News: "Rebel Barbarity" - A Civil War Depiction from the Delaware County American: Delaware County, PA Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Judy Ardine . ****************************************************************** USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE: Printing this file within by non- commercial individuals and libraries is encouraged, as long as all notices and submitter information is included. Any other use, including copying files to other sites requires permission from the submitters PRIOR to uploading to any other sites. We encourage links to the state and county table of contents. http://www.usgwarchives.net/ ****************************************************************** March 29, 1865 DELAWARE COUNTY AMERICAN REBEL BARBARITY. - We have just had another evidence of the barbarous, and fiendish cruelty of rebels to the unfortunates who fall into their hands - one of those shocking and palpable evidences of it which inclines us to the belief that men may, under certain circumstances, become substantially devils incarnate, and evoke curses both loud and deep upon the authors of such, worse than hellish cruelty, These evidences were furnished during a late interview with _____ << Eyre>> formerly of Bethel, who, last Thursday returned to his home now in Upper Providence, from rebel imprisonment, and the shocking nature of whose narrative and whose personal appearance while they attest all the horrible revelations heretofore made, call down the vengeance of God and man upon his heartless persecutors. He was a member of Capt. Pigotts company in Col. Hueyregiment of the 8th Pa. Cavalry, and with 475 others whilst in an extended skirmish line was captured at Trevalyian station, on the 15th of June last. From that day commenced a series of suffering and hardship from which few emerge with life, his cruel treatment being, doubtless, much aggravated by the fact that at the moment of his capture, and in order that the rebels might not possess them, he threw his arms into a creek close at hand. He with his companions was dismounted - his money $60 in greenbacks, clothing and particularly his boots which appear to have been objects of great attraction to the incarnate devils, were instantly stripped from him, and then commenced one of those protracted, cruel marches under rebel custody to which so many of our poor fellows have been subjected, and at the bare recital of which, the heart sickens. He was taken, by a circuitous route 175 miles, during which he and his companions suffered everything but death, and allowed but three tack'for the entire journey with a three days fast at the end of it - to Richmond where he spent two days in Libby and Pemberton. From thence he was marched to Danville - then to Andersonville which he reached on the 29th of June and where he remained until the 11th of September when he was marched - no not marched, DRIVEN, to Charleston, being encamped on the race course near the city, from thence to Florence where he was imprisoned four months - thence to Goldsboro and finally to Wilmington, and during the march to the latter, and unable through starvation, sickness and hardship - weary, worn and footsore, he was unable to keep up with the rest, he received a blow upon the right temple from the butt of a musket in the hands of one of the hell hounds which prostrated him, rendering him senseless. He was carried to Wilmington upon a stretcher, improvised from an old blanket, by his comrades where fever set in, and where, fortunately, his sufferings for a longtime were lost in unconsciousness. He remained at Wilmington until the shelling of that city by our forces commenced when he was removed back to Goldsboro, from thence to Raleigh - finally back to Goldsboro where he was paroled. Wilmington in the meantime having been captured, he was sent to that city, which he left for Annapolis hospital to which he now belongs, on the 10th inst, thus closing a season of the most terrible suffering which humanity can endure and survive, making but another record, black and bitter, against those who ask and receive humanity and even kindness, but to return a barbarity to which even the untutored savage is a stranger. The worn, weary, listless, and emaciated condition of the subject of this notice - the embrowned, almost black body - the thin arms, bending, weak frame - general attenuation and exhaustion, all coupled with his simple yet acutely painful narrative - convey an idea of horrible realty the mere idea of which we could never hope to impart. With other details, he described their rations composed of one pint of the inevitable meal'which it was almost impossible for the stomach to digest, and from the effects of which hundreds died like murrained sheep - and occasionally a half pint of beans, per day, and which but few possessed the means of cooking. He saw, at Andersonville, no less than ten men shot for merely approaching the line'- saw men whilst under the pangs and ravings of starvation, absolutely gnaw the flesh from their almost bloodless arms, and when the bodies of his dead and wounded comrades were placed upon stretchers, to be placed in shallow graves or thrown into ditches, the flesh, decomposed even before death, dropped from the skeleton frames at the rude touch of those who to the vocation of murderers added that of undertakers. He gives some information, also, as to some of his companions in misery. W.G. Clark, of Booths Corner, Bethel township, died at Andersonville, sometime last August, Geo. Hinkson, of Concord township, died at Savannah, Isaac Batting, of the vicinity of Linwood, died at Andersonville in May, Cornelius Derrickson of Bethel died at Andersonville, as also _____ Tumlinson from Concord, the prevailing disease being fevers and scorbutic affections, induced by ill treatment and starvation. They had no beds other than the sand, and the deaths in camp averaged 125 per day. He gives other details of terrible interest, but we have full of horrors,'and sufficient has been given even for the most morbid appetite. We are satisfied that our readers, like ourselves, will turn from the recital with a deeper hatred for those who perpetrate such fiendish cruelties, with a firmer determination to crush them then ever, and with the conclusion that we fight against the of darkness,'fiends in human form, and devils incarnate, who can to damnation add greater than this.