Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1908-12-25
a Nighf of Horror.

"a OI
A soldier who for some infraction Of
duty during the Civil War was thrown
into the Alexandria slave pen as pun
lshment gives a graphic and almost
incredible description of it's horrors.
The pen was a stockade formerly used
in keeping negro slaves, and at the
time the soldier was placed in it held
300 other Union soldiers, many Of them
drunk
Il put in," said the soldier, "some
bad nights in the Wilderness, fought
in nine pitched battles and I saw the
horrors of Grants crater but for
concentrated terror | have never seen
the equal of those hours in the Alex
andria slave pen. In little while a
couple near me, both drunk, began to
fight. You know that cattle sometimes
become craZed and stampede, but pos
sibly you don't know that masses Of
men sometimes go mad and attempt to
slay each other. Inside of five minutes
twenty private battles were in prog
ress, and inside of ten minutes the
whole inefiOr was mass Of struggling,
writing, frenzied men. They had no
weapons, of course, but they did fear
full damage with their bare hands.
Massachusetts was fighting New York,
Pennsylvania was fighting Maine, New
Hampshire was fighting Connecticut.
The combatants lost all sense of the
cause in which they were soldiers, Of
the fact that they were leagued to-
gether against a foe under one flag.
All idea Of patriotism and duty was
smothered in the wild desire to slay.
Yells, screams, oaths, rent the air.
When a man went down it was the last
of him. He was Immediately kicked
into insensibility by a hundred pairs of
feet.
Il got next to the wall of the stock
ade and lay down. A fellow had fallen
near me with a great cash upon his
right temple, from which the blood
battered upon the floor. / pulled him
on me. lay as if stunned and watch
ed the whirling combat through half
paused to look at me, but thinking that
l was past all fighting hurried on. All
enormous Norwegian got hold of
huge boot, probably pulled from the
foot of some soldier, and with this in
his hand and using it as a club he ran
amuck Men went down before him like
ninepins When the boot rose and fell
on some hapless victim that victim went
to the earth without a moan. Finally
four men got behind the Norwegian,
jumped on him, bore him to the ground,
and choked him into insensibility. Be
fore they left him they had beaten his
face into a pulp.
1.-THE fight was continued far into the
night, and when day broke insensible
men were lying everywhere. One poor
fellow had his back broken and died
subsequently in hospital. Noses were
bitten off, ears pulled off, eyes gouged
on. Many Of the men were utterly
blind. their eyes having been closed
from blows The camp surgeons were
busy for q week I was without a
scratch, but covered with blood. 1
would rather fight the Southerners four
years than pass another night in the
slave pen.'
The True Soldier.
Said Col. Hunt, of Kansas, in re-
cent conversation: "The real soldiers
of the war were in the ranks, and
didn't wear shoulder straps. I was
private during the first five months Of
the war. The private loses his iden-
tity He has no personality. He is
merely a part of great butchering
machine There is no glory for him.
/ heard the bullets whining at Will