followed the retreating rebels towards Loudon, to capture stragglers. When
beyond St. Thomas he caught Captain Cochran, quartermaster of 11th
Virginia cavalry, and as he recognized him as one who had participated in
the destruction of Chambersburg, he gave him just fifteen minutes to live.
Cochran was armed with sword and pistols, but he was taken so suddenly by
Mr. Doyle that he had no chance to use them. He begged piteously for his
life, but Mr. Doyle was inexorable; the foe who burns and robs must die,
and he so informed him peremptorily. At the very second he shot the thief
dead, and found on his person $815 of greenbacks, all stolen from our
citizens, and $1750 of rebel currency. His sword, belt, and pistols were
brought to this place by Mr. Doyle.
LETTER III.
MY DEAR FRIEND:
Allow me in this letter to send you part of an article which appeared in
the German Reformed Messenger of September 7, in vindication of the
border. It is from the pen of the Rev. T. G. Apple, of Greencastle, in
this county. Mr. Apple is a corresponding editor of that paper, and one of
the most cool, honest, and sagacious writers within the range of my
acquaintance. The article referred to is as follows:
A Vindication of the Border.
"We have lived in the most exposed portion of the Pennsylvania border ever
since the commencement of the war, and therefore feel that we have some
right to speak in its vindication. It is very easy and somewhat natural
for persons living away from the scene of danger to say what they would do
under certain circumstances, if their homes were invaded. But for those
who are willing to give the subject a little calm thought, the following
considerations ought to be sufficient to show the error into which many
seem to have fallen:
"1. The border counties are required, whenever a call is made, to make up
their quotas for the national army. Their men are sent away to fight for
the maintenance of the Government. Can it be expected, then, that these
counties, after filling their quotas and paying their taxes, will be able
still to turn out and maintain in the field an additional force,
sufficient to protect them from invasion? Is not the Government pledged,
after it has taken their men and their money, to afford them protection,
so far as it has ability? And have not these border counties a right to
expect such protection? Is not the State under obligation to use all its
power to afford protection to the remotest portion of its territory, so
long as it demands the support of all its citizens?
"2. It has generally been conceded in the North, during this war, that
what is called _bushwhacking_ is contrary to the rules of war. A private
citizen has no right to enjoy that protection and immunity which is
accorded him by the armies, and then take his gun and shoot down a
soldier. This, we think, is conceded, and it has been urged all along that
private citizens who do so deserve summary execution. Suppose now that
private citizens should employ violence against rebel soldiers, is it not
plain that they would expose themselves to the vengeance of the rebel
army, and that the end of it would be a war of savage butchery on both
sides, a war of destruction and desolation? Would it not invite to pillage
and arson and murder?
"3. But even if this had been attempted in the cases of invasion that have
occurred, it would have been of no avail. Take the recent case of the
capture and burning of Chambersburg. General Averill was not far from the
place, with twenty-five hundred cavalry, when a detachment of Early's
corps, under McCausland, entered and burned it. If, then, General Averill
felt himself too weak to interfere to prevent the rebels from entering the
town, what could the unarmed citizens of such a place, without any one to
lead them, have been able to do? It has been said by papers that ought to
know better, that two or three hundred rebels captured and burned the
town. Is it not to be supposed that General Couch would know what could be
done, and when he despaired of being able to hold the town and left it,
would it not have been sheer madness for the citizens to have provoked the
rebel soldiery to shoot them down in the streets, without being able to
effect anything?
"Besides it must be remembered that the citizens of Chambersburg did not
know, and had no right to expect, that the rebel force intended burning
their town before they entered it. As unarmed private citizens they
submitted to what could not be averted, and expected to be treated
according to the rules of war, under which private citizens are protected
from personal injury by soldiers.
"That farmers should send away their horses, and merchants their goods, at
the approach of the enemy, is not only natural, but eminently wise and
proper. Allowing them to remain at home, without the ability to defend
them from capture, would be giving aid and comfort to the enemy.
"As against New York, the city whose leading papers have been vilely
slandering the border counties of Pennsylvania, the case would seem to
need no explanation or vindication. It is still remembered how that city
found it necessary to have regiments from our armies to come to their
rescue in putting down a riot caused by opposition to the draft. It is
known, too, how anxiously they clamor for the Government to provide ample
defences for their harbor against some rebel iron-clad that might slip in
unawares and destroy their city. If New York needs monster guns to protect
it from the enemy, is it wrong for Pennsylvania to expect arms and men to
be furnished by the Government, to protect her borders from invasion?
"As to the kind of philanthropy that would thus vilify and slander a town
lying in ashes, and its inhabitants houseless and homeless, what terms can
characterize it? It is not only unchristian but inhuman. These things are
past, but they are not forgotten.
"Chambersburg had a right to claim help in its calamity, not as a charity,
but as a right. But in these times rights are not always accorded. Some
sections have to suffer more than others, who do fully as much in men and
money to support the government. This is to be expected. Let us try at
least to be just in our judgment."
The following is from the graphic pen of the Rev. B. Bausman, late pastor
of the German Reformed congregation here, now of the city of Reading,
likewise a corresponding editor of the paper referred to, and author of
"Sinai and Zion," an interesting volume of Travels in the Holy Land. Mr.
B. hastened to the scene of ruin as soon as the telegraph informed him of
the fearful calamity. After a suitable introduction, he furnishes the
following incidents and reflections:
"Persons were fired upon, who attempted to extinguish the flames. A rebel
soldier threatened a young man to 'blow his brains out' if he would not
let the fire burn. With a revolver in hand, his sister rushed out of an
adjoining room, her eyes flashing with a more terrible fire than that of
rebel kindling: 'Begone, thou brutal wretch!' said the heroine, as she
aimed with precision at the rebel's head, who scampered away in a terrible
fright.
"Three sides around a lady's home (Mrs. Denig's) are on fire. The fourth
is enclosed with an iron fence. An attempt to cross the fence burns her
palm into crisp. She sits down in the middle of her narrow lot. Around her
she folds a few rugs, dipped in water, to shelter her person against the
heat. An old negro crouches down by her side, and helps to moisten the
rugs. Her face, though covered, is blistered by the intense heat. Now and
then God sends a breath of wind to waft the hot air away, and allows her
to take breath. Virtually, it was a martyrdom at the stake, those two
hours amid the flames. Only after she was rescued did the sight of her
ruined home open the fountain of tears. 'Don't cry, missus,' said Peter,
the old negro; 'de Lord saved our lives from de fire.' In a few hours two
thousand people are scattered through the suburbs of the town, in the
fields, on the cemetery, amid the abode of the dead. A squad of rebels
seized a flag, which a lady happened to have in her house. With some
difficulty, she wrested it from their grasp, folded it around her person,
and walked away from her burning house, past the furious soldiery,
determined that the flag should become her shroud ere it should fall into
the hands of the foe.
"Never was there so little saved at an extensive fire. Sixty-nine pianos
were consumed. The most sacred family relics, keepsakes and portraits of
deceased friends, old family Bibles, handed down from past generations,
and the many objects imparting a priceless value to a Christian home, and
which can never be replaced, were all destroyed.
"In the dim moonlight we meditated among the ruins. Chimney-stacks and
fragments of walls formed the dreary outline of ruined houses. Not a light
was left but the fitful glowing of embers, amid the rubbish that fills
the cellars. The silence of the grave reigns where oft we have heard the
voice of mirth and music, of prayer and praise. Now and then some one
treads heavily along in the middle of the street; for the pavements are
blocked up with fallen walls.
"Here we must pause a moment. More than fifty years ago, a happy young man
brought his bride into yonder house, now in ruins. One room sufficed, on
the second floor. A happier pair could not be found in the halls of
affluence. The first day they said: 'We will build an altar here.' Around
it they daily knelt. In 1812, the husband tore himself away from his
weeping bride, to drive the British foe from our soil. From that day to
this, his heart was aglow with the fire of Christian patriotism. Children
were born to them, and children's children. By industry, thrift and piety,
they acquired a competent fortune, meanwhile giving much to Christ and His
kingdom. Their children, too, they gave to Him. The first room continued a
sacred 'upper room.' There were portraits, books and family keepsakes of
fifty years' gathering. Mementos of sorrow and joy were treasured up
therein. Some years ago, the once happy bride, then an aged matron, died.
Her death was like the falling of a great shadow on a sun-lit home. By
this time the silvery locks of age adorned the brow of the bridegroom.
Sorrow had made his home doubly sacred; trials riveted his heart to it.
Still he prayed and read his old family Bible in the room where first he
built the altar. With what a cheerful, buoyant spirit he bore the burdens
of age! Under this room was a store, with a considerable quantity of
powder. The fire is already hissing around the kegs. Still he lingers in
his dear chamber, as if preferring death there to safety elsewhere. The
violence of friendship forces him away just before the fatal explosion.
Every domestic memorial, which piety and affection have gathered for more
than half a century, are in the ashes. Two cases these, out of three
hundred. Thousands of domestic and social ties bind the members of
communities and of families together. To tear up and sunder all in a few
hours, and cut hundreds of hearts loose from the moorings of past
generations--who can fathom such a sorrow!
"The Rev. P. S. Davis, who lately entered upon the pastorate of the First
Reformed Church, sustained a serious loss. A great portion of the clothing
of his family and his manuscripts, the literary fruits of an earnest,
laborious ministry, were consumed. Dr. Schneck vainly contended with the
flames. His cozy, substantial house, with all that it contained--the
costly relics borne home from two European tours, his valuable library,
all his manuscripts, precious domestic keepsakes and furniture--all are a
heap of undistinguishable ruins. To begin the world anew at his time of
life, presents a cheerless prospect. Dr. Fisher's is one of the four
fortunate homes that were saved in the burned district."
LETTER IV.
MY DEAR FRIEND:
In your last letter, you ask me what are the feelings of our people,
especially the immediate sufferers, under the severe stroke which has
befallen them; whether desponding or otherwise, and whether the spirit of
"retaliation for the bitterly severe losses and deprivations does not
largely manifest itself among them."
In regard to the first, I am enabled to say, that during the whole course
of my life, I have not witnessed such an absence of despondent feeling
under great trials and sudden reverses of earthly fortune, never such
buoyancy and vigor of soul, and even cheerfulness amid accumulated woes
and sorrows, as I have during these four weeks of our devastated town. And
I leave you to imagine the many cases of extreme revulsion from
independence and affluence to utter helplessness and want. The widow and
fatherless, the aged and infirm, suddenly bereft of their earthly all, in
very many instances, even of a change of clothing. Large and valuable
libraries and manuscripts, the accumulations of many years; statuary,
paintings, precious and never-to-be-replaced mementoes--more valuable than
gold and silver--gone forever. And yet amid all these losses and the
consequent self-denial and the necessity of adapting themselves to another
and almost entirely different state of things, to which the great majority
of the people were subjected, you seldom see a sad or sombre countenance
on the street or elsewhere. Exceptions there are doubtless, traceable in
part to feeble physical constitution, in part also to an inordinate love
of and dependence upon transitory objects. But in a general way the
sufferers by this wholesale devastation are among the most patient,
unmurmuring, cheerful, hopeful people I have ever known. God really seems
to have given special grace in a special time of need. When, on the
morning after the burning and pillage (God's sweet day of rest) I
attempted to preach to an humble flock of Germans, whom I serve once a
Sabbath, a godly woman belonging to the little congregation wept nearly
during the whole service. On the way to my lodging-place, I overtook her
and found her still in tears. Fearing I had been misinformed as to her
safety from the recent calamity, I asked for the cause of her grief. "I
weep for _others_, my dear pastor," she replied, "and not altogether and
entirely for others either, for I fear me that if _my_ little all had been
burnt before my eyes, I should not have had grace to bear up as you and
the rest are enabled to do." And then with an outburst of irrepressible
emotion, she added: "And you can yet exhort us to forgive these our
enemies, and not murmur and repine under all this, as not only you
yourself but others have said, we should do. It's _this_ that makes me
weep."
I freely confess that I have never experienced in my own case, nor in the
case of others, even under comparatively light and trifling losses and
deprivations, such resignation, such quiet, gentle submission, and such
calm endurance, amid the loss of all things, as in this instance. To such
an extent have been these manifestations, that persons from neighboring
towns, and strangers from a distance who in great numbers have visited the
place, almost universally remark upon it. A highly intelligent and pious
woman in a remote part of the county, a few days after the burning, called
at the house in which a number of the homeless ones were kindly cared for.
The large dining-table was surrounded by those who, a few days before,
were in possession of all the comforts and many of the luxuries of life.
Pleasant and cheerful conversation passed around the board. The visitor
alone seemed sad and out of tune. Tears stood in her eyes as she looked
around upon us. "I am amazed beyond measure at you all," she said. "I
expected to see nought but tears, hear only lamentations and sighs, and
here you are as I have seen and known you in your bright and happy days,
calm, serene, and even cheerful!" When one of our number replied, that no
tear over the losses sustained had yet been shed by herself, but many
tears at the numerous tokens of Christian sympathy and generous aid from
far and near to relieve the immediate necessities of the sufferers, she
added, "God be thanked for your words; they flow like precious ointment,
deep down into my heart. Oh, what a commentary on the promised grace of
God!" And we all felt, I am sure, that among the many gifts of our
heavenly Father, not the least was
"A cheerful heart,
That tastes those gifts with joy."
And in regard to the feeling of revenge, so natural to the human heart, I
have been gratifyingly disappointed. Among the heaviest sufferers, by far
the largest proportion have not only expressed themselves decidedly
opposed to the spirit of retaliation, but have used their best efforts to
dissuade our soldiers from carrying their threats into execution when an
opportunity should offer. They have gone farther, and have drawn up a
petition in which they earnestly implore the Government in Washington to
prevent to the utmost anything of the kind on the part of our army. They
believe it to be morally wrong, no matter what may be the provocation from
the other side, and have always condemned the destruction of private
property by our troops in the South, whenever isolated instances of the
kind were reported. They believe, moreover, with our wise and judicious
Governor, that retaliation "can do no good to our own people, but a great
deal of harm, because we have more towns, villages, flouring and other
mills to be destroyed in three counties than our enemies in the Southern
States have in fifteen or twenty counties."
Such a wholesale, premeditated, and cruel work of destruction as the
burning of Chambersburg, was never perpetrated by Union troops, and when
Richmond papers have said so, they have said what the facts in the case
did not warrant. It must be admitted, however, that in too many instances,
Union troops did destroy private property unnecessarily and wantonly. We
hope in God it will never be done again. We trust our commanding officers
in the army will not allow passion to set aside moral principle, military
rule, and military honor. Within sight of our charred and desolated homes,
we implore and beseech them not to bring reproach upon our Government,
trample upon all law and order, inaugurate cruel barbarity instead of
civilized warfare, and be guilty of such accumulated horrors as have been
enacted here. And yet all this, and much more, will follow with unerring
certainty, if the immoral, dishonorable, and unmilitary spirit of
retaliation is carried into effect. God in mercy forbid it!
In this connection, and for the purpose of showing that I am not alone in
the views expressed as regards the destruction of private property by
Union troops on the one hand, and the exaggerated or untrue statements of
the Southern press on the other, I will quote the following paragraphs
from the pen of Colonel McClure, in his paper already referred to. I
suppose his statements come as near the truth as can well be ascertained.
He says:
"Jacksonville (Florida) was fired at a single point when our troops were
retreating from it, because citizens fired on our men from the houses, and
unfortunately most of the town--composed of wooden structures--was
destroyed. The firing was in accordance with a well-recognized rule, that
civilians who shelter themselves in their houses to fire upon troops,
shall not only lose their property but suffer death. In Alexandria an
accidental fire, resulting from a party of intoxicated soldiers,
threatened the destruction of the entire town, owing to its inflammable
buildings and unfavorable winds; but it was arrested before one-third of
the village--the poorest portion of it--was burned. At the head of the
force detailed to put out the fire was Major-General Banks in person, and
by his orders and efforts the town was saved. Jackson (Mississippi) was
partially destroyed by our guns when it was defended by the rebels, but it
was not fired and burned by our troops after possession was gained.
Wrongs, even atrocities, may have been committed by individual soldiers or
isolated commands; but no such thing as deliberate and wanton burning and
robbing of houses was practised by the Union army. Colonel Montgomery
committed gross outrages on private citizens in two raids in South
Carolina, which we have never seen reason to justify; but he was deprived
of his command, or at least subordinated, and it may be dismissed, as he
should have been. Kilpatrick burned mills unwarrantably, as we have ever
believed, and other Union commanders may have done the same; but it was
some excuse that they were filled with rebel supplies. While McCausland
was on his way to Chambersburg to lay it waste, General Rousseau was
penetrating the richest part of Georgia, and not a single private house
or building of any kind was destroyed, nor were his soldiers permitted to
enter a residence on the route. When private property was near to
Government stores, which he had to fire, he detailed men to save all but
the buildings belonging to or used by the rebel government. General
Stoneman enforced the same rules rigidly in all his raids, and so did
Grierson. The Union troops have captured and occupied hundreds of rebel
towns since the war has commenced, and they have yet for the first time to
demand the freebooter's tribute, or destroy a town by order of a
commanding officer. Repeatedly have our troops been fired upon and
murdered by skulking rebels who protected themselves in their dwellings;
but in no case has a town been destroyed therefor."
LETTER V.
MY DEAR FRIEND:
After my last letter was beyond my control, I became acquainted with some
additional incidents which may interest you.
A lady, well known to me, the mother of a large family of children, was
ordered to leave the house in five minutes, as the house must be burned.
She collected them all around her to obey the cruel summons. Preparations
were at once made to fire the building in the rooms above and below, and
as the family group walked out of the large and beautiful mansion, the
children burst into loud weeping. "I am ashamed of you," said the
tenderly loving, yet heroic woman, "to let these men see you cry," and
every child straightened up, brushed away the falling tears, and bravely
marched out of the doomed home.
An elderly woman, of true Spartan grit, gave one of the house-burners such
a sound drubbing with a heavy broom, that the invader retreated, to leave
the work of destruction to be performed by another party, after the woman
had left to escape the approaching flames of the adjoining buildings.
The wife of a clergyman succeeded in preventing one of the enemy from
firing her house, by reminding him that she had fed him during Stuart's
raid in 1862, and that she also ministered to him when he was in the
hospital in this place in the summer of 1863. The man recognized her, and
frankly declared that he could not be so base as to destroy her house, now
that he remembered her kind offices. He had been wounded and made a
prisoner at the battle of Gettysburg, was brought to the hospital here,
and afterwards exchanged.
Mr. Jacob Hoke, one of our most worthy and enterprising merchants, has
furnished the following statement of facts and incidents for publication
in the Religious Telescope, of Dayton, Ohio. As his residence and store
were located in the centre of the town, he had an opportunity of
witnessing the scenes of the day to greater advantage than most others. I
may as well inclose the principal part of his article, as it explains more
fully several general statements before given, whilst, at the same time,
it brings out some points not alluded to before: