July 6 1864

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From the Richmond Times Dispatch July 6 1864----

Yankee depredations in King and Queen and King William.

A letter from a lady in King and Queen county to a friend in this city gives additional particulars of the recent depredations of the Yankees in that section. With a view to the preservation of a record of their mode of conducting warfare, we make some extracts: "The fifth Sunday in MayGrant's army commenced passing through the county, crossing at Dunkirk. For five days they were within two miles of us, near enough to see the camp fires and hear the drums and music; but only four visited us, took two mules and left. Our neighbors did not fare so well. Mrs. Smith, Mrs. Fauntleroy, Dr. Fauntleroy, Dr. Fleet and others were robbed of everything with the exception of a few negroes. Mr. Wm. Boulware's elegant residence they burned to the ground. From Mr. John Fauntleroy in King William they took all his negroes, but one child twelve months old, all his cattle, horses, sheep, corn, wheat, bacon and fowls; and Mr. Boggs they treated worse, for, in addition to the above they took his own, his wife's and children's clothing, and broke up everything in the house. They had a negro regiment encamped in old Mrs. Fauntleroy's yard. Mrs. Sterling had to cook for some of the Yankees for two days, and they were very insulting. They took forty-five negroes from Mrs. Smith, and twenty-five from Tom Fauntleroy.*** Grant's army moved on to the Chickahominy, and we were left in fancied security for nearly two weeks; but last Thursday we heard that Sheridan was at Newtown, making his way to the White House; and on Fridayevening not less than eight hundred of his gang were here. They broke in and took every piece of meat but ten, and four of those I begged them for after they took them on their horses; took every horse and mule on the place, seven in number; searched every room in the house five or six times; took every ounce of butter, two barrels of flour, all of our molasses and honey, and broke open the bee-hives; stole a great many fowls, and actually took a hen off the nest that she had been setting two weeks, and sucked the eggs! Yesterday evening we saw the scenes of Friday again enacted. Over a thousand were here, ransacking every hole and corner. They took nearly all of our corn, but found little to eat. Out of the two thousand I did not see more than two gentlemen. The officers were no better than the privates, and some were very impudent. I spoke my mind very freely to every one, feeling no fear, but gave them word for word. One said to me--"Don't you wish every d — n Yankee was in hell?" I told him "Yes, provided they could not get to a worse place; but my opinion was that hell was too good for them." He said "God had nothing to do with them; that they had neither souls nor hearts."