[central_va]

This is laughable. No reputable historian thinks there is any equivalence between the behaviors of the two opposing sides. You are really reaching here. Chambersburg was so memorable because it was an ANOMALY, the exception that proved the rule.

[BroJoeK]

central_va: "Chambersburg was so memorable because it was an ANOMALY, the exception that proved the rule."

In fact, the experience of Pennsylvania at Chambersburg and other towns was typical of every state which bordered the Confederacy.

From the beginning of the war, the Confederacy sent troops into every bordering state -- Maryland, Pennsylvania, Western Virginia, Kentucky, Missouri, Oklahoma, New Mexico and even distant states like Kansas and Colorado.

In every case, Confederate forces lived off the land and took what they needed from local populations.

• Maryland: Confederate armies twice invaded Maryland, under Lee in 1862 and under Erly in 1864.

• Pennsylvania: There were three invasions of Pennsylvania, under Stuart in 1862, under Lee in 1863 and again under Early in 1864.

  "...October 10, 1862, Confederate Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart, with 1800 cavalrymen, raided Chambersburg, destroying $250,000 of railroad property and taking 500 guns, hundreds of horses, and at least "eight young colored men and boys."[38]"

• In Western Virginia: "After Lee's departure [1861], western Virginia continued to be a target of Confederate raids, even after the creation of the new state in 1863.
  These actions focused both on supplying the Confederate Army with provisions as well as attacking the vital Baltimore and Ohio Railroad that linked the northeast with the midwest, as exemplified in the Jones-Imboden Raid."

• In Kentucky: "Almost immediately following the Confederate withdrawal from Kentucky [1862], General John Hunt Morgan began the first of his raids into the Bluegrass state..."
  At the completion of his escape through the Commonwealth, Morgan claimed to have captured and paroled 1,200 enemy soldiers, recruited 300 men and acquired several hundred horses for his cavalry, used or destroyed supplies in seventeen towns..."

• Even in Confederate Tennessee, Forrest's 1864 capture of Fort Pillow resulted, according to one 20th Tennessee soldier, in:
  "The slaughter was awful.
  Words cannot describe the scene.
  The poor, deluded, negroes would run up to our men, fall upon their knees, and with uplifted hands scream for mercy but they were ordered to their feet and then shot down.
  I, with several others, tried to stop the butchery, and at one time had partially succeeded, but General Forrest ordered them shot down like dogs and the carnage continued.
  Finally our men became sick of blood and the firing ceased."

• After Missouri's 1861 Battle of Wilson Creek, Confederate General: "McCulloch, concerned about security of Arkansas and Indian Territory, and skeptical about the possibility of subsisting his army in central Missouri, refused" to pursue the Union army and returned to Arkansas.
  The Confederate army could not subsist without living off the land.

• In Kansas in 1863, Confederate: "Lt. Col. William C. Quantrill led a force of about 300 to 400 partisans in an attack on the city of Lawrence, Kansas.
  His men killed civilians men and boys and destroyed many of the buildings.
  He held the town several hours and then withdrew."

• In Oklahoma: "The area was the scene of numerous skirmishes and seven officially recognized battles[1] involving Native American units allied with the Confederate States of America, Native Americans loyal to the United States government, and Union and Confederate troops."

• In New Mexico: In 1862 Confederate President Davis claimed the territory for the Confederacy and sent Confederate troops to occupy it.

  "Capt. Sherod Hunter at the head of the Confederate Arizona Rangers, occupied southern Arizona during the spring of 1862.
  He bore orders from Governor Baylor to lure the Apaches into Tucson for peace talks and exterminate the adults.
  Hunter's frontiersmen spent most of their time expelling Union supporters and skirmishing with Federal troops, so the order was never enforced.
  A detachment of Hunter's force traveled along the Overland Mail route and destroyed chaches of hay to prevent their use by Union forces..."

My point are:

1. The Confederacy invaded, destroyed and stole property from every state or territory adjoining it, and some further removed.

2. Both Union and Confederate armies sometimes left trails of pillage and destruction in their wakes.

3. Sure, by standards of other wars, civilian losses were relatively small and insignificant.

4. But it is simply not true to claim that one side was guilty and the other entirely innocent.

They both did it.