JWB and Company and Atrocities Against Southern Citizens

[BettyO]

Ya'll all bring up some excellent points. I totally agree with you, Herb. Yes, in the 19th Century in particular, it seems that we were totally desensoritized to pain and fairness in more than a lot of ways. As long as it was perceived as being the "right" thing to do, in a lot of cases, it seemed OK to perpetuate unfairness on others.

I think that a lot of things went unpublished; but then a lot was published as well; i.e., the Native American atrocities, for example. Young Powell probably saw a lot of cruelty in the Army, including the hanging of innocent boys by Custer's men. Isham Keith's mother (Keith rode with Mosby's unit) suffered their Warrenton home and all their belongings burned and/or comfiscated as well as being subjected to "an outrage" - a polite Victorian eupherism for rape. So these things did indeed go on on both sides. How much they bore on young minds remains to be seen. Was Powell influenced by these atrocities in his attack on Seward? We'll probably never know, but it's not too difficult to speculate.