Page:A Memoir of the Last Year of the War for Independence in the Confederate States of America.djvu/66

62 the 14th, there was some artillery tiring by the enemy, across the river, at our cavalry which was watching the fords. Besides the money levied in Hagerstown and Frederick, which was subsequently very useful in obtaining supplies, we brought off quite a large number of beef cattle, and the cavalry obtained a number of horses, some being also procured for the artillery. On the night of the 12th, the house of Postmaster-General Blair near Silver Spring was burned, and it was assumed by the enemy that it was burned by my orders. The fact is that I had nothing to do with it, and do not yet know how the burning occurred. Though I believed that retaliation was fully justified by the previous acts of the enemy, yet I did not wish to incur the risk of any license on the part of my troops, and it was obviously impolite to set the house on fire when we were retiring, as it amounted to notice of our movement. Some of my officers thought the burning was done by some person in the neighborhood, who took advantage of our presence to commit the act with impunity. It may have been occasioned by a shell from the enemy's guns some of which went in that direction late in the day, or it may have been the act of some of my men; and a number of them had abundant provocation for the act, in the sight of their own devastated homes as they marched down the Valley on Hunter's track. In retaliation for the burning of this house, two Federal gunboats with a body of soldiers on board were sent up the Rappahannock River, on which there was not a Confederate soldier, to burn the house of the widow of the brother of the Hon. James A. Seddon, the Confederate Secretary of War, and she and her little children were turned out of doors, and the house with all its contents consigned to the flames. A card was left, signed by Butler or his order, stating that the house was burned in retaliation for the burning of the Hon. Montgomery Blair's house. This retaliation upon a widowed lady and her orphan children, by a combined military and naval expedition, was worthy of the agent selected, and the cause in which he was engaged. But, though it was very congenial to his nature, I do not regard Butler as alone responsible for this act. The odium of it should attach to his superiors Lincoln and Grant, he being the favorite of the former, and the subordinate of the latter, and at that time, serving under his immediate orders.

We rested, on the 14th and 15th, near Leesburg, and, on the morning of the 16th, resumed the march to the Valley, through Snicker's Gap in the Blue Ridge. Hunter had arrived at Harper's Ferry, and united with Sigel, and the whole force had moved from that place, under Crook, to Hillsboro', in Loudon, and a body of cavalry from it made a dash on our train, as we were moving towards the Valley, and succeeded in setting tire to a few waggons, but was soon driven off by troops from Rodes' and Ramseur's divisions, and one piece of artillery was captured from the enemy.