Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1864-06-02
st. UairsyiIIs, Chic, June 2.
Murder Puaished by Five Years
In she Peniteatiary--Sentence
or Robert Taylor.
WAR DEPARTMENT,
= ADJUTANT GENERALS OFFICE, }
WAcnrEHrpN IA ~ M... IA ton.'

consisting Of Captain Z. Thompson. 18th
Michigan Volunteers; Capt owen Griffith.
ga Wisconsin Volunteers Cant. James
Mutt. 9Th Indians Volunteers Can't 3.
4. May, 22d Wisconsin Volunteers: First
'h'eutenant Georse Banman, 22l Wisconsin
Volunteers; and which cauvenod at Mur-
freesboto', tennessee, Sept il, 1863, rur-
sqant to Special Orders No 8, dated Post
Headquarters, Mnrfreesboro'. Sept 9, 1868,
was srraigned and tried Robert Taylor,
citizen.
Charge "Murlcr."
: SPECIFICATION this: that he, the said
Robert Taylor, a citiz,n of Coffee county.
IN the State Of Tennessee, did beat negro
woman named "Rottor" in such manner
that she died from the effects of the wounds
Tins Inflicted. This on or about the 81 lst
day OF August. 1868, nj or near the resi-.
donce of said Robert Taylor, about three
miles from the town Of Hiilsboro', in Coffee
county, Tennessee.
To which charge and specification tho &C.
cu,ed, Robert. Taylor, a citizen, pleaded
mot guilty"
The commission having maturely coasnl.
cred the evidence adduced, finds the &C.
cused, Robert Taylor, a cit;zen,,a ,as follows .
VI the specification GUILTY"
or the ch,rgs-''Not guilty as charged,
but guilty Of mauslaushter
SENTENCE.
And the Commission does therefore son
tence him Robert Taylor, citizen, .'to be
confined IN the State Psaimoo,y Jor the
period Of Jice yearS.".
H. The proceedings, findings and sen
tence In the foregoing case having been ap.
proved by the Major General commanding
the Department, aud laid before the Presi
dent of the United Statos, the following are
his orders:
The testimony in the case, NJ found in
the record, is brief aud free from all dis
crepancy Of contradiction. The prisoner,
It seems, alleged that an amount of money
had been stolen from him-how much was
not stated.-but there was no proof of any
such theft, still less anything tending to
connect with it tho murdered woman, on
whom his suspicious fell. Probably, how
ever, from apprehension Of punishment,
this woman whom he claimed to own, made
an attempt to run awny, was pursued by
the prisoner and his nolg ghbors captured, and
brought back
The prisoner then procured a rope, and,
addressing himself to the by-standers, asked
II there was any one present who cor;l tic
"a hang knot, when man named, w mack
stepped forward aud tied il. The prisoner
then adjusted 1t around the neck OF re wo-
man, and, throwing it over the liub of q
tree in tho sight of his own dwelling. where
were his wife and daughters, the work of
murder began.
Elndlng.that the woman protected her
self by siezing the rope with her hands, it
was slackened aud her hands tied, and again
she was drawn up, SO that her toes barely
touched the ground and in this position
she was held by the prisoner unit from suf
location and exhaustion her head fell on one
side. Through tho interpositiop of the
prisoners wife and the by-standers theropo
was thcnloosenod, and an opportunity given
the woman to revive. While this torture
was going on the prisoner declared his object
to be to compel the woman to ooufcss the
then charged upon her. but she stouily dc
MED any knowledge of the money alleged
to have been lost.
She was now taken by the prisoner to his
lanyard, distant two hundred or two hundred
and Hityyards, aud was there stripped by
him fall herclolhes except herchense.
In the language OF one of the witnesses,
she was then confined BY crossing her hands
and tying them together; then putting them
over her knees with stick thrust under,
holding them in that position" Thus
plnlened and lying alternately on her face
anu on her side, as the purposes of her
tormentor required, for some two hours and
ahaif, with brief intervals, she was whipped
by the prisoner with leather thong, two
inches wide and three feet long, having
knot on the end. At tho expiration Of
this time some neighbors present said they
thought ha bad whipped her about enough
that tine" and he thereupon desisted.
She was then united and assisted by one of
her neighbors towards tho Kitchen,
staggering and falling several times from
exhaustion on tho way.
.:She succeeded, however in reaching the
kitchen, on the threshold of which she fell,
IN the presence of the prisoners wife, aud
few minutes thereafter expired The shame
less character Of the defence was in keeping
with the crime. twas insisted in the defense
that the woman's death was produced by
some cold water, Of which, in her heated and
exhausted condition, she had drank; and, in
attempted palliation of the prisoners
murderous brutality, it was proved by
several OF his neighbors that he bore good
moral character, and clothed and fed his
slaves well; and for himself he stated that hs
had once before, on similar charge, given
the woman eveA worse whipping,than that
Of which she died.
That a body. Of officers, holding commits
sions ia the army Of tho United States, and
acting under the responsibility of an bath,
should deal thus lightly with 30 shocking a
sacrifice Of human life, cannot but excite the
continents Of mingled surprise and regret
Every circumstance sur ounding these crimes
sggravatss is enormity, among which may
70 bo named the absence ofall provocation the
prolonged tortures TO which tho wretohed
sufferer was subjected, thus niiording ample
tlrno Tor all human passion, had any existed
to have cooled, but above all, the sex and
utter. helplsssness ofths bound aud unresist-
ing victim.
The President directs that the sentence
inadequate as il is shall, except as to he place
ofconfnement, beearried into execution, and
Albany, New York, designated as the
psnitentiary where he shall be conGaed;
bot while doing so, he feels it Incumbent
upon him 10 call tho attention of the army,
and especially Of those charged with the
administration Of military justice, 20 the
insensibility displayed by this commission,
and to expressive disspprobation with which
it is regarded. The members Of the