privates belonged to an expedition set on foot in April, 1862, at the suggestion of Mr. T. J. Adams, a citizen of Kentucky, who led it, and under the authority and direction of General O. M. Mitchell, the object of which was to destroy the communications of the Georgia State Railroad between Atlanta and Chattanooga.

The mode of operation proposed, was to reach a point on the road where they could seize a locomotive and a train of cars, and then dash back in the direction of Chattanooga, cutting the telegraph wires, and burning the bridges behind them as they advanced, until they reached their own lines. The expedition consisted of twenty-four men, who, with the exception of its leader, Mr. Adams, and another citizen of Kentucky who acted on the occasion as the substitute of a soldier, had been selected from the different companies for their known courage and discretion. They were informed that the movement was to be a secret one, and that they doubtless comprehended something of its perils; but Mr. Adams and Mr. Reddick alone seemed to have known anything of its precise direction or object. They, however, voluntarily engaged in it, and made their way in parties of twos and threes, in citizen's dress, and carrying only their side-arms, to Chattanooga, the point of rendezvous agreed upon, where twenty-two out of the twenty-four arrived safely. There they took passage, without attracting observation, for Marietta, which they reached at twelve o'clock on `the night of the 11th of April. The following morning they took the cars back again toward Chattanooga, and at a place called Big Shanty, while the engineer and passengers were breakfasting, they detached the locomotive and three box-cars from the train, and started off at full speed for Chattanooga. They were now upon the field of the perilous

operations proposed by the expedition, but suddenly encountered unforeseen obstacles. According to the schedule of the road, of which Mr. Adams had possessed himself, they should have met but a single train on that day, whereas they met three, two of them being engaged on extraordinary service. About an hour was lost in waiting to allow these trains to pass, which enabled their pursuers to press closely upon them. They removed rails, threw out obstructions on the road, and cut the wires from time to time, and attained, when in motion, a speed of sixty miles an hour; but the time lost could not be regained. After having run about one hundred miles, they found their supply of wood, water, and oil exhausted, while the rebel locomotive, which had been chasing them, was in sight. Under these circumstances, they had no alternative but to abandon their cars and fly to the woods, which they did under the orders of Mr. Adams, each one endeavoring to save himself as best he might.

The expedition thus failed, from causes which neither reflected upon the genius by which it was planned, nor upon the intrepidity and discretion of those engaged in conducting it.

But for the accident of meeting the extra trains, which could not have been anticipated, the movement would have been a complete success, and the whole aspect of the war in the South and South-west would have been at once changed.

The expedition itself, in the daring of its conception, had the wildness of a romance, while in the gigantic and overwhelming results which it sought, and was likely to accomplish, it was absolutely sublime. The estimate of its character entertained in the South, will be found fully expressed in an editorial from the "Southern Confede

racy," a prominent rebel journal, under date of the 15th of April, and which is appended to, and adopted as, a part of Mr. Pettinger's deposition. The editor says: "The mind and heart sink back, appalled at the bare contemplation of the awful consequences which would have followed the succèss of this one act. We doubt if the victory of Manassas or Corinth were worth as much to us as the frustration of this grand coup d'état." It is not by any means certain that the annihilation of Beauregard's whole army at Corinth would be so fatal a blow to us as would have been the burning of these bridges at that time by these men."

So soon as those men, comprising the expedition, had left the cars and dispersed themselves in the woods, the population of the country around turned out in their pursuit, employing for their purpose the dogs which are trained to hunt down the fugitive slaves of the South. The whole twenty-two were captured. Among them was Private Jacob Parrott, of Co. K, Thirty-third Regiment Ohio Volunteers. When arrested he was, without any trial, taken possession of by a military officer and four soldiers, who stripped him, bent him over a stone, and, while two pistols were held over his head, a lieutenant in rebel uniform inflicted, with a rawhide, upward of a hundred lashes on his bare back. This was done in the presence of an infuriated crowd, who clamored for his blood, and actually brought a rope with which to hang him. The object of this prolonged scourging was to force this young man to confess to them the object of the expedition, and the names of his comrades, especially that of the engineer who ran the train. Their purpose was, no doubt, not only to take the life of the latter, if identified, but to do so with every circumstance of humiliation and torture which they could devise. Three

times, in the progress of this horrible flogging, it was suspended, and Mr. Parrott was asked if he would not confess; but steadily and firmly to the last he refused all disclosure, and it was not till his tormentors were weary of their brutal work, that the task of subduing their victim was abandoned as hopeless. This youth is an orphan, without father or mother, and without any of the advantages of education. Soon after the Rebellion broke out, though but eighteen years of age, he left his trade, and threw himself into the ranks of our armies as a volunteer, and now, though still suffering from the outrages committed on his person in the South, he is on his way to rejoin his regiment, seeming to love his country only the more for all that he had endured in its defence. His subdued and modest manner, while narrating the part he had borne in this expedition, showed him to be wholly unconscious of having done anything more than perform his simple duty as a soldier. Such Spartan fortitude, and such fidelity to the trusts of friendship, deserve an end ring record in the archives of the Government, and vind one, I am sure, in the hearts of a loyal people.

The twenty-two captives, when secured, were thrust into the negro jail of Chattanooga. They occupied a single room, half under ground, and but thirteen feet square, so that there was not space enough for all of them to lie down together, and part of them were in consequence obliged to sleep sitting and leaning against the walls. The only entrance was through a trap-doer, in the ceiling, that was raised twice a day to let down their scanty meals, which were lowered in a bucket. They had no other light or ventilation than that which came through two small grated windows. They were covered with swarming vermin; and the heat was so oppressive

that they were often obliged to strip themselves entirely of their clothes to bear it. Add to this, they were all handcuffed, and with trace-chains, secured by padlocks around their necks, were fastened to each other in companies of twos and threes. Their food, which was doled out to them twice a day, consisted of a little flour, wet with water, and baked in the form of bread, and spoiled pickled beef. They had no opportunity of procuring any supplies from the outside, nor had they any means of doing so, their pockets having been rifled of their last cent by the Confederate authorities, prominent among whom was an officer wearing the rebel uniform of a major. No part of the money, thus basely taken, was ever returned.

During their imprisonment at Chattanooga, their leader, Mr. Adams, was tried and condemned as a spy, and was subsequently executed at Atlanta on the 7th of June. They were strong, and in perfect health when they entered this negro jail, but at the end of something more than three weeks, when they were required to leave it, they were so exhausted, from the treatment to which they had been subjected, as scarcely to be able to walk; and several staggered from weakness as they passed through the street to the cars.

Finally, twelve of the number, including the five who have deposed, and Mr. Mason, of Company K, Twentyfirst Ohio Volunteers, who was prevented from illness giving his evidence, were transferred to the prison of Knoxville, Tennessee. On arriving there, seven of them were arraigned before a court-martial, charged with being spies. Their trial, of course, was summary. They were permitted to be present, but not to hear either the argument of their own counsel, or that of the judge advocate. Their counsel, however, afterwards visited the