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

Staunton Spectator: January 19, 1864 Go To Page : 1 | 2 |

Escape of Capt. T. Henry Hines, An Interesting Account
(Column 5)

Summary: Provides narration of the adventures of Captain T. Henry Hines of the 9th Kentucky Cavalry, who escaped from the Ohio penitentiary with Major General John H. Morgan, was captured, and then escaped again.

Gen. Morgan at the Capitol
(Column 6)

Summary: Describes Major General John H. Morgan's visit to the Virginia legislature. Notes that the Speaker of the House praised the Kentuckyian for his heroism on behalf of the Confederacy.

Remember the Soldiers
(Column 6)

Summary: Urges readers to send blankets, coats, and shoes to the soldiers for the winter.

Origin of Article: Augusta Chronicle

Whiskey
(Column 7)

Summary: Expresses surprise that the Confederacy produces nearly two million gallons of whiskey each year. Suggests that if the government really needs this much whiskey, then it should be produced in areas with abundant grain, not in Virginia and North Carolina.

Origin of Article: Examiner

The Ladies 'Fashions'
(Column 7)

Summary: Reports on the style of women's dress that is in vogue this winter in the North. Notes that large hats are entirely out of fashion, having been replaced by smaller, more closely fitting ones.

Origin of Article: Lynchburg Republican

The Yankee Debt
(Column 7)

Summary: Cites a report from the Yankee Secretary of Treasury that estimates U.S. debt at eleven hundred million dollars.

[No Title]
(Column 7)

Summary: Explains that, while the South has to defend against the enemy on its own soil, it will not make any attempts at peace.

Maxims for Husbands
(Column 7)

Summary: Urges husbands to relax and remain cheerful.

Leap Year
(Column 7)

Summary: Prints excerpt from a 1606 publication entitled, "Courtship, Love and Matrimony."

Yankee Congress
(Column 1)

Summary: Declares that a recent call by the Yankees for more volunteers will be matched by the South. Says that such action by the North is only intended to prolong the war.

Hon. Mr. Miles and His Champagne
(Column 1)

Summary: Reports that the house of the Confederate Congress Military Committee Chairman was burglarized and nine baskets of champagne were taken. Questions why the chairman found it necessary to purchase the champagne in the first place, when so many soldiers' families are in need.

A Correction
(Column 1)

Summary: Clarifies an earlier report and states that neither the Harrisonburg Provost Guard nor the Augusta Home Guard ran away from the enemies.

Full Text of Article:

The Rockingham Register says that we did injustice to the Provost Guard of Harrisonburg in stating several weeks since, that "some persons mistaking the Harrisonburg Provost Guard for the Augusta Home Guard erroneously stated that a portion of the Home Guard ingloriously fled on the near approach of the enemy." We are pleased to hear that the Harrisonburg provost Guard did not run, for then we are satisfied that no running was done except by the Yankees. Our statement was made under the following circumstances: Whilst in Rockingham we heard some of the citizens of that county charging that some of the Home Guard ingloriously fled on the near approach of the enemy. A portion of the Home guard and the Provost Guard of Harisonburg [sic] were the only parties present on the occasion spoken of by those citizens.

Upon inquiry, we learned, that the Home Guard did not run as reported, and as the Provost Guard of Harrisonburg was the only other body of troops present, we supposed that those persons claiming to be eye-witnesses of the scene who made the charge mistook the Home Guard for the Provost Guard. This is the "head and front of our offending." It would now seem that these persons were altogether mistaken, and that in fact there was no running done save by the Yankees. May this always be the case, and may the citizens of Rockingham always be willing to stand by the noble sons of "Old Augusta."

Soldiers and the P.O. Department
(Column 1)

Summary: Asks the Confederate Congress to pay the postage on newspapers sent to soldiers.

Substitute Exempts
(Column 2)

Summary: Calls attention to a recent order requiring all men who employed substitutes to enroll in the service themselves.

Full Text of Article:

Those who have furnished substitutes will be interested in General Order No. 3, published in our advertising columns. It will be seen, from this Order, that those who have furnished substitutes are required to report as volunteers or conscripts, without delay, to the enrolling officers; and all who delay beyond the 1st day of February, 1864, will be considered as having renounced the privilege of volunteering, and held for assignment according to law.

Previous to enrollment as conscripts, all such persons will be allowed to volunteer in companies in service on the 16th of April, 1862, provided the company chosen does not at the time of volunteering reach the maximum number allowed; and upon such company being selected, the volunteer will receive from the enrolling officers a certificate to the effect that he has so volunteered; and to volunteer will be received into any company except on such certificate. Persons who fail to make their selection at the time of enrollment will be assigned according to existing regulations.

Persons who report to the enrolling officers will be enrolled, and may be allowed a furlough of ten days before reporting to the Camp of Instruction.

Capt. Blackford Killed
(Column 2)

Summary: Reports on the death of Capt. Jno. C. Blackford, who was killed in Newtown, Virginia, by three Yankees dressed in Confederate uniforms.

Mosby's Attack
(Column 2)

Summary: Tells about the attack by Major Mosby and his men on a Yankee camp near Harper's Ferry. Six prisoners and forty horses were captured by the Confederates.

American Hotel in Staunton
(Column 2)

Summary: Notes that the American Hotel, under the ownership of Col. J. Q. A. Nadenbousch and Dr. William M. McChesney, is now open for guests. Mr. Jos. N. Woodward is the chief manager.
(Names in announcement: Col. J. Q. A. Nadenbousch, Dr. William M. McChesney, Mr. Jos. N. Woodward)

Duty of Those at Home
(Column 2)

Summary: Urges readers to assist the families of soldiers in obtaining food.

The Danger
(Column 2)

Summary: Warns the Confederate Congress that some men must stay home to keep producing food.

Wholesale Conscription
(Column 3)

Summary: Explains opposition to any Confederate law that would conscript most all men.

Full Text of Article:

The Marietta (Geo.) Rebel says that from the tenor of our articles heretofore, our readers will understand that we are necessarily opposed to the enactment of the law reported by the military committee of the Senate, providing for the levy en masse of our male population. The law provides than [sic] every able-bodied man shall be put in the army, and that there shall be no exemptions, except such as the Secretary of War and the President see proper to make. The passage of this law would constitute the most extraordinary transfer of power, from the legislature to the Executive, ever known under a Republican system of government. It would create a condition of things without a parallel in any species of government, except that of an unmixed despotism. It will place every man in the Confederacy under absolute military authority, and substitute military rule for civil law at once.

We cannot for a single moment tolerate the idea of the necessity for any such law. Its effect will certainly be pernicious at home, and unwholesome abroad. It will produce great dissatisfaction among our own people, and fix upon outside nations the conclusion that we are reduced to desperate extremities. Confidence in our ability to work out our independence, will be seriously impaired, if not totally destroyed, when it is seen that we are driven to the adoption of such an unprecedented measure as the absorption of the entire male population into the army. The world will ask, as our own people will also ask, how is the army and the nation to be sustained, how fed and clothed, if the men are all to be withdrawn from the pursuits of agriculture, and the mechanic arts?

If we were reduced to such a strait that it was absolutely necessary to make one last desperate stand against the foe, to inflict all the damage we could upon him, and then fall and leave the nation to expire, there would be philosophy and heroism in the resolution, for it is better to "die all freemen, than to live all slaves," but we are not yet driven to any such desperate resort. Our armies still face the foe, and hold him in check. Our gallant boys are full of spirit, and if properly cared for, well fed and clothed, are able to hold the portals of the Republic against all comers. Our present troubles have grown out of bad management with the men in the field, and not for any want of men. Our soldiers have been badly fed, and worse clothed. There has been too much straggling of both officers and men permitted. There are too many soldiers scattered through the country guarding the doors of Provost Marshals' offices, and too much incompetency in the commanders. Make our present army efficient, and there will be nothing to fear.

But, if the whole population is dragged into the army, where are the supplies for the army, and bread and meat for women and children to come from? We have found it difficult to provision and clothe the army and the people heretofore, and how much more difficult, indeed, how impossible will it be, when the laborers are all withdrawn from their avocations--when the producers are all turned into consumers?

We have endeavored to consider the proposed law, without prejudice or excitement, but have failed to find in it one redeeming feature. It is either the profoundest folly or a most dangerous and wanton assault upon the public liberty, and we cannot believe, that after due deliberation, the Congress will be found so wanting in statesmanship, and so false to the public interests, as to enact it into a law.

Confederate States Congress
(Column 4)

Summary: Summarizes recent proceedings of the Confederate Congress, including a bill that would require the confiscation of the property belonging to all those who evaded military service by fleeing to the North.

The Leve En Masse
(Column 4)

Summary: Voices opposition to the conscription of boys between the ages of 16 and 18.

Full Text of Article:

We have seldom seen, says the Richmond Dispatch, more universal concurrence in the press of the country upon any subject than there is in its opposition to the desperate expedient of a levy en masse of the population of the Confederacy. It is a confession of weakness not warranted by the circumstances of the case, calculated to create distrust in the minds of our own people of the extent of our resources, and has already given new encouragement to the hopes of our enemies. To put boys of sixteen to eighteen in the army is to destroy the "seed corn" of the population, as President Davis aptly characterized it; and to force men over the age of forty-five into the ranks is to furnish food for disease and death, and to crowd the hospitals and graveyards without adding appreciably to the strength of the army. Prussia, when beleaguered by the most colossal military power on the earth, never called men of that age from their homes. At their homes they are good for something. There, they, and the unmature striplings whom a cruel radicalism would devote to the perils of battle, may provide food for an army which is already pressing strongly on the means of subsistence, and under State organization render the only military service of which they are capable, the defence of the soil against raids of the enemy. Bring back the stragglers and the absentees, place negroes in the place of white teamsters, nurses, &c., and we shall have as large an army as the people can feed. What we need is skill and produce in the development and husbanding of our resources, rather than an increase of numbers. Look at the shameful manner in which Confederate property has been squandered and the negligence and blunders by which so many of our men have fallen into the hands of the enemy. These are the evils which must be remedied, and, as long as they continue, no increase of our strength will be of any permanent value. It will be like a new inheritance to a spendthrift, who will run through it just as rapidly as his former possessions. What we want to see in Congress is coolness, combined with energy, and in the army, vigilance and discipline, united with courage.

The Legislature
(Column 5)

Summary: Reports on the latest proceedings of the Virginia legislature. Notes that the Senate passed a bill providing relief to the families of soldiers living in counties within the lines.

For the Spectator
(Column 5)

Summary: Asks that the proper authorities turn their attention to the deserters that are lurking about.

Full Text of Article:

Mr. Editor: As gigantic efforts will be made next spring by the enemy to subjugate us, I ask the attention of the proper authorities, if their attention should not be turned [to] deserters, who are skulking about their homes since last summer; and harbored by their friends.

A CITIZEN.

Trailer: A CITIZEN

Married
(Column 6)

Summary: On January 6, Rev. Smith married Fulton W. Brown and Mary A. White.
(Names in announcement: Rev. R. Smith, Fulton W. Brown, Miss Mary A. White)

Married
(Column 6)

Summary: Rev. Dr. McFarland married Capt. James Bumgardner, Jr. of the 52nd Virginia Regiment and Mary Mildred Bumgardner, daughter of James Bumgardner, Sr., on January 27.
(Names in announcement: Rev. Dr. McFarland, Capt. James BumgardnerJr., Mary Mildred Bumgardner, James BumgardnerSr.)

Died
(Column 6)

Summary: At the age of 5, Martha A. Rikelberger died of diphtheria on December 2, 1863. Her brother, John W. Rikelberger, died of the same disease on January 1, at the age of 6. They were the children of Eli and Mary J. Rikelberger.
(Names in announcement: Martha A. Rikelberger, John W. Rikelberger, Eli Rikelberger, Mary J. Rikelberger)

Died
(Column 6)

Summary: James M. Larew died of a wound received at Gettysburg on July 5, 1863. A former member of the Augusta Lee Rifles, he was a member of Capt. McClung's Company, 1st Virginia Regiment, when he died. He was 20 years old.
(Names in announcement: James M. Larew)