Western sentinel. [volume] (Winston [i.e. Winston-Salem], N.C.) 1856-1886, 1862-12-19
THE PALMYRA MASSACRE.

/ ten Confederate prisoners, at Palmyra, Missouri
bv order of General McNlel. This is accom-
| panied by some remarks upon retaliation as q
policy which deserve to be pondered by our
people w clear that retaliation for crime
when it reasonably promises to be prevent
| i've OF crime, is the boundea duty of a Govern
ment. Bnt that blind thirst for mere revenge
which finds Is regecdies of consequence in
| the hloeS OF persoa $ ;Enoceist of the crime for
which they suffer, is not to be indulged. We
| have our character to preserve we'll
liberties to maintain. But the ineffabe atroci-
lty at Palmyra imperatively demanded the
tion that was taken by OR President. If the
Innocent suffer instead of the guilty, their blood
will be on Lncoln's hands, for he has his op-
tion to deliver up the amateur butcher:'
| w ar is q horrible scourge, but IL is not in
the heat Of conflict that its horror becomes i'm
pressed ON the mind n the brave man. In the
wild excitement Of that hour there is no place
for pity. We are always tol9 that it is after
| the battle and when standing among the diving
/ and the wounded, that the great reaction comes.
1t is then that fierce warriors become merclful.
! ard that deadly enemies take themselves the
Offices Of good Samaritans. The dreadful
/ duty Of slaughter is zeaiously performed even
| by the best men when their hand is in; but
TO kill in cold blood and take the lives oe upre-
slsting men, to put to death captlves who have
surrended on promise OF quarter--ths is the
| most fearful necessity which could fall upon
| soldier and if not IA necessity, it is the most
| fiendsh crime that can be perpetrated by cow
aadly ard cruel nature.
| The account we publish to-day Of the mas
sacre Of ten Confederate prisoners OF war at
Pamyra, in Missouri, will be read with a
shudGer all over Cnrsterdo1n. General Nc
! Neil has earned for himself place among the
monsters who shed blood lovingly. We need
not recount here the details of this sckenipg
| tragedy. The COOL deliberate selection of the
! ten vctms--all, as we should judgd from their
names, native Amer cans; the parsding them
with their collins beside them tie slow and
/ leag gthenea procession to the dstaut place of
saug ghter; the drawing up OF the firing party,
the partially Intellectual FIRE and then the Gen
eral finish of the massacre with revolvers-al
this is told without sympathy censure, by
! friend Of the assassns, but the facts them
selves will command the interest of every read
er. Aud what had these poor done
How had they forfeited their right to be treated
as prisoners Of war? Ia what way had they
sinned against that military code which alcne
preserves the contests Of men from becon. ing
| worse than the contests of wild beasts ? Had
they con"pired TO overpower their captors, or
had they contrived escape2 Nothing OF the
| sort is alleged against them. Palmyra, where
this atrocity was done, can scarcely be said to
be in danger. 1t is situuted near the bank of
the Upper Mississippi, where the Federal gun
boats all powerful. 1t had however, been
for short time in the possession cf the Con-
federates, and had recently been recovered by
General Mcneil. II then discovered that
a man named Andrew Allslnan had disappear
ed during the time OF she Confederate occupa
ton. 1t is not suggested that he bad been kill
ed. He may have been carried away as pris-
oner of war he may have fad away Of his own
free will ali that is known of him is that he
was not at his former home. This unexplained
absence of one individual, formed the excuse of
Genera McNe Tor numbering iE cold blood,
ten Of the prisoners in his hands-men who
had nothing to do with Allsman and who were
in all probability, captives at the time that
Aisnan left Palmyra 1t was deliberate
we'll considered act Of military murder. car.
red out with all the forms ofa military ex-
ecuton. .f
w hat must be the consequences ? General
Mcneil becomes by such act as this 'shostis
humani generis ;" if be were to fall into the
hands of the Confederates, they would of course
hang him, and with the applause of all man
kind. But a General ho can do su>h craven
deed OF blood is not hkoly to put himself in |
the neighborhood of danger. Genera. Mcneil
like General Butler whose evil fame he has I
not eciipsed, will keep himself out Of har ms
way. 1t is. however. to pe feared that when
the tidings of this treacherous cruelty reach |
the Confederate chiefs, they also will think it |
necessary TO make the innocent suffer for the