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Valley Virginian: November 14, 1866 Go To Page : 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |

[No Title]
(Column 04)

Summary: The paper declares that "the colored criminals of Virginia add largely to the burden of taxation."

Gen. Wise's Address
(Column 05)

Summary: General Wise honors the Confederate dead, including Stonewall Jackson, and calls on Virginians to emulate their example in rebuilding the material prosperity of the state. The new Virginia will value hard work and enterprise over gentility, Wise asserts.

Full Text of Article:

We make the following extracts from the address of Gen. Wise, delivered on the 25th of October:

Fellow-Citizens:

I meet a mourning people on the holy ground of graves, the dust of which is more sacred than that of kindred. You come to do homage to the virtues and commemorate the glorious deeds of heroes who died defending the stricken land they lived in and they loved; and I come to condole with and comfort the living by invoking the spirits of the mighty Confederate dead! I come to search among their ashes for the examples and lessons to teach us how to survive their deaths; how to live after them; how to nourish their seeds of indestructible truths resown in this sacred soil, now already germinating again in these graves, and which shall yet again overshadow and save the land these heroes died for, as sure as that the moral power of the Universe will forever over come all evil and malignant forces.

Alas! who are the dead? The buried? or rather the bruised and broken survivors, who daily die living deaths amid the ruins and ashes of a wronged and wrecked country, scathed by a wrathful war of conquest, ending in disasters worse than death, in shackles, and in shame worse than shackles!--Ah! the blessed buried
'Are past the fear
Of future tempests or a wreck on shore,
Those who [unclear] are still exposed to [unclear]."

The buried have overcome death and are now immortal, whilst we survive to suffer, and need the succor their lives and deaths can give, to those who would not live in shame or die in vain. Their names and deeds need no monuments or mausoleums of earth. Nor stone nor board may mark the clay where they "sleep so well." Though "every turf beneath our feet be" their sepulchers, and the dust of centuries may mingle man with man's remains in undistinguishable comradeship; yet they are individually known at headquarters above and their names are separately inscribed on the everlasting rolls, and Heaven's adjutants will forever keep them in the book of martyrdom! Martyrdom for imperishable principles of faith, of truth, of honor, of religion, of law, of liberty, and of right! No hostile hand can strike them now, and all the malignity of good men's enemies cannot alter or pervert the facts or the moral forces of their past lives and present being. Eternity has sealed their testimony to the truth and time's testimony will not permit human history to be perjured for their shame. We need not fear for them. With them all is well. They are now shielded by an impenetrable buckler, the bosses of which is the integrity, as well as the courage, with which they battled for their faith and fatherland. They now wear an armor more than bullet-proof; and the missiles and messengers of death were there better angels and proved that they were preferred of Heaven when they fell! Ye mourning survivors I bring you the full assurance that the buried are not dead! I have communed with them, and they yet live, never to die! We, "the dead," come not to bury the dead--we have but to touch their turfs--they have no tombs--and be ourselves "alive again." We come not to raise a funeral pyre, but to be ourselves so reanimated and reinvigorated by the living spirits of the departed Faithful and True, as to be able to prove ourselves worthy of their sacrifice, made for us, and of still asserting, if not maintaining, the Faith for which they fought so good a fight, and which they consecrated by their precious blood!--Aye; their foes shall build their shrines, their friends are too despoiled to more than mark the place where they lie. All around them their invaders are gathering the bleaching bones and ashes of those they repulsed and slew, to raise mounds and monuments to deeds made memorable, and to memories made worthy of mention by their heroism; and every stone they pile on stone--the higher the more expressive--shall tell the story of the war to every passerby, of the battles by whom lost and won and of who were the real Heroes! This play of monuments is one in which Hamlets of Heroism cannot be left out.

The General said that we need their example more now than ever. We needed more than a Moses now to bear us up under defeat. There was more on trial now than when we were in the camp and the trench. He continued:

I invoke the mighty Confederate Dead and lo! instantly the valiant clay of the consecrated Valley of Virginia becomes instinct with motion in every atom, and a grave in Lexington, trembling quickly, gives up a life breathing spirit in a great example! It stands palpably before and above us, the moral personation of the whole Confederate cause--the now Sanctified Stonewall Jackson, a very Michael of Deliverance. The whole Host of Heroes, disembodied, point to him; and awed, I reverently ask:--"What in this hour would he have us do?" His example speaks to us!

I pronounce not his eulogy. His fame and deeds are above my praise. His enemies praise him. His shade austerely reprehends all personal panegyric. I speak not of the military chieftain, nor of his glorious battles or victories. I speak not of the man, how trained, or what his traits; courtly or curt, eccentric or like common men; awkward or graceful; genial, or silent and serene; all his characteristics, whatever they were, are now sacred. I speak not of his achievements, front, flank, or rear, however lighted up in lustre; but I speak of the intrinsic, sterling stamina of his moral greatness; of his Christian heroism. Thousands in the Confederate armies were like him, "without fear and without reproach" but the eternal adamant of his character and nature which won for him the Stonewall of his name, was his Supreme Faith; Faith in God; Faith in immutable Moral Laws and Principles, and in the right to prevail in the end against all opposing powers. His faith knew of no expediency opposed to faith and justice; of no Policy opposed to Truth and Rights; of no Peace opposed to Honor. Governed by an unwavering Christian sense of duty, he did his part according to the very right and simplicity, without reserve, trusted in God so to shape consequences as to make the very right prevail. He cared not, inquired not, whether it would prevail, in his time, or for his personal advantage; but he loved "Virtue for virtue's sake," and placed its power to prevail on the Omnipotence and Omniscience of the Father and Finisher of his Faith! He knew that the very test of the virtue of Faith is not only to be constant, firm and abiding, when the enemies of moral law and right seem to have gained their most decisive and crushing triumphs. He never mistook the benign will of Divine Pity upon the mortal weakness of Denial when the master was betrayed. He knew that then it was, when the Almighty Sufferer seemed to be crushed and forsaken, that Faith was required to be most abiding. The Faith made him what he was, instant and irresistible in action; direct and immovable in purpose; with a moral instinct above intellect, above all dangers or disaster, and death itself; unconquerable.

Communing all the time with the infinite source of Moral Law and Light, he looked at the pith of Duty only as far as finite vision could see, and took it at once, marching "double quick" directly, straight on, not daring to question when or where to halt or turn aside, or what enemy or obstacle was in the way, or what its force, or what would become of him--on he went under orders he dared not disobey, only knowing that this was always the right, however long or short, and that it was perfectly known to his Divine Commander whose Omnipotence could make his final struggle sure of victory if his Faith and Fortitude stood firm. This made him Stonewall firm, and this example rises up before us. With this immortal Faith I reverently commune. I question it here amidst the Confederate graves:

Can Faith be submitted or subjected to the "arbitrament" of Brute Force? Did Stonewall Jackson ever submit his Faith to what is called by the Expediency and Policy of these times, the arbitrament of arms?"

The stern, rebuking answer is, that he was no Michiavel!--He oftimes in the field subjected his material and physical forces to the shock of the "arbitrament of arms"! But his Faith, his moral trust and conviction he never submitted to any arbitrament but that of his conscience and his God!

The speaker continued to eulogize the character of Jackson in an eloquent manner, and drew many illustrations of what we should do at present, from Jackson's actions while living.

The Orator discouraged desertion of Virginia in this time of her great need, and asked her youths whither would they wander? Where on earth could they find a people so free? Without capital, and "a stranger in a strange land," their condition would be worse than at home.

We must renounce the luxurious idleness, and not be ashamed to work at home and among our friends. Stonewall Jackson was not ashamed to work, and by the earnest labor of his own head and hands earned immortality, and hallowed his native land with reflected glory. Out of the asked nothing of poverty and nature's materials he wrought out by patient toil, little by little, the levers of his life, and then Archimedes like he founded them on a fulcrum which moved a world. His ambition vaulted not; his genius had no vanity--his power was the moral power of a will and purpose and looking onward and upward for God's guidance. He worked here in Virginia and his work now speaks for her and to her, words more precious than pearls. That is pay! That pays!

And oh! what land so lovely and beloved to work in, and for as this holy mother of us all. I feel as fresh as ever, and would make you feel:

"With what delight we breathe our native air,
And tread the genial soil that bore us first!
They said the world is every wise man's country,
Yet after having received its various notions,
I am weak enough still to prefer my own
To all I've seen beside."

I speak not of any mongrel Virginia--of no illegitimate offspring of political rapine. I speak of that honored "Old Dominion" embracing full 64,000 square miles, from the Ocean to the Ohio--from the line of Pennsylvania and Maryland to the lines of North Carolina and Tennessee! I speak of the land which gave birth to the first of men, and gave to mankind a race of heroes, and sages, orators and state men, scarcely less than the first which formed the nation and gave its marked character and Constitution and Laws, which led its armies and councils for three-fourths of a century, which asserted its sovereign rights, and maintained the rights of all a longer period of time; and which finally maintained its honor, if no more in contending for the rights it had asserted and failed to establish after a disastrous and glorious struggle! I speak of Virginia--Lowland, Piedmont, Valley and Trans-Allegheny! I speak of Virginia entire as she was, and still is, and will be, undivided and still unspent. True, her bosom has been torn, and rent, and soiled, and stamped upon by the iron heel of the raiders and invaders, but she is old Virginia still, sacred to Liberty, sacred to Laws, full of life, and full of ground for hope, and the future grander than even her glorious past. Her Chesapeake Bay is yet unquenched by the fires of war; her cataracts still profoundly fall to move heaven and earth for her resuscitation; her Piedmont plains are yet verdant with grasses for the flocks and herds of a thousand hills; her Ridge is yet blue in Heaven's azure to nurse a race of mountaineers indomitable and yet strong; her Valley is yet the very marrow of her spinal column and the staff of her life; her Alleghenies are yet backbones of strength; her Western hills are yet beef stalls of fatness and plenty; her mighty rivers still roll on to the old ocean, and to aqueducts no less than the mighty Mississippi; and the change that has come over her is but the harbinger of the higher and holier hope of Empire and Progress! Her mines are full of coal and iron, richer than gold and diamonds. She is still Virginia, stripped, oppressed, overwhelmed, overcome for a moment but unconquered and unconquerable. She is not without means, resources and power, and her pride and pre-eminence over all States, and States of States, shall keep her head higher, and finally far above her invaders and enemies. God bless her!--God guard her!--God guide her! No land upon earth opens such a field or industry, skill and enterprise, profit and profusion, as she now spreads out with a wide welcome to the youth of master minds like that of Stonewall Jackson. Her very poverty is now a capital for noble sons to count upon for a wealth beyond the Baronies that once made lords of her gentlemen. Her weaknesses are over and past; her development is now just about to begin. Her woe is wooing her to her brightest days; her privation is about to be her wealth, and Providence to guard and guide her in a higher and holier destiny than that of the "Old Dominion." If her sons will indeed serve her and save her, she shall be indeed all over one and indivisible and new Virginia, greater, stronger, grander than ever was old Virginia.

In this connection the General referred to the foreign embassy of the lamented Ballard Preston to the commercial men of France, and the letters of credence which he as Governor gave him, in which he traced the causes which made Virginia both unmanufacturing and uncommercial. Foreigners and strangers could not understand the slow progress of Virginia in material resources as compared with other States of less natural resources.

Virginia was not more populous, commercial, mining and manufacturing--her public works lagged, and the mechanic arts were not encouraged--because her first settlers were all planters, and the earliest interest of our people was a plantation interest as contradistinguished from a farming interest proper.

The General then spoke at some length of the change in the labor system of the State, and the new duties it imposes upon the people. He then addressed the young men as follows:

You need not fear that there will be too many of you in the field. Mining, Manufacturing, Commerce, Mechanic Arts, will now be open avenues for the skill and enterprise, and improvements in all these will soon pay professional avocations higher fees and wages than ever compensated them before. Have your fathers thousands of acres of lands, which now yield no income and cannot afford to pay labor for their cultivation? Lay off the garden spots, compost your wasted manures for the little you can till, or sell or rent out or let lie out every impoverished acre. Aye, do better:--advertise to select immigrants that you will gladly give to them one-half your superfluous lands and help them build and fence them, if they will come and settle. Their settlement will make the other half far more valuable than was or is the whole. They will give you neighborhood and life, bring to you new lights, and be your source of most affective labor and richest returns. Abandon "one ideas"--here it is wheat, there it is tobacco yonder corn and potatoes--and somewhere else it is Brandy and Goober Peas! Go to the fields and be taught by your own experience, learn of other crops, and prepare your own fertilizers from the forest leaves and pine logs and straw and cattle and pig-pens, don't stand on the river's bank like the fool of Horace and wait for the waters to pass by before you cross this Rubicon. Don't wait to manure until you can get capital to buy guano! Borrow not at all, but work and you will soon have wherewith to lend. The faith of Jackson saw this, that the war would put our young men to work! No more fox-hounds! No more large morning horns! No more cigars and juleps! No more cared parties and club-idleness! No more syren retreats in summer and city hells in winter. The hard necessity which presses down upon our people may change the character in some lamentable respects, but it will also most happily strengthen us in other important points. It will dispel some weaknesses which though grand and noble, impeded the power and progress of the State. Of the old Virginian it may well be said:

High-minded he was ever improvident,
"But pitiful and perverse to a fault
Pleasure he would but honor was his idol."

To young Virginians I would say:--High-minded, pitiful and generous ever be as were your fathers: honor must ever be your idol; but, be just before you are generous; and let a life of mere pleasure and all improvidence now cease! Now it is to be a life of work! work! work until you are weary, and still weary, and still work on!--And, blessed be God, work on work ever until the waste places are all repaired, until our honor is redeemed, until debts old and new are paid, until the "old folks at home" shall sing all and happy again--until the slogan of "old Virginia never tire" can be raised again with a shout that the heavens shall hear and the Confederate saints above shall approve as justifying the ways of Providence to us! If I comprehend aright and fully the meaning of Paradise itself, and our first parents' expulsion, it is in part to make us know that a pleasure ground of perfect innocence even was not best for man. Disobedience was punished by expulsion, but the punishment was so tempered by the Mercy not the curse that we should earn our daily bread by the sweat of our brow. Blessed be God!--that our task, if well done, will make us happier and happier the harder they are. Work, oh! young men, or you are not men! You are not Stonewall men! You are not Virginians worthy of these graves! Work or you can't be happy!

We catch the inspiration of this Faith, this Hope, this Life and Strength, from the halo of these Heroes. The great good that they whose remains are tenants of these graves did, lives after them--blessed be their sacred memories! I would not call them, if I could, back to me, save in their examples. I divine not why I, of any, were spared when they were taken, but to bear testimony to their truth and Excellence, their innocence and Invincibility, and to try to live worthy of their deaths, and be more ready when the Creator calls to meet them in Heaven!

A few words about "the Situation."
(Column 02)

Summary: This editorial discusses the late elections in the North which resulted in Radical Republican triumph. The editors urge the South to oppose all Republican initiatives while focusing on work at home.

Full Text of Article:

The full reports, of the result of the late elections, given in our columns to-day, will not astonish or frighten, the readers of the Valley Virginian. To sum it up, in a few words, the radicals have carried every Northern and Western State, but, in spite of all their rascality, they have lost Maryland and Delaware. "Blood will tell!" These States elect Conservative white men to represent them; Massachusetts elects negroes, Beast Butler and "Commissary Banks!" While we are sorry for the respectable colored men who were elected to the Massachusetts Legislature, and regret their getting into such bad company, we feel confident that they will improve the manners and character of that body, and, if not demoralized, be the means of elevating the tone of Massachusetts' society.

It is now certain the Radicals will have control of Congress, and that they will exclude the South, from representation, is a fixed fact. But what of that? It amounts to nothing, in the long run, and if we are only true to ourselves, and work, we can soon have them begging us to come in. This is no time for whining, or begging for favors. We have performed our part of the contract, made at the surrender, but to hold on to power the Radicals will grossly and shamefully repudiate the sacred pledges of the United States Government. Overpowered, as we are; robbed and stripped of everything,except honor, we can not enforce compliance with true Constitutional principles; but we can maintain our own honor and dignity, by refusing, utterly and forever, to agree, in whole or in part, to any proposition they may make--call it "Constitutional Amendment," or what you will. Our safety is in an emphatic No to each and every proposition until we are fully and fairly represented; not by sneaks and cowards, "test oath" men or the vile crew of ragamuffins, called "Southern loyalists," but by the honest, the brave, the true Southern men, who will represent us, in fact and in truth.

This question of representation is only one of time--it is certain to come, and come right, if we are only firm and consistent. There has not been an act performed by the dominant party, or any other party, North, since the surrender, that has not justified every movement of the Southern States since 1861, and even the strongest Union men among us now admit it. The brutal course of the radicals has made the South a unit in the belief--that we were right, and that is a great point gained. The foolish hopes of representation, encouraged by the over sanguine, have faded away--and a united and harmonious people have gone bravely to work, with a settled determination to build up their shattered fortunes, and in spite of everything, be the people a just God intended them to be. National politics, especially the result of the late elections, do not agitate or excite our people. Their daily necessities; the constant labor and thought required to provide for them; the study about how to build the Valley Railroad, and develope our material resources, occupy all their thoughts; and, but for the natural curiosity, as to what the Radicals North are doing--as to what new piece of devilment they are concocting--we would not publish news from the North at all.

And the brave and true Conservatives North, who have made such a gallant and glorious fight for the right, should not take this indifference on our part, as an evidence of a want of interest in their struggle. It is only a settled conviction, on the part of our people, that we can best aid them, in their political struggle for Constitutional rights, by attending exclusively to our material recuperation and advancement. We wish them "God speed," in every blow they strike the "mob" that now rules the Country and, if necessary, will prove our words by acts. But the sad, the inexorable present is upon us, with all its privations; with all its holy duties to the living, and its sacred ones to the dead. Do your duty for the rights of the States, under the Constitution, and remember, the Southern people are doing, have, and will ever do, theirs.

And we must congratulate our people on the dignified and manly manner, in which they have conducted themselves under all their troubles, present and prospective. The situation has been bad, and may be worse, but the same courage; the same endurance; the same patience under affliction; and the same devotion to justice; to truth; to honor and to right that carried us through four years of relentless war, and two years of oppression, will, in the end, bring us to a state of prosperity, of happiness and liberty, such as we never dreamed. In the words of the Enquirer, eminently applicable to our case is the universal truth, "that sufficient to the day as the evil thereof," as is also the maxim that "the duty of life consists in doing the duty that lies next to us." We need not now look beyond the present day and the present duty,--or as Stonewall Jackson once told us, "Do your duty; God will attend to the rest."

The Elections
(Column 03)

Summary: This editorial comments on the election results. The editors hope that the few conservative triumphs will be enough to defeat the Radical platform, but council quiet acceptance of the overall Republican victory.

Full Text of Article:

The results of the elections held on the 6th instant, says the Richmond Examiner, are beginning to pour in. In New York the opinion we expressed some days ago, that the Radicals would triumph by a small majority, would seem to approach very nearly the actual result. New York city and Brooklyn have done nobly, but the ignorance, hatred and passion of the interior districts have triumphed over the superior intelligence of the cities. We must remember that at the North nearly all the people of wealth, intelligence and liberality of view hasten to the cities, to escape the dullness and bigotry of their country life. In those benighted regions the Tribune is taken for gospel and BENJAMIN F. BUTLER considered a statesman of pure and lofty virtues. It is in the cities, therefore, that we look first for a Conservative reaction.

It must be noted, too, that where the vote of a State reaches, as in New York, some 700,000, a majority of ten or twelve thousand is really very small. This result is achieved solely by the alliance of the Times, Heraldand Evening Post, and without their aid could not have been accomplished. Now these papers will protest against the more ultra doctrines of the Radicals; they have no real love for that faction, and at the first false step will aid to hurl them from power.

In Missouri we fear the Radicals have, by excluding the great mass of the voters, managed to retain their ill gotten power.

Maryland has been nobly and gloriously redeemed. Delaware gives an increased Conservative majority. These two States may now be relied on to unite with the eleven Southern States, and with Kentucky, in rejecting the Constitutional Amendment. This makes fourteen States certain in the negative. Ten are sufficient to defeat the proposition.

In the other Northern States the Radicals hold their own. We interpret this as showing that a majority of the Northern people at this time are unwilling that the Southern should participate in the Government, without consenting to the most injurious and degrading terms. This fact has been for some time perfectly well understood at the South. Its confirmation by these elections will not produce a scintilla of excitement among our people. We have, in many districts, sent to Washington individuals who could "take the oath," as they said. The continued exclusion of these persons from their seats is not a wrong that excites our special resentment. As to those who could not take the oath, we consider them much better engaged at home in attending to their business pursuits than in such a Congress as at the present or the future. In a word, we bow to the results, and wish our Northern brethren much joy in the sole and undisturbed possession of the Government, in managing which they have shown so much wisdom, moderation and public virtue.

[No Title]
(Column 03)

Summary: This article urges Conservatives, despite their recent defeat, to immediately begin laying the groundwork for victory in the next election.

Full Text of Article:

Victory, says the Richmond Times, frequently demoralizes almost as much as defeat. Many a complete and overwhelming triumph was lost to the Confederate arms during the war by the rich plunder of the Federal camps by the "ragged and half-starved soldiers of the South," who thus neglected the opportunity so make defeat an utter rout. If the Radicals shall be thus intoxicated by their successes at the late election in the North; if between the plunder of the Government and the appropriation of the offices, they shall weaken their organization and divide their forces, then will be the time for the Conservatives to prepare for that future blow which will hurl the destructionists from power. If the Conservative will use their defeat as the Federals did theirs at the first battle of Manassas; if they will at once remove the causes of disaster, and begin now to lay the foundations for future victory in such a manner as to make it sure, their present misfortunes will not prove irreparable. It is too common with defeated parties to subside quietly after a defeat, and to put forth no more efforts until the next political struggle excites them. When the fight has commenced it is too late to take those precautions which the Conservative should be making now. The race between the friends and foes of the country is a long one and the party with best bottom will ultimately come out ahead. Courage persistence and indomitable pluck will prevail yet. Nil disperandum.

[No Title]
(Column 01)

Summary: The paper reports a number of new cases of cholera in the Shenandoah Valley.

[No Title]
(Column 02)

Summary: The Soldiers' Cemetery Committee acknowledge the receipt of $5 from Misses Baldwin and McClung; $5 from Mrs. Davis A. Kayser, and $5 from B. Mayne, Jeweler.
(Names in announcement: Baldwin, McClung, Mrs. Davis A. Kayser, B. Mayne)

[No Title]
(Column 02)

Summary: Prof. A. J. Turner, former leader of the Stonewall Band replaced the late Prof. Graham as Professor of Music at the Deaf, Dumb and Blind Institution. A "good appointment" according to the paper.
(Names in announcement: Prof. A. J. Turner, Prof. Graham)

Our Dead
(Column 02)

Summary: The paper announces that the "remains of our brave soldiers" will be brought to Staunton from Piedmont next Monday. Major Walker can also make arrangements for relocation of bodies buried nearby. "The people of that neighborhood should see to this matter, and show they are worthy of their ancient reputation. Turn out and do this work."

Rockbridge on the Valley Railroad
(Column 02)

Summary: The paper urges Augusta residents to take a cue from Rockbridge County, which voted heavily in favor of a tax for a $100,000 subscription to the Valley Railroad.

The Epidemic
(Column 02)

Summary: The paper comments on an "epidemic" of marriages sweeping Augusta County. According to the Circuit Clerk, it has "broken out with increased violence and has taken a new form. The widowers and old bachelors are being carried off at a rapid rate." "There are a few hardened cases in Staunton and Augusta who have the temerity to defy it, but they better consult a doctor at once, or they will be taken in."

Personal
(Column 02)

Summary: Captain William Chambers returned to Staunton after a long absence and was "warmly welcomed, by old and young." Col. James C. Cochran, commanding 11th Regiment Virginia Militia, "has celebrated his return by appointing him Capt. and Commissary of his Regiment, and has issued orders that he 'will be obeyed and respected accordingly. The Capt. bears his honors well and is ready to receive the congratulations of his friends at the old corner.'"
(Names in announcement: Captain William Chambers, Col. James C. Cochran)

Communicated
(Column 03)

Summary: This letter to the editor protests the decision of the City Council forbidding any of its members from accepting pay for their posts. The correspondent argues that it would force Staunton's excellent street commissioner to resign his position.

Full Text of Article:

Editors Valley Virginian:

I was concerned to notice, in your last paper, in your account of the proceedings of our worthy Common Council, that an ordinance was passed, forbidding any member of said Council from holding any office "to which pay is attached." This in general would be a good law, and will bear comparison with many of the excellent provisions of this wise, prudent and energetic little legislature, but this law seems to me to be a censure upon our indefatigable Street Commissioner--the De Wit Clinton of Staunton--who has faithfully fussed about our Streets for so many years. Even this season he has, with unsurpassed energy, removed all the pavements on our Main Street--built a new fence in front of the Market-house, and has, with wise providence, had all the old brick piled up on Augusta Street, in that part of the town, known as "Gallow's town," ready to be laid so soon as the Spring opens. I could mention many more improvements, of vital importance to the town, which we have no doubt our great Commissioner, under the direction of our wise Council, will have properly executed in the next ten years--and, the town would suffer materially, if this late law should have the effect of causing the present Commissioner, who is highly sensitive, to resign his office.
Yours,
A CITIZEN.

The Ashby Memorial Association
(Column 03)

Summary: The Ashby Memorial Association, composed of survivors of the Ashby (Laurel) brigade, met in Winchester to select officers. Col. Charles T. O'Ferrall, of Augusta, was named as one of the Vice Presidents. The members will next appoint ladies to raise funds for the completion of a monument to Turner Ashby, and proceed with preserving records of the unit.
(Names in announcement: Col. Charles T. O'Ferrall)