| From the Daily Intelligencer
(Wheeling, Va.) |
| |
| June 29, 1861 |
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| The Rebel's Destruction of Property |
| The Baltimore secessionists
are disgusted at General Johns{t}on's
wholesale destruction of railroad property at Martinsburg, Va. The
Baltimore Sun of yesterday says: |
| "Our informants state that the
immediate reason of this wholesale destruction was a handbill, (since
discovered to be a forgery, having been entirely without their authority
or knowledge, yet purporting to be issued by the Baltimore & Ohio
Railroad Company, and said to have been posted at Harper's Ferry and
other places in Virginia,) to the effect that the company wanted two
thousand men at once, to dollars a day, in order to restore the bridges
and put the road in order for the use of the Federal Government. This
movement is believed to have been a ruse by interests hostile to
the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company to deceive the Southern
authorities, so as to lead to the destruction of its property. |
| The Patriot has these
comments: |
| "This property, destroyed so
needlessly, is not owned by the Federal Government, against whom this
rebel army is warring, but it belongs to private individuals and
corporations -- among which the city of Baltimore holds nearly four
millions. The reason given is that this road would be required for the
use of the Federal Government, and, therefore, it must be destroyed. Do
they not know that when the Federal Government wants the Baltimore &
Ohio Railroad they will have it, and also the whole State of Virginia?
It is the height of nonsense to try and prevent this. If General Scott
had needed the use of that thoroughfare for his purposes, he would have
had it long ago. He can do without it much better than the rebels can,
and they will find this out, perhaps, before they get up some morning.
We put in contrast to this work of Vandalism the judicious proclamation
of General McClellan, of the Federal Army, to the people of Western
Virginia." |
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