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
General Logan and staff took possession of seven rooms in the
house of John C. Slocumb, Esq., the gentleman of whose statements I
avail myself. Every assurance of protection was given to the family by
the quartermaster; but many indignities were offered to the inmates,
while the house was as effectually stripped as any other of silver
plate, watches, wearing apparel, and money. Trunks and bureaus were
broken open and the contents abstracted. Not a plank or rail or post
or paling was left anywhere upon the grounds, while fruit-trees,
vines, and shrubbery were wantonly destroyed. These officers remained
nearly three weeks, occupying the family beds, and when they left the
bed-clothes also departed.
It is very evident that General Sherman entered North-Carolina with
the confident expectation of receiving a welcome from its Union-loving
citizens. In Major Nichols's story of the Great March, he remarks,
on crossing the line which divides South from North-Carolina: "The
conduct of the soldiers is perceptibly changed. I have seen no evidence
of plundering, the men keep their ranks closely; and more remarkable
yet, not a single column of the fire or smoke which a few days ago
marked the positions of the heads of columns, can be seen upon the
horizon. Our men seem to understand that they are entering a State
which has suffered for its Union sentiment, and whose inhabitants would
gladly embrace the old flag again if they can have the opportunity,
which we mean to give them," (page 222.) But the town-meeting and war
resolutions of the people of Fayetteville, the fight in her streets,
and Governor Vance's proclamation, soon undeceived them, and their
amiable dispositions were speedily corrected and abandoned.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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