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Address of the Rebel

Generals.

44

Atrocity towards the
Wounded and Dead.

It would be well for the memory of the Confederate leaders if the historian were spared the painful task of recording the scenes which followed their victory. A battle-field strewn with the dead and dying, an air echoing with the shrieks of the wounded, it would be supposed were surroundings calculated to excite all the best emotions of the human heart-emotions of pity, the desire to relieve suffering, the wish to soothe the couch of the dying. But, we have the blast

modern art and practiced skill | umph and complete victory. We thank you for could devise, invaded the soil doing your whole duty in the service of your coun of Virginia. try." JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON, "Their people sounded their approach with tri"G. T. BEAUREGARD." umphant displays of anticipated victory. Their Generals came in almost regal state. Their ministers, Senators and women came to witness the immolation of this army and the subjugation of our people, and to celebrate these with wild revelry. "It is with the profoundest emotions of gratitude to an overruling God, whose hand is manifest in protecting our homes and your liberties, that we, your Generals commandiug, are enabled, in the name of our whole country, to thank you for that patriotic courage, that heroic gallantry, that devoted daring, exhibited by you in the actions of the 18th and 21st of July, by which the host of the enemy was scattered, and a signal and glorious victorying record before us which shows that pity was achieved. and mercy were dead in bosoms "fired" for the Southern cause; and we read, with mingled feelings of disgust, indignation and shame, that these conquerors on the field treated their dead and wounded enemy and their prisoners, with a refinement of atrocity which only finds its parallel, in the horrors perpetrated by the Chinese Imperalists on their rebel victims, under the eyes and guns of the English.

"The two affairs of the 18th and 21st were but the sustained and continued efforts of your patriotisin against the constantly recurring colors of an enemy fully treble our numbers, and this effort was

crowned on the evening of the 21st with a victory

so complete that the invaders were driven from the field, and made to fly in disorderly rout back to their intrenchments, a distance of over thirty

miles.

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They left upon the field nearly every piece of their artillery, a large portion of their arms, equipments, baggage, stores, &c., and almost every one of their wounded and dead, amounting, together with the prisoners, to many thousands; and thus the Northern hosts were driven by you from Virginia.

"Soldiers, we congratulate you on an event which insures the liberty of our country. We congratulate every man of you whose glorious privilege it was to participate in this triumph of courage and truth, to fight in the battle of Manassas. You have created an epoch in the history of liberty, and unborn nations will rise up and call you blessed. Continue this noble devotion, looking always to the protection of the just God, and before time grows much older, we will be hailed as the deliverers of a nation of ten millions of people."

"Comrades, our prothers who have fallen have earned undying renown, and their blood, shed in our holy cause, is a precious and acceptable sacrifice to the Father of Truth and Right; their graves are be

side the tomb of Washington, their spirits have
joined his in eternal communion. We will hold the
soil in which the dust of Washington is mingled with
the dust of our brothers. We drop one tear on
their laurels, and move forward to avenge them.
"Soldiers, we congratulate you on a glorious tri-

In the report of the Committee appointed under the resolution of April 1st, 1862, to "collect evidence with regard to barbarous treatment by the rebels, at Manassas, of the remains of officers and soldiers killed in battle there," we have all the data necessary to confirm previous insinuations of extreme cruelty practiced upon our wounded and the fiendish usage shown to the remains of our dead by the Confederates after their victory. It appears by the evidence adduced, that our wounded languished for several days, some on the field, others in disgusting and overcrowded quarters, before any attention was paid to them-that our own surgeons, who had voluntarily remained on the field after the battle in order to be permitted to care for their friends, were forbidden to exercise any care for the suffering-that young and inexperienced surgeons were encouraged to "operate" on our wounded— that food and water both were doled out in meagre quantities and in unsuitable quality -that insults of words were unceasing and at times very gross-that in Richmond the

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ATROCITIES ON THE WOUNDED AND DEAD.

275

he

Atrocity towards the Wounded and Dead.

prisoners were treated like dogs—and, final- | the statements of other witHe met a free negro, ly, that the dead were mutilated on the field, nesses. in their graves, and at the dissection-table named Simon or Simons, who to gratify the malignity of those who pro-diers to exhibit the bones of the Yankees. ‘I found,' stated that it was a common thing for the rebel solfessed to claim " chivalry" as exclusively their own. The report of the Committee is frightful to peruse, the evidence is so overwhelming, so damning. We can quote but a few paragraphs that the reader may judge for himself as to the nature of the offense which forever must cover the names of those concerned with infamy. Atrocity towards the Wounded and Dead.

After detailing a number of cases of violent injury and outrage inflicted upon the

says, ' in the bushes in the neighborhood, a part of a Zouave uniform, with the sleeve sticking out of the grave, and a portion of the pantaloons. Attempting to pull it up, I saw the two ends of the grave were still unopened, but the middle had been pried up, pulling up the extremities of the uniform at some places, the sleeves of the shirt in another, and a portion of the pantaloons. Dr. Swalm (one of the surgeons, whose testimony has already been referred to) pointed out the trenches where the secessionists had

buried their own dead, and, on examination, it ap

living, the report proceeds to consider the tes-peared that their remains had not been disturbed at

timony adduced of violence and barbarism toward the bodies of the dead:

"Revolting as these disclosures are, it was when the committee came to examine witnesses in reference to the treatment of our heroic dead that the

fiendish spirit of the rebel leaders was most prominently exhibited. Daniel Bixby, jr., of Washington, testifies that he went out in company with Mr. G. A. Smart, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, who went to search for the body of his brother, who fell at Blackburn's Ford in the action of the 18th of July. They found the grave. The clothes were identified as those of his brother on account of some peculiarity in the make, for they had been made by his mother; and, in order to identify them, other clothes made by her were taken, that they might compare them. "We found no head in the grave, and no bones of any kind-nothing but the clothes and portions of the flesh. We found the remains of three other bodies all together. The clothes were there; some flesh was left, but no bones.' The witness also states that Mrs. Pierce Butler, who lives near the place, said that she had seen the rebels boiling portions of the bodies of our dead in order to obtain their bones as relics. They could not wait for them to decay. She said that she had seen drumsticks made of 'Yankee shinbones,' as they called them. Mrs. Butler also stated that she had seen a skull that one of the New Orleans artillery had, which, he said, he was going to send home and have mounted, and that he intended to drink a brandy punch out of it the day he was married.

"Frederick Scholes, of the city of Brooklyn, New York, testified that he proceeded to the battle-field of Bull Run on the fourth of this month (April) to find the place where he supposed his brother's body was buried. Mr. Scholes, who isa man of unquestioned character, by his testimony fully confirms

all. Mr. Scholes met a free negro, named Hampton, who resided near the place, and when he told him the manner in which these bodies had been dug up he said he knew it had been done, and added, that the rebels had commenced digging bodies two or three days after they were buried, for the purpose, at first, of obtaining the buttons off their uniforms, and that afterwards they disinterred them to get their bones. He said they had taken rails and push

ed the ends down in the centre under the middle of the bodies, and pried them up. The information of the negroes of Benjamin Franklin Lewis corroborated fully the statement of this man Hampton. They said that a good many of the bodies had been stripped naked on the field before they were buried, and that some were buried naked. I went to Mr. Lewis's house and spoke to him of the manner in which these bodies had been disinterred. He admitted that it was infamous, and condemned principally the Louisiana Tigers, of General Wheat's division. He admitted that our wounded had been very badly treated.' In confirmation of the testimony of Dr. Swalm and Dr. Homiston, this witness avers that Mr. Lewis mentioned a number of instances of men who had been murdered by bad surgical treatment. Mr. Lewis was afraid that a pestilence would break out in consequence of the dead being left unburied, and stated that he had gone and warned the neighbor. hood and had the dead buried, sending his own men to assist in doing so. On Sunday morning (yesterday) I went out in search of my brother's grave. We found the trench, and dug for the bodies below. They were eighteen inches to two feet below the surface, and had been hustled in in any way. In one end of the trench we found, not more than two or three inches below the surface, the thigh bone of a man which had evidently been dug up after the burial. At the other end of the trench we found the shin-bone of a man, which had been struck by a

Atrocity towards the Wounded and Dead.

musket ball and split. The bodies at the ends had been pried up. While digging there, a party of soldiers came along and showed us a part of a shinbone, five or six inches long, which had the end sawed off. They said that they had found it among other pieces in one of the cabins the rebels had deserted. From the appearance of it, pieces had been sawed off to make finger rings. As soon as the negroes noticed this, they said that the rebels had had rings made of the bones of our dead, and that they had them for sale in their camps. When Dr. Swalm saw the bone he said it was a part of the shin-bone of a man. The soldiers represented that there were lots of these bones scattered through the rebel huts sawed into rings,' &c. Mr. Lewis and his negroes all spoke of Colonel James Cameron's body, and knew that it had been stripped, and also where it had been buried.' Mr. Scholes, in answer to a question of one of the committee, described the different treatment extended to the Union soldiers and the rebel dead. The latter had little head-boards placed at the head of their respective graves and marked; none of them had the appearance of having been disturbed.

"The evidence of that distingnished and patriotic citizen, Honorable William Sprague, Governor of the State of Rhode Island, confirms and fortifies some of the most revolting statements of former witness es. His object in visiting the battle-field was to recover the bodies of Colonel Slocum and Major Ballou, of the Rhode Island regiment. He took out with him several of his own men to identify the graves. On reaching the place he states that we commenced digging for the bodies of Colonel Slocum and Major Ballou, at the spot pointed out to us by these men who had been in the action. While digging, some negro women came up and asked whom we were looking for, and at the same time said that "Colonel Slogun" had been dug up by the rebels, by some men of a Georgia regiment, his head cut off, and his body taken to a ravine thirty or forty yards below, and there burned. We stopped digging and went to the spot designated, where we found coals and ashes and bones mingled together. A little distance from there we found a shirt (still buttoned at the neck) and blanket with large quantities of hair upon it, everything indicating the burning of a body there. We returned and dug down at the spot indicated as the grave of Major Ballou, but found no body there; but at the place pointed out as the grave where Colonel Slocum was buried, we found a box, which, upon being raised and opened, was found to contain the body of Colonel Slocum. The soldiers who had buried the two bodies were satisfied that the grave had been opened; the body

Wounded and Dead.

| taken out, beheaded, and burned, was that of Major Ballou, be- Atrocity towards the cause it was not in the spot where Colonel Slocum was buried, but rather to the right of it. They at once said that the rebels had made a mistake, and had taken the body of Major Ballou for that of Colonel Slocum. The shirt found near the place where the body was burned I recognized as one belonging to Major Ballou, as I had been very intimate with him. We gathered up the ashes containing the portion of his remains that were left, and put them in a coffin together with his shirt and the blanket with the hair left upon it. After we had done this we went to that portion of the field where the battle had first commenced, and began to dig for the remains of Captain Tower. We brought a soldier with us to designate the place where he was buried. He had been wounded in the battle, and had seen from the window of the house, where the captain was interred. On opening the ditch or trench we found it filled with soldiers, all buried with their faces downward. On taking up some four or five we discovered the remains of Captain Tower, mingled with those of the men. We took them, placed them in a coffin, and brought them home.'

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In reply to a question of a member of the committee as to whether he was satisfied that they were buried intentionally with their faces downward, Governor Sprague's answer was, 'Undoubtedly! Beyond all controversy!' and that it was done as a mark of indignity.' In answer to another question as to what their object could have been, especially in regard to the body of Colonel Slocum, he replied: Sheer brutality, and nothing else. They did it on account of his courage and chivalry in forcing his regiment fearlessly and bravely upon them. He destroyed about one half of that Georgia regiment, which was made up of their best citizens.' When the inquiry was put whether he thought these barbarities were committed by that regiment, he responded, by that same regiment, I was told.' While their own dead were buried with marble head and foot stones, and names upon them, ours were buried, as I have stated, in the trenches. This eminent witness concludes his testimony as follows: 'I have published an order to my second regiment, to which these officers were attached, that I shall not be satisfied with what they shall do unless they give an account of one rebel killed for each one of their own number.'

"The members of your committee might content themselves by leaving this testimony to the Senate and the people without a word of comment; but when the enemies of a just and generous Government are attempting to excite the sympathy of disloyal men in our own country, and to solicit the

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Atrocity towards the Wounded and Dead.

ATROCITIES ON THE WOUNDED AND Ꭰ Ꭼ Ꭺ Ꭰ .

277

aid of foreign governments by | too startling, for its leaders. They disrethe grossest misrepresentations garded the sanctity of the oaths they had taken of the objects of the war, and to support the Constitution; they repudiatof the conduct of the officers and soldiers of the ed all their obligations to the people of the republic, this, the most startling evidence of their Free States; they deceived and betrayed their insincerity and inhumanity, deserves some notice at own fellow citizens, and crowded their armies our hands." with forced levies; they drove from their midst all who would not yield to their des

The Report further adds:

"The outrages upon the dead will revive the recollections of the cruelties to which savage tribes sub-potism, or filled their prisons with men who ject their prisoners. They were buried in many

cases naked, with their faces downward; they were left to decay in the open air; their bones were carried off as trophies, sometimes, as the testimony proves, to be used as personal adornments, and one witness deliberately avers that the head of one of our most gallant officers was cut off by a secession

ist to be turned into a drinking cup on the occasion of his marriage. Monstrous as this revelation may appear to be, your committee have been informed that during the last two weeks the skull of a Union

soldier has been exhibited in the office of the Ser

geant-at-arms of the House of Representatives, which had been converted to such a purpose, and which had been found on the person of one of the rebel prisoners taken in a recent conflict. The testimony of Governor Sprague, of Rhode Island, is most interesting. It confirms the worst reports against the rebel soldiers, and conclusively proves that the body of one of the bravest officers in the volunteer service was burned. He does not hesitate to add that this hyena desecration of the honored corpse was because the rebels believed it to be the body of Colonel Slocum, against whom they were infuriated for having displayed so much courage and chivalry in forcing his regiment fearlessly and bravely upon them."

How justly, in view of this horrible array of evidence, did the committee remark: "Every step of this monstrous treason has been marked by violence and crime. No transgression has been too great, no wrong

would not enlist under their flag. They have now crowned the rebellion by the perpetration of deeds scarcely known even to savage warfare. The investigations of your committee have established this fact beyond controversy.

66

Inhumanity to the living has been the leading trait of the rebel leaders; but it was reserved for your committee to disclose as a concerted system their insults to the wounded,

and their mutilation and desecration of the

gallant dead. Our soldiers taken prisoners in honorable battle, have been subjected to the most shameful treatment. All the considerations that inspire chivalric emotion and generous consideration for brave men have been disregarded. It is almost beyond belief that the men fighting in such a cause as ours, and sustained by a Government which in the midst of violence and treachery has given repeated evidence of its indulgence, should have been subjected to treatment never before resorted to by one foreign nation in a conflict with another."

The curtain of the tragedy of Bull Run was painted in tears and blood; yet a scene was enacted behind the veil over which angels must have wept: let us pray that the civilized world never again shall be pained by its reproduction.

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SPRINGS.

RETREAT

Governor Jackson's
Rendezvous at
Booneville.

BATTLE OF WILSON'S CREEK AND DEATH OF LYON.
SPRINGFIELD. DOINGS OF THE CONVENTION.

FROM

THE campaign of Missouri opened with Lyon's pursuit of Jackson. The Governor, as announced, (see page 66,) fled from Jefferson City, June 12th, having issued his proclamation calling out fifty thousand troops to repel "the invaders" and secure the independence of the State. He took steamer on the 13th, for Booneville, having loaded the transport with State ordnance, munitions, stores, &c., which the vigilance of Price had succeeded in securing for the anticipated emergency. The troops called for were ordered to rendezvous at Boonville, at which place the Governor resolved to make a stand against the Federal forces.

scent on Booneville.

General Lyon was awake General Lyon's De- to the emergency. The forces at his immediate disposal (four excellent regiments of volunteers and several battalions of regulars) had been ready for moving for several days. Two regiments of Iowa men were at Keokuk ready for co-operation. Eight Illinois regiments were placed within two hours' march of St. Louis to await Lyon's requisition.

|

the united forces pushed on for Springfield, where it was understood the rebels were to gather in force. The Gasconade and Osage River bridges having been burned, Lyon secured transports and prepared to push after Price and Jackson immediately, proposing to strike them ere they should have time and opportunity for placing a large army in the field. On the afternoon of Thursday, June 13th, the steamer Iatan left St. Louis for Jef ferson City, having on board the Second battalion of the First regiment Missouri volunteers, under command of Lieutenant-Colonel Andrews, one section of Totten's light artil lery, and two companies of regulars, under Captain Lathrop. The steamer Swan also loaded and departed for the same point, with the First battalion of the First regiment, under Colonel Blair, and another section of Totten's battery, and a detachment of pioneers. General Lyon and staff embarked in her. Other transports were or dered to follow.

The Rebel Forces at
Booneville.

While these steamers were ploughing up stream, the steamer White Cloud On the night of the 12th, six companies of was pressing for Booneville, having on board Siegel's Missouri volunteers started for the the Governor, State officers, records, &c., as Rolla terminus of the south-west branch of well as a full load of cannon, military stores the Pacific Railroad-the four additional and troops. Other transports followed, bearcompanies following the next morning. This ing loads of "State Guards" and the motley force left squads at all important bridges to masses of cut-throats who quickly responded protect them against incendiaries, but the to the call of Jackson and Price. main body moved direct for Rolla, to watch "Border Ruffians" had long been out of emthe rebels in that direction and to crush out ploy: here was a fine field and a congenial any uprising under the inspiration of Jack-service. They hastened to Price's standard son's Proclamation and Price's orders. Colo- in great numbers, having ground from their nel Salomon's regiment now followed, when "Arkansas tooth-picks" the blood-stains of

The

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