The Last Ninety Days of the War in North-CarolinaSpencer, Cornelia Phillips
History
The Last Ninety Days of the War in North-Carolina
Spencer, Cornelia Phillips
North Carolina -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865; United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Campaigns
I have other statements, but perhaps these are sufficient for my
present purpose.[5] I have given none that can not be verified if
necessary, though they differ widely from those of a book lately
published at the North, entitled The Story of the Great March, and
which is doubtless regarded there as of unquestionable authority. On
page 251 I observe it is stated, "Private property in Fayetteville has
been respected to a degree which is remarkable;" and on page 253: "The
city of Fayetteville was offensively rebellious, and it has been a
matter of surprise that our soldiers, who are quick to understand the
distinction, have not made the citizens feel it in one way or another."
It is just possible that Major Nichols did not know the truth; that,
being very evidently of an easy and credulous temper, and too busy
making up his little book for sale, he allowed himself to be imposed
upon by wicked jokers. Let us all believe that he knew nothing of
the robberies that were going on. He was evidently hard of hearing,
besides; for he says, page 240, "I have yet to hear of a single outrage
offered to a woman by a soldier of our army." Let us all believe that
he was too deeply interested in his interviews with the handsome
"quadroon family," mentioned on page 237, to know what was going on
among the whites. By the way, it would seem these quadroon girls were
too deep for him too. His reported conversation with the family is
a very amusing tissue of blunders and misrepresentation. Foot-notes
should certainly accompany the thirtieth edition, and in particular it
should be stated of these "intelligent quadroons," not one of whom was
ever named Hannah, and not one of any name was ever sold, that not one
of them has yet left the lot of their old master, or expressed a wish
to leave. Major Nichols does not seem to know much; but he probably
knows this, that it was not for want of asking that these handsome
quadroons did not go.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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