The Protest of Carlin's Battery Against the Action of the City Council last, January, depriving them of their Right to Vote at the Charter Election.
New Creek, West Va, Jan. 26, 1864.
Editors Intelligencer:
At a meeting of the members of Battery D, 1st West Va. Light Artillery, held on the evening of the 26th, in Committee of the Whole, the following preamble and resolutions were unanimously adopted, and ordered to be published in your valuable paper, from which we learn that a meeting was held by the City Council on Saturday evening last, at which they passed an Ordinance prohibiting the vote of the absent soldiers from being admitted at the election which took place on Monday in our city. We say Our City, for there are our homes, our wives and our children, and all that we hold dear on earth. We have thought it not too great a sacrifice to leave all these in the hour when our homes were threatened by vile traitors in arms, to do battle in their defence.
By this act of the City Council it shows clearly the spirit that animates them and the feelings they entertain towards us. We feel that we have just cause to be indignant at this high-handed proceeding, but we would have them remember that we do not expect to be absent always "on duty."
From the justness of the cause in which we are engaged, we believe an overruling Providence will smile upon us, and give such signal victory to our arms, that having conquered a permanent peace we will soon be permitted to return to our homes again, and woe be to those traitors we have left in our rear plotting treason. We shall not sheath our swords until we have given them to feel the keenness of their edge. We are determined not to let the indignity go unrebuked.
Therefore, be it Resolved,
1. That as soldiers in the field striving to maintain the honor and integrity of our once happy country, and as citizens of Wheeling, there has been great injustice done us, and all other absent soldiers of said city, by the disgraceful act of the City Council of 1863, in passing said Ordinance in direct violation of the law of our State.
2. That they have done this in order to secure the election of themselves and others of like ilk. They know the soldiers are aware that they are unfit to hold any office of trust under a loyal State Government, as they have always been in sympathy with rebels, and there is reason to believe have been in communication with them.
3. That they deserve to be treated with scorn and contempt by every loyal man, and that they should be classed with Copperheads and Traitors, who never lose an opportunity to injure the defenders of the old flag.
4. That the State authorities should take some steps whereby such Traitors would be expelled from their midst, and not allowed to hold offices of trust, whereby they can injure the interests of the soldier.
5. That those noble Union men in the City Council, Messrs. Clator, Delaplain, Goudy, Blair and Irwin, who endeavored to protect our rights and interests, are hereby tendered our sincere thanks, and our cordial support in the future.
Voters Of The Wheeling Battery.
Timeline of West Virginia: Civil War and Statehood: January 1864