, 1865-09-01
RETRIBUTI0N IN TENNESSEE.
wlnt the CnionYst& Have to Remember Il
nntf to IIeyenEe-A Chance for Copper
head Sympathy.

Mr.. Minms, .worthy citizen Of East Ten
nessee, was brutaliy murdered tn his own yard
at aiorristowu 4 few days since. No cogni-
zance whatever was taken OF the deed oy the
The McDowe1ls and other leading families
have been forced to leave Grcenyil1e to save
their lives.
Where peace once prevailed now anarchy
reiEns supreme. Murders and violence t:ily
occur, at which 1t seems Heaven conld but
a laay In Jonesbofo', writing to friend In
thls city, Jnly 10Th, erprcsscsthe opinion thnt
in six months there will not be respectable
family In that town, or surrounding country,
that can possibly get awny.
II Is also slated On good authority that
Capt. LenoIr, Mte Of the rebel army, was re.
Gently taken from his house At Lenolr East
Tennessee, carried into the woods and mtr-
dcred In cold blood. The parties who perpe-
t1ated this ont rage are unknown.
Within the past few days, several neWspa-
pers in this State, somc controlled BY men
who have been nctive rebels, and Others BY
apostates from the Union party, have been
stigmatizing the UnionIsts Of East Tennessee
rs outlaws and mobocrats, because, in some
once led from the counties Of Brady, Knox,
Greene and Washington By night, 10 escape
the wrath of their rebel neighborstwho hid
By day In cnyes, and ate. dark made their
way to Camp Dick Robertson, and after en-
listing in the army, served for four long years
under the national lag-thcsc men, We say,
harirg taken summary revenge on their old
prosecutors, by driving them out OF the coun-
try, are stlgmatizcd ns lawless ecounarcls By
men who either kept silent OF approved when
1861. Have these returned Union soldiers
had no provocatIou to make them orersteP
the letter Of the law, when they meet their
prosecutors, after M exile Of four years, by
The side of their wasted homes md deso-
listed farms? Arc there no paliatiag
friends, who hare fought for us SO herofcally,
from the same censure which has Justly been
heaped on the heads Of 1shatn Harris' vi.i.
lance committees md Champ Furguson's
guerillas? Let it bc remembered that no peo,
ple In the country were SO terribly outraged
and cxasperated BY the rebels as were the
East Tennessee Unioniets. Every insult and
wrong conceivable was hcaped upon them,
One Of these enormous atrocities Fas the
Laurel Greek massacre, which occurred IN
Great Smoky Mountains, between Tennessee
and North Carolina The rebels at the Viz
gfnIa salt works had refused 10 let Union men
obtain salt. A bravo fellow named Kirk got
some wagons md n company Of armed men,
went 10 the town OF Monroe, broke open the
storehouse where salt was kept, and marched
| Oft in triumph. Word was sent to Col.
Aliens Legion, at Knoxville, who, with Col.
Keith, took body Of cavalry and started to
the Lanrel Greek settlement, where the Union
men lived They marched down tho valley,
burning up the houses in their way. A little
boy, some ten years old, was sitting on the
fence, before one Of the houses. i soldier
! fired at him and broke his arm in two places.
| The poor boy shrieked md ran oil, when the
| soldiers poured yo11ey after him and ridd1ed
Ills little body before the face Of his mother.
| They kept on their way burning and destroy
ing. They entered house where there were
an old lady and a young married womnn-
| They tied the former up By her wrists, and
taking the young woman, repeatedly, out
rnged her person. She Is now q naniac. By
dint Of torture, threats and promises, they at
last found The hiding place Of thirteen Union
men. Col. Keith placed them in line md
had them shot down, in the presence Of over
three hundred women and children, whom he
hal driven along like cattle to witness the
massacre Of theiI husbands, friends and neigh
beheld the awful sight, told the tale to our In
foEmant. It 80 shocked him that lie left the
service in disgust. Such WIS tho conduct ol
Col. Allcn's Legion In East Tennessee, In the
Laurel Greek settlement, whose massacre
laEivals that at Lawrence By Quantrel.
Inandcd by Col Thomas md altcrward by
Maior Stringleld, camped around the house
Of the Hon. 4. j. Fletcher, now Secretary ol
State, part of them pitching their tents IN his
| back yard. Alr. Fletcher, to save Als lie, naO
previously escaped. : A party Of Indian sav;
ngcs, p1oted by one OF his neighbors tracked
him tbr two days oyer the mountains towards
Kentucky. : The Indians were kept in East
Tennessee year, chiefly for the purpose 0!
following up the refugees over tho mountains,
the Indians, in this respect, being equal to
the blood-hounds used in other quarters
These crimes brought no disgrace or
| their perpetrators with the rebel au
thorities. A widow woman Of Greene coun
ty, afflicted with epi1eptic fits, had sor
seventeen years Of age. Tho conscript officer
called for him, but he had fed. The woman
refused to tell where her son had gone, and 1
soldier in attendance, named Thomas, delib
erately shot her dead. In ono month thu
| murderer was promoted. And Jet, If the son;
| OF the victims Of Laurel Creek, OF the son o
this murdered widow, should take summar,
vengeance On the murders of their parents
they are denounced rs eut-throats and out
+ laws, by editors who never uttered one wore
of remonstrauce when the rebel flag was hoist
| ed on our State House, mud Union men wer,
flying ftcm their homes. Weareno advocate
of violence. We should rejoice If the Law
could always take It's course, and Justice &C
Its due. But, nevertheless, It fires ones bloot
TO hear Union soldiers denounced as mobo
crnts, because, In the heat OF passion, the,
have made their insolent and unpunished pei
| snrufors fce1 their wrath.