The reign of
Milroy in
Winchester, Va., which has rivalled in brutality and robbery that of
Butler in New Orleans, is now over.
A letter from a lady who was sent by him within our lines, gives some idea of the little ness and cruelty of the
Yankee General in
Winchester, and we make some extracts from it:
Gen. Milroy and his Yankee tribe still have possession, and, as you know, have had for six months. I did not leave with by husband when our army left, for it was winter, and my health not good, and I did not moving around from place to place as I should have had to do if I left home, particularly winter.
But as soon as pleasant came I wanted to leave, but could not imagine how to get "over the lines" Every day our enemies were becoming harder and harder for us.--There is only one prayer in
Winchester, and that is, "Oh, God, how long, how long I" breathed from hearts filled with suffering and misery.
God only knows what the people of
Winchester have had to bear and suffer from those fiends in human shape.
The town is full of hospitals.
They have Taylor's Hotel, York House, Union Hotel, and when I left were turning the people out of their homes to make hospitals of them.
Dr. R. Baldwin and
Mr. Singleton were turned out the day before I came away.
The soldiers have been camped about in town all winter, and such a dirty place you never saw. The church opposite was taken for a stable, and we had the horses quartered all around us. The typhoid fever has at last become so bad that it has grown to an epidemic, and there is scarcely a family in town but have two or more, and in some cases the whole family is down, and just dependent upon their neighbors for help.
All the servants have gone, and the people have just been worked and worried to death.
A great many deaths have taken place — as many as eight funerals a week among the town people, which, in a little place like that, you know is something.
The
Yankees will not allow the people to buy anything without taking the oath, and we would rather starve than do that.
We could get nothing either one way or the other, and just had to live on bread and sometimes had butter.
They would not even allow us to buy a bone of meat to make soup for the sick.--When the
Confederates came towards
Winchester the
Yankees once surrounded with six hundred of their men about fifty of ours, and did not kill one--all escaped.
Old Milroy was
ripping mad, swore terribly, called the officer who had command and said, "Why is it that
six hundred Yankees having
one hundred rebels surrounded, let them
all escape?" The officer said, "all I can say is the
rebels fought with daring bravery and the
Yankees like cowards." They put the officer under arrest for forty days.
Milroy never goes out. He had his wife and four or five children — ugly little red-headed things — with him. They had
Mrs. Logan's fine house.
You heard, I suppose, they sent
Mrs. L. and family over the lines.
They took possession of the house and everything in it. Instead of coming up the
Valley to fight the men they stopped in
Winchester and fought the women and children.
The women were firm and faithful; never would give up one step.
When
Milroy's wife first came she had
one little trunk, and when she left she had
five very large ones--carried off everything she could lay her hands on.
They say they will not leave a negro in town when they leave.
They had an old darkey under arrest because he would not work and said he was "secesh." They put him in the guard-house and kept him for three days on water.
The fourth day the officer went and said, " Are you secesh yet?" The faithful old fellow, clapping his hands, said, "
Blesa de Lord,
Massa, I is secesh yet." They then took him up to the
General's and put very large iron balls to his legs, and set him to splitting wood.
Brother Alex, went by and saw him. It happened that the officer who was guarding him was the same who had searched our house and arrested brother.
He was cursing the poor old negro dreadfully; said he ought to have a ball on his neck and one on both arms.
The old fellow went on splitting, saying all the time, "
Bless de Lord,
Massa, any where you can put it. You can kill de body, but you can't kill de soul, and when dat gets to heaven it will be secesh yet."
Brother called to the officer and said, "Halloa,
Grant, is that what you call free dom? " Mother and
John Godfrey M. were standing on the steps laughing and talking. --Just at the moment some little children were laughing and making fun of the
Yankees,
Gen. Clusara passed by and thought mother and John were laughing at him with the children, and took them both up to headquarters, where they were kept for several hours.
So you see we were not allowed even to laugh.
A lady went to
Gen. Milroy and asked for a pass to go over the lines.
He said, "I will give you a pass to hell." She told him she did not know his lines extended that far; she had often heard it, but now had it from his own lips.
They would not allow the sutlers to sell a thing except to the soldiers.
The town is just full of Yankee women, who act as if they owned everything in it. They just go to the finest houses and order furnished rooms for them.
Oh! but it is dreadful.
The people are not allowed to move one step out of town — cannot get a mouthful of fresh air. No wonder there is such suffering, sickness, and death.
There are very few Union people in town, and those are the commonest kind.
