4 tims of their diabolical cruelty * No barbarity which the moat fiendish malignity could devise, was omitted by these incarnate demons. A mere child, which an officer had. taken up behind him on his horse, was ordered to be put down and shot,’ which was done. The tents where the wounded lay were set on fire, andimany of their occupants were consumed in the flames; those who escaped were shot down or had their brains beatefi out by the cowardly ruffians. One man was deliberately nailed down to the floor of a tent, the tent fired, and he perished in the flames. Another was nailed to the side of a building, and it set on fire, and he also- perished in the flames. These deeds of unutterable cruelty closed at night, only to be renewed next morningf when these brutes, for they cannot be called men, carefully sought among the dead in all directions for the wounded that were still alive. z “ Immediate efforts be made for a cessation of hostilities.” tREATMWT OF LOYAL MEN, AND THEIR SUFFERINGS FOR OPINION’S SAKE. September 18, 1863, twenty or thirty rebels went in the night to the house of Marshal Glaze, a loyal man of Spring Creek, Virginia, and murdered John McMullen, Marshal Glaze, and a discharged Union soldier while asleep, three others making their escape. The same gang then visited the dwelling of a Mr. Noyes, a Union man near by, and attempted to piirsuade, finally to force, a young girl to accompany them for a -vile purpose ; upon refusal, they immediately shot her dead.— Authority, Mri Me Water, Member House of Delegates, West Va., 1861; “Immediate efforts be made for a cessation of hostilities.” In January, 1863, James Keith, with the 65th N. C. regiment, was ordered to arrest some men at Laurel Hill for seizing salt at Marshal, Nr C. Before the regiment .arrived, these engaged in the seizure fled, and the innocent had to suffer. Twelve persons'were arrested, varying in their ages from seven to sixty, who protested their innocence and plead for a trial, which was promised. They were marched off, but had proceeded but a few miles when they were taken into a mountain gorge, and five of them ordered to kneel; a file of soldiers was drawn up in front of them, whem deaf to the agopizing cries for mercy, the protestations'of their, perfect innocence, of the promise of trial, and entreaties for a brief time for prayer apd'.preparation for death, the order was given to “ fire,” which the soldiers ^hesitated to obey. Keith told them peremptorily to obey or he would exchange places with the prisoners. Again the order was given, and five men fell; five others were ordered to kneel, and of the number a little boy of twelve years, who plead with his .executioners, “ You shot my father in the face, please don’t shoot me in the face,” and covered his.face with his hatfds. Five more fell at the ' order to fire, and among-them was this child, wounded in both arms, and three of his brothers, dead ;"the little hero, at the feet of the inhuman officer, implored tof be spared to his, mother, who was deprived of a husband’ and ibree sons at his hands, but in vain. He was dragged back to the place of execution, and was sacrificed, pierced with eight balls ; those in whom, life was not extinct, were,dispatched with pistols; the bodies were tumbled into one grave or hole, into which they were jammed by the fdet of these godless wretches, who' danced and shouted in their sacrilegibus. work as if at a carnival of devils. They then returned to Laurel Hill, and commenced torturing the wives of loyal men in order to discover where the salt was concealed. Mrs. S. Skelton and
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