Part 39

Viewed in the light of a communication from Sheridan to Halleck, dated November 26, 1864, this expedition seems not to have been even moderately successful. In it he said: "I will soon commence work on Mosby. Heretofore I have made no attempt to break him up, as I would have employed ten men to his one, and for the reason that I have made a scape-goat of him for the destruction of private rights. Now there is going to be an intense hatred of him in that portion of this Valley, which is nearly a desert. I will soon commence on Loudoun County, and let them know there is a God in Israel...."

In his determination to rid himself of his troublesome enemy, Sheridan, the next day, issued the following orders to Major-General Merritt, commanding the First Cavalry Division:

"You are hereby directed to proceed to-morrow morning at 7 o'clock with the two brigades of your division now in camp to the east side of the Blue Ridge via Ashby's Gap, and operate against the guerillas in the district of country bounded on the south by the line of the Manassas Gap Railroad as far east as White Plains, on the east by the Bull Run range, on the west by the Shenandoah River, and on the north by the Potomac. This section has been the hot-bed of lawless bands, who have, from time to time, depredated upon small parties on the line of army communications, on safeguards left at houses, and on all small parties of our troops. Their real object is plunder and highway robbery. To clear the country of these parties that are bringing destruction upon the innocent as well as their guilty supporters by their cowardly acts, you will consume and destroy all forage and subsistence, burn all barns and mills and their contents, and drive off all stock in the region the boundaries of which are above described. This order must be literally executed, bearing in mind, however, that no dwellings are to be burned and that no personal violence be offered to the citizens. The ultimate results of the guerilla system of warfare is the total destruction of all private rights in the country occupied by such parties. This destruction may as well commence at once, and the responsibility of it must rest upon the authorities at Richmond, who have acknowledged the legitimacy of guerilla bands. The injury done this army by them is very slight. The injury they have indirectly inflicted upon the people and upon the rebel army may be counted by millions. The Reserve Brigade of your division will move to Snickersville on the 29th. Snickersville should be your point of concentration, and the point from which you should operate in destroying toward the Potomac. Four days' subsistence will be taken by the command. Forage can be gathered from the country through which you pass. You will return to your present camp, via Snicker's Gap, on the 5th day."

In addition to Merritt's three brigades, Colonel Stagg was ordered to send out four regiments.

"The Federals separated into three parties, one of which went along the Bloomfield road and down Loudoun in the direction of the Potomac; another passed along the Piedmont pike to Rectortown, Salem, and around to Middleburg, while the main body kept along the turnpike to Aldie, where they struck the Snickersville pike. Thus they scoured the country completely from the Blue Ridge to the Bull Run Mountains.

"From Monday afternoon, November 28th, until Friday morning, December 2nd, they ranged through the beautiful Valley of Loudoun and a portion of Fauquier county, burning and laying waste. They robbed the people of everything they could destroy or carry off--horses, cows, cattle, sheep, hogs, etc.; killing poultry, insulting women, pillaging houses, and in many cases robbing even the poor negroes.

"They burned all the mills and factories, as well as hay, wheat, corn, straw, and every description of forage. Barns and stables, whether full or empty, were burned.

"At Mrs. Fletcher's (a widow), where the hogs had been killed for her winter's supply of meat, the soldiers made a pile of rails upon which the hogs were placed and burned. They even went to the Poor House and burned and destroyed the supplies provided for the helpless and dependent paupers. On various previous occasions, however, the Alms House had been visited by raiding parties, so that at this time there was but little left, but of that little the larger portion was taken.

"Colonel Mosby did not call the command together, therefore there was no organized resistance, but Rangers managed to save a great deal of live stock for the farmers by driving it off to places of safety."

Home Life During the War.

In Loudoun, as everywhere in every age, the seriousness of war was not fully realized until the volunteer soldiery, following a short season of feverish social gayety, interspersed with dress parades and exhibition drills, had departed for their respective posts. Immediately and with one accord those left behind settled themselves to watch and wait and work and pray for the absent ones and the cause they had so readily championed.

When few slaves were owned by a family the white boys, too young for service in the army, worked with them in the fields, while the girls busied themselves with household duties, though, at times, they, too, labored in the open. In families owning no slaves the old men, cripples, women, and children were forced to shoulder the arduous labors of the farm.

Stern necessity had leveled sexual and worldly distinctions, and manual labor was, at times, performed by all who were in the least physically fitted for it. All classes early became inured to makeshifts and privations, though they managed in some unselfish manner to send, from time to time, great quantities of clothing, meats, and other supplies to the soldiers in the field and their wounded comrades in the army hospitals.

The intense devotion of Loudoun women to the Confederate cause was most irritating to a certain class of Federal officers in the armies that invaded Northern Virginia. They seemed to think that through their military prowess they had conquered entrance into Southern society, but the women repulsed them at every turn and quite effectually checked their presumptuous advances.

The women of all classes played and sang Confederate airs on every occasion, and, though ordered by the military authorities to desist, with consummate daring they usually persisted until a guard of soldiers had been detailed to enforce the order. The Federal officers who acted in a gentlemanly manner toward the non-combatants were accused by their rude fellows and by ruder newspaper correspondents of being "wound round the fingers of the rebel women," who, they were sure, had some cherished object in view.

The women, without question, had much the harder task. The men, in active service in the field, were reasonably sure that their families were safe at home and, in the feverish excitement of war, felt no concern for themselves, while, on the other hand, the women lived in hourly dread of direful news from the front, and, moreover, were burdened with labors and cares more irksome and harassing than had ever been borne by the absent males.

The music and songs that were popular just before and during the war attest the vacillating temper of the people. Joyous airs were at first heard, these growing contemptuous and defiant as the struggle approached, then stirring war songs and hymns of encouragement. But as sorrow followed sorrow until all were stricken; as wounds, sickness, imprisonment, and death of friends and relatives cast an ever-lengthening shadow over the spirits of the people; as hopes were dashed by defeat, and the consciousness came that, perhaps, after all the cause was losing, the iron entered into the souls of the people. The songs became sadder, while in the churches, where the doctrines of faith and good works were earnestly propounded, little else was heard than the soul-comforting hymns and the militant songs of the older churchmen. The promises were, perhaps, more emphasized and a deeply religious feeling prevailed among the home-workers for the cause.

Pierpont's Pretentious Administration.

On December 7, 1863, the legislature of the "Restored Government of Virginia" held its first meeting in the chambers of the city council at Alexandria, which municipality became the seat of a Union administration in the Old Dominion, after Governor Pierpont's removal from Wheeling, W. Va., where, by unqualified political trickery, he and his unauthorized following had effected the establishment of a new Union commonwealth out of the ruins of Confederate Virginia. Six senators were present, representing the counties of Norfolk, Accomac, Fairfax, Alexandria, and Loudoun, and the city of Norfolk. Prince William, Northampton, Alexandria, Loudoun, and Norfolk counties were represented by seven delegates. J. Madison Downey, of Loudoun, was elected speaker of the house of delegates.

This tiny mouth-piece of Virginia Unionists had naturally few important, or even ordinary, questions of legislation to decide. The most important was a provision for the amendment of the State constitution with relation to its bearing on the slavery question. "Everybody," said Governor Pierpont in his message, "loyal or disloyal, concedes that slavery in the State is doomed. Then acting upon this concession, call a convention of loyal delegates, to alter the State constitution in this particular, and declare slavery and involuntary servitude, except for crime, to be forever abolished in the State."

A new constitution which should supercede that of 1851 and express the Union sentiments of the Potomac legislators, was accordingly drafted. Nominations of delegates to the constitutional convention were made in January, 1864. By the terms of the act relative thereto, any voter in the State who had not adhered by word or act to the Confederacy since September 1, 1861, might be chosen a member of the convention; all "loyal" citizens, who had not given aid or comfort to the Confederacy since January 1, 1863, possessed the right to vote.

Elections were held January 22, 1864. Very little interest was manifested by the people, as was evidenced by the ridiculously small vote everywhere polled. Loudoun's nominees, Dr. J.J. Henshaw, J. Madison Downey, and E. R. Giver, were elected by a mere handful of voters.

The convention met at Alexandria February 13, 1864, with fifteen delegates present from twelve counties. Le Roy G. Edwards, of Portsmouth, was elected president and W.J. Cowing, secretary. A number of radical changes in the old constitution, framed by legitimate authority in ante-bellum days, were consummated during the two months' session of this convention.

The Alexandria government held sway very nearly two years. The legislature met for its second session December 5, 1864, and re-elected J. Madison Downey, of Loudoun County, speaker of the house of delegates.

The Pierpont government was not in itself of great importance. Its influence extended to only a dozen counties and three cities and, "under the shadow of bayonets, it was the rule of a few aliens in the midst of a generally hostile population. Men at the time and since have laughed at its legitimist pretenses." It would have been summarily dismissed by the people but for the protection afforded it by the Federal armies. Thus it appears that the "Restored Government of Virginia" was not based upon the consent and approval of the governed. Yet, suited to a policy of expediency and aggression, it was, with quivering and unseemly eagerness, recognized as the legal government of the State by the Lincoln administration.

Emancipation.

A significant event of the war was the issuance by President Lincoln of his celebrated emancipation proclamation. This highly important measure, promulgated on New Year's day, 1863, sounded the death-knell of slavery, an institution that, in the South, had seemed commercially indispensable.

The tidings spread rapidly through Loudoun producing, however, no change in the amicable relations existing between the white and colored races. In all sections of the South some apprehension was at first felt lest the negroes be tempted by Federal rewards to insurrection and the state militias be required to suppress outbreaks.