Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1864-07-20

L. -. i u
cuemy shcw preparatory signs Of falling
back.
Atrocities and Crimes Of Negro Soldiers
A correspondent Of the Missippian, fur
nishing that Journal all accountof FoRREsr's,
great victory ia Mississippi, and bis thorough
ly thrashing out Sturis and his cut-throat
army, gives the annexed horrible accounts Of
the inhuman atrocities perpetrated by Sturgis'
soldiers in West Tennessee and Mississippi:
You must know that most OF Forests
men are from Western Tennessee. Before
the battle, fugilives from the counties through
which Sturgis and his troops were advancing
came into our camp, detailing incidents which
made men shudder who are accustomed to
scenes of violence and bloodshed. cannot
recite the stories of these poer frightened
people. Robbery, rapine and the assassina.
ton of men and women, were the least Of
crimes committed while the "avenngers of
Fort Pillow" overran and deSolated the coun-
try. Rude unlettered meu, who had fought
at Shiloh and in many subsequent battles,
wept like children when they heard Of the
enormities to which their mothers, sisters
and wives had been subjected by the negro
mercenaEies of Sturgis. The mildest, most
placable OF our soldiers became .maddened
when they beard how the persons of their
kinswoInen were violated The negroes wele
regardless Of the age, condition, sex or en-
treaties of their victims. In one instance,
the grand mother. daughter, and grand daugh
ter, were each, ,jnthe same room, held by the
drunken brutes and subjected to outrages by
the bare recital of which humanity is appalled,.
A young wife, eacicnte, taken to a negro
en- en mpmeut end tied 10 stakes driven in
the ground, was made to minister to the
hell born passions of dozen lieRds. Death,
in mercy, came to her reiee. X little boy,
1ho sought to protect his mother, was bru
tally bayoneted. When savageslus were
gratiGed, the victims here. and there Were
burned in their dwellings. Insanity in some
instances, came to the relief OF suferiEss such
as never before were inflicted upon human
creatures by remorseless Gends in human
shape. Terror, and the agony of hopeless
shame, and famine, aud fire, and bloodshed,
and the assassination Of the helpless and nm
offending, marked the progress of the Aven-
gers of Fort Pillow" II is not strange that
negro prisoners were "lost.H The whites
who led them on, and ino;ted them 10 ;hest
daranable deeds. deserve more terrible un.
ishIpent Yet We have sent four thousand OF
those white men to prison TO be exchanged.
Simpl, justice demands their instant execn-
ton bv the hangman's rope. .e
a terrible retributiDn, in any event, has be-
fallen the ignorant; deluled Africans. Eur
nished with arms, besotted by.whi>key, misled
by lies, m,.ddened BY hopes which they can
never realize, they have committed crimes
which make the blood run cold, and-must
shock the moral sentiment of the age. The
world will hardly know which to condemn
most-the falsehood Of the reportof the CON-
mittee of Federal Congressman which inves-
tigated the @Fort Pillow massacre" Or the
conduct of the savage brutes employed to
ayenge it. If all that is alleged in this Con-
eressional report be true, there would be
found no justification for TIE unheard of en-
crmities practiced upon helpless women,
more helpless old age and hopeless poverty,
BY the mob of murdererS and lawless mis-
creants who followed Sturgis from Memphis.
The crimes of Butler, the paragon of brutes,
have lost their blackness; Millroy would adorn
the Calendar of Saints; Sherman becomes an
angel of mercy compared with this hellborn
monster, who incites negroes to the commits
sion Of crimes such as'were never perpserated
since Christianity illuminated the hopes and
sanctified the purposes of men and nations.
Very few negroes, it seems, have been cap
tured. Perhaps not more than forty or fifty
have appeared at headquarters. Most Of them
fled as soon as it was known that Forrest was
on the battlefield. Those that were taken
escaped. III The soldiers say they lost
A BRAND FOR CewARDs.-While awarding
full praise, as far as can be given, to our true
soldiers and brave defenders in arms, it's the