Newspaper Page Text
Rare-ik.
H r
i
E. MERTON COULTER
3"HE COUNTRYMAN.
By J. A. TURNER.
— “ INDEPENDENT IN EVERYTHING—NEUTRAL IN NOTniNO ”
$5 for Three Months.
VOL. XIX-
TURNWOLD (NEAR EATONTON) GA., TUESDAY, AUGUST
9, 1804. NO. 32.
The Burning of Governor Letcher’s
Residence.-—We print below a document,
destihed to become historic. The calm,
dispassionate, and truthful recital it gives,
of one of the most wanton and barbarous
acts of the war, needs no comment to
awaken the indignation of every manly
bosom. It is due to Gov. Letcher to say,
that this letter was written with no view
to publication, but in response to a private
communication, addressed him by the May
or oi Richmond. The passages omitted
relate to personal matters;
Lexington, Va., July 5th, 1864.
Finding, the yankees would take the'-
town on Saturday (11th) 1 left home near
midnight, friday night, and went to Big Is
land, in Bedford, where I remained until
Wednesday morning following, when, hear
ing the vandals had left, I returned. I
haa previously heard that my house had
been burned, with all its contents. The
threats made by the yankees against me,
for the past two years, satisfied me that
they would destroy my house when they
came to Lexington, but I always supposed
they would allow the furniture, and
my family’s clothing to be removed. In
this, however, I was disappointed.
When the yankees took possession of
the town, Dr. Patton, Medical Director for
Hunter’s army, and who baiis from Mari
on county, Va., went to my house, told
my wife that he was unwell, and said that
he must have a room in the house. He
took the room, supped and breakfasted,
X-^e, that it was the last mea 1
she would take in the house. Shortly af
ter he left, without taking leave of any
one of the family, nor was he again seen
bv any of them.
The threats, made by soldiers on Satur
day evening, induced my wife to fear the
house would be burned, and she express
ed her feais in the hearing oi Dr P [^°’
and Captain Towns, of New York Cap
tain Towns very promptly said that 1 be
ing a private citizen, and the house being
private property, burning it would be an
inexcusable outrage, and proposed at once
to go to Hunter’s headquarters, and ascer
tain. He weni, and was directed by Hun
ter to assure my wife that the house would
jy)t be disturbed. The sequel shows iha.
the sole object of this assurance was to
quiet her apprehensions, and thus prevent
anything from being removed. About
half-past 8 o’clock, a. m. (Sunday) Capt.
Berrv and his provost guard rode up,
and the officer called for my wile She
came to the door, when Berry infoimed
her that he was ordered by Hunter to nre
the house. She replied there amst be
some mistake, and asked for the order.
She then said to him, ‘can it be delayed
until l can see Gen. Hunter?’ ‘The order
is peremptory,’ he replied, ‘and you have
5 minutes in which to leave the house.
She then asked leaye to rernOYe her moth-1
er’s, sister’s, her own and her children’s
clothing, which was insolently refused.
Immediately thereafter, camphene was
poured on the parlor floor, and ignited with
a match. In the meantime, my daughter
bad gathered up an armful of clothing, and
was going out, when he discovered her,
ran forward, and fired the clothing in her
arms. He then poured camphene on the
wardrobe, and bureau drawers, and ignited
the clothing—taking out my clothing,which
he said he intended to take North.
Every house on my lot was burned,
^ve a small 0 ;anary, over my ice house,
mot a particle of flour, meal, or anything
edible was left, all having been carried off
on Saturday.
My mother, now in her 78th year, lives »childremwere almost starved, and half-na
on the lot adj-ining my own, having with
her one of her grand-children, and a ser
vant. A fter my property had been fired,
the fiends fired her stable, located about
forty feet from her house, with no other
view than to burn her out also. The
house caught twice, and would have been
consumed, but for the untiring efforts of
Captain Towns, who made his men carry
water, and extinguish the flames. This
Captain behaved like a gentleman, towards
my own and my mother’s family.
Gens. Averill, Crook, Sullivan, and Buf-_
fee denounced the whole proceeding as'
an outrage, in violation of all the princi
ples of civilized warfare, and stated that
Hunter alone was responsible for these
atrocities.
«i-infeykrtr jinTEia5T;ig~ipr ttmtt g&perous
sympathy, and kind tender of a home.
There are no people on the earth who have
been more uniformly kind to me than tr.e
good people of your city, and I assure
you 1 appreciate their kindness, as does
all my iainily.—Accept our thanks for it.
So soon as I can visit Richmond, I v\ u
do so—perhaps this month,
I am, truly, and in baste, your friend,
John Letcher.
Joseph Mayo, Esq., Richmond, Va.
Augusta Canal.
One would suppose that Augusta was
tolerably well supplied by rail roads, but
Augusta, nevertheless, has a canal, io
show the use of such a feeder, and to aid,
so far, in encouraging, and directing atten
tion to similar improvements, wmch will
be needed for Charleston, we quote the
following reports of W m, Philip, Engi
neer of the Augusta Canal, and Augusta
Water Works, for the month of June:
From South Carolina—35 bales of cot-
ton, 910 sacks of corn, 15 sacks of meal,
5 sacks and 6 bushels of rye, 10 bushels
barley 14 barrels . an d 47 sucks of hour,
450 "pounds and 10 boxes of bacon 5
sacks of wheat, 265 sacks of peas, 4o
sacks of oats, 129 bales of shucks, 11 gal- been
Ions of whiskey, 3 bales of wool, and 1
' b> C'toK OIi -98 bales of cottoa, *25
sacks of corn, 32 sacks of peas, 4 barrels
and 117 sacks of flour, 30 bushels of meal,
150 pounds and 44 boxes of bacon, 49
sacks of wheat, 179-sacks of oats, 3 bales
of wool, 30 bales of yarn, and 8 bales of
homespun.—Charleston Courier.
TnE Tender Mercies of the WjjjkED.
“ The Vicksburg correspondent >f the
New York'Tribune gi ves sue foliov.. ac
count of the condition of the neg -■ torn
from their homes, by Gen, Sherman, in
Mississippi:
‘Some 3,000 slaves, of all ages apd col
ors, reached here, yesterday. It was the
saddest spectacle witnessed for a long
time, in Vicksburg. ,yfhe women and
ked. Such a terrible picture of abject
want, and squalid misery, can neither be
imagined, nor portrayed with pen. Ma
ny of the women and children were sick
with fevers, brought on by the great fa
tigue and exposure of the long march
from Meridian, Enterprise, Quitman, and
other places. W ill not the friends of free
dom, and the humane philanthropists of
the North come forward at once, and with
their generous hands rescue these liberat
ed slaves from premature graves?’
We learn from the Boston Courier, of
a later date, that the suffering of these
poor, homeless wretchesxontinued in all
its intensity. No more political capital
could be made out of them- mrul —
“The Chattanooga Rebel gets the fol
lowing figures from the U.S.-National Al
manac—from which an estimate may
be made of the number of Federal troops
whose term of service expires this year.
In June, 1861, there were 51.000 troops
mustered into service, for three years; m
July, 62.000; in August, 60-000;, m Sep
tember, 78.000; in October,' 64.000 ; m
November, 53.000; and in December,
5L000—in all 419.000. If, says the Reb
el, we suppose that two thirds of these
have been discharged, have died, or nave
deserted, there will then be left the num
ber oi 139.000, to be mustered out of ser*
vice, before the 1st of January next.
“The Boaid of Physicians for the
animation of the Militia consist of Drs.
Casey, Smith, Branham, Hall, Cochrane,
and Brandon. Their quarters were com
pletely filled on yesterday with those
awaiting an examination. They may bo
found over the store of T. IV .Freeman,
on Cherry street.—Macon Confederate.
Mr Memminger’s Successor.—“Mr.
Trenhdlm, of South Carolina, has ocen
duly installed as Confederate States Sec
retary of Treasury. He has, heretofore,
been an eminent tanker oi Charleston,
and comes to the position with a mind
perfectly educated, in. financial matters.
.—Macqn CoflfedeTutc y 20th ult.