did any service in the cause of loyalty
and the Union. That night it kept some Union soldiers off the wet
ground. The next morning the march was resumed. Before we had gone far,
we made a discovery that was enough to bring the blush of shame to the
face of any civilized man. Some of our men, who had fallen behind in the
march out, had been inhumanly butchered. I suppose the citizens, with
their usual stupidity, thought we would never return, and no day of
reckoning would come; and, finding these men in their power, murdered
them with a cold-blooded brutality only equaled by the most degraded
savages. Some were found riddled with bullets and stripped of their
clothing; some had their throats cut, besides gunshot wounds. My first
information was from Mike Coleman, who told me, with a look of horror in
his face, of the blood-curdling sight he had just witnessed.

This discovery had a peculiar effect upon the soldiers. Even those who
were usually undemonstrative gave vent to their feelings in hearty
curses on the rebellion, and every thing connected with it. The wish was
freely expressed that Lee might intercept us, and bring on the final
battle between civilization and barbarism. Up to this time there had
been no destruction of private property, except a mill, which had been
burned as a war measure, and a house, from which a cavalryman had been
treacherously shot; but now, either with or without orders, the men
began to burn and destroy every thing within their reach. Even the
fences were fired when it could be done. Not a single able-bodied man
could be seen along the route; they had fled from the wrath to come.

The One Hundred and Ninetieth was on the flank most of the day. About
the middle of the afternoon, we reached a group of houses and
outbuildings, which might almost be called a village. Here the head of
the column halted, and the flankers drew in near the road. A large
dwelling-house stood on the left of the road, the side on which we were.
The buildings on the other side of the road were already in flames, and
men were preparing to fire the dwelling-house. An old man was looking
out of a little out-door kitchen. He was leaning on his staff, trembling
with age, cold, and terror. A woman, bearing in her arms a babe but a
few months old, came out of the house. Her pale face and quiet bearing,
as she walked hurriedly away from the door, touched the gentler nature
in the soldiers' hearts, that was now dominated by t