The military Murders in St. Louis.
The St. Louis papers are full of the details of the horrible massacre of the volunteers and citizens of that city, including women and children, by the
United States soldiers and Germans.
Capt. Lyon, who commanded the attacking forces, was accompanied by
Frank P. Blair, Jr., who acted in conjunction with him. The
St. Louis Herald describes the march of 6,000 or 7,000 men under
Col. Lyon, to Camp Jackson, which was surrounded, soon after which
Gen. Frost surrendered.
The
Herald then adds:
‘
After this had been done, a murderous assault was committed upon the 800 prisoners and the 10,000 or more of the curious spectators of the scene in the distance, which is without a precedent in brutality and atrocity in history or fiction, and which, it is to be hoped, will stand alone for all time.
While the two regiments of the M. S. V. M. were thus standing before them unarmed, having given up their arms with tears in their eyes at the order of their commander, and with many thousands of people — men, women and children — gathered closely around to witness the evacuation — thoughtless of all harm — they fired upon them, volley after volley, without any provocation, so far as we could learn, whatever.
There was no provocation.
The Missouri militia was unarmed, dejected, passive.
And the women and children would not have intrusted themselves within the line of their guns had they not known that the whole affair had been brought to a close.
The names and numbers of the companies from which the fire came we have not learned with sufficient accuracy to state, further than that it was a German company, and not one of those domiciled within the walls of the Arsenal.
The effect of the firing was frightfully murderous.
At the first fire many fell, some killed and others wounded.
The women and children and other spectators, alarmed, fled, when the companies firing brought their guns to bear upon them, and killed many.
’
The Republican gives the following additional particulars:
‘
It appears that several members of one of the German companies, on being pressed by the crowd and receiving some blows from them, turned and discharged their pieces.--Fortunately no one was injured, and the soldiers who had done the act were at once placed under arrest.
Hardly, however, had tranquility been restored, when volley after volley of rifle reports were suddenly heard from the extreme rear ranks, and men, women and children were beheld running wildly and frantically a way from the scene.
Many, while running, were suddenly struck to the sed, and the wounded and dying made the late beautiful field look like a battle-ground.
We went over the grove immediately after the occurrence, and a more fearful and ghastly sight is seldom seen.
Men lay gasping in the agony of death, and staining the green grass with their blood, as it flowed from their wounds.
Children of 8 or 10 years of age were pale and motionless as if asleep under the trees, and women cried in pain as they lay upon the ground.
One, a girl of 14, presented a mournful picture, as she reclined against a stump, her face cold and white from the sudden touch of death.
To-day the bodies of the dead will be recognized, and the names of the wounded ascertained.
The total number killed and injured is about twenty-five.
It was reported that the Arsenal troops were attacked with stones, and a couple of shots discharged at them by the crowd before they fired.
Whether this be true or not, a more reckless act has never been committed than an armed body of troops discharging those terrible instruments of war — Minnie rifles — among a crowd of defenceless spectators.
Jeremiah Godfrey, a hired man of
Mr. Cozzens, county surveyor, was working in the yard of
Mr. Cozzens at the time of the occurrence.
While stooping over, in the act of fastening some flowers to a frame, three soldiers entered the gate, and approaching within the yard, fired three shots into his body.
Fortunately none of them were fatal, being all flesh wounds.
The family witnessed the affair, and say that the man had not been out of the yard, and was unaware of the approach of his assailants until stricken down by their bullets.
’
