New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1861-07-28
HOW THE ENEMY TREATED OUR WOUNDED.
They Stab and Burn Our Injured Men.
STATEMENTS OF EYE-WITNESSES.
From Our Special Correspondent
WASHINGTON, July 26, 1861.


Incidents of the battle rise into certain promi.
nence they did not possess, while oyershadowed
by the universal anxiety to get at results rather
than to inquire into details. Nearly every family
in the land which has to mourn the death oil
friend is by this time apprised of that fact, and,
having donned its sable weeds, 10 now devoured
with q new anxiety-the eager desire of knew
ing the exact circumstances of the killing of the
dead man. their friend The press is rapidly
laying these individual details before the conn-
try. Through the uncertainty that surrounds the
fate of some Of our men, there begins to loom
out in unmi,takable proportions certain bar
barous fact, so hideous, so miserably sad, so hu-
initiating to human NATURE that heretofore it has
been only whispered, even by those who could
best attest its truth. l refer to the sar0ge and
deiiJerate slaughter Of our rounded and hdPtess
man by tie Rebel troops.
Almost too horrible for credence is the state
ment Of the bayoneting Of men who were dis
armed aud wounded, and incapable Of further
bostilities; it is humiliatingy sad to have to be-
leye that our surgeons were charged on, and
cut down by the Rebel cavalry, while engaged in
their professional duties, and while under the
shadow Of their surgeons green scarf, and Tag
to believe that our burt and dying men were
deliberately stabbed with bayonets, aud cut to
pieces with sabers, and trampled with savage
glse and malice under the horses hOofs Of the
Black Horse Cavalry-to believe that ambulances,
filed with wounded men, were blown up by
skillfuly projected shells-to believe that every
group Of four men seen bearing from the field q
wounded soldier, was made the target not Of tue
musket OF common soldier, not of single
piece of artillery which might be thus aimed by
a single excited and irresponsible gunner. but of
whole batteries OF iihed cannon, aimed, elevated,
and fred by command Of the officers in charge,
whose field glasses were brought into constant
regnisition 10 determine the exact distance, ard
insure the most perfect precision Of aim-but
when 70 these atrocities is superadded the state
ment that a hospital, filed with wounded men,
and attending surgeons surrounded BY ambu-
lances, and flying the hospital flag, was sheled,
and was siterward deliberately set on fire and
burned 10 the ground, broiiing diire our suffering
and heIpi,a rounded men, the assertion is too
dence Of nature that can not be- controverted.
To give the statements of surgeons and other
officers, who were eye-witnesses of these things,
IA the object of this letter.
BE Il understood at first that | shall give no
irresp, usible testimony. l shall not give any OF
tie thousand rumors flying about of outrages said
10 have been seen, but which cannot be traced
n hill
ment of common soldiers, many OF whom are
willing TO testify to numberless butcheries, but
who were perhaps excited, and certainly not in
a position to see as much as they perhaps sup
pose. / give only a few accounts, taken from
tie lips oil officers, VI things which they them
selves saw, and part oil which they we're.
To advance backward and give the conclusion
before stating the premises l will say that the
proofs are Overwhelming and incontrovertibe,
that our wounded men were systematically mnr-
desod; that our surgeons were Systematically shot
dorm that our ambulances were systematically
Rora up By sheLls and that at the last, our hos
pital, church building, was charged on by
cavalry, who rode up and fired their reyolyers
through the windows at tho wounded men as
they 10y on the floors, aud at the surgeons, who
were attending to their wants, and that tue enemy
eventually set lire to the building and burned it,
and in it scores of wounded and dying men.
OF course in the excitement of battle there
will occur cases Of individual cruelty to pris.
oners, and perhaps we should be Slow to believe
many OF the stories that are told of even this
sort Of workout that our wounded men were
systematically murdered is unqucstionably true,
for the same hdeoas work was going on in oil
parts of tho field at once; and the murdcrous
business was performed, not BY isolated soldiers,
but by bodies OF men under the special command
OF officers of high rank, and evidently in pur-
suance Of prearrauged plan.
There can, j think, be no reasonable doubt
that if not oil, at least certain divisions of the
Rebel army had Instructions not 10 take any
prisoners, end not 10 let our rounded men be car
,ied Of hs fell. / proceed to addace my
proofs.
For the information Of tie uninitiated, let me
premise certain things that 50 simple that ii
may seem folly on my part, but think it will
have its use. An ambulance is a spring carriage
for carrying of wounded men, 1t is of pecu.
liar build aud appearance, its character easily
at the longest distance Mt which it
can be seen at all, and let me say that it can
no more be mistaken for any other carriage than
trottlng sulky can be mistaken for locomo.
tive engine.
surgeon always wears green sash, not |
only in our own service, but in every army Of |
every civilized nation. The trimmings Of his
uniform are green, and therein they differ from |