Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1862-12-01
Retaliation for the Missouri Murders
RICHMOND, Nov. %.

RICHMOND, Nov. 20.
The following is q communication from
President Davis to Lieut. Gen. Holmes,
Comd'g the Trans-M Mississippi Depart
ment:
Elk. OFFICE, Nov. 17.-General : Eu-
closed you will find a slip from the Mem
phis Daily Appeal of the 3rd instant, con
tanning an account purportiDg to be deri-
we'd from the Palmyra Missouri Courier, a
Federal Journal, of the murder of ten
Confederate citizens in Missouri, By order
Of Gen. Mcneil, Of the U. S. army. You
will communicate by flag of truce with the
Federal officer commanding that Departs
ment, aud ascertain if the facts are as sta
ted. If they be so, you will demand i'm
mediate surrender of Gen. Mcneil to Con
federate authorities, and if this demand
be not complied with, you will inform said
commanding officer, that you are ordered
to execute the first ten U. y. Officers who
may be captured or fall into your hands.
Very respectfully, yours,
JEFFERSON DAVIS.
Tne following account of the outrage
which caused the above dispatch is from
the Richmond Examiner:
1t appears that the Yankee commanders
in the South, not satisfied with their tor
mer works Of assassination and pillage, and
! encouraged by the Governments neglect
Of retaliation, have ventured in Missouri
upon . diabolical slaughter of our prison
ers that is without parallel outside Of the
annals of the Sspoys. The outrage is one
of cold-blooded aud horrible detail but its
important incidents may be related in a few
words.
. The statement was first published in a
New York paper, that Brig. Gen. Mcneil
had, in the early part Of last month, execu-
ted ten Confederate prisoners at Palmyra,
10 Missouri, because a tory citizen of that
State had been carried off a prisoner by our
forces. From further accounts of the af-
fair in the enemy's own publications, it
appears that the missing man, Andrew
Allswan, was o legitimate prisoner of war
that on the descent of the Confederate
forces upon Palmyra he was captured by
them ; that he belonged to the Federal
cavalry, but that being too old to endure
oil the hardships of active duty, he was de-
tailed Is . spy, being " frequently" as one
Of the Yankee papers states, I" called upon
for information touching the loyalty o.
men, which he always gave to the extern
Of his ability"
When Gen. Mcneil returned to Pal
myra, he caused . notice to be issued tina
unless Allsman was returned in ten days
he would shoot ten Confederate prisoner
rs " meet reward for their crimes, anon,
which was the illegal restraining of sal
Allsman Of his liberty" The ten days elaF
sed, and the prisoner was not returned
The following account of what ensued,
condensed from the Palmyra Courier, a tt
ny journal, without any variation from ii
language in which it decribes the deed
the demons with whom it was 10 sympa
thy:
"The tenth day expired with last Fri
day. On that day ten rebel prisoners, a
ready in custody, were selected to pay vii
their lives the penalty demanded. A Iii
tie after IL o'clock, a. M, the next da
three Government wagons, drove to Il
Jail. One contained four, and each of Il
others three rough board collins. The co
demnsd men were conducted from the pl
sou and seated in the wagons one up,
each cofio. A sufficient guard Of soldie
accompanied them, and the cavalca
started for the fatal grounds, The t
collins were removed from the wa
, ons and placed 10 q row, six or eig
: tfset apart, forming q line north and SOU
a., Each coffin was placed upon the grour
q with its foot west and head east. Tbi,
: soldiers Of. the I'd NJ. S. NJ. were dra,
: up in . single line, extending north a
Q sOuse, facing the row Of cof6ns. The a
) irangements completed, the men knelt u
I on the grass between their collins aud /
soldiers.
P "At the conclusion of . prayer by I
Q army chaplain, each prisoner took bis $
Q upon the foot of his coffin, facing
d mnskets which in . few moments were
= launch Thorn into eternity, They we're ne
'iy all firm and ~undsunted. The most no,
9 of the ten was Capt. Thomas A. Sinder
!. Monroe county, whose capture at Shell
8 vile, in the disguise of a woman. we
j. lated several weeks since Ha