The Abingdon Virginian from Abingdon, Virginia • Page 2

suffiicient number of persons- between 45 and 50 years of age, so as to complete a company for each Congressional district. A competent officer, of the rank of colonel, will be assigned by this bureau to organize such companies into a regiment, if there be the requisite number oi companies; or into a battalion, if there be less than ten companies; or into two battalions, ii deemed preferable. XX. GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS. 1.

Commandants will always bear in mind that General Orders, No. 26, is not only the basis, but forms a large portion of these instructions. They will habitually recur to its provisions, to aid in the application Of the other provisions of this circular. 2. Commandants will, of course refer cases of difficulty to this Bureau; but references which bear on their face that they are rather tc avoid due "responsibility or labor, will be returned without remarks.

3. The duty of the commandants of conscripts is, in accordance with these instructions? t( maintain and invigorate the industrial production bf the Confederacy, and supply its armies with men. This duty must be performed, oi our struggle for independence and liberty wil fail. By order of Col. J.

S. Preston, Supt. C. B. DUFFIELD, April 15th A.

A. General. Conscript Office for "I Richmond, April 6th, 1864. This circular is published by order of Bureai of Conscription for the information of all concerned. By order, Col.

C. SHIELDS, Comd't Conscripts for Jas. H. Binford, Lieut. Adj't.

BUREAU OF CONSCRIPTION, 1 Richmond, April sth, 18K4. CIRCULAR No. 14. I. Circular No.

13, current series, is herebj revoked. 11. Commandants will retain out of the reserve classes a sufficient number to compose theii camp guards and supporting force, and proceed as rapidly as possible to organize into companies persons of the said reserve classes already eni roelled. 111. Commandants will instantly designate proper rendezvous, and order all persons of sni reserve classes to report at such rendezvous of the sixteenth (16th) day of April tht purpose of electing company officers and being organized into companies.

IV. The instant organisation of these classes is deemed of the highest importatce, and all such persons as do not appear at the rendezveus on the day appointed must be enrolled and assigned at the discretion of the Commandants. Unless otherwise instructed, Commandants will forward the muster rolls direct to this Bureau. By order ef Col. Preston, Sup.

C. B. DUFFIELD, April 15th A. A. General.

Conscript Office for 1 Richmond, April 6th, 1864. This Circular is published by order of Bureau sf Conscription for the information of all concerned. By order, Col. J. C.

SHIELDS, Comd't Conscript for Va. Jas. H. Binfod, Lieut. Adj't.

From the Richmond Examiner. Still Later from the North. We received last night, throngh the courtesy of the officers of Exchange Bureau.Northern papers sf the 13th. We get from them the following summary of news: the coming campaign in Virginia. All eyes in the North are turned to Virginia.

All interest is centered here. Preparations for an advance are vigorously going forward. General Grant is reported to be in Washington, supervising and movements, but will "go to the sfohn as his services are required there." correspondent of the New ald writes: General Grant had a lengthy interview with the head of the War Department yesterday, with regard to the future operations of the army. Generals Warren and Patrick arrived in Washington yesterday from the army lines. General is expected to return to headquarters in the field as soon as his services are required there.

Stringent orders, regulating the action of newspaper correspondents, have been issued. The Herald has a long editorial on the situation in Virginia. It speaks of "the coming terrible campaign," and admits the great importance of the issue. Upon this point it says: Upon the campaign that we are about to engage in there depends the greatest issue upon which men ever went into battle. With Lee beaten and Richmond in our hands, the rebels will be definitively driven out of Virginia, Tennessee and North Carolina, and the Southern Confederacy will be crowded into the cotton States, and reduced to such dimensions that no one can consider its final destruction as any more than a question of time.

It will also determine the next Presidency as certainly as if the votes were counted. Grant, if his great labours shall result in this final triumph for our arms, will receive the great reward of the Chief Magistracy beyond all peradventure. But if we fail in this campaign, that failure will be Hie greatest disaster in modern history. While it will not establish the existence of the Southern Confederacy, it will protract still more this already desperate contest the end still further away, and thus tend to ruin financially, and throw us into a state of political anarchy from which it is hardly possible to conjecture how we may come oat. The Herald then says: Upon General Grant there now concentrates the deepest interest with which the world ever wntched tbe of any single soldier.

We are now, thcref fe, at that point which must be reached in all great wars before war go fbrwartPwitb. irresistible forceid the accomplishment of its have found our hero. We are simply to advance a tremendous force, in the best possible way, against the enemy's capital, and the preponderance of power is so greatly in oar favour that it would seem as if success must be certain. Yet a single, error may be fatal; and thus the responsibility of the leader is a terrible one. He should be happy to die on the field where he fails.

$irghtrcn. i BY COALE Friday, 83, 1864. "On te Richmond." The Yankee has invariably been, foreshadowed before each succeeding evidently a simultaneous and general move against the Confederate Capital, in three grand columns, under Meade, Butler and Burnside, the whole under the supervision and direction of Grant. Meade is to press Lee from the Rapidan, while Butler advances up the Peninsula, and Burnside on the South side by the way of Petersburg. Some letter-writers "ire of the opinion that their published programme is a feint to deceive the Confederate authorities, and that whilst all the show of a purpose to attack Richmond is held out, their real purpose is to induce a withdrawal of a large portion of our forces, in.

order that Thomas may advance from Chattanooga and cut the Confederacy in two. Our own opinion is, that these letter-writers are mistaken, and that it is Grant's purpose to take the Confederate Capital if he can. He knows that the moral effect ef such an achievement would be worth a dozen Yankee victories in the Southwest, and public sentiment at the North forces him to the and will hold him to it till Gen. Lee plucks his gaudy feathers. That feat of Grant's of starving a handful of men at Vicksburg by besieging them with overwhelming numbers, has given the-creature the big-head to an extraordinary extent, and has inflated him with an ambition to vanquish Gen.

Lee and capture President Davis and the Capital. We are glad that his bump of self-esteem is a large as it is, and that he has chosen to "beard the lion in his den." Grant is by no means, a commander, and from the illustrations he has given, we would place him infinitely below either McClellan or Rosecrans, He has been more lucky, because more fortunate in numbers, position and surrounding circumstances. He has never fought his way to a victory yet that was not dearly bought, and that did not cost more than it amounted to. He made oat at Fort Donelson, with eighty regiments and a river-full of gunboats, to get the better of some 10 or 12,000 men, after fighting them three days and four nights, and even with all this odds he lost more in killed Snd wounded than the Confederates numbered before the action. At Shiloh, Sidney Johnson whipped him like a dog the first day of the fight, and had not Bnell came to his assistance, Beauregard would have bagged him the second day.

In a word, except his success at Vicksburg, his record is as barren as it could well be, and this is the hero the Yankees expect to conquer Robert E. Lee and take Richmond. We repeat, we are glad that Yankee credulity and Grant's own vanity have prompted the present movement, for we are just as sure he will be shorn of his momentary and accidental greatness, as a contest occurs for the capital. i Death of a Good Man. The Lynchburg Virginian of the 16th, announces the death of Mr.

Wm. M. Blackford, who died in that city on Thursday night, the 14th. Tlfe deceased was the father of Maj. Wm.

W. Blackford from this county, and was one of the most prominent, as well as one of the best and most useful citizens of Lynchburg. The first we knew of Mr. Blackford, many years ago, he was editor of a paper in Fredericksburg, which was conducted with more than ordinary ability, and became conspicuous among the political journals of the day. Shortly after the election of Gen.

Harrison to the Presidency, he was appointed Charge d'Affaires to one of the South American States, which position he held for several years. On his return to the United States he became the editer of ihe Lynchburg Virginian, which he conducted with great success and acceptability. He was subsequently appointed Bsstmasfer at Lynchburg, which he held during the Taylor Administration, and in 1856 was appointed Cashier of the Exchange Bank at Lynchburg, which position he held "till life's fitful dream was over." In all his positions and relations Mr. Blackford was the same courteous, generous and kindhearted gentleman, which secured him many devoted friends, and his demise has left a vacuum in the community where he resided, that it will be difficult to fill. His age was I Another Robbery.

On Sunday night last, the house of Mr. Leloftidas oftidas Baugh was entered, and a large amount of money much not but Mr. Baugh thinks not less than. Robbery, both legal And illegal, has became Reorder of the day and of the night. The happiest class, it seems to us, are those who haw nothing te steal.

FT Release of Slaves at Saltville. i It will be remembered that the Secretary i War, thro' the Governor of Virginia, called.a few weeks ago, for 80 slaves from this county, to work on fortifications. In view of the large number that had been furnished by this county on a former occasion, and also in view of the i fact that so large a portion of the white male population were in the army, a petition was sent up to the Secretary of War and the Governor, asking an abrogation of the call. It was commuted in so far as to limit the services of the slaves to labor on the fortifications at the Saltworks. At our last County Court a committee was appointed to lay all the facts before Gen.

Breckinridge, and to ask an entire release of the slaves from such service. They promptly performed that duty, and an order has been received re' leasing them. From Hodges' Brigade. We have a rather discouraging rumor from i Gen. Hodges' command, on its late expedition i into Kentucky.

It appears that, after ing with a superior force of the enemy at Painti ville, they fell back a few miles, turned their horses out to gpnze and lay down to rest. In this condition they surprised by the enei my, who approached them from an unexpected and unguarded direction. The consequence was 1 that they were scattered and stampeded, Several i killed, wounded and captured. Among the i wounded was Lt. Col.

Clay, who was also cap tured. About 100 are reported as missing. We hope and believe the rumor is ed, but we have ne doubt that Gen. Hodges was surprised. Stampede of Cavalry Horses.

3 On Monday night last, about the hour of 10, 5 "Ihe people of Abingdon were startled by an I 'tannsual clatter in the streets, which led some to suppose for a moment that Averill or some other fooYhaldy Yankee adventurer had made a sud. den raid upon us. On that evening, Giltner's brigade of cavalry had bij veuacked in a field 'a short distance east of town, through which the railroad is The horses, having been turned out to crop what' little grass had struggled above the surface, and were quietly nibbling at it, when a long train came thundering in among them. As if by con. cert, they all started at once, and as the road they took ran parallel with the railroad for a mile or more, and they having taken the same direction the train was going, the race while it I lasted was an exciting one, the horses passing the Depot a little ahead of the cars.

There were a few mules in the stampede, and as one of these occasionally sounded out his unmelodeous solo, it seemed to add speed and twildaess to the flight, almost as terrible as the I rush of an army of buffaloes. We learn that several horses were killed by the train, and a number were recovered next morning on their way towards Russell. Several are yet out. v. A calling himself "Sterling King, who was arrested here on Sunday week and sent to Gen.

Longstreet's headquarters for trial, where he was tried but not convicted for want of evidence, turns out, it seems, to be a 5 spy of the most dangerous kind, after all. He had left his oaggage in Smyth county, which, on svas found to contain ample evi-5 his guilt, in shape of a commission to 1 in the Federal service, and authority as to convoy Yankee teams to Cumberland Gap. We presume he is still in and if so, he will be certain to "go up ttfo spout." I i We were struck with the appropriateness of an expression by a darky a few days i "Everything's got wrong," said he, "since this war began, and even the winter came wrong end first." It literally true. When we had a right to expect winter, in December, we had delightful Spring weather, and when we had 5 a right to expect Spring, with its flowers and birds and sunshine, we have snows and storms and chilling blasts. We have had three or four falls of snow since our last issue, and now, on Tuesday morning as we write these lines, it seems as if there were millions of old Welsh women in the clouds picking their We have but little hope of warm weather till dog-days.

Confirmed. We certainly may' take it for granted that Kirby Smith gained a great victory over Banks at Shreveprrt, as the papers both North I and South chronicle it. The Yankee loss is said have been 14,000. From all accounts, it must have been one of tbe most brilliant achievements of the war. 1 A member of Mosby's command informs tbe Lyncnburg Republican that the Long Bridge at Washington had been swept away by the recent freshet in the Potomac, and that Grant was concentrating his forces in Culpeper county in large numbers.

A A Pretty Romance. We have on file, and will publish in the course of a week or two, a well-written story in six chapters, entitled "Love vs. Patriotism; a Tale of the War," by Bga, The death of Ex-Gov. Alston of S. iS lAnouuced in the Charleston papers.

He died Thursday of last week at his residende on I Hie Due. jggsy We regret to learn that Richard K. Cralle died at the residence sf his son-in-law in Lunenburg county, on the 14th inst. He was a gentleman of high attainments, had been connected with the press of Virginia and Washing, ton city in past years, and was the biographer, of John C. Calhoun.

Glads Spring, Washington Va. 1 April 18th, 1864. To Jos. T. Campbell, Esq.

Dear the undersigned citizens desire and respectfully solicit you to become a diate for the office of Commonwealth Attorney. If you think yon can consistently with your interest accede te cur preposition, we will give you our hearty support. Tobias Smyth, E. Loncley, A. S.

Qrr, John L. Buchanan, Jas. K. Smyth, N. Snead, F.

A. Smyth, Elisha M. Duscins, John S. John Clark, W. W.

Williams, C. h. Shcgart, John Glenn, James P. Strother. E.

E. Wiley, I For the Virginian. Price's Spring, April Bth, 1864. Messrs. Coale Barr please publish the following recipe for the of hatters in the South: Take the entrails of a bear and clean them as you would foe sausage, then soak in salt and water for twelve hours, after which twist by stretching the gut well to avoid kinking.

Water and air will which must be let out with a pin. Continue to twist from time to time, until the string is thoroughly twisted, stretched and dried, you then have as good a bowstring as jrou can desire. If the gut of a hear cannot be had, that of a dog will answer. R. BUTT SON.

For the Virginian. To Wm. King llelskell, Esq. If elected Sheriff of Washington county at the coming election, we wish to know whether ysu will apponit as Deputies, young able-bodied men subject to military duty, or will you select such men as are exempt on acconut of age or wounds received in the service of their country Our sons are in the service, and wo have a right to an a right to know whether recruits are to be kept back by the civil officers of the couutry. We further desire to know whether, if elected, you intend to speculate on the county monies until mouths after the law requires you to pay them into the treasury, and then go to tbe County Court and get an order to allow you to pay them in at a loss of thirty, three and one-third per cent, to the csunty We, as tax payers, have a right to demand an answer to this question.

MANY VOTERS. Farm, April 19th, 1864. To Many Voters. To your question to me thro' the "Virginian" of the 15th I most respectfully reply. If elected sheriff, I expect to appoint as deputies, those who bear honorable wounds received in the service of their country, or those net subject to military duty on account of age.

To yonr second question I answer that claims due the County have heretofore been paid by me' as Sheriff punctually, without loss to the county or any one else. I can only point to my official conduct heretofore, and assure you that it shall be unchanged in future, should you entrust me with the office of sheriff. Yours, WM. KING HEISKELL. The Sentiment of the Women or Kentucky.

The following extracts are from a private letter written by a Kentucky lady to a friend in the South, and show in a beautiful light the heroic fortitude and hope which sustains the fair daughters of that State: Scott My faith shines with a steady light, guiding me out of all this thick'darkness that envelopes us. It is written that we shall succeed. We have propitiated liberty with tbe sacrifice of the best and bravest of our land; since the first altar was built there has not been so rich an offering we present it with pure hands and true hearts. There are times when human nature becomes sublimated and etherealized from the weaknesses and corruptions of our earthly nature, when woman's love and man's One strengthening the other, those deeds to be performed that history loves to chronicle for the admiration of succeeding ages. Ah, the examples of devotion which (he South is now making will be the most glorious page the world has ever read.

Thank God, "passing away" is written sn ail things terrestrial. The long polar night has an end, and is followed by an equally long day of continued sunshine. No life is all sorrow. I have noticed in life that the good and the evij the pleasure and the pain, are evenly balanced! and if we are never very happy, neither do we suffer.great misery. Stolid natures Jnever enjoy very keenly and never suffer very much.

I take courage. We have suffered almost enough, to entitle us to martyr honors; and the is that "no trial shall come, upon us that we are not able to bear." The year which opens upon disaster and defeat to our arms may shed a glorious success over them before it closes. I do not despair of the final result, bnt I do grow restive sometimes, and feel like saying with Blue Beard's dhfortunate wife, "Sister Anne, don't you see a dust." When I think of the miserable part borne by Kentucky in this struggle from "Round-head" fanaticism, I am sick at She who so prided herself upon her ancestral renown, sank so low as to be a pensioner on Yankee bounty. The blue grass fields and fair villages have bsea saved from the spoiler by the sacrifice of her honor and her eld name. 'The thirty pieces of silver" she received for her betrayal of the best interests of the country "is the price ef blood," and like the great traitor among the twelve, it may be used to buy potter's field to bury the stranger in.

Surely no one is wild enough to believe this unholy war can end before every State is Kentucky has sinned as deeply and darkly Tennessee; then shall she not suffer as greatly? God is just, and will not suffer one section grow rich off the spoils gathered from another. All hail the day which sees the red fires.