Many exciting rumours to-day about the Yankees being at
Hanover Court-House, within a few miles of us. They can be traced everywhere by
the devastation which marks their track. There are also rumours that our army
is in Pennsylvania. So may it be! We are harassed to death with their ruinous
raids, and why should not the North feel it in its homes? Nothing but their
personal suffering will shorten the war. I don't want their women and children
to suffer; nor that our men should follow their example, and break through and
steal. I want our warfare carried on in a more honourable way; but I do want
our men and horses to be fed on the good things of Pennsylvania; I want the
fine dairies, pantries, granaries, meadows, and orchards belonging to the rich
farmers of Pennsylvania, to be laid open to our army; and I want it all paid
for with our Confederate money, which will be good at some future day. I
want their horses taken for our cavalry and wagons, in return for the hundreds
of thousands that they have taken from us; and I want their fat cattle driven
into Virginia to feed our army. It amuses me to think how the Dutch farmers'
wives will be concealing the golden products of their dairies, to say nothing
of their apple-butter, peach-butter, and their wealth of apple-pies.
SOURCE: Judith W. McGuire, Diary of a Southern
Refugee, During the War, p. 224-5
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