Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 29.djvu/140

 124 Southern Historical Society Papers.

tute, the house of Governor Letcher, and numerous other houses in the Valley, to be burned. Even General Halleck, writing to General Sherman on September 28, 1864, refers thus to this conduct of Hunter. He says:

" I do not approve of General Hunter's course in burning private houses or uselessly destroying private property. That is barba- rous. ' ' *

(See 2 Sherman's Mem., page 129.)

No soldier in the Confederate army understood better than General Early the rules of civilized warfare, or was more opposed to vandal- ism in every form. His conduct at York, Pa., before referred to, and his address to the people of that town, show this in the most satisfactory manner. He says:

" I have abstained from burning the railroad buildings and car- shops in your town because, after examination, I am satisfied that the safety of the town would be endangered. Acting in the spirit of humanity, which has ever characterized my government and its military authorities, I do not desire to involve the innocent in the same punishment with the guilty. Had I applied the torch without regard to consequences, I would have pursued a course which would have been fully vindicated as an act of just retaliation for the unpar- alleled acts of brutality on our soil. But we do not war upon women and children."

General R. H. Anderson, in his report of the Gettysburg cam- paign, says:

"The conduct of my troops was in the highest degree praise- worthy. Obedient to the order of the commanding general, they refrained from retaliating upon the enemy for outrages inflicted upon their homes. Peaceable inhabitants suffered no molestation. In a land of plenty, they often suffered hunger and want. One-fourth their number marched ragged and barefooted through towns in which merchants were known to have concealed ample supplies of clothing and shoes."

On the 2nd of July, 1863, when the battle of Gettysburg was being fought, and when President Davis had every reason to believe we would be victorious, he wrote:

" My whole purpose is, in one word, to place this war on the foot- ing of such as are waged by civilized people in modern times, and