Greensborough (NC) Patriot

January 22, 1863

Page 3

Yankee Prisoners and Deserters

We learn from the Richmond papers that a large number of deserters from the Yankee army and paroled prisoners, who have taken the oath of allegiance to the Confederate Government, have been employed in various foundries and shops in and around Richmond. The Examiner says, quite complaisantly, that the many artizans [sic] and workmen of various crafts will be useful in Government employ.

The Southern employees in all such establishments ought to protest against this measure. A more direct insult cannot be offered to Southern mechanics, than placing by their sides those who originally came to the South with the avowed object of plundering, murdering and stealing. The mechanical genius of the South is not inferior to that of any country, and surely the services of Yankee freebooters should be dispensed with, in justice to our own artizans, to say nothing of the retrograde movement towards Southern independence, which great object we had formerly been taught this war was to accomplish.