Rebellion Record: a Diary of American Events: Documents and Narratives, Volume 6.
Frank Moore, Ed.

To sum up--General Stoneman moved about within the enemy's lines at will for nine days, with a force not exceeding five thousand men; disabled every line of communication between the army of the Rappahannock and the rebel capital, and the canal through which more than one half of their supplies are received — so that, in the opinion of competent judges, neither line, provided the rebels have every facility for the work, can be repaired in less than four weeks; destroyed millions of dollars' worth of commissary stores, and other supplies; obstructed travel upon the main pikes, by destroying all bridges over large streams; gave the citizens of ten counties, namely, Culpeper, Spottsylvania, Orange, Hanover, Henrico, Louisa, Goochland, Fluvanna, King William, and New-Kent, an opportunity to see for themselves that not only are the Yankee soldiers confident and in good spirits, but are really human beings and not inhuman savages, as represented by the Richmond chivalry; captured hundreds of horses, and above all met the one great objection made to the Emancipation Proclamation, so far as the counties visited are concerned, by letting the colored population know that they are free, and weakening the producing class in rebeldom by the removal of hundreds of able-bodied men, and sowing the seed of demoralization among the rest, so that the laboring class, in fact as well as theory, becomes a dangerous element. All this has been accomplished by the raid of General Stoneman, with the loss, probably, of less than one hundred men, all told — only two of whom were killed. As an offset to this loss, our troops killed a number of rebels, and captured between one and two hundred prisoners.

In the counties visited there were but few rebels found at home, except the very old and the very young. In nine days travel I did not see fifty able-bodied men who were not in some way connected with the army. Nearly every branch of business is at a standstill. The shelves in stores are almost everywhere empty; the shop of the artisan is abandoned and in ruins. The people who are to be seen passively submit to all that emanates from Richmond without a murmur; they are for the most part simple-minded, and ignorant of all that is transpiring in the great threatre about them. An intelligent-looking man in Columbia laughed heartily when told that Union troops occupied New-Orleans — Jeff Davis would let them know it were such the fact; and I could not find a man who would admit that the confederates had ever been beaten in a single engagement. These people do not even read the Richmond papers, and about all the information they do obtain is what is passed about in the primitive style, from mouth to mouth. Before this raid they believed that the Union soldiers were any thing but civilized beings, and were stricken with terror when their approach was heralded. Of six churches seen in one day, in only one had there been religious services held within six months. One half at least of the dwelling-houses are unoccupied, and fast going to decay.

The fear of famine was everywhere expressed; the government seizes upon every thing that can go to sustain the army, leaving those who are not in the army to shift as best they can. Many have provisions concealed to avoid the searching eyes of the government agents. Through the agency of negroes, large quantities of provisions thus hid away were brought to light for the benefit of Union soldiers. The farmer's fold is regularly culled of all marketable sheep, swine, and beeves, and what is left behind is not fit for the butcher's stall. The larder of the largest planters contains little else than bacon and corn-meal. The wheat crop, now coming forward, is immense — in fact, little else has been put in the ground. The rich valleys of the James and Rapidan Rivers are vast wheat-fields — more, in fact, than can be gathered, unless the army is turned to this work. The negroes are not numerous enough for the task, even were they not in a fair way of being so thoroughly demoralized as to refuse to work unless paid in “greenbacks.”

The negroes everywhere have an idea — how it got into their heads they cannot exactly tell, but it is there — that the Yankee troops were their friends, notwithstanding the contrary assertion of their masters, whom from infancy they have been taught to obey. They everywhere crowded upon our columns and begged to be permitted to go along, and not unfrequently brought one or more horses with them as a sort of bribe. They pointed out where valuable horses were concealed, gave information as to the movements of confederate troops, and at several places sat up all night to bake corn cakes for the Yankees, and for which they asked no remuneration. Some of them were so overjoyed at the sight of our soldiers that they gave vent to their feelings in prayer, thanking Jesus fervently for sending us.