APPENDIX C.

231

The following is from the Richmond Whig, being part of a letter of a corre-spondent of that paper, soon after Sherman marched north from Columbia . Re-published in Army and Navy Journal , March 18, 1865. Speaking of the Con­ federate evacuation of Columbia , S. C. , the writer says: “The worst feature ofthe entire scene occurred on the day of which I write. A party of Wheeler’scavalry, accompanied by their officers, dashed into town, tied their horses, and assystematically as if they had been bred to the business, proceeded to break intothe stores along Main Street, and rob them of their contents. Under these cir-cumstances, you may well imagine that our people would rather see the Yankees ,or old Satan himself, than a party of the aforesaid Wheeler's cavalry. The bar-barities committed by some of them are represented to be frightful.”

The Richmond Enquirer of October 6, 1864, contained the following, withreference to Early’s command in the Valley of Virginia. After speaking of thedrunkenness habitnal among them, from the chief downward, its correspondentsays: “ The cavalry forces that had been operating in the Valley, and flittinghither and thither along the Potomac and Shenandoah were already demoralized,and 6ince their last visit to Maryland , they have been utterly worthless. Theywere in the habit of robbing friend and foe alike. They have been known tostrip Virginia women of all they had—widows whose sons were in our army—andthen to burn their houses. At Hancock, in Western Maryland , they stopped aminister of the Gospel in the street on the Sabbath day, and made him stand anddeliver his money. These monstrous truths are stated in the official report of theofficer commanding a part of these cavalry forces, and which I have read.”