Cedar Falls gazette. [volume] (Cedar Falls, Iowa) 1860-1895, 1862-10-31
A Deserted Village aud Devastated Coun.
try-.-Indian Atrocities.
From Correspondence Of the St. Paul Press.l


New Uim had grown from small village
to town of about 1000 inhabltants. Its
man street ran parallel with the river for
one half miles; the dwellings were evident
y the homes ot taste comfort and happiness.
Two large steam mills for the manufacture ef
lumber and flour, one wind planning mill, and
one brewery, afforded ,at once market aud
employment. But all has fallen, awlully tal-
len The utter ruin expressed by Homer
when he said, " 1roja tuit," is almsst true oi
this place-New Unn was. THIS beautiful
village is now but u small cluster Of buildings
about one hundred rods square, mostly unn-
habited when We came, but by the presence
Of an armed soidiery, feeling OF security
leads many to return who had been driven
hence, and many others who had fed from
their .arms in the region beyond, so that the
town Is now quite filled to Overdowing
The village is protected with rude but suf-
ficient deienses, and liberal detail of pickets
from the three companies OF soldiers and two
companies OF militia temporarily stationed
here. All outside has been burned to ashes
The homes OF a hundred families with scare
y an effort to save al article, have fallen be-
lore the ruthless Indian, or the stern neces-
sity Of mutual defense. The estimated loss
OF property is about one and half millions
0f dollars. .rss.r .....- -.. ...-.a 3 f.
The destruction seen here finds sad .oun-
terpart IN the country around and beyond. -
Between this place and ST. Peter s the coun-
Try Is mostly deserted Ill the panic, but not
ravaged; but in the country west and north,
along the Cottonwood river, the evil spirits
OF rapne and murder have done their perfect
work. Scouts from my company have been
in every direction, from to 20 miles, and all
report the same ruin and devastation-but
very few houses left standing, and they are
sacked of everything worth the trouble
to steal or effort to destroy-every bed and
mattrass, every blanket, spread and sheet,
every Article OF wardrobe taken, every trunk
broken open and spoiled, every article of pro.
vision carried off, every horse driven away,
nearly every house burned with everything
in it., and hundreds of families murdered or
driven into captivity worse than death
Hardly a harvest finished, the grain uncut.
the reaper standing where the horses were
taken off in fright, or by the Indians; un-
bound the rake lying on the gave; unshock-
ed, unstacked, every harvast field trodden un-
der foot, and every cornfe ravaged by
heards of cattle, which will soon howl for
food where no hand is left to give. Add to
all this the savage murders of individuals and
whole families who have long lived in peace,
and quiet, and security, and who have thus
fallen swift prey to the Indian life, hatchet
and scalping knife, and the woe IS complete.
Instances of escape and horror came to no.
tice almost every day. There is in this VII
lage one little boy, the only survivor of a
family of eleven members enc child with
four hatchet wounds in its head, through two
of which the brain can be seen to pulsate
one man only escaped in company of eight,
a,nbushed by the Indians within the limits
OF the town one lady whose husband, broth
er, brotherin-law, and husbands brother-in
law fell in the last named number; one man
shot in the mouth with three rifle balls, yet
lives and will live, though horribly mangled
another shot with seven balls Capt Dodd,
of ST. Peter, shot dead from his horse,
pierced with thirteen rifle balls. These are
| some instances Of the effects Of the attack
| on New Ulm aM
The prisoners carried away captive by the
Indians, We're entirely women and children.
The elder women were murdered, while the
younger, outraged and stripped Of every ar
ticle Of clothing, were forced 70 march away
with their captors. Little children were hrwn
to chips before their mothers eyes, or nailed
to the house or fence by the hands and feet,
left to lingcr out their little lives in agony.
Unborn infants were rudely torn from their
place, and flung upon bleeding breasts OF
their dying mothers. Mothers and children
were scalped and beheaded and placed in
CHASTITY rows on the ground In fact, every
indignity and outrage and atrocity which a
fiend could devise, and which have ever
characterized Indian warfare, have been
practiced to the greatest extent upon con-
fiding and peaceful people. Pen and words
utterly fail to to depict these barbarites it
has often been attempted. but never realized
in description.