Not the least remarkable of all these noble strategical operations was the fact that black and white suffered alike. Nothing more strikingly evinces the entire demoralization and want of honor that prevailed. The negro whom they came to liberate they afterward plundered; his cabin was stripped of his little valuables, as well as his master's house of its luxuries; his humble silver watch was seized, as well as the gentleman's gold repeater. This policy is also modern, and due to the enlightenment of the nineteenth century. A good many years ago, a grand liberation of slaves took place, where the leaders and deliverer sanctioned the "spoiling of the Egyptians," but they hardly picked the pockets of the freedmen afterward. During the month of March our central counties were traversed by straggling bodies of Confederate soldiers, fragments of the once powerful army of Tennessee, hurrying down toward Raleigh to concentrate under General Johnston once more, in the vain hope of being able yet to effect something. Tennesseeans, Texans, Georgians, Alabamians, men who had been in every fight in the West, from Corinth to Perrysville, from Perrysville to Atlanta--men who had left pleasant homes, wives and children, many of whom they knew were without a house to shelter them; "For the blackness of ashes marked where it stood, And a wild mother's scream o'er her famishing brood!" The whole population of our town poured out to see these war-worn men; to cheer them; to feed and shelter them. The little children gathered handfuls of the early daffodils "that take the winds of March with beauty," and flung to them. What we had to eat we gave them, day after day. Repeatedly the whole of a family dinner was taken from the table and carried out to the street, the children joyfully assisting. They were our soldiers--our own brave boys. The cause was desperate, we knew--the war was nearly over--our delusions were at an end; but while we had it, our last loaf to our soldiers--a cheer, and a blessing, with dim eyes, as they rode away. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 3: General Winfield Scott.] CHAPTER IV. LAWS OF WAR--"RIGHT TO FORAGE OLDER THAN HISTORY"--XENOPHON--KENT ON INTERNATIONAL LAW--HALLECK'S AUTHORITY VERSUS SHERMAN'S THEORY AND PRACTICE--PRESIDENT WOOLSEY--LETTER OF BISHOP ATKINSON.