Page:Confederate Cause and Conduct.djvu/96

 74 "In prosecuting the war, all private property and unarmed persons, should be strictly protected, subject only to the necessity of military operations. All property taken for military use should be paid or receipted for; pillage and waste should be treated as high crimes; all unnecessary trespass sternly prohibited, and offensive demeanor by the military towards citizens promptly rebuked."

See 2 Am. Conflict (Greeley), p. 248.

The writer's home was visited by the Army of the Potomac, both under McClellan and under Grant. At the time McClellan was in command guards were stationed to protect the premises, with orders to shoot any soldier caught depredating, and but little damage was actually done; none with the consent or connivance of the commanding general. But when the same army came, commanded by Grant, every house on the place, except one negro cabin, was burned to the ground; all stock and everything else of any value was carried off. The occupants were only women, children and servants; nearly all the servants were carried off; one of the ladies was so shocked at the outrages committed as to cause her death, and the other and the children were turned out of doors without shelter or food, and with only the clothing they had on. So that the writer has had a real experience of the difference between civilized and barbarous warfare. To show how little the advice of McClellan, as to the principles on which the war should be conducted, was heeded at Washington, and it would seem stimulated in an opposite course by his suggestions, we find in two weeks from the date of his letter to Mr. Lincoln, just quoted—viz., on July 20, 1862—that General John Pope, commanding the "Army of Virginia," issued the following order:

(1) "The people of the Valley of the Shenandoah and throughout the regions of the operations of this army, living along the lines of railroad and telegraph and along the routes of travel in rear of the United States forces, are notified that they will be held responsible for any injury done to the track, line or road, or for any attack upon trains or straggling soldiers by bands of guerrillas in their