Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1874-09-10

uor tnore were perhape score OF col
ored officers servants in our command
who were among the prisoners. They
had never borne arms. but cooked for
messes. and did other menial work for
the officers. Immediately following
the surrender, we saw. rebel officers of
the rank Of field officers, sitting upon
their horses, pistol in hand, deliber.
ately shoot down these colorsd men,
while thay ware nnnn their kneea
pleading for life, and the federal ofii-
GERS were entreating the rebels to spare
them. In some instances as high %
three shots were fred 1t one poor
wretch before the fatal bullet would
reach vital place. This demoniacal
:barbarity was perpetrated BY the act
ors without the slightest apparent
c6mpunction OF conscience, and 90
heartiessly % one would shoot rabid
dog upon the streets.
II is to our mind utterly impossible
for any one who has not had
the benefit of personal experience to
comprehend how completely tens Of
thousands of the old population of
many of the Southern States regard
the colored race. evidenced by their
treatment Of them, the same IS they
10 the brute creation. This feeling,
TOO, seems to be little, II any, softened,
when miscege has given the VIC
tim nearly . white skin. In our
minds eye we can see how that band
OF desperadoes murdered their victims
In this Conshatta affair, % coolly ~
Enough they had eorralled pack Of
sheep dogs, and deliberately proceed
Cd to destroy them. The sin of slavery
will yet be visited upon generation
after generation. Its natural result,
viz: barbarizing both races, will 60 out
% 1t came in, through generations Of
misery and woe. We do not for .
moment suppose that in all cases the
eolored people are blameless, but onr
personal education In the South has
taught us in vain, il the facts will not
disclose that the big dcvi In all these
disturbances 10 In nine cases out OF ten,
with the white race. The upshot Of
all this indiscriminats slaughtsr Of the
eolorsd race inaugurated at this time
All over the South, must be the iron
hand OF the federal government unless
Htats authorities can and will suppress
II. Il 10 useless to expect the Aenda
committing these outrages to stop i'm.
bruing their hands in the blood OF col.
Bred citizens unless made to do so.-
These outrages have become 10 fro
qusnt and terrible that even the ISme'
of Chicago mildly suggest in LITTLE
paragraph that possibly the genera
government ought to intervene, whil'
the Tribune stoutly claims that Uncl'
Sam has nothing to do with II, yet I
4 says the State governments must stol
4 such work.
Since writing the above, NOR
detailed and reliable accounts hay
come to hand which places the mum
bsr OF the murdered victims to twelve
nix whites and aix blacks. The white
n wsrs I'll sx- Union soldiers, their name
and business bsing - follows: Home
II TWitchell. sx- Collector and u. 8. Com
missioner; r. N. Devices, tax colles
tor Of Do Soto Parish ct the time, vis
ting friendsAn Conshatta |; F. E. Fl
erton, Sheriff; Clark Hail. Register
Gilbsrt Cones, Deputy Sheriff, and v
F. Howell, Attorney at Law. ri
whites are victims because they wei
the friends OF the colored race.