"majorities;" to the base crews of Infidelity and Abolitionism; to the savages who have taken upon their souls the curse of fratricidal blood and darkened an age of civilization with unutterable crime and outrage, the South can never surrender, giving up to such a people their name, their lands, their wealth, their traditions, their glories, their heroes newly dead, their victories, their hopes of the future. Such a fate is morally impossible. We have not paid a great price of life for nothing. We have not forgotten our dead. The flower of our youth and the strength of our manhood have not gone down to the grave in vain. We are not willing for the poor boon of a life dishonored and joyless to barter our liberties, surrender our homes to the spoiler, exist as the vassals of Massachusetts, or become exiles, whose title to pity will not exceed the penalty of contempt. Any contact, friendly or indifferent, with the Yankee, since the display of his vices, would be painful to a free and enlightened people. It would be vile and unnatural to the people of the South if extended across the bloody gulf of a cruel war, and unspeakably infamous if made in the attitude of submission.

APPENDIX.

I.

THE SEVEN DAYS' CONTESTS.

JUNE 25-JULY 1, 1862.

(By a Prussian Officer in the Confederate Army.)

UPON the approach of the terrible Union armada we were forced to abandon our position on the peninsula at Yorktown, and after we had partially spiked our guns we drew back to our defensive fastness at Williamsburg, so as at that point to cover our capital, Richmond, by throwing up strong fortified works, and perfecting a compact military formation. McClellan, the commanding general of the Union troops, did not allow himself to be so far deceived by our voluntary withdrawal from our position at Yorktown as to regard us a beaten army, but with great celerity and skill continued the disembarkation of his troops, and began to fortify his position. It was not until he had completed his preliminary measures that he advanced with hostile demonstrations against our line. The lines at Williamsburg were also given up by us without any great resistance, although it was very difficult to persuade the old fighting Gen. Magruder of the propriety of the step, for he loved the position as a father loves his child; and, to tell the truth, all the fortifications had been constructed with much talent under his personal directions. The hard-headed old soldier was won over only after renewed debate and expostulation. At length, however, after a few cavalry affairs, the place was evacuated by our troops, and we took up our march, in two columns, for Richmond. In the mean while the most fearful panic fell upon Richmond, and all who could possibly get ' away packed up every thing they had and fled southward.

The nearer the hostile army approached the city the fiercer the tumult and uproar became. The burning waves of popular alarm could not be stayed. The government itself furthered the confusion. Instead of resolving to triumph or to fall with the army in front of Richmond, it at once ordered all the different bureaux to pack up, and caused the officers of ordnance to empty their magazines, and convey their stores further south. Even President Davis took to the road and hastened, with his wife and children, to North Carolina. As may be readily divined, this loss of presence of mind threw the people at large into the most frantic excess of terror. There was nothing on all sides but shouting and uproar, and confusion reached its utmost height. The secret police of Gen. Winder had lost all control. The civil authorities of Richmond were anxious to do something, but knew not what, and also lost their senses. A small number of the Baltimore rabble took advantage of the hubbub, and, in public meeting, passed resolutions condemning Richmond to conflagration as soon as the Union troops should enter it. Yet all who could escape did so. The sick and the wounded were carried further into the interior; many public and private buildings were marked out for destruction; and, in short, a frightful catastrophe seemed to be impending over the Southern capital.

At this most critical moment the General-in-chief commanding our forces (Johnston) was wounded at the battle of Seven Pines, and the command fell into the able hands of Gen. Lee, who was exactly the man to bring quiet and order again out of this unreasonable chaos. He went to work with great zeal and energy to discharge his onerous task. All disposable troops were hastily summoned from the interior; Gen. Stonewall Jackson's army corps was ordered to Richmond; all the hospitals were cleared of their occupants, and preparations made for ten thousand wounded men; artillery and ammunition wagons rattled by day and night through the streets, while aids and orderlies galloped to and fro in wild hurryskurry with their dispatches.

Masses of troops came pouring in daily, yes, hourly, but without music or any other military pomp. Sternly and silently these ragged, half-starved swarms of men moved onward through the thoroughfares, but the fire in their eyes

showed that they were determined to defend their freedom or to perish.

On the 25th of June another great council of war was held. In it were assembled nearly all that was eminent in the Confederate army. There stood like a rock Gen. Lee, gazing cheerfully over the countenances of his comrades, for each of whom he had a part already assigned. Thoughtfully his eyes wandered from one to the other, as though he wished to stamp the features of each upon his memory, with the feeling that he, perhaps, should never behold many of them again. Close beside him towered the knightly form of Gen. Baldwin; at his left leaned pensively Stonewall Jackson, the idol of his troops, impatiently swinging his sabre to and fro, as though the quiet room were too narrow for him, and he were longing to be once more at the head of his columns. A little aside quietly stood the two Hills, arm in arm, while in front of them old Gen. Wise was energetically speaking. Further to the right stood Generals Huger, Longstreet, Branch, Anderson, Whiting, Ripley, and Magruder in a group. When all these generals had assembled, Gen. Lee laid his plans before them, and in a few stirring words pointed out to each his allotted task. The scheme had already been elaborated. It was compact, concentrated action, and the result could not fail to be brilliant.

When the conference terminated, all shook hands and hastened away to their respective army corps, to enter upon immediate activity.

Now, in looking at the positions of the two armies, it will be seen that unquestionably the advantage was with the Southern host; for Gen. McClellan had his forces necessarily on both sides of the Chickahominy, and, owing to the many ravines in his neighborhood, could not, without great difficulty and much loss of time, execute his military movements. His front line reached over a distance of more than twenty miles, in the form of a semicircle, extending from the James river towards Richmond and Ashland. While one part of his army crossed the Chickahominy, he took position with the main body on the north side of the river, from Meadow bridge to Bottom bridge. The heights on the banks of the stream were fortified, so that his army, notwithstanding the great length of its lines, had excellent defensive cover.