Bright and pleasant.
All is quiet below. From Georgia we have many rumors. It is reported that a battle
has been fought (second time) at Altoona, which we captured, with 4000
prisoners; that Rome has been taken, with 3000 negro prisoners; and, finally,
that we have Atlanta again. I have seen no such dispatches. But the gentleman
who assured me it was all true, has a son a clerk at the President's office,
and a relative in the telegraph office. Dispatches may have come to the
President; and, if so, it may be our policy to forbid their publication for the
present, as the enemy would derive the first intelligence of their disaster
from our newspapers.
Well, Gen. Gardner
reports, officially, that of the number of exempts, and of the mixed class of
citizens arrested in the streets, and summarily marched to the “front,” “a
majority have deserted!” Men, with exemptions in their pockets, going to or
returning from market, have been seized by the Adjutant-General's orders, and
despotically hurried off without being permitted even to send a message to
their families. Thousands were entrapped, by being directed to call at Gen.
Barton's headquarters, an immense warehouse, and receive passes ; but no Gen.
Barton was there—or if there, not visible; and all the anxious seekers found themselves
in prison, only to be liberated as they were incorporated into companies, and
marched "to the front.” From the age of fifteen to fifty-five, all were
seized by that order—no matter what papers they bore, or what the condition of
their families—and hurried to the field, where there was no battle. No wonder
there are many deserters—no wonder men become indifferent as to which side
shall prevail, nor that the administration is falling into disrepute at the
capital.
No comments:
Post a Comment