Valley Spirit

The election is over. The result is not yet accurately known, but sufficient is known to exhibit the fact that the Democracy of the "old Keystone" has won a signal triumph. The Shoddy contractors and Government dependants are trembling for the future. They see the handwriting on the wall, and know that their doom is sealed. The immense patronage of the Administration could not save the Republican party from defeat. Money was distributed in the most prodigal manner; all manner of deception was practised--the basest falsehoods were circulated as the gravest truths--dismissal from employment was threatened as the consequence of a refusal to support the Administration ticket, and yet in the face of all this, the honest masses, unawed by intimidation, uninfluenced by bribes and undeceived by lying tongues, not only annihilated the large majority of last year, but rolled up a majority of over five thousand for the Democratic ticket. The result is gratifying, for it secures the electoral vote of our grand old Commonwealth for McClellan and Pendleton.

Maryland has spoken, and asserting her ancient dignity has declared that she will be free--that she will still manage her domestic institutions in her own way, and that she will not submit to the dictation of the Administration. By her vote on Tuesday and Wednesday last, she has insured "Maryland, my Maryland" for McClellan and Pendleton.

The people of the Sixteenth Congressional ticket have endorsed the course of Hon. A. H. Coffroth, by a majority of seven hundred, notwithstanding the slanderous statement circulated in regard to his votes and acts in Congress. Hon. J. McDowell Sharpe has been re-elected to the Legislature, as the reward of his fidelity to the interests of his con[s]tituents.

Hon. Francis M. Kimmell received a majority of two hundred and twenty-five on the home vote and is very probably elected.

The county ticket received a handsome majority of the home vote, but will very likely be defeated by the soldier vote.

There is an important work yet to be done. Franklin county must give a majority for McClellan and Pendleton on the whole vote.

Democrats must not slumber. There must be no lethargy. Every man must be up and doing. The times call for action. Never before were such great issues at stake. Never before was there a nobler cause presented to the people for their adoption. The old party of the Constitution and the Union appeals to you once more for support. You must not fail in this important struggle. The rights of freemen, the liberties of the American people hang upon the result of the November election. If the cause of the Democracy is triumphant, the Union will be restored and the Constitution preserved. If the Democratic party is defeated, the Republic is in imminent danger. Democrats of Franklin county, you have done well, but you must do better. Increased zeal, redoubled energy, "one long pull, a strong pull and pull all together," will rescue the county forever from the control of the pernicious doctrines of the Republican party. Gird on your armor again. Spring to action again with lighter hearts. Get every man to the polls. Reason with your neighbor. Convince him by the weighty arguments of Democratic truth that he is in the wrong and that you are in the right. Leave no stone unturned to insure the success of our ticket. Let your resolution be, that if we are to be cursed with four more years of Republican mismanag[e]ment and misrule, it shall not be owing to any want of exertion on your part. Rally freemen once again: put shoulder to shoulder and move forward in solid column for McClellan and Pendleton, the Union, the Constitution and the laws.

The following account of the burning of barns and mills in the Shenandoah Valley Gen. Sheridan, under the order of General Grant "to make the Shenandoah Valley a barren waste," the main facts of which are stated by Gen. Sheridan himself in his official report, is given by a correspondent of the New York World. If this is the way the war is to be carried on in the future. God save the people along the border! Here is the account:

The Shenandoah Valley Made A Barren Waste.

I have received two accounts of the manner in which Gen. Grant's orders "to make of the Valley a barren was[t]e," was executed. One of them is from an officer in the army. Both accounts agree in all essential particulars; and I think I may safely say that for real devilish malibnity [sic] and cool-blooded brutality, the execution of his order surpasses all the cruelty of Butler, and, in all save one particular, equals even the atrocity of Turchin. What do the readers of the World think of the wanton burning of twenty-seven hundred barns, filled with wheat, and more than eighty mills for grinding wheat and corn? This was done by soldiers of "The Union," with the Union flag waving over them. But they did more than that. The flames from the burning barns communicated, in many instances, to dwelling-houses contiguous, and houses and barns alike, in a few hours, with all their contents, were reduced to a mass of smouldering [sic] ruins. The kind-hearted soldiers, in some cases, wished to extinguish the flames of these burning houses, but there were other barns to be fired, and they were hurried away.

But the worst remains to be told. The burning of these houses was accidental, although the burning of the contiguous barns was intentional. But there is one district where three hundred and eighty seven dwelling houses were burned, with all their contents, by the express order of General Sheridan. This work was done with deliberation, and without any other than the briefest warning to the inmates. All appeals for mercy were vain. Tottering age and feeble infancy, delicate ladies, and women in that state which would find pity even in the eyes of a savage, were compelled to rush out of their houses, and then to witness their homes consumed before their eyes by devouring flames. Remember that the barns and granaries of these unfortunate people had been destroyed, and all their provisions carried away. They were now driven from their homes, their houses burned over their heads, their furniture, their clothing, all that they had in the world destroyed, and left to perish in these cold inclement nights. What pen can describe the horrors of these scenes? With a refinement of malignity worthy of the evil one himself, not only the seed for next year's crops, but even the very farming implements themselves were burned up.

General Sheridan says he burned all the houses within an area of five miles, because one of his officers was murdered there. I would like to see the murderer hung, and all of his accomplices. But to thus visit a crime, which at the worst was only one of the casualties of war, upon hundreds of innocent women and children, and to render homeless many innocent families, is an act that is not worthy of a general, and that will do the Union cause no good.

Citizens of Franklin county, what think you of the prospect before you? If the rebels should again invade our State, (which is not at all improbable) in what condition do you suppose they would leave our beautiful Valley with its fine farm-houses and magnificent barns and mills? Chambersburg in ashes is the fruit of Hunter's vandalism in Virginia last spring. The horrors that may accrue to our people through these unparalelled [sic] deeds of vandalism are happily, for the present, hid from our view. Would to God, they might forever remain hid!

It makes the blood run cold in our veins to contemplate the accumulation of sorrow that our misguided rulers are bringing upon this distracted land. May the hand of Omnipotence shield the people, and interpose between them and the blind fanaticism that rules the hour.

Few, not accustomed to the desolations of war, can realize the extent of the destruction made, under orders from Grant, by Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley. Newspaper correspondents have sent their accounts of it home, and we are able this morning to publish some of them. Between Staunton and Strasburg, all barns containing grain, all wheat and hay stacks, all farming implements, granaries and mills, and all subsistence of whatever kind, were burned. All the horses and cattle were driven off. The correspondent of the New York Tribune writes: "The Valley, from mountain to mountain, was consequently the scene of a conflagration, such as has not been witnessed during the Rebellion. It was not a measure of retaliation, for the wanton destruction of Northern towns and property, as has been falsely supposed, but was a stern necessity of war, the full bearings of which will be better seen and appreciated in the light of the great campaign yet before us." Sheridan intends to continue the destruction all the way north to Martinsburg. The damage has been immense. Not only barns but private dwellings have been destroyed. Half the village of New Market is in ashes. The people, deprived of food and homes, will have to wander off. We cannot tell the story better than in one sentence of this correspondent's letter: "The Valley of the beautiful Shenandoah, from near the Natural Bridge to the gallows tree of John Brown, is a desolation."

There have been some slight movements at Petersburg. On the Weldon Railroad, Wilcox and Warren moved their corps picket lines about a mile westward, but the enemy concentrated in front of them and began shelling, and the pickets were withdrawn to their original position.

Moseby reports that he attacked a party of one thousand Federal soldiers who were repairing the Manassas Gap Railroad, west of the Gap at Salem, in the Shenandoah Valley. Fifty Federal soldiers, and a large amount of supplies, were captured. It is quite dangerous for trains to pass along this road, and we doubt very much if Sheridan gets a very large quantity of supplies over it.

The Confederate General Buford is reported to have crossed the Cumberland River at Harpeth Shoals, on Tuesday night, with one thousand cavalry. This is a new raid into Tennessee.--Age, 14th inst.

Affairs at Petersburg are still without change. The two armies lie quietly in camp, even picket firing having for the time ceased. It is reported that General Grant has relieved Generals Meade and Warren from Command. They were ordered to attack the strong confederate positions near the Weldon Railroad; they protested against it, as it would have cost an immense loss of life, and most probably would be unsuccessful; and Grant removed them. Hancock, it is rumored, will be Meade's successor. Whether these reports are true or not we cannot say, but all the old cabals against Meade, which once were so strong, have been revived. Birney is still in Philadelphia, very low with the fever. It will be a month before he can resume his command.

Sheridan's barbarous devastation in the Shenandoah Valley has already borne its fruits. The guerrillas are so numerous, and so savage in their attacks upon his rear-guards and his supply trains, that he finds himself unable to hold a position so far advanced as Strasburg. His trains from Harper's Ferry are intercepted, and Moseby will not allow his gangs of laborers to repair the Mannassas Gap Railroad. So Sheridan has no alternative but to abandon Strasburg, and retreat northward towards Winchester. It is said he will bring his army all the way back to Charlestown and Harper's Ferry. As he retreats his devastation is as universal as that made in the Valley south of Strasburg. Desolation reigns supreme. The result of it all is, that never since the war began has guerrilla war been so bloody as it now is in the Shenandoah.

The New York Independent states that General Sherman will make no attempt this year to advance South of Atlanta. For over three weeks we have not had a line of news from his army. The Railroad and telegraph connecting Atlanta with Chattanooga are still broken, and the Confederates have their own way. On Saturday last, Wheeler captured Rome, a town in Georgia, east of Sherman's supply railroad, and took three thousand negro troops prisoners. On the same day he dashed into Marietta, near the Kenesaw mountain and on the railroad, and spiked the cannon. Hood is near Marietta, where the bulk of Sherman's troops are. The two armies are resting on their arms, watching each other.

All the Federal troops have been driven from Southwestern Virginia. One body was followed by General Breckenridge almost to Knoxville, in East Tennessee. Burbridge, whose command is now near Lexington, Kentucky, reports that he lost heavily on the retreat.

The defeat of Washburne's command near East Point, Alabama, by Forrest is confirmed. All Washburne's artillery--eight guns--was captured. Two of his caissons were exploded, and one of his transports disabled by the Confederate shells. Washburne has retreated.

General Price has made his headquarters at Boonville, Missouri, just south of the Missouri River. North of the river the Federal troops have abandoned nearly all the State, and are concentrated at Macon City, northwest of St. Louis.--Age, 15th inst.