The atrocities perpetrated by the
Yankees in their recent raid in
Eastern North Carolina, perhaps stand without a parallel even in this war where all the rules of civilized warfare are disregarded by the minions of Abolitionism.
A correspondent writing from
Williamston, one of the towns visited by the Hessian horde, says that every grain of salt that could be found was either destroyed or carried off; medicines in private houses, in stores, and apothecary shops, were poured upon the ground; ladies, striving to retain a little of the property from which their male relatives had been torn and held in custody, were insulted and cursed by these malignant spirits; negroes, the dupes of Yankee barbarity, were cajoled away by thousands; a system of general plunder by the enemy, negroes and mean whites, prevailed wherever they penetrated.
Families who fled in dismay at the approach of the invader, returned and found, as well as the few who remained at home, clothes beds, bedding, spoons, and books, abstracted, costly furniture, crockery, doors, harness, and vehicles demolished; looks, windows, and mirrors broken; fences burned; corn, potatoes, and pass gathered from the barns and fields and consumed; iron safes dug to pieces and thrown out of doors, and their contents stolen.
Every horse and mule, wagon and cart, that could be hauled up, were carried off by the retreating army.
The persons of gentlemen and ladies were violently searched, and money and jewelry taken.
Fourteen private residences in the town of
Hamilton were burned down, and the property of all faithful negroes was pillaged equally with that of their owners.
Widows, orphans, and others, were as heartlessly robbed of the scanty earnings of their toil, as the wealthy of their comforts and luxuries.
So far as theft and slaughter were concerned, the enemy stopped not a moment to inquire the Secession or Union proclivities of any property holder.
