WILLIAMSBURG BARBARITIES.

SHORTLY after the Eighth New York Regiment went into the battle of Williamsburg, Virginia, May 5th, 1862, Colonel Johnson, then commanding, was severely wounded, and taken off the field. The command then devolved on Major Reyson, who fell shortly after, pierced by three balls. The regiment was unable to carry him off the field. The next morning his body was found, stripped of all his clothing, and his head mutilated in a shocking manner, having been smashed with the butt of a musket, after death.

Captain H. B. Riley, Company G, First Regiment Excelsior Brigade, who wore a bullet-proof breastplate during the engagement, fell, badly wounded in the face, and before he could be removed, the regiment to which he belonged was forced back. When it regained its former position, the captain was found dead, with three bayonet thrusts through his breast, and the bullet-proof plate stolen. He had evidently been bayoneted while lying a wounded and helpless prisoner.

soner.

Orderly Sergeant Pease, Company E, First Regiment Excelsior Brigade, was slightly wounded, and taken priAt the evacuation of the place the rebels tied his hands together, then fastened him to the rear of an army wagon, and started for Richmond. In the retreat he came up with Lieutenant Wilson, Company F, First Regiment Excelsior Brigade, who was a prisoner and badly wounded, and, through loss of blood and pain, unable to walk farther. The unfeeling wretches who had him in charge bayoneted him, and brutally left him by the road-side, hoping that it would either kill him or cripple him for life. The Union scouts found him shortly afterwards in a deplorable condition, and unable to speak.

FIRING ON WOMEN AND CHILDREN FOR CHEERING FOR THE OLD FLAG.

UNITED STATES FLAG SHIP HARTFORD,

At anchor off the City of New Orleans, April 26th, 1862. Sir: Upon my arrival before your city, I had the 'honor to send to your honor Captain Bailey, United States Navy, second in command of the expedition, to demand of you the surrender of New Orleans to me, as the representative of the Government of the United States. Captain Bailey reported to me the result of an interview with yourself and the military authorities. It must occur to your honor that it is not within the province of a naval officer to assume the duties of a military commandant. I came here to reduce New Orleans to obedience to the laws of, and to vindicate the offended majesty of the Government of the United States. The rights of persons and property shall be secure. I therefore demand of you, as its representative, the unqualified surrender of the city, and that the emblem of sovereignty of the United States be hoisted over the City Hall, Mint, and Custom-House by meridian this day, and that all flags and other emblems of sovereignty, other than those of the United States, shall be removed from all the public buildings by that hour. I particularly request that you shall exercise your authority to quell disturbances, restore order, and call upon all the good people of New Orleans to return at once to their vocations; and I particularly demand that no person shall be molested in person or property for professing sentiments of loyalty to their Government. I shall speedily and severely punish any person or persons who shall commit such outrages as were witnessed yesterday-armed men firing

upon helpless women and children for giving expression to their pleasure at witnessing the old flag.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

His Excellency,

D. G. FARRAGUT,

Flag Officer, Western Gulf Squadron.

The Mayor of the City of New Orleans.

MURDER OF A GERMAN.

IN the month of August, 1860, whilst the steamship McRay was in port at New Orleans, a most inhuman murder was perpetrated by a mob, on a German pedlar. The German was on the street, with a small lot of pictures, neckties, trinkets, &c. A small boy, who was looking at them, noticed a picture of Mr. Lincoln, then a candidate for the Presidency of the United States. Seizing it, he threw it on the pavement, and abused the German for having it in his possession.

A mob collected around the unfortunate man, and asked him what he was doing with the picture of Lincoln, the Black Republican. The German did not understand the English language well enough to know what the crowd meant by their inquiries; all he knew was that he had purchased the whole lot, with a little money he had with him, to sell again on a small profit. The mob could easily have inquired as to the truth of the matter, when the innocence of the German would have appeared. But this was too much trouble, or rather perhaps the truth was what they did not wish to know. It would have been an encumbrance on their consciences. They became so incensed at the unfortunate German,

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.

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.