The Richmond Examiner unambiguously captured the sentiment many Southerners held at that time, asking General Mahone and his men not to relent: “Shut your eyes, General, strengthen your stomach with a little brandy and water, and let the work, which God has entrusted to you and your brave men, go forward to its full completion; that is, until every negro has been slaughtered…butcher every negro that Grant sends against your brave troops, and permit them not to soil their hands with the capture of a single hero.”
