The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1901-06-05

7
show where the mistress had put sncf
and such things as they named. In q
fe" instances the more ignorant and
less trusty slaves were bribed and
dupcd into believing that they
did God service by disclosing family
secrets. From one Of this class, who
was an alien without kindred, but re-
Gently come among our slaves, and
jealous Of the trust imposed in others,
had been obtained the information
now Haunted by these heroic conducr-
ors. The faithful, trusted head ser
want had concealed many valuable
clothes and other things in his house,
aud trunk of clothing to save, if
need be, by claiming it as his own.
But from some reason, never explain
ed, he was suspected and accordingly
reported by the slave alluded to, and
now called by name aud forced BY
threats of instant death to show where
were concealed his slain young mas
ter clothes, the watch, the pictures
and relics Of tha. dear soldier brother
whose life blood flowed with Chicka-
manga 8 dismal stream. Singing out
with peculiar discrimination every
item of the masters property, they
mu,ilatcd and despoilcd what they
could not take. The wife of the man
servant only saved one of the pictures
from destruction by tears and cntrca-
ties and claiming it as her own.
But for all this, hard as it was, we
might have forgiven them had they
been content .o stop there. With
diabolical haste still insatiate, they
hurried, with SCOTS and curses on his
head, to the very grave of him 80
cruelty sacrificed, searching even that
hallowed spot for worldly treasure.
God forgive them! Had not kind
Father looked down in pity, and tenn
pered the wretchness of that hour,
what mothers and what sisters hearts
could have borne the intensity of its
burning tortured Thus forced, on the
one hand, to see our dear old father,
his head already bowed with sorrow
and the SHOWS of many winters, bound
to his chair by fierce threats of injury
and torture, and kept motionless,
more to save us from additional suffer
ing In seeing him harmed than any
fear of death, conscious of our weak
ness and inability to resist superior
strength, feeling the hopelessncss of
an appeal for mercy, seeing their
wicked enjoyment of our helpless
misery as they revelled in this display
ct me o'gnant hate; and, far worse than
all else, compelled to stand aloof and
witness the unholy desecration of that
sacred spot, our brothers. grave, to
see 1t dug into, spit upon, and listen
to their fiendish rejoioings over the
death of this one hated Reber'-all
combined was
A REFINEMENT OF TORTURE
beyond anything the "Camanches or
Spanish Inquisition ever dreamed"
Our whole beings yet quivered with
anguish at remembrance of the recent
scene when that new-made mound was
silently heaped on the cold, still form
OF our darling hope and pride. He
was our eldest born the best among
us. the favored one who was bound to
our hearts, not only by the ties of
kindred, but "grappled to our souls
by hooks of STEEL" for his many deeds
of loving kindness. Generous, true
and noble we knew him: the hope CT
aged parents, his young life, so full
of promise, we realized then had been,
with so many thousand others, an una
vailing sacrifice. With many hair.
breadth escapes he had safely borne
the strife and turmoil of four and
twenty battles while comrades fell
around him "thick as autumnal leaves
thai strew the vale in Valambrosa.
Full Of life aud hope at last he fell to
suffer and to die alone, aye! all alone
upon that dreadful field of carnage
whore the "Rivcr of Death" murmur-
ed mournful dirge O. 'er the graves of
a thousand dead. Had we yet forgot
ten the solemn hour that brought him
back. That mournful procession; the
deep rumbling Of those heavy wheels,
freighted with narrow six-foot box
of pine, as, at the midnight hour, it
slowly approached the door, where
stood white-haired, weeping father;
a mother, wild with frantic grief for
her "poor boy sisters, crushed and
stricken by the overwhelming calamity
of their first great loss aud sorrow.
Friends and kindred, full of sympathy,