hey were shut up in their houses after 8
P.M., and sometimes deprived of light; part of our kind entertainer's
house was forcibly occupied by a vulgar, ignorant, and low-born Federal
officer, _ci-devant_ driver of a street car; and they were constantly
subjected to the most humiliating insults, on pretence of searching the
house for arms, documents, &c. To my surprise, however, these ladies
spoke of the enemy with less violence and rancour than almost any other
ladies I had met with during my travels through the whole Southern
Confederacy. When I told them so, they replied that they who had seen
many men shot down in the streets before their own eyes knew what they
were talking about, which other and more excited Southern women did not.

Ewell's Division is in front and across the Potomac; and before I left
headquarters this morning, I saw Longstreet's corps beginning to follow
in the same direction.

[51] Indian corn.

[52] The Honourable F. Lawley, author of the admirable letters from the
Southern States which appear in the 'Times' newspaper.

* * * * *

_23d June_ (Tuesday).--Lawley and I went to inspect the site of Mr
Mason's (the Southern Commissioner in London) once pretty house--a
melancholy scene. It had been charmingly situated near the outskirts of
the town, and by all accounts must have been a delightful little place.
When Lawley saw it seven months ago, it was then only a ruin; but since
that time Northern vengeance (as directed by General Milroy) has
satiated itself by destroying almost the very foundations of the house
of this arch-traitor, as they call him. Literally not one stone remains
standing upon another; and the _debris_ seems to have been carted away,
for there is now a big hole where the principal part of the house stood.
Troops have evidently been encamped upon the ground, which was strewed
with fragments of Yankee clothing, accoutrements, &c.

I understand that Winchester used to be a most agreeable little town,
and its society extremely pleasant. Many of its houses are now destroyed
or converted into hospitals; the rest look miserable and dilapidated.
Its female inhabitants (for the able-bodied males are all absent in the
army) are familiar with the bloody realities of war. As many as 5000
wounded have been accommodated here at one time. All the ladies are
accustomed to the bursting of shells and the sight of fighting, and all
are turned into hospital nurse