Search the Newspapers Browse Newspapers by Date Articles Indexed by Topic About the Newspapers Valley of the Shadow Home

Staunton Spectator: January 28, 1862 Go To Page : 1 | 2 |

Defeat near Somerset, Kentucky
(Column 1)

Summary: Reports a Confederate defeat at Fishing Creek, near Somerset, Kentucky. The article criticizes Maj. Gen. Crittenden for being rash and imprudent and blames him for the defeat.

Sequestered
(Column 1)

Summary: Item reports that shoe store owner Blake returned to Massachusetts the previous April leaving his stock of shoes with B.F. Points. A judge ruled recently that the money is to be sequestered to the Confederate States.
(Names in announcement: L.R. Blake, B.F. Points, Gabriel Hirah, Judge Brockenbrough)

The Past and the Future
(Column 2)

Summary: Details the agony of war but holds out hope for a peaceful and independent future for the Confederacy.

Origin of Article: Augusta (GA) Constitutionalist

Expense of Lincoln's Government
(Column 2)

Summary: Asserts that the North is accumulating so massive a public debt that it will eventually bankrupt the Union war effort.

[No Title]
(Column 2)

Summary: Reports that two deserters from Ohio fled to Confederate lines. The men declared they had only volunteered to fight in Ohio and were made to invade Virginia against their will.

The Crisis of the War
(Column 3)

Summary: Asserts that the Yankees have lost all prestige in the international community and that debt will destroy the Northern war effort.

Origin of Article: Augusta (GA) Constitutionalist

Full Text of Article:

The Augusta (Ga.) Constitutionalist says that the Yankee scheme of Southern conquest is rapidly hastening to a denouement and to the Yankees it is a disastrous one, indeed. They have already lost more than France lost by the calamitous battle of Pavia; for they have lost their honor. What little prestige was left them after the Bull Run catastrophe they ignominiously lost in the Mason and Slidell back down. Now, the Yankee Government stands, with all its laurels won in honorable battle, in the better days of the old Republic, tarnished and drooping--its swaggering gait tamed down to the mincing step of the convicted poltroon--its position irrevocably assigned, as morally on a par with the vain-glorious little Republic of Spanish America.--Politically it will be in time scarcely more powerful or influential; for the process of disintegration, once begun, will not stop until what remains of the Northern Confederation will end in half a dozen discordant organizations.

Now, the monster evil of a financial panic is upon the Yankee Government and its people.--This is a more appalling enemy than Southern bayonets, for the Yankees have shown their ability to get out of reach of the latter. But there is no running away from debt and taxation. There is no escape from a prostrate credit and a bankrupt Treasury. The army and navy must be supported, or disbanded. The soldiers, sailors, and marines, officers and men, with their myriads of adjuncts and satellites, contractors and camp followers, have got to be fed and paid; and if they are not furnished with Southern plunder, or pickings and stealings from the public crib, they will turn upon private property of the North.

It is an ugly fix. The time is approaching when the Lincolnite dynasty will be at a loss to know which most to fear--the armies of the South, or the armies of the North. It will be easier to run from the one than to get rid of the other.

But now is the very time for increased vigilance on the part of the South. Now is the time for us to brace every nerve, and marshal every appliance for the conflicts yet to come.

It would be folly to relax a muscle--to snatch a moment for repose. The Yankees are in a death struggle for national honor, national safety, national existence. They are infuriated, desperate, malignant. Like the savage bear, or the broad antlered moose of their frozen regions, when mortally wounded and at bay, they are most fierce and dangerous. At least, the Yankee Government, in its extremity, may be looked to, to put forth its most desperate efforts in this dying struggle. It must achieve some success, to propitiate Wall street. It must make an advance, to appease popular clamor. It must display some capacity to retrieve its great losses, to keep British fleets from off its coast. Even conceding, as in its heart it must, that defeat and humiliation are to be its portion, the opening of Southern ports to the commerce of the world, and its recognition of the Southern Republic, events not to be staved off many months longer, there is a necessity upon it to put forth now more Herculean efforts. It must achieve something on which to retire from the contest with honor. It must have something to show for the blood it has spilt and the money it has squandered. Therefore, we look for more bloody work, and more "grand" movements upon the Southern rebels, ere the contest flags and closes. We would speak a word of caution against a false security--against looking abroad for British fleets and armies to avert the coming blows.--What the Yankees intend to do, they will try to do quickly. Therefore, be on the alert, be vigilant--be ever ready; brave soldiers of the South, 'Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more.'

Confederate Senators
(Column 3)

Summary: Reports the election of R.M.T. Hunter and William Ballard Preston to the Confederate Congress.

North and South
(Column 4)

Summary: Asserts that, if the secession of the South is unconstitutional, then the coercion applied by the North is more so because such force is expressly forbidden in the Constitution.

Commendable Action of Gen. Bragg
(Column 4)

Summary: Praises Gen. Bragg for banning the sale or introduction of liquor into camps under his command. The article claims that this action "will do more than all else in promoting the discipline and efficiency of his army."

The Prologue and the Performance
(Column 5)

Summary: The Banner quotes from various Northern newspaper to illustrate Northern public opinion at the beginning of the war. The Banner sharply criticizes the papers for their overconfidence.

Origin of Article: Nashville Banner

Disobedience of Orders--One Soldier Killed--Another Mortally Wounded
(Column 6)

Summary: Tells of an incident at the Norfolk depot in which one Confederate soldier was shot for disobeying a superior's command to remain on the train.

Origin of Article: Petersburg Express

Donations
(Column 6)

Summary: List of donations received for northwestern Virginia refugee soldiers.
(Names in announcement: Miss Mary E. Bear, Miss Nancy Brown, Mrs. J.H. Plecker, Miss A.B. Siltington, Miss M.J. Siltington, Miss Jennie Thompson, Miss M.V. Thompson, Mrs. Jacob Baylor, Mrs. N.K. Trout, N.K. Trout, J.S. Shriver)

For the Spectator
(Column 6)

Summary: Writer lauds the leadership of General Garnett who commands the 1st Brigade, also known as the Stonewall Brigade. This regiment has many Augusta members.

Acknowledgements
(Column 6)

Summary: Lists items donated to the soldiers at Camp Allegheny.
(Names in announcement: Mrs. Virginia Black, James W. Calhoun)

Volunteering
(Column 6)

Summary: Article asserts that volunteering for the Southern forces is progressing at a fast rate in both Mobile, Alabama and North Carolina.

Married
(Column 7)

Summary: Married on January 23 in Staunton.
(Names in announcement: Rev. Taylor, David Houltz, Margaret Freeman)

Died
(Column 7)

Summary: Died on January 13 at age 78.
(Names in announcement: Henry Messersmith)

Died
(Column 7)

Summary: Died on January 25 near Pudding Spring at age 65.
(Names in announcement: William Wright)

Died
(Column 7)

Summary: Died on January 25 near Pudding Spring at age 60.
(Names in announcement: Mrs. Robert Carson)

Died
(Column 7)

Summary: Died on January 10 after a brief illness at age 17. Hickle was a member of Capt. Yancey's Cavalry.
(Names in announcement: Jacob Hickle)

Died
(Column 7)

Summary: Died on January 4 at his residence in Lafayette, Montgomery County, Virginia. Mr. Farnow was formerly of Augusta County. He died of typhoid fever at age 40.
(Names in announcement: Cyrus Farnow)

Died
(Column 7)

Summary: Died on January 23 at age 29 after a brief and severe illness. Clarke died at Camp Allegheny and was a member of the 52nd Va. Regiment.
(Names in announcement: William F. Clarke)

Died
(Column 7)

Summary: Died on January 5 at his residence on the headwaters of the Calf Pasture river.
(Names in announcement: Samuel Shane)

Broke Jail
(Column 7)

Summary: Item reports that three men broke out of the Augusta County jail. William Hicks was a deserter from the 52d Va. Regiment, Capt. Watkins' Company.
(Names in announcement: William Cunningham, William Hicks, John Robinson)

Hessian Vandalism in the Valley
(Column 1)

Summary: Details the burning and looting of Romney, Virginia by Union troops.