The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1890-06-15
SECRET OF M0SBYS MYSTERIOUS MOVEMENTS,
WRITTEN FOR THE SUNDAY INDEPENDENT.

nso muSt carry 0lS ratlOnS with him.
to me word for word BY the surgeon IN III,
Maryland Heights hospital, who hearl
Grant give the order to Sheridan give 4
literally, just as it came from his mouth
Just rs he said it came from the mouth Of
Grant, word for word. Some people in the
s south have foolishly supposed that the
doings. 1t is utterly without foundation in
fact. Sheridan would hot have taken upon
himself the responsibility of such an act
It was the act of Grant,
Preparations were Immediately made to
carry out this terrible order. was one 81
the burning party. had met Mosby three
times. Once at Smokers gap. Once about
hear Hallstown, where John Brown was
hung. "'.~
know all that took place at that time
along the line Of march. It was a scene
that no man who saw can ever forget. We
began at Harper's Ferry and we burnt the
valley clean down to Lynchburx. The
night before the order from Grant to Sheri-
ordered to be ready to begin the burning
early next morning and knew that it was
on the way, the boys got on grand spree.
Some whisky had got into camp somehow.
and contrary to orders they had got hold OF
It: That night at midnight they burned Gov.
AASo~AAOA AAAAO AAdGA6AOus IL WAS G00 nf6t
house burned III the valley. There was no
one in the house. The servants, negroes,
horses and most of the costly furniture had
gone, but there were still some things of
value left. The people about the place had
taken the warning given to them and pre-
c!pltateiy lied. They set fire to the stately
edific with torches.
shed fierce, strange. nocturnal splendor
on the tops of tho tall palmettoe, and
threw fying CLEANS or portent light
on the ample lawn. The Shen-
andoah Rangers. for such we still were,
then formed circle from part of their
number about the fated house, and the
blue devils' danced and shouted and sung
in the yellow light, as they took hold Of
hands, with hoarse wild voices until. at
last. the splendid old mansion toppled and
crashed down into mass of charred, I'M
slightly ruins. took no part in that trans
action, thank Heaven! The burning of that
swept slowly down the trend Of that lovely
valley, waving with it's white Tuscarora
dlnt corn, every stalk eighteen feet hioh
and every ear twenty-five inches long and
twelve inches around. We burned every
nut, every cabin, every working
every tobacco factory, every shop. eyery
building of any kind from mountain range
to mountain range. We burned awav the
trees, the strawberries, the beautiful land
scape gardens and groves, and left that
lovely valley charred waste of blighted
scenes and blackened stumps.
IL. II there was single thing overlooked by
the soldiers on the way down it was burned
on the way back. The valley was shrouded
in gloom. For weeks black, heavy pail
OF smoke hung over it 80 thick Won could
not see the sun through it.
One OF the most pathetic natural results
o. me burning oe Of the valley was the varied
trlct. The nests of these birds had all been
burned up in the trees and shrubbery where
they had built and brooded. Their SONGS
once SO happy and cheerful were now nota-
ply sad, querulous and detected. Human
beings could not have keened more sorrow
were burned up. Formerly in the valley
when the bugle sounded its different calls.
as Tor example: "Boots and saddles the
the reveille," there were birds who in flafi-
eolet tones seemed to mock back mirthfully
the sound of the sergeant bugler. The Viz
gina cardinal with his military air, his
his bloodstained regimentals, a true +. F.
", Knocked back the roll-call with meas
ured count. The mocking bird was all
about and said a good many things over
after the soldiers. the red thrush along
the edge of the wood was facetious at
every turn. But on the way back after the
burning the songs of these birds, such Of
them as were left or fingered about still
looking for their dead, had changed to inex-
presslble sadness. The notes Of one bird
IN particular whose name I do not know.
who formerly initiated very oleverly the sill
yer songs Of the bugle in its joyous calls,
now repeated over and over again in a soft
tone a strain of minor music
which sounded not unlike the sick call'' Of
The bugle. The birds were as human as the
people OF the valley in bewailinp their loss.
these birds hung about the fringes of the
mountain sides and rivers.
One morning, while I was dressing a |
wound, surgeon came to me and said: OFF
you want to see something you'll never
forget, come with me.''
/ rose and went out of the building with
1im. Suddenly Istopped rs a scene stretched
, oeaoae .i me .nat was simply appalling. In a |
.bly eighty or a hundred acres were hnd-
He'd together in every, posture, condition.
phase of abject human misery, the refuoees
rom the charred district. They had been
burned out of house and home, and in
neir utter helplessness they had turned
heir steps toward the north, and sought
uccor from the very men who had lii
heir ruins with their own hands. It
vas an autumn day. furry of snow
vas falling. Soon it fell in sleet and
roze as it fell, crusting the hands and
aCes VI tuo crowd and sealing misery |
nth the GOODNESS of tho sepulcher. There.
ide by side, huddled in indiscriminate
'romlsculty of condition, were negroes of
IL ages, from the little black child at it's
aother's breast to the buxom mulatto or
ne aged, trembling slave with both hands
iasped IN prayer. There, seated on the
round, under the open armament were
Dung girls who had never washed hand
erchlef, and delicate ladies who were the
rst daughters of the south. They had
mere all Kinds of vehicles, from the mud
battered old carrvall to the elegant drag
nth ITS Raunt horses and lank coach-dops,
ONE were crying. some were praying, some
1aillng, some moaning, some sleeping,
ome staring wildly about as if in the de-
lentia of an ill starred dream. some sick
no some dying, and nothing over them but
be roof of the armament. But all of them
'ere hungry, all were cold, all were home
,ss.
And yet there was pride in all that mis-
~, and none moved about 90 quietly. 40 |
SO defiantly under that leaden
~ as those delicate, hieh-born southern ,
ldies. The northern ladies did all thev /
ould for them. They lent them their
ents. They started cook houses They /
pread cots and mattresses on the
round for them TO sleep on. They brought
hem the best fare they could on which
aey themselves had to subaist, but at best
was poor enough. Raw pork. hard tack
nd hominy on tin plates. That was the |
III OF fare. The only courses ON that