A sad picture.
--
The Havoc of War.--The following picture of the sacking of the mansion of an ex-Congressman is from the neighborhood of Chain Bridge, and is drawn by a Northern correspondent, who thus describes the work done by Northern hands:
I rode around with a foraging party.
We entered his fine old mansion, and I could not but weep over the sad changes which I could see had taken place within a few hours.
Within no living soul was left.
The soldiers entered; for a time I stood back, but when I did go in what a sight presented itself.
Already the floors were covered knee-deep with books and papers, which it must have required a long life of toil and trouble to amass; fine swinging mirrors shivered into thousands of pieces-a fit emblem of the sad condition to which efforts are being made to reduce this glorious Government — each piece reflecting miniature images of what the whole had shown, but never again to reflect the pigmy images in one vast whole.
In the large and spacious drawing-room stood the ruins of one of those old-fashioned sideboards, around which has grown so much of the reputation of Southern high life and hospitality; its doors, wrenched from their hinges, lay scattered on the floor, large mahogany sofas, with their covers torn off,
marble-top tables, stationery, china, stoves, and spittoons, were there in one promiscuous heap of ruins.
I stepped into the library, hoping to bring away some relic that had been untouched by the soldiers, but I was too late — all here was ruin.
I looked on the vast orchards, the beautiful flower-garden, the long rows of laden grapevines, the broad acres of corn and clover.--Just then, company after company, from the different regiments, came up; gates were thrown open, fences thrown down, and horses, cattle and mules were destroying all these evidences of prosperity and comfort.
And this is but one feature in the great haggard countenance of war which stares at us whenever we look at
Virginia's ‘ "sacred soil."’--Alas, poor
Virginia ! This subject alone would give interest to a whole volume but I must leave it.
