page_title: Winchester, Virginia in the American Civil War
section_title: The occupation of Major General Robert Milroy
hierarchical_section_title: Winchester, Virginia in the American Civil War / The occupations of Winchester / The occupation of Major General Robert Milroy
caption_attribution_description: English: Robert Huston Milroy ( June 11 1816 – March 29 1890) was a lawyer, judge, and a Union Army general in the American Civil War, most noted for his defeat at the Second Battle of Winchester in 1863. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. Brady-Handy Photograph Collection. CALL NUMBER: LC-BH82- 4071
context_page_description: The city of Winchester, Virginia, and the surrounding area were the site of numerous fights during the American Civil War as both contending armies strove to control that portion of the Shenandoah Valley.
context_section_description: Winchester was occupied by the 2nd Division of the VIII Corps of the Federal Middle Department from December 24, 1862 until the Second Battle of Winchester on June 15, 1863. The primary objective of the Federals during this period was to protect and defend military approaches to Washington, D.C. and especially to guard and defend the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad from Confederate Raids.  Major General Robert Milroy, commander of the 2nd Division, entered in force at the beginning of the year in 1863, coincidental with the enactment of the Emancipation Proclamation.  Milroy, a radical abolitionist, was intent on using Winchester as a place to enforce this new proclamation in the strictest and harshest terms possible. MajGen. Milroy is most famous for his edict that:
  In this city (Winchester) of about 6,000 inhabitants ... my will is absolute law – none dare contradict or dispute my slightest word or wish. The secesh here have heard many terrible stories about me before I came and supposed me to be a perfect Nero for cruelty and blood, and many of them both male and female tremble when they come into my presence to ask for small privileges, but the favors I grant them are slight and few for I confess I feel a strong disposition to play the tyrant among these traitors.
  — Robert H. Milroy
  Milroy was noted for his harsh treatment of women. When Milroy felt that a lady had "insulted Gen Closeret ... her fine mansion was immediately taken for a hospital". In one particularly disturbing incident, on April 4, MajGen. Milroy arrested Mrs. Logan on charges of possessing contraband, and had her and her daughters escorted to the outskirts of town, without time to even gather medicine for one ill daughter, and "exiled" from Winchester.  He then moved his wife, Mrs. Milroy, into what was one of the finest and most exquisite homes in Winchester.  Ladies of Winchester eventually took to walking in the middle of the streets rather than risk accidentally brushing up against Federal soldiers. Milroy summarized his sentiments toward the ladies in town by noting that:
  Hell is not full enough, there must be more of these Secession women of Winchester to fill it up.
  — Robert H. Milroy
  Most notably, Milroy was feared for his rash desire to execute Virginians, and his reputation for this from previous Alleghany campaigning precede him, striking great trepidation in the town, as Milroy set up his tribunals, without constitutional authority, and sentenced townsfolk to execution by firing squad.
  Many of the local blacks freed in January 1863 under the Emancipation Proclamation fled the area, presumably fearing reconquest by the Confederates (as in fact happened later in the year).
caption: MajGen. Milroy
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