Valley Virginian

We said in our last, that we would undertake to show that the Valley Railroad and Covington and Ohio Road, will move on harmoniously together, and, that Richmond would be benefitted by every effort of Baltimore to advance either of these improvements; and we proceed very briefly to give our views on these points. First then, in a great measure, the two improvements are dependent on each other; and they must in our opinion work in harmony. Intrinsically the through Valley Road from the Potomac to Salem will be self sustaining; and its future abounds with promises of prosperity. It will pass through the center of the richest Valley, considering its width and length, on the Continent. It will force its way through no barren wastes, inhospitable wilds or rugged Mountains. From one terminus to the other, it will be in the midst of productive lands and mineral deposits--water-power and facilities for manufactures, unsurpassed in the world. As it advances, wealth, enterprize and eager crowds of earnest men will follow in its wake and occupy the lands, develope their hidden resources, and build up factories, workshops and manufactories. So that, by the time the road is extended to Salem, the Valley itself will yield trade enough to render the investment in it fairly remunerative. At Staunton it will cross the Central; at Buchanan the Canal, and at Salem it will receive blessings from and confer them on the Virginia and Tennessee.

Suppose in view of these intrinsic advantages and incidental connections, the men of Baltimore should resolve to build the Valley Road, as they doubtless will--how will this determination affect the Covington and Ohio enterprize? This is to be a grand trunk line, connecting the Valley of the Ohio with the Atlantic frontier. It is now locked up in the fastnesses of the Mountains; it moves not--it is almost dead. How shall it be started forward, and made alive with energy and power? By the reviving touch of Capital. How can Capital be enlisted in this great Virginia work? By the hope of reward--the prospect of gain. And we must remember that the Capital in this improvement will make profits out of operations only between Covington and the Ohio River. It is a trunk line from the River through the Mountains. To make it pay, it must have as many arteries and channels of trade and travel converging upon it at both ends as possible. And we verily believe that Capital cannot be invested in this work, without a fair prospect of liberal branches to attract traffic and travel over it; and that, if the Legislature were to declare, that the operations over the line should be in connection with Richmond alone, the Road would never be made, except by direct and oppressive taxation on the two Virginias.

Hence we argue that a reasonable prospect of a first class road down the Valley from Staunton, will stimulate the investment of Capital in the Covington & Ohio Road; and on the other hand, the assurance that the Covington and Ohio Road will be advanced in its prospects of success, by the construction of the Valley Road, will quicken the earnest determination of the friends of the Valley improvement, to have it ready to receive its share of the full flow of wealth, which will burst through the Mountains when the trunk line West is opened. Hence we say the two enterprizes must contribute to the advancement, each of the other, and move on harmoniously to final success.

And what of Richmond the while? Is she to sit mourning in ashes and ruin? Heaven forbid a doom so sad. We have more cheerful views of her future. We take it for granted she will try to get ready for the Spring tide of fortune--that her store-houses will be fitted up--her shops and factories busily at work--her communications with City Point and Newport News opened and in full operation--her manufacturers skillful--her merchants enterprizing--her offers to trade tempting--and her strong arms stretched forth to grasp the rich prizes of trade as they are thrust to the Mountains, Eastward, in search of a market. All these things we expect of her; and we have no doubt our expectations will not be disappointed.

"The Gods aid those who help themselves," and so it will be with Richmond, if she enacts the part neither of Niobe nor of Rachel. Tears won't help her. She must work--"begin, be bold and venture to be wise." She must arm herself "with the unconquerable will, the courage never to submit or yield." She must invite Capital to her, and not force it away by exorbitant exactions--and, with new means and energy and courage, make use of the prodigious advantages nature has bestowed on her for the supremacy in manufactures; and in ten years the eddying currents of wealth-giving traffic will move up and down the Valley, through the Tunnel and "on to Richmond," and the gushing volume of her through trade with Cincinnati, Louisville and other cities of the Great West will task her utmost capacity to accommodate and dispose of it.

Although it is with mournful pleasure that our thoughts dwell on the memory of this brave boy, it is yet with profound sadness we remember his early death. Associated with him during his career as a soldier, it may be supposed, that we intimately knew his good qualities, and loved him as only a brother could.

It is seldom that we find in one so young as Captain FLETCHER such firmly fixed principles. He was the soul of honor, and his gallantry in action and strict attention to duty in camp, combined to raise him to the highest place in the confidence of his superiors. Nor was he less beloved or less honored and respected by his associates and men. They acknowledged his rare talents and military virtues, and gave him their respect and obedience on all occasions.

Independent of his excellent military qualities which, of necessity, tend socially to separate men, he possessed a kind, humane and loving heart, and his last thoughts, as shown by his words, were turned to his young comrades in arms, with whom he had passed so many hours of pleasure and of trial. But it was the will of a Higher Power that he should depart, and we must not repine--but, although we know that--we cannot repress our grief.

At this time, although far removed from the scene, we are carried back to the banks of the Chickahominy; a young and mangled body arises before our eyes--the whirl and excitement of battle--and then, the end--the death-damp upon his noble brow--the painful lingering of a few days--the mutterings of home and friends--the release. He is gone, and a nobler boy never died. His memory and example alone remain with us. Let us cherish the one and emulate the other.

The following is an extract from a letter written by the late Colonel Wm. S. Baylor to a friend:

"How nobly has your city contributed in men and officers for this war; and oh! how sadly has this war dealt with them. I wrote to you not long since of poor young FLETCHER. How gallantly the boy--for he was not a man in years, though fully one in manliness and soldierly bearing--bore himself in all the battles we were in together. Wounded by a severe bruise of a shell on Friday, he did not ask to be relieved of duty, but still was at the head of his company, next morning, attending to its wants as he always did. And when at the Battle of Malvern Hill he was struck by a shell which penetrated through and through his body, leaving the most frightful wound I ever saw, his brave spirit, forgetful of his own awful pain, still thought of his men and his country, as he turned his eyes towards the regiment and said: 'Keep in good spirits boys! This is a just cause.' He afterwards said, 'I am dying a poor little refugee,' as his thoughts turned to his home and the dear ones far away. The tear that I wiped from my cheek, as I turned from his side to other duties, was not unmanly, nor did it unfit me for the more dangerous scenes which surrounded us. His was an untimely end, and had Providence in His wisdom seen fit to spare him, though a youth to fortune and fame unknown. I believe he would have proven himself a man in this world and the pride of his family. If you have an opportunity please let his family learn what his Colonel thought of him, and you can assure them I but speak the voice of the entire regiment--it may assuage their grief."

From a beautiful tribute to the women of the South, in the Courier des Etats Unis, the French paper in New York, we make the following extracts. It is written in answer to the gross slanders of the New York Tribune. It is all the more gratifying when we answer it as the unbiased opinion of a foreigner. The Courier says:

Let us permit the Tribune to insist upon the "gross ignorance" of the Confederate women, and to refer to this ignorance their energy and constancy during the war. We attribute the great qualities of which the Southern women have given noble example to a higher origin. Ignorance, the Tribune has said it a hundred times, can engender only vice and meanness--and, if the Confederate women have been heroic, it is because they had faith in their cause. There are occasions in history when women, whose mission in ordinary times is to make the good wife, the tender mother, and to polish manners by the charm and grace which she brings into all social relations, may rise above herself and give examples of the highest virtues. These occasions occur when the sacred soil of her country and with it (or through it) the domestic hearth and the family are threatened with invasion.

These high virtues of the women of the South have practiced without ostentation, without theatrical parade. They have borne all privations, they have defied all outrages by their proud and impassable attitude. Soldiers, drunken with blood, could outrage their bodies, but their victims remained as pure as those Christian virgins whose memories the embraces of the executioner could not defile. All that is precious to women--dress, jewels, the luxuries of home--all those the Southern women gave up--they did not even recoil before sacrifices still more painful--they did not fear to break their hearts by sending forth their sons to do battle for a cause, sacred in their eyes, like that Lacedomonian mother who showed a shield to her son and said simply--return with it--or upon it--do thy duty, or die. Do not expect such traits from ignorant women, from souls without elevation!

And while desolation over all the hearths of the South, while mothers had each day fresh tears to wipe away, yet bravely bore their grief, how, were the women of the North employed? In developing a costly luxury against which the Tribune itself cried out, calling attention to its scandalous extent, feminine prodigality became more and more unrestrained. We know to what disastrous result this state of affairs had led. Some ladies, it is true, like Miss Anna Dickenson, gave it tiresome lectures to promiscuous audiences; other clamored for pretended woman's rights, and exposed themselves to the derision of the public; and others still enrolled themselves under the banner of miscegenation. It is among these classes of women, who defy good sense and modesty in public exhibitions, that the Tribune finds its ideal?

Let this journal then cease to insult these conquered women, of whom the defeat has not diminished the greatness; let it cease to embitter and dishonor its pen in sustaining an indefensible paradox. The North, like the South, has its continent of good, graceful, educated and elegant bred women; it has, perhaps, a larger number of that class who so little deserve the name of women, and for whom certain announcements are made in the journals; it possesses, also, a greater share of learned and pedantic ladies--but for these, will New Orleans not become envious of Boston. As for good and well-bred society, it is the same everywhere, and the Tribune may be sure that a woman of the world, coming from Boston, would not feel out of place in New Orleans, nor would the contrary be true. In calumniating the Southern women Mr. Greeley has simply proved that he does not know them, and that he knows still less the common laws of propriety.