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Anson R. Butler letters, 1861-1900
1862-12-25 Page 1
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Thursday 25 Dec 1862 I will add a little. We had another turn last night here, and I learn that Gen'l Steele ordered 3 men shot for setting fire to the property. The owners were known to be Union men, men who had voted against secession. They came down and stated their case, and made offers of assistance in any way in their power to aid us. I abhor this indescriminate rapine. It is a poor way of carrying on warfare in a boasted civilized & Christian Country. I did not enlist to turn women & children out of house & home by burning the house over their heads, nor ever will I. It would make me ten fold a rebel if I were one & I judge them by myself. I do believe in destroying any property that they can use against us, and in taking any thing we can use against them, but farther it is needless & unmanly, unchristian, & Barbarous. I am a Republican & even abolitionist & as much a lover of country and in favor of carrying on the war as ever, but these are my settled convictions from what I have seen & heard that it is not policy & does no good & I care not who knows it.
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Thursday 25 Dec 1862 I will add a little. We had another turn last night here, and I learn that Gen'l Steele ordered 3 men shot for setting fire to the property. The owners were known to be Union men, men who had voted against secession. They came down and stated their case, and made offers of assistance in any way in their power to aid us. I abhor this indescriminate rapine. It is a poor way of carrying on warfare in a boasted civilized & Christian Country. I did not enlist to turn women & children out of house & home by burning the house over their heads, nor ever will I. It would make me ten fold a rebel if I were one & I judge them by myself. I do believe in destroying any property that they can use against us, and in taking any thing we can use against them, but farther it is needless & unmanly, unchristian, & Barbarous. I am a Republican & even abolitionist & as much a lover of country and in favor of carrying on the war as ever, but these are my settled convictions from what I have seen & heard that it is not policy & does no good & I care not who knows it.
Civil War Diaries and Letters
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