Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1862-12-18
a singalar Chapter Of oaIeiaI Lying.

"A EAuk HiaF Una pier oA OmCEui Lying
From the Richmond Examiner
We haze very singular curiosity from Yam
kee land in the shspe OF sn official report, made
by an inves jgating committee of the Congress
at Washington, on the subject of "rebel barbar-
tiles" We have here an example of fendish
lying unparalleled by anything outside of the
dominons of satan. The committee aatter
themselves that the effect of these m0nstro
falsehoOds viii be I" 20 arouse the disgust and
hOrrot of foreign nations against this unholy
rebellion"
It will be recoIlocted that many months ago
the bsurd and curious lie was circulated in the
Yankee newspapers that the Confederate sol
dierS were in the habit of carving savage orns-
mens in the shape of rings and breastpins from
the bones of their enemies, This story is Sc
riOusly produced in the report referred to, and
given to the world in the imposing form of Off
cial documents and sworn testimony.
According TO this report the quantity of
Southern byOutsrje manufactured from the bones
of dead Yankees is astonishing, and the number
of skeletons worked up in the jewellers shops
would be sufficient to supply every family in
the Southern COnfedeTscy with the3e popular
tIinkets.
We are told in the official text of this Yankee
investigation, that it is the regular practice of
Confederate soldiers to ransack battle fields
and collect Yankee bones, which, after being
worked into pleasing shapes, are displayed for
sale in the baZsars of the South. After the first
battle Of Manassas, we are assured that "the
rebels commenced digging bodies two or three
days after they were buried, f.r the purpose, at
first, of obtaining the buttons off uniforms and
that atterward they disinterred them to get their
bones. They had taken rails and pushed the
ends down in the center under the middle of the
bodies and priced them up" In the marathon
;oI
report, we are also informed that Mrs Pierce
Butler, who lives near the place, said that she
had seen rebels boiling portions of the bodies OF
the dead in order TO obtain their bones relics.
They could not wait for them to decay She
said she had seen drum sticks made Of Yankee
shinbonsS," as they called them. Mrs Butler
also stated that she hsd seen a skull that one of
lhs New Orleans Artillery had, which, be said,
he was gSing to send home and have mounted
and that he intended to drink brandy punch
out of it the day he was married
But the recital of the "bsrbari.es of the
rebels dess not stop with these pictures of the
bloody bones and the witches caul dron 1t
appears that Gov Sprague, of Rhode Island,
was called to the witness stand by the commit
tee. This respectable witness furnishes fresh
dish Of horrors. Hs had visited the battlefield
Of Manassas to recover the body of an officer, and
must, as we imagine, have been very much nor
ulussed in his search for the flesh and bones of
the Yankee "eolone,' - to fiud that the corpse
had been "dug up by the rebels, by some men
of a Georgia regiment, his head cut Oft, and his
body taken to q ravine thirty or forty yards be.
low, and there burnt" The governors search
was repaid only by "a shirt" and "a blanket
with the hair left upon it," which fgurative
relics were duly consigned to a rose wood coffin
and buried with military hon0r5. The governor
also complains, in his testimony, that on opsn-
ing the bitches where the Yankees were buried,
he found them "filed with soldiers, all buried
with their face downwards."
! In reply to a question Of a member of the
committee as to whether he was satisfied that
they were buried Intentionally with their face
downward, Governor Sprague's answer was
| " Undoubtedly Beyond sll controversy -
and that it was done as a mark of indignity. "
In answer to another question as to what theiI
| object could have be9n, especially in regard to
the body Of Colonel Slocum, be replied, Sheer
brutality and nothing else. They did it on ae-
count Of his courage and chiYalry in forcing
his regiment fsarlessly and brayely upon them
He destroyed about one half of that Georgis
regiment which was made up Of their best citi
zens." When the inquiry was put whether be
thought these bsTbsrities were committed by
that regiment, he responded, by that same
regiment, as I was told"
These horrors, now they have been cooked az
in the shape of Congressional document will
without doubt, be industriously paraded befor'
the Yankee masses The committee exposes en-
object of this eficial publication Of old lie
dished from their newspapers and other dirt!
channels, a, claring that they should inspir
the people of the North to renewed exertions il
this war" Every effort has been made to stui
the minds Of ignorant people in the North wit
the fancy that /" the rebels' are fends ia hums
shape.
The report Of the committee furnishes an ex
cellent stock for defamation on this subject
The politicians viii use it dainty ladies' Wi
make it theme for the psrlor, and the dand,
preacher-"that mere white cuTd of asses milk,
who lisps the htany for Mr. Lincoln's soul, AM
pats his mouth with the white handkerchief
will iud new stock of figures and illustration
for his sermon on the " irreverence of the re
bellion." But yet, it is to be doubted whethe
there is any considerable number of fools sill
enough, even in the dominions Of the Yankees
to be sincerely imposed on by this official editio
of modern tales for the nursery.
? The other object Of the committee on the raw
D fhead and bloody bones is to excite against tn
South the disgust and horror of foreign Ms
D tons" In this they have certainly made
: woful miscalculation. The vain and extraord
7 nary task attempted by the Yankee governmer
D of endesvoring to seduee tie opinions of th
q world by such an official document as tbs
which has emenated from Congress on the sui
I ect of rebel baEbarities is the snare Of devil
/ but weak IS il is malicious. The North hl
, oYerlesped itself in lying. Ii has established