Aftermath: Destruction and Military Rule

North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission
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Aftermath: Destruction and Military Rule:

“Grim scenes abounded as the homeward-bound North Carolinians rode South. One event in particular must have made [General Bryan] Grimes wonder what was in store for him as a defeated soldier without the means to fight back. According to Grimes’ astute traveling companion, Thomas Devereux:

“A few miles from the forks of the road we came to an old man, Loftin Terrel, his house was on the roadside and he was knee-deep in feathers where [Sherman’s] bummers had ripped open the beds, a yearling and a mule colt were lying dead in the lot; they had been wantonly shot.

Old man Terrel was sitting on his door step, he said there was not a thing left in the house and every bundle of fodder and grain of corn had been carried off; that he had been stripped of everything he owned and he had not a mouthful to eat. They had even killed his dog which was lying dead near the house.”

Grimes dealt with his illness and the “grief of the surrender” amid constant rumors of pending retribution at the hands of the Yankee governors. “There was a report that they would hang all officers above the rank of captain and all their property would be confiscated,” [wife] Charlotte recalled. “We were living in a “Reign of Terror.” They were also living with Charlotte’s parents in Raleigh during the summer of 1865, with the former enemy visible everywhere. Charlotte remembered “a Yankee camp just across the street from my father’s front gate by which he [Grimes] would have to pass…I would see them watch him and hear them say, “there goes the rebel, Gen. Grimes.”

Lee’s Last Major General, Bryan Grimes of North Carolina, T. Harrell Allen, pp. 258-261. Read more “Aftermath: Destruction and Military Rule”
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Aftermath: Destruction and Military Rule