Four Years a Scout and Spy: "General Bunker", One of Lieut. General Grant's Most Daring and Successful Scouts, Being a Narrative of ... the Experience of Corporal Ruggles During Four Years' Service as a Scout and Spy for the Federal ArmyDowns, E. C. (Edward C.)
History
Four Years a Scout and Spy: "General Bunker", One of Lieut. General Grant's Most Daring and Successful Scouts, Being a Narrative of ... the Experience of Corporal Ruggles During Four Years' Service as a Scout and Spy for the Federal Army
Downs, E. C. (Edward C.)
Ruggles, Lorain, 1823-1902; United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Personal narratives
I told the Colonel that it was only a few rods to the doctor's house; so
he brought them along to the house, where they were turned over to my
care. I now discovered, for the first time, that there were several
persons chained to the trees in the little grove behind the house.
Leaving my prisoners with a guard, I went to find out who they were. I
found that they had iron collars around their necks, to which the chains
were made fast. They said they were Union people, and lived in the
country about there, and that they had fled from conscription, and
Doctor Davis had hunted them down with bloodhounds, and then chained
them there. I went to the doctor and asked him who he had got chained up
in the grove. He said, "They are Confederate soldiers that have deserted
their regiments. I captured them, and fastened them that way for
safe-keeping, until I could return them to their commands."
I made him give me his keys, and then I unlocked the Union men, and put
one of the iron collars on Doctor Davis' neck, and locked him to the
hind end of one of the wagons. The doctor's brother cried, and said he
would rather see him shot than treated that way, and begged of me to let
him go. I told him that such treatment was no worse for rebs than it was
for good Union men. I had hardly stepped away from the doctor when the
Union men pitched into him, and I guess they would have killed him in a
very few minutes if I had not interfered. I was very sorry afterward
that I didn't let them do him justice.
We loaded the fifty-six wagons with oats, corn, and bacon, from the
doctor's plantation, and then burned every thing that was left. While
the wagons were being loaded, some Indians that lived near by came to
us, and seeing that I had the doctor chained, said: "Bad man; very bad
man. Be glad he's gone."
As soon as I reached camp, I reported to General McPherson who I had
captured. He said, "Doctor Davis is notorious for his cruelty to loyal
people. Bring your prisoner in."
While I was gone for the prisoner, General Sherman and General Logan
came over, and were there when I entered with him. General Sherman asked
him a few questions, and then gave him a most severe upbraiding for his
barbarous cruelty. When the Generals had all given him a piece of their
minds, he was turned over to me to take care of, with permission to kill
him if I wanted to.
The next morning I took him out into the woods alone, to see what I
could do toward scaring him. I chained him to a tree, and then, drawing
my revolver, told him that I was going to kill him. He begged of me to
spare his life.
"Yes," said I, "the ox is yours now; why didn't you think of that when
loyal men begged of you for mercy? You have no time to beg; you had
better go to praying."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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