This weekend I completed the war year’s section for Fredericksburg Presbyterian Church’s chapter in the “Houses of the Holy” manuscript. This congregation, more than most, served both sides during the conflict as Union troops often attended services there while in occupation of the town. I have included some wonderful diary entries from local ladies who were not pleased at all with sharing their Sunday services with the ‘Yankee invaders.’ I don’t blame them either, as another focus in this part of the book deals with the Viking-like pillaging that took place following the initial arrival of the Union army. Before order was restored, a wave of heinous assault and vandalism rolled over the city leaving both physical and emotional scars in their wake.

In a letter first published in a December 1962 issue of Civil War Times, Major Francis E. Pierce, a Federal officer, recalled the anarchy and vandalism that occurred shortly after the city came under the control of Union forces. He wrote: “…Troops crossing all day long. Fredericksburg given up to pillage and destruction. Boys came into our place loaded with silver pitchers, silver lamps and casters, etc. Great three-story houses furnished magnificently were broken into their contents scattered over the floors and trampled on by the muddy feet of the soldiers. Splendid alabaster vases and pieces of statuary were thrown at 6 & 700-dollar mirrors…I can’t even begin to describe the scenes of destruction. It was so throughout the city, and from its appearance very many wealthy families must have inhabited it.”

One aspect that is rarely discussed is the physical abuse and even in some cases, sexual assaults that took place on innocent civilians during the Civil War. It’s an unpleasant topic to say the least, but it is also an important one. An associate of mine recently interviewed historian Robert Krick for a local radio spot and he mentioned how no one ever discussed the rapes that were reported following the occupation of Fredericksburg. I myself have chosen not to include the topic in my church book, as it doesn’t really fit within the framework of the study. I do however; touch on the vandalism and damages inflicted on the town and the churches themselves.

This month’s issue of Civil War Historian (Nov/Dec 2007) has a very thought-provoking article on this subject of sexual assaults titled “The Hidden War” by Kim Murphy. I highly recommend it.

And while we’re discussing memory, Russell P. Smith, manager of the Fredericksburg-area battlefields wrote an excellent review of a book on the Civil War Centennial in this past weekend’s Free Lance-Star Town & County. "Troubled Commemoration" is really two books in one. The great majority of the text analyzes the official observance of the Civil War centennial as seen through the U. S. Civil War Centennial Commission created by Congress in 1957. It traces the formation of the commission, its mission and its troubled relationship with state commissions and the federal government.