Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 39.djvu/111

 Morgan's Men in Ohio. 99

throw it away and get a fresh one at the first opportunity. They did not pilfer with any sort of method or reason ; it seemed to be a mania, senseless and purposeless.

"One man carried a bird-cage with three canaries in it for two days. Another rode with a chafing dish, which looked like a small metallic coffin, on the pommel of his saddle until an officer forced him to throw it away. Although the weather was intensely warm, another slung several pairs of skates around his neck, and chuckled over the acquisition.

"I saw very few articles of real value taken; they pillaged like boys robbing an orchard. I would not have believed such a passion could have been developed so ludicrously in any bod;y of civilized men. At Piketon, Ohio, one man broke through the guard posted at a store, rushed in trembling with excitement and avarice, and filled his pockets with horn buttons. They would, with a few exceptions, throw away their plunder after awhile, like children tired of their toys."

The depot buildings at Campbell's Station and Jackson Court House were burned, probably accidentally from the cars which had been set on fire at those places. It must be said to the everlasting credit of Morgan's men that among the thousands of claims for "Rebel damages" to be paid by the State of Ohio, not one 'was presented for the burning of a mill, a dwelling house, a barn, an outhouse, or a private house or building of any kind. There were during the war incursions into the valley of Virginia (and in other places) which left nothing in their tracks but the smoking and smouldering ruins of every mill, dwelling house, barn and outhouse that lay in the pathway of the invaders.

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