banks issued orders to his men prohibiting pillage, but the undisciplined troops chose to disobey them, particularly when near a prosperous plantation. a soldier of the new york 114th wrote: "the men soon learned the pernicious habit of slyly leaving their places in the ranks when opposite a planter's house. ... oftentimes a soldier can be found with such an enormous development of the organ of destructiveness that the most severe punishment cannot deter him from indulging in the breaking of mirrors, pianos, and the most costly furniture. men of such reckless disposition are frequently guilty of the most horrible desecrations."