Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1862-05-20
51ortester @aiIp Spp.
Sufferings of Tennessee Unionists.

lFrom Parson Brownows Speech in New York;
In the county of Knox, where | reside. and
only seven miles west of the town of Knox
vile, they caught up Union men. tied them
upon logs, elevated the log upon blocks six or
ten inches from the ground, put the men upon
their breasts, tieing their hands and feet nm
der the log, stripped their backs entirely bare.
and then, with switches, cut their backs liter
ally to pieces, the blood running down at eve
Ty stroke. They came into court when it was
IN session, and when the case was stated, the
Judge replied :-"These are revolutionary
tunes, and there is no remedy for anything of
the kind Hence, you see, our remedy is in
our own hands; and, with the help of guns
and swords and sabres we intend, God willing,
to Stay them when we get back there WHEREBY
er we find them. (Cheers.)
In the Jail where l lay they were accustom-
ed to drive up with a horse and cart with an
ugly, rough, tiat-topped coffin upon it, sur
rounded by fifteen to forty men, with brist-
ing bayonets, as guard to march in through
the gate into the Jail yard, with steady, militia
ry tread We trembled in our boots. for they
never notified us who was to be hanged, and
you may imagine how your humble servant
telt; Tor II any man in that Jail, under their
law, deserved. the gallows, claim to have
been the man. l knew it, and they knew it.
They came sometimes with two collins. one
OH each cart, and they took two men at a time
and marched them out. poor old man of
slXty-tiye and his son of twenty-five were
marched out at one time and hanged on the
same gallows. They made that poor old man,
who was Methodist class leader sit by and
see his son hang till he was dead, and then
they called him damned Linconite Union
shneker, and said, 'Come on, it is your next
y IIn sonI- hut
and led him to the halter, and swung both off
on the same gallows. They came. after that,
for another man, and they took j. c. Haum
out OF Jail-a young man of fine sense, good
address, and Of excellent character tall.
spare-made man, leaving wife at home with
four or five helpless children. My wife passed
the farm of Haum'S the other day, when they
drove her out of Tennessee and sent her on
to New Jersey-I thank them kindly for doing
so-and saw his wife ploughing, endeavoring
to raise corn for her suffering and starving
children This is the spirit of secession, gen
tlemen. And yet you have a set of God-for-
saken, unprincipled men at the north who are
apologlzlng for them and sympathizing with
them. (Applause.)
hanging is going on all over East Tennes-
see. They shoot them down in the fields,
they whip them, and, as strange as it may
SSGlll W you, III lle COullueS OF Campbell ana
Anderson, they actually lacerate with switches
the bodies of females, wives and DAUGHTERS of
Union men-clever, respectable women.
They show no quarter to male or female; they
rob their houses and then throw them into
prison.
When they took Haum out and placed him
on the scaffold they had a drunken chaplain.
They were kind enough to notify him an
hour before the hanging that he was to hang.
Haum at once made an application for a
Methodist preacher, Union man, to come
and pray for him. They denied him the
privilege, and said that God didn't hear any
prayers in behalf of any damned Union Shrek
er, and he had literally to do without the
benefit of clergy. But they had near the gal
lows an unprincipled, drunken chaplain Of
their own army, who got up and undertook
to apologize for Haum. He said ''This poor,
unfortunate man, who is about to pay the
debt OF nature, regrets the course he took
lie said he was misled by the Union paper"
Haum rose up, and with a clear, stentorian
voice, said; 'Fellow citizens There is not a
word Of truth in that statement. | have au-
thOrized nobody to make such statement
What | have said and done / have done and
SAID with my eyes open, and, if it were to be
done over, | would do it again. | am ready
to hang, and you can execute your purposes"
He died like a man; he died like a Union
As God is my judge, l would sooner be Haum
in the grave to-day than any Of the scoundrels
concerned in his murder