. Sufferings endured for a free government; . t I grope my way through the smoul-dering ruins, and pause, in sad dismay, at the fearfulpicture of destruction and desolation that surround me,imagination summoning to my minds eye the manypeaceful firesides, from whose home-altars the Lares andPenates had so lately fled, affrighted by the rude glareof those flaming brands suddenly and pitilessly assault-ing their happy domains. In the centre of the town, onthe main street, is an open space called The Diamond,on one side of which stand four marble columns, all thatremains of the bank building. Opp
. Sufferings endured for a free government; . t I grope my way through the smoul-dering ruins, and pause, in sad dismay, at the fearfulpicture of destruction and desolation that surround me,imagination summoning to my minds eye the manypeaceful firesides, from whose home-altars the Lares andPenates had so lately fled, affrighted by the rude glareof those flaming brands suddenly and pitilessly assault-ing their happy domains. In the centre of the town, onthe main street, is an open space called The Diamond,on one side of which stand four marble columns, all thatremains of the bank building. Opposite, appear thebare and blackened walls of the county court-house,with its heavy white columns and portico. On everjside are the ruins of stores, warehouses, and elegantmansions, the greater portion of their stone and brickwalls still standing, while heaps of ashes, with a fewcharred timbers, alont mark the sites of less pretentiousdwellings. The rich and the poor suffered alike at thehands of the fllthy horde, led by that prince of modern. 1I-KM.\G OF , PEXXA EUllXING OF CIlAMiiERSBLKG. 213 irecbootcrs, ]\[cCauslanJ, and that aristocratic but de-generate scion of Marylands soil, Harry Gilmore. ;^[aell lias already been said respecting the destructionof this picturesque valley-town, and much remains to berecorded. The people and press of the North generally,who have so freely the citizens of Chambers-burg, reflecting upon their non-resistance of the armedforce which sacked and burned their very homes, would,I believe, modify this verdict, and, it may be, retracttheir insinuations, could they, in this quiet burgh—ten-fold more eloquent itself in the abomination of desola-tiou which reigns around—hearken to the tales of thesufferers. Dr. Eichards, a prominent resident of the town, wbo;with his family, escaped as they stood, saving nothing,stated to me the fact that the entire valley had beencompletely sifted as wheat, to give its best to the armyof
Size: 1576px × 1586px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1860, bookpublisherphila, bookyear1865
