The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 09, No. 51, January, 1862 eBook
Various
Our scouts have come in frequently the last few days.
They tell us Price is at Stockton, and is pushing
rapidly on towards the southwest. He has been
grinding corn near Stockton, and has now food enough
for another journey. His army numbers twenty
thousand men, of whom five thousand have no arms.
The rest carry everything, from double-barrelled shot-guns
to the Springfield muskets taken from the Home-Guards.
They load their shot-guns with a Minie-ball and two
buck-shot, and those who have had experience say that
at one hundred yards they are very effective weapons.
There is little discipline in the Rebel army, and
the only organization is by companies. The men
are badly clothed, and without shoes, and often without
food. The deserters say that those who remain
are waiting only to get the new clothes which McCulloch
is expected to bring from the South.
McCulloch, the redoubtable Ben, does not seem to be
held in high esteem by the Rebel soldiers. They
say he lacks judgment and self-command. But all
speak well of Price. No one can doubt that he
is a man of unusual energy and ability. McCulloch
will increase Price’s force to about thirty-five
thousand, which number we must expect to meet.
Hunter and McKinstry have not yet appeared, but Pope
reported himself last night, and some of his men came
in to-day.
Camp White, October 22d. The bridge is built,
and the army is now crossing the Osage. In five
days a firm road has been thrown across the river,
over which our troops may pass in a day. The General
and staff crossed by the ferry, and are now encamped
two miles south of the Pomme-de-Terre.
* * * *
*
BIRDOFREDUM SAWIN, ESQ., TO MR. HOSEA BIGLOW.
Letter from the REVEREND
HOMER WILBUR, A.M., inclosing the
Epistle aforesaid.
Jaalam, 15th Nov., 1861.
It is not from any idle wish to obtrude my humble
person with undue prominence upon the publick view
that I resume my pen upon the present occasion. Juniores
ad labores. But having been a main instrument in
rescuing the talent of my young parishioner from being
buried in the ground, by giving it such warrant with
the world as would be derived from a name already
widely known by several printed discourses, (all of
which I maybe permitted without immodesty to state
have been deemed worthy of preservation in the Library
of Harvard College by my esteemed friend Mr. Sibley,)
it seemed becoming that I should not only testify to
the genuineness of the following production, but call
attention to it, the more as Mr. Biglow had so long
been silent as to be in danger of absolute oblivion.
I insinuate no claim to any share in the authourship
(vix ea nostra voco) of the works already published
by Mr. Biglow, but merely take to myself the credit
of having fulfilled toward them the office of taster,
(experto crede,) who, having first tried, could
