" (Accompanying document No.
32.) Mr. William King, a citizen of Georgia, well known in that State,
stated to me in conversation: "There are a great many bad characters in
the country, who would make it for some time unsafe for known Union people
and northerners who may settle down here to live in this country without
the protection of the military." The affair of Scottsborough, in the
military district of northern Alabama, where a sheriff arrested and
attempted to bring to trial for murder Union soldiers who had served
against the guerillas in that part of the country, an attempt which was
frustrated only by the prompt interference of the district commander, has
become generally known through the newspapers. (Accompanying document No.
19.) It is not improbable that many cases similar to those above mentioned
have occurred in other parts of the south without coming to the notice of
the authorities.
It is true these are mere isolated cases, for which it would be wrong to
hold anybody responsible who was not connected with them; but it is also
true that the apprehensions so widely spread among the Unionists and
northern men were based upon the spirit exhibited by the people among whom
they lived. I found a good many thinking of removing themselves and their
families to the northern States, and if our troops should be soon
withdrawn the exodus will probably become quite extensive unless things
meanwhile change for the better.
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