Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1862-05-14

ing no door, the room could not be closed
! 20 were there as a common show.
| Colonel Wilcox and myself were objects of
! interest, and were gazed upon as if we were
| couple Of sayages. The people would come
! IN there and say all sorts OF things TO us and
about us, until was obliged to tell them that
was prisoner and had nothing to say. On
our way to Richmond, when we reached Cor
donsvllle, many women crowded around the
cars, and asked my wife il she cooked ? If she
washed how she got there Finally, Mrs.
Ricketts, appealed TO the officer in charge, and
tod him that 1t was not the inteRton that we
should be subjected to this treatment, and il
1t was continued she would make il known TO
the authorities. General johnson took my
wiie's carriage and horses at Manassas, kept
them, and has them yet for aught | know.
When l got to Richmond | spoke to several
gentlemen about this, and did Mrs. Rick
etts. They said Of course, the carriage and
horses should be returned, but they never
were. "There is one debt, says this gallant
soldier, "tbat desire very much TO pay. and
nothing troubles me so much now as the fact
that my wounds prevent me from entering up.
on active service at once.
The case of Louis Francis, who was terribly
wounded and maltreated, and lost leg, is re-
ferred to by General Ricketts,; but the testi-
money Of Francis is startling. II 10 was pri-
vate in the New York Fourteenth Regiment.
llo says til was attacked by two Rebel sol.
diers, and wounded in the right kneo with the
bayonet. AS lay on the sod they kept bay
onetiDg me until | received fourteen wounds.
One then left me, the other remaining over
me, when'a Union Soldier commng up shot
him in the breast and he fell dead. | lay on
the ground until ten o'clock tho next day.
was then removed In u wagon to u bulding,
my wounds examined and partially dressed.
On the Saturday following we were carried 20
Manassas and from there to the general hospi-
al snIt, L. ILL
mortified consented that 1t should be atnpu.
'ated. which operation was performed by
young man. ] insisted that they should allow
DR.. Swain 10 be present, for ] wanted one
Union man there II died under the operation.
The stitches and the band slipped from neglect,
and the bone protrudcd and about two weeks
alter another operation was performed ut
which time another piece of the thigh bone
was sawed of. Six weeks after the amppta-
tion, and before 10 healed, / was removed to
the tobacco factory"
Two operations were subsequently perform
ed on Francis one at Fortress Monroe and
ore at Brooklyn, New York-after his release
from captivity.
Revolving as these disclosures are, it was
when the comm ittee came.to examine witness
es ia reference TO the treatment Of our heroic
dead that the fendish spirit of the Rebel
leaders was most prominently exhibited.
Daniel Bixby, Jr., of Washington, testfes
L. VI.
Smart, Of Cam bridge Massachusetts,, who went
TO search for the body of his brother, who fell
at Black burns Ford in the action of the 18th
July. They found the grave. The clothes
were identified as those of his brother, on ac-
count OF some peculiarly in the make, for
they had been made by his mother; and, in
order to identify them, other clothes made by
her were taken that they might compare them.
owe found no head in the grave and no
bones of any kind-nothing but the clothes.
and portions of the flesh. We found the
mains of three other bodies all together. The
clothes were there some flesh was left but no
bones" The witness also states that Mrs.
Pierce Butler, who lives near the place, said
that she had seen the Rebels boiling portions
of the bodies of our dead in order TO obtain
their bones as relies. They could not wait
for them 10 decay. She said that she had
seen drumsticks made of - Yankee shinbones -
as they called them. Mrs. Butler also stated
that she lad seen skull that one of the New
Orleans artillery had, which, he said, he was
going TO send home and have mounted, and
that he intended to drink brandy punch out
of it The day he was married.
Frederick Scholes, of the city of Brooklyn,
New York, testified that he proceeded to the
battle field of Bull Run on the fourth of this
month (ApriD to find the place where he sup
posed his brothers. body was buried. Mr.
Scholes, who is man of unquestiened char
acter, by this testimony fully confirms the
statements of other witnesses. He met free
negro, named Simon or Smons, who stated
that il was common thing for the Rebel SOL
ders to exhibit the bones of the Yankees
81 found - he says,in the bushes in the neigh
borhood part of Zouave uniform, with the
sleeve sticking out of the grave, and a por-
tion of the pantaloons. Attempting to pull it
up, saw the two ends of the grave were still
unopened, but the middle had been pried up,
pulling up the extremties of the uniform at
some places, the sleeves of the shirt in anoth-
er, and a portion of the pantaoons. DR..
Swain zone of the surgeons, whose testimony
has already been referred toy pointed out the
trenches where the Secessonists had buried
their dead, and, on examination, it ap-
peared that their remains had not been dis
turbed at all.
Mr. Scholes met negro, named Hampton,
who resided near the place, and when he told
him the manner in which these bodies had
been dug up, he said he knew it had been
done, and added that the Rebels had commen-
ced digging bodies two or three days after
they were buried, for the purpose, at first, of
obtaining the buttons off their uniforms and
that afterwards they disinterred them to get
their bones. He said they had taken rails
and pushed the ends down in the CENTRE under
the middle of the bodies, and pred them up
The information of the negroes of Benjamin
Franklin Lewis corroborated fully the state
ment of this man, Hampton. They said that
good many of the bodies had been stripped
naked the field before they were buried,
and that some were buried naked. l went to
Mr.. Lrwis' house and spoke to him of the man
ner in which these bodies had been disinter-
red. He admitted that it was infamous, and
condemned principally the LOUISIANA Tigers of
General Wheat's division. He admitted that
our wounded had been very badly treated"
In confirmation of the testimony CT DR..
Swain and DR.. Homiston, this witness AYERS
that Mr.. Lewis mentioned a number of instau-