The Idaho world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1864-1918, 1866-11-17
ANINTERE REsTING LETTER.


By the kindness of Judge J. ]. May, Pros
ecuting Attorney for this Judicial District,
we are permitted to lay before our readers
the following extracts from two letters lately
received from dear relatives of his in Arkan-
sas. They tell their own terrible story of
the horrors of the late war, and the atroci-
ties in some instances perpetrated by Federal
soldiers
GAINESVILLE. Ark, Oct. 2. 1866.
DEAR BRoTHER:-Y Your letter of the 26th Au-.
gust is at hand, and it revives old memories with>
in me. Since our happy days there' has been
great suffering among us here. You have not seen
or heard what we have bitterly experienced-the
broad waste Of devastating war; the flames and
smouldering fires Of burning houses; the cries of
helpless old men, of wemen and children for
bread, for mercy, for life-too often in vain; the
slaughter Of the defenceless and the violence done
to the graves of the brave who had fallen in bat
tie. We have drank deeply of woes and ealam-
tiles.
Our beloved father closed his life February 23,
lSS3 i'll his Goth year, full of honors, and revered
in the community ia which he lived, true to his
country and his God. At the time of his burial it
was reported there was gold hid in his grave, and
one night party of Union soldiers came, took
Mother and sister Belle from their beds, choked
them and finally placed them, barefooted, on
heaps Of live Goals, to eXtort from them the con-
fcssion where the money was. Under this horrid
torture they told, and the gold-all the money left
to them in the world a sum of $254 was dug up
and taken by the soldiers. They made sister walk
with them to the spot, with her burned feet and
she and Mother were unable to walk again for
several weeks. They were afterwards driven, in
the dead of winter from their home, and with a
scarcity of clothing, without food, had to push
their way to Red river
Sister Martha's house was burned down. Sister
Anna was dragged from her bed into the yard, by
the soldiers under Gen. M'Nei, threatened with
instant death if she did not give, up her money,
and her houses and barns on the farm were all
burned. Similar scenes were frequent all through
this country.
l told Tom Boles that knew the rebel army on
this side of the Mississippi river as well as any
man, and ! knew that no rebel soldier ever so
much as took chicken, or ANYTHING else of value
in the presence of the owners without offering to
pay for it /; that they never nsulted women, rob
bed children, or committed any excesses like the
Union troops. | challenged him to show to the
contrary and he could not. told him it would be
ever matter of pride to me to have served with
such men; but that it would be ever to him mat.
ter of regret to have been connected with the
Federal army The name of Rebel has no sound
OF reprdacIaO me- Can Virginia ever be ashamed
of her great Rebel Washington and Lee?
William Spears lost everything in the war his
eldest son WAS killed at the battle of Oak Hill or
Wilson Creek as the Feds. call it, the first year of
the war. 10. Adkins lost everything but his land
Dan. Drury was killed in the rebel army. Your
Willie left. as he received intimation that the
grand jury would indict him for something he is
supposed to have done during the war;
All. and myself had accumulated nice prop
erty, but it is all swept away. Joe. was murdered
last Winter in Texas.