Staunton Spectator

The Rockingham Register says that we did injustice to the Provost Guard of Harrisonburg in stating several weeks since, that "some persons mistaking the Harrisonburg Provost Guard for the Augusta Home Guard erroneously stated that a portion of the Home Guard ingloriously fled on the near approach of the enemy." We are pleased to hear that the Harrisonburg provost Guard did not run, for then we are satisfied that no running was done except by the Yankees. Our statement was made under the following circumstances: Whilst in Rockingham we heard some of the citizens of that county charging that some of the Home Guard ingloriously fled on the near approach of the enemy. A portion of the Home guard and the Provost Guard of Harisonburg [sic] were the only parties present on the occasion spoken of by those citizens.

Upon inquiry, we learned, that the Home Guard did not run as reported, and as the Provost Guard of Harrisonburg was the only other body of troops present, we supposed that those persons claiming to be eye-witnesses of the scene who made the charge mistook the Home Guard for the Provost Guard. This is the "head and front of our offending." It would now seem that these persons were altogether mistaken, and that in fact there was no running done save by the Yankees. May this always be the case, and may the citizens of Rockingham always be willing to stand by the noble sons of "Old Augusta."

Those who have furnished substitutes will be interested in General Order No. 3, published in our advertising columns. It will be seen, from this Order, that those who have furnished substitutes are required to report as volunteers or conscripts, without delay, to the enrolling officers; and all who delay beyond the 1st day of February, 1864, will be considered as having renounced the privilege of volunteering, and held for assignment according to law.

Previous to enrollment as conscripts, all such persons will be allowed to volunteer in companies in service on the 16th of April, 1862, provided the company chosen does not at the time of volunteering reach the maximum number allowed; and upon such company being selected, the volunteer will receive from the enrolling officers a certificate to the effect that he has so volunteered; and to volunteer will be received into any company except on such certificate. Persons who fail to make their selection at the time of enrollment will be assigned according to existing regulations.

Persons who report to the enrolling officers will be enrolled, and may be allowed a furlough of ten days before reporting to the Camp of Instruction.

The Marietta (Geo.) Rebel says that from the tenor of our articles heretofore, our readers will understand that we are necessarily opposed to the enactment of the law reported by the military committee of the Senate, providing for the levy en masse of our male population. The law provides than [sic] every able-bodied man shall be put in the army, and that there shall be no exemptions, except such as the Secretary of War and the President see proper to make. The passage of this law would constitute the most extraordinary transfer of power, from the legislature to the Executive, ever known under a Republican system of government. It would create a condition of things without a parallel in any species of government, except that of an unmixed despotism. It will place every man in the Confederacy under absolute military authority, and substitute military rule for civil law at once.

We cannot for a single moment tolerate the idea of the necessity for any such law. Its effect will certainly be pernicious at home, and unwholesome abroad. It will produce great dissatisfaction among our own people, and fix upon outside nations the conclusion that we are reduced to desperate extremities. Confidence in our ability to work out our independence, will be seriously impaired, if not totally destroyed, when it is seen that we are driven to the adoption of such an unprecedented measure as the absorption of the entire male population into the army. The world will ask, as our own people will also ask, how is the army and the nation to be sustained, how fed and clothed, if the men are all to be withdrawn from the pursuits of agriculture, and the mechanic arts?

If we were reduced to such a strait that it was absolutely necessary to make one last desperate stand against the foe, to inflict all the damage we could upon him, and then fall and leave the nation to expire, there would be philosophy and heroism in the resolution, for it is better to "die all freemen, than to live all slaves," but we are not yet driven to any such desperate resort. Our armies still face the foe, and hold him in check. Our gallant boys are full of spirit, and if properly cared for, well fed and clothed, are able to hold the portals of the Republic against all comers. Our present troubles have grown out of bad management with the men in the field, and not for any want of men. Our soldiers have been badly fed, and worse clothed. There has been too much straggling of both officers and men permitted. There are too many soldiers scattered through the country guarding the doors of Provost Marshals' offices, and too much incompetency in the commanders. Make our present army efficient, and there will be nothing to fear.

But, if the whole population is dragged into the army, where are the supplies for the army, and bread and meat for women and children to come from? We have found it difficult to provision and clothe the army and the people heretofore, and how much more difficult, indeed, how impossible will it be, when the laborers are all withdrawn from their avocations--when the producers are all turned into consumers?

We have endeavored to consider the proposed law, without prejudice or excitement, but have failed to find in it one redeeming feature. It is either the profoundest folly or a most dangerous and wanton assault upon the public liberty, and we cannot believe, that after due deliberation, the Congress will be found so wanting in statesmanship, and so false to the public interests, as to enact it into a law.

We have seldom seen, says the Richmond Dispatch, more universal concurrence in the press of the country upon any subject than there is in its opposition to the desperate expedient of a levy en masse of the population of the Confederacy. It is a confession of weakness not warranted by the circumstances of the case, calculated to create distrust in the minds of our own people of the extent of our resources, and has already given new encouragement to the hopes of our enemies. To put boys of sixteen to eighteen in the army is to destroy the "seed corn" of the population, as President Davis aptly characterized it; and to force men over the age of forty-five into the ranks is to furnish food for disease and death, and to crowd the hospitals and graveyards without adding appreciably to the strength of the army. Prussia, when beleaguered by the most colossal military power on the earth, never called men of that age from their homes. At their homes they are good for something. There, they, and the unmature striplings whom a cruel radicalism would devote to the perils of battle, may provide food for an army which is already pressing strongly on the means of subsistence, and under State organization render the only military service of which they are capable, the defence of the soil against raids of the enemy. Bring back the stragglers and the absentees, place negroes in the place of white teamsters, nurses, &c., and we shall have as large an army as the people can feed. What we need is skill and produce in the development and husbanding of our resources, rather than an increase of numbers. Look at the shameful manner in which Confederate property has been squandered and the negligence and blunders by which so many of our men have fallen into the hands of the enemy. These are the evils which must be remedied, and, as long as they continue, no increase of our strength will be of any permanent value. It will be like a new inheritance to a spendthrift, who will run through it just as rapidly as his former possessions. What we want to see in Congress is coolness, combined with energy, and in the army, vigilance and discipline, united with courage.

Mr. Editor: As gigantic efforts will be made next spring by the enemy to subjugate us, I ask the attention of the proper authorities, if their attention should not be turned [to] deserters, who are skulking about their homes since last summer; and harbored by their friends.

A CITIZEN.