ASSAULT ON MR. GRIER, A KENTUCKY STATE SENATOR.

CINCINNATI, October 8th, 1862.

L. W. HALL, Ravenna, Portage Co., Ohio.

Dear Sir: In great distress of mind, I will attempt to recount to you the misfortunes and troubles I have recently had to encounter in Kentucky. I am now a refugee. The torch of the incendiary rebels has been put to my mills, my store, and my dwelling. All is consumed; the labor of nearly twenty years is destroyed. On last Wednesday night the rebel cavalry of John Morgan, to the number of eight hundred, encamped within two miles of my place. Through the whole night they were momentarily expected to come upon us; every person left the road and hid in the woods; I could not do so, my wife was so near her confinement; my anxiety for her kept me near my dwelling. To allay her fears for my safety, I had to appear to be absent. Nothing occurred during the night.. As the morning dawned, I went further from my house, and took a view of the premises and the roads leading to them. I could see no rebels; and I determined to see my wife, let the consequences be what they might. As I was near my door, eight rebels suddenly appeared before me, with their guns presented to my breast, and took me a prisoner. Soon the whole rebel band was upon me. Morgan cursed the men for taking me a prisoner, saying "that he had ordered them to shoot me down upon sight." He then opened my store door, and told his men to rifle and fire it. I implored him not to do it, as it was so near my dwelling that it would also be consumed. I informed him of the condition of my wife; for myself I asked

nothing; but I begged him in common humanity not to destroy my wife and little children. He answered with a horrid oath that he intended to burn everything I had; he would put fire to my house, and burn my wife and children up in it; he would wipe out the whole Abolition concern. This threat was applauded by many of his men, who said they went for killing men, women, and children. I was then placed upon a horse without a saddle, and conducted to the front of their column, and orders were again given to shoot me down if they were fired upon by bushwhackers, as they styled the Union men. I assured them that they would be fired upon if the people had any spirit, and I believed they had; that when they saw the conflagration of their homes, they would way-lay and fire upon them, even if their number was ten times greater. After firing my property, he (Morgan) rode past me and said, pointing to the flames, "You find your loyalty to your Abolition Government pretty expensive, don't you?"

Before we reached the woods, the captain of the men that took me prisoner, removed me from my position in the front, and placed me in his company near the rear. Immediately upon entering the woods they were fired upon. I was surprised that I was not shot. Morgan rode past and demanded the reason I was not shot, as he had ordered. They said they had not heard the order. He told them, if fired upon again, to shoot the prisoner. They then amused themselves by pointing their guns at me, and saying that they wished they might have the pleasure of shooting me. After some time we were ordered to advance, and were soon again fired upon. I heard the guns click behind me, and felt sure that my end was right then at hand. Their captain, John T. Williams, ordered them not to fire; he said that it was cold

blooded murder; that his men had taken me prisoner; that he was not yet mustered into the service, did not belong to General Morgan's command, and would not obey him in this, but would take me to West Liberty and put me in jail till further orders. This was some relief to me, you may be assured. Thus we proceeded for nearly twelve miles, my friends, the Unionists, emptying a saddle every five minutes, and my captors setting fire to every Union man's house as they went along.

At last they commenced falling close around me, and my guardian friend, the captain, said he could not save me any longer. I soon took advantage of the excitement prevailing, jumped from my horse and fled to the woods, unobserved, and thus made my escape. I reached where had been my home at dark, and found my wife had been carried by some kind ladies to an unoccupied house, and a physician present who said he would stay with her. It was not more than twenty minutes till Morgan's guerrillas were again upon me. I escaped through the fields to the woods, making my way for. Portsmouth, thirty-five miles distant, my nearest point of complete safety, where I arrived next morning without food, sleep, or rest. I immediately came to this city, where there was owing me seventy-five dollars, with which I will purchase a Ballard rifle, and return to the vicinity of my family; hide in the woods and caves, and pick off every "Butternut" I see until I can get my family away to some place of security.

Why is all this persecution of me? It is because I condemned this wicked rebellion; urged a vigorous prosecution of this war, and in my place in the Senate of Kentucky, opposed the temporizing policy of my own party. For this I am burned and hunted out of Kentucky.

I am now unequivocally for confiscation, subjugation, extermination, hell and damnation.

Yours respectfully,

W. C. GRIER.

OUTRAGES ON THE PEOPLE IN THE MOUNTAIN DISTRICTS OF KENTUCKY.

ON the 12th of May, 1863, Colonel Gilbert started out with a detachment of the Forty-fourth Ohio Regiment, on an extensive reconnoissance from London, Kentucky, to ascertain the strength and situation of the numerous bands of guerrillas who were then prowling about that section of the country. He found them very numerous. They fled at the approach of the Forty-fourth, which followed in hot pursuit, but were unable to overtake them.

His forces searched the country from London to Barboursville; thence to Cumberland Ford, and along the Cumberland River from Williamsburg, south to Big Creek Gap. Detachments of Colonel Gilbert's men drove the rebel bands up Poor Fork to Yellow Creek, and also into the mountain wilds from Winchester up to the forks of Goose Creek.

Colonel Gilbert's command cleared that portion of the country. The guerrillas seemed to have no taste for fighting, and fled in disorder whenever the Union soldiers approached them. In the chase four or five were killed, and some sixteen taken prisoners. Colonel Gilbert's command sustained no loss. The people were found to be very loyal.

It was ascertained that the rebels were in the practice of inflicting all sorts of tortures to compel the women

and children to tell them where they had hidden their corn, &c. They forced the men into their ranks, divested the women and children of all their clothing, even taking their shoes from off their feet.

Major Moore found near Red River two men, divested of everything but their pantaloons, and almost starved. Lieutenant Shaw and others saw similar instances of barbarous treatment.

These Unionists were first reduced to want by Morgan and his men, and afterwards pillaged by the rebel hordes who were driven out by Colonel Gilbert, until starvation or flight seemed to be the only alternative left them.

DEPREDATIONS IN KENTUCKY BY HUMPHREY MARSHALL'S AND CLUKE'S MEN.

GRAY HAWK, Jackson County, Ky.,

April 13th, 1863

Dear Sir: This leaves me lower in spirits than I have been since I have had a family. Some ten days ago, Cluke, with some five hundred men, came in through Proctor, in Owsley county, taking all the horses they could lay hands on. They came to my house, took a mule from me, and destroyed all the corn I had; pastured on my wheat, and committed other depredations.

On Tuesday, the 7th of this month, Humphrey Marshall's men, with the guerrilla band from Breathitt county, commenced coming into our county by Proctor, taking horses, cattle, and everything they could get hold of. They came on to Booneville; burned the jail; destroyed the records in the clerk's office; cut up the books and scattered them through the streets; came to