The southern press., 1851-08-27
HAVANA, August l6--4l ?. NJ

HAVANA, August l6--4l p. NJ.
The Frightful Execution of ffly Americans in
| Hapana-Hmrible Scenes-h hssuh 10 The
American Flag Firing into the Steamer
| Falcon.
| | am too much affected to write TO you more
than to say that | have this day been witness
to one of the most brutal acts of wanton inhu-
manity ever perpetrated in the anneals OF
history. Not content, this government, in re-
venging themselves in the death Of these unfor.
tunate and, perhaps misguided men, and
which, it may even be said, was brought upon
themselves, but these Spanish authorities de-
serve to be most severely ch,stised for their
exceedingly reprehensible conduct in permitting
the desecration, as they have done, OF the sense
less clay of our brave countrymen. This
morning
Forty Americans, One Italian,
Four Irish, One Philippine Islander
One Scotch, Two Havaneros, and
Two Germans, or Ilungarians,
were shot ut Ill o'clock--after which the troops
We're ordered to retire; and some hundreds OF
the very vilest rabbe and negros, hired for the
purpose, commenced stripping the dead bodies,
mutating their limbs, tearing out their eyes,
cutting off their noses and fingers, and some OF
the poor fellows (privates) these Wreteches
brought to the city on sticks, and paraded them
under the very walls of the palace. Oh, the
very remembrance Of the sight is frightful
never ssw men-and could scarcely have
supposed it possbe-conduct themselves at
such an awful moment with the fortitude these
men displayed under such trying circumstances
They were shot six at time, T. e. twelve were
brought to the place of execution, six made to
kneel down and receive the fire OF the soldiers
after which the remaining six were made to
walk round their dead comrades and knee op-
posite to them, when they also were shot. After
being stripped, ard their bodies mutilated in the
barbarious manner have described, they were
showed, six or seven together, bound as they
were, into hearses, which were used last year
for cholera cases. No coffins were allowed them
and think the manner they We're put into the
hearses was equally as disgusting as their other
acts; the heads of some were almost dragging
on the ground, and il had more the appearance
OF slaughter cart on its way to market from the
slaughter house, than that of hearse conveying
the dead bodies of human beings.
A inner looking set of young men l never
saw; they made not a single complaint, not a
,murmur, against their sentence, and decency
should have been shown to their dead bodies, in
admiration for the herosm they displayed when
brought out for execution. Not muscle was
seen to move, and they proved to the miserable
rabble congregated to witness the horrid sF &C.
tace, that, it being the fortune of war that they
fell into the power of this government they
were not afraid TO die 1t would have been q
great consolation to these poor fellows, as the V
repeatedly asked, to see their consul, and
through him, to have sent their last adieus, and
such little mementos as they had, to their be-
loved relations in the States. One handsome
young fellow desired that his watch should be
sent to his sweetheart. But Mr.. Owens, the
American consul, did not even make application
to the captain-genera to see these unfortunate
countrymen in their distress, and their sacred
wishes in their last moments have been unat-
tended TO-. Lastly, at the very hour of their tri-
umph, when the people of the Spanish steamer
llabanero knew that the execution of the Ame-
rican prisoners, which they had taken to Ha-
vana was about to take place, fired two shots
across, or at, the steamer Falcon, Off Bahia
Honda; and, Notwithstanding that this vessel
was well known To them, having, as she had
the American flag hoisted, &c, she was detained
and oyerhauled by these Spanish officers, who,
upon returning TO their vessel, commenced
cheering and Kissing at the Falcon, proud, no
doubt, of the impunity with which they had de-
tanned an American mail steamer on the high
seas, at their pleasure.