Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1899-07-27
ANNALS OF THE WAR.

ate General, gives lengthy account
of General David Hunters incendiar-
ism, while he had command of the
Federal troops in the Valley during
the late war, from which we extract
the following from the Philadelphia
Times
MORE OF HUNTERS INCEYDIARIsM.
I shall conclude this already long
narrative by citing few more IN
stances of Hunters incendiarism in the
Lower Valley. 1t seems that, smart
ing under the miserable failure Of his
grand raid on Lynchburg, where, dur
ing 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 Lynchburg within three days
destroy the stores there and 90 out
through West Virginia unmolested, he
had failed to do anything but inhict
injury on private citizens, and he came
back to the Potomac more implacable
than when he had left a month before.
His first victim was the Hon. Andrew
Hunter, of Charlestown, Jefferson coun-
ty, his own first cousin, and named
after the Generals father. Mr.. Hun
ter was lawyer Of great eminence and
a man of deservedly large influence in
his county and the State. His home,
eight miles from Harper's Ferry, In
the suburbs of Charlestown, was the
most costly and elegant in the place,
and his family as refined and cult
vated as any in the State. His oHense
in General Hunters eyes was that he
had gone politically with his State,
and was in full sympathy with the
Confederate cause. The General sent
a squadron of cavalry out from Har-
per's Ferry, took Mr.. Hunter prisoner
and held him month in the common
guard-house of his soldiers, without
alleging any ofense against him not
common to nearly all the people Of
Virginia, and finally discharged him
without trial or explanation after
heaping these indignities upon him.
Mr.. Hunter was an old man, and suf-
fered severely from confinement and
exposure. While he was thus pris-
oner General Hunter ordered his ele-
CANT mansion to be burned to the
ground with all its contents, not even
permitting Mrs. Hunter and her
daughter to save their clothes and fam
lily pictures from the flames, and, to
add to the desolation, camped his cav
airy within the enclosure of the beau
tiful grounds ofseveral acres surround
ing the residence till the horses had
destroyed them.
INCENDIARIsM AT sHEPHERDsTowN.
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. R. Boteler, Fountain Rock. Mrs.
Boteler was also cousin of General
Hunter. This homestead was an old
colonial house, endeared to the family
by a thousand tender memories, and
contained a splendid library, many
pictures and an invaluable collection
of rare and precious manuscripts illus
trating the early history of that part
of Virginia that Colonel Boteler had
collected by years of toll. The only
members of the family who were there
at the time were Colonel Boteler's eld-
est and widowed daughter, Mrs. Shep-
herd, who was an invalid, her three
the eldest FIVE years old and
the youngest eighteen months, and
Miss Helen Boteler. Colonel Boteler
and his son were in the army aud Mrs.
Boteler in Baltimore. The ladies and
children were at dinner when informed
by the servants that body Of cavalry
had turned in at the gate from the
turnpike and were coming up to the
house.
1t proved to be small detachment
of the First New York Cavalry, COM
manded by Captain William F. 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 her by that of General Hun
ter, and showed her his written order.
On reading it she said, "The order, l
see, sir, is for you to burn the houses
of Colonel Alexander r. Boteler and
Mr.. Edmund J. Lee. Now this is not
Colonel Boteler's house, but is the
property of my mother, Mrs. BOteler,
and therefore must not be destroyed,
as you have no authority to burn her
I ssI.i, Nolopal Pnfalar'o homo