Human nature is indeed a wild beast that has need to be chained and continually surrounded with restraints, or we should prey upon each other as savages do, and so lapse into barbarism. Let the experience of the last five years teach the people of this great Republic henceforth to preserve indissolubly the bonds of PEACE, that so, as a nation, they may do their appointed part toward hastening on the coming of that PRINCE of whose kingdom there shall be no end. "Te duce, qui maneant sceleris vestigia nostri Irrita perpetuâ solvent formidine terras."[17] FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 16: _Is_ General Gillam a son of North-Carolina? I put the note and query for the future historian. If so, then we have only another proof that decency and good principles are not always hereditary.] [Footnote 17: With Thee for our guide, whatever relics of our crimes remain shall be taken away, and free the world from perpetual fears.] CHAPTER XV. 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.