Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 26.djvu/325

 Tin' IliirnilH <>(' ( 'hdlllln

resolutions he- immediately forwarded to the Senators and Represen- tatives of Virginia in Congress, urging them to oppose by every means in their power the passage of any and all such bills.

(Signed) T. S. GARNKTT,

BEVKRI.KY D. TUCKER, WILLIAM C. WHITTLE,

Committee.

On motion, the report of the committee and the resolutions offered \\cre adopted by a unanimous rising vote.

[From ihe Richmond, Va., Dispatch, February 5, 1899.]

UNWRITTEN HISTORY.

A SOUTHERN ACCOUNT OF THE BURNING OF CHAMBERSBURO.

Northern Stories Contradicted A Virginia Cavalryman Tells the Tale

of the flemorable Raid It Was Bad Enough, But

Not as Bad as Pictured.

Tin- burning of Chambcrsburg, Pa., July 30, 1864, by General John McCausland's Confederate cavalry was a unique incident of the civil war, as it was the first time the Confederates had applied the torch in retaliation for similar offences committed by the Federal army.

It created consternation and indignation throughout the entire North. They had forgotten that Colonel Montgomery, of the Fed- eral army, committed such gross outrages on private citizens in South Carolina, on raids made into the State acts so atrocious and unwar- ranted that he was summarily dismissed from the army; Kilpatrick and Sheridan were barn-burners and mill-burners by instinct, or orders; Jackson, Miss., was partially destroyed; one-third of Alex- andria, Va., was burned, and Jacksonville, Fla. , nearly all destroyed by fire from the torch of Federal soldiers, yet when we asked them to take a little of their medicine we became incendiaries and free- booters.

Chambersburg is in Franklin county, Pa., about fifty or sixty miles from the Potomac. It was a substantial, well-built, and beautifully