Outrages in Kentucky

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 7, 1866

Outrages in Kentucky.

"To Major General O. O. Howard, Commissioner Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, War Department, Washington, D. C.:

"General—In compliance with instructions received from the department, directing me to proceed to the city of Lexington, Kentucky, to examine into the condition of the freedmen in that part of the State, I have the honor to report that I visited Lexington and vicinity, and prosecuted my investigation for the period of about one month, adopting the following method: In all cases of extreme cruelty to the freedmen, I have relied upon the best and most reliable evidence I could procure, taken under oath. In regard to minor acts of cruelty, either to persons or property, and in reference to the economical, social, and moral condition of the race, I have been controlled by personal observation, aided by information received from intelligent and trustworthy sources.

"From the depositions taken by me, and herewith transmitted, I have compiled the facts in the more extreme cases of cruelty and outrage, for reference, and make the same a part and parcel of my report.

"An examination of the sworn evidence, or the abstracts made therefrom, will reveal to you sixty cases of outrage, in a limited district and period, unparalleled in their atrocity and fiendishness—cruelty for which, in no instance, as developed by the testimony, is there the least shadow of excuse or palliation.

"You will observe I have been able in most instances to give you the names of the injured; in many, the name of the offenders, with dates and localities.

"I have classified these outrages as follows:

"Twenty-three cases of most severe and inhuman beating and whipping of men, four of beating and shooting, three of robbing, five men shot and killed, two shot and wounded, four beaten to death, one beaten and roasted, three women assaulted and ravished, four women beaten, two women tied up and whipped until insensible, two men and three families beaten and driven from their homes, and their property destroyed, two instances of burning of dwellings, and one of the inmates shot. Of these victims twelve men were Union soldiers, and three women the wives of Union soldiers."