had
already sixty wagon-loads, and he guessed he could spare a few more.
This man has a splendid farm, finely stocked with valuable imported
Cashmere sheep, some of them worth from four to five hundred dollars
apiece. This man is living in luxury, and upon ground that should be
occupied by the poor and devoted families of those who, by his
connivance, have been driven forth upon the world. Yet the great
shield of the law--the law he has so basely violated, the Constitution
he has, and yet does, openly defy--is made his safeguard. Is it at all
astonishing our men weary of this favoritism, this premium upon
traitors?

Let me tell your readers of what I was an eye-witness, a few evenings
ago. You that have comfortable homes and warm firesides, with no war
at your doors, can have but a faint idea of the horrors that are
broadcast over this once happy country. A poor woman came to the
commanding General of this brigade and begged for protection. She
lived eight miles from this camp, and the rebels had threatened to
burn her barn and house. Now, what do you think was this woman's
offense? Her husband had joined the Union army at Nashville last
August, and when, a few days afterward, he returned to arrange his
family affairs, the "guerillas" found out his return, and five of the
incarnate fiends walked into his house, and while he was seated at the
table, partaking of his breakfast, these men shot him--there, in the
presence of his wife and six children, these fiends, that our worthy
President deliberately "commutes," murdered their only protector; and
now, not satisfied with their former atrocity, they return to drive
the poor widow and her children from the desolate little homestead!

O! if there is one hell deeper than another, please, God, send these
wretches, who would persecute a poor woman thus, to it!

The General, upon hearing the story of her troubles, sent out two
companies of the 2d Minnesota Regiment to guard and bring into camp
her children, and what few chattels were left. Company A, under
Captain Barnes, and Company G, under Captain Keifer, were assigned to
perform this act of deserved charity.

It was ten o'clock at night, cold and windy, the rain penetrating to
the very bones, and dark as Egypt, when the two companies returned
with Mrs. Crane and her six children. One rickety wagon, a mangy old
horse, a cow, some bedding, and a few cooking utensils, were the
trophies of the trip. These things told a tal