American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1851-1863, 1862-10-03

all the poultry, and carried away everything
they could put their hands on. They also
took with them, as prisoner, 8 Mrs Lomax,
the charge against her being that her hus-
band was rebel. This lady they subjected
to all manner of insults.
There was poor widow living about four
miles from Salem, Mo, whose entire support
was two sous, aged respectively Is and Is
years. These boys the poor woman cheer
fully gave up to the Southern cause. Part
ing with them, she gave them her blessing,
bidding them fight bravely for their country
and liberty. The miscreants set fire to her
house, and she imploringly besought them to
leave her some provisions and clothing for
her little children, but the fends paid no at
tention to her entreaties, but destroyed every
thing they could see, even to the infants
clothing.
On the road to Rolla, the soldiers commit
ted all kinds of excuses, such as wantonly
into cornfelds and burning down the fences.
While was a prisoner and guarded by some
home guards, who are the meanest set of men
on the face of Gods creation-and, if posi-
BILE, worse than the Kansas Rangers ~
was continually insulted by them. They
would put their guns to my breast and ask
me could stand fire; and they even pricked
me with their bayonets. Smarting under
their insults told them that they were low
towards, whereupon their captain struck me
several blows on the head with his sword,
which left indelible marks, and the effects of
which feel to the present moment.
l had the modification to see my two ne
groes that tried to murder me dressed in
new Yankee uniform, and fully armed and
equipped.
The soldiers at Rolla go out daily, as they
call it, scouting, but the proper word is steal
ing They bring in all the stock they find
and sell them for less than a fourth of their
value to the officers, who ship them to Illinois
and Iowa or sell them to the Lincoln gov
eminent. When the farmers come in to
claim their stock, they are invariably arrest
ed as rebels and put in the guard-house.
Some of the scoundrels come to them after
being in prison awhile and tell them that
there are serious charges of disloyalty against
them, and the best thing they can do is to go
home and say nothing about their property,
which advice they almost always follow.
Sometimes they will ask a man if he is a
union man or not if he answers in the
affirmative, then they say you can afford to
give some property to the cause" if they
answer in the negative, they say their prop
erty is confscated. While / was at Rolla,
the Kansas 5th regiment went down to Texas
county and murdered in cold blood seventeen
citizens, staying them wherever they found
them. They violated the persons of several
women, one of whom was SO years old in
fact, they committed crimes that would shock
the most savage barbarian. 4 battalion of
troops went to Pettus county and arrested
Col. Field, who was an eminent lawyer in
Louisville, KY, for many years. When they
had gone few miles from his house they
told him to ride a few yards in advance,
having done which, he fell pierced by many
bullets. They never gave either him or his
family any intimaton of the fate they were
about subjecting him to- Having proceeded
about ten miles further, they shot another
man whom they met on the road, and then
went to his house and told his wife that
q they had killed her husband and she had
better go and get his ID body before the
hogs eat it mp" l could mention many
more such acts as these that occurred while
l was at Rola.
will now contine myself to what occurred
at St. Louis while / was there. | saw an
old friend who lived in Bates county, No,
but was compelled to leave there. He said
that the Kansas thieves had laid waste the
whole of western Missouri. They had
carried away all the movable property ne
groes included, and burned down all the
houses and fences.
About the time | arrived in ST. Louis, the
Yankees arrested about 1000 men on their
way to join Price. They put them in prison
in McDowell's college and gave them blank
cts that belonged to soldiers that had died
of the small pox. This had the desired
effect, for in less than two months, more than
half of them had died. Several of them