Page:Mennonite Handbook of Information 1925.djvu/98

 other lines of service, such as cooking meals and the driving of teams.

After serving in these different capacities through the campaign of 1861 62, most of these brethren found their way back to their homes, where some time was spent keeping hidden away from the observation of army officials. Finding this experience very unsafe, they passed through the border lines as refugees to the western and northern states, to remain until after the close of the war between the states. On one of these perilous journeys, a company of about seventy refugees was captured by a small body of southern troops and were taken as prisoners of war to the famous Libby Prison at Richmond, Va., where after being held for nearly two months they were liberated by action of the Confederate government on conditions that each became responsible for the payment of five hundred dollars into the Confederate treasury. Most of the prisoners being Mennoriites, the Church at home provided the money and the brethren were permitted to return to their homes where they received a most joyful reception.

The great property loss sustained by Mennonites was during the raids made by the Confederate armies into the Cumberland Valley, into Maryland and Pennsylvania, and by the Federal armies into the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and elsewhere.

In all these sections the destructive effects of war became manifest in robbery, burnings, the slaughtering and driving away of live stock of all kinds, the plundering of homes with the abuse and humiliation of the inmates by an unrestrained sol-