Daily Constitutionalist
Augusta, Georgia
June 4, 1861
A letter from a late Union man of Texas to a New York Journal says:
I have seen it stated in Northern papers that men were forced unwillingly to join the ranks of the Confederate army. I deny it in toto. Let not our Northern invaders flatter themselves that they are about to meet an unwilling foe. They will find men who have grasped the sword and musket in defense of their homes, their firesides, and their property. The spirit of ’76 is abroad throughout the South, and I would proclaim in thunder tones, “Men of the North, you cannot subdue us. You may perhaps exterminate us, but I will guarantee that when the extermination shall be complete there will be but few left to exult in the ruin they have caused.” In the company which I have joined, out of one hundred and four men there are sixty seven Northern born and raised, and nearly the same proportion exists in the other companies. These have all joined voluntarily, and will fight to the death to repel the Northern invader. If time and space permitted I could fill a volume on this subject, but I want the fighting masses of the North to understand that they will have no child’s play. We will contest every inch of ground, and their advance can only be made over our dead bodies and through rivers of our blood.