WAR DEPARTMENT, C.S.A, Richmond, November 22, 1861. John Letcher, Governor of Virginia:
SIR: Will not your convention do something to protect your own people against atrocious crimes committed on their persons and property? There are in the Army, unfortunately, some desperate characters - men gathered from the outskirts and purlieus of large cities - who take advantage of the absence of the civil authorities to commit crimes, even murder, rape, and highway robbery, on the peaceful citizens in the neighborhood of the armies. For these offenses the punishment should be inflicted by the civil authorities (...) There are murderers now in insecure custody at Manassas who cannot be tried for want of a court there, and who will escape the just penalty of their crimes. The crimes committed by these men are not military offenses. If a soldier, rambling through the country, murders a farmer or violates the honor of his wife or daughter, courts-martial cannot properly take cogniance of the offense, nor is it allowable to establish military commissions or tribunals in our own country. I appeal to Virginia legislators for protection to Virginians, and this appeal will, I know, be responded to by prompt and efficient action.
I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, J.P. Bemjamin, Secretary of War
Now stop and think about this for a moment. This is the confederate secretary of war complaining about the inability of the army to control its men and keeping them from robbing and raping civilians - their OWN civilians. You complain about the Union army when it is clear that the southern womanhood had more to fear from the confederate army.