VOLUME 1. Army C'orfedpeiulencc. STOLES HOSPITAL, WARD C, ALEIAAPIU, VA NOT. 9th, 18#4. MESSRS. KMTOIIS :—Af ter my respects 1 wish to inform you, that I received two topies of your paper, and I do assure you, that they were thankfully received. It does me good to get the news from my *)wn county, and more especially when I get it in a sheet like the CITIZEN*. 1 tnust inform you of my illness and the •cause of it. There were thirty men vol unteered out of our company, (Co. I*. •6th Pa. 11. Art.) togo on the cars as guards. Co. A, mid Co. I', sent thirty men each, lflaking in all ninety men. They had about seventy five laborers along the most of them darkies. Our business was to open the Manasses (lap Railroad, which has been out of use for over a year. We had two battalions of Gallop's men with us, one in the advance and the other in the rear. We lelt Fairfax Station, about three o'clock, p. m., on the Bth of October; we went about three utiles on the other side of Hull's Kuu battle-field, and not considering it safe to run after night, we stopped and threw out a picket. The next morning we started, but did not go far until we found the road torn up ; then there was work for the darkies. \\ e saw a few of Mosby's men that day but no force of any account; so on we went-, repairing bridges and culverts,; we got to Thorough Fare (lap that day. '1 he next morning we started and found the road badly torn up; we got to Kcctortown Sta tion that day.and found the big bridge btirne 1 there. Tint wo g>ug to take lissome time. Wc throw out a stioug picket line for we were aware that Mo by's men were all aronn l to. I licit! wa considerable p eke filing that night. 1. the morning all the guar-!- vent out on skirmish line; n i hing happened luring the day worth relating until about four o'clock in the evening, when tlie.y opened on the train with two guns; they th.cw shell at the train, tiut it being in between two hills they could not drop than into do the cars much damage ; they shelled (iallop's men on the opposite hill from where we were. Gallop's men were on one side of the cars and the guards were on the other. We were formed in line between the cars nnl Mosby s guns. We formed in line belv.nd a stone fedec. they shelled us a while but wo were 1 too much behind the hill; they threw ; their shells over us; they stopped shel ling and their cavalry made a < hargo ou us, but the first volley we gave them, their leader fell, and that stopped them. Two orjihree of tlioni picke 1 liiui jip, and during this time we gave them another j volley which made them 'git" in a hurry We then concluded that we were getting into hot water, and concluded togo lia k to White Plains. We started back ; tial lop's men came hack with us; one bat talion iu the advance, and the other iu the rear. W'c had hardly got started when we found out that the rebs had been at work behind us. They ha l torn up the road, and burnt culverts ; what was to be done ! The on'y remedy was to repair the road again. So the men went to work with a will, but they had hardly got one rail down when the rebs opened on us again with their artillery. The most of the darkies left the road and took refuge in a corn field near by ; the foreman or dered us to fetch them back. We made thcin c one baric and goto work ; they threw solid shot at us; one shot struck about one roil from the locomotive; that was getting»pret!y close, if it had stiuck tl»e engine we would have lost the train. Wc got that place repaired and ou we came for aln ut a mile, and here we found a culvert burned. We had worked there but a short time when boom came a shell plowing up the ground close by. We worked our way for five miles in this way, the rebs following us up, and whenever ■they could get their guus to bear on us ,we got it, bat with very I.ttle damage to the tmi«. We got to White Plains a lit tle before dark ; there the road was torn iup tor four or five rods, but there we found the 142 d regiment coming to our relief ; they engage I the cneiuy and wc lelt them fig4itiug. The train guards got on the cars at this jtlace and wc were all very warm having to double-quick when the cars were running, i lost my overcoat and blanket; I had nothing* to put onto keep me warm, aud being so much over heated, aud the night being cool, I caught a severe cold, whic l < terminated ir remit tent fever. The next morning I was very sick, had a severe pain in uiy head and a high fever. I was in Alexandria, as we had run back there that night. I took a train and went to my company. The ]>r. kept me for a day or two and then sent me to the Hospital. I have been here for about a uiotith. I was very ill for about three weeks, but thank God, I am getting better now lam able to sit up some, I am very weak though. I can AMERICAN CITIZEN. hardly hold my pen tight enough to write Y r ou must excuse me for not informing you that I received your papers. I was not able to write ; I am not fit to write yet, it does me out so much. 1 would like very much to take your paper regu larly, but the trouble is I am uot likely to be long in one place, but send it to me as long as I am'in this Hospital, and I will make it right with you. Well, I must close for the present. Respectfully yours, JOSEPH M'CASKEY. The State of Nevada. The people of Nevada having formed a State (Jovernuient in conformity with the Enabling Act passed by Congress on the 21st of March last, the President issued his Proclamation declaring that tire State of Nevada is admitted into the Intoti on an equal footing "with the original States." Thus the thirty-sixth Star is added to the constellation on our National flag. In the law authorizing the call for a constitutional convention by the people of Nevada the following condi tions were prescribed:—Thai the ('.insti tution. when formed, shall be republican, and not repugnant to the Constitution of the I'nited States and the principle of the Declaration of Independence; that the convention shall provide by an ordi nance. irrevocable without the consent of ijie I nited States and the people of said State. First. That there shall be no slavery or involuntary servitude in the said State otherwise than in punishment of crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted. Secondly. That peifeet toleration of reliuioiH sentiment -hall be secured, and no inhabitant of said State shall ever be molested in person on account of his mode of religious worship. Third. The public hinds shall remain at the disposal of the I nited States; no taxes shall be laid on the lauds or prop erty of the I'nited States, taxation upon the property of non-residents shall not exceed that upon the property of resi dent citizens. Finally, when the fore going condition- shall have been coin plied with, the Convi nCai was required to be submitted to the vote of the people on the second Tuesday of October. 1H()4. L If tin* Constitution should be adopted then, the President being notified of that fact, was authorized to proclaim Nevada admitted into the I nion as a State. The vice.ion for members of the Convention was held on the 2 1 of M iv last, the Con vention met on.he 4th of July, and hav ing framed a Constitution in accordance with the conditions prescribed, it was adopted by the people on the ninth of October, and by the President's procla mation of October .'ilst, Nevada is now a State of the 1 nion. This event is one of the wonders in the progress of American civilization. As re cently as 'lie early part of tlie year ISOO, what is now the State of Nevada, then the western part of the Territory of Utah, was an uninhabited waste. It was not only desolate and barren, but so forbid ding was the aspect of nature there that it was supposed it would forever remain a desert. The plains were treeless, the rivers shallow and treacherous, vanishing when most wanted; the mountains were piies of bare volcanic rocks, the lakes were mere marshes of salines and alkalies, and the transit across tho Territory was most difficult and dangerous. In addi« tion to all this it was walled in by two formidable barriers—the lofty and rag ged Sierra ou the one side and the cheer less Wasatch, on the other. Now. alter tho lapse of four short years as if by stroke of the enchanter's wand, that bar ren and desolate waste has become, popu lous. It is vocal with the hum of indus try and enterprise. Mines of gold, of silver, and of irou, have been opened, and arc yielding up their long hidden wealth. Mills have been established, and moun tain streams being turned upon the parch ed earth, fertile farms have sprung up. I'pon the heels of enterprise ami adven ture, civilization has followed. The State is already dotted with towns, villages, cities, schools, churches, and seats of jus tice, and along with the?e the indispe.- sable and invaluable printing press is found in every section of the young com monwealth. In that desolate and almost inacccssable desert of (but years ago there lias beeu already two agricultural fairs! i he solitary traders along the old Indian trails are now cheered by the presence of fifty thousaud white settlers.' The trav eler who had to lower his team over the crags by ropes has uow the choice of half a dozen skillfully graded roads, over which the stage coach bowls merrily jlopg at the rate of ten miles an hour. Carson City, the seat of the Territorial Govern ment, has a population of about three thousand Humboldt tlie county seat of " Let us have Faith that Right makes Might; and in that Faith let us, to the end,dare to do our (My as we understand it"— A - LINCOLN. BUTLER, BUTLEtt COUNTY, PA., WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1864. Humboldt county, has a population of three thousaud; Aurora, in Esmeralda county, and Austin, in I?!iuner county, have each thirty-five hundred. But Vir ginia City, built right upon the rich rocks of the Comstocks Mines, is the wonder of them all. On the Pacific side of the continent it is second only to San Fran cisco. having a population of twenty thou sand in the town proper, and twenty thou sand within a circuit of five miles. The real property within the same circuit is worth a hundred millions of dollars. Where in the world except in these Uni ted States, under the stimulating effects of American free institutions, could such amazing progress possibly occur in the of a gigantic war ?— l'hi'd Enq. A Roman Foast in Hadrian's Villa. Let us follow the Emperor and pasS in visible through the guards at the portal, and the crowd of Sicilian cooks, pantomi mists, slaves and dependents, in the out er hall. Guided by the sound or music, let us penetrate to the coeuacuhini itself. Here, on semi-circular couches, recline tho I'mperor and his guests, their hair redolent of fragrant ointments, their Au gers covered with rings, and their jewel led slippers lying beside them on the floor. Each man holds in his left hand a napkin with a gold and purple fringe. On the table stand small images of the gods. At the lower end of the room is an ele vated stage, on which a party of buffoons are performing a comic interlude. The visitors play at dice between the courses. Now and then, through revolving compart ments in the ceiling, flowers and per fumes are -howered down upon the feast ers, while slaves stand by whose duty it is to fan away the flies and bring fresh towels and scented waters to the guests al er every.dish. The feast begins to the sound of trum pets, and slaves carry round cups'of Fa- Icmian wine flavored with honey. Then come oysters from the Lncrine lake, cray fish fiom the Miseuium. mullets from the IS,the. hiuipieys and perhaps a sturgeon, which is weighed alive at tab e, allowed to expire before the eyes of the guests, and tlieu canted off to the kitchen, pres ently to appear again, cooked with a rich sauce of wine and pickles. Then came "dishes of nightingales, thrushes, roasted shiimps, African cockles, Mcliau cranes, Anibracian kid. and a boar from the I'm bian forests, roasted whole, and stuffed with beef and veal. This is carved by the rnrptor with pantomimic gestures, to the sound of music. Next some jars of rare Massic and Chiau wines are opened, a libation is pour ed out to the gods, and the Kinpcror pledges his guests. Then enter four mu sicians playing on double flutes, followed by as many servants crowned with flow el's. '1 hey bring the royal dish of the entertainment—a peacock with all its plumage displayed on a salvar garlanded with roses. At this sight the guests burst into murmurs of applause, and salute the Kinperor. he buffoons now retire and a couple .of gladiators make their appear ance upon the stage, armed with helmets, bucklers, greaves and short swords. The serious business of supper being over, and dessert about to be brought on, the ('cast ers have leisure to enjoy this more ox citing amusement. Additional cushions arc brought, spiced wines are handed round, the tables arc cleared, fresh cloths are laid, the guests lean back ; the Em peror gives the signal, and the gladiator begins the combat. Now pistachio nuts, dates. Venetian olives. Matin apples, pears, grapes, dried figs, mushrooms, sweet cakes, preserves, and all kiuds of delicate confectionary moulded into curi ous and graceful devices, are placed upon the table. Conversation becomes anima ted. A gladiator falls mortally wounded; the spectators cry alouud "llalut a fresh combatant replaces him, and the Kmperor himself deigns to bet U[>on the victor. Thus amid bloodshed, dicing, wine and fcastiug. hours pass away, and tho cnter taiDiiiCU.t draws to a close. \ aluablc pres ents are presented to it*: guests. One gets a precious ring, one a robe of Tyrian dye, another a sketch by Parnassus, all ot her a bust of Hadrian iu colored mar bles; and thus each Uikes his leave en riched an I feasted, and pours a last liba tion to the health of the Emperor and the honor of the gods. fcajr A letter from Havana jays that a committee .of influential persons has wait ed on General Dulco with a jietition, to be presented through him to Isabel JI.. that all negroes be declared free after the expiration of twenty-four years from Jan uary I, 18G5, each receiving a salary, du ring the last four years, of eighteen dol lars per mouth, the greater part of which may bo retained until the freedom of the slave is accomplished. For tl|o Citizen. Frdedom's Song. A PARODT. " Lincoln anil Freedom." is the cry '• Americans delight in"— 4 ' Lincoln and Freed inn's," now the cry, When Freedom's lauips are lighting. Mac Hin! bondugo—doleful sounds 1 Fiiil is sure decreed them. Mac and bondage, gloom surrounds, To quench tho light* of Freedom! " Lincoln and Freedom"—Joyful sounds! They cheer the hearts of freemen; Their names resound the nation round. From landsmen and from seamen. Mac and bondage—sadness sits Round this combination 11 .w they urate on freeman's ears! I'ainful the sensation! 44 Lincoln and Freedom" — that's the cry To raise the Nation's glory; To raise her to her former fame— Her fame of ancient story! Mac and bondage— how they press, On her burdened bosom ! Lower deeps they dig for her— l»eepcn her confusion! " Liucolruind Freedom," is the cry, Inspiring thought and language! Free soil they fdedge to freeman's son's, From out the grasp of bondage! Mac aud bondage, WISDOM. MOST men hate all lies which they don't utter themselves. A Ikll xt> of pleasure sometimes ren ders it difficult to make things square. IF men will but amuse the world, it will freely forgive them for cheating it. GREAT books are dead men, yet glori fied ones; and their pupils will ever hold themselves as their living relatives. MK.N of quick fancy more easily recon cile themselves lo the loved one when she is absent than when she is present. ONE of the toasts drank at a recent cel ebration was " Woman ! she requires no eulogy—she speaks for herself." A PHYSICIAN once boasted to Sir Hen ry llolford, saying, " I was the first to discover the Asiatic cholera, and commu nicated it to the public I'KOFOt Nl> silence in.public assemblies has been thus neatly described : • " One might have heard flic stealing of a handkerchief." AN Irishman who had been asked to furnish proof of his marriage, took off his hat and exhibited a scar on his head.— " Here," said he, "is me marriage cer tificate. That's Judy's mark." JULIUS Cassar Hannibal, giving an ac count of his sea voyage, says: "All de passengers was heavin', and if that wasn't enough, do captain gave orders for de ship to heave too, and she hove." You may have genius, sense, learning and the power of expression, so as to write prose to rival Burke or Johnson, and after all may make yourself ridicu lous by trying your hand at poetry. " My brethren," said Swift, in a ser mon, " there are three kinds of pride, namely, of birth, of riches, of intellect. I shall not speak of the latter, none of you being liable to that abominable vice." WHAT! are you drunk again ? Xomy dear, not drunk, but a little slippery.— The fact is, my dear, some scoundrel has been rubbing my boots till they arc as snioothc as glass. " I wit.l, lay you a wager," said 15oun cer, " that I will shoot more crows to-day than you." " O, yes," replied his compauion, " you always beat me at cruu intj." ONK of the agents of an insurance company in Ilartlbrd, in sending a small remittance of 81'-!,000 from the West the other day, wrote upon the foot of the check, " good for burns !" SIP. I'etcr Lely made it a rule never to look at a bad picture, having found by ex perience that whenever he did so his pen cil took a tint from it. Always apply the same rule to. bad looks and bad company. TIIK minds of scholars are libraries; those of antiquarians, lumber rooms; — those of sportsmen, kennels ; those of ep icures, larders and cellars; and (hose of young damsels the play-grounds of bc whiskercd cavaliers. SUPPOSE a man should steal fifty dol lars from you, and that you should then challenge him to toss up with you for your whole fortune! That would be a parallel case of dueling, as a remedy for an injury or an insult. The Southern Confederacy as Por trayed by Itself. The lion aecouuted for the fact that li ons were always portrayed as being worst ed by men in their encounters by the cir cumstance that lions were not painters. And there is manifestly a serious differ ence between the view taken of a bellig erent's resources by himself and by an adversary respectively. The Confederate Congress has recently come together; so has the Legislature of Georgia; so, we presume, has that of North Carolina; so. perhaps, have sever al other such. Each of these is met by the Executive with a budget, which, however made up, is unlike iu that it has not ' told a flattering tale.' We defy any Rebel-sympathizer to extract the smallest morsel of comfort from any recent official expose of the resorts aud resources of Confederate finance. Mr. Trenholm, the new Secretary of Treasury at Richmond, was a leading merchant at Charleston, and is said to have made a handsome fortune in the pal mier drys of Confederate blockade-run ning. He is a most intense Rebel, and has doubtless put the best possible face on the affairs intrusted to his charge.— Let ns see what that face is : Mr. Trenholm makes two bites of his cherry, aud exhibits but half of if, evi dently fearing that the whole of it would be too much for the Rebels to bear. He tells us what have been his expenditures for the half year, ending with last Sep. tember, but shrinks from facing the ma jestic aggregate of a year's outlay. For the six months embraced between April Ist and October Ist, 18154, he has paid out £272,878,505, apart from §10.772.- 883 paid for interest on Public i'ebt.— Duiiug this period, his receipts have been 842,294,314 from war taxes. $1,238,722 from " sequestrations," (that is, confisca tions.) 850,004 from duties on Imports, and £4..'120 from duties on Exports, with ?'J08,022 from " Soldiers' Tax," which we don't pretend to understand. Alto gether, tho receipts of his Department otherwise thau from Loans, have been less than Forty five Millions, against 1111 admitted expenditure of six times that amount. And. when it is considered that the Rebel armies have not been paid for many mouths—some of them not for over a year—that their Government owes vast unliquidated balauces right and left to Railroads, and to every body and compa ny whence food or any other material of war can bo extracted by impressment or otherwise, it must be evident that the ac tual indebtedness of the Confederacy was increased during the half-year aforesaid at a rate above ratlier than below 000,- 000,000 per annum. Tho Confederacy achieved, six or eight months ago, one of those clever financial operations which, viewing them under different lights, the authors designate as masterly and the victims denounce as ras cally. Finding itself in debt over One Thousand Millions of Dollars, most of it in the form of Treasury Notes, which had come as numerous,omnipresent, and loath some as the frogs of Egypt, the (jovern uient called them all in, subject to a his of 33} percent, leplacing them by anew issue of two-thirds their amount. The calculation was that the I>ebt would thus be reduced more than Three Hundred Millions, while the Notes would thereby be appreciated to a similar extent—in oth er words, that the Rebel Government would owe Three Hundred and odd Mil lions less, while its creditors would bens well off as before. Hut, though it thus reduced its Debt by no loss a sum than 8224.209,818, the Secretary reports its present aggregate at 81,147,970,208, while his expenditures for the current si: iths—estimated at $437,039,315 arry this aggregate considerably above d'teen Hundred Millions of Dol lars on the Ist day of April next. The oue cheerfnl feature of tho Secre tary's expose is his statement that the debt.was only increased $97,050,780 dur ing the last half year; but when it is con sidered that the Debt has been kept down by the process ot " scaling" the Treasu ry Notes as aforesaid, there is little room lor congratulation on this head. This experiment of "scaling" has the one old result. When the Regent of France, by an arbitrary edict, reduced by one-half the nominal value of the shares in John Law's Mississippi scheme lie did not reduce their current value merely to that extent—he destroyed it al together. Holdeis saw at once that a property which might be in val ue indefinitely at another's caprice was in fact no pioperty at all. And so Secreta ry Trenholm is obliged to confess that tho constrained reduction of the volume of Confederate Currency has nof- incieas ed its value—on the coptrary, that value has all but ceased to exist. He says: '• The currency demands the iiumedi ate and the jjravest consideration of Con gress. Unless a uniform and stable value run be given to the Treasury Notes, the efforts to earn/ on the war through their instrumentality must of necessity be aban doned. Acquiescence iu its deplorable depreciation is to court the ruin to which it leads. One hundred and thirty-fire dollars in eurrenry. the price obtained for one hundred dollars in six per cent bonds. is equal to six dollars only in specie,; and to sell the bonds at this late is iu reality to dispose of them at ninety-four per cent discount; or in other words, to give a bund of one hundred dollars in consideration of the loan of six dollars." That is to say, iu the Secretary's own words, the Confederacy now receives barely six dollars for every hundred which it adds to its debt, and the actual value of its Treasury Note promises to pay §IOO. is no more than 84. The soldier who fights tor 811 a month receives (or would receive, if he were over paid) just 44 cents per month ; the Member of Con gress gets say 810 per day for hisselviees and pays 840 per day for his board, and tbeie is not a clerk or oilier employe in the public service who can honestly sub sist on his salary. Meantime, tho Army steadily dwindles from desertion and the hardships of the service and t hero is no reserve whence to recruit it, for the des perate experiment of freeing and arming tho negroes is given tip —uot from defer ence to the rights of the slaveholders, but because it is seen and felt that, tho' negroes will fight and fight well, they will not fight to uphold Slavery. So there is open discord between the President and Congress, between the President and the Press, between the Confederacy and the States composing it—between everything and everybody that c