Letters To The Enemy  "Forbear To Desecrate"

When Northern armies conquered Southern territories, civilians in the occupied area came to expect harsh and inhumane treatment from Union "mudsills" (literally, something upon which feet are wiped). If given time, many civilians would flee before the "vandal hordes" arrived.

During the 1862 Peninsular campaign, Mary Lee, wife of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, resided at the White House, the Virginia plantation on the Pamunkey River that had once been the property of her great-grandmother Martha Curtis Washington. The Yankees turned the house into a depot for supplying Union troops as they advanced on Richmond. When the first Union soldiers arrived at the estate, they found it recently abandoned, but attached to the front door was the following note:
 

Northern soldiers who profess to reverence Washington, forbear to desecrate the home of his first married life, the property of his wife, now owned by her descendants.

A Granddaughter of Mrs. Washington

When Union soldiers occupied Yorktown, VA, they found the following angry but insulting letter left in one of the town's fine houses:
 

To the Future Yankee Occupants of this place

We have retired to the country for a short time to recruit our health... assuring you that we will call upon you soon.

Be sure to have on hand a supply of "pork'n beans" when we return; also some coldfish and "apple sass". When we learn to relish such diet we may become like you- Puritanical, selfish, thieving, God-forgotten, devil-worshipping, devil-belonging, African-loving, blue-bellied Yankees... Your fiend-like treatment of old men and helpless women rends you out of the pale of civilized warfare, and if rifles are true and knives keen, we will rid you of your beastly inclinations.

When you arise as high in the scale of created beings as a Brazilian monkey, we will allow you sometimes to associate with our negroes; but until then Southern soil will be too hot for the sons of the Pilgrims... We despise you as heartily as we can whip you easily on any equal field.

Fascinating Fact:  Mary Lee's plea went unheeded. When Union troops evacuated the White House, they burned it to the ground.


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