Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 29.djvu/120

 104 Southern Historical Society Papers.

the United States, and will furnish sufficient security for its observance, shall be permitted to remain at their homes and pursue, in good faith, their accustomed avocations. Those who refuse shall be conducted South, beyond the extreme pickets of this army, and be notified that if found anywhere within our lines, or at any point within our rear, they will be considered spies and subjected to the extreme rigor of military law" (i. e., death by hanging).

(See "The Army under Pope," by Ropes, pp. 175-6-7.

This last order Mr. John C. Ropes, of Boston, a distingu^hed Northern writer, one generally fairer to the South than others who have written from that locality, criticises most harshly, and he does this, too, although he is about the only apologist, as far as we have seen, of this bombastic and incompetent officer.

General Steinwehr, one of Pope's brigadiers, seized innocent and peaceful inhabitants and held them as hostages to the end that they should be murdered in cold blood should any of his soldiers be killed by unknown persons, whom he designated as " bushwackers. "

On the very day of the signing of the cartel for the exchange of prisoners between the Federal and Confederate authorities (July 22, 1862), the Federal Secretary of War, by order of Mr. Lincoln, issued an order to the military commanders in Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas and Arkan- sas, directing them to seize and use any property belonging to the inhabitants of the Confederacy, which might be "necessary or con- venient for their several commands," and no provision was made for any compensation to the owners of private property thus seized and appropriated.

This order was such a flagrant violation of the rules of civilized warfare those adopted by the Federal government itself, as herein- before quoted that the Confederate government sought to prevent it being carried into execution by issuing a general order, dated August i, 1862, denouncing this order of the Federal Secretary, and and those of Pope and Steinwehr, as "acts of savage cruelty," vio- lative " of all rules and usages of war," and as converting the "hostilities hitherto waged against armed forces into a campaign of robbery and murder against unarmed citizens and peaceful tillers of the soil." And by way of retaliation, declared that Pope and his commissioned officers were not to be considered as soldiers, and therefore not entitled to the benefit of the cartel for the parole of