Civilian & telegraph. [volume] (Cumberland, Md.) 1859-1875, 1864-05-26

sistance. Our troops, black and white,
threw down their arms, and sought to
escape by running down the steep bluff
near the fort, and secretihg themselves
behind trees and logs, in tile bushes, and
under the brush, some even jumping into
the river, leaving only their heads above
the water as they crouched down under
the bank.
Then followed scene of cruelty and
murder without parallel in civilized war
which needed but the tomahawk and
,calping- knife to exceed the worst atroci-
ties ever committed by savages. The
Rebels commenced an indiscriminate
slaughter, sparing neither age or sey,
white or black, soldiers or civilian. The
officers and men seemed to vie with each
other in the devlish work Men women
and children, wherever found, were in
discriminately shot down, beaten and
hacked with sabres. Some of the chill
dren, not more than ten years old, were
forced to stand up and face their mothers
while being shot The sick and wounded
were butchered without mercy, the Reb-
els even entering the hospital buildings
and dragging them out to be shot, or
killing them as they lay there unable to
offer the least resistance. All over the
hillside the work OF murder was going
on.
Numbers of our men were gathered
together in lines or groups, and deliber-
ately shot. Some were shot while in
the river, while others on the bank were
shot and their bodies kicked into the
water, many of them still living, but ur-
able to make any exertion TO save them
selves from drowning. Some Of the Re
be.s stood upon the top of the hill, or a
short distance down its side, and called
to our soldiers to come up to them, and
as they approached shot them down in
cold blood. if their guns or pistols missed
fire forcing them to stand there until they
were again prepared to fire. All around
were cries of " No quarter, no quarter !"
"kill the - negroes - " shoot them
down" All who asked for mercy we're
answered by the most cruel taunts and
lsneers.
Some were spared for time only to
be murdered under circumstances of
greater cruelty No cruelty which the
most fletldish malignity could devise was
omitted by these murderers One white
soldier, who was wounded in the leg 30
as to be unable to walk, was made 10
stand up while his tormentors shot him.
Others who were wounded and unable to
stand up, were held up and again shot,
One negro who had been ordered by a
Rebel officer to hold his horse. was killed
by him when he demonstrated. Another
a mere child, whom an officer had taken
up behind him on his horse, was seen by
Chalmers, who at once ordered the officer
to put him down and shoot him, which
was done. The huts and tents in which
many of the wounded had sought shelter
were set on fire both that night and the
next morning, while the wounded were
still in them, those only escaping who
were able to get themselves out, or who
could prevail on others less injured than
themselves to help them out, and even
some of them thus seeking to escape the
flames were met by these ruffians and
brutally shot down, or had their brains
| DcdLcu CuJ. ouC Ildu was
fastened down to the floor of tent, face
upwards, by means ofnails driven through
his clothing and into the boards under
him so that he could not possibly escape,
and then the tent set on fire. Another
was nailed to the side of building,
outside of the fort, and then the building
set on fire and burned. The charred re-
m aims of FIVE or six bodies were afterwards
found, all but one so much distigured and
consumed by the flames that they could
not be identified, and the Identification of
that one is not absolutely certain, although
there can hardly be doubt that it was
the body of Lieutenant Akerstrotn, Quar-
termastcr of the Thirteenth Virginia Cav
airy, and native Tenncsseean. Several
witnesses who saw the remains, and who
were personally acquainted with him
while living here, testified that it is their
firm belief that it was his body that was
thus treated These deeds of murder and
cruelty closed when night came on, only
to be renewed the next morning, when
the demons carefully sought among the
dead lying about in all directions for any
other wounded yet alive, and those they
killed.
Scores of the dead and wounded were
found there the day of the massacre by
the men from SINE of our gunboats,
who were permitted to 60 on shore and
collect the wounded and bury the dead.
The rebels themselves had made pre-
tense of burying great many of their
victims, but they had merely thrown
them, without the least regard for care
or decency, into trenches and bitches
about the fort, or the little hollows and
ravincs on the hillside, covering them
but partially with earth. Portions Of
helGs and faces, hands and feet, were
found protruding through the earth in
every direction, even when y6tr commit
tee visited the spot two weeks
afterwards, although parties of men had
been sent on shore from time to time
to bury the bodies unburied, and re-
bury the others, and we're even then
engaged in the same work. We found
the evidences Of this murder and cruelty
still most painfully. We saw bodies
still unburied, at some distance from the
fort, of some sick men, who had been
fleeing from the hospital, and beaten
down and brutally murdered, and their
bodies left where they had fallen, We
could still zee the faces and hands, aud
feet of men, white and black, protruding
out of the ground, whose graves had not
been reached by those engaged in rein
terring the victims of the massacre, and
although great deal of rain had
fallen within the preceding two weeks
the ground, more especially on the side
at the f,ot Of the blu where the most Of
the murders had been committed, was
still discclored by the blood of our brave
but Unfortunate men, and the logs and
trees showed but too plainly the evidences
| of the atrocities nernetrated there Manu