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DAILY' TIMES, j, W* NMRRES & CO., Proprietors. -ablianei Da : 'y (Sundays excepted) at tha raw of pW moutli. or Sl3 tor three months. So subscription received for a longer term than .At MOlltht. kites of advertising. CASUAL DAILY ADVERTISING RATES. Advertisements inserted once —s 4 per square. rkoular daily advertising rates. Kir? l $3 00 P«r square for each insertion ThtrJ o^— Slso per square for each insertion foarth 00 per square for each insertion Second Month—s3o per square. ruon . Third Month—s2s per square. SPECIAL NOTICES Headquarters Georgia Rkservr,) vid Military District Georgia. I Macon, Ga., Fob. 10, 1805. J iener.il Orders / No. 4. t I. In a cordance with Par. XXXVI. Special Or ders No. 18, Adjutant and Inspector General’s Office, Richmond,2Uh January. 1865, Brig. Gen. VV. T. Wolloid is cha ged with the duty of collecting stragglers and d<'So r t>-rs t and dissolving illegal or ganizations in Northern Goorgia, and placing them in temporary organizations for immediate duty, un til they can be sent to their proper commands, lie is also authorized to enroll all men liable to con scription in that section of the State who have thus far evaded the service, and to disperse all band of deserters that may infest that section of the State. 11. To enable him to discharge fully and energeti cally those duties, the organizations of Col. Fit d ley and others, recognized in General, Orders No. .10,1864. from these headquarters, arid all other ir regular organizations in Northern Goorgia, are hereby directed and ordered to report to General Wofford without delay, and will hereafter be sub ject to his orders under the authority granted to him by the Special Order from Richmond, referred to in preceding puiagraph. 111. Enrolling officers in Northern Georgia will recognize the authority g von to General Wofford to enroll the men subject to conscript!-n and who have so far evaded the service, and will render him all the aid and assistance in their power. 1 . Allonfederate officers acting under orders from these Headquarters will give to Gen. Wofford their aid and assistance, when called upon by him, to carrj out the duties to which he has been as signed. By command of Major Gen. HOWELL <OBB. R. J. llallktt, a. a. g. Atlanta, Ga., Feb. 11th, 1860. General Orders, No. 1. I. The commanders of the organizations men tioned in the above order of Maj. Gen. Cobb, will report to me in person at Gumming, Forsyth coun ty, Georgia, on the 20th ol this month ; before leav ing their commands they will give orders putting them in readiness to move to the general encamp ment at the above named place at such time as may be hereafter designated. 11. -411 stragglers, deserters and absentees, not belonging to the above organizations, and all men liable to conscription, will report at the Adjutant General’s Office at the above mentioned place, on the 25th of this month, with such arms as they have, or may be able to get, for the purpose of being or ganized into companies, battalions ;md regiments, for present duty. On leaving home they will take enough rations to supply them to the place of ren dezvous. 111. All officers and soldiers under my command will pay proper respect to civil officers, and aid them in the execution of the laws. IV. The impressment or irregular seizure of pri vate property, or any interference whatever by sol diers with the rights of citizens, either in their per sons or property, is forbidden. Any violation ofthis older will bo promptly reported. W. T. WOFFORD, Brig. Gen. Comd’g Northern Ga. Macon Telegraph, Columbus Times, Augusta Constitutionalist and Register, copy 6 times—and ■ Athens Banner and Watchman 3 times. feb 14 6t Headquarters Enrolling Office, 1 Muscogee County. i- Columbus, Ga., Feb. 13, 1865. J Slave owners of this County arc hereby notified that I will be ready on Monday and Tuesday, 21st and22d inst., to receive and receipt for their quota of slaves, authorized by Act of Congress, approved Feb. 17th, 1864. Owners are required to furnish each slave with one good sui t of clothes, one blank et or bedding and (3) three day’s rations. Those having furnished their quotas under instruction from the Secretary of War, bept. 23d, 1864, will bo credited for the same, upon presentation of their receipts at these headquarters. W. A. COBB, feh 14 td Capt. and Enrolling Officer. To Retired Soldiers ! Headquarters Post, ] Columbus, Ga-, Feb. 13th, 1865. j Special Orders, \ v,.. . ) «-*_# - * * * V. All Retired Soldiers who have reported and filed their descriptive lists in this office, are ordered to report on Tuesday the 28th inst., at 9 o’clock, a in., to these Headquarters, lor muster. * * * * * * By comDiand, LEON VON ZINKEN, Col. Commanding Pott. Wm. Q. Moses, Lieut, and Asst. Post Inspector. febl4-td H®- Country papers near this Post please copy to the 25th inst., and send bill to these Headquar ters. Marshall Hospital, \ Columbus, Ga., Fob. 13, 1865. j Books Wanted ! I respectfully solicit additional contributions of Books, Periodicals, Ac., to the Library of this Hos pital. The importance of such an appeal will be at once seen and appreciated by all interested in the welfare of the soldiers of our army. Any donation, however small, left either at >he office of the Sen. burgeon of Post, Pease’s Book Store or at this Hopital, will be most thankfully received and properly accounted for. T. A. MEANS, feb 13 2w Sure- in Charge. Notice, Southern Express Company, 1 Augusta, Ga., Jan. 9, 18b5. J Persons owning freight shipped by the Southern Express Company, that is detained in this city, and other places, in consequence of damage donejto rail roads by the Federal armies, and which cannot be forwarded to destination in consequence thereof, are hereby notified that this Company will not be responsible for loss or damage by fire. Consignees, and others interested will take ° T °” jan 19 lax Ac^ g^ res ’ Macon, Columbus, Montgomery, Mobile ana Selma papers copy one month. Owing to the increased price of Provisions, La bor and other expenses, the Steamboats on the Chattahoochee River have been compelled to ad vance their prices for freight and passage to the fol lowing rates: Passage from Columbus to Chattahoochee sio 00 From Chattahoochee to Columbus slo° 00 Intermediate landings in proportion. Freights to any point on Chattahoochee R iver $. 1 per hundred. Measurement Freight $i 25 per cubic foot * Capt. H. WINGATE, Shamrock. Capt. DAN FRY, Jackson. Capt. ABE FRY, Indian. Capt, JOHN (TOUCH, Mist. Capt. A. 0. BLACKM AR,Munnerlyn. feb7—tf __ JSfOTIdB. Omcs Grant Factory, 1 Nov. 2y, 1864.1 ALL persons having demands against the estate of Daniel Grant, deceased, are hereby requested to resent them to the Grant Factory, nov 30 ts JO J. GRANT. Sun copy ao<i send bill to offioe ma«t Factor. VOL. XII.} DAILY TIMES. KYKNING EDITION. FRIDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 17, 1865. Tub War News. —We hear from all parts ~ay the Examiner. 3d, of the Richmond 1 inen that the appointment of General Lee to the command of all the armies of the Confederacy has been the cause of great re-animation in the army, which is likely to be reflected o r er the country. General Lee is said to have been unusually cheerful in his conversation for the last few days, and has freely stated that be expects the text campaign of our arms to be, by tar, the most active and effective of the war. The authority and intelligence of this opinion, of course, give it an extraordinary valfip, especially so in connection with those rumors ol “peace” and other impossible things that have been filling our ears with pernicious .stuff for the past few weeks. From North Alabama.— We are in receipt of intelligence from North Alabama, says the Columbus Republic, to the effect that the gal lant Roddy has succcssully encountered the enemy several times in the last three weeks in the Tennesse Valley, capturing some prisoners and keeping them inside their fortifications around Decatur. Capt. Norris Coffin, chief of artillery, with a section-of Ferrell’s battery, had several en gagements with the gunboats prior to the evacuation of Decatur, inflicting considerable damage. Brig. Gen. Roddy’s division is in a thorough state of discipline and always anx ious to meet the enemy under their trusty leader. * From the United States. War Dep’t, Ad.j Gen.’s Device, 1 Washington, Jan. 18. 1865. J General Orders, No. 6. A proposal having been made by Robert Ould, on the 22d of August last, to the effect that prisoners of war on each side be released from confinement, close,* or in irons, as the case may be, and either placed in the condi tion of other prisoners or sent to their respect ive homes for their equivalents, which propo sal was duly approved by the Secretary of War, it is hereby ordered that all Confederate prisoners of war that come within the terms of said •accepted proposal, be released and sent to Fortress Monroe, there to be detained subject to the orders bf Lieut. Col. John E. Mulford, agent for the exchange of prisoners, to enable him to carry the proposal into effect. In executing this order, the expression, con finement close, will be construed as meaning prisoners confined in cells. By order of the Secretary of War. A. A. Nichols, A. A. G. The Government and tlie Railroads. On the sth of last month the Senate by a reso lution, revealed the injunction of secrecy from a bill passed on the Ist of May, 1803, “to facilitate transportation for the government.” As it is a matter of much importance to railroad men, we will give the chief features of the bill. Section one provides that the Secretary of War under the direction of the President, is authorized to require from any of the railroad companies in the Confeds erate States, that they devote, when, in his judg* ment, it may be necessary for the support of ope rations of armies in the field, all the means and re sources of such companies, over and above what may be required for the running one train for pas sengers in each twenty lour hours, to the transpor tation of freight, supplies, material and men for the Government, and that they run freight trains on such practicable schedule as may be prescribed by the Quartermaster General, to regulate the running of railroads, either on their own roads alone, or as through trains on other roads ; and in the event after duo requisition made by the Secretary of War, under the direction of the Pres ident, on such railroad companies, or any company refusing or unreasonably failing to comply with such requisition, then the Secretary of War, under the direction ofthe President, be authorized to seize and Impress such road, with all its depots, cars, locomotives, runuiug stock, machinery and implements, and turn the same over to the Quar termaster General who may compel the continued prosecution, employment and work o f such of the officers, agents, employees and operatives as are within the ages liable to conscription under exist' intr laws, and shall continue the working and ope rations in transportation of the road, paying to such railroad company, for the possession and use of its franchises, road, depots, rolliug stock, ma chinery and implements, such just compensation as may be assigned and presented by the board of assessors, constituted in the State in which the road is located, under the act of March 20, 1863, to regulate impressments. Roads owned by States exclusively and worked by them are not included in the act. The second section empowers the Quartermaster General as before provided to remove the rolling stock off and from one road to another, whenever, in his judgment, it is necessary for the public use: but such just compensation shall be made for the use of the same as may be assessed in the manner prescribed in the first section of this act. The third section gives the Quartermaster Gen eral power either to remove the rails or other mo vable structure, or the machinery of any railroad, in order to prevent their capture by the public enomv, or to repair, extend, or alter the roadway, structures or machinery of a railroad, any thing connected with any railroad, such work shall be upon the requisition es the Quartermaster General, under the direction of the President, promptly executed, under the control and super intendence of the officers of the railroads, the cost thereof to be defrayed by the government on bills duly rendered, and certified by the President and Superintendant of the road, to bo charged to, and relunded by the company on whose railroad such structures are built, or such repairs or alterations made, to the extent only, and at the time when, they shall be of value to such company, irrespect' ive of their value to the govern ment; such value to be determined by the board assessors pres scribed in the first section of the act. The bill to take effect on the date of its passage— 3 Winn Clarion. “ They would, if they could, stick a stamp on our soul. "—Boston Courier. \ t; True, it we could, but lack of space would cramp; „ It isn't big enough to bold a stamp. [Springfield Republican. Important To Soldiers' Fkiesds— The foi lowing note in regard to the transmission of let ters to points beyond Augusta, we find m the Con stitutionalist. This will be gratifying intelligence to the relatives and friends of soldiers in the army ! 0 f Virginia. Let every one be .informed of the t f act : ,O »' Hamburg. S. 0. Feb. i, lsbo. Messrs Editors'. For the information of your SXmi. mYXZ %&££&&& , m weaneaanj , L. Gejitht, P. M. Y ours> COLUMBUS, GA., SATURDAY, FEB. 18. 1865 [From the Mobile Register.] The ourning words of “Agla” come from the deep w*dl of a Confederate woman’s heart a gifted woman, a patriotic woman—a wo man who loves liberty, and whose soul’s de- Sire is lO lit e to call those countrymen whose bride disdains chains and whose valor will spurn them at the cost of life—above all, a pure and womanly woman. Read, and lay those words to ueart, and if that fountain of life pulsates thiough your veins, the pure, red bloo l of manhood, there will be a flutter in th it heart to testify on a sacrificial altar to Uiviue Liberty. It on the other hand, they tall cold and dank upon yoyr ear, if there is no answering flash to the incandescent heat of a fiery love ol country ; if your soul sleeps while passion burns, the alarm bell peals, and the drum beat rolls out the rappel of Liberty, God have merry on your soulless being, and grant that you. :ike has not otten been repeat ed ;n this day of your country’s trial. But to the men of the Confederacy, who have souls, • o the compatriots of the dead Jackson and the liviug Lee, we commend this gushing plaiut of a true daughter of the South. Lis ten and tremble if you have faltered, and make new vows of consecration to a holy cause, if you have done your duty. Listen: “Oh Liberty ! insatiate though thou art! though every purple hill and sunny vale groans with thy heroic heoatomb3 and drips with thy libations; we bow unfalteringly and undismayed before thy shrine ; we will not cast our battered armor off, nor furl our rid dled banners till thou hast nestled triumph antly in its battle-scarred folds.” Eloquent embodiment of the spirit of a no ble vow ! Enshrine it in your souls, soldiers and men of the South. In hoc signo vinces. — We thank this fair daughter of a stricken country for the spirit and eloquence which she brings to our aid in a daily effort to reanimate the ourage and the patriotism of its people. We surrender to her our editorial column.— Place aux Dames. The Mirage of Peace. “ Yes, Peace is beautiful; and I do yearn For her to clasp the world’s poor tortured heart, As sweet spring warmth doth brood o’er com ing flowers. But peace with these leviathans of blood— Who pirate crimson seas, devouring men ? Give them the hand of brotherhood—whose fangs Are in our hearts with the grim bloodhound’s grip? Wouldst see Peace, idiot-like, with smirk and smile, A-planting flowers to coronal Truth’s grave? Peace merry-making round the funeral pyre, Where Freedom, fiery-curtained, weds with death ? Peace mirroring her form by pools of blood— I answer war!—war with the cause of war!” “ We are millions of freemen, and will not stoop to reason with those who threaten to enslave us,” was the noble reply of Spain in 1823, to the insolent demands of the Allied Powers, whose bannered hosts were gathering to invade her territory. Are the people of the Confederate States prepared to-day to hurl such heroic defiance in the face of the Federal Government, who invited a conference with Confederate commissioners solely to insul. them wiih propositions which the most abject ot European seifs would blush to accept?— Breathes there a Southern man so lost to na tional pride, and to individual shame, as to stretch out his hands for Northern fetters, and bow his dishonored head for the yoke decreed by Lincoln and his wily Sejanu3, William H. Seward? Is there within the limits of our land, a man or woman who, hitherto deluded by hopes of concession and returning reason on the part of the Washington despotism, does not now fully realize the hideou3ness of the unveiled Mokanna, and the utter absurdity of theiY dreams of reconciliation ? “ Unconditional submission to Federal mas tery and dictation !” At these words of un paralleled insolence, does not the painted idol, Reconstruction, crumble and vanish forever from our midst; and will not the smoulder ing fires of stern resolve and invincible patri otism rekindle, and, springing heaven-high, glow on every household altar? Will not ev ery sword leap from its scabbard, and every Southern hand, grasping its nearest weapon, swear deathless allegiance to our starry cross, and eternal devotion to the cause of Southern Freedom? When tyranny, after four years of iniquitous strife and unprecedented carnage, j sounds a parley, and with matchless effronte- j ry wrapping a white flag around her gory i garments, steps forth with an olive branch in one hand, and manacles in the other, can a people who retain one noble aspiration for the future, or hallowed recollection of the past, deliberate an instant as to the path of duty ? Have the reconstructionists, the peace-on* any-terms men, gravely pondered the fate in store for all who submit to Federal bondage, and accept the conditions offered at Fortress Monroe? Peace we are wont to regard as the synonyme of prosperity, fire-side joys, and the exertion of the inalienable rights and privi leges of ireemen ; but dare any man expect these under Federal reconstruction and thral dom ? Has not the death knell of every vidual and national hope dirged out at Wash ington ? Are we not by Federal ukase already stripped of lands, negroes and homesteads; proscribed from office and pronounced politi cal Pariahs? Bereft of patrimony and every time-honored social institution, subordinated to the insolent dictation of emancipated slaves, and the equally odious arrogance of Yankee taskmasters ; beggared, branded, dis graced and despised, a by-word for degrada tion and a target for contumely, what would remain for Federal serfs but the goading mem ory of by-gone happiness and grandeur, and the accusing graves of their dishonored an cestry ? Oh ! for the inscription of Jeremiah ! to paint the nameless horrors, the worse than Babylonish captivity, the desolation of subju gation, uncheered by the hope of rebuilding and recovering our national Jeruselem . Is there a parallel for the astounding fatuity which could now hope for the protection of propertv, or the maintenance of manly digni ty, under the Upas banners of oppression ; and breathes there a Southern father so cowed, so servile and imbruted, that, standing beside the cradle of his child, he could deliberately cast this hideous horoscope and bequeath this legacy of shame ? Verily ! “ people who will not look forward to the fate of posterity, have never proudly looked backward to the glory of their ancestors. Oh Liberty 1 insatiate though thou an ! though every purple hill and sunny vale groan with thy heroic heca tombs and drip with thy libations, we bow unfalteringly and undismayed before thy shrine; we will not cast our battered armor off', nor furl our riddled banner, til! thou hast nestled triumphantly in its battle-scarred folds ! If such be the verdict of our peopie and God grant them the strength and wisdom to accept the issue now presented-** were well for us to examine our national s.atus. to unmask the agencies that are sapping the foundations of our existence; to grapple promptly with the internal grievances that naralvz- the government ana render we.i m o h nugatorythe bravery and endurance of our soldiery The position of the feouth is luha telr more perilous than was that of England in 1797 when Edmund Burke exclaimed: Jvl'fVver there was a time that cal's on us tor no vulgar conception of things, and for exer- I tions in no vulgar strain, it is the awful hour that Providence has now appointed for this na tion. Every little measure is a great error ; and every great error will bring ou no small ruin. Nothing can be directed above the mark that we must aim at: everything below it is abso- I lutely thrown away.” A thorough realization of the dangers that threaten is the most speedy and effective agent of defence, and no calm, thoughtful observer can scan the aspect ot affairs on the great military echiquier , and deny that on every side the Confederacy is begirt with peril. With a daily narrowing circle of territory, hermitically sealed ports, and limited mechanical resources we confront a foe \who recruits his armies and navy from every nation under heaven, and wields against us every conceivable improvement in the ap pliances of war. Flushed and insolent from I recent successes, fresh hordes are gathering to hurl themselves at the opening ot the spring campaign upon the devoted but depleted ar mies of Generals Lee and Beauregard. No where in the annals of the race has history 1 proclaimed th*at one-third of the population 1 of a country saved the remainder from slavery j and ruin. Brave bands like Leonidas’ Three I Hundred, have been swept from the field of | battle to the loitiest niche of immortality, but to conquer and crush huge invading armies, requires in conjunction with bravery, numer ical strength ; positive human avoirdupois.— Unless our armies can be largely reinforced within the ensuing campaign, it is scarcely problematical that we shall be first overrun, and finally subjugated. There are unques tionably men enough in the Confederacy to set this haunting spectre forever at rest; and ‘he juncture has surely arrived when every man and woman must do their duty, or perish in (he national ruin. The hour has come when every athletic man under forty-five should be dragged from quartermaster, commissary, ex press, railroad and postoffices ; when all Com mandants of posts, cross-roads and station houses should be stripped ot the countless supernumeraries and easemated hangers-on who thus contrive to elude danger and duty. A radical and immediate reform is impera tively demanded and the authorities at Rich mond would expedite this w “Consummation devoutly to be wished,” by replacing the present regime of enrolling officers with disabled soldiers whose wounds attest their incorruptible patriotism. The best possible exemption bill has been furnished by Federal ball and shell; and wooden arras and empty sleeves will prove far more potent and effectual than those trembling, fleshy members, who now either by supineness or corruption jeopardize the cause whose uniform they dis grace. Congress has passed all requisite measures, and upon the war office devolves their vigorous enforcement; but to the citizens at home, government must look for support and cordial co-operation. The convenient plea is not unfrequently urged, that certain young gentlemen as robust as Milo, are needed in these quartermaster, commissary and trans portation departments, which demand energy and experience. Those requisites can be sup plied by thousands of practical, industrious, business men, beyond the limit of conscription; whose sons are at the front, and whose ante* cedents have thoroughly fitted them for the details of department work. Let the pens of the country be wielded by grey-haired sires, and its muskets by the regiments, nay, brig ades of young cowards who now crouch igno miniously in the sheltered nooks. Glancing over the thousands of stalwart forms that throng our quiet streets and crowd river land ings and railroad depots, it seems almost im possible to realize that political and social ru in stares us in the face, and one is haunted by the mournful declaration of Curran: “When the very existence of the country is at stake, its strongest and most precious limbs are not girt with the sword for battle, but pressed with the tourniquet for amputation.’’ Shall we merit the compassion of mankind, or escape everlasting infamy, if, with adequate resources at command, we perish finally through the degeneracy and demoralization of the masses at home? Are our hallowed dead so utterly j forgotten, that there lingers no inspiration in the names of Johnson, Jackson, Polk .and Cleburne ? Is there a heart so sordid and cal lous, that its pulsations do not quicken at recollection of the fresh fields of Franklin and Nashville, where “The stern white faee3 of the deal that on the dark ground lay, Like statues of old heroes cut ia precious human clay— The household gods of many a heart all dark and dumb to-day,” look up in mute appeal for sepulture and ven geance! By the noble blood scarce dried upon the trampled soil of Tenness®®; by the memory of our best and bravest : the means of widows and of orphans; in the name of all we have suffered and lost, and all that we hold doar on earth, oh men of the South! will you not rise en masse, join the heroes at the front, and overwhelm the army which hangs like a black cloud along the borders of Carolina? Can the women of the Confederacy contemplate the horrors of subjugation, and refuse to exert the vast influence they possess, in rein forcing the armies now battling against fearful odds, to defend them from insult and destruction? Can mothers, wive3 and sisters, whose life long idols now lie shattered on distant gory fields, so far forget their martyrs as to recognize as gentle men and friends the thousand craven spirits*who creep from place to place in search of safety, dis honoring their land and the dead who conse crate it ? Can mirth and reckless ribaldry hold high car* nival in social circles while every passing breeze chants the requiem of dying heroes, and is bur dened with the lamentations of stricken wives and wailing orphans ? Are Southern women so com pletely oblivions of the claims of patriotism and humanity, that in this season of direct extremity they thread the airy mazes of the dance while the matchless champions of freedom are shivering in bloody trenches, or lying stark on frozen fields of glcry ? Do not the hundred thousand victims of Chickahominy, Gettysburg, Shiloh, Murfreesboro, Chickamauga and the Wilderness, rise in spectral bands and with ghastly, horror-stricken visages, lift their blo%dv hands in mournful expostulation, and murmur in sepulchral tones : “Shame ! shame upon your degeneracy ! You dance over our bleaching and unburied bones !” Oh ! my country-women ! pause for a moment, and reflect upon the vital nature of the struggle, the awful consequences of defeat, the urgency of the crisis, the imperative necessity that every heart, head and hand should be consecrated to the sacred work of achieving independence ! Mothers, wives and sisters, could you waltz across the yawniDg graves of your darling dead, or drown in bursts ®f music the last feeble accents which breathed tender adieus, and pleaded for a sanctuary in memory ? Because your own treasures are yet spared, can you turn a deaf ear, heart to the sobs and tears of our Confederate Rama, or per chance to the pallid, despairing face of your next deor neighbor, Niobe! Tullia like, darts you trample the mangled martyrs who pave the path to liberty and peace? Will yen, can you, per sistently" outrage the nation’s holy dead, and bring irremediable ruin up -selve*,_to a course of insane, heartless and «u •- . < Vivoiity, when the salvation of the country your every thought and ceaseless prayers ? Woe to that wretched land, whose insensate women seek only amusement during the bloody irema of revolution! If every mother, wife and sister ia the Confede rate States felt as did the women of Leyden and Haarlem, neither enrolling nor recruiting officers would be required; deserters and skulkers could find bo lurking places at home, and would rather face Federal balls,than the scorn and loathing of brave, pure, derated and patriotic women. Oh, for tha sublime heroism wh ch prompted the wives, and maidens of Xantbus to fire their city and perish amid the flames, rather than surrender to Marcus Brutus ! “They were heroic souls who had lain life's all On Freedom’s hungry altar, and gone forth Clad in the immortal spirits of self sacrifice.” Shall future historians record that instead of emulating the purity and patriotic ardor of Roman and Spartan women, those of the Confederacy in the darkest htfur of trial, busied themselves only in the preparation of Nitoeris banquets, and like those doomed revellers of Egypt, were overwhelm ed at the moment when mad revelry had reached its fatal height. Are there not true and noble women enough in the country to band themselves against the encroaching tide ofdemoralizafon, to check the increasing and corrupting traffic in foreign luxuries and trifles ; to popularize only Confederate articles of dress; to arouse the peo ple to a realization of their imminent peril, and to ! rekindle and fan the fires of public devotion on every houshould altar? Ah! my countrywomen! you have but to will the success of our cause, and under the blessing of Heaven it will be speedily accomplished. The soul of Kenan Hasselaer would galvanize the slumbering masses whose laisez nous faire policy has brought us to the brink of ruin, and smite from its gilded shrine the gol den calf, before which two-thirdi of the nation bow. There is an appropriate season for the light, graceful measures of the dance; for mirth and so - cial festivities: but these are fitting concomitants of the smiling reign of white-handed, benedictive i Peace, aDd are but waddeuing mockeries, unpar | donable insults in the midst of carnage and the death-grapple of ia'uriated nations. Oh! my ! country women ! in the name of humanity and i the tender sympathies of womanhood—in the name of slaughtered thousands who have gone down in the red burial of battle, I implore you to pause in your giddy whirl, and address .yourselves earnestly to the grand work of encouraging and sustaining the suffering but devoted soldiery, who alone stand between our loved hearthstones, and the bosom of destruction. Has the boasted chiv alry of our people fallen so low, as to find no m-igic in the thunder-roll of by gone marvels of heroism? Has the spirit of the Bocage no echo o® this side of the Atlantic ; and can this genera tion have forgotten that thirty Confederates met by starlight on the solemn brink of the Grutti, and, defying the vast power of the House of Haps burg, decreed freedom for the Cantons? Come there no whispers of encouragement from the crumbling ruins of the Kremlin, and the smiling tulip fringed dykes of Batavia ? Nhall Sherman be allowed to sweep triumphantly through the heart of our land without finding a single inscrip tioa similar to that of Rostopchin, which Napole on read by the baleful glare of burning home-' steads t “Frenchmen! I have spent eight years in embellishing this residence; and here I have lived happily in the bosom of my family. The inhabitants of the estate, numbering seventeen hundred and twenty persons, have quitted it at your approach, and I have with my own hand fired my house, to prevent its pollution by your presence.” Shall the serfs of Russia rise in de rision and mock the pretentions of a natiou claim ing the championship of freedom ? My country men and women, let us shake off forever the vis inertice which jeopardises all that life holds pre cious, and develop the resources and powers of endurance of which we are yet scarcely conscious. The siren song of European intervention and rec ognition has too often lulled to treacherous secu rity and fostered illusory and demoralizing hopes ! to day let us realize and accept the stern fact that the world has turned its back upon U3 ; that no extraneous aid will ever be tendered : that on Southern steel and.Southern muscle alore we must rely for victory ; >-and thus girded anew by despe rate resolve, and panoplied with unwavering trust in the God of battle, we shall certainly escape dishonorable bondage— “ For all may have, it they dare choose, A glorious life or grave.” Perish all other aims but that of national deliver- : once, and to this glittering goal strain every nerve, lift every arm in defence, and every heart in sup- i plication; consecrate every hope, aspiration and faculty, and solemnly swear like William Pitt: “We know that great exertions are required, but we aic , prepared to make them; and at the events we are ! determined to stand or fall by the Laws, the Liberties j and the Religion of our country /” Echoing the! immortal motto of UampdeD, vestigia nulla retro - ! sum, let the people, military and civil, sustain and fully co-operate with the Government; let Congress ‘ call into the field every white man under forty-five, I and let the States promptly donate one hundred thousand negroes to the Confederate Government, 1 to be trained, well disciplined, thoroughly accou tred. and held like the Helots of Sparta for national service, in any capacity which exigencies may de mand. Let individual animosities, jealousies, pre- i judicos and favoritisms be forgotten; let Congress, i Cabinet, Executive, and people unite cordially, in- ; cite and sustain each other, and thus aroused and ' unanimous, bidding defiance to the world we may well exclaim: “Onward in faith! and leave the rest I to Heaven!” Constancy and heroism will soon coerce a noble j peace which shall pour its precious balm upon our stricken, bleeding land, and richly guerdon all its j awful cost, and until such honorable terms can be extorted, there is no extremity of want orwar, neither peril nor privation, .which is not infinitely ! preferable to the name and mockery of a peace which would plunge us into an abysis of infamy, and prove and abject, pusillanimous and disgraceful surrender of all that constitutes the happiness, safety arid ; flory of the Confederacy. “Brothers, I bid ye forth to glorious war! The stream of Time runs red with our best blood, And dragons’ teeth have sprung—aye—in our hearts!” AGLA. The Defence of Fort Fisher. | The enemy seems to be very much surprised at the stubborn resistance which our gallant boys made |to his assault at Fort Fisher. “The rebels met us” 3ays Admiral Porter, in his official report, “with a ; courage worthy of a better cause, and'fought des perately. ” Thisjs the testimony which the enemy bears to the bearing and conduct of the little band taat was left unsupported, to drive back treble their number, when treachery or cowardice, or both, had . yielded the sally port with three hundred men pris | oner3 into his hands. During the whole of that long Sabbath afternoon, from 3 o’clock until 9j4 o’clock P- tH'. they fought from traverse to traverse, while the hurling missiles from the fleet, that darkened I the heavens above their heads, seemed to rain fire like that which destroyed the wicked cities of the plain. We majority of the men c< uiposing the I garison at Fort Fisher —or rather, we should say, the boys, for mere boys they were—the flower of the ; youth of the counties of Bladen, Richmond, Robin son and jCumberland, who had left either the col lege campus or the play ground of the field school to handle the musket or train the cannon for the de fence of North Carolina. Had these boys been in i Lee’s army, and offered the same resistance to the masses of the enemy that swarmed into the Fort through sallyport and over parapet, and fought from traverse to traverse in that fearfe! hand to hand con flict,which admits of no parleying,and often without noise or words locks the combatants in the cm : brace of death, they would have been immortal ized. It makes a great difference, in these days, where a man fights, as well as for what cause he contends for. The banks of the Cape Fear are not half so classic as the banks of the James. The men who die with Lee are heroes ; those who die with any body else may look out for themselves. We are sor ry to see so much of this spirit {manifesting itself.— Surely, if any body of men deserved well of the country, the heroic defenders of Fisher do. Many of them, as we l ave already remarked, were mere boy3. They had to meet, in close and deadly con flict, the brawny arms, stout thews and sinews of the bearded Northmen, who were in the full vigor of manhood. They met, too, those • 3tout invaders inside of their own works, where the enemy, out numbering them, had equal advantag s in every otber respect with our boys. And yet the enemy himself says: “They fought desperately.” Strange to say, after all this, that we find among us some carpet knights who tell us that our soldiers did not, would not fight!— who aver their own boys did not do their duty I (M knows the treat ment they had received in being abandoned, as they had been, in a second well of Cawnpore. to their fate, was enough to discourage and palsy their arms in the fight. The enemy, however, more generous than those for whom they fought, has done the boys justice. They fought to such purpose as to extract from the enemy praise and admiration. We do Kfcpe tuat whatever editors from other Sta'e- may do, tnose who cqntr <1 the columns of 'he North Caro lipa press will do the gallant defenders of Fort risner the justice which is due them.— Xorth Caro linian. Notice ! I EFT in Box No. 96, Post Office, on the morning U 17rh Feb iB6O, one ounch KEYS, any on* re moving the keys will please leave them at the Post Office with the Clerk, and oblige. fed 17 ts Attention. Xelson Ranges! Ail memoers of toe Nelson Rangers, on furlough ! or detail, ordered to meet at Columbus, Ga., on Saturday, lAtii ins - prepared to march i 'medi ately. J 3. OWENS. feb IA td Lieut. Commanding. j SIX DOLLARS i PER MONTH TELEGRAPHIC. REPORTS OT THE PRESS ASSOCIATION. Evere-’l according to act of Congress in the y .ai 1863. oy J. 8 a hkashkr, in the Clerk 's office ■ f ‘-he District Court of the Confederate State-* >< the Northern District of Georgia. Macon. Feb. 17.—There is a quorum in both Houses of the Legislature of Georgia. Gov. Brown’s message strongly opposes us proposed arming of slaves. Our unfortunate policy heretofore, he thinks, wasted strength and reduced nunri ers, of our armies The President, unable to get men as conscripts, and unwilling to accept them organized. [?] now seeks to fill our armies by conscripting negroes, who cannot be relied on as soldiers. If forced into our armies, with promise of freedom for faithful services, a single procla mation from Lincoln offering them exemption from military service, freedom, and wages for labor, would cause them to desert by brigad** If we arm slaves, why deny the justice of abandoning slavery ? If government can buy slaves and give them freedom, it may abolish slavery b> buying and freeing a!!, and taxing the people to pay for them In relation to our condition and pro-p * 'i, the whole body politic is diseased—un:<‘ss active remedies me administered—and dea’.b is an inevitable result. The Constitution i. u been violated, the rights of States prostrated by Congressional encroachment and Execu tive usurpation, protests of State Legislature i unheeded, unconstitutional taxes laid, im pressments made oppressive without just com pensation, agriculturalists placed under heavy bonds not to sell produce at the market value or exchange for articles of necessity, citi zens not belonging to the army arrested and imprisoned without due process of law. and good citizens, travelling on lawful business, must cairy passes. The finances have been unfortunately administered, and the propor tions being considered to sustain them are a little .better than legalized robbery. The wretched conscription policy is welladaptei to control European serfs but is repugnant to the spirit of a free people and has driven men to desertion. The Government will be a mil itary despotism when the writ of habeas cor pus is suspended, to which the President s earnest efforts are constantly directed. The present policy is the surest mode to diminish our armies, exhaust our resources and break down the spirits of our people ani drive them into despair, and, if persisted In, will result in reconstruction or subjugation, both of which the Governor is utterly op posed to. The Governor does not despair of our abil ity to succeed. Conscription .must be repeal ed, the States called on for men, and good faith kept with the troops. No more repud’a tion or impressments exoept in extreme cases. Secret sessions abandoned and discipline re stored to the army. The President, having faided in military administration and brought the country to the verge of ruin, should bo relieved from military powers by amending the Constitution so as to place the armies un der a commander in chief, independent of tha President’s eontrol. He recommends a convention of this and other States to require Congress to call a con vention of all the States to make this change in the Constitution and restore the great prin ciples of State sovereignty and Constitutional liberty now disregarded. The Governor concludes no one is more vitally interested in the success of the cause than myself. I have staked life, liberty of myself and my pos terity on the result. The enemy has destroyed my property and shed the blood of my nearest rela tions ; my destiny is linked with my country. If we succeed, I am a freeman ; if we fail, the same ruin awaits men. Night's dark tempest howls, and the helmsman is steering towards the whirl pool—our remonstrances unheeded ; we mu.-t re strain him, or the crew will sink together in one irretrievable ruin. Mobile, 16.—At a mass meeting of Gi'ob« son’s Louisiana Brigade the following resolu tions were passed : Resolved, That with pleasure we witness the recent demonstration for a more vigorous prosecution of the war, and again pledge our selves to stand by our noble President aad constituted authority so long as a banner re mains which shall be borne, or our indepen* deuce i3 achieved. Last night, at eleven o’clock, a detachment of the 16th Indiana came from Thibodaux to Houma to reinforce the provost guard*at this town, composed of a detachment of the 18tb New York Regiment. By some mismanage ment the reinforcement came in collision with the sentry, when three or four shots were fired. The result was, the garrison flew to arms and, deploying across the main thoroughfare, pre pared to meet the attack of, as they supposed, a band ol guerillas. A3 the Indiana boys came thundering down the street, the New Y'ork boy3 challenged. Thereupon the Indi ana boys opened fire on them, and a regular fight eusued, in which some 75 or 100 shots were fired on both 3ides. During the fight, Capt. Thomas, who com manded the Indiana boy3, was badlv wounded by a shot in the breast, as also a non-com missioned officer and two privates, with sev eral horses. The Indiana boys then fell back outside the town and despatched a courier post haste, calling for reinforcements, as tbev had found the town of Houma in the bands of the guerillas, and after a skirmish they had been compelled to retire with the loss of their commander. Reinforcements came on in the shape of a whole regiment, which arrived ia town this morning at about six o’clock, under command of a major. They had mistaken each other for guerillas.—JV. O. Delta. CITY FOUNDRY! SUGAR MILLS AND KETTLES ! WE HAVE OF HAND Sugar Hills and Kettles, holding 20,35, 40, 60. 80 and 130 gallons, which wa will exchange for Provisions or any kind of country Produce, or money on very liberal terms. olicited. PORTER, McILHENNY Jc CO. Columbus, Jan. 20, ts wa^tedT ' j 11Y1 LBS. of TALLOW, for which a liberai price J»Uvv will be paid. Apply to F. W. DILLARD, *!>■ tt Major and Q. M. FOR SALE! WAGON HARNESS. COLLARS. HAMES. A:. YY Also a few sett? of BUGGY T HARNESS. Apply to SHERMAN A CO. feb 4 1m Masonic Hall, upstairs. Wanted, FOR the State of Louisiana TEN .MOULDERS.— Wages liberal. Transportation furrdshed. Ap ply to Maj. R. S. Hardaway, of this city. D. A. BLACKSHER, feb 12 ts Comiasioner for Lonisiaaa. Poeket Book Lost. SOOO Reward.. A large enameled cloth Money book lost ia the ladies car of the Opelika R. R- on Saturday the lith. inst- The name of Martha James Ross was written in full within it- It contained three five hundred dollar bills, tea hundred dollar bills aad two fifties besides some small bills, the total amount about above reward will be paid fbr ita delivery a’ he T'tnes Office- It was dronred at tha s»at while i.-.aving tne cars at Co'umbq; FebUtr >f j a- v )jg,