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A disposition was manifested by a few on the streets Saturday, to construe the victory at Pittsburg into a defeat. We have those among us, and it is a sad reflection on human nature, who in their hearts would have rejoiced had our troops been repulsed in that engagement. All over the North there are sympathizers with treason, and had the rebels been successful in establishing at the South a slave oligarchy, thousands would have left the North to enroll themselves under a government more suited to their depraved ideas. We have seen such in our city, though we cannot believe the number very large, but that there are such every word and action betrays it. It is a pity that these men could not have been singled out and placed in the Van of our regiments, and been forced for once to do duty to the country and the flag they so openly insult.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Monday Morning, April 14, 1862, p. 1