Not only this, but in truth no reply was made. They made medicine contraband of war; that is, they would not allow medicine to be shipped into the South any more than they would powder and lead or food or clothing—something no other nation of modern times has ever done. These things here recorded are historic, known and read by all men. CONDUCT OF THE WAR The conduct of the war on the part of the North was cold-blooded and cruel in the highest degree. The Northern soldiers burned and pillaged thousands of homes, and ruthlessly destroyed millions of dollars' worth of private property. The beautiful and fertile Valley of Virginia, "the garden spot of the world," was made a howling wilderness by wanton destruction and devastation; every mill and barn was burned, together with many dwellings; every kind of food for man or beast was destroyed, and the women and children left in a pitiable plight, the vandal Sheridan sending a message to Grant after the dastardly work was done, that "A crow flying over the Valley would have to take his rations with him." Gen. U. S. Grant had ordered this destruction and devastation, and found in Sheridan a willing tool to execute the infamous order. The annals of history, ancient or modern, furnish few if any atrocities equal to those perpetrated by the Northern armies. The monster, Sherman, in his march through Georgia and North Carolina, burned and pillaged as no army ever did before, leaving a burned and blackened swath behind him forty to sixty miles wide. A few years ago, when the world was horrified at the cruelty the United States soldiers practiced on the Philippinos, including the "water cure," which consisted of inserting a rubber tube into the throat while the victim lay bound on his back, and pouring water in the tube and down the throat until the stomach was filled and distended to its fullest capacity, then jumping on the victim's stomach with the feet, forcing the water out, repeating the operation time and time again—when I read of this I remarked to some one that I was not surprised: that the Yankees were mean enough to do anything; that I knew them of old. SHERMAN'S MARCH General Sherman, in his official report of his operations in Georgia, says: "We consumed the corn and fodder in the country thirty miles on either side of a line from Atlanta to Savannah: also the sweet potatoes, hogs, sheep, poultry, and carried off more than 10,000 horses and mules. I estimate the damage done to the State of Georgia at one hundred million dollars, at least, twenty millions of which inured to our benefit, and the remainder was simply waste and destruction." Could anything be more diabolical?