had so much as a change of clothing with them. They would rush from story
to story to rob, and always fire the building at once in order to keep the
family from detecting their robberies. Feeble and helpless women and
children were treated like brutes--told insolently to get out or burn; and
even the sick were not spared. Several invalids had to be carried out as
the red flames licked their couches. Thus the work of desolation continued
for two hours; more than half of the town on fire at once, and the wild
glare of the flames, the shrieks of women and children, and often louder
than all, the terrible blasphemy of the rebels, conspired to present such
a scene of horror as has never been witnessed by the present generation.
No one was spared save by accident. The widow and the fatherless cried and
plead in vain that they would be homeless and helpless. A rude oath would
close all hope of mercy, and they would fly to save their lives. The old
and infirm who tottered before them were thrust aside, and the torch
applied in their presence to hasten their departure. In a few hours, the
major portion of Chambersburg, its chief wealth and business, its capital
and elegance, were devoured by a barbarous foe; three millions of property
sacrificed; three thousand human beings homeless and many penniless; and
all without so much as a pretence that the citizens of the doomed town, or
any of them, had violated any accepted rule of civilized warfare. Such is
the deliberate, voluntary record made by General Early, a corps commander
in the insurgent army.

Incidents of the Burning.

We find it impossible to make room for all the many touching incidents
which occurred in the burning of the town. The house of Mr. James Watson,
an old and feeble man of over eighty, was entered, and because his wife
earnestly remonstrated against the burning, they fired the room, hurled
her into it and locked the door on the outside. Her daughters rescued her
by bursting in the door before her clothing took fire. Mr. Jacob Wolfkill,
a very old citizen, and prostrated by sickness so that he was utterly
unable to be out of bed, plead in vain to be spared a horrible death in
the flames of his own house; but they fired the building. Through the
superhuman efforts of some friends he was carried away safely. Mrs.
Lindsay, a very feeble lady of nearly eighty, fainted when they fired her
house, and was left to be devoured in the flames: but fortunately a
relati