IREDELL COUNTY--GENERAL PALMER'S COURTESY TO MRS. VANCE--SUBSEQUENT
TREATMENT OF THIS LADY BY FEDERAL SOLDIERS--MAJOR HAMBRIGHT'S CRUELTY
IN LENOIR--CASE OF DR. BALLEW AND OTHERS--GENERAL GILLAM--HIS
OUTRAGES AT MRS. HAGLER'S--DR. BOONE CLARK--TERRIBLE TREATMENT OF HIS
FAMILY--LIEUTENANTS RICE AND MALLOBRY--MRS. GENERAL VAUGHN--MORGANTON.
Statesville was entered on the night of the 13th, and occupied for a
few hours only. Long enough, however, to insure the destruction of the
Government stores and railroad depot, and of the _Iredell Express_
office, a paper which was obnoxious from the warmth with which it
had advocated the cause of the Confederacy. No county in the State
had suffered more severely than Iredell in the loss of her best and
bravest sons in the army. The famous Fourth North-Carolina regiment was
composed of Iredell boys, and the colors of no regiment in the service
were borne more daringly or more nobly. I remember to have heard it
said, after one of the great battles around Richmond, that half the
families of Iredell were in mourning. When it became known that the
_Express_ office was to be burned, the ladies and citizens plead
earnestly that it might be spared for the sake of the town, which was
in great danger of being involved in the conflagration. The citizens
offered to tear it down and remove the materials to a vacant square to
be burned, but this was not allowed by the officer who had charge of
the business. The office was fired where it stood, and in consequence
a large private dwelling, belonging to Dr. Dean, standing near it, was
also consumed, and a large family turned out houseless and utterly
prostrated otherwise--Gen. Sherman's army having just previously
destroyed certain other resources of theirs. The wind providentially
blowing in the right direction, saved the town from general ruin. One
of the citizens, Mr. Frank Bell, was cruelly beaten and tortured to
make him disclose the hiding-place of gold which they suspected he
possessed. He, however, had none.
The raiders moved, on the 14th, to Taylorsville, Alexander county, and
from thence to Lenoir, Caldwell county, which they reached on Saturday,
15th, and occupied till Monday, 17th. On the road from Statesville a
part of the command was dispatched in the direction of Lincolnton,
under General Palmer. Of this officer the same general account is given
as of General Stoneman, that he exhibited a courtesy and forbearance
which reflected honor on his uniform, and have given him a just claim
to the respect and gratitude of our western people. The following
pleasant story is a sample of his way of carrying on war with ladies:
Mrs. Vance, the wife of the Governor, had taken refuge, from Raleigh,
in Statesville with her children. On the approach of General Stoneman's
army, she sent off to Lincolnton, for safety, a large trunk filled
with valuable clothing, silver, etc., and among other things two
thousand dollars in gold, which had been intrusted to her care by one
of the banks. This trunk was captured on the road by Palmer's men,
who of course rejoiced exceedingly over this finding of spoil more
especially as belonging to the rebel Governor Vance. Its contents were
speedily appropriated and scattered. But the circumstance coming to
General Palmer's knowledge, within an hour's time he had every article
and every cent collected and replaced in the trunk, which he then
immediately sent back under guard to Mrs. Vance with his compliments.
General Palmer was aiming for Charlotte when he was met by couriers
announcing news of the armistice.
There was no plundering allowed in Statesville. Mrs. Vance was
treated with respect and entirely unmolested. But several weeks
afterward, when Governor Vance was a prisoner in Washington, a squad
of Federal soldiers came to her residence and carried away every
article of furniture in the house. Some of this belonged to the
Mansion House in Raleigh, and had been removed to Statesville for
safety at the same time when other Government property was sent off.
The officer who was in command had the grace to appear ashamed of his
business, and apologized to Mrs. Vance repeatedly, stating that he
was acting under orders, and that it was done at the suggestion of
North-Carolinians in Raleigh, who desired that the articles belonging
to the executive mansion should be restored. Every thing in the house
was taken away, private property and all, and not one article ever
reached the executive mansion. Two queries occur: First, Who were the
North-Carolinians who instigated this insult to Mrs. Vance? And second,
Whatever _did_ become of the furniture? Every thing in the way of
furniture was carried off, and Mrs. Vance, who was then ill, and her
children were left without even a bed. In less than twelve hours after
this raid extraordinary became known to the people in the town and
neighborhood, the house was entirely refurnished with more than it had
contained previously. I can well imagine that there was no one who did
not esteem it a privilege thus to testify their love and respect for
the Governor and his family.
General Stoneman pressed on toward Tennessee through Watauga county,
with the prisoners, leaving General Gillam, with three hundred men, to
proceed to Asheville _via_ Morganton.
Of the prisoners it was estimated there were about nine hundred. Many
of them were old men past the conscript age, some were boys, others
were discharged Confederate soldiers in feeble health or maimed, who
had been captured at their homes. In regard to them no settled course
or plan of action seems to have been adopted. In some instances they
easily escaped, or were allowed to do so tacitly, and regained their
homes in a short time. Most of them, however, were dragged on with
every circumstance of barbarity and cruelty. A few instances may be
given illustrative of their treatment.
In Lenoir they were confined in and about the Episcopal church,
under a strong guard, with peremptory orders from General Gillam to
shoot every man who attempted to escape. The gallant General added,
that he "would rather have ten men shot than one escape." It must
be remembered that a number of them were over sixty years of age;
some were permanently diseased; some were men who had not walked
continuously five miles for years, or perhaps hardly in their whole
lives; and that, when they reached Lenoir, they had all of them marched
twenty-five and thirty miles in eight or ten hours. They had been
double-quicked a good part of the way from Taylorsville to Lenoir,
and arrived there on Saturday afternoon nearly exhausted with fatigue
and hunger. Notwithstanding their deplorable condition, they had
nothing to eat after that march till Sunday at ten A.M., and then they
were only partially supplied from the scanty stores of the plundered
villagers; for Lenoir, having been pronounced a "rebellious little
hole," was sentenced to receive its full share of punishment at the
hands of General Gillam. It was not till the afternoon of Sunday that
rations were issued. Whenever any of the towns-people carried any
thing to the prison, the scene was said to have been most piteous, so
many men begging for just one morsel of dry bread. There seemed to
be an especial spirit of bitterness toward the prisoners among the
Federal soldiers generally, and in some instances among the officers.
S. Hambright, Major and Provost-Marshal, with headquarters at the same
place with General Gillam, was especially insulting to citizens, and
cruel to the prisoners. Dr. Ballew, a citizen of Lenoir, enfeebled and
emaciated with consumption, was arrested and carried to headquarters.
Feeling exhausted with the effort to walk there, he sat down on the
steps of the piazza, to await the Major's pleasure. It was determined
to send him to prison, and he was ordered to get up and march, but,
from his feebleness, not being able to move quickly enough to suit
the chivalrous soldier, the Major, to help him rise, stepped behind
and gave him "_a rousing kick_." The citizens were heartily cursed
for taking food to them. From Lenoir they were marched rapidly up to
the top of the Blue Ridge; several gave out, several who started from
Salisbury died. They were all urged forward with threats of death.
A Lieutenant Shotwell attempted to escape, but being overtaken,
surrendered. He was then shot down and left on the roadside unburied.
A Mr. Wilfong, who had captured a straggler of Kirk's command, brought
him into Lenoir, not knowing the Federals were there. The tables were
of course turned, and he in his turn became a prisoner, and was given
in charge to his former captive, who wreaked such cruel vengeance on
him that he died before reaching Greenville, Tenn. All who reached
Knoxville were sent to Camp Chase, Ohio.
General Gillam deserves especial notice at the hands of the historian.
All concurrent testimony represents him as most supercilious,
insulting, and unfeeling. His headquarters in Lenoir, were at Mr.
Albert Hagler's. The family were all crowded off into one room, while
the gallant General and his staff appropriated all the rest of the
premises, including kitchen and stables. To Miss Sarah Hagler, an
accomplished young lady, he was especially impertinent, though she
parried his attacks with the civility of a lady. On one occasion
he said to her rudely, "I know you are a rebel from the way you
move--an't you a rebel?" She replied, "General Gillam, did you ever
hear the story of the tailor's wife and the scissors?" "Yes." "Then
I am a rebel as high as I can reach." Coarseness, however, can not
always be met playfully, and Mrs. Hagler incurred his anger to its
fullest extent when, in reply to his violent denunciation of the
Confederates for starving their prisoners, she ventured to suggest that
the Federal authorities might have saved all this suffering had they
agreed to exchange and take them North, where provisions were plenty.
The General's reply to this was the giving his men tacit license to
plunder and destroy the houses of Mrs. H.'s married daughter and
niece, who lived very near her, and who, she had supposed, were to be
protected, from his headquarters being at her house. No houses in the
place suffered more severely than theirs. The house of her daughter,
Mrs. Hartley, was pillaged from top to bottom. Barrels of sorghum were
broken and poured over the wheat in the granary, and over the floors
of the house. Furniture and crockery were smashed, and what was not
broken up was defiled in a manner so disgusting as to be unfit for use.
Mrs. Clark, the niece, was driven out of her house by the brutality
of her plunderers. Her husband, Dr. Boone Clark, was a captain in the
Confederate service, had been wounded in the battle of Leesburg, early
in the war--an admirable and most graphic account of which engagement
he wrote for the Raleigh _Standard_ soon after. In several subsequent
battles he had received severe wounds, and though partially disabled
by one of them at this time, he was endeavoring to raise a company of
cavalry for home defense, as marauders, under the notorious Keith and
Blalock, were constantly threatening to pillage Lenoir. These facts
were known to some of Gillam's men, and they evidently enjoyed the
opportunity to plunder his house and insult his defenseless wife. He
himself was at home, sitting at table, when the raiders dashed in town.
Seizing his gun, he ran out and secreted himself behind some adjoining
buildings, and though a colonel did him the honor to enter his house
almost immediately, and with a squad made a thorough search for him,
his retreat remained undiscovered, and at night he left for more
secure quarters. The raiders swarmed through the house that evening
and night, breaking open trunks, wardrobes, drawers; searching for
arms and carrying off all the valuables, and destroying what they did
not want. Finding a coat of the Captain's, they cut it to pieces. They
destroyed all the provisions, all the furniture, crockery, and wearing
apparel. They tore up fine silk dresses into ribbons for their hats,
or cut large squares out and carefully wrapped up quids of tobacco in
them and deposited them on the mantel-piece. The little daughter's hat
and garments were placed on the floor, and loathsomely polluted. They
even took the lady's thimble from her work-box, and carried off the
likeness of her deceased mother, paying no regard to her entreaties.
They constantly addressed her, as she sat weeping and motionless
amid the wreck they were making, in the most profane and obscene and
insulting language, repeatedly calling her a liar and other degrading
names. They compelled her and her little daughter to remain and witness
the destruction; and, finally, when there was nothing more to break and
steal, one of them approached her and thrust his fist in her face. As
she raised her head to avoid it, he struck her forehead, seized her by
the throat, cursing her furiously. She begged him not to kill her; he
let her throat loose then; seizing the neck of her dress, tore it open,
snatched her gold watch, which hung by a ribbon, tore it off and left
her. Half dead with fright, she rushed to the door with the child, and
amid curses and cries of "Stop her!" "Don't let her go!" got out of
the house, ran down to her aunt's, and fell fainting on the threshold.
After she was recovered, the ladies begged General Gillam to interfere,
but he refused, saying, "There were bad men in all crowds." In the case
of Mrs. Hartley he turned his back to the ladies without a word. Mrs.
Clark then appealed to Lieutenant Jerome B. Rice of the Signal Corps,
and also to Lieutenant Theodore Mallobry in the same command. These
were _gentlemen_, and manifested a determination to protect her. One of
them returned to her house with her and viewed the utter destruction of
her household property with every appearance of shame and indignation.
As they entered the house a soldier--the last of the gang--ran out. The
Lieutenant had him arrested and carried to headquarters. When Mrs.
Clark was called on to identify him as one of the robbers, he denied
having been near her house. "Why," said she, "that is a piece of a silk
dress of mine round your hat now." "Is it?" said he, coolly taking it
off and handing it to her; "well, then, you may have it back." This
was in the presence of General Gillam, for whom, by the way, it was
generally observed, the men seemed to have no respect. General Brown
sent a strong guard to Mrs. Clark's house; but it was too late to save
any thing, and she had no redress.
I have been thus particular to give an account which is, after all,
a condensed one, of the treatment of _one_ Southern lady by certain
soldiers of the army of the Union. There are thousands of such cases
unreported. This I present as a sample. So much is said of the
"unharmonized" attitude of Southern women at present that I think it
is as well to let the world see upon what ground it is they feel as if
some time must elapse before they can honestly profess to love their
enemies.
While plundering one house in the village, the marauders forced
themselves into the chamber of a lady while she was in child-birth.
With great difficulty the attending physician prevented them from
plundering that room.
Mrs. General Vaughn was residing in Lenoir at this time. It is said
that Generals Gillam and Vaughn had been friends before the war, and
had agreed together that if the family of one should fall into the
hands of the other, they should be protected. General Gillam placed a
guard at Mrs. Vaughn's house; but as soon as he left the town, two of
his men went in and demanded her watch. On her refusal they attempted
to search her. She drew a pistol, but they took it from her before she
could fire. She resisted their search with all her might, and at last
they left her without the watch, having nearly torn her dress off.
Shortly after, the same two returned with five others, and with threats
of violence compelled her to give the watch up. That night squads of
half-intoxicated men came back and committed further depredations in
the village and neighborhood. The house of Dr. Felix Dula, with all
its furniture, was burned. This, however, it is conjectured, might
have been done by deserters. They left Lenoir for Morganton on the
17th, and on the way burned the house of a Mr. Johnston, one of the
home guards. On reaching Rocky Ford, on the Catawba river, a mile or
two from Morganton, they found a party of about fifty Confederates,
strongly posted on the opposite side, well armed, and with one brass
howitzer. This party was under the command of Captain George West,
Lieutenant-Colonel S. M'Dowell Tate volunteering with them. They were
well posted and sheltered on their side, while the enemy approached
without cover to attempt a very difficult ford. A sharp engagement
ensued, which resulted in General Gillam's withdrawal toward Fleming's
Ford, a little higher up. He lost about twenty-five, killed and
wounded. Few were wounded. An eye-witness says he counted eight dead
bodies of Federal soldiers floating down the stream. The Confederates
lost none, their position being so advantageous. At Fleming's Ford
General Gillam easily forced his way, the fifty Confederates taking to
the mountains on finding themselves overpowered here.
The raiders remained at Morganton a day or two. There was very little
plundering done in the houses here. They exercised their ingenuity in
searching for hidden treasure out of doors. It seemed to have been
understood that the Morganton people, warned of their approach, had
_cached_ most of their valuables. These _caches_ were hunted up with
unremitting vigor, and most of them were discovered and rifled. Many
amusing stories are current now all through the South, of valuable
deposits, scarcely hidden at all, which escaped, and some, not so
amusing, of others hidden in inscrutable places which were pounced upon
at once. Of a quantity of old family silver buried out of town, by a
clump of rocks shaded with a persimmon-tree or two and a grape-vine,
and on the departure of the enemy the owner going out and finding that
a camp had been made just there, and the camp-fire built just over the
_cache_, which was untouched. Of a valuable _cache_ made by several
families united, in a secluded spot in the woods, and found afterward
undisturbed save by the hoof of a raider's horse having sunk in upon
it, having evidently caused a stumble, but no suspicion of the cause.
Of valuable papers and jewels so well hidden that it was months before
the owners themselves could find where they had put them.