The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1881-02-09

Luther Benson Details Some Unwritten
History-Kansas Jayhawkers Torturing
Defenseless Men and Women to Make
Them Reveal the Place of Buried Treas
urea Forcible and Rather Original

OaynaWkeTS
Defenseless Men and Women to Make
Them Reveal the Place of Buried Treas
urea Forcible and Rather Original
Letter.
GAINESVILLE, Ark. Jan. 27.-Just before
and for some years after the Rebellion
had crumbled to its fall. this place was
the scene of many foul and most unnatur
al murder. In a majority of instances, greed
for plumber and spoil was the chief incen-
tive. The most horrible appliances and
methods of the Inauisition were invoked to
extort intelligence of hidden treasure. The
victims were old men and helpless women.
For deeds of fiendish cruelty to put civiliza
ton to shame, an American need not 90
beyond his own country. The turbaned
Turk is not the only villain in the world
The country was overrun with freebooters.
! black and white. They now called bush
whackers. Negroes would report the names
of persons supposed to have money or Jew
elry buried. Avarice thus aroused plum
| dered. burned and murdered. 1t was not
always for political reasons that 1.-The earth
was Strewn with cinders and hell was
painted upon the sky" The authors OF
many of those waste places were often
/ prompted only by the motives of house
breakers. Long black catalogues of crime
have been committed in the name of the
Union. Mrs. Swaggerty, a widow lady at
whose house | am now stopping. was living
here il March, 1865, with her mother. an
aged and feeble woman. They were guilty
of the offense of having concealed $50.
One night they were waited upon by
eight men with disfigured faces,
representing themselves as Kansas sol
diers. The ruffians threatened to
force the door If not admitted They then
demanded the location of the treasure
When violent hands were laid upon the old
lady. the daughter came TO her rescue. Thus
she became the object OF torture. Forced
to the floor, she was dragged to a fire place
and her feet crushed upon Goals of fire and
red embers. This was repeated until her
feet were burned into a crisp. Sheknew the
utter folly of revealing the money. but did
If when cooked revolver was levelcd at her
mother. She was carried to the place and
when the money was dug up the torture was
not resumed, because the hour was growing
late an / there was more of the same kind of
work tn do in the neighborhood.
Mrs. Howells, lone woman, on the same
night, by the same scoundrels. was dragged
from bed and tortured until the burned
flesh fell from the bones of her feet. lew
nights afterward, her house was fired. and
she, being quite helpless, received injuries
H.
Mrs Willis another lady, yet living, was
tortured in the same way
Numbers of people have had their finger
and toe nails torn out by the roots. Re
strained by no law, the most devilish pas
siOns were developed. \ demon is supposed
To chuckle over victim; some natures take
great delight in dealing out cruelty. In '65,
Jesse Turner, an old man. guilty of no crime,
was tied to tree near here, his tongue cut
out, his fingers cut oil, his scalp split Open
and in this condition left to die The /
wretcheS were perhaps, enraptured by his |
agony.
Rev. John Buchanan. an aged Presbyte- /
rian minister, was tortured until he remains |
a cripple for life.
The darkest and most damnable period in |
the worlds history furnish no more than /,
parallel TO these atrocities. The fact of |
war offers no excuse for this character of
crime.
Powell Clayton, as Governor. under the acts /
of reconstruction, declared martial law in I
this State. The course of his militia, was
marked by rapine and murder The militia !
was nothing more than organized bandits /
There is no kind of offense against God or
humanity of which ii was not guilty. YET, |
not one of the wretches was ever dragged |
to justice.
Major L. l.. Witch, with twenty other |
men, was thrown in Jail not only without |
trial, but without a charge. Two of this !
number Dr. Mckenzie and Mr. Steinberger !
were taken out of the prison at midnight /
and killed. They are remembered as peace
able, lava hiding citizens. Women in this |
locality have concealed themselves in the
woods and starved until relieved by death |
in order to escape a more appalling fate.
There is no kind Of wrong that this people
has not known in all its completeness. The /
men who held the offices were without /
rs, f.
imported thieves, bereft of principle hu-
mainly or pity.
In the spring of 1865 John Nichols, of |
Franklin County, this State, extremely /
feeble and 81 years of age, was visited. lie |
was not only very poor, but blind with age.
The crowd demanded To know where his
money was concealed. He had no
this fact, in the hope of extOrting a con-
fession from him they opened his shirt and |
scoOped fire into his bosom until he died. /
About the same time, and in the same |
County, man by the name of Patton was
reported 10 these marauding bands of sol !
diers 70 have some 500 in gold. lie was /
promptly killed, but the money was not /
found on his person. The party then made
demand upon his wife. She replied that if |
he had so much money it must be buried. !
but that she knew nothing OF it. which was !
the truth. dissatisfied with the answer.
they converted a pine table into splinterS
and ignited them. She was held by strong.
savage men over the fire The victim of this
crime against humanity being woman, to
detail the torture would be indecent. Her
agony was ultimately relieved by death.
The truth of all these statements are sub
stantiated by hundreds of living witnesses.
Even her cries of agony are yet remembered.
In addition to the last named wOman's bod
lily suffering she was compelled to hear the
dying means of her child
This black catalogue might be continued
to the extent of many columns, but it can
serve no other purpose than to make the
heart sick. 1t is humiliatiDg to reflect that
we are of a race capable of perpetrating such
Most of the crime that this people vet re-
member was committed by Kansas soldiers.
Those horse thieves-many of whom are now
regarded as Sainted martyrs-bOrder ruiiians
and jayhawkers deeply and damnably dis
graced the Northern arms. and succeeded in
infiicting wounds between the sections that
may never heal. There is at present
no means of computing the mischief they
did. Little wonder that a just Heaven
makes the sky over Kansas as brass, deny
ing the parched soil one drop of rain until
the shifting sand is so barren that crow
can not journey through without carrying
rations. We will hear of drouth, famine
and swarming locusts in Kansas for long
years yet. Revenge is mine and Will re-
nav saith the Lord -