The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1866-12-12
Thot south Carolina Murder.

'S''s t''S CNStO't <4uStFLSSTs
Among the recommendations of the
committee of the Union members OF
Congress, in their report adopted ut the
caucus on wednesday evening, was one
contemplating the appointment of a
committee of investigation in regard to
the release of certain South Caroiinians,
| convicted of the murder of three Union
soldiers in October, 1865, and the con-
nectinn of Secretary Browning with the
matter. This affair, taking place al
| such distance and concurrently with
SO many similar incidents of less afro
city, is perhaps not very generally un-
derstood at the North, and we will there
lore give a brief review of its principal
features.
The murder took place in the fall OF
the year made memorable by the down
fall of the rebellion and the accession
OF Mr.. johnson to theI presidential chair,
ana at about the season when conven-
tlonS under his auspices were repeating
the ordinances of secession in the in
surgent States. a corporal and two
privates of the 1st Maine Regiment
were placed on guard over fifteen bales
OF cotton which the officers of the Treas
ury Department had seized, on the Sa-
Vannah River. The South CarolinIan
who claimed to be the owner of the cot
ton, his son, and three of his friends.
determined to take it back by force, and.
the faithful sentinels refusing to surren-
der 1t, the claimants shot them in cold
blood. Two of the soldiers were in
stantly killed and the other, mortallv
wounded, was held under the water OF
the river till life was extinct. Four OF
tho murderers were arrested, tried be-
lore n military commission, and, their
guilt being proved beyond the shadow
OF doubt, were sentenced to death.
But these men were prominent rebels,
fN ,1.rN 81,
power for the machinery of pardon.
The notorious William H. TrescOtt, of
South Carolina, was entrusted with
their case, and the results were in rapid
succession. The murderers were to be
hanged on the 9th of April. On the
24th Mr.. Johnson telegraphed to Cen
eral Sickles to suspend the execution;
soon after he commuted the sentence
to Imprisonment for life in Castle
Pinckney; then,-HOn. o. II. Brown
ing having meanwhile been retained
in the case,-the President authorized
the removal OF the prisoners, out of the
jurisdiction of General Sickles, to Fort
Delaware; and in few days a Della
ware judge issued a writ of hdbeuS Cor
pWS and released the prisoners from
custody on the ground that military
courts were illegal. OF course the re-
mOval of the murderers from prison in
the neighborhOOd OF their own home
and friends TO one so far distant can
have had no other object than to make
possible their release on this plea; and
Mr.. johnson must be held responsible
for conniVing at decision which, if
applied in other similar cases, would
set free tho conspirators now held at
the Dry TOrtugas, and brand the exc
cutions of Payne and Wirz as military
murders.
The statements in circulation as to
the means by which this remarkable
operation was performed, to the effect
that the whole expense was about
$4,000, and that the retaining fee of
one of the most "influential" parties
concerned Tas nearly third of that
congressional committee.