The Weekly Perrysburg journal. [volume] (Perrysburg, O. [Ohio]) 1861-1???, 1864-03-30
Horrible Cruelty of the Rebels-Hang-
ing Of TwentY-fOur Loyal North-Car-
Olinianss


Horrible Cruelty of the Rebels-Hang-
ing OF TwentY-four Loyal North-Car-
oliuianss
BEAuFoRr, N. G., March Q.
The unknown martyrs of this war are
many. The madness of rebel leaders and
the feroeity Of the numerous guerrilla bands
who hover about the advancing armies OF
ffeedom, are not moro noteworthy thar the
sublime but silent devotion with which
hundreds Of Southern men are continually
yielding their lives, after passing through
the ordeal Of every form Of torture the
most devilish ingenuity can invent, as evil
dence to the existence, in the Southern
States, of widespread loyalty to the Con-
stitution and the Union, which neither
scourgings, starvation. bloodhounds nor
tho gallows can ever eradicate.
An illustration of this was recently FUR
nished in North Carolina, upon scale
which in times less tragic than opr own
would have caused every heart on the con-
tinsnt to thrill with painful sympathy, but
which amidst the glare Of great events, may
be unnoted, or at best only recorded in q
brief paragraph.
When the attack was made on Newborn,
on the ID of February last, Company F of
the Second Regiment North Carolina Union
Volunteers, was stationed at Beech Grove,
the extreme outpost from Newberh. When
it became evident that the position could
not be held against the overwhelming
force ofrebels, which was rapidly approach
ing, the men Of this company, having the
certainty of an ignominious death before
them if they should DO captured, proposed
to the officer in command to pilot, the force
at the outposts in safety to Newborn, by
paths through the woods known only to
themselves. But unfortunately they were
temporarily in charge of officers not belong
F! ing to their own regiment, who were either
| ignorant of the blood-thirsty character ol
the enemy or too timid to fight to the death
| if fight were deemed impracticable. Had
these men been commanded by officers o
their own regiment, they would have es
capped, or, as preferable to their inevitable
doom il taken prisoners, would have found
a more honorable death on the field. As il
was, they were stornly forbidden to leave
the ranks, and, without a shot being free
or the stipulation secured that they should
be treated as prisoners of war, they were
surrendered nineteen out of seventy only
escaping.
OF the fifty-one prisoners, twenty-four
were Immediately hung by order of thu
rebel General Pickett. On tho scaffold a
Kinston, these twenty.four heroes met thei
fate with true courage. In the presence o
the rebel forces, and surrounded by th'
people of their own State they avoyed thei
entire devotion to the Union. After receiv
ing the consolation of religion, one of thei
number stepped forward, and, in u firm anC
clear voice, declared that he and his com
panions died, as they had lived, "Unioi
men," One of the victims was little drum
mer boy, named Joey Neal, only fourteen
years fage, fair complexonod,. blue-eyeC
child, an orphan, enlisted in Beaufort b.
the writer of these lines, out of pure com
passion for his destitute state another,
robust man, Amas Amyette, was tortured
for fifteen minutes before the ill-ad justeC
rope could strangle him to death