GENERAL ORDERS, No. 73.
HDQRS. ARMY OF NORTHERN
VIRGINIA,
Chambersburg, Pa.,
June 27, 1863.
The commanding general has observed with marked satisfaction
the conduct of the troops on the march, and confidently anticipates results
commensurate with the high spirit they have manifested.
No troops could have displayed greater fortitude or better
performed the arduous marches of the past ten days.
Their conduct in other respects has, with few exceptions,
been in keeping with their character as soldiers, and entitles them to
approbation and praise.
There have, however, been instances of forgetfulness, on the
part of some, that they have in keeping the yet unsullied reputation of the
army, and that the duties exacted of us by civilization and Christianity are
not less obligatory in the country of the enemy than in our own.
The commanding general considers that no greater disgrace
could befall the army, and through it our whole people, than the perpetration
of the barbarous outrages upon the unarmed and defenseless and the wanton
destruction of private property, that have marked the course of the enemy in
our own country.
Such proceedings not only degrade the perpetrators and all
connected with them, but are subversive of the discipline and efficiency of the
army, and destructive of the ends of our present movement.
It must be remembered that we make war only upon armed men,
and that we cannot take vengeance for the wrongs our people have suffered
without lowering ourselves in the eyes of all whose abhorrence has been excited
by the atrocities of our enemies, and offending against Him to whom vengeance
belongeth, without whose favor and support our efforts must all prove in vain.
The commanding general therefore earnestly exhorts the
troops to abstain with most scrupulous care from unnecessary or wanton injury
to private property, and he enjoins upon all officers to arrest and bring to
summary punishment all who shall in any way offend against the orders on this
subject.
R. E. LEE,
General.
SOURCES: John William Jones, Life and Letters of
Robert Edward Lee: Soldier and Man, p. 399-400; The War of the
Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate
Armies, Series I, Volume 27, Part 3 (Serial No. 45), p. 942-3
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