Terrible Rebel Atrocities

WASHINGTON, March 5. The following has been forwarded to the Headquarters of the Army: Headquarters, District of Corinth, Mississippi, Feb. 21, 1863.

CAPTAIN —I have the honor to submit a few of the outrages committed upon citizens of Alabama by the Confederate troops, while all their leaders, from the President down, are boasting of their carrying on this war in accordance with the laws that govern nations in such cases, and are charging upon our troops all kinds of depredations and outrages.

I think a few simple facts might put them to blush and make those parties and our press and people, who are seconding the efforts of Davis to cast a stigma upon us, ashamed of the work they are doing. I will state merely what I know to be true.

Abe Canade and Mr. Mitchell, were hung two weeks ago for being Union men. They lived in the Heckleborn settlement, Marion county, Ala. Mr. Hallwork and his daughter, of the same county were both shot for the same cause. The latter was instantly killed, the former is still alive but will probably die. Peter Lewis and three of his neighbors were hunted down by one hundred blood hounds and captured. The houses of Messrs. Palmer, Welsby, Williams and the Wightmans and of some thirty others were burned over their heads.

The women children were turned out of doors and the community was notified that if they allowed them to go into other houses or fed or harbored them in any manner they would be served the same. Mr. Peterson, living at the head of Bull Mountain, was shot, and I am now feeding some hundred of these families, who, with their women and children, some gray haired men and even cripples on crutches, were driven out and found their way here through the woods and byways without food or shelter.

All this was done for the simple reason that they were Union men, or that they had brothers or relatives in out army. The statements of these people are almost beyond belief did we not have the evidence before us. I am informed by them that there are hundreds of loyal men and women in the woods of Alabama waiting for an opportunity to escape.

(Singed) G. M. DODGE, Brig. Gen. Source: Thursday, March 19, 1863   Paper: Farmer’s Cabinet (Amherst, New Hampshire)   Volume: 61   Issue: 34   Page: 2.