Belle Boyd in Camp and Prison

CHAPTER III

CHAPTER III THE M O R N I N G OF THE 4TH OF July dawned brightly. I need hardly say, for it is well known, that the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence has, in each succeeding year from that of its birth, been hailed with triumphant acclamations by a nation still too young to moderate its transports and lend its ear to the voice of reason rather than to the impulse of passion. The Yankees were in undisputed possession of Martinsburg; the village was at their mercy, and consequently entitled to their forbearance; and it would at least have been more dignified in them had they been content to enjoy their almost bloodless conquest with moderation; but, whatever might have been the intentions of the officers, they had not the inclination, or they lacked the authority, to control the turbulence of their men. The severance of the North from the South had now become in feeling so complete, that we Martinsburg girls saw the Union flag streaming from the windows of the houses with emotions akin to those with which the ladies of England would gaze upon the tricolor of France or the eagle of Russia floating above the keep of Windsor Castle. Those hateful strains of "Yankee Doodle" resounded in every street, with an accompaniment of cheers, shouts, and imprecations. Whiskey now began to flow freely; for, amid the motley crowd of Americans, Dutchmen, and other nations, the Irish element predomi- B E L L E BOYD IN C A M P AND P R I S O N 8l nated. The sprigs of shillelahs were soon at work, and the "sons of Erin" proved that they could use their sticks with no less effect in an American town than at an Irish fair. They set at defiance the authority of those among their officers who vainly interposed to quell the tumult and restrain the lawless violence that was offered to defenceless citizens and women. The doors of our houses were dashed in; our rooms were forcibly entered by soldiers who might literally be termed "maddrunk," for I can think of no other expression so applicableto their condition. Glass and fragile property of all kinds was wantonly destroyed. They found our homes scenes of comfort, in some cases even of luxury; they left them mere wrecks, utterly despoiled and mutilated. Shots were fired through the windows; chairs and tables were hurled into the street. In some instances a trembling lady would make a timid appeal to that honor which should be the attribute of every soldier, or, with streaming eyes and passionate accents, plead for some cherished object —the portrait, probably, of a dead father, or the miniature her lover placed in her hand when he left her to fight for his freedom and hers— upon which many a secret kiss had been pressed, many a silent tear had fallen, before which many an earnest prayer had been breathed. To such applications the reply was invariably a volley of blasphemous curses and horrid imprecations. Words from which the mind recoils with horror, which no man with one spark of feeling would utter in the presence even of the most abandoned woman, were shouted in the ears of innocent, shrinking girls; and the soldiers of the Union showed a malignant, a fiendish delight in destroying the effigies of enemies whom they had not yet dared to meet upon equal terms in an open field of battle. Surely it is not strange that cruelties such as I have attempted to describe have exasperated our women no less than our men, and inspired them with sterner feelings than those which inflame the bosoms of ladies who know nothing of invasion but its name, who have never at their own firesides shuddered at the oaths and threats of a robberdisguised in the garb of a soldier. Shall I be ashamed to confess that I recall without one shadow of remorse the act by which I saved my mother from insult, perhaps from 82 B E L L E BOYD IN C A M P AND P R I S O N death—that the blood I then shed has left no stain on my soul, imposed no burden upon myconscience? The encounter to which I refer was brought about as follows: A party of soldiers, conspicuous, even on that day, for violence, broke into our house and commenced their...