We had a conversation yesterday with a person who remained in
Fredericksburg in charge of some property, both on the occasion of the occupation last summer and on the late occasion. --He says that the
Yankees were most awfully flogged on last Saturday, and that the slaughter was awful beyond conception.
He says they must have lost at least 20,000 men, and that this is not a mere random guess of a person unaccustomed to military estimates, is sustained by the opinions of an intelligent gentlemen who had opportunities of knowing, and who likewise estimates the loss at 15,000 to 20,000.
He says that when he left the place, after the
Yankees had gone, there were large numbers of dead lying unburied in the streets.
He says they returned from the field in the wildest disorder.
It was found impossible to restrain them, if any attempt was made.
All discipline, all subordination, was gone.
They pillaged every house in the town, ransacking the whole from garret to cellar — smashing the windows, doors, and furniture of every description — and committing every possible species of outrage.
They broke the chinaware, smashed the pianos, and annihilated the chairs tables, and bedsteads. --They cut open the beds, emptied the contents in the street, and burned the bed ticks.
They stole all the blankets sheets, counterpanes, and everything they could use. They broke into the cellars and drank all the liquors they could find so that the whole army became a drunken and furious mob. He thinks that not a single house in town escaped.
This infernal carnival was held all throughout the night of Saturday, all day and all night Sunday, and until the evening of Monday.--At that time, from some cause which he could not understand, they seemed to be suddenly taken with a panic, and continued in a terrible state of alarm until the evacuation commenced.
From the account of our informant we should infer that they were marching down to
Port Royal.
Such are the savages sent to teach us civilization.
