The Southern Cause's photo.

The picture of VMI after the yankee criminal david hunter burned this proud old school. So as y'all can see the yankees that committed crimes against our people; sherman, sheridan, slocum & hunter saw no reason to fight the war with honor, for this reason I 'hate' the term "Civil War" because the yankees made it anything but 'civil' it was the "War of Northern Aggression" they were the aggressors and the invaders. ~Clay~ For four days in June 1864, yankees under the command of gen. david hunter occupied the small Shenandoah Valley town, burning the home of former Virginia governor John Letcher and destroying most of the buildings at the military school {VMI}. The superintendent of VMI, Francis H. Smith, wrote to Confederate adjutant general William Richardson about the devastation: "On Sunday the 12 June all the public buildings of the Institute were burnt by the order of major general d. hunter, except my quarters and the quarters of the Ordnance Sergeant. The peculiar condition of my daughter, with a child only 48 hours old, induced my wife [Sarah Henderson Smith] to throw herself upon the courtesy of the commanding General. The appeal was not in vain; and I acknowledge with pleasure, this relaxation of the devastation which was unsparingly applied to every species of property owned by the state at the V.Mil. Institute, which we were unable to remove…. [W]hen the clouds of heaven reflected the conflagration lighted by the torch of the invader, every eye was moistened that the home of the V.M.I. cadet was gone!".

The picture of VMI after the yankee criminal david hunter burned this proud old school. So as y'all can see the yankees that committed crimes against our people; sherman, sheridan, slocum & hunter saw no reason to fight the war with honor, for this reason I 'hate' the term "Civil War" because the yankees made it anything but 'civil' it was the "War of Northern Aggression" they were the aggressors and the invaders. ~Clay~

For four days in June 1864, yankees under the command of gen. david hunter occupied the small Shenandoah Valley town, burning the home of former Virginia governor John Letcher and destroying most of the buildings at the military school {VMI}. The superintendent of VMI, Francis H. Smith, wrote to Confederate adjutant general William Richardson about the devastation: "On Sunday the 12 June all the public buildings of the Institute were burnt by the order of major general d. hunter, except my quarters and the quarters of the Ordnance Sergeant. The peculiar condition of my daughter, with a child only 48 hours old, induced my wife [Sarah Henderson Smith] to throw herself upon the courtesy of the commanding General. The appeal was not in vain; and I acknowledge with pleasure, this relaxation of the devastation which was unsparingly applied to every species of property owned by the state at the V.Mil. Institute, which we were unable to remove…. [W]hen the clouds of heaven reflected the conflagration lighted by the torch of the invader, every eye was moistened that the home of the V.M.I. cadet was gone!"