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THE

CONSPIRACY UNVEILED.

THE SOUTH SACRIFICED;

OR,

THE HORRORS OF SECESSION.

66

BY

REV. JAMES W. HUNNICUTT,

EDITOR OF THE FREDERICKSBURG (Va.) CHRISTIAN BANNER.

THE UNION, NOW AND FOREVER, ONE AND INSEPARABLE."

PHILADELPHIA:

J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1862, by

JAMES W. HUNNICUTT,

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States in and for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS TO THE PUBLIC.

THE author of this unpretending volume being a Southern man by birth and education, by marriage and location, by every sacred tie and interest, political, religious, social, and domestic, which makes life desirable, but, by force of circumstances, driven from his home and all the endearing and hallowed associations of life, and thrown into communities in which all faces are strange and all eyes look with indifference on the heart-crushed refugee as he passes by in sad, silent, and lonely meditation, and presuming under circumstances so inauspicious to appear before his countrymen in the unenviable character of an author, it may be due to himself, as well as to a virtuous, intelligent, and patriotic public, to briefly give a few incidents connected with his past life.

He was born in Pendleton district, South Carolina, on the 16th day of October, 1814. His parents were pious and respectable, and both his father and mother, James and Nancy Hunnicutt, were natives of South Carolina.

In the month of February, 1834, he came as a student to Randolph Macon College, Virginia, at which institution he remained until the spring of 1836.

In the month of June, 1836, he married Miss Martha Frances Smith, the only surviving daughter of Dr. Charles Smith, deceased, of Lunenburg county, Virginia.

In the month of April, 1847, he moved to Fredericksburg, Virginia, and located in that city, in which he re

mained a resident up to the 29th of August, 1862, at which time the city was being evacuated by General Burnside.

On the 3d of April, 1850, his wife departed this life; and a better woman and a more devoted Christian never lived nor died. Her precious remains lie at rest in the Fredericksburg (Va.) Cemetery. She was the mother of six children: three are in heaven, and three were living last June.

In the month of August, 1854, he married Miss Elvira M. Samuel, of Fredericksburg, Va., his second and present wife. She has no child.

On the 4th of December, 1848, he commenced the publication of the "Fredericksburg (Va.) Christian Banner, and was the editor and proprietor of that journal until the 9th of May, 1861, at which time, by force of circumstances which he could not control, as the subsequent pages of this work will explain, he suspended its publication, and remained a quiet, but anxious, observer of passing events until the 18th of April, 1862, at which time Fredericksburg was delivered over to the military authorities of the United States Government by the civil authorities of that town.

On the 9th of May, 1862, he resumed the publication of the "Christian Banner;" but, owing to the scarcity of paper, and wanting other facilities, occasioned by the rebellion against the Government of the United States, the "Christian Banner," of necessity, was reduced to half its original size. When he closed his office in May, 1861, there was a small quantity of paper left on hand, which served for the first issue in May, 1862. There being at this time no facilities of transportation of goods by which citizens could obtain them from the North, and being unable to obtain white paper in Fredericksburg, he was advised to continue its publication on brown paper,-which he did.

Prior to the commencement of the publication of the

"Christian Banner" in 1848, he published several small works, principally, however, of a religious and controversial character, which, for the most part, were circulated in Virginia and the Southern States.

His prominent position before the public for the last thirteen years of his life as the editor and proprietor of a widely-circulating newspaper, and being a minister of the gospel for more than thirty years, should, in his humble opinion, entitle him to some share of public confidence, although a stranger and a refugee in the midst of strangers.

In politics, he has always been a Constitutional Democrat, according to the true political and etymological meaning of that term. He is now an uncompromising Southern Union man, which it is presumed no one will question after reading the subsequent pages of this volume. He is no officeseeker, has never asked for, nor held, any office, either under the Government of the United States, in any individual State, county, corporation, or neighborhood. His highest aspirations are to serve his God and country and advance the cause of true Christianity and promote the happiness of his fellow-man. Prompted by a sense of duty, which he feels that he owes to his God and country, his wife and children, to his churches and to himself, has induced the publication of this volume.

On Friday, the 29th of August, 1862, about five o'clock P.M., a friend of the author came in full haste on horseback to his house, to advise him to leave Fredericksburg without a moment's delay, as the Confederate troops were supposed to be rapidly advancing in great numbers and were nearly in sight of the town. On receiving this intelligence, he hastened to take leave of his wife, who, on taking the parting hand, said, "Farewell, my dear husband; take care of yourself, and I will pray constantly for you, and I will pray to the good Lord to watch over you and to take care of you. Farewell, farewell, my dear husband."

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