Text from the
"Prometheus Bound," Thomas Nast illustration:
SCENE
A Ravine in the Southern States. Prometheus (Grant)
Is discovered bound to the precipice. Panthea (Colum
Bia) and Ione (Congress) are sitting at his feet. South
Ern Furies, Minor Spirits, etc. TimeNight. During
The scene morn slowly breaks.
First Fury
The hope of torturing him smells like a heap
of corpses to a death bird after battle.
Second fury
We are the ministers of pain and fear,
And disappointment, and mistrust, and hate,
And clinging crime; and as lean dogs pursue
Through wood and lake some struck and sobbing fawn,
We track all things that weep and bleed and live,
When the great King (Andy) betrays them to our will.
Ione
Hark, Sister!
Darest thou observe how the fiends torture him?
Third Fury
Blood thou canst see, and fire, and canst hear groans;
Worse things, unheard, unseen, remain behind.
Panthea
Look, Sister, where a troop of spirits gather,
Like flocks of clouds in springs delightful weather,
Thronging in the blue air!
Ione
And see! More come!
INSULTS TO UNITED STATES SOLDIERS
Washington, Feb. 6 A messenger has arrived from
Richmond to consult General Schofield regarding insults to the troops stationed around
that city. It appears that while a body of soldiers were marching through the town on the
way to camp, on Saturday, the inmates of a private house, occupied by a prominent rebel
family, displayed the rebel flag from the windows and greeted them with jeers and taunts.
General R. S. Granger, in command during General
Schofields absence, at first determined to arrest the whole party and occupy the
house; but reflecting that under the Presidents orders and the decisions of the
Supreme Court the military authorities have no further power in the South, he decided to
report the facts to General Schofield. The latter was greatly incensed, and left for
Richmond at once.
REWARDS OFFERED FOR THE KILLING OF UNION OFFICERS IN
TENNESSEE
The Nashville Press and Times of February 4,
contained the following statement:
We have received direct information of a diabolical
conspiracy which has been entered into by certain rebel citizens of Cannon, White, and
Warren Counties, to procure the assassination of a number of leading and influential Union
men, all late officers of the Federal Army, residing in the Third Congressional District.
The following are the names of the persons marked out for death and the sums offered for
making way with them:
For Colonel W. B. Stokes
.$5000
For Colonel Blackburn
.
4000
For Colonel Pleasure
. .4000
For Captain
Vanatta
2000
For Captain Hathaway
2000
A rebel citizen living near Alexandria, in De Kalb County,
has offered to give $1000 for the assassination of Captain Vanatta. It is understood that
three notorious cut-throats, who were once members of Champ Fergusons gang of
bushwhackers, have been employed to do the work. Several Union citizens, fearful of their
lives, have fled to Alexandria for safety, where a number of discharged Federal soldiers,
formerly belonging to Colonel Stokess cavalry, reside.
STATE OF THINGS IN TEXAS
General Sheridan says: "Two soldiers were shot at
Brenham, Texas, about two months ago; they were unarmed, and offered no provocation. The
grand jury could find no bill against their would-be assassins, but found a bill against
Brevet Major Smith, Seventeenth Infantry, for burglary, because he broke into the house of
some citizen in his attempt to arrest these men."
Large grants of lands and money have been made to rebel
soldiers in Texas. The bodies of rebels have been brought from other States for
reinterment, and an Act has been passed to remove the bodies of Union soldiers from the
State cemetery.
MURDER OF UNION SOLDIERS IN SOUTH CAROLINA
The recent release of Joseph Crawford Keys, Robert Keys,
his son, Elisha Byren, and F.G. Stowers, for the wanton murder of three Union soldiers in
South Carolina, is creating a good deal of comment. The victims were Corporal W. C.
Corbett, Emory Smith, and Mason Browning, all of the First Maine Veteran Volunteers, who
were killed while on guard over cotton. Each had been shot through the head; two with
wounds which must have cause immediate death; the third evidently having been drowned
after receiving his wound. The hair of each was scorched, showing the pistols had been
discharge close to their heads. The defendants are very rich, and it is stated one of
their counsel alone received $10,000 for his influence with the President in the matter.
"In South Carolina," says General Sickles,
"when arrests are made by military authority, and the parties turned over to the
civil tribunals, the accused are generally admitted to easy bail."
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