News: "Rebel Barbarity" - A Civil War Depiction from the Delaware County 
American: Delaware County, PA

Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Judy Ardine <downeast@concentric.net>.

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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.