Year: 1862

ol lhe new L lofk I0I we take the fol-


lowing description of the blighting effects


of the war in that secion:


DISTRESS OF FARMERS IN THE VALLEY.


The ups and downs of fortune have


been very trying to the farmers in this


valley, and especially to those who have


shown any Union tendencies. The reb-


els have spared their friends as much as
they could. We treated secessionsts


and Unionists just about the same.-


Three times have the rebels marched


down the valley, and now for the third


time we are driving them back again.


Every time the men have to procure fire
for cooking and food to sustain them, and
every time the rail fences and live stock
have had to suffer, so that now, between


Winchester and Strasburg, there is
hardly wooden fence untouched, and
many are entirely gone. This has thrown
the fields open to every stray beast that
comes along, and, as a consequence, the
grain growing by the side of the road
has been trampled down and DESTROYED.
The beet cattle that were left by Jack
son after his first trip to Winchester
were taken by our troops on the pursuit;
the chickens have long since disappeared;
everything eatable disappears as soon as
it is found the bacon, which | used 10
think | never should see the end of, is
almost consumed, and were it not for
vegetables and fruit many of the inhab-
itants would soon be reduced to a state
of starvation.


WASTED PROPERTY.


AS it is, if the present state of affairs
continues there will be great suffering,
and this will fall mostly upon the poor
whites, whose families, generally large,
are dependent upon their daily labor
which jackson, with his press-gang, de-
prives them Of. The valley is full of
families whose heads are with jackson,
while the wife and children at home try
to keep the farm agoing, generally with
but poor success under such adverse cir
cumstances. The lower classes, howev-
er, are not the only sufferers. Many
rich prOprietorS have been reduced from
great afiluence TO as great poverty. The
great bulk of property of rich Virgini--
ans seems to have been in lands, which
hey let to tenants at very profitable rates
and which were held of them by a tenure
Utmost feudal But now that their ten
'nts are, many of them, in the army,
md their farms have been wasted, they
10 longer derive an income from them,
md, owing to their expensive habits,
ave in some instances already suffered


good deal.


LOSS OF HORSES.


What | have said of the loss of cattle
nd crops is equally true of horses. 1t
annot be denied that we have in our
rmy a set of as energetic,persistent horse
lieves as can be found anywhere in the
orld. They spare neither friend nor
e. While our army was crossing the
otomac at Williamsport several very
'luable horses belonging to our own
hcers were stolen, and during the
hole period of our stay there was con-
ant thieving going on. There is only
e consolation in it, and that is you may


pretty sure you will find the missing
rise in the first company Of cavalry you
me to, and perhaps one other. The
seals are so well accustomed to having
return the stolen property that there
no trouble about recovering missing
rse. Sometimes, however, they find
aus pJ COnHlfaHce Win suffers or
lers, to run their horses off to Mary
I'd or Pennsylvania, and there dispose
them.


What was left by our cavalry and
agglers after the retreat from Win
ester was hardly worth taking
jackson was so badly off that be
X them, even down to colts year old,
brood mares Unfit for any sort of
rk. SO citizen tells me. When the
r is over this valley will have to be
tocked and resettled throughout, and
i is no longer blighted by the curse of
very it will be one of the most -four
ing as it is one of the most beautiful,
The whole country.