Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1861-11-09
Secession Horrors Described by An
drew Johnson.

In his recent speech at Columbus,
Ohio, Andrew johnson thus describes
the horrors of secession in Tennessee
"While yet beseeching them to act
upon their own doctrine, and let us
alone, the hoots of their cavalry were
indenting our plains, and the tramp of
their troops was about our homes
And yet there are those who set up the
puning CRY, "Let there be no coer-
cion" Why God bless you, friends,
they never got any anything except by
coercion. They coerced Tennessee,
Georgia, Alabama and Virginia out of
the Union. They attempted it in Mary
land-tEe government stopped it; they
are now attempting it in Kentucky,
and there the people will stop it Their
whole career has been one of coercion,
ofoutrage, Insult, blasphemy and crime.
Detachments of their myrmidons who
are sent, as they said, ''to protect us
from the despotlsm of Abe Lincoln"
(?) would pass through our country, in
Tennessee on the railroad.
AS they went they saw the flag of
our country, the glorious old stars and
stripes, floating from the gable end of
an humble school house, where the lit
tie boys had placed it as an emblem of
their dawning love for the Union
They stopped their train, and with hoot-
ing ribaldry, with menaces and execra-
| tions and blasphemy, they tore it from
the children and trampled it in the
mire. They would enter private
houses and under the pretense of seek
ing for ammunition, would rummage
drawers and desks, robbing females of
their jewels and their looms. They
would order their meals and their lodg-
ings in tones Of insolence and in terms
of insult. They would feed their hor-
ses with wastetulness, and scatter the
food recklessly on the ground. After
eating to the fill of their insatiate appe-
tite, and rioting and rummaging, they
would mount and, with oaths and OBJ
scenity, would tell the family to charge
it ali to Jeff Davis. And this, my
friends, is secession.
They came into my own country :;
they called at my house. Some of the
number came forward and demanded
Of my family whether was at home
saying if [ was, they had come to take
me, and hang me ! Pleasant intelligence
this, for gentlemen y to communicate
to wife and daughters But my daugh-
ter, indignant at their conduct, said,
''No my father is not at home; he is
absent in another country, where he Is
making a speech for the Union; and
this [ presume you knew, or your cow
ardly crew would not have dared to
show themselves at this house." They
then sullenly withdrew. AS they pass
ed through the ncighborhood, they
came upon the house of Union fami-
ly, the husband was not at home, but
the stout hearted woman, had her flag
on the gate post. They insolently COM
manded her to remove it; she would
not. They attempted to take it, but
she kept her flag. They went into the
woods, cut a hickory withe, and return
ing, scourged her person with it.
This, my friends, is secession, and
these are the men you are to "com-
promise" with. Some Of these same
demons, five of them, fiends in human
shape, stopped at the house of man
named Markham, who seeing them ap-
proach, and fearing insult and outrage
to himself, if he remained, and think
inc that they would not be SO likely to
provoke a quarrel with his family if he
were not present, took his rifle from
its resting place and retired unobser-
we'd by them into little thicket hard
by the house, in order to be at hand in
case they offered any abuse to his fam
ilv. He had an amiable wife and two
daughters, the youngest girl of about
twelve years, and the oldest just bios
soming into womanhood, about sixteen,
as beautiful as the morning and as pure
as the dew-drop. The secessioDists
entered and insolently demanded din
ner for themselves, and feed for their
horses The wife told them there was
/ the crib and the fodder, and they would
give them their dinner. They took the
hay and the corn and scattered it
about the ground, and ordered the la
dies to hasten the dinner
In due time the meal was prepared.
and soon greedily devoured. After sat
isfying their appetites at the table, they
| began to address rude remarks to the
wife and daughter. One attempted to
make love to the young lady, when her
young sister, aeizing the tin horn or trum-
pet, which is kept in almost all rural
homesteads to make summons to din
ner or sound an alarm to the neighbors
in case Of an accident, sprang 10 the
door and blew blast At this the he'll
lish demon turned and drew q pistol
from bis girdle, fired its bullet through