Horace Greeley, The American Conflict: A History of the Great Rebellion in the United States of America, 1860-65: its Causes, Incidents, and Results: Intended to exhibit especially its moral and political phases with the drift and progress of American opinion respecting human slavery from 1776 to the close of the War for the Union. Volume I.

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Second. The quantity of land used for the several encampments, and the kind and value of the growing crops, if any.

Third. The number, size, and character of the buildings appropriated to public purposes.

Fourth. The quantity and value of trees cut down.

Fifth. The kind and extent of fencing, etc., destroyed.

These statements will, as far as possible, give the value of the property taken, or of the damage sustained, and the name or names of the owners thereof. Citizens who have sustained any damage or loss as above will make their claims upon the commanding officers of the troops by whom it was done, or, in cases where these troops have moved away, upon the commander nearest them.

These claims will accompany the statement above called for. The commanders of brigades will require the assistance of the commanders of regiments or detached companies, and will make this order known to the inhabitants in their vicinity, to the end that all loss or damage may, as nearly as possible, be ascertained while the troops are now here, and by whom, or on whose account, it has been occasioned, that justice may be done alike to the citizen and to the Government. The name of the officer or officers, in case the brigade commanders shall institute a board to fix the amount of loss or damage, shall be given in each case.

By order of

Brig. Gen. Mcdowell. James B. Fry, Ass't Adj't-General.

Of course, this order does not prove that no outrage was committed, no wanton injury inflicted, by our soldiers, in this or other portions of the Confederacy. War cannot afford to be nice in the selection of its instruments; and probably no campaign was ever prosecuted through a friendly, much more a hostile, region, wherein acts of violence and spoliation were not perpetrated by soldiers on the defenseless inhabitants of the country. But that the commanders on our side, and, in fact, on both sides, were generally earnest and vigilant in repressing and punishing these excesses, is the simple truth, which should be asserted and insisted on for the honor of our country and her people.

Gen. Robert Patterson, with about 20,000 men, broke camp at Chambersburg, June 7th, and advanced to Hagerstown, while Col. Lew. Wallace, on his right, took quiet possession of Cumberland, and made a dash upon Romney, which he easily captured. Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, commanding the Rebels, burned the bridge at Point of Rocks on the 7th, and evacuated Harper's Ferry on the 14th, destroying the superb railway bridge over the Potomac. He retreated upon Winchester and Leesburg, after having destroyed the armory and shops at the Ferry — the machinery having been already sent off to Richmond. The Chesapeake Canal and the several railroads in this region were thoroughly dismantled. The Potomac was crossed at Williamsport, by Gen. Thomas, on the 16th. But, for some reason, this advance was countermanded, and our troops all recrossed on the 18th--Gen. Patterson remaining at Hagerstown. The Rebels at once returned to the river, completing the work of destruction at Harper's Ferry, and conscripting Unionists as well as Confederates to fill their ranks. Patterson recrossed the Potomac at Williamsport on the morning of July 2d, at a place known as “Falling waters,” encountering a small Rebel force under Gen. Jackson (afterward known as “ Stonewall” ), who, being outnumbered, made little resistance, but fell back to Martinsburg, and ultimately to Bunker Hill. On the 7th, an order to advance on Winchester was given, but not executed. Finally, on the 15th, Patterson moved forward to