Rebellion Record: a Diary of American Events: Documents and Narratives, Volume 4.
Frank Moore, Ed.

[535] which had evidently been dug up after the burial. At the other end of the trench, we found the shin-bone of a man which had been struck by a musket-ball and split. The bodies at the ends had been prised up.

While digging there a party of soldiers came along and showed us a part of a shin-bone five or six inches long, which had the end sawed off. They said they had found it, among many other pieces, in one of the cabins the rebel had deserted. From the appearance of it, pieces had been sawed off to make finger-rings. As soon as the negroes noticed this they said that the rebels had had rings made of the bones of our dead, and that they had them for sale in their camps. When Dr. Swalm saw the bone he said it was a part of the shin-bone of a man. The soldiers represented that there were lots of these bones scattered through the rebel huts sawed into rings, etc.

Mr. Lewis and his negroes all spoke of Col. James Cameron's body, and knew that “it had been stripped, and also where it had been buried.” Mr. Scholes, in answer to a question of one of the committee, described the different treatment extended to the Union soldiers and the rebel dead. The latter had little headboards placed at the head of their respective graves and marked; none of them had the appearance of having been disturbed.

The evidence of that distinguished and patriotic citizen, Hon. William Sprague, Governor of the State of Rhode Island, confirms and fortifies some of the most revolting statements of former witnesses. His object in visiting the battle-field was to recover the bodies of Col. Slocum and Major Ballou, of the Rhode Island regiment. He took out with him several of his own men to identify the graves. On reaching the place he states that: “We commenced digging for the bodies of Col. Slocum and Major Ballou at the spot pointed out to us by these men who had been in the action. While digging, some negro women came up and asked whom we were looking for, and at the same time said that ‘Col. Slogun’ had been dug up by the rebels, by some men of a Georgia regiment, his head cut off, and his body taken to a ravine thirty or forty yards below, and there burned. We stopped digging and went to the spot designated, where we found coals, and ashes, and bones, mingled together. A little distance from there we found a shirt (still buttoned at the neck) and a blanket with large quantities of hair upon it, everything indicating the burning of a body there. We returned and dug down at the spot indicated as the grave of Major Ballou, but found no body there; but at the place pointed out as the grave where Col. Slocum was buried, we found a box, which, upon being raised and opened, was found to contain the body of Col. Slocum. The soldiers who had buried the two bodies were satisfied that the grave which had been opened, the body taken out, beheaded, and burned, was that of Major Ballou, because it was not in the spot where Col. Slocum was buried, but rather to the right of it. They at once said that the rebels had made a mistake, and had taken the body of Major Ballou for that of Col. Slocum. The shirt found near the place where the body was burned I recognised as one belonging to Major Ballou, as I had been very intimate with him. We gathered up the ashes containing the portion of his remains that were left, and put them in a coffin, together with his shirt and the blanket with the hair left upon it. After we had done this we went to that portion of the field where the battle had first commenced, and began to dig for the remains of Captain Tower. We brought a soldier with us to designate the place where he was buried. He had been wounded in the battle, and had seen from the window of the house where the Captain was interred. On opening the ditch or trench, we found it filled with soldiers, all buried with their faces downward. On taking up some four or five, we discovered the remains of Captain Tower, mingled with those of the men. We took them, placed them in a coffin, and brought them home.”

In reply to a question of a member of the committee, as to whether he was satisfied that they were buried intentionally with their faces downward, Gov. Sprague's answer was, “Undoubtedly! Beyond all controversy!” and that “it was done as a mark of indignity.” In answer to another question, as to what their object could have been, especially in regard to the body of Col. Slocum, he replied: “Sheer brutality, and nothing else. They did it on account of his courage and chivalry, in forcing his regiment, fearlessly and bravely, upon them. He destroyed about one half of that Georgia regiment, which was made up of their best citizens.” When the inquiry was put, whether he thought these barbarities were committed by that regiment, he responded: “By that same regiment, as I was told.” While their own dead were buried with marble head and foot-stones, and names upon them, ours were buried, as I have stated, “in trenches.” This eminent witness concludes his testimony as follows: “I have published an order to my Second regiment, to which these officers were attached, that I shall not be satisfied with what they shall do unless they give an account of one rebel killed for each of their own number.”

The members of your committee might content themselves by leaving this testimony to the Senate and the people without a word of comment; but when the enemies of a just and generous Government are attempting to excite the sympathy of disloyal men in our own country, and to solicit the aid of foreign governments by the grossest misrepresentations of the objects of the war and. of the conduct of the officers and soldiers of the Republic, this, the most startling evidence of their insincerity and inhumanity, deserves some notice at our hands.

History will be examined in vain for a parallel to this rebellion against a good government. Long prepared for by ambitious men, who were made doubly confident of success by the aid and