Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1860-09-27

Particulars of the savage Sacrifice In the
WashOe Region-Se Seven White Men
Burned to Death by Indinns-Horrible
and Revolving Details. -,.-
A letter to the Sacramento Union, re-
ceived by the California steamer Ariek from
Virginia City, confirms the recent tidings of
seven white men having been burned to
death by Indians in the Washoe Region. 1t
appears that these victims formed the party
Of Norman H. Garfield, of Butte County
Canfeld's party, about the Sd or 4th of May
last, left Stones Crossing of the Truckee at
Big Meadows, with the intention of visiting
Winnemucca at his camp at Pyramid Lake
and endeavor to obtain his peaceful permis-
sion to prospect for silver in the vicinity of
the lake. To dsarm the Indians of any
thought of hostility on their part and in
spire, as far as possible, feelings of confidence
and friendliness, they went without weapons
of any kind, with the single exception of a
revolver, which Garfield was persuaded to
carry. Three or four days after this oc-
Cured the massacre at Williams's ranch,
which, it will be recolected, first led TO the
war" by the whites against the Indians.
Canfeld's party were not heard of after that
time. Seven dead bodies were found be-
tween the Truckee and Red Bluffs which
were supposed at the first to be the missing
party, but this was an error.
The correspondent Of the Union tells the
rest of the story as follows:
Among the volunteers in the late Indian
expedition under Col. Hays, were two very
intimate friends of Mr.. Garfield, who used
every effort to ascertain the fate of his party;
but, though the form and features of all the
discovered dead were very carefully scru-
tinized, none were recognized as bearingany
resemblance to him or his known compan-
ions. A few days after the volunteers were
Withdrawn from Pyramid Lake, the regulars
| being then stationed there, some of the lat
ter discovered, among the cottonwoods, be-
| low where the Indian village had stood, and
near the place where the Truckee empties
| into the Lake, tied to as many trees, the
| bodies, or charred remains, of seven men
who had been burned to death. -.
Two or three had been fastened to the
trees with log-chains, and the flesh had been
| entirely burned from them; the others had
been tied with raw hides; and the upper
| portions of their bodies bore traces of iden-
| tification, particularly that of Garfield, who
was robust and powerful man, remarkable
| in form and feature. His lower limbs and
| lower part of his frame had been consumed,
| with the evident design to protract suscepti-
bility to pain, till the bones were charred;
but the upper part of the chest, the arms,
and shoulders and the head, were entire
even the grim military whiskers worn by
the victim were unsinged.
Further description and detail have also
been furnished, but the revolving hideous-
ness of the picture forbids elaboration.
Suffice it, that the evidence leaves to the
friends of Mr.. Garfield and his companions
no possibility of doubt as to his identity, and
the horrible process of his and their death.
The remains of the victims of this terrible
deed were all carefully inferred in one grave
beneath large cottonwood tree, near the
spot on which they died, by the soldiers
under Captain Stewart. Whether they were
made the bloody offering to the demon o.
war, on the formal preparation of the Pah-
Utahs to attack the whites, or were doomed
to aveDge the slain Of the tribe, who spbse-
quentiy fell IN battle, viii most probably for.
ever remain a mystery. They died--died
the most terrible of all deaths which it is
possible for the imagination to conceive
Garfield was from Cambridge, Washington
County, New York, where his family re
sided when he came to California, in l849
He was about thirty years ofage at thu
| time of his death