The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1863-01-22
General Buffers Farewell Address.


be,inappropriate, as tits not inopportune
in occasion, that there should be ad-
dressed to you few words at parting,
by one whose name is to be hereafter
indissolubly connected with your city
shall speak in no bitterness, be
cause | am not conscious Of single
personal animosty. Commanding the
Army of the Gulf, I found you captur-
ed, but not surrendered; conquered, but
not orderly; relieved from the presence
of an army, but incapable Of taking care
of yourselves. SO far from it, you had
called upon foreign legion to protect
you from yourselves. restored order,
punished crime, opened commerce,
brought provisions to your starving
people, reformed your currency, and
gave you quiet protection, such as you
had not enjoyed for many years.
While doing this, my soldiers we're
subjected to obloquy, roproach and in
suit.
And now, speaking to you, who know
the truth, l here declare that whoever
has remained about his business, afford
ing neither aid nor comfort to the enc
mics of the United States, has never
been interfored with by the soldiers OF
the United States.
The men who assumed to govern you
and to defend your city in arms having
fled, some Of your women fouted at tht
, presence of those who came to protect
them. By simple order, (No. 28)
called upon every soldier of this army
to treat the women of New Orleans as
gentlemen should deal with the sex
with such effect that now call upor
the just minded ladies of New Orlean,
to say whether they have ever enjoye(
so complete protection and calm quie
for themselves and their families, o,
since the advent of the United State,
troops.
The enemies of my country, unre
pentaDt and implacablc, | have treated
with merited severity. | hold that re
bellion is treason, and that treason per.
sisted in is death, and any punishment
short of that due a traitor gives so mucl
clear gain to him from the clemency
4of the Government. Upon this thesis
have administered the authority ot
the United States, because of which I
am not unconscious Of complaint. I do
not feel that have erred in too much
harshness, for that harshness has ever
been exhibited to disloyal enemies tc
my country, and not to loyal friends -
To be sure | might have regalcd you
with the amenities of British ciyiliza
tion, and yet been within the supposed
rules Of civilized warfare You might
have been smoked to death in caverns n,
were the Covenanters of Scotland.by the
command of a General of the Roya
House of England; or roasted like tn,
inhabitants of Algiers during tn,
French campaign; your wives an,
daughters might have been given owe
10 the ravisher, MS were the unfortnnat
danes of Spain in the Peninsular war
or You might have been scaped an,
tomahawked, as our mothers were a
Wyoming by the savage allies ofGr.a
Britain in our own Revolution; Won
property could have been turned owe
to indiscriminate "loot" like the Palace
o. the Emperor of China; works IF mr.
which adorned your buildings nigh
. have been sent away like the painting
otthe Vatican; your sons might hav
been blown from the mouths of canno,
like the Sepoys of Delhi; and vet al
these would have been within the rule
of civilized warfare as practised bv tn
most polished and the most hypocritica
, nations Of Europe For such acts tb,
, records Of the doings of some Of IN,
inhabitants of your city towards th
friends of the Union, before nv coming
were a sufficient provocative and iusti
foation.
But | have not so conducted Or
the contrary, the worst punishment in
flicted, except for criminal acts punish
able by every law, has been Danish
ment with labor to a barren island
where encamped my own soldiers be
fcrl they marched here.
1t is true that I have levied upon
the wealthy rebels and paid out nearly
half a million of dollars to feed the 40
600 of the starving poor of all nation,
assembled here, made SO by this war.
saw that this war was war of the
ari'tocrats against the middling men:
of the rich against the poor; war of
the landowner against the laborer; that
1t was struggle for the retention of
power in the hands of the few aoainst