Staunton Spectator

The ladies of this good old county are not degenerate daughters of the mothers of the revolution. They are as lovely as they are beautiful and so patriotic as they are lovely. From the beginning of the war, they have been doing all that was withing the sphere of their power to do for the comfort and relief of our soldiers, and for the advancement of the cause of the South.--They have been assiduous in their labors, have spared no pains, have made many sacrifices, and are still willing to make many more for the sake of the cause in which the South is engaged.--When needed, they made with their own fair hands, though unused to toil, Caps, Jackets, Pants, Drawers, Shirts, Gloves and Socks for the soldiers. When sick, they ministered to their comfort and relief, by all the means which their sex knows so well how to employ. Many a sick soldier, as he lay upon his couch of pain and looked upon the fair "ministering angel" who stood beside him, anticipating every wish and supplying every want, mentally quoted the language of the poet:

"O woman, in our hours of ease,
Uncertain, coy, and hard to please;
But when pain and anguish wring the brow,
A ministering angel thou."

Having done all they could at home, a voice reaches their ears that the Capital of the State is in danger of being polluted with the unhallowed tramp of vassal invaders, and that an iron-clad gunboat is desired for its defence, and they immediately, in obedience to their instinct of fervent patriotism, resolve to raise all the money they can for the purpose of building a gunboat of that character. We learn that $1200 for this purpose have been already contributed, and that much more will be. We are pleased that they are also raising a fund for the support of the families of the soldiers who are fighting the battles of their country. We hope that the contributions to this latter fund will be liberal, so that no soldier in our ranks need feel any uneasiness about the support of his family. The laudable and patriotic labors of the ladies have not failed to be observed and appreciated by the Congress of the Confederacy, as will be seen by reference to the following resolution recently adopted by that body:

Resolved, by the Congress of the Confederate States of America, That the thanks of the Congress of the Confederate States are eminently due, and are hereby tendered to the patriotic women of the Confederacy, for the energy zeal and untiring devotion which they have manifested in furnishing voluntary contributions to our soldiers in the field, and in the various military hospitals throughout the country.

We are indebted to Mr. Wm. A. Burnett, Clerk of the Board of Exemption, for the following statement of the number of exempts, substitutes and details in this county:

About 469 exempted from disability and other causes; about 270 applicants not exempted; 211 substitutes, and details, to wit: 15 Overseers, 20 Blacksmiths, 8 Clerks QuartermasterDepartments, 10 Va. C. Railroad, 47 Staunton Boot and Shoe Factory, 42 Government WorkShops, 8 Manufacturers of Saltpetre, 31 Forrer's Iron Works, 14 Miller's Iron Works, 8 Shaw & Trevy Iron Works, 37 Millers, 3 Staunton Steam Mills, 14 Physicians, 15 Tanners, 6 Stage Drivers, 2 Deputy Sheriffs, 3 Bank Officers and 8 Druggists. Total 1,220.

The Board of Exemption will meet again on next Saturday, the 19th instant.

The Baltimore correspondent of the New York "Herald" writes to that paper as follows, concerning the Confederate prisoners taken at Winchester, and now confined in the Baltimore jail:

The most of them have been in the Confederate service for the last nine or ten months, and are now re-enlisted for the war. The officers say that all the Virginia troops now in the field have re-enlisted for the war. I have conversed with most of the above officers, and find them to be highly intelligent men, and some of them have the manners of highly educated and polished gentlemen. On their arrival here they were placed in the city jail, where they placed in the city jail, where they will remain for the present. The city jail is a building of enormous proportions, built of stone, with white [illegible] lacings. It is about the size and height of the Metropolitan Hotel in New York, and its magnificent towers and turrets give it more the appearance of a castle of feudal times than of a prison. On entering its spacious corridors, I found the prisoners grouped around one of General Dix's clerks, who was taking down their names. The men were not at all disinclined to converse and talked freely of the battle in which they had been taken prisoners.

They are all comfortably elected, and apparently in good spirits. They all had Virginia bank notes amounting in the aggregate to $1,500 or $1,800, but stated that they had not been paid for the last two months. Having been allowed to do so, many of them sent their Virginia bank notes out to-day and had been exchanged for United States money or silver at a heavy discount. At present they have to put up with the common jail fare--brown bread to eat, and molasses and water, under the name of coffee to drink. But arrangements are being made by the military authorities here by which they will have proper food. Their washing will be done for them and everything else done to render them comfortable. The men are to be allowed to walk in the spacious yards of the jail, and the officers will be paroled and allowed to go about the city.

The officers who were in the battle of Manassas declare that the battle of last Sunday water bloodier than that, and far more hotly contested. They marched from Mount Jackson to Strasburg to near Winchester, where they met Gen. Shield's forces and the battle took place.--I infer, from what they said, that it was General Jackson's idea that General Banks was endeavoring to form a junction with General McClellan at Centreville, and that, in order to prevent this, or, at least, to retard it, General Jackson returned to Winchester and fought this battle.

The officers speak in the highest terms of Gen. Jackson. They say he never sends his men into battle, but always leads them, and then the men follow his example.