laced in
line of battle upon the range of hills commanding the town. The Eighth
Virginia regiment, numbering about five hundred men, was thrown forward
into the streets. These were detailed to burn the place....

"The scene that speedily followed is indescribable in its horrors. The
soldiers went from house to house, bursting open the doors with planks and
axes, and entering, split up the furniture to kindle the fire, or else
scattered combustible materials in the closets and along the stairways,
and then applied the torch. In a little over half an hour the whole town
was fired, so complete were their arrangements to accomplish their hellish
designs. No time was given the inhabitants to save anything. The first
warning of danger most of them had was the kindling of the fire in their
houses, and even the few articles that some caught up in their flight were
seized by the soldiers and flung back into the flames. Many such instances
have come to the writer's knowledge, that in their dark malignity almost
surpass belief. The aged, the sick, the dying, and the dead were carried
out from their burning homes; mothers with babes in their arms, and
surrounded by their frightened little ones, fled through the streets,
jeered and taunted by the brutal soldiery. Indeed their escape seemed
almost a miracle, as the streets were in a blaze from one end to the
other, and they were compelled to flee through a long road of fire. Had
not the day been perfectly calm, many must have perished in the flames.

"The conflagration in its height was a scene of surpassing grandeur and
terror. A tall black column of smoke rose up to the very skies; around it
were wrapped long streamers of flames, writhing and twisting themselves
into a thousand fantastic shapes, while through it, as though they were
prayers carried heavenward by the incense of some great altar sacrifice,
there went up on the smoky, flame-riven clouds the cries and shrieks of
the women and children. But the moment of greatest alarm was not reached
until some of the more humane of the rebel officers warned the women to
flee, if they wished to escape violence to their persons. We cannot, in
this letter, describe the scenes of the sad flight which followed.

"The ferocity of the rebel soldiers during this affair seems almost
incredible. With all their fierce passions unrestrained, they seemed to
revel in the work of destruction. An aged elder of the Presbyterian church
was taken from