By the first week of July no political prisoners were held in this region.

They had returned to their homes.
"The policy of concentrating the people in protected zones and destroying the food which was used for the maintenance of guerrilla bands was not new.

There had been precedents even in the United States.

One of these is the order issued on August 25, 1863, by Brigadier-General Ewing, commanding the district of the border, with headquarters at Kansas City, Mo., in which he ordered the inhabitants of a large part of three counties of that State to remove from their residences within fifteen days to the protection of the military stations which he had established.

All grain and hay in that district was ordered to be taken to those military stations.