Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1873-05-27
Letter from Senator BrOwnlOw.

To d. II. Hill, late Lieutenant General OF
the Rebel army:
SIR-An article of yours, which recently
appeared in the Charlotte (N. C.) Home, OF
which you are editor, find going the
rounds of the newspapers, in which you
make an attack upon the character of the
late General Candy, and other deceased
officers of the United States army. In this
editorial you do me the honor to bitterly
denounce me. / say honor, for esteem it
an honor for any man who has been loyal
to his country to be blackguarded and vii
lifted by you. Were / SO unfortunate as
to be the recipient of your commentator,
should feel like exeIaiming, as did Socra-
tes, when applauded by a bad man like
yourself, "What crime have committed?'
You exult over the death of the brave
Candy, assassinated by savages, and
attribute his death, with that of Abraham
Lincoln, Edwin NJ. Stanton, George HI.
Thomas, Prof. Mahan, of West Point, ex-
Senator Preston King, of New York, and
the late Senator Lane, of Kansas, to ret
ribution of God, because in the late civil
war, they opposed the effort to destroy the
Government of the United States.
You say of Gen. Candy that while he was
in command at Richmond, Va, he "per-
sonally superintended the hanging of a
white man up by the thumbs for kicking
an insolent negro" Now this is your YER
sion of Canby's conduct and the whole edi-
torial you have written breathes so fiendish
and brutal spirit as to make you un-
worthy of credit.
Besides this, General Hill, the whole life
of Gen. Candy gives the lie to your asser-
ton that lie did anything vulgar, inhu-
man or unbecoming high. toned soldier.
Candy was man of learning and ability
and Christian gentleman as well as a
model soldier. | am not prepared to deny
that within Canby's department white
man was tied up by the thumbs. While
he was commanding at Richmond negro,
under the Constitution of the United
States as amended, which Candy was
sworn to support, was entitled to all the
rights and privileges of other citizens. AS
a West Pointer and an officer of the United
States army before the war, you know 10 h that !
common mode of punishment in the army,
and Candy failed in his duty if he made
distinction between criminals on account
of race or color in melting out the
pains and penalties required by
good order and military discipline.
While as a matter of form and duty,
as Department Commander, Candy would
approve the verdict of a military court in
f1icting just and necessary punishment
upon criminals violating the laws it was
his duty to enforce, he was above being
- of
the details, he left to a man of brutal in
stincts, like yourself. sfs @ 49,
Now, General Hill, while you are false
ly accusing General Candy of brutality, l
propose to enlighten the public as to your
military record. While in command in
North Carolina, during the late war,
twenty six white men were tried on the
charge of being loyal to the United States.
No other offense was alleged against them.
They were put on trial late in the after
noon and by the verdict of, a drum-head
court martial acting o,aderyo,gr orders, all
were hung until dead before breakfast the
next morning, without benefit of clergy.
Are you not beautiful specimen to assail
Candy on the score of brutality. I can
think of nothing as supremely ridiculous,
unless it would be for you and your friend
Capt. Jack to write a treatise ON civilization
for distribution among the kuklux of North
Carolina. Indeed, if did not know that
you were in North Carolina, 1 should infer
from the brutality of your assault on Can
by, Thomas and others, that you were in
the lava beds when it was written, and
that the article was the joint production of
yourself and Can't, Jack.
Your assumption that the death of the
noble George H. Thomas, by apoplexy,
and the sudden deaths of Lincoln and 9TH
er loyal men are retribution of the Al
mighty for the side they took in the late
war, could be inspired only by the malig>
nancy born of disappointed ambition. and
the spirit which possessed the Devil, the
founder Of Secession Democracy, of pref
erence to ruling in he'll to serving in
Heaven.
/ am happy in the belief that many