again given. Five more fell. Poor little Willie was wounded in both arms. He ran to the officer, and clasping him around the legs, implored him to spare his life, saying, "You have killed my poor old father and my three brothers! you have shot me in both arms! I forgive you for all-can get well again; do let me go home to my mother and sisters!" What man, with a heart, could resist such an appeal? But little Willie pleaded in vain. He was again dragged back to the place of execution, and again that terrible word "Fire!" was given. He fell dead, eight balls having penetrated his body. The remaining three were ordered to kneel down, and again the word "Fire!" was given, and they fell. Those in whom life was not entirely extinct were despatched with pistols. The miscreants then dug a hole in the ground, and tossed the whole thirteen into it. Its depth was not sufficient, and some of the bodies of the murdered men lay above the ground. Sergeant N. B. Jay, a Virginian, but attached to this command, got up on the bleeding bodies and commencing to dance, cried out, "Some one pat Juba* for me, and I'll dance the d-d scoundrels down to and through hell." The grave was covered very lightly with earth. The next day the families of the murdered men heard of their fate, and search was made for their bodies. When the grave was found, the swine had rooted up one of the corpses, and partly devoured it. A portion of Keith's men went to Tennessee, and the others returned with Keith to Laurel Hill, and told the inhabitants that the murdered men were taken to Tennessee, to be tried in accordance with the pledge of Colonel Allen. By those who went to Tennessee many Union men * A negro song. were killed along the way. Those who returned with. Keith to Laurel Hill began to torture the wives of loyal men, to force them to tell where their husbands had hid the salt. The women refused to disclose anything. Then the inhuman_wretches gathered together some hickory switches, and commenced whipping them until the blood was seen to run down their persons upon the ground. Mrs. Sarah Shelton, wife of E. Shelton, who escaped from the town, and Mrs. Mary Shelton, wife of L. Shelton, were whipped and then hung by the neck until life was nearly extinct. When let down, and consciousness had returned, they still positively refused to give any information. Martha White, an idiotic girl, was taken out and whipped, and then tied to a tree by the neck, and left there all day. Old Mrs. Eunice Riddle, aged eighty-five years, was inhumanly whipped, hung, and then robbed of a considerable amount of money. A great many others were threatened with torture. The daughters of William Shelton were requested to sing and play for them. They sang and played the national airs of the Union. Keith, learning this, ordered the ladies to be arrested, and sent a guard to the house, where they remained all night. Mrs. Sallie Moore, aged seventy years, was whipped with hickory switches until the blood ran down from her back to the ground. One woman, name forgotten, who had a child five or six weeks old, was tied to a tree in the snow, and her child placed in the door in her sight, the villains telling her that, if she did not tell where the salt was hid, she and her child would be kept in that position until they both perished. Sergeant N. B. D. Jay, of Captain Reynolds's company, and Lieutenant R. M. Deever, assisted their men in the perpetration of these outrages. Houses were burned over the heads of the Union people, and everything of value was stolen by these men. The perpetrators of these outrages were soldiers belonging to the army of the Confederate States, and the men who commanded them were commissioned by the same government, and therefore the Confederate Government had them in their control, and could have punished them, if they did not sanction their acts; but the villains were looked upon as brave men for these acts of cruelty.* MURDER OF A ONE-ARMED MAN IN NORTH By the battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, the rebels suffered such a defeat that the Unionists of the South, growing bold, began to speak their sentiments aloud, in opposition to the rebel government. Particularly was this the case in Central North Carolina, so that three regiments were sent from the rebel army to overawe the people and quell the disturbance. Many acts of cruelty were perpetrated by these soldiers, causing serious skir mishes between them and those Unionists who were lucky enough to have arms, and several lives were lost on both sides. Among the most atrocious acts committed by these. soldiers was that practised upon a young man in Randolph county, who, by some accident, had lost one arm, and was therefore not subject to conscription. They went to his house, and, under the pretence of getting him to show them the way to a neighbor's, decoyed him into a piece of woodland, where they brutally shot him. * Colonel Crawford, Vice-President of the State Convention, held at Nashville, Tenn., 1863. He was heard begging and imploring for his life at a great distance. His body was found three or four days afterwards, having from appearance received some seven or eight pistol-shots. From the marks of blood and the foot-prints, it appeared that they compelled him to run around them in a circle, shooting at him as he ran, trying to see how many times they could hit him without killing him. All this was done because he loved the Union.* BARBAROUS TREATMENT OF UNION SYMPA- IN the month of October, 1863, at Rapidan Station, four miles above Orange Court-House, Virginia, a young man belonging to Company B, Forty-fourth North CaroCarolina Regiment (rebel), a Unionist, who had been conscripted, was inhumanly shot under the following circumstances :— Many of his regiment had deserted, and entered the lines of the Union army. Certain soldiers of other regiments, suspecting him to be a Union man at heart, to draw out his sentiments, told him that they would not belong to such a regiment, &c. At last, being irritated, he said "I don't care if the whole regiment deserts." This was all they wished. They immediately reported his words to their officers, and he was arrested. as a deserter, tried by a court-martial, and sentenced to be shot. He endeavored to explain in what manner he was constrained to use this language, and declared he had no thought of desertion. But they declined to listen to his * Bryan Tyson, author of the "Ray of Light." explanation, and ordered him to be put into confinement. The guard hurried him away, and in the course of a few days he was carried out and shot. He met his fate like a brave man. Another soldier, belonging to a North Carolina brigade, was sentenced to death under similar circumstances, and the authorities went so far as to tie him to a stake before they shot him.* MURDER OF THREE BROTHERS. IN the summer of 1862, three young men, brothers, by the name of Anderson, not liking the way in which the Union men were treated in their vicinity, left their home, which was in Hawkins county, Tennessee, and attempted to make their way to the Union lines in Kentucky. They had reached Clinch river, about seventyfive miles above Knoxville, Tennessee, when they were surprised and captured by band of Confederate cavalry, and inhumanly shot without mercy by their captors, who had been sent in pursuit of them. After killing them, they threw their bodies into the river, where, not long after, they were found, only fifteen miles from their desolate and forsaken home. The only reason assigned for this brutal murder was, that they were Union men, and were leaving the country.† *R. D. Talley, Chatham Co., North Carolina. + Colonel R. Crawford, of Tennessee, one of the Vice Presidents of the State Convention, held in Nashville in 1863. |