Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1862-05-15

lOere was no privacy AZ ull Dtcdust. tHeTe
being no door, the room could not be closed.
We were there as common show. Colonel
Wilcox and myself were objects Of interest,
and were gazcd upon a. il we were u couple
of savages. The people would come in there
7 US, until | was obliged to tell them that
was prisoner, and had nothing to say. On
our way to Richmond, when We reached
Gordonsyille, many women crowded around
the cars, and asked my wife il she cpoked,
it she washed, how she got there. Finally,
Mrs. Ricketts, appealed to the officer in
charge, and told him that it was not the in.
! tention that we should be subjected to this
. treatment, and il it was continued she would
make it known to the authorities Gen.
r Johnston took my wife horses and car.
riage at Manassas, kept them, and has them
yet, for aught | know.
when got to Richmond, | spoke to
, seyera gentlemen ABOUT this, and 50 did
Mrs. Ricketts,. They said, of course, the
carriage and horses should be returned
but they never were. There is one debt,
says this gallant soldier, that | desire very
much to pay, and nothing troubles me 50
much now as the fact that my wounds pre-
vent me from entering upon active service
at once.
lnhumanity to the living has been the
leading trait OF the rebel leaders, but it was
reserved for your committee to disclose, as
a concerted system, their insults to the
wounded, aud their mutiation and desecra.
ton OF the gallant dead. Our soldiers IA.
ken prisoners in honorable battle have been
subjected to the most shameful treatment.
All the considerations that inspire chival.
ric emotions and generous considerations for
brave men have been disregardcd. 1t is al
most beyond belief that the men fighting in
such cause as ours. and sustained by a
Government which in the midst of violence
and treachery has given repeated evidence
of its indulgence, should have been sub.
ijected to treatment never before resorted to
by one foreign nation in conflict with an.
other. All the courtesies of professional
aud civil life seem to have been discarded.
The case Of Louis Francis, who was ter.
ribly wounded and maltreated, and lost O
leg is referred to by Gen. Ricketts, but the
testimony of Francis himself is startling. :
He was a private in the New York Four
tocnth Regiment. He says: II was attack.
cd by two rebel soldiers, and wounded 10 the
right knee with the bayonet. As | lay on
the sod they kept bayoneting me until | re-
ceived fourteen wounds. One then left me-
the other remaining over me, when Unior
soldier coming up shot him in the breast
and he fell dead. l lay on the ground unit
ten o clock next day. Was then removed
in wagon to building; my wounds ex
amined and partially dressed.
''On the Saturday following we were car
ried to Manassas, and from there TO tn,
general hospital at Richmond. My leg hay
. ing partially mortified, consented That
, should be amputated, whict oper ..tion wa
! performed by a young man. insisted tha
they should allow p. Swain to be present
for wanted one Union man there ii l die,
under the ororation. The stitches and tn
, band Slipped from neglect, and the bon
protr';ied: and about two Weeks after an
: of..ir operation was performed, at wEicl
time another piece Of the thigh bone wa
, sawed off. Six weeks after the amputation
| and before 1t healed, was removed To tn
i tobacco factory"
Two operations were subsequently per
formed OH Francis-one at Fortress Monro
and one at Brooklyn, New York-after hi
release from captivity.
i Revolving as these disclosures are it wa
when the committee came to examine wit
nesses in reference to the treatment of ou
heroic dead that the 6endish spirit of tn,
> rebel leaders was most prominently exhibit
n ed Daniel Bixby, Jr., of Washington
y testi6es that he went out in company will
!. G. A, Smart of Cambridge, Massachusetts
+ who went to search for the body of hi
. brother, who fell at Blackburn y Ford in tn
n action of the 18th OF July. They foun
the grave. The clothes were identified a
: those Of his brother on account of som
= peculiarly in the make, for they had bee
made by his mother; and, in order to iden
y tify them, other clothes made by her wer
/ taken, that they might compare them.
I 1--WE found no head in the grave, and n
bones Of any kind-nothing but the ciothe
v and portions of the flesh. We found tn
:. remains Of three other bodies all together
: The clothes were seen: some flesh was left
but no bones. The witness also states Mrs
4 Pierce Butler, who lives near the place, sal
q that she had seen the rebels boiling portion
of the bodies Of our dead in order to obta
i their bones as relics. They would not wal
for them to decay. She said that she ha
. seen drumsticks made Of Yankee shin
! bones, as they called them. Mrs Butler
I also stated :hat she had seen skull tina
one of the New Orleans artillery had, which
r he said, he was going to send home ant
a have mounted, and that he intended to drini
brandy punch out of it the day he wa
a married.
Frederick Scholes, of the city of Brook
. lyn, New York, testified that ho proceede
a to the battlefield of Bull Run on the 4th O
r this month (April) to find the place wher
n he supposed his brothers body wa, buried
/. Mr.. Scholes, who is man Of unQuestione
4 character, by his testimony fully confirm
r the statements of other witnesses. He me
4 tree negro, named Simon or Simons, VIII