The Durham daily globe. (Durham, N.C.) 1889-1894, 1892-10-25
WHAT THEY DID.

| H~hSANA
rupt officials of the G. o. p, for the pur-
pose of catching the votes of
Union soldiers at the North, good
and reputable citizens in and around
Durham have come TO US and
offered to make affidavit that all We
said of the bummers and camp followers
who pillaged and plundered this fair and
peaceful country in the dark days-the
DAYS when blood and carnage swept over
it like a blight, was every word true, and
that the half had not been told.
Men have come to us-men high up in
social circles and prominent in the world
where brains count and merit wins-and
with emotionsi i'll concealed told the tragic
story of a wrecked home and a desolate
hearthstone. They have told of a sisters
entreaties and a mothers prayer; told
how the brutes in blue uniforms laughed
at their fears and Knocked at virtue how
they ate the scanty store that an absent
father had left to sustain a helpless
family while h. fought to protect them,
stole the little keepsake, and then, to
complete the wicked work of destruction
and desolation, broke and burned and
scattered what they could not carry and
which were left as a trail to those who
should come after them.
These THE GLOBE has not used. 1t
had no desire to Open the family closet
and hold up the sacred skeleton to vul
gar gaze. We nave merely held them in
reserve, to bear US out in the statement
that hundreds of men who are drawing
pensions to-day were thieves and bum.
mers and camp followers, and never
smelled real powder.
Mr.. II. f. HARTMAN, editor of the
| Southern Tobacco Journal, a gentleman
well known in and out of the state,
writes US the following, received to-day,
and which we print as a specimen
WINSTON, N. c., Oct. "a, 1892.
Editor GLOBE, Durham, N. c.:
My DEAR SIR am one of the closest
readers of THE GLOBE and have been
particularly impressed of late by your
answers to northern politicians who
claim that you have inbibed too much
southern sentiment since you came to
North Carolina. | with thousands of
others in North Carolina admire the
manly stand you have taken, in behalf Of
the South and the scathing answers you
throw back into the teeth of those at the
North who have never ceased to hate
this section. | have especial reasons for
admiring your recent articles along this
line, because my earliest recOllections are
tainted with the memory of a brutality
from Sherman's soldiers in 'G5, the like
of which | have never found in the pages
of any history. 1 can testify to the truth
fulness of your assertion that southern
wives, scared in luxury and ease, were
compelled from a sense of self preserva-
ton, to bury and hide articles of food in
advance of Sherman's raid in South Car
DINA. l was then a boy of 8 years and
saw my mother, with her w delicate
hands, secrete articles of food in various
parts Of the plantation. And not only
food, but clothing and valuables in the
shape of silver-ware OF different kinds.
And it was well that such precautiOn
were taken, for when the last struggle of
that motley crowd was gone there was
nothing left for helpless mother and her
two helpless children but the articles of
food and clothing which her fore
thought had prompted her to bury and
conceal.
Nor was this the worst. My only sis
ter was then a babe in the cradle, and,
with my own eyes, l saw the scoundrels
in human form set fire to the cradle
clothes, and, but for mothers quickness
in snatching up her child, it would have
suffered instant death amid the flames,
kindled by that gang of ruffians. Our
house, with all its furnishings and all it
contained, was burned in spite Of all the
entreaties of my helpless mother.
These are facts. They are the first
recollections that haunt my memory, and
you nor anyone else can blame me that
my blood boils when | think of those
terrible days-when brutes, worse han
brutes-marChed through our southland
and left naught but the smouldering
ruins of once happy homes and weeping
mothers and children in their wake. 1t
is the memory of those terrible DAYS
which has prompted me- 10 write you
this brief note Of thanks for the manly
defence you are making in behalf of our
misunderstood people.
II. +. HARTMAN.