CHAPTER XIV. DISLOYALTY AS AFFECTING THE RIGHTS OF PROPERTY. ERROR AND
PREJUDICE PROMPTING THE ACTORS.
ANOTHER class of cases brought before the provost-court at Alexandria related to disloyalty as affecting the property-rights of individuals. In the hasty evacuation of the city, when the Union troops were about coming in, many had left their carpets, furniture, pianos, bed? and bedding, cooking utensils, everything, indeed, except the clothing upon their persons and such few things as they could pack in trunks. In some cases, persons remaining in Alexandria had been given the keys of abandoned houses and stores and the goods within left in their charge; but in other cases, so great had been the fright and haste of the occupants, that even this precaution had not been observed. What was true of Alexandria was no less true of the country for several miles around. As regiment after regiment came over from Washington and encamped at points from one to five miles west and south of Alexandria, they found many farm-houses and gentlemen's residences abandoned, in which had been left the furniture, the pianos, the beds and bedding, and whatever else could not be carried away in trunks. Of course, all such abandoned residences were appropriated for headquarters of divisions, brigades, and regiments, so far as they were needed for such purposes; and, in Alexandria, such residences as were not needed for headquarters were quickly applied for (or taken possession of in many cases without any application to the General commanding) by those who came to the city for purposes of trade, and for other purposes.
Thus far everything progressed with what seemed to be a sort of general consent; but pretty soon a new class of questions arose, in which there was a decided difference of opinion, not only as between Union citizens and secessionists, but between Union officers and Union soldiers as well. These questions arose from an assumed right, upon the part of some, to appropriate for their own individual use and profit whatever had been abandoned by those who had gone into the Confederate lines, and who thereby had openly declared themselves not only disloyal, but hostile, to the United States government.
Those who assumed such right, attempted to justify their opinions and their acts by referring to the Act of the United States Congress of August, 1861, by which all property used for insurrectionary purposes was made liable to confiscation; and they further claimed that it was but a fair retaliation to the Act of the Confederate Congress, by which the property of all Union men, living within the Confederate lines, was made liable to sequestration.
General Montgomery was among those who believed that, while the army, as an army, had a right to make use of property abandoned by an enemy, individuals, whether as officers, soldiers, or citizens, had no such right; and among his first acts, after being appointed Military Governor of Alexandria, was to direct his Assistant Adjutant-General to issue an order forbidding the use of abandoned property, without permission first had from general headquarters; and when the provost-court was established, he directed Judge Freese to see that that order be in no way violated or evaded. In every case reported to the Judge, where an attempt was made to take an article from an abandoned house and appropriate it to the private use of the taker, whether officer, soldier, or citizen, the party was directed to refrain, or, if already taken, to return it at once, under the penalty of arrest and punishment. This soon became so generally understood in Alexandria that no further attempt was made to appropriate abandoned property for private use and profit there; but, after a time, a case arose from the country, which required the interposition of the court, a trial of the case, and a judgment; and it is this case which we now propose to relate.
Dr. W. was the assistant surgeon of the Fourth-Volunteers, and as good a man, in every respect, as one often meets. When the government called for troops, he was among the first to offer his services, though at that time doing a large practice, having a large family to support, and having but little of this world's goods; and when the Fourth regiment was organized, the governor of his State appointed him its assistant surgeon. This regiment was among the first to reach Washington, and the second to establish a camp beyond Alexandria. The colonel of the regiment was a wide-awake New Englander, an intense anti-slavery man, an ardent admirer and supporter of President Lincoln, one who believed that a secessionist, by becoming disloyal to the government, forfeited all the rights he ever possessed, and that this forfeiture extended to property quite as well as to personal rights. Though he was never known to appropriate any abandoned property to his own private use or profit, yet he had no scruples of using it himself, and of allowing others of his regiment to use whatever fell in their way; and if any of his officers or soldiers asked to appropriate to their own use anything which they had found, he never answered nay. That he was entirely conscientious in all this, no one that knew the man doubted for a moment, however much they might differ with him in political opinion. With a commanding officer holding such decided views, it was not at all surprising that his lieutenant-colonel, major, assistant-surgeon, adjutant, and almost, if not quite, every company officer should, erelong, become as decided as himself upon this question.
Near the spot on which they fixed for an encampment was a large house, which had been abandoned by its owner and occupant on the morning that the Union troops marched into Alexandria. So hasty had been the flight that even the breakfast-table, with the dishes upon it, was left standing in the centre of the dining-room. Not an article of furniture, so far as could be seen, had been removed. The house had been well furnished, and, among other things, had a piano, about half worn. This had doubtless been played upon by daughters of the family as well as by the wife, as there were articles lying about the parlor which plainly indicated recent occupancy by young ladies. The piano stood open when the colonel, doctor, and other of his officers first entered the house, and that most exquisite of all musical compositions, "Home, Sweet Home," was open on the music-holder.