We are still at Chambersburg. Lee has issued a remarkably
good order on non-retaliation, which is generally well received; but I have
heard of complaints from fire-eaters, who want vengeance for their wrongs; and
when one considers the numbers of officers and soldiers with this army who have
been totally ruined by the devastations of Northern troops, one cannot be much
surprised at this feeling.
I went into Chambersburg again, and witnessed the singularly
good behaviour of the troops towards the citizens. I heard soldiers saying to
one another, that they did not like being in a town in which they were very
naturally detested. To any one who has seen as I have the ravages of the
Northern troops in Southern towns, this forbearance seems most commendable and
surprising. Yet these Pennsylvanian Dutch1 don't seem the least
thankful, and really appear to be unaware that their own troops have been for
two years treating Southern towns with ten times more harshness. They are the
most unpatriotic people I ever saw, and openly state that they don't care which
side wins provided they are left alone. They abuse Lincoln tremendously.
Of course, in such a large army as this there must be many
instances of bad characters, who are always ready to plunder and pillage
whenever they can do so without being caught: the stragglers, also, who remain
behind when the army has left, will doubtless do much harm. It is impossible to
prevent this; but everything that can be done is done to protect private
property and non-combatants, and I can say, from my own observation, with
wonderful success. I hear instances, however, in which soldiers meeting
well-dressed citizens have made a “long arm” and changed hats, much to the
disgust of the latter, who are still more annoyed when an exchange of boots is
also proposed: their superfine broadcloth is never in any danger.
General Longstreet is generally a particularly taciturn man;
but this evening he and I had a long talk about Texas, where he had been
quartered a long time. He remembered many people whom I had met quite well, and
was much amused by the description of my travels through that country. I
complimented him upon the manner in which the Confederate sentries do their
duty, and said they were quite as strict as, and ten times more polite than,
regular soldiers. He replied, laughing, that a sentry, after refusing you leave
to enter a camp, might very likely, if properly asked, show you another way in,
by which you might avoid meeting a sentry at all.
I saw General Pendleton and General Pickett today. Pendleton
is Chief of Artillery to the army, and was a West Pointer; but in more
peaceable times he fills the post of Episcopal clergyman in Lexington,
Virginia. Unlike General Polk, he unites the military and clerical professions
together, and continues to preach whenever he gets a chance. On these occasions
he wears a surplice over his uniform.
General Pickett commands one of the divisions in Longstreet's
corps.2 He wears his hair in long ringlets, and is altogether rather
a desperate-looking character. He is the officer who, as Captain Pickett of the
U.S. army, figured in the difficulty between the British and United States in
the San Juan Island affair, under General Harney, four or five years ago.
_______________
1 This part of Pennsylvania is much peopled with
the descend ants of Germans, who speak an unintelligible language.
2 M'Laws, Hood, and Pickett are the three
divisional commanders or major-generals in Longstreet's corps d’armée.
SOURCE: Sir Arthur James Lyon Fremantle, Three
Months in the Southern States: April-June, 1863, p. 250-3
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