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APRIL 7-12, 1862.— Raid
on Confederate line of communications between Chattanooga, Tenn., and Marietta,
Ga.
No. 1. -- Report of the
Judge-Advocate-General U. S. Army.
JUDGE-ADVOCATE-GENERAL'S OFFICE,
March 27, 1863.
SIR: I have the honor to transmit for your consideration the accompanying
depositions of Corp. William Pittenger, Company G, Second Regiment Ohio
Volunteers; Private Jacob Parrott, Company K, Thirty-third Regiment Ohio
Volunteers; Private Robert Buffurn, Company H, Twenty-first Regiment Ohio
Volunteers; Corp. William H. Reddick, Company B, Thirty-third Regiment Ohio
Volunteers, and Private William Bensinger, Company G, Twenty-first Regiment Ohio
Volunteers, taken at this office on the 25th instant, in compliance with your
written instructions, from which the following facts will appear:
These non-commissioned officers and privates belonged to an expedition set on
foot in April, 1862, at the suggestion of Mr. J. J. Andrews, a citizen of
Kentucky, who led it, and under the authority and direction of General O. M.
Mitchel, the object of which was to destroy the communications on the Georgia
State Railroad between Atlanta and Chattanooga. The mode of operation proposed
was to reach a point on the road where they could seize a locomotive and train
of cars and then dash back in the direction of Chattanooga, cutting the
telegraph wires and burning the bridges behind them as they advanced until they
reached their own lines. The expedition consisted of 24 men, who, with the
exception of its leader, Mr. Andrews, and another citizen of Kentucky, who acted
on the occasion as the substitute of a soldier, had been selected from the
different companies for their known courage and discretion. They were informed
that the movement was to be a secret one, and they doubtless comprehended
something of its perils, but Mr. Andrews and Mr. Reddick alone seem to have
known anything of its precise direction or object. They, however, voluntarily
engaged in it, and made their way in parties of two and three, in citizens'
dress, and carrying only their side-arms, to Chattanooga, the point of
rendezvous agreed upon, where 22 out of the 24 arrived safely. Here they took
passage, without attracting observation, for Marietta, which they reached at 12
o'clock on the night of April 11. The following morning they took the cars back
again towards Chattanooga, and at a place called Big Shanty, while the engineer
and passengers were break-fasting, they detached the locomotive and three
box-cars from the train, and started at full speed for Chattanooga. They were
now upon the field of the perilous operations proposed by the expedition, but
suddenly encountered unforeseen obstacles. According to the schedule of the
road, of which Mr. Andrews had possessed himself, they should have met but a
single train on that day, whereas they met three, two of them being engaged on
extraordinary service. About an hour was lost in waiting to allow these trains
to pass, which enabled their pursuers to
press closely upon them. They removed rails, threw out obstructions on the road,
and cut the wires from time to time, and at-rained when in motion a speed of 60
miles an hour, but the time lost could not be regained.
After having run about 100 miles they found their supply of wood, water, and oil
exhausted, while the rebel locomotive, which had been chasing them, was in
sight. Under these circumstances they had no alternative but to abandon their
cars and flee to the woods, which they did under the orders of Mr. Andrews, each
one endeavoring to save himself as best he might.
The expedition thus failed from causes which reflected neither upon the genius
by which it was planned nor upon the intrepidity and discretion of those engaged
in conducting it. But for the accident of meeting the extra trains, which could
not have been anticipated, the movement would have been a complete success, and
the whole aspect of the war in the South and Southwest would have been at once
changed.
The expedition itself, in the daring of its conception, had the wildness of a
romance, while in the gigantic and overwhelming results which it sought, and was
likely to accomplish, it was absolutely sublime. The estimate of its character
entertained in the South will be found fully expressed in an editorial from the
Southern Confederacy, a prominent rebel journal, under date of April 15, and
which is appended to and adopted as a part of Mr. Pittenger's deposition. The
editor says:
The mind and heart shrink back appalled at the
bare contemplation of the awful consequences which would have followed the
success of this one act. We doubt if the victory of Manassas or Corinth were
worth as much to us as the frustration of this grand coup d'état. It is
not by any means certain that the annihilation of Beauregard's whole army at
Corinth would be so fatal a blow to us as would have been the burning of the
bridges at that time by these men.
So soon as those composing the expedition had left the cars and dispersed
themselves in the woods the population of the country around turned out in their
pursuit, employing for this purpose the dogs which are trained to hunt down the
fugitive slaves of the South. The whole 22 were captured. Among them was Private
Jacob Parrott: of Company K, Thirty-third Regiment Ohio Volunteers. When
arrested he was, without any form of trial, taken possession of by a military
officer and 4 soldiers, who stripped him, bent him over a stone, and while two
pistols were held over his head a lieutenant in rebel uniform inflicted with a
raw-hide upwards of 100 lashes on his bare back. This was done in the presence
of an infuriated crowd, who clamored for his blood and actually brought a rope
with which to hang him. The object of this prolonged scourging was to force this
young man to confess to them the objects of the expedition and the names of his
comrades, especially that of the engineer who had run the train. Their purpose
was, no doubt, not only to take the life of the latter if identified, but to do
so with every circumstance of humiliation and torture which they could devise.
Three times in the progress of this horrible flogging it was suspended and Mr.
Parrott was asked if he would not confess, but steadily and firmly to the last
he refused all disclosures, and it was not until his tormentors were weary of
their brutal work that the task of subduing their victim was abandoned as
hopeless.
This youth is an orphan, without father or mother, and without any of the
advantages of education. Soon after the rebellion broke out, though but eighteen
years of age, he left his trade and threw himself
<ar10_632> into the ranks of our armies as a volunteer, and now, though
still suffering from the outrages committed on his person in the South, he is on
his way to rejoin his regiment, seeming to love his country only the more for
all that he has endured in its defense. His subdued and modest manner while
narrating the part he had borne in this expedition showed him to be wholly
unconscious of having done anything more than perform his simple duty as a
soldier. Such Spartan fortitude and such fidelity to the trusts of friendship
and to the inspirations of patriotism deserve an enduring record in the archives
of the Government, and will find one, I am sure, in the hearts of a loyal
people.
The 22 captives, when secured, were thrust into the negro jail at Chattanooga.
They occupied a single room, half under ground and but 13 feet square, so that
there was not space enough for them all to lie down together, and a part of them
were, in consequence, obliged to sleep sitting and leaning against the walls.
The only entrance was through a trap-door in the ceiling, that was raised twice
a day to let down their scanty meals, which were lowered in a bucket. They had
no other light or ventilation than that which came through two small
triple-grated windows. They were covered with swarming vermin, and the heat was
so oppressive that they were often obliged to strip themselves entirely of their
clothes to bear it. Add to this they were all handcuffed, and with trace-chains,
secured by padlocks around their necks, were fastened to each other in companies
of twos and threes. Their food, which was doled out to them twice a day,
consisted of a little flour wet with water and baked in the form of bread, and
spoiled pickled beef. They had no opportunity of procuring any supplies from the
outside, nor had they any means of doing so, their pockets having been rifled of
their last cent by the Confederate authorities, prominent among whom was an
officer wearing the rebel uniform of a Major- No part of the money thus basely
taken was ever returned.
During this imprisonment at Chattanooga their leader, Mr. Andrews, was tried and
condemned as a spy, and was subsequently executed at Atlanta June 7.
They were strong and in perfect health when they entered this negro jail, but at
the end of something more than three weeks, when they were required to leave it,
they were so exhausted from the treatment to which they had been subjected as
scarcely to be able to walk, and several staggered from weakness as they passed
through the streets to the cars.
Finally, 12 of the number, including the 5 who have deposed, and Mr. Mason, of
Company K, Twenty-first Regiment Ohio Volunteers, who was prevented by illness
from giving his evidence, were transferred to the prison of Knoxville, Tenn. On
arriving there 7 of them were arraigned before a court-martial, charged with
being spies. Their trial, of course, was summary. They were permitted to be
present, but not to hear either the argument of their own counsel or that of the
judge-advocate. Their counsel, however, afterward visited the prison and read to
them the written defense which he made before the court in their behalf. The
substance of that paper is thus stated by one of the witnesses, Corporal
Pittenger:
He (the counsel) contended that our being
dressed in citizens' clothes was nothing more than what the Confederate
Government itself had authorized, and was only what all the guerrillas in the
service of the Confederacy did on all occasions when it would be an advantage to
them to do so, and he recited the instance of General Morgan having dressed his
men in the uniform of our soldiers and passed them off as being from the Eighth
Pennsylvania Cavalry Regiment, and by that means succeeded in reaching a
railroad and destroying it. This instance was mentioned to show that
<ar10_633>
our being in citizens' clothes did not take from
us the protection awarded to prisoners of war. The plea went on further to state
that we had told the object of our expedition; that it was a purely military
one, for the destruction of communications, and, as such, lawful, according to
the rules of war.
This just and unanswerable presentation of the case appears to have produced its
appropriate impression. Several members of the court-martial afterward called on
the prisoners and assured them that from the evidence against them they could
not be condemned as spies; that they had come for a certain known object, and
not having lingered about or visited any of their camps, obtaining or seeking
information, they could not be convicted. Soon thereafter all the prisoners were
removed to Atlanta, Ga., and they left Knoxville under a belief that their
comrades, who had been tried, either had been or would be acquitted.
In the mean time, however, the views entertained and expressed to them by the
members of the court were overcome, it may be safely assumed, under the
prompting of the remorseless despotism at Richmond.
On June 18, after their arrival at Atlanta, where they rejoined the comrades
from whom they had been separated at Chattanooga, their prison door was opened
and the death sentences of the seven who had been tried at Knoxville were read
to them. No time for preparation was allowed them. They were told to bid their
friends farewell, and to be quick about it. They were at once tied and carried
out to execution. Among the seven was Private Samuel Robinson, Company G,
Thirty-third Ohio Volunteers, who was too ill to walk. He was, however, pinioned
like the rest, and in this condition was dragged from the floor on which he was
lying to the scaffold. In an hour or more the cavalry escort which had
accompanied them was seen returning with the cart, but the cart was empty; the
tragedy had been consummated! On that evening and the following morning the
prisoners learned from the provost-marshal and guard that their comrades had
died as all true soldiers of the Republic should die in the presence of its
enemies.
Among the revolting incidents which they mentioned in connection with this
cowardly butchery was the fall of two of the victims from the breaking of the
ropes after they had been for some time suspended. On their being restored to
consciousness they begged for an hour in which to pray and to prepare for death,
but this was refused them. The rope was readjusted and the execution at once
proceeded.
Among those who thus perished was Private Alfred Wilson, Company C, Twenty-first
Ohio Volunteers. He was a mechanic, from Cincinnati, who, in the exercise of his
trade, had traveled much through the States North and South, and who had a
greatness of soul which sympathized intensely with our struggle for national
life, and was in that dark hour filled with joyous convictions of our final
triumph. Though surrounded by a scowling crowd, impatient for his sacrifice, he
did not hesitate, while standing under the gallows, to make them a brief
address. He told them that though they were all wrong he had no hostile feelings
toward the Southern people, believing that not they, but their leaders, were
responsible for the rebellion; that he was no spy, as charged, but a soldier
regularly detailed for military duty; that he did not regret to die for his
country, but only regretted the manner of his death; and he added, for their
admonition, that they would yet see the time when the old Union would be
restored and when its flag would wave over them again; and with these words the
brave man died. He, like his comrades, calmly met the ignominious doom of a
felon; but, happily, ignominious for him and for them only so far as
the martyrdom of the patriot and hero can
be degraded by the hands of ruffians and traitors.
The remaining prisoners, now reduced to 14, were kept closely confined under
special guard in the jail at Atlanta until October, when, overhearing a
conversation between the jailer and another officer, they became satisfied that
it was the purpose of the authorities to hang them as they had done their
companions. This led them to form a plan for their escape, which they carried
into execution on the evening of the next day, by seizing the jailer when he
opened the door to carry away the bucket in which their supper had been brought.
This was followed by the seizure also of the 7 guards on duty, and before the
alarm was given 8 of the fugitives were beyond reach of pursuit It has been
since ascertained that 6 of these, after long and painful wanderings, succeeded
in reaching our lines. Of the fate of the other 2 nothing is known. The
remaining 6 of the 14, consisting of the 5 witnesses who have deposed and Mr.
Mason, were recaptured and confined in the barracks until December, when they
were removed to Richmond. There they were shut up in a room in Castle Thunder,
where they shivered through the winter, without fire, thinly clad, and with but
two small blankets, which they had saved with their clothes, to cover the whole
party. So they remained until a few days since, when they were exchanged; and
thus, at the end of eleven months, terminated their pitiless persecutions in the
prisons of the South— persecutions begun and continued amid indignities and
sufferings on their part and atrocities on the part of their traitorous foes
which illustrate far more faithfully than any human language could express it
the demoniac spirit of a revolt, every throb of whose life is a crime against
the very race to which we belong.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
J. HOLT,
Judge. Advocate- General.
Hon. E. M. STANTON,
Secretary of War.
The war of the Rebellion: A
Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies; Series
1 - Volume 10 (Part I), 1884, U.S. Government Printing Office
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