All committed to the flames.

[**The following takes place during the American Civil War.**] >A close-up view of slavery, combined with the heat, stale camp food, incessant work, and tension of combat, cured Northern soldiers of any romance they may have had with antebellum Mississippi and its beguilingly beautiful plantation homes. One Iowa infantryman who went into the countryside outside of Corinth came to a large manor house, where a mistress supervised two negroes as they killed hogs. The mistress complained that the flight of slaves had forced her own daughter into the kitchen. The girls had never washed the dishes until the Yankees had come into the country,” she bitterly informed the Northern soldiers. >By the end of September, the occupying Yankee troops had developed a sincere hostility toward their Mississippi hosts. When a Yankee transport on the Mississippi River came under sniper fire from the banks, infuriated troops leaped onto shore and burnt every single thing in sight. “All, all committed to the flames,” a Union captain reported. He added, “They have met a just retribution.” _____________________________ **Source:** Jenkins, Sally, and John Stauffer. “Corinth.” *The State of Jones: The Small Southern County That Seceded from the Confederacy*. Anchor Books, 2010. 23-4. Print.