Hood's division.
Several charges of theft, and one of murder, have recently appeared in the public prints against soldiers of
Hood's division.
The officers of that division recently held a meeting by the authority of
Gen. Hood, and appointed a board of four
officers--Majors Waddell,
Campbell and
Reedy, and
Capt. Elilyer, to proceed to
Petersburg and
Richmond, and ascertain the truth of the reports.
They investigated each case and found great exaggeration where there was any foundation at all. A case of rape was proved never to have occurred; a case of robbery was greatly exaggerated; and the snow balling of the cars seems to have occurred while two regiments were snowballing each other across the railroad.
In the case of the murder of
Mr. Grubbs, of
Manchester, the officers and men of the division offered a reward of $18,000 for the detection of the perpetrators and several thousand dollars were subscribed for the relief of the widow and children of the deceased.
In the robbery case the proprietor was not certain whether the robbers belonged to
Hood's division or not. The board of officers have certificates from the portion to corroborate the facts we have stated.
We make this statement in justice to a division which has been in every fight in
Virginia, and won the reputation of being one of the best fighting division of the Confederate army.
The officers nature is desired that to this, reputation for good conduct should be added, and their investigations have been successfully directed to this point.
The troops composing the command are from
Georgia Alabama,
Arkansas and
Texas.
