"For the first time we are really in the enemy's country, and are
seeing the effects of secession and some of the terrible results of
war. As we passed through the villages on our march here, the houses
were nearly all deserted, the doors closed, and very few persons to be
found. A sign of dreariness rested on everything. And when we arrived
here at Georgetown, the county seat and numbers about a thousand
people, at least one half of the houses were vacant, the stores closed,
and business suspended.
"Georgetown has seen several reverses since the rebellion broke out,
being several times in possession of both rebel and Federal troops.
When the rebels came in, the Union men fled the country or took to
the woods and slept among the bushes. Many women so exposed on the
cold, damp ground lost their lives by the exposure. I took dinner a
day or two ago with a gentleman, a citizen here, who formerly lived at
Mount Vernon [near Evansville]. He had his store broken open in broad
daylight by a company of the rebel army, and fifteen hundred dollars'
worth of his goods carried away, while he was a refugee in the woods.
Many men have lost their all.
"Such outrages have naturally enough begotten a spirit of revenge
among Union men, and those of them of more violent passions and lesser
principles have retaliated, until one wrong begetting another has
brought on a spirit of bitterness and enmity among the people which is
truly deplorable. I never want to see such a state of society again.
The dregs of the population are uppermost, and the honest and innocent
suffer. Surely it is a holy mission of ours to give peace, and safety,
and law to this country. This part of the State is the most beautiful
farming country I ever saw, and certainly it needs peace. Here truly
'only man is vile.'"