Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1861-07-04
GEN. Butler--Arrest OF Oel. tAiien, OF
she ist n. x. Regiment.

~ sN.A A ffl
We copy the following from Che Fortress
Monroe correspondent Of the N. n, Times Of
the 29sh Of June;
understand that the charges against Calonel
Allen embrace several offeDses. He is accused
in the frat place. of going beyond the line Of
our pickets with men of his command, which 10
In direct violation Of military law. His men,
moreover, have been guilty, at various times
Of very serious violations Of private rights, In
committing depredations upon private property,
and 10 offering insults TO persons who had In no
way subjected themselves TO our hostility. Yes
terday, or day before, he is accused Of having
seized sir persons, and brought them into camp
% prisoners, In spite of the fact that three OF
them exhibited permits to remain on their farm,
aligned by General Butler, and the other three
exhibited similar passes, signed by Col Allen
hinself! This violation of permit 10 in itself
o very serious violation Of military Law. COL
Aliens excuse is, that these six men were at
work for secessionist, and were about to har-
vest splendid field of wheat, ol which the al
legged secessionist "a widow was owner. IL 10
further charged, that after making the arrest,
he ordered the wheat field to be set on ire,
and Il was utterly destroyed. Such an act OF
vandalism as this, certainly deserves the sever
est punishment Allen alleges, however, that
he did not order the burning, but that 1t was
done by the negroes, and thas he had, moreover,
been told by them that the six men whom he
arrested were not engaged in harvesting, but
we're intending to Steal horses in his camp. lie
declares his ability to refute all the charges
that are brought against him, and attributes the
arrest to the malice Of his enemies. ~ T.
am bound in justice to say that the most
serious and apparently well founded complaints
are made against our troops Of depredatlona
upon private property The men OF Col. Al
lens regiment have been somewhat conspicuous
In the alleged offenses, though they have BY no
means been aonfned to them. Even the Yer.
mont and Massachusetts regiments, staid and
Law abiding as they are Justly supposed to be,
are implicated in some Of the most blameworthy
Of these transactions. Our volunteers seem TO
have supposed that plunder and general lawless-
ness were among the ordinary and justihable
incidents Of war, and they have not been as Ell.
| fectually restrained In this matter as they
should have been by the officers. There seems,
indeed, 70 be on the side of the authorities
everywhere, general reluctance TO face the
fact that We are at war, and to govern their
conduct accordingly. They do not think Of en-.
forcing anywhere the stringent regulations OF
the military code. II men are arrested, 1t ia
mainly q matter of form. None as yet have
been tried, notwithstanding the many arrests
that have been made; but If trials sh0nld be
had, and convictions follow, we have nothing
in our past experience to justify the belief that
merited punishment would follow. One thing
is becoming daily more and more evident by
our experience In this section, viz that unless
an army Is to degenerate into mob; unless
everything like discipline ia to be abandoned,
and the great body OF our troops permitted TO
follow their own inclinations, aud make, the
name of Union men BY word and reproach, we
must have a more rigid and relentless enforce
ment Of the laws than we have had hitherto..