American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1869-07-31
McNeil-The Palmyra Butcher.

From the Glasgow tMo.) Juurnall
So long as God gives us life, and
the earth is cursed with the presence
of Mcneil, we feel it to be our solemn
duty to rehearSe, once every year,
the story o, the most atrocious and
horrible occurrences in the annals of
barbarous warfare. On the 18th
day of October, 1862, a deed was
enacted at the Fair Grounds at Pal
myra, Missouri, which sent a thrill
of horror throughout the civilized
world. Ten brave and true and in
nocent men were taken from their
prison, driven to the edge of the
town, seated on their rough board
coffins, and for no crime of their own,
murdered like SO many swine. Muir
dered butchered! by the old blotch
upon creations face, John Mcneil,
now by the grace of bayOnets, Tom
Fletcher, and the Devil, Sheriff of
st. Louis county and Il Radical in
full fellowship.
There was our poor, handsome,
gallant boyhood friend, Tom Sidener.
AS pure a soul as ever winged its
flight from blood stained sod to that
God who will yet, to all eternity,
damn the fiendiSh butcher Mcneil !!
Poor Tom! He was model paragon
of manly grace and beauty. SO eX-
quisitely formed, features so perfect
and fair, so brave and yet so gentle,
that even the vile reptile, Mitchell,
now editor of the Hannibal Courier,
said that . in his beauty and his
wickedness, he reminded him of
Abso!em." Poor fellow! He was
engaged to be married to a Young
/ lady in Monroe county. When he
learned he was to be shot, he sent
5 for his wedding suit, which had just
= been made, declaring that if he could
r not be married in it, he intended to
, die in it. Arrayed in his elegant
| black broadcloth, and his white silk
+ vest, when he mounted his coarse
+ plank coffin in the wagon that was
D to bear him to death, he looked as il
he was going to be married instead
of shot! The very guards cried like
/ children when they bade him good
o bye. Raising his cap, and bowlns
to the weeping women who lined the
e st e It's, he was driven from then
e sight, forever! Half an hour after
ward, six musket balls pierced hi
d noble heart, and his white silk YES
T. was torn and dyed in his marty
blood.
There was poor old Willis Baker
his head Whitencd with the SHOWS 0
o. more than seventy winters. Heroi
= old man! With his white hal
I streaming in the wind, he seate,
= himself on his rude coffin, and die'
i, without a shudder, refusing with hi
II last breath to forgive his execution
Is ers, and swearing he would "mee
them and torment them in he'll
y through all eternity y
= There was that helpless, half-idiO
Iv boy from Lewis county, who ai|owe
~ ~ himself to be blndfoldcd then heal
"a ing Sdencr and the other refuse
\ slipped up one corner of the bandagt
n and seeing the rest with their eye
uncovered, removed the handkel
chief from his own, and died as innC
% cent as a lamb.
le There was Humstead and BiNle
u and McPheeters.
g And there was that most wondc
= ful martyr of all-young Smith, {
II Knox Countrywide died for anotht
man. Humphreys was the doome
p, man. His heart broken wife,
he widows weeds, with her eight hell
'ir less, little ones, in deep mourning
ell that was only less black than I'll
ld anguish they endured, or the heal
of him to whom she appealed, rus
II, ed to the feet of Mcneil, and in a
ng cents SO plteous, that Il soul of ad
tn mant must have melted under it, b
he sought him for the life of her hu
band and father. She was brutal
vo repulsed. But Stratcham, the mo
ey ster of Shelby county, whom Il
Sc, angel of God, a few months aft,
rs, ward, smote with Iierodian rotte
IN moss and worms -Strltphlm who