...secession is but a name for all that is devilish and infernal...

Autograph letter signed by Benjamin D. Carpenter. Fairfax Co., [Virginia], 30 May 1861. 8 pages, 8vo, on illustrated "Death to Traitors" letterhead. With illustrated cover with red 3-cent stamp and Georgetown, D.C. cancel.

Benjamin D. Carpenter (1819-1896) was a farmer in Alexandria County who was also a trained surveyor and the first to prepare a map showing the metes and bounds of the District of Columbia. He wrote this letter to his brother-in-law, John Simpson Crocker, in the earliest days of the conflict. A few months later, Crocker would be appointed Colonel of the 93rd New York Infantry. He was captured at the Siege of Yorktown and was imprisoned at Libby Prison and later Salisbury before being exchanged in September 1862. 

Carpenter writes with eloquence and vehemence about secession with his valuable perspective from the borderlands near Washington, D.C., "You will perceive that I have changed front or rights bout faced since I last wrote you. That's so. I go in for the motto that heads this sheet secession is but a name for all that is devilish and infernal. If you or anyone else were here only one week, you would see a fair illustration of Mexican despotism. You would see the most intense hatred of those anti-white labor Nero's that would cause your blood to boil with indignation and would make you turn away from them with loathing and contempt. Men are prosecuted and threatened with violence and even with hanging for wishing to cling to that government which has protected them in their civil and religious liberty, which has thrown over them and around them a halo of Freedom and prosperity that no other government under heaven has. Men are fleeing for their lives for wishing to preserve the Union of these states which was formed for the protection of our lives, liberty, and property." 

He continues, "Secession leaders marched about breathing vengeance on all who would not enroll themselves with them under the black banner of Treason whose baneful shadow is not unlike the poisonous effects of the shadow of the deadly upas tree. It has spread a blight and desolation over the country; it has paralyzed and prostrated business and the energy of the people; it has destroyed the confidence between friends and neighbors; it has made vacant fireside and empty houses; it has made silent workshops and deserted villages; it has silenced the ploughman's song and the wagons rattle on the roads, and last but not least of all, it seeks to pull down the strong pillars of the wisest and best governments, and if they can accomplish no more, involve all in one common total overthrow. It makes my heart bleed to see the people leaving for life, fleeing from the demon of secession which would wring the last drop of blood from one's heart for wishing to live in the Union - the land of the free and the home of the brave."

Switching perspectives from general discussions of treason to the specifics of his community, he continues: "Thirty-four families left Vienna in two days with what they could hastily gather up and then bid adieu to their homes for which they have toiled to make comfortable and pleasant. John, a great gloom is over the land like some great and sudden calamity. The sun seems to shine through some kind of a veil which casts a shade of sadness over heavens and earth, not unlike the feeling of some swift and sudden calamity about to happen, that strikes terror and dread to the heart. Men were deprived of the elective franchise through fear and suffer all the horror of a reign of terror rather than vote at all. The Federal troops are in Virginia in that part that once was the district which makes them about four miles from us and even their shadow at that distance is some protection but not enough to make us entirely free from alarm. A move is soon to be made - where and when is not known - as a large number of troops are under marching orders at an hour's notice. If you could be in Washington only one week, you would be astonished to see the amount of military array. I saw the New Hampshire 1st Regiment come in with 16 baggage wagons. They were as fine a body of men as you ever saw, equipped and armed to the teeth. Gen. Scott's occupation of Virginia was so sudden that it struck terror to the hearts of the secession leaders in our place and they left in a perfect stampede so that we are now free from their persecutions. All we fear now is night attacks from bands of skulking cowards. We are between the lines of the two parties, the entries are five miles apart. The Virginians are posted at Gantt's Hill and Widow Jackson's, and the Union pickets at Waggaman's. There were three shots fired upon them at the foot of the second hill last night which was returned by four of the guard who left their mark on one, which was tracked half a mile by the blood. Our men are very indignant at such a mode of Indian warfare and will soon retaliate unless they cease their cowardly attacks." 

[Civil War, Union, Confederate] [Manuscripts, Documents, Letters, Ephemera, Signatures, Autographs] [Prisoner of War, POW, Andersonville, Libby Prison]