for no other cause than that he was found in possession of a little photograph likeness of Mr. Lincoln, of whom, at that time, he must have had very little if any knowledge, that they took his neckties out of his basket, and of them made a sort of rope, which they fastened around his neck, and attached to a lamp-post on the street. Then two ruthless miscreants seized the unfortunate man by the legs, and jerked him so hard that they broke his neck, killing him instantly. His lifeless body was left hanging, as if it were an every-day occurrence.* VIOLATION OF A FLAG OF TRUCE. ABOVE Sleepy-Hole, on the Nansemond river, April 21st, 1863, about 11 o'clock, A. M., a white handkerchief was seen to be waved on the shore by a person in citizen's dress. Captain Harris, of the United States steamer Stepping-Stones, thinking the person to be Mr. Wilson, and wishing to gain information as to the state of the country, sent out a boat, containing five men, to bring him off. As soon as the boat reached the beach it was fired upon by a body of armed men concealed in the undergrowth. All in the boat were killed or captured. On the 22d, W. B. Cushing, Lieutenant, and senior officer in the Nansemond, moved up from his anchorage, and, in company with the Yankee, anchored near the Stepping-Stones, and then proceeded at once to organize a boat expedition from three vessels to punish the rebels if they could be found. The boat sent the day * This statement was given to the author by Mr. St. Clair, mate of the steamship McRay. before was found, together with four muskets, and the dead body of Richard Richchurch, seaman of the Minnesota.* FIRING UPON A BOAT'S CREW WITHOUT PREVIOUS SUMMONS TO SURRENDER. ཟ་ U. S. STEAMER POCAHONTAS, Brunswick River, March 12th, 1864. SIR: I have to report that yesterday afternoon, having received permission to land near Brunswick, Georgia, and procure fresh beef for our crew, I took the second cutter, with ten men and a coxswain, and, with ActingPaymaster Kitchen, landed at half-past three o'clock. Having accomplished our object, we left the shore about five o'clock P. M. on our return to the Pocahontas. As the men commenced to pull, and when we were about twenty yards from the beach, one musket was fired from a thicket, in the direction of the town. This appeared to be a signal, for almost simultaneously with the report a force of forty or fifty men showed themselves within the thicket, and fired a volley at our boat, killing two men, and wounding one seriously. In the confusion following this first fire, several of the men jumped overboard and clung to the gunwale of the boat. This, with the loss of the men first wounded, and two others seriously wounded by the fire of a second volley, diminished very materially the effective force for pulling, so that it was some time before we could increase our distance from the shore. However, as Pay * See letter of W. B. Cushing, senior officer in the Nansemond river, to Rear-Admiral S. P. Lee, dated April 23d, 1863. master Kitchen steered, and I pulled the stroke-oar, by great effort we were enabled gradually to work our way out into the stream, being all the time exposed to a galling fire. **** I would add, that their first volley was fired without hailing the boat; but when they saw us still trying to pull from shore, one of them called out, "Surrender, you d-d sons of b-s!" But as they had already killed two men, and wounded others, I replied, "No, I won't surrender." While we were still within their range, you came up in the gig and took us in tow. On examining the men, I found two killed, three seriously wounded, and four slightly. To J. B. BALCH, A. C. RHODES, Lieut. Com. U. S. Steamer Pocahontas.* REBEL FEMALE DUPLICITY ENDING IN MURDER. THERE resided, some eight miles from Tullahoma in Tennessee, a fine-looking and rather preposessing woman, by the name of Cobb, who very frequently visited Tullahoma, for the purpose apparently of selling fruit. With her Jezebel jokes, and Judas-like smiles, she soon formed an intimacy with two young men, belonging to the Eighth Ohio Battery. She told them, if they would pay a visit to where she lived, "she would treat them (it was in the month of September) to some delicious peaches and apples." The unsuspecting young "battery men" started from Tullahoma on the 17th, to visit Miss * Report of the Secretary of the Navy, 1862, page 212. Cobb, and have never since been heard of: A few days after, an officer and soldier, believing they could obtain some intelligence of their friends, went in that direction in search of them, but could learn nothing of them, after visiting the place. The news soon got out from the Cobbs, of the two being in the neighborhood; and some eight or ten men of the vicinage assembled, and captured the officer and soldier. After robbing them of their horses, guns, and money, they determined to kill them by shooting, and for this purpose placed the two against a tree at a short distance, to be fired at by the marksmen. They fired chiefly at the officer, killing him outright; but only slightly wounded the soldier, so that he made his escape, and, after rambling through the woods several days, found his way back to Tullahoma, and informed Colonel Collum, who at once sent out a sufficient scout, and picked up some eight or ten men of the vicinage, together with Miss Cobb and her mother, taking them all to Tullahoma. When they came into the presence of the wounded soldier, he readily identified five of them as being of the party.. The mother and daughter denied all knowledge of the transaction. The daughter, however, was heard to say to her mother in an under tone, we had better tell all about it; but the mother instantly ordered the daughter to be silent, and not speak one word. Colonel Collum ordered them to be sent to the Penitentiary at Nashville. On the night of the 19th of October, Company H, First Middle Tennessee Cavalry,* caught. Miss Cobb's two brothers, about one half mile from where she lived. From letters found on their persons, it appears they had been recently connected with Bragg's army. In all probability they were spies, doing all they could for the rebel cause. The Union men who had been compelled to fly from and abandon their homes last summer by these same Cobbs, and others, and who now reside in Shelbyville, inform me, that this Miss Cobb pursued the practice of enticing Union soldiers all last summer. The scouts brought in the remains of the murdered officer, and he was interred at Tullahoma; but not one vestige of the two first soldiers cóuld be found.* MURDER OF JOSEPH STOVER. IMMEDIATELY after the disbandment of the Home Guards of Fentress and Clifton counties, Tennessee, in 1863, through the influence of the rebel citizens of the said counties (it is said that they were disbanded for the purpose of letting that notorious villain, Champ Furguson, commit his depredations upon the inoffensive citizens of that country), Joseph Stover, a private of the First Kentucky Cavalry, visited Wolf river on business. He had been there but a short time when he saw Champ Furguson and his gang of bandits, crossing at Rome's old mill. Mounting his horse, he endeavored to make his escape without being discovered, but the ever-watchful eye of that fiend saw him riding off, and he ordered his men to charge after and capture him. He made good his escape as far as Henry Johnson's residence, where he was overtaken and captured. Surrounding him, they shot at him several times, mortally wounding him, but this did not satisfy Champ's fiendish thirst for blood. Death did not come soon enough for him. Jumping from his horse, and drawing his knife, he ran it through * General J. B. Rodgers. |