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During the War Between the States, Northern occupation troops used the Stevenson House (corner Pollock & George Streets) in New Bern as a hospital for wounded soldiers. In a truly unbelievable act of barbarism, "the body of Governor Spaight was dug up by Northern soldiers, the skull placed on a gate post, and the metal coffin used to send the body of a federal soldier back North."

A New Geography of North Carolina, Bill Sharpe, Sharpe's Publishing Company 1961, page 1232

“Jackson, the capital of the State of Mississippi………but during the short space of thirty-six hours, in which General Grant occupied the city, his troops had wantonly pillaged nearly all the private homes. They gutted all the stores and destroyed all they could not carry away……. I saw the ruins of the Catholic church, the priest’s house, and the principal hotel, which were still smoking,”

Three Months in the Southern States, by Lt. Col. Arthur J. L. Fremantle, p. 110, University of Nebraska Press

How Union soldiers treated the women and children of the plantations they visited in the Northern Neck.

“The Yankee gunboat went on down the river and stopped at “Shalango”, the beautiful home of John Coles. The crew went ashore and butchered beef and ransacked and looted as was their usual custom.” Northumberland Historical Society VOL. II – NO. 1 1965 p. 53

“A Yankee raiding party came up from the river and burned homes along the way……The Yankees took all the meat out of the meat house.” Northumberland Historical Society VOL. II – NO. 1 1965 p. 54-55

“the soldiers outside cut off the legs of the geese with their swords and left them lying where they fell, and they went to the dairy and gulped down great bowls of milk and carried away the butter. Now the story takes a most unusual turn-when the men started to return to the gunboat they kidnapped two of the little Coles boys, Eddie and Lee, and took them with them. One of the slaves followed them in a rowboat out to the gunboat and begged the officer in charge to have mercy and return the children to their dying mother. Northumberland Historical Society VOL. II – NO. 1 1965p. 60-61

. "The report is that the Yankees have left Covington for Macon , headed by Stoneman, to release prisoners held there. They robbed every house on the road of its provisions, sometimes taking every piece of meat, blankets and wearing apparel, silver and arms of every description. They would take silk dresses and put them under their saddles, and many other things for which they had no use. Is this the way to make us love them and their Union ? Let the poor people answer whom they have deprived of every mouthful of meat and of their livestock to make any! Our mills, too, they have burned, destroying an immense amount of property."

A WOMAN'S WARTIME JOURNAL, by Dolly Summer Lunt, The Century Company 1918, p. 10-11.

" I hastened back to my frightened servants and told them that they had better hide, and then went back to the gate to claim protection and a guard. But like demons they rush in! My yards are full. To my smoke-house, my dairy, pantry, kitchen, and cellar, like famished wolves they come, breaking locks and whatever is in their way. The thousand pounds of meat in my smoke-house is gone in a twinkling, my flour, my meat, my lard, butter, eggs, pickles of various kinds - both in vinegar and brine - wine, jars, and jugs are all gone. My eighteen fat turkeys, my hens, chickens, and fowls, my young pigs, are shot down in my yard and hunted as if they were rebels themselves. Utterly powerless I ran out and appealed to the guard. I cannot help you, Madam; it is orders."

A WOMAN'S WARTIME JOURNAL, by Dolly Summer Lunt, The Century Company 1918, p. 22-23.

"The Yankees found Mrs. Glass's china and glassware that she had buried in a box, broke it all up, and then sent her word that she would set no more fine tables. They also got Mrs. Perry's silver."

A WOMAN'S WARTIME JOURNAL, by Dolly Summer Lunt, The Century Company 1918, p. 42.

On August 4, 1863, W.T.Sherman in Camp on Big Black River , Mississippi , wrote to Grant at Vicksburg , "the Amount of burning, stealing and plundering done by our army makes me ashamed of it. I would rather quit the service if I could, because I fear that we are drifting to the worst sort of vandalism....You and I and every commander must go through the war, justly charged with crimes at which we blush."

Federal Official Records ( O.R.) vol. XXIV, pt. III 574

Consider the well-known facts set forth by Brian Cisco, author of the new book War Crimes Against Southern Civilians:

"Women and children, black and white, were robbed, brutalized, and left homeless in Sherman 's infamous raid through Georgia . Torture and rape were not uncommon. In South Carolina , homes, farms, churches, and whole towns disappeared in flames. Civilians received no mercy at the hands of the Union invaders. Earrings were ripped from bleeding ears, graves were robbed, and towns were pillaged. Wherever Federal troops encountered Southern Blacks, whether free or slave, they were robbed, brutalized, belittled, kidnapped, threatened, tortured, and sometimes raped or killed by their blue-clad "liberators.' "

"Rebel prisoners in our hands are to be subjected to a treatment finding its parallels only in the conduct of savage tribes and resulting in the death of multitudes by the slow but designed process of starvation and by mortal diseases occasioned by insufficient and unhealthy food and wanton exposure of their persons to the inclemency of the weather."

-- Official U.S. Policy on Confederate Prisoners of War (Preamble to the H.R. 97, passed by both Houses of Congress)

Another Victim of Looters: Diary entry, June 29, (1863):

"General Humphrey Marshall, with whom I had a long conversation tonight, told me that the Yankees stole his library (which he estimated to be worth $12,000) and sold it at auction in Cincinnati, sending him a copy of the notice of sale; also that they arrested one of his sons on his riding horse at the village of Warsaw and whipped the horse to death in the street, because it was his!

(Inside the Confederate Government, The Diary of Robert Garlick Hill Kean, LSU Press, 1993, page 77)

The Cruel Yankee Enemy: June 7 (1863). Sunday (Diary entry):
"From every side evidences of the barbarity, savageness, and insolent assumption of the Yankee government in the policy on which they have resolved in the conduct of the war, thicken. The policy fully disclosed is to trample out all opposition in all places which come into their possession, even if it leads to a deportation of the whole population. They have Negro regiments in every military department except Hooker's, mostly enrolled in the South. Massachusetts ( Boston ) with characteristic regard for consistency, principle, and thrift is sending her (non-resident) Negroes to the wars to be killed off, a clear gain every way.”

(Inside the Confederate Government, The Diary of Robert Garlick Hill Kean, LSU Press, 1993, pp. 69-71)

".....(I)t was during the winter of 1862-63 that General Foster made a raid from New Berne up to near Tarboro, NC, and as soon as I could ascertain his designs and objective I began to concentrate troops to meet him. Foster was at a village about twelve miles distant. In the morning Foster was far away on his road to New Berne ....it was cold and snow covered the ground, and pursuit was useless except by cavalry.

I am quite sure vandalism (especially stealing) commenced in New Berne , for the pianos and furniture shipped from there decorate to-day many a Northern home. At Hamilton most of the dwellings had been entered, mirrors broken, furniture smashed, doors torn from their hinges, and especially were the feather beds emptied into the streets, spokes of carriage wheels broken , and cows shot in the fields by the roadside, etc. It was a pitiful sight to see the women and children in their destitute condition. Alas! Toward the end (of the war) it was an everyday occurrence, and the main object of small expeditions was to steal private property.”

(Two Wars, General Samuel G. French, Confederate Veteran Publishing, 1901, pp. 150-152)

Lt. Edward W. Allen noted in his diary what happened when his Wisconsin regiment visited Columbia [ South Carolina ] in 1865. He spoke of "women down on their knees with hands clasped in prayer," and he wondered how he would react if his own family had to go through such an ordeal. But he wasn't so moved that he couldn't participate in the looting:

"...(W)hen morning came, every conceivable article that one could imagine, most, was to be found in our camp, clothing, bed clothing, such splendid coverlets, quilts, and sheets, musical instruments -- violins, guitars, music box, and had not pianos been quite so heavy you might have seen many of them there... Silver plate, plates, knives, forks, spoons, but it would take too much time, candle and paper to mention or even try to mention all that was there, most all was left -- destroyed except small articles of value easily carried by one of the boys. I got a nice vase which I will try to get home."

Army to Save the Union or Army of Thieves?

The Old Guard was published from 1863 to 1867 by C. Chauncey Burr. Based out of New York , it would be assumed that this publication was to be pro-Union: however, this was not the case. Articles that appeared during the war years of The Old Guard were very critical of Lincoln and his administration, and blamed them either directly of indirectly, for the mass casualties on both sides of the fighting. The following articles were originally published in the May, August and September issues of The Old Guard and illustrate, quite effectively, the sentiments of pro-Southern citizens.

Disgrace Of Our Army:

The following extract from a letter written by one of our officers the day after the slaughter at Fredericksburg will be read with mingled shame and indignation by every Northern man, except the abolitionists, who appear to delight in such theft and plunder.

“I went over the Rappahannock this morning (the 13th) and such a scene as I witnessed cannot possibly be described. The men (of the Northern army) had emptied every house and store of its contents, and the streets, as a matter of course, were filled with chairs and sofas, pianos, books and everything imaginable. The men were beginning to make themselves appear as ridiculous as possible. Some had hauled pianos to the front doors and were making hideous noises on them. Others were in silk dresses with beaver hats on, parading the streets. Others were reading letters; while others turned their attention to obtaining tobacco of which there was an immense quantity in town. I have seen hundreds of men with from 50 to 100 pounds of it. I saw one man with a canary bird, and another with a banjo. A more disgraceful scene I have never witnessed. If Richmond suffers the same fate this town has, no wonder that the (Southern) whites fight so. The shelling was a military necessity; but after the town was in our possession the pillaging should have ceased. I think our army has been disgraced today by this act."

A federal officer, corresponding for the Chicago Times, gives an account of General Grant’s progress in Northern Mississippi which shows that our soldiers under that command are horribly demoralized:

“ Straggling through the country, and stealing everything that they can lay their hands on (says the correspondent), whether of use or not to them, goes on. Helpless women and children are robbed of their clothes and bedding, their provisions taken from them and by men who have no earthly use for them whatever.”

From Another Correspondent:

“A private letter received here not long since, from a soldier in one of our western armies states that their march South was characterized by acts of vandalism and wanton outrage, and fiendish cruelty disgraceful to a civilized people. Burning houses, desolated fields and homeless households marked their path; while unlicensed robbery, indiscriminate plunder, and , not infrequently, assassination completed the woeful picture presented by an invading army which appeared to be without restraint, and whose only purpose would seem to be as thus manifested, to burn, pillage and destroy as it went.”

“They had taken all the money from every Negro on the plantation, wrote Susan Dabney Smedes of Hines County, Mississippi, recounting a raid on her home by United States troops. One crippled 63 year old slave was a preacher named Isaac. Uncle Isaac had buried $80 in gold the savings of years, continued Mrs. Smedes. This he was made to unearth. He had lately bought a new silver watch for which had had paid $40. This was taken from him.”

War Crimes Against Southern Civilians, Walter Brian Cisco, P. 173

“A black nurse living on a plantation near Kingston found herself in the path of that army. They took everything I had, she sobbed, telling her young mistress that her animals had been killed and her savings stolen by the soldiers. Honey, I never knowed a Yankee that wasnt mean as dirty. They would skin a flea for his hide and tallow. Everybody say the Yankees goin to free us. Like a fooI I believe em and now this is what they do. I might a knowed it. What can you spec from a hog but a grunt?”

War Crimes Against Southern Civilians, Walter Brian Cisco, P. 175

You are to burn their houses, seize all their property and shoot them. You will be sure that you strictly carry out this order. You will inform the inhabitants for ten or fifteen miles around your camp, on all the roads approaching the town upon which the enemy may approach, that they must dash in and give you notice, and upon any one failing to do so, you will burn their houses and shoot the men.

Lincoln 's Brigadier General R. H. MILROY

"The Lincoln Administration, "Violated the First Amendment" to silence his critics in the North, Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus. The political prisoner count from this move was estimated by some to be as high as forty thousand.

The federal government simultaneously monitored and censored both the mails and telegraphs. ... It also suppressed newspapers. Over three hundred, including the Chicago Times, the New York World, and the Philadelphia Evening Journal, had to cease publication for varying periods."

Former Democratic Congressman Clement L. Vallandigham of Ohio , running for governor, "delivered a speech in May 1863 that accused the President of unnecessarily prolonging the conflict. The Union commander in Ohio " -- never a war zone -- "rousted Vallandigham from his home at night and jailed him. A military court handed down a sentence of confinement for the war's duration, but public indignation forced Lincoln to commute the sentence to exile behind Confederate lines."

Emancipating Slaves, Enslaving Free Men," Jeffrey Rogers Hummel; Laissez Faire Books