The American Civil War - This Mighty Scourge of War

218 The American Civil War

crops everywhere. The vandalism loosened
or destroyed the reins of discipline in some
instances, and Unionists went beyond
warfare on agriculture to burn houses and
savage civilian women in what Virginians
called 'The Burning.' Ironically, the region
most heavily affected included one of the
largest concentrations of unflinching
pacifists on the continent, most of them

Colonel George S. Patton I, grandfather of the Second

World War general, commanded a brigade at Winchester

until a shell mortally wounded him. (Public domain)

Mennonites or Dunkards; their buildings

burned as briskly as anyone else's.

Southern cavalrymen, many of them

watching their own homes aflame, could not

stem the onslaught, but they took the

chance to execute groups of enemy arsonists

when they cornered them. War never treads

gently, especially civil war, but the American

strife in the 1860s had been amazingly

civilized - until the fall of 1864. Rosser's

enraged Confederate cavalry eventually

stretched too far from infantry support and

suffered a resounding beating on 9 October

at Tom's Brook by Union cavalry under

Generals George A. Custer, Wesley Merritt,

and Alfred T. A. Torbert.

Incredibly, Early pushed back northward

once more soon after Tom's Brook, a phoenix

risen from the ashes, and by mid-October

had again reached the vicinity of Fisher's

Hill. Sheridan had concluded that his foe

had been permanently vanquished, but the

Starting on 6 October. Sheridan's Federals systematically

burned out the Shenandoah valley. (Public domain)