How blessed we are to live in a day and time when news like the following is not read in our daily newspapers: New Era Fort Smith, Sebastian County, Arkansas June 25, 1864 CAGED Last Thursday the acting Post Chaplain, Rev. J V McAfee, concluded to have a pair of rebel women removed from town, in accordance with General Orders removing refugees. But on Mr. Keenan going up to carry out the order, he was violently abused by the women, who confessed they were rebels, and had done all they could for the rebel cause, in furnishing them such articles as they could, and acting the spy, and declared they intended to do so as long as they had a chance, and if they had any Union blood in them they would let it out. On searching the house there was about 80 pounds of lead and other ammunition, two guns and other contraband articles found. They were shipped to Little Rock with a request to the Provost Marshal there to have them caged. Mr. P, a citizen of Newton County, arrived here a few days since with his wife and three other ladies, on foot, and in very destitute circumstances. It seems they had been repeatedly robbed by the bushwhackers. They then traded off all the available property they had for something to subsist on, and when this was consumed, they had to leave, as they were not permitted to raise anything more. The husband of one of the ladies, who is sixty-five years of age having been killed, and Mr. P having to keep concealed to save his life they set out for this place, a distance of 100 miles, carrying everything they had on their backs. Mr. P was disguised with his wife’s clothing, which he changed at Van Buren. Last Sunday a party of fiends in human shape dashed up within a few miles of this place and killed three union men, A Paden, Thomas Paden, and George H Hill, in cold blood. Those murders are endorsed by the rebel authorities, and considered a great prop to the rebellion many of the leaders holding commissions in their army, or other permanent positions. The principles of bushwhacking being so universally inculcated in the beginning of the war we in reality look at the rebellion, in the point of criminality as but a bushwhacking warfare on a grand scale. BUSHWHACKED- Patrick McKenzie, living about 8 miles south east of this place, was bushwhacked last Thursday. Like many others here, he had taken the oath some time since, and treated as a loyal man, though several union men here remember him as one of the first to advocate secession, and as having ironed and otherwise mistreated several persons when taking them to Little Rock, as prisoners, for the crime of being loyal to the Union. The Memphis Bulletin of the 14th inst., states that a large train of wagons belonging to refuges from Lanesport, Arkansas, was attacked by guerrillas near the northern lines of this State. 75 men and four women were killed, and all the wagons robbed and burned, leaving the remaining women and children in great destitution. Most of them had assembled at Lanesport while our troops were posted there, but when our forces evacuated the country they attempted to go through to St. Louis by land and thus met their sad fate. We are having another wet season, one that would have ensured to the people of this country a living for a year to come, if they had been permitted to cultivate their farms. As it is, the poor will have to suffer, and thousands leave their homes, and go hundreds of miles to find a land of peace and plenty- which, thank God, is t be found all over the North- while this country will be depopulated, and made a wilderness, and in the end the rebels will gain nothing by their course. FOR SALE OR TRADE Four 2-Horse wagons, 3 ox wagons, in running order, 1 Ambulance, 2 light wagons, 10 horses, 5 colts, 1 good Jack, and 7 suits of 2 horse harness. Opposite Bright’s old Mill on Garrison Avenue. Thomas Daly. July 2, 1864 BUSHWHACKING ITEMS We learn from Captain Coleman, 9th Kansas Cavalry, who returned from a trip down the river below Roseville, a few days since, that our cavalry have not been idle during the last week. Major Thatcher commanded an expedition which surprised a body of bushwhackers camped at the house of one Pearl, near the Potato Hill, in the South East part of this county, and killed five of them. They went from that point to the vicinity of Roseville, where they killed two more, one of them being Major Randolph Tittsworth, formerly of the rebel army, but more recently of the brush, and no doubt one of the party who have systematically fired into every boat, save two, that have made the trip this season. This is the third time lately that the bushwhackers have been found on the premises of Mr. Pearl, who had been down south with the rebels until recently, but his wife came to Fort Smith recently, took the oath, purchased her goods, and is currently reported to have received pay for most of the forage used by our troops in passing through that section; while we know of several Union men of undoubted loyalty, with their pockets full of vouchers and receipts, on which they are unable to get a cent. Captain McConnell, of the 9th Kansas Cavalry, has returned from a scout to the Sugar Loaf Valley, with detachments of the 6th, 9th and 14th Kansas Cavalry, under the command of Captain Searle. They encountered and captured some of the rebel pickets just beyond Sugar Loaf Mountain, but not being in force to attack them, as they are reported to be several hundred strong, returned. Captain McConnell represents the country as being nearly devastated by the Indians, who are driving off all the stock, destroying other property, and compelling all the families suspected of loyalty to leave the country. One of the scouts from that section reports that the Indians had taken off with them several men over 80 years of age, and small boys, for what purpose, no one knows, unless to kill, or hold them as hostages. Fran Alverson Warren e-mail: [email protected] 479-369-2703 http://www.crawfordcountyarkansas.net/