Hide Article Text (OCR)
OUR ST.LOUIS LETTER. The Pele? Prisoners ite McDorl Culleje—Ar Rengements for the Safe Heniny—Reported Escape of Megafinend ‘Seven Others—A Pris orner Shot tan Accidet—Condition of the Relea —Care of General McKinstrey—A Trial Dew Stairs in North Jifts Couri—Order and Out—The Surrender of Hfasn at Sicl—Tie Sceech Protat, e. ~ [Fpceial Correspondence of the Chicazo Tribne.] St. Louie, Dec. 3, 1851. The annual of thirty carloads of rebel pris oners from Sedalia was quite an event for the troops stationed here. The selection of Mc Dowell's College as a prison for the confine nt of the captive rebels was probably the best that could have been made under the cir cumstances. The building has been vacant for several months past, and the Dr. McDowell who formerly presided over the affairs of the College, is now a surgeon with Jeff. Thomp son’ command, in the vicinity of New Mad rid. He is the same individual who made him self notorious here several years ago for his gross attacks on the Germans and Irish, and was lately guilty of the same indiscretion in public speech in New Orleans. It would be a bit of poetic justice if McDowell should be taken prisoner by our boys at Cairo, and brought here, and imprisoned in the same building which he formerly ruled over as President of a Medical Faculty. The building is about two hundred feet long by thirty wide, and is divided into two wings, separated by a centre building, oval in form. The roof is surmounted by a badly shaped dome. The College is situated at the corner of Eighth and Gratiot streets, and is within two blocks of the Pacific Railroad depot. The care of the prisoners is confided to Lieutenant Butterworth by the Provost Mat shal General, B. G. Farrar. Guard duty is performed by the 2d Iowa regiment, which come here from Bird’s Point several days ago to recruit the health of the men. The Towa boys occupy the row of dwellings on Eighth street, opposite the Cotlere, as quarters. A couple of pieces of artillery, comprising a sec tion of Almstedt’s battery, are stationed at the south end of the street to take the front of the premises in case of serious insubordination among the prisoners of attempted rescue. Sentinels guard the rear of the buildings used as quarters for our men, and patrol the entire block upon which the College is situated. The building itself is also guarded completely—a sentry being stationed in each passageway and at the head and foot of every staircase. The windows on the lower floors are barred, and outside there are lights at night to guide sentinels in case of an attempted escape. The foregoing description is all the more interesting just now from the fact that it was reported around the hotels last night, and re ported generally about the city this morning, that Magoffin and seven others escaped by crawling through an open culvert, and were at large in the city. The report is untrue. There have been no complaints or signs of in subordination gang the prisoners whatever. On Saturday one of them was accidentally shot. It happened while the prisoners were pressing forward to their supper. The guards at the head of the stairway on the second floor were pressed by the prisoners, and one of the guards, holding his musket in a horizontal po sition, resisted the pressure. While so doing, the coat sleeve of one of the rebels caught the hammer of the musket and jerked it back. TJ sprung back on the cap and discharged a Miniec ball into the side of a prisoner who was sone fifteen feet distant. The man was taken to the hospital and died early ill morning. The prisoners are pretty well provided for. Two-thirds of them had blankets when arrest ed, and the others have been supplied with re jected blankets, paid for under Fremont's ad ministration. They are allowed the same rations as our soldiers, and express most per fect satisfaction thus far with their treatment. Many of them, and in fact nearly all the ofh ers, had money when captured, and a few were quite liberally supplied with gold. Their many is usually paper—Farmers’ Bank (Lex ington) bills, with occasional lots of State scrip issued by Clark Jackson's minions.An incident occurred on Friday which is interest ing as showing how the prisoners have been brought up. The erection of sleeping bunks and other carpenter work necessary for the cohort of the prisoners, progressing slowly, it was desired that the prisoners themselves should send assistance, and a call was accord ingly made for all carpenters to come forward. Out of the nine hundred prisoners only five carpenters could be found. The developments regarding the extraordi nary course pursued by General McKinstry, while in charge of the Quartermaster’s Depart ment here, are read with great interest. The friends of General McKinstry are making a great stir about his continued confinement at The Arsenal without a chance to exculpate himself on [ tris], or even to ascertain the precise Charges brought against him, so as to prepare a defense. The meanest criminal in the land is guaranteed a speedy trial, and the friends of McKinstry are wrathy because he is not allowed a trial. It seems that the order of arrest was issued by MacClellan. McKinstry has employed Judge Krum of St. Louis, and Reverdy douncan of Baltimore, as his legal agvist is. Both these gentlemen have repeat edly applied to the War Department and to Gen. McClellan for the charges against their client, and have been turned away without an answer.An application was made to Presi dent Lincoln for redress, and the President said he would see about it. Certainly, if Mc Kipstry is guilty of any crime, he ought to be punished for it; if innocent, he is entitled to a discharge; and his worst enemy can hardly deny the justice of his him to an im mediate trial. The operations in North Missouri are not so active as the emergency of the case re quires. The outrages on the Union men from Hudson should be punished in the severest manner. Let the residents along the road be held responsible. Gen. Prentiss is the man to do this if he is let alone. Yet the State troops are somehow ss tender toward these eceesh nelsibors as if they were hand ling eggs. The road is open to Wellsville from this end, and to Centralia from the other end. The gap to be filled up includes the town of Mexico, the county seat of An derson county, and a rotten secesh hole, which should be cleaned out. The declarations of the rebels that the road shall not be repaired this winter, should bring down the heaviest penalty—if necessary, the fire and sword— upon the offenders. As Jennison says, Play ing war is played out,” and if nothing but de vastation and desolation will clean out the county, let it come. Gen. Halleck’s Order No. 3 is the laughing stock of the army, and if the truth migst be told, Gen. Halleck has himself violated the splrt of it by ordering negroes to be seized to repair the railroad, and by releasing the sixteen held in custody by the sherif. The order is continually represented as a dead letter in every camp in the State. They will not execute it and the officers are loth to at tempt to force them to do it. Fugitive ne groes are treated the same as fugitive white rations. They are subject to the same dis tinctions in our lines as whites, and if set to work, owed to earn their rations by service. What a pity that it is not rescinded by name as in practice. The protest of Samuel B. Churchill and twenty odd others against the execution of her No. 24, is about the coolest piece of impu dence ever offered before an enlightened com munity. The parties are careful not to say a word about their loyalty to the United States or the Constitution, but put their ease on the broad plea of illegality. For men who have countenanced the seizure of forts and arsen als, and applauded the trampling down of the American flag—the plea of ilegality is rather rich. Ihis remarked that about thirty-five of the sixty assessed were sensible enough to withhold their names from the protest, and they have avoided the publicity which other wise would have attached to their names. Those who rushed into print are now known ast open traitors, morally if not legally. The most painful part of the affair is that the names of several signers of the protest are those of men born in the North, one of them a prominent shoe merchant, a native of Massa chusetts. Yesterday it was a common remark among Union men that the seces were exceedingly mad because of the surrender of Mason and Slidell, and the manner in which they threw out their taunts was outrageous. Their appa rent contempt for the humiliating course pur sued by our Government is caused by disap pointment that a war with England has been postponed and the advantage to the Southern Confederacy prostrated. There are various expressions among Union men on the subject, and it is frequently said that it is better to gain an important point in international law at the expense of national sensibility rather than take the chance of allowing the Southern prators to overthrow the Government en tirely. The ice is running in the river quite thick today, and the ferry boats find it difficult to cross and re-cross. On Saturday there was a orge in the middle of the river and a boat had to be kept in the stream constantly to prevent 2 blockade.
Newspaper Details
Chicago Daily Tribune
Chicago, Illinois, US
Wed, Jan 01, 1862
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 18 Jan 2026
Other Publications Near Chicago, Illinois
News Journal
Suburbanite Economist
Southend Reporter
Community Publications
Southtown Economist
