How the War was conducted.
Having then, we think,
established the justice of the
Confederate cause, and that the
Northern people were responsible for, and the aggressors in bringing on the war, and both of these facts by testimony drawn almost exclusively from Northern sources, it is only left for us to consider how the war, thus forced upon the
South by the
North, was
conducted by the respective combatants through their representatives, both in the cabinet and in the field?
We fully recognize that within the limits of this report it is impossible to do more than to ‘touch the fringe,’ as it were, of this important inquiry.
The details of the horrors of the four years of that war would fill many, many volumes, and it is not our purpose or desire to go fully into any such sad and harrowing recital.
We propose, therefore, only to give the principles of civilized warfare as adopted by the
Federal authorities for the government of their armies in the field during the war, and then cite some of the most flagrant violations of those principles by some of the most distinguished representatives of that government in the war waged by it against the
South.
Of course, in doing this we shall have to refer to some things very familiar to all of us; but the repetition of them in this report would nevertheless seem necessary and proper to its completeness.
In performing this distasteful task we wish, in the beginning, to disclaim any and all purpose or wish on our part to reopen the wounds or to rekindle the feelings of bitterness engendered by that unholy and unhappy strife.
As we said in our last report, we recognize that this whole country is one country and our country, and we of
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the
South are as true to it, and will do as much to uphold its honor and defend its rights, as those of any other section.
But we are also true to a sacred past, a past which had principles for which thousands of our comrades suffered and died, and which are living principles to-day—principles which we fought to maintain, and for which our whole people, almost without exception, willingly and heroically offered their lives, their blood and their fortunes; and whilst we do not propose to live in that past, we do propose that the principles of that past shall live in us, and that we will transmit these principles to our children and their descendants to the latest generations yet unborn.
We believe that only by doing this can we and they make good citizens of the republic, as founded by our fathers,
and that not to do this would be false to the memory of our dead and to ourselves.
Then let us enquire, first: What were the rules adopted by the
Federals for the government of their armies in war?
The most important of these are as follows:
（1) Private property, unless forfeited by crimes, or by offences of the owner against the safety of the army, or the dignity of the United States, and after conviction of the owner by court-martial, can be seized only by way of military necessity for the support or other benefit of the army of the United States.
（2) All wanton violence committed against persons in the invaded country; all destruction of property not commanded by the authorized officer; all robbery; all pillage or sacking, even after taking place by main force; all rape, wounding, maiming, or killing of such inhabitants, are prohibited under penalty of death, or such other severe punishment as may seem adequate for the gravity of the offence.
（3) Crimes punishable by all penal codes, such as arson, murder, maiming, assaults, highway robbery, theft, burglary, fraud, forgery and rape, if committed by an American soldier in a hostile country against its inhabitants, are not only punishable, as at home, but in all cases in which death is not inflicted, the severer punishment shall be preferred, because the criminal has, as far as in him lay, prostituted the power conferred on a man of arms, and prostituted the dignity of the United States.
Now, as we have said, these were the important provisions adopted by the
Federals for the government of their armies in war.
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General McClellan, a gentleman, a trained and educated soldier, recognized these principles from the beginning, and acted on them.
On July 7, 1862, he wrote to
Mr. Lincoln from
Harrison's Landing, saying, among other things:
This rebellion has assumed the character of a war; as such it should be conducted upon the highest principles of Christian civilization.
It should not be a war looking to the subjugation of the people of any State in any event.
It should not be at all a war upon populations, but against armed forces and political organizations.
Neither confiscation of property, political executions of persons, territorial organization of States, nor forcible abolition of slavery, should be contemplated for a moment.
In prosecuting the war, all private property and unarmed persons, should be strictly protected, subject only to the necessity of military operations.
All property taken for military use should be paid or receipted for; pillage and waste should be treated as high crimes; all unnecessary trespass sternly prohibited, and offensive demeanor by the military towards citizens promptly rebuked.
See 2 Am. Conflict (
Greely), p. 248.
The writer's home was visited by the Army of the Potomac, both under
McClellan and under
Grant.
At the time
McClellan was in command guards were stationed to protect the premises, with orders to shoot any soldier caught depredating, and but little damage was actually done; none with the consent or connivance of the
commanding general.
But, when the same army came, commanded by
Grant, every house on the place, except one negro cabin, was burned to the ground; all stock and everything else of any value was carried off. The occupants were only women, children and servants; nearly all the servants were carried off; one of the ladies was so shocked at the outrages committed as to cause her death, and the other, and the children were turned out of doors without shelter or food, and with only the clothing they had on. So, the writer has had a real experience of the difference between
civilized and
barbarous warfare.
To show how little the advice of
McClellan, as to the principles on which the war should be conducted, was heeded at
Washington, and as it would seem, stimulated in an opposite course by his suggestions, we find that in two weeks from the date of his letter to
Mr. Lincoln, just quoted—viz: on July 20, 1862—that
General John Pope, commandng the ‘Army of Virginia,’ issued the following order:
