The weekly North-Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 186?-1869, 1867-01-16

In Buncombe, Henderson, Pennsylvania,
Madison, Haywood, Ashe, Wilkes, Allegha
ny, and indeed in all the Western Counties
similar atrocities were perpetrated. Union
men were shot in their houses, in the woods,
on the public highways. Some were tortur-
ed and then hanged, and their bodies re-
manned suspended until they purified and
were consumed by the fowls of heaven, for
no .one dared to take them down and
give them Christian burial. In one instance,
as we are informed by a friend, six Union
men hung for more than a week at the head
of his lane, he knowing that if he removed
the bodies and buried them he would be
hanged himself
But the browning horror, perhaps, of all
these horrors was what is called "The Lau-
rel Massacre" This took place in the Lau-
rel Valley, Madison County. The State had
provided salt for the people, and certain I'm
ion men in the Laurel Valley thinking they
had not received justice in the matter, went
to the County seat and took some salt by
force. In other respects they no doubt acted
with some roughness and violence, but they
neither killed nor wounded any one. For
this, and because they were Union men,
Confederate Colonel was sent with some
troops into the Valley to punish them. Not
finding the men, the women were roped
around the neck and whipped, to make them
tell where the men were. Eleven men and
two boys were at length caught, charged
with having taken part in the salt raid
They were marched off to lonely place, and
shot without trial of any sort, and their
bodies thrown into trench. One of the
little boys was not killed at the first fire, but
had one of his arms shattered He ran up
to the officer, clasped his remaining arm
about his knees, and begged for his life
The inhuman wretch spurned him with an
oath, and, by his special order, a bullet crash
ed through the child's brain.
The troops which had committed these
foul murders, afterwards ranged through
this doomed Valley and killed not less than
forty Unionists on sight and without trial.
Nearly every household mourned the death
of father or son, and every part of the
Valley was stained with blood.
These facts cannot be disputed. The Off
cial evidence of them was communicated at
the time to Gov. Vance, and this evidence
ought to be, and no doubt is, in the Exec
utive letter-book in the Capitol. We char
acterized this massacre at the time March,
1S63-as "cowardly and wicked" We said
then, as we say now, "the law was not allow
ed to speak. Its justice was not even invo-
ked. The musket did the work. The red
hand of vengeance was triumphant, and the
voice of mercy, which is heard every where,
except in hell, was raised in vain" .
y We lack space to-day to dwell upon other
horrors of similar character, or to speak of
the conscript law, the imprisonment of I'm
ion men for opinions sake, and the cruelties
and starvation of the prison pens at Sails
bury and Andersonville. But all these hor-
rors shall be spread in due time before the
public. This is due to history-it is due to
the prosecuted Unionists of the South, and
it is due to the people, to warn them against
ever trusting again, in any capacity, the lead
ers and instigators of the rebellion. These
leaders are not fit to govern themselves,
much less Others, who are better in all res
poets than they are.
During all this terrible struggle, the Union
men of the State were anxious for peace
As far as they dared to do so, without put
ting their lives in the most imminent jeopar-
day, they wrote, and talked, and labored for
peace on the basis of the Union. But the
war went on-the end at last came, and with
it the subjugation of the South. Those who
had made the war, and had insisted on
fighting it to the bitter end, expected when
it closed that if they could succeed in saving
their lives they would do we'll. They expec-
ted to lose all their property. They felt that
they deserved to lose it, and they were re-
conciled to it, if they could only save their
lives and be allowed to remain in the coun-
try. They humbled themselves and begged
for mercy. Their abject posture and forlorn
condition excited the sympathy of the I'm
ionists of the State, and the pity of the, gov
eminent They were tenderly raised up,
and promised not only their lives but their
property The President went further, and
permitted them temporarily to vote and hold
Office. And then was realized the truth of
the fable of the viper warmed into life. In a
short time these wicked instigators and lead
ers of the rebellion, their lives thus mercifully
spared and their property restored to them,
began to unite against the Unionists, with
the avowed purpose of debating terms to
the government. They now declare that
they will return to the Union on no terms
thus far offered by the President or by Con-
gress They denounce the Congress as an
unconstitutional body; they profess to adj
here to the President for no other reason
than that they expect him to carry out their
views, by force of arms, if necessary; they
declare that the Union as it now is, and the
Constitution, as it is proposed to be altered
by the loyal States, will be but despotism,
for which they have no respect, and to
which they would not submit if they could
help themselves; that the Unionists of the
South are traitors; that they only are loyal,
because they are true to the Constitution. and
the Union as they were, before they fought to