[53] and fertile fields laid waste, bringing want and misery to hundreds. But when a civil war breaks out, the evil is increased a hundred-fold; then all the ties that unite men are broken, brothers raise their hands against brothers, and fathers against sons, in deadly combat.
With no means of distinguishing friends from enemies, at one hour the Union forces might be engaged in deadly conflict with hidden foes, among the forests and mountains, and in the next hour might enter a town to meet the same citizens under the Union flag, welcoming them to their hearths and their homes. Of this fact they were often assured by the negroes, who could give the names of men who had returned from a hot skirmish with the Iowa Cavalry, had hastily stabled their horses, washed themselves, and come forth to meet and welcome the men with whom they had just been in mortal combat. In conflicts of this discouraging character many months passed, in which, even in their victories, he could see nothing gained for the great objects of the war. On every side he witnessed the reverse of all he had hoped to find. He expected to meet an honorable enemy in fair fight, but he was compelled to witness the violation of the fundamental principles of civilization in the conduct of those who but carried the principles of secession to their legitimate result. In one of his letters he writes:—
A year's residence at the South would convince any sensible man that the Rebellion is but the natural result of the state of society prevailing here. The speech of Charles Sumner on the barbarism of slavery is the truth and nothing but the truth. I would rather help end the war in one big fight, than wander about here in search of guerillas, who will shoot at one from behind fences and trees. Some of them have been troubling our camp guard. One had two fingers cut off by a man who approached his post at night; a second had a ball put through his arm, and a third had his hat shot off.
Such was the singleness of his own purpose, that he witnessed with strong indignation the false patriotism that had secured honorable positions for peculation and fraud. He writes:—
