WAR IN THE BORDER STATES - PART 2
In the corner above this a guerrilla raid is represented-the dread and horror of all the peaceful inhabitants of the country-who lay waste all within their reach, and bear away every thing of value on which they can lay their hands; who commit murder indiscriminately in order to obtain their object; and to whom an act of cruelty and outrage is a good joke. To cause the innocent to suffer, to perform deeds of unparalleled atrocity and wickedness, is their daily work.
On the opposite corner a party of rebel cavalry is seen approaching, and men, women, children, and negroes are all flying from their home to the friendly woods for protection. The men would willingly stay and defend their homes to the very last; but cui bono? Do we not hear daily of cases in which Union men have been seized, tied with ropes, and at the point of the bayonet obliged to join the rebel army?
In the lower corners the work of destruction still goes on. The left shows us a town being shelled. Once lively and prosperous, it will soon be nothing but a heap of smoking ashes. The handsome houses which once rose so proudly in air will soon be leveled to the ground. Hardly a trace of their former grandeur will be found in the blackened, unsightly ruins.
On the other side a bridge is burning; with each plank which falls helplessly into the water go the chances of communication from side to side. It is the same with railroads; one after another is destroyed, and in a country so vast as this, without such means of facilitating intercourse between one distant part and another, the work of progress and civilization ceases, education is neglected, and all advancement stops.
At the bottom is a planter’s late residence; now there is no sign of life there save a few birds flitting about, an occasional bat, and some rats who may have their own way there undisturbed. Some human bones lying about would seem to tell of some tragedy having been enacted there, but no living voice remains to relate how it is that the place looks so desolate, and why the grass is allowed to grow in the path, and the garden untended and full of weeds.
Here it is, in the Border States, that the real sufferers of the war are to be found. We, in our comfortable homes, can hardly form an idea of the acute distress which it entails upon the people of that section.
God grant that this terrible rebellion, with all its fearful consequences, may speedily be crushed; that our beloved country may once more be restored to peace and prosperity; that the awful work of destruction and of wasting lives may cease; and that the wail of newly-made widows and orphans may be heard no more among us! |
