( 6 ) into the interior, with two .companies under his command. An incident took place during this expedition, which excited no little interest at the time, as it was the first occurrence of the kind. The Government, it will be remembered, had not then adopted the policy of emancipation, nor authorized the employment of negroes as soldiers. In the course of his exploration at Belle Grove, Major Peck, accompanied by two of his Captains, found on the plantation of a lady, a negro undergoing a very inhuman punishment. He lay on his back in a room about six feet square, with marks of violence about his neck and chest. His legs were heavily shackled and chained to a strong staple in the floor. At his feet lay another chain, ten or fifteen feet long, made of iron five- eighths of an inch in thickness. Two white men were standing guard over him. And it appeared that an armed guard, sometimes five at once, had been thus stationed over him day and night. The heavy chain on the floor, it seems, was at night wound around the negro’s neck several times, and then passed through the staple and made fast. Major Peck, whose soul was stirred within him at this brutal spectacle, at once ordered the guards to release the negro, which they immediately did, protesting that they had no part in his confinement, and were only employed to prevent any one from attempting a rescue. They stated that the negro was bound by order of the Danish Consul, who owned the adjoining plantation, to whom he had been delivered over by his mistress for the purpose of being shot for rebellious resistance to punishment. Search being made, a considerable number of muskets were found secreted between mattresses. Having no doubt of his right and duty to remove the arms as contraband of war, Major Peck seized them. But how should he deliver the negro out the hands of his tormentors? The Government had proclaimed its intention to respect the claims of slaveholders; what right then had he to take this man from his owner? Gen. Phelps’ orders covered no such case as this;
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