. Jackson, a Valley
man by reason of his residence at Lexington, south of Staunton, was
their hero and idol. The women sent husbands, sons, lovers, to battle as
cheerfully as to marriage feasts. No oppression, no destitution could
abate their zeal. Upon a march I was accosted by two elderly sisters,
who told me they had secreted a large quantity of bacon in a well on
their estate, hard by. Federals had been in possession of the country,
and, fearing the indiscretion of their slaves, they had done the work at
night with their own hands, and now desired to _give_ the meat to their
people. Wives and daughters of millers, whose husbands and brothers were
in arms, worked the mills night and day to furnish flour to their
soldiers. To the last, women would go distances to carry the modicum of
food between themselves and starvation to a suffering Confederate.
Should the sons of Virginia ever commit dishonorable acts, grim indeed
will be their reception on the further shores of Styx. They can expect
no recognition from the mothers who bore them.

Ere the war closed, the Valley was ravaged with a cruelty surpassing
that inflicted on the Palatinate two hundred years ago. That foul deed
smirched the fame of Louvois and Turenne, and public opinion, in what
has been deemed a ruder age, forced an apology from the "Grand
Monarque." Yet we have seen the official report of a Federal general
wherein are recounted the many barns, mills, and other buildings
destroyed, concluding with the assertion that "a crow flying over the
Valley must take rations with him." In the opinion of the admirers of
the officer making this report, the achievement on which it is based
ranks with Marengo. Moreover, this same officer, General Sheridan, many
years after the close of the war, denounced several hundred thousands of
his fellow citizens as "banditti," and solicited permission of his
Government to deal with them as such. May we not well ask whether
religion, education, science and art combined have lessened the
brutality of man since the days of Wallenstein and Tilly?

While in camp near Conrad's store, the 7th Louisiana, Colonel Hays, a
crack regiment, on picket down stream, had a spirited affair, in which
the enemy was driven with the loss of a score of prisoners. Shortly
after, for convenience of supplies, I was directed to cross the river
and camp some miles to the southwest. The command was in superb
condition, and a four-gun battery from Bedford c