The Background of a Lost Family Story

From the Richmond Times Dispatch, August 9, 1861:

The town of Hampton Burnt by the Hessians.
Norfolk. Aug. 8

A large fire was discovered last night about 1 o'clock in the immediate location of Hampton. It continued its flames until about 3 o'clock this morning. The impression here is, that the Federals have burned Hampton. Several prominent houses there were recognized by some of our citizens to have been in flames. From an elevated position, and with the use of glasses, they seem confident that Hampton is in ashes, and the further inference is that the Federals have evacuated that place.
[Second Dispatch]
Norfolk, August 8 1 o'clock P. M. --Burning of Hampton has been confirmed by the statements of several officers who have just reached here from Craney Island. Dense smoke continues to ascend, and the opinion is that the burning still continues.
The flames last night were intense, and the reflection of them on our steeples was plainly visible, although Hampton is about sixteen miles from Norfolk.


The burning of Hampton.
The news of this last crowning act of barbarity seems to be confirmed. The quiet, unoffending old village, which even the British spared in the late war, has been converted into a heap of ashes by the Black Republican invaders. A more wanton, unprovoked and infernal piece of pure diabolism was never committed.

In this life of mysteries, the heart of man clings with fond tenacity to all that has an appearance of permanence and certainly, and therefore about the homestead which he was born in, where he has felt a mother's love and a father's care, where he has played with brothers and sisters, and indulged all the sweetest dreams, joys, hopes, affections and aspirations of humanity, his heart clings as to an anchor that holds it steady and yet buoyant amid all the fluctuations of human affairs. Around the native house every tendril of his heart is entwined, mantling it as the green vine does the wall, and making the dull, inanimate materials fragrant and beautiful. When the dear old homestead is gone, it is an affliction second only to the loss of those whose presence and love have made it dear. And all this the families of Hampton have lost. They were first driven from those homes which they were not able even to defend, and then, after those homes had failed without resistance into the hands of the enemy, who had occupied them at their pleasure, they deliberately, without provocation, gave the town to the flames, an outrage which our British foemen in the war of 1812, even amidst the excitement of actual battle, refrained from perpetrating.

A more exemplary, refined and intelligent community than that of Hampton, was not to be found in Virginia. The cherished virtues of the State, its hospitality, its courtesy, its frankness, its kindness to strangers, shone there with peculiar lustre. And it is such a people who have received such treatment!--Surely, if a just God reigns in Heaven, such crimes as these will not remain unavenged.

Outrages at Hampton.

--The following, from the Fortress Monroe correspondence of the New York Herald, gives further information of the outrages committed by the Hessians at Hampton, previous to burning the town:
‘ The exodus of negroes from Hampton continued all day yesterday, and from the appearance that that unfortunate village presents, very little of value has been left there by these sable itinerants and by the soldiers, who have, I regret to say, committed not a few excesses and acts of violence. They have wantonly destroyed many articles of no earthly use to them, and taken off many others that they have found in the deserted houses that can be of no service to them. The spirit of mischief that sometimes seizes upon men is something that I cannot account for, and one cannot but feel indignant and outraged when he witnesses the ruin that marks the presence of some men. These outrages call for some more stringent-regulations upon the part of the authorities here, if we do not wish to be truly characterized as robbers and vandals. I hope I may never witness other such scenes as it has been my lot to see to-day. Hampton village is now a perfect picture of utter desolation. Even the negroes that in a degree enlivened it when we first occupied it, are fled inside our lines, and there is not a living thing to be seen in all its high ways and by-ways. Take out the straggling soldiers you now and then meet, and Hampton will equal in mournful desolation the buried cities of Italy, could the lava, which has for so many ages buried them from the eye of man, be instantly removed and they allowed to stand in all their beauty before us. The houses are closed, and nothing obstructs the sight on looking up either main avenue by the well built redoubts so recently deserted. Every pig, chicken, horse, cow or other domestic animal has been carried off.
As there are no troops in the village to hold it, and no patrols or scouts beyond it, it is liable at any moment to be scoured by the rebel horsemen, and, if they wish, occupied by them. It is a little too dangerous amusement to linger long through the lonely streets of that village, lost the curious visitor be picked up by one of the Dinwiddie dragoons or some other mounted Virginian — whose acquaintance it would not be pleasant to form. We have taken the precaution to remove about thirty or forty feet of planking on the enemy's side of the bridge, and we now await their movements with confidence in the result, if they should deem it best to make an attack.

Insult to Heaven.

--We see it stated that the heathenish concern, called the Rump Congress, have passed a resolution for the appointment of a committee to request the President to appoint a day of fasting, humiliation and prayer.
A more blasphemous proceeding than this could not well be imagined. It assumes that a just and holy God, who "is of too pure eyes to behold iniquity," and who has declared that he "will by no means clear the guilty." would accept those infinitely false and foul offerings of infinitely depraved and wicked hearts, wrung from the trembling wretches in the hour of their consternation, and accompanied by no remorse or penitences whatever for the monstrous crimes which they have perpetrated.--The idea that Lincoln, with his soul stained with the blood of the hecatombs who were slaughtered at Bethel, Bull Run and Manassas,--with hands red with the murder of those victims of his ruthless lust of power --that He should appoint a day for the observance of such a solemn ceremony as that of "fasting. humiliation and prayer," is impious beyond the power of language to express. That ceremony, if it were to be observed by the authors and prosecutors of this war, would be a gross insult to the A mighty, for it would be an avocation for His assistance in a work instigated only by the devil. To assume or suppose that the "Judge of all the Earth" could be moved by such an appeal from such diabolical wretches to "let the light of (His) countenance shine upon" them, is about one of the most outrageous profanations which human wickedness could prompt. Petersburg Express.
All articles from the following source: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/ ; The Daily Dispatch: August 9, 1861. Richmond Dispatch. 4 pages. by Cowardin & Hammersley. Richmond. August 9, 1861. microfilm. Ann Arbor, Mi : Proquest. 1 microfilm reel ; 35 mm.