Wonder if it's too late for Harper's to publish a retraction and apology for having "lied like a rug" for 140 years?
Harper's illustrations of ships, battlefields, soldiers, etc. are interesting and informative, but some of their cartoons, like the one about Davis, were quite one-sided. My impression from the limited selections I've seen was that their coverage of the war was not very balanced. On the other hand, what else would you expect given Lincoln's treatment of the press?
Harper's belonged to the MSM of their time. In one issue, they portrayed a Confederate soldier dangling a baby upside down by his foot, another shooting at a child, another dragging a woman away, other Confederates getting drunk, etc. I never spotted anything in Harpers about the looting and burning of Southern homes by Northern troops, but my sample was small.
The houses were nearly all empty of furniture, with the exception of some old chairs, tables, and the like. In one house was a good piano uninjured. Whatever remained in the buildings was soon in the possession of the soldiers, and as there was nothing of value, it was some little time before they were interfered with. Some ludicrous scenes were the consequences, the men arraying themselves in old hats, bonnets, etc., and parading the streets. This interfered with discipline however, and an order was given that any one found with an article that was taken from a house should be at once arrested. General Patrick, the Provost Marshal, is deserving of great praise for his exertions in this respect. The men for a time took all they could lay their hands on, and tubs, rakes, baskets and pots of all descriptions were carted away, to be thrown in the street at the next crossing. Tobacco appeared to be very plenty, and all the soldiers had their pockets and haversacks filled with it. It was quite a luxury to them, as they had been paying the robbing sutlers from two to three dollars a pound for wretched stuff.
Aw, those fun loving rascals depicted by Harper's!
Others had a different view of it. Nothing of value? The Fredericksburg residents left much behind. From Source:
Over the next two and a half hours, 147 Federal guns let loose 9,000 shells on the city, an average of 60 shells a minute, one every second. Many townsfolk, refusing to believe the Federals would be so foolish as to invade the city and leave the Rappahannock immediately at their back, were caught by surprise. They died in their beds and cellars, sometimes suffocated by fire, or were cut down by shell fragments as they raced frantically through the streets. A thickening stream of refugees fled behind Rebel lines, most with but a few possessions in hand.
That night "the whole heavens [were] lit up by the burning city," an Ohio infantryman, Irishman Thomas Francis Galwey, wrote in his diary. Union troops, let loose by feckless or criminal officers, began looting and burning houses and businesses. "Nearly all the men were drunk," Galwey wrote. The Bank of Virginia was blown up. Household goods, from sewing machines to pianos, were piled up in the streets to be carted away as booty. The whole ghastly scene was illuminated by flames roaring through roofs and windows.
Now from the National Park Service [Source]:
In addition to the damage wreaked by combat action, the town suffered from a more deliberate destruction. Looting had begun the night before as infuriated soldiers who had fought through these streets released their anger. 'They were joined the next day by increasing numbers of troops who regarded the town as a prize of war. One soldier recalled: "Furniture of all sorts is strewn along the streets.... Every namable household utensil or article of furniture, stoves, crockery and glass-ware, pots, kettles and tins, are scattered, and smashed and thrown everywhere, indoors and out, as if there had fallen a shower of them in the midst of a mighty whirlwind."
Finally, from the book Fredericksburg! Fredericksburg! by George C. Rable:
The most stringent measures failed to stop the plundering. Courts-martial handed out stiff sentences but to little avail. Imposing fines, forcing offenders to wear barrels shirts inscribed with the word "thief," and even stringing up men to cross bars did little to reduce foraging. Moreover, such punishments were extremely unpopular in the ranks, and woe betide the officer who crossed the line of what enlisted men considered to be acceptable treatment. Enraged soldiers assaulted one martinet with burning fence rails and bayoneted another to death in his tent.[37] With little regard for the conservatism of the upper command, McClellan's troops learned to carry on a far more destructive war than had been conceivable only a few months earlier.