holden on any other day thereafter, that the people may agree upon, for county officers. I therefore recommend to you, that as soon as you can hold an election with safety to yourselves, that you appoint a day in your respective counties, and that you elect representatives to the Legislature, and all your county officers, and take on your selves all the rights and duties of freemen, and give your aid and influence to the restoration of the State to her position in the Union, and to peace and former security. We have all erredwe have all gone astray. Father, forgive us, as we forgive those that have sinned against us. Let this spirit prevail, and happiness will soon be ours; peace and security will soon spread over the land, and we will again be honored citizens of the United States of America.

whose flag commands the admiration and respect of the world; and whose Government has never failed to avenge or right the wrongs done to its humblest citizen.

To the People of the Counties of Arkansas for which no Elections have been held: CITIZENS OF ARKANSAS: I address you because you have been so far deprived of the privilege of This is nobility enough; this is honor enough aiding in the restoration of civil government into be called a citizen of the United States, the State, by the occupation of your section of the State by the rebel army. In January last, a Convention of Delegates, elected by a portion of the people, met at Little Rock, remodelled the Constitution of the State, and appointed me for Governor. The new Constitution differs from the old in this: That it abolishes slavery in Arkansas forever. The members of the Convention were sober, earnest men, on whom events had made a deep impression. They were tired of war, and the desolation that war produces; they remembered the security and happiness that they enjoyed when law and order prevailed, and the

Spurn, then, the tyranny and oppression of the leaders of this wicked rebellion, and return to the home of your ancestors, and your own by inheritance, and atone for the past by securing to your posterity freedom, security, and happiness hereafter.

ISAAC MURPHY, Provisional Governor of Arkansas.

EXECUTIVE OFFICE, LITTLE ROCK,
ARKANSAS, March 23, 1864.

Doc. 136.

AFFAIR AT CHARLESTON, ILL.
CHARLESTON "PLAIN-DEALER" ACCOUNT.

CHARLESTON, ILL., March 28-9 P.M. THIS afternoon a dreadful affair took place in our town, the most shocking in its details that has ever occurred in our part of the State. Early in the morning, squads of copperheads came in town from various directions, and, as the sequel will show, armed and determined upon summary vengeance upon our soldiers. During the day, premonitions of the coming trouble were too evident. Some of the soldiers, about to return to their regiments, were somewhat excited by liquor, and consequently rather boisterous, but not belligerent-were more disposed for fun than fight. About four o'clock, a soldier, Oliver Sallee, stepped up to Nelson Wells, who has been regarded as the leader of the copperheads in this county, and placing his hand good-naturedly against him, playfully asked him if there were any butternuts in town? Wells replied, "Yes, I am one!" and drawing his revolver, shot at Sallee, but missed him. In an instant Sallee was shot from another direction, and fell; but raising himself up, he fired at Wells, the ball taking effect in his vitals. He (Wells) went as far as Chambers & McCrory's store, and, passing in, fell dead.

The copperheads were gathered behind Judge Edwards's office, loading their firearms, and then would step out and fire from the corner at the soldiers indiscriminately, with guns and revolvers. Of course, having come fully prepared, they had vastly the advantage over the soldiers, who were not expecting such an attack, and were, for the most part, unarmed. Those who were armed would hardly know at whom to fire until they were fired upon. The copperheads were seen to hurry to their wagons, hitched at the square, and gather therefrom several guns, which were concealed under the straw. They were freely used, and with terrible effect. Thomas Jeffries was the next to fall, receiving an ugly wound in the neck. William Gilman was shot by B. F. Dukes, the ball striking a rib on his left side and glancing off. Dukes was then seen to fire at Colonel Mitchell, and afterward declared that he had killed him. Colonel Mitchell received several shots through his clothes; one hit his watch and glanced off, producing only a slight flesh-wound upon his abdomen. The watch thus providentially saved his life. Dr. York, surgeon of the Fifty-fourth Illinois, while passing through the Court-House, was approached by some one from behind, who took deliberate aim and shot him dead-the pistol being held so close to him that the powder burned his coat! So far as we could learn, Dr. York was not actively engaged in the affray, save in his professional capacity as surgeon, and in trying to restore order. A soldier, Alfred Swim, of company G, Fifty-fourth Illinois, was shot, and taken to Drs. Allen & Van Meter's office, where he soon died. Mr. Swim lived somewhere near Casey, in Clark County, where he

leaves a wife and three children. He is spoken of by all as having been an excellent soldier and a good citizen. William G. Hart, Deputy ProvostMarshal, was shot in several places—in the head and vitals-his wounds are probably mortal. James Goodrich, company C, Fifty-fourth Illinois, received a shocking wound-being shot in the bowels. His wound, we fear, will prove mortal.

Unarmed as our boys were, Colonel Mitchell soon rallied all he could, citizens and soldiers, and improvising such arms as could be had, gathered at the south-west corner of the square, as the copperheads retreated down the street running east therefrom. Despatches were sent to Mattoon for soldiers, and three hundred were soon on the way. The copperheads halted somewhere near Mrs. Dickson's, and remained for some time, then turned and went off. Beyond J. H. O'Hair's residence they gathered together, consulted for a time, then moved off in a northerly direction, cutting the telegraph wire as they went-unfortunately before a despatch could be sent to Dr. York's family, at Paris, giving notice of his assassination.

About five o'clock the reënforcements from Mattoon arrived, and while in the Court-House yard, Mr. John Cooper, from Saulsbury, was captured and brought in as a prisoner, by Mr. W. H. Noe and a soldier. Mr. Cooper had taken an active part in the affray. When in front of Jenkins's store he attempted to escape, and when commanded to halt refused to do so, whereupon Mr. Noe fired over Cooper's head, who, in return, fired at some of our men, when orders were given to fire upon him, which was done, and he fell dead at Jenkins's door. Unfortunately, one of the balls passed through the closed door and struck Mr. John Jenkins in the groin, producing a serious, and probably mortal wound. Mr. Cooper was shot through the neck and shoulder. When the copperheads were halted near Mrs. Dickson's, he was heard to say, that as they now had no leader, he was ready to lead them back and kill the d-d soldiers and burn the town, or die in the attempt; and at various places he was heard to threaten to cut out the hearts of the "d-d Abolitionists," and use kindred expressions.

How many there were of the copperheads we do not know, nor can we estimate the number, save by the size of the squads that retreated in several directions. We think there may have been from one hundred to one hundred and fifty, and all mounted. Who their leaders were we do not know, precisely. J. H. O'Hair, Sheriff of this county, was seen to fire three times at the soldiers. John Frazier, while sitting on his horse, was seen to deliberately fire five times at them and then leave. Others of less prominence were equally warlike.

Immediately after the soldiers arrived, squads, mounted upon all the horses that could be found, were started out in every direction in pursuitColonel Brooks in charge of one, Lieutenant Horner another, etc. Up to this writing, nine P.M.,

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