The Abingdon Virginian from Abingdon, Virginia • Page 1

VOLUME 24. SiHTO, The Virginian is published every Friday morning, at $5.00 per annum, if paid in advance, or within three months after subscribing, otherwise $0.50 will be charged. No subscription will be received for a less period than six months, for which $2.50 will be Charged. No subscription will be discontinued except at the discretion of the proprietors, until all shall have been paid up. Any person procuring five responsible subscribers, shall be entitled to a copy gratis.

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Obituaries of more than 10 lines will be charged at advertising rates, also tributes of respect, and $5.00 for announcing candidates. The Battle of Gettysburg. To the exclusion of most of our editorial, We insert the following interesting details of the late terrible battle of Gettysburg from the Richmond Examiner: Though a number of officers and soldiers wounded at Gettysburg have, within the past two days, reached the city, yet, as they were for the most part struck during the first day's engagement, tbey know of subsequent events only from hearsay. In the entire absence of official dispatches, we are therefore without any connected or intelligible account of the bloodiest battle of the war. We know the battle was begun Wednesday morning and lasted for several days, with the loss of twelve thousand on our side and mere than double that on the parj of the enemy, but how or when it was brought a conclusion, and what were the subsequent movements of the hostile armies, we have no positive From what we can learn from the most trustworthy sou-ces, it appears that and Thursday we drove the enemy before us with unparalleled slaughter.

Again on Friday, after a sanguinary battle, we put them to our pursuit was checked by certain hills, intrenchments and rifle pits, behind which the enemy took refuge and made an obstinate and determined stand. Our loss before this position was very great. Five or more attempts were made to carry if by direct rssault, and each time our ranks were fearfully thinned by the fire of the enemy behind earthworks, rifle pits and stone walls. Two of our divisions, Rodes' on the left and Pickett's on the right, carried the portion of the position in front of them, but, finding it commanded by a still stronger position in rear, were forced to retreat. From participants in the engagement we have the main facts of the first day's battle.

As usual, to A. P. Hill was assigned the duty of opening ball. Tuesday evening Bkirniishing was begun between a division on our side and Reynolds' corps on the part of the enemy, and lasted until night. Wednes- I day morning, Pender's division having come up on the left of the division already engaged, both Were, after an hour's skirmishing, attacked by the enemy.

Our artillery, sta- tioned on hills in the rear, played over the heads of our advancing columns. The Yankees fought well and contested the ground obstinately. About noon Rodes, of well's division, came into the fight on our extreme left. The enemy also sent forward heavy reinforcements and the battle raged with renewed The conflict began in the open country, some three miles west of Gettysburg, and ended long after dark by our driving the enemy to the east of the town. Unlike every previous battle of the war, the movements of the two armies were not hidden by forests and dense thickets.

The country was broken and rolling, and in a high state of cultivation. On every, side were wheat and corn fields, surrounded by stone fences, and dotted here and there by groves and clumps of open timber. The movements of each army were visible from every part of the field, and the game of battle as thus played on a.clear board, is said' to have been of absorbing interest to such as had time to -watch it. Our troops, infantry and artillery, were handled with consummate skill. Again and again they turned the enemy's flank, and drove them from one stone fence to from one range of hills to east.

On our left, Rodes had, at one time, to dislodge the enemy from a long breast work, instructed chiefly of bales of hay. This was an important capture, as it saved much trouble in seeking forage for our artillery horses that night. The enemy's loss in killed and wounded'in this day's fight was at least three to our one, and we captured from four to six thousand prisoners. The field from the point where the battle was begun to Gettysburg, was thickly strewn with their dead wounded, and every house in the town, when we took possession of it, was a crowded hospital. Thursday morning Gen.

Hill with Redes' Division renewed the battle east of Gettysburg, the other two divisiens of Ewell's corps falling in on our left, and Longstreet coming up on our right. This day also we met with uninterrupted success, buj we are without any particulars of the battle except that by nimtfall we had driven the enemy six miles east of the original battle field. Of Friday's fight we have heard very little and confess ourselves unable to understand that. The enemy seem to have retreated to some strong position from which we were unable to dislodge them, and ip front of which we lost great numbers of our men and many valuable officers. ABINGDON It being impossible to obtain as yet accurate lists of our casualties, we have determined to mention none, thinking it better to omit them altogether rather than run the risk of stating as killed or wounded an officer or sol-2 dier who is unhurt.

In this connection we will state that Col. Aylett, reported to have been wounded at heard from as late as the Bth at which date he had received no wound. LATER. Since the above was in type we have, through wounded officers who reached the city last night, some particulars of the last day's fight at Gettysburg. After the battle of Thursday, which was kept up with undi! minished ardor on our side until a very lato hour, the enemy took position on three inrj mense hills, or mountain spurs, and Friday morning's light showed but too plainly that they had not been idle during the night.

A' long heavy line of earthworks, bristling with cannon, fringed the base of each hill. In front and on the flanks of these the Yankee army was drawn up in line of battle. We made the attack and drove the enemy into their entrenchments. Taking the intrenchments was a more serious matter. We were repulsed several times, and finally succeeded in taking the outer line of works only to find I that it was commanded by another equally formidable higher up the mountain side.

In the retreat from these intrenchments our greatest loss is believed to have been sustained. The enemy brought their howitzers to bear on our columns, cutting them to pieces horribly. Our artillerj' charge when we took the enemy's works is said to have been magnificent. One hundred and forty of our pieces charged up to within three hundred yards of one of the enemy's works, and silenced it in a short space of time, but not without very great loss. Our loss in horses in this part of the fight wns heavier than ever before known in a similarlength of time.

One of our batteries alone lost thirty-eight horses in as many minutes. Having abandoned the idea of storming the enemy's position, General Lee fell back towards Gettysburg, and rested that No pursuit was made by the enemy then or during the next day. On Saturday, our ambulance and wagon trains began to move back towards Hagerstown. Seeing this movement, and suspecting a design on the part of General Lee to turn his flank and march suddenly on Washington, Meade left his position and turned towards Frederick. That night General Lee withdrew slowly towards Hagerstown, were the army now is, in as good condition and spirits as before the, fight.

The strength of army at the battle of Gettysburg is an open question. In his address to the troops after, the battle he says, "with an inferior force, On the other hand all of our officers state positively that his forces were vastly superior to ours, many of them estimating them at two hun- Wdred thousand men. Of the loss on either side we here in Richmond know absolutely nothing. We have heard ours estimated at eleven and the enemy's at forty thousand men; bow far either or both may be of the mark we have no means of knowing. We lost between fifreen hundred and two thousand prisoners, and captured net lass then six, and perhaps as many as sixteen thousand.

Gen. Brass's Retreat from Tullahoma. The New York Times, of July 4th, has the following editorial on the retreat of General Bragg; The intelligent reader of the elaborate expositions we have been enabled to give in the Times' correspondence from General Rosecranx's headquarters ot the Military situation in Middle Tennessee, remember that nc very valuable results were predicted from the advance Gen. Rosecranz has just Gen. Rosecranz himself doubted the policy of an advance, and for that his march, so far, appears to have verified.

Our army has reached Tullahoma, the point to which Bragg's army fell back after the battle of Stone's river; and Gen. Bragg is found again to have This is precisely what Gen. Rosecranz feared, and because of which fear he did not see the military propriety of advancing. Bragg has abandoned SheU byville, abandoned Tullahoma and the line of the Duck uver, and has fallen back, it-is supposed, upon Chattanooga and the line of the Tennessee river. Our correspondent with Gen.

Rosecranz, anticipating the occupation by the Union army of the enemy's Duck river line, in a letter written June Bth, asked: "Where is Shelbyville? What is Tullaho- ma What is the line of the Duck river nothing! They are neither points of manoeuvre nor geographical objective points. The rebels are not brought a step nearer destruction than before. retire to a new and stronger line along the Tennessee river, in the vicinity of Chattanooga, and we have the barren victory of thirty additional miles added to the already too deep line. If anything, we are worse off than before." In a subsequent letter, written June 24th, our correspondent stated that the "sound heads" of Gen. Rosecran's army had little hope of getting a decisive engagement out of Gen.

Bragg at Tullahoma, or on the line of the Duck river, though an advance upon that position was about to be made. It was thought that Bragg would fall back to induce Rosecranz to extend his line by pursuit, and then would assume the offensive by attacking the communications of Gen. Rosecranz, with the hope of driving the latter back even to Nashville. But there was no danger of our able and cautious commander falling into any such trap; and it was clearly observed in pur correspondent's second letter that if Bragg did fall back from Tullahoma, the country "should not indulge in expectations of much in the.way of pursuit." The plain reason was, Gen. Rosecranz did' not have army enough to guard his extended FmDA.Y, JULY 24,1863.

lines of oommunication and also to attacl Chattaneega, which is naturally one of th strongest points in the Confederacy. course, at this distance, we cannot pri diet what new developments the actual pre gress -of the campaign will Rosecranz will be induced to proceed in, withdrawfrom the campaign that did not a the start promise him any definite But, judging from what our corresponden has communicated, the probability wouh seem to be that Gen. Rosecranz will now boh the line of Duck river till the grain crops Middle Tennessee are garnered and market ed, so as to deprive Bragg of their use, then he will adopt such a plan of action a the exigencies of the case may demand. Operations at Charleston. The landing in heavy force on Morris Is land, and the commencement of extensivi works designed for reduction of Fort Wagner indicate that the new Yankee General Gilmer commencing a determined siege, by lane and water.

The "Mercury" says: It appears to as to be useless to attemp to disguise from ourselves our situation. whose fault we got into it, it is vain now til enquire. The Yankees having gotten posses sion of the Southern half of Morris Island there is but one to save the city Charleston, and that is, the speedy and'un flinching use of the bayonet. If the fight oe Morris Island is to be Bote? a fight by engineer ing contrivances and cannon merely, the ad I vantage is now with the enemy. With theii iron-clads on the water, and their men in occupation of the land, it is likely to be a mere question of time.

The fall of Fort Wagnei ends in the fall of Charleston. Fort Sumter, like Fort Wagner, will then be assailable land and sea, and the fate of Fort Pulaski wilL be that of Sumter. General Gilmer, the commander of the Department, was the man who reduced.Fort-Pulaski. Charleston must be saved as Richmondwas. For six days our soldiers stormed the successive batteries of theenemy, and saved Richmond.

The greater part of the soldiers who achieved these triumphs by the bayonet had never before been in a charge. The Yankees here have as yet few or no formidable They have but a few thousand troops. If oui soldiers and officers here are not equal to the kind of fighting fougho)y the army of Virginia, and tried by the Yankees against such strong works as Fort Wagner and ville, then Charleston falls. This, it appear! to us, is the only course of and may add, too, for ah epnomij of Hves. Othef means may protract fighting to days anl weeks, and postpone the termination of the struggle.

No other means, in our opinioq. will save the city. believe it can easift be saved with promptness and energy ani dash. It is too late for engineering alonej. Hesitation and delay are fatal.

Fiendish Outrages. The Richmond Examiner gives the ing account of the atrocious outrages commit! ted by the brutal forces of Gen. Dix, at thl beautiful and elegant, residence of the Rejl William Spotswood Fontaine, in King Wfliam county: "They shot the sheej), hogs, cows, oxen and fowls, and destroyed cropa, agricultural implements, stables and barns, of this unoffending clergyman. They laid waste his orchards, and ornamental grounds, but for 4 short time respected his dwelling house. Al last, however, they surrounded his house! yelling, cursing and blaspheming, a number? of runaway negroes tieiting with the Yankee soldiers.

They demanded food and threatened the destruction of the house if the ladies did not furnish it. This they did whilst they were roasting the sheep and calves which they had slaughtered. Mrs. Fontaine told them that she had no more food, as they had devoured all. With brutal and profane language, they then commenced the sacking of the house, the affrighted ladies having fled for protection, without a change of clothing, to a neighbor's.

In a few hours they completely sacked and gutted the house. All of the costly furniture was broken to pieces with axes, and the fragments piled in the The window curtains, carpets and. mattings, were torn to pieces; and family portraits were to threads; marble slabs were pounded to atoms with hammers. A well selected an most valuable library of three thousand mes was torn to pieces and scattered over grounds. Hundreds of Yankee soldiers probed tbe gardens and yard with their bayonets for concealed valuables, until they found all the china, glass-ware and many other costly things, all of which they stole or destroyed.

The wradrobes, presses, trunks, of the ladies were broken open and every article of wearing apparel stolen or torn to Nothing was spared, and, having completed the work of destruction, they poured Kerosene oil on the mutilated and torn furniture and bedding. The escape of the ladies of the house alone saved them from these fiends in human shape." Mrs; Mattie Patterson has been sentenced by Gen. Rosecrans to three years in the State prison at Jeffersonville, Indiana, for playing the spy within the Federal lines. Mrs. Patterson came though from Shelby ville some two weeks ago, and on the very day of her arrival at Murfreesboro' was detected in the act- of sending a despatch to Major Clare, Inspector General on Bragg's staff.

The despatoh informed the rebel Major that Rosecrans was evidently about to move against Bragg. She was, of course, immediately arrested, and upon subsequent trial by military commission, was found guilty as charged, and sentenced to imprisonment for life. Gen. Rosecrans, however, commuted the sentence as above indicated, fixing the.term at three Mrs. Patterson claims to have been once a resident of Stephenson county, Illinois, where her parents now reside.

Five years ago she went to Jackson, Mississippi, and there became acquainted with and married her husband, I. World. VIRGINIAN. cj A Remarkable Prophecy. Private prophecies are of little account til i verified by their fulfillment.

We heard one lately, nevertheless, that we offer to the reflections of our readers. Its author was man in very homble life, a pious, good Ca tholic, who troubled not himself with politics, and hardly ever, if ever, looked at a per He died in December, month after Abraham Lincoln was saddled on some of the States as President. He was near his death, and friends, visiting turn, were discus' sing the political troubles, and speculating whether South Carolina would really secede. The good man had said nothing while thej were talking. After they ceased, he said: "You have been talking of what is to come.

There will be a bloody war between the North and South. It will last three years, and the South will then become a separate 1 government, but not without the help of a foreign nation. When the North and South are separated, then there will be awful troubles at the North. will last for twenty years, and a hnndxea years from now the country will feel the effects of There will be a terrible persecution of the Catholics here after the country is divided." This good man died soon after. His pas, tor, residing not far from' this city, is a man great learning and talents.

He says that, for a long time, he had known the deceased as a man o.f very holy and meditative He was not a -man of intellectual cultivation, but a man of prayer. Whether it were the vagaries of a dying man, or the. visions of coming troubles given to a true and humble servant of God, we know not. We can only say that a subtile intellect, with a large reading of history, and a keen appreciation of all the elements that are at work, if forced to utter the gloomiest and most probable of its provisions, would have said.about what this pious, humble and unlettered servant of God uttered on his death-bed. New York Freeman's The Late i The New York Daily News is the only Yanj kee journal which seems disposed to tell the truth in regard to the late battles in Pennsyl, Tr rumors, however, i those who have held fast to General Mead's authentic despatches have not been deceived.

They have known that the triumph of the Northern army has consisted in not being defeated, and that to have repulsed the attack of the Confederates, though with prodigious loss to ourselves, is the extent of our victory. "The loss in killed, wounded and prisoners during the three days' battles in and near Gettysbarg, turns out to have been about equal on either side. Our loss in officers is almost unprecc dented. Sixteen, and, according to some accounts, eighteen, Federal Generals Were either killed, wounded or taken prisoners, and the list of subordinate officers received, who were put liors de combat, runs up already to several hundred, which number will be greatly increased when the fall returns come in. Gen.

Meade promised that an accurate list of all who were killed and wounded should be sent to the War Department in two days; but with the usual cruel, tantalizing reticence, and disregard of the popular wish which characterizes Mr. Stanton, it has not yet been communicated to the public. It may be safely calculated, however, that the Confederates and Federals lost in the neighborhood of 25,000 men each, with the advantage in favor of Gen. Meade of not having been annihilated, and of having compelled General. Lee to relinquish for moment the effort to destroy the army which interposes between himself, Baltimore and Washington.

uei riilas on the Mississippi. The ease with which guerrillas can operate on the Mississippi, and the consequent danger to Gen. Grant's supplies, are thus stated by a correspondent of the Cincinnati Commercial We have an abundance of supplies for present suppose that Johnston, who can do nothing at Black water, should move his cavalry and artillery to the shore of the Mississippi river above us. Where would be our bright hopes? where our confidence? But you will say, "where would the gunboats be At present all the gunboats cannot keep the guerrillas from the bank, nor protect the transports that bear, us supplies. How could they if there were half a dozen batteries of flying artillery at different places There is the Strader, with hundreds of boxes of ammunition piled on her deck, and a bole from a 12-pounder through her bar room only two feet above the slumbering; volcano.

Two other holes are through her. The Prima Donna, has over twenty cannon shots through all this with one battery at Cypress Bend, thirty-five miles below Napoleon. What would it be if. Johnston should go there In some places the channel comes within a few feet of the cane-lined shore. All the gunboats could not keep them clear.

When the river is low a steamer is almost hidden behind the sharp-shooters can fire down upon them, but cannon cannot be elevated to reach shot would go over. I ment ion this that you may not be surprised if such a thing occurs. Every day that this siege is prolonged, adds to the glory of the garrison and detracts from ours. Time-is precious, and I fear we are. wasting its most precious moments.

A Yankee correspondent says that the Confederates carried off with them to the rear all the free negroes found in Every horseman sent to the rear carried a young darkey behind him, the ablebodied negroes were driven Southward with the cattle. "Say, Pomp, you nigger, whar you git dat new "Why, at de shop, ob "What is de price ob sich an article as dat?" "I don't know, don't know, de shopkeeper wasn't dar ISTo. 16, I From the Lynchburg Virginian. Sacking a Southern mentor the Women. i If there was any motive lacking to induce the people of the South to form associations for home defence, the following account of the sacking of Clinton, by Federal should stir them up to the initiation of mea- I sures which may prevent their own homes coming the scenes.of similar outrages.

The city was entered by Grierson's Federal cavalry about daylight on Sunday morning, and they immediately commenced searching for arms and arresting citizens. A correspondent of the Atlanta Appeal says: They arrested the citizens and took them to. the Masonic Hall, leaving none but the women and children at the houses, and when there was no one, the homes and everything lin them were broken open and examined, and when anything suited the fancy or taste of the searcher he appropriated it. From some houses they took every suit of gentle' 'men's clothes, not leaving the owner a change; from others they took as many shirts as they needed, and wherever a gold or ailver watcn was found, with few exceptions, it was pocketed. Many ladies' breastpins found their way into the pockets of the Oth and 7th Illinois cavalry.

Every dairy and cupboard was emptied of its eatables and every cook was employed in preparing them From almost evgry corn crib they took corn to feed their horses. Under pretext of searching for arms they broke open every store and office in the town, scattering the I goods and papers in every direction, and loading some of them in wag dows and show-cases were ruthlessly and 1 needlessly smashed. Some of the soldiers rode thoir horses into the stores and into some of the iffices. While uthe citizens were at the Masoiic Hall hospi- Ital, many soldiers were seen riding by with coots, hats and dry goods of various kinds, (rod large bundles of tobacco. The officers in command could not fail to see this, and knew that their men'were pillaging the town.

The to think that any amount of ammunition' were concealed in the iron because they broke open "almost every lone in town, none of which had any moneyl in them except one, and that but a small Every horse they could see and each, with every bridle and saddle, they took aid carried off. A many of the men vi god the negroes, wherever they met them, run away, and some one or two they forced go, oue of whom was Some i me or ten went off with them, and during week some twenty or thirty followed then from town. They burned the depot and chine shops, and the machinery of the Loi isiana penitentiary, stationed here, which i i a great loss to the Confederacy. With! pistols in hand, and presented, they demanded the watches and money from some of oor ffitizens. 'They got some four pr five gold patches, and perhaps as many silver ones.

even robbed an old negro man ef Mr. Hardesty of an old sUver watch. Thtfy visited the residence of Mrs. Lee, and, presetting a pistol to her bead, demanded all the money in the house. They cursed and abused her very much, and gn'atly terrified her Ind her daughter, Mrs.

Bate! elor. They put p. pistol to the breast of Rev. Hornlin.tand demanded his watch, threatening to sbofit him if they did not get it. They did thef same with Dr.

E. Delong, bur neither of these gentlemen owned watches, nod of coarse the members of Grierson's Wesern cavalry dii not get them. They paroled all the sick aid all the straggling Confederate soldiers jpey found in town. They left about halffast nine o'clock A. M.

During their stay they were the most alarmed set of men our citizens ever saw. A portion of the men who were detailed to guard the citizens, saw Captain Hayden with' a gold the citizens were dismissed, they followed him to his home, and presenting their pistols forcibly took his watch and chain. As soon as they finished iroling the citizens, they left with their plunder. On Monday evening following, five of them went to the residence of A. D.

Palmer, about four miles from town, during the night, and inveigled the old man from his home some distance, and then pretending to hare an order from Gen. Banks to take him and his.box and papers to Gen. 8., they forced the old man to give them his money box and papers, robbing him of six thousand dollars. A few days since, they robbed Mr. George Keller, near Jackson, Louisiana, of fifteen thousand dollars.

They are now engaged in gathering all the cotton they can find and carrying it off. They go with wagons in parties of from two to three hundred, and take what they can find. The negroes have gone to them by the hundred, some of the planters have lost every negro, mule, horse and wagon they had, and in some instances they have taken all the provisions. These are the men that fight according to the laws of nations and respect private property. Every town they enter they pillage.

Grain. The seasons have been unusually propitious this year, for the production of grain. Following a bountiful wheat we have the finest prospect for oats and corn, which never looked more promising. We learn that the farmers in this section are asking six dollars per bushel for wheat. We think it perfectly right for all classes to demand for their productions a fair market valuation; but there are occasions when a class of producers may for a time, a monopoly of certain products, and fir upon them their own prices, however unreasonable.

Uhe wheat crop is abundant. It is only necessary that the farmers should pat it upon the market to reduce its, price to a fair valuation. Win they do so, or will they heard it with a view to lr vailing themselves of their power over the Advocate..