Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1877-12-08
ANNALS OF THE WAR.

he had command or the feOefal troops
in this Valley, during the late war;
from which we extract the following
from the Philadelphia Times:
MORE OF HUNTERS iNoeNDIARIsM.
shall conclude this already long mar
rative By citing few more instances
of Hunters incendiarism in the lower
valley. 1t seems that, smarting under
the miserable failure of his grand raid
on Lynchburg, where, during march
of over two hundred miles, the largest
force he encountered was under Jones
at Piedmont, and he routed that, thus
leaving the way open to reach Lynch
burg within three days, destroy the
stores there, and go out through West
Virginia unmolested, he had failed to
do anything but inhict injury on private
citizens, aud he came back to the Poto-
mac more implacable than when he had
left it month before His first victim
was the Hon. Andrew Hunter, of
Charlestown, Jefferson county, his own
first cousin, and named after the Gen
erals father. Mr.. Hunter is lawyer
of great eminence and a man OF deserv-
edly large influence in his county and
the State. His home, eight miles from
Harpers Ferry, in the Suburbs OF
Charlestown, was the most costly and
elegant in the place, and his family as
refined and cultivated as any in the
State. His ofense in General Hunters
eyes was that he had gone politically
with his State, and was in full sympa-
thy with the Confederate cause. The
general sent squadron of cavalry out
from Harper's Ferry, took Mr. Hunter
prisoner and held him a month in the
common guard-house OF his soldiers
without alleging any offense against
him, not common to nearly all the peo-
pie of Virginia, and finally discharged
him without trial or explanation after
beaping these indignities upon bin.
Mr.. Huhter was an old man, and suffer
ed severely from confinement and expo
sure. While be was thus prisoner
General Hunter ordered his elegant
mansion to be burned to the ground
/ with all its contents, not even permit
ting Mrs. Hunter and her daughter to
save their clothes and family pictures
from the flames, and, to add to the des-
olation, camped his cavalry within the
enclosure of the beautiful grounds Of
several acres surrounding the residence
till the horses had destroyed them.
INCESDIARIsM AT sHEPuERDsTowN.
His next similar exploit was at Shep-
herdstown, in the same county, where,
on the 10Th of July, 1864, he caused to
be burned the residence of the Hon. a.
| Il. Boteler, "Fountain Rock" Mrs
Boteler was also a cousin of General
Hunter. This homestead was an old
colonial house, endeared to the family
by thousand tender memories, and
contained a splendid library, many pic
lures, and an invaluable collection OF
rare and precious manuscripts illustra-
ting the early history of that part Of
Virginia that Colonel Boteler had col
lected by years of toll. The only mem
/ bers OF the family who were there at
the time were Colonel Botelers eldest
ard widowed daughter, Mrs. Shepherd,
who was au invalid, her three children,
| the eldest five years old and the young
est eighteen months, and Miss Helen
BoteIer. Colonel Boteler and his sen
were in the army and Mrs. Boteler in
| Baltimore. The ladies and children
were at dinner when informed by the
servants that a body of cavalry had
turned in at the gate from the turnpike
and were coming up to the house. -
THE BURNING OF BoTELER's HOUSE.
It proved to be small detachment
of the First New York Cavalry, COM
manded by Captain William +. Mar
tindale, who, on being met at the door
by Mrs. Shepherd, coolly told her that
he had come to burn the house. She
asked him by what authority. He told
hsr by that of General Hunter, and show
ed her his written order On reading
it she said, "The order see, sir, is for
you TO burn the houses of Colonel
Alexander X. Boteler and Mr.. Edmund
J. Lee. Now this is not Colonel Bote-
ler's house, but is the property of my
mothers, Mrs Boteler, aud therefore
must not be destroyed, as you have no
authority to burn her house" '1ts
Colonel Boteler's home, and that's
enough for me, was Martindale's reply.
She then said: II have been obliged to
remove all my personal effects here, and
have several thousand dollars worth of
property stored in the house and out
buildings which belongs to me and my
children. Can l not be permitted to
save il?" But Martindale CURLY told
her that he Intended to "burn every
thing under roof upon the place" Mean
while some Of the soldiers were plum
dering the house of silver spoons, forks,
cups, and whatever they fancied, while
others piled the parlor furniture on the
floors, and others poured kerosene on
the piles and floors, which they then set
on Gre. They had brought the kerosene
with them in canteens strapped to their
saddles. Miss Boteler, being devoted
to music, pleaded hard for her piano, as
it belonged to her, having been gift
from her grandmother, but she was
brutally forbidden to save it; whereupon,
although the flames were roaring III the
adjoining rooms and the roof all on fire,
she quietly went into the house and
seating herself for the last time before
the instrument sang her favorite hymn: