The western Democrat. [volume] (Charlotte, N.C.) 1852-1870, 1862-09-30
AFFAIRS IN NORTH ALABAMA.

A correspondent of the Memphis Appeal,
writing under date of September 18th, furnishes
the following concerning North Alabama:
I have just retired from visit to North Ala
bama. The Yankees have evacuated Huntsville,
Decatur CORTLAND and Florence At Huntsville
they destroyed all of the machinery belonging to
the Memphis and Charleston railroad, stole every
horse that in the country convenient. They
were in such hurry to leave they burned large
lot of commssary stores and left the negroes they
had stolen. At Decatur they burned the boat
they using as gunboat, and left the cotton
used in making Notifications At Athens they
burned about one half the town and committed
a great many depredations ON property. The
country between Tuscumbia and Decatur is
almost ruined; they took almost all the meat and
corn from the farmers; from the ladies they would
take watches and finger rings, and would use in
sulting language toward them if demonstrated
with.
The killing of Gen. Robert McCook was one of
the most gallant deeds that has been committed
during the He moving with his brigade
Of four thousand towards Stevenson. Not
far from Meridian, he was in the centre of the
brigade (the advance and the vanguard were some
three or four hundred yards apart.) Captain
Gurley with seventy five men dashed at him and
ordered him to surrender; which he refused to do,
and ordered the boy who was driving the carriage
to drive on, when Captain Gurley shot him. AS
soon as it was ascertained that McCook was killed.
the whole brigade commenced retreating and
persons told me that it ended in complete Bull
Run style. They afterward hung two meL and
burned several houses in that neghborhood
The 4th Ohio cavalry (Which is composed of
the greatest scoundrels and thieves in the world
has been almost decimated; when it arrived in
huntsville there were eight or nine hundred
members; when 1t left, there were only eighty.
They have all been killed by Captains Gurley and
l1ambrIck s companies of partisans and indepen-
dent bush whackers. Reliable persons told me
| that man named Whitecotton, in Jackson CO.,
had killed seventy Yankees since they arrived
there, and that he had that number of guns,
which he would deliver to the Confederate army
when called upon.
When | left Moulton, which was on the 9TH,
there was only four hundred Yankees in Tusculn
bia and they had everything packed ready to
leave ! suppose by this time there is not "a
single Yankee in North Alabama, except the sick
which Capt. Gurley captured at Huntsville, which
were reported to be one hundred and twenty-five
Alabamians ought never to take prisoners from
the States of Ohio and Illinois, for they are the
troops that committed all the depreciation in
| North Alabama. The farmers are getting almost
all Of their negroes; they we're bringing in two or
three hundred per day when | left Huntsville
| The Yankees did not have time to take them
away.
FoRc1BLE SEIZURE OF A MINISTER w.
II. Mitchell, D D., venerable in years. distinguish
ed minister for learning and piety, and the pas
tor Of the Presbyterian Church of Florence, Ala,
was, few days since, Immediately after prayer,
seized and dragged from his pulpit by the Yankee
officers, and forcbly carried off to the river-all
the congregation, in deep grief, lamentation, and
tears, following him to the landing, where he was
placed board boat be sent to a distant pri.
son. He not allowed a moments time to bid
farewell to his weeping family, or make the least
preparation for his journey and imprisonment
FR1GHTFEL CATAsTRopHE.- -pittsburg Pa,
Sept. IA frightful explosion occurred at the
United States Arsenal this afternoon, at two
o'clock. 1t occurred in the large frame building
known as the ''Iaboratory.'
One hundred and seventy-six boys and girls
were employed in the building at the time of the
disaster, of whom seventy-fve or eighty were
killed
One explosion followed another until the entire
building was destroyed, and those who could not
escape In time, were burned up.
The scene most appalling, the dead bodies
lying in heaps they had fallen. In some Places
where the heat was most intense, whitened bones
could be seen through the smoke and flame In
other places large masses Of blackened flesh were
visible. Up to the present time sixty three bodies
have been taken from the ruins.
The of the explosion is said to have been
the accidental falling of she'll.