The Daily Dispatch: July 13, 1861., [Electronic resource]

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Extortions upon soldiers.

We have heard complaints of extortionate prices sometimes demanded from soldiers for articles which they require, and of advantages taken of their necessities, which are disgraceful to human nature.

The least that can be done by those who are themselves unwilling to aid in the defence of their country, is to render every possible assistance and encouragement to those men who actually fight its battles. We owe a debt of gratitude to those patriot heroes which it is impossible to over-estimate. None of them are mercenaries; not one of them goes to the battle-field upon compulsion; most of them have sacrificed their own business and given up comfortable homes, to offer their precious lives upon the altar of their country. Rome and Greece, in their best days, never sent to the field such men, such disinterested and heroic armies, as those who are now arrayed under the banner of Southern Independence.--They are cheerfully enduring the blazing sun, the midnight dews, the drenching storm, the privation of food, the peril of the fight, and the more exhausting torture of inaction, for the defence of their country. We envy not the man whose heart and hand are not open as day to these glorious heroes, and as for those who would oppress them for money when they are marching to protect those who stay at home, Srylock was but a faint conception of human meanness in comparison.