firm there. The suit was brought before Judge Meredith, I think. He said that, according to the evidence, he would have to discharge me from prison. A man hamed Patrick Henry Elliott was the lawyer for the government, and put in the plea that the government should hold me as a spy. When the judge made this remark, and he found that I was about to be discharged, Elliott said he thought the Secretary of War would discharge me, if my attorneys would go before him. My attorneys were to meet Mr. Elliott, and did go before the Secretary of War. Mr. Nance came to the county jail afterwards, and told me that the Secretary of War did make out my discharge for release from prison, and that General Winder put in objections to my being discharged upon the ground of my being a Union man; and stated that when I was arrested, there was a letter found on me, written to a clergyman in Columbia, South Carolina, recommending me as a good and reliable Union man. That is what Mr. Nance told me was done at the war office. The Secretary of War then said that he would hold me three or four days longer, and give General Winder a chance to produce that letter. Mr. Nance came to see me about it, and I told him that there was no such paper about me, and never had been. On the 18th of March, I, with others, broke out of the county jail and tried to make our escape. But I was recaptured on the Pamunkey river, and taken back and put into the county jail again, and there heavily ironed. They did not iron me quite as heavily as they did some, but more heavily than they did others. We were confined in the jail with negroes, thieves, and all kinds of criminals. We were fed pretty well, but there were from time to time eighteen or twenty negroes there, and never less than four or five. On the morning of the

15th of May, we were hurried off to Salisbury, North Carolina, on the cars, as Mr. Pancoast has described, without the privilege of getting up from the seat, under the penalty of being shot, and without anything to eat, until along in the afternoon of the 16th of May. While we were at Raleigh, I got a man named Kaschmier, one of the police, to allow me to send out and get some cakes. That evening, they gave each of us half a loaf of bread, and a slice of meat, both raw and fat. That is all they gave us from the time we left Richmond, until we got to Salisbury. And as near as I can recollect, we were fifty-three hours on the road.

INHUMANITY TOWARDS NEGROES ON THE GOVERNMENT PLANTATIONS IN MISSISSIPPI.

REPORT OF BRIGADIER-GENERAL A. W. ELLET.

HEAD-QUARTERS, MISSISSIPPI, MARINE BRIGADE,

Flag Ship Autocrat, above Vicksburg, July 3d, 1863. ADMIRAL: I have the honor to report that, in accordance with your instructions, I proceeded without delay, on the evening of the 29th of June, to Goodrich's Landing, with my whole available command. I found the troops at that point all under arms, and could plainly see the evidence of the enemy's operations in the burning mansions, cotton-gins, and negro quarters, as far as the eye could reach. It was two o'clock, on the morning of the 30th of June, when I reached the scene of operations. I at once ordered the entire force to disembark, infantry, artillery, and cavalry, and at daylight started in search of the enemy, Colonel Wood, commanding the negro troops, accompanying me with his whole force.

About five miles out, we reached Colonel Wood's outposts, where, the night before, two companies of negro troops with their officers had been surrounded and cap-. tured, after a spirited resistance and considerable loss to the enemy. From this point I started the cavalry in advance to push the retreating enemy, and, if possible, hold them until the main body could be brought forward. They overtook the enemy resting on the opposite side of the Bayou Tensas, and immediately engaged him, and held him in check till I arrived with the main body. The enemy had shown a large force of cavalry and several pieces of artillery. He endeavored to cross the bayou with one regiment of cavalry and turn my right flank, which movement was promptly met by our advance line of skirmishers, who repulsed the enemy handsomely. At the same time my artillery opened upon him with effect, and he retreated precipitately, having piled all the bridge flooring together, and burned it to prevent our crossing. I crossed three companies on the sleepers, who followed the line of retreat for near two miles. They found the road strewn with abandoned booty, stolen from the houses they had burned-among other articles a very fine piano.

Three of the enemy's dead were found on the field, and some thirty stand of small-arms were picked up. The enemy were undoubtedly, from information subsequently obtained, more than double our strength, and were provided with artillery and cavalry, but they were evidently not inclined to make a standing fight, their main object being to secure the negroes taken from the plantations along the river, some hundreds of whom they had captured. In passing by the negro quarters, on three of the burning plantations, we were shocked by the sight of the charred remains of human beings, who

had been burned in the general conflagration. No doubt they were the sick negroes whom the unscrupulous enemy were too indifferent to remove.

I witnessed five such spectacles myself, in passing the remains of those plantations that lay in our line of march, and do not doubt there were many others on the twenty or more plantations that I did not visit, which were burned in like manner. * * * *

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

ALFRED W. ELLET,

Commanding Miss. Marine Brigade.

Acting Rear Admiral D. D. PORTER,

Commanding Miss. Squadron.

TENNESSEE.

THE inhabitants of this State have been subjected to greater indignities and wrongs at the hands of the rebels than the people of any other portion of the country. At the commencement of the rebellion they gave a large majority for the Union. The rebel government, finding the Union sentiment so strong, to suppress it sent a large body of soldiers into the State, under the pretence of protecting the people from the depredations of the Lincolnites. Upon their arrival, Tennessee was declared to be part of the Confederacy. These soldiers traversed the State, committing indescribable cruelties upon those who were suspected of loyalty to the Union. Houses were burned, and their inmates compelled to fly for safety to the woods and mountains, or into the neighboring States; men were seized and forced into the rebel ranks, or subjected to every species of suffering, and in many

cases to violent and excruciating death. Many were sent to Richmond, where they were treated infinitely. worse than the prisoners of war, and suffered a thousand deaths. Women were tortured to compel them to disclose the place of concealment of their fathers, husbands, brothers, and sons; refugees were pursued with bloodhounds, and often torn in pieces by these ferocious animals. Some, who had lain out in the woods for many months, suffering everything short of absolute starvation, were caught and hung without mercy, simply because they were Union men.

The time was when we were horrified by, and even discredited the statements of, the persecuted Union men who were fortunate enough to escape into the Union lines, but these statements are so well authenticated, and come to us from so many different and reliable sources, that no room for doubt is left.

As an illustration of the sufferings of the persecuted Union men of Tennessee, we give the following well authenticated instances:

In the early part of the rebellion, J. Staple, living in Scott county, Tennessee, for many years clerk of the county court, a man of great influence, thoroughly devoted to the Union cause, openly declared that the Southern people were madly rushing to ruin; that he was opposed to Secession, and warned his neighbors against the steps. they were then taking, telling them that they never could conquer the Government, and would yet see the day that they would be sorry for what they were doing. "There could never be," he said, "two independent governments in this land, and the Northern people would never be satisfied until the rebellious States laid down their arms,. and returned to their allegiance to the old Government." Mr. Staple was in his sixty-first year, and had lived in