An interesting read from the Richmond Daily Dispatch of January 14, 1865

The Letters of arrested correspondents.

The arrest of Flint, the ("Druid") correspondent of the New York Herald, who writes from Baltimore, has been published. The fellow has excited the envy of the Yankee correspondents by a bold show of having private means of obtaining information from "rebel sources," and they are trying the provost marshal on him to see how it will fit, with a view to sending him through the lines. Here is an extract from his letter:

It was the design of the Administration from the outset of the war to alienate the Southern people and to prevent them from ever again returning to the Union. Hence the adoption of the policy of emancipation and confiscation; hence, at a later period, the adoption of the policy of subjugation; hence, now, the adoption of the policy of extermination. The Southern people understand this perfectly. They know that, if they were ever expected back into the Union again, the policy of emancipation and confiscation never would have been adopted; that Sheridan would not have been ordered to make the whole Shenandoah valley a barren waste, even to the extent of breaking up and burning the farming utensils, and burning the roofs over the heads of helpless women and children; that the atrocities of Turchin and McNiel would not have been overlooked; that Atlanta would not have been depopulated and burned; that Petersburg and Charleston would not be shelled, and that Sherman's march through Georgia would not have been marked by a broad belt of desolation.

The course which has been pursued towards the South has had precisely the effect which the Administration designed that it should have. It has made out of every man, woman and child in the South a deadly enemy. If the alternative were presented to-day of union with the North or extermination they would choose the latter gladly. But they do not expect to be exterminated or to be conquered. If they suffer reverses, they will only serve to make their armies stronger and to nerve their arms with greater vigor. Do the readers of the World forget what manner of men the Southern people are? They are Americans, the same as we are. Their fathers fought for liberty and independence side by side with ours. They believe now that they are fighting for the same liberty and the same independence. It is a religious belief with them, interwoven with their existence. The conquest of Georgia, such as it is, will add twenty- five thousand men to the Confederate armies.

Neither Charleston nor Wilmington will fall without terrible and bloody battles. If we take those cities we will pay the full price for them. And even if they should be taken, the work of the subjugation of the South would only be begun. They still have a reserve force of seven hundred thousand able-bodied white men, and after them a reserve force of six hundred thousand able-bodied and faithful black men. All these they will bring into the field before they will yield, and before their country can be conquered.

A Washington telegram says:

Mr. B. S. Osborn, naval reporter, No. 2 Dey street, New York, and correspondent of the English Army and Navy Gazette, has been arrested by order of the President, and ordered to trial, for furnishing to the public press, and requesting the publication of, the details of the Wilmington expedition, thereby causing the enemy to reinforce the works at Federal Point. Mr. Osborn is now in the Old Capitol prison at Washington.