Mutterings From The South

The Signs of discontent and display at the South are on the increase.  The Jeff Davis government is getting unpopular, and the people are getting disheartened at their successive defeats.  The discussions in the rebel Congress indicate a crisis near at hand, and if the tide of battle does not soon turn in favor of the South, the country may witness the unusual spectacle of a rebellion within a rebellion.  Mr. Foote, of Tennessee, said in a debate, last week, Tuesday, that if the Cabinet, after a fair discussion on a vital question, should be voted down, they should resign after the manner of the British Ministry, and give place to others.  And if President Davis persisted in retaining his cabinet after such an expression of popular sentiment, he would deserve to be brought to impeachment, and if needs be “to the block.”  This alternative of “block” at the hands of the South, or a halter if captured by Federal forces, must furnish food for contemplation to the rebel President, not of the very pleasantest character.  The Richmond Examiner pitches into the rebels after this style, for having suffered so many defeats:

“It is high time that these surrenders should cease – for considering the character of the war, in its consequences to us, they have been truly amazing, commencing with that of the cavalry at Alexandria down through that of Col. Pegram at Rich Mountain, and that of Com. Barron at Hatteras, &c., to the present lamentable instances.

At Fort Henry a Brigadier General, unwounded, having a garrison almost intact, lowers his flag over a dozen guns of the largest caliber, and with a hackneyed compliment yields up his bloodless sword.  How withering and humiliating to our Southern manhood was the sorrowful reply of the Yankee Commodore.  That the General should have neglected to make preparation for preventing the enemy from ascending the river and burning the railroad bridge may be passed over, because no commission can make a man a commander unless it be given to him by nature.  But if the statement as to his surrendering be true, is he to be retained upon the rolls of the Southern army as an officer?

The Roanoke affair is perfectly incomprehensible.  The newspapers are filled with extravagant laudations of our valor; the annals of Greece and Rome offer no parallel; whole regiments were defeated by companies, and we yielded only to death.  Our men finally surrendered “with no blood on their bayonets,” and what is the loss?  Richmond Blues, two killed and five wounded; McCullough Rangers, one killed and two wounded; and the other two companies lost in all two killed and eleven wounded.  Comment is needless.  The whole army had better surrender at once; for it will eventually have to do it.”

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, March 15, 1862, p. 1