Rape as a weapon in the Civil War

[hellboy30]

Originally Posted by Number 6

Damning? Exactly how far did the South get into the North during the war?

You do know they were doing it to the pro-Union Southern folks, right? Several of the scenes from "Cold Mountain" are lifted straight out of history-and no I'm not talking about the ones where Nicole Kidman got undressed. The Confederacy violently supressed East Tennessee. In "War at Every Door: Partisan Politics And Guerilla Violence in East Tennessee 1860-1869", author Noel Fisher says,

Beginning in late 1862, Confederate authorities more and more referred to East Tennessee loyalists not as Confederate citizens but as enemies, and they employed increasing in an attempt to subdue, imprison, or drive out rebellious Unionists.

Kirby Smith, in April of 1862, would declare Martial Law & suspend habeas corpus in an effort to rein in those disloyalists. Harsher measures would come. East Tennessee was one of several places within the Confederacy where the CSA would battle loyalists to the U.S. Every state except South Carolina had at least a battalion or more of loyalist troops raised by the U.S. to fight the Confederacy. In her book "Confederate Reckoning: Power and Politics in the Civil War South" Stephanie McCurry writes:

By late 1861 authorities in the individual states and the central government were already moving hard against the Unionists, jettisong protections for freedom of speech and assembly, abandoning distinctions between sedition(disloyal speech) and treason (disloyal acts), encouraging vigilante actions within communities, and moving anew to bring the power of the state down on its internal enemies. The approach was legal and military. The secretary of war authorized the imprisonment of men arrested for attending the Wheeling convention. Confederate prisons began to fill up with men & smaller numbers of women picked up on charges of sedition and treason, sometimes just for hurrahing Lincoln.

Along with East Tennessee, Northern Alabama, West Virginia, Western North Carolina, North Georgia, & certain parts of Arkansas & Texas all had their Unionist elements which were violently suppressed. You can read about Unionist accounts from such people as Confederate general Kirby Smith, or even from Unionists themselves like Sarah Thompson. Again, from McCurry's book:

By 1863, Confederate governments, like that of Governor Zebulon Vance in North Carolina, were not only cracking down on treasonous women, they began to target women as a key part of their military strategy. "This was no mere war among men."

A Colonel Laurence Allen of the 64th North Carolina regiment, went after a known Unionist, Bill Shelton. They didn't find the men, but the women were there. What happens next is best decribed from http://www.ourstate.com/atrocity-at-shelton-laurel/

Under Colonel Keith, with Colonel Allen complicit, the 64th goes on a tear. They torture women to make them give up the whereabouts of their husbands — in vain. They hang and whip Mrs. Unus Riddle, 85 years old. They hang two of the Shelton wives, Mary and Sarah, by their necks until nearly dead.

The Memphis Bulletin reports: “Old Mrs. Sallie Moore, seventy years of age, was whipped with hickory rods till the blood ran in streams down her back to the ground. … Martha White, an idiotic girl, was beaten and tied by the neck all day to a tree.”

Keith and Allen’s men knock down houses and burn them. They slaughter livestock wantonly.

Through no cooperation by Shelton Laurel women, the marauding force rounds up 15 men. Colonel Allen persuades them not to resist, promising a fair trial. He knows from the start that these men are unlikely to have had anything to do with the raid on Marshall — witnesses identified the raiders as mostly deserters from their own regiment.

But Colonel Keith detains them anyway and jails them for two days in Marshall. Two of the prisoners manage to slip their bonds and escape into the night. The remaining 13 are ordered to march up the valley.

As the Memphis Bulletin relates the story, “They bid farewell to their wives, daughters and sisters, directing them to procure the witnesses and bring them to the court in Tennessee, where they supposed their trial would take place. … The poor fellows had proceeded but a few miles when they were turned from the road into a gorge in the mountain and halted.”

Colonel Keith orders five of the men to their knees. A squad of soldiers with rifles files into line 10 paces in front of them and aims. Joe Woods, who at 60 is the eldest, cries out, “For God’s sake, men, you are not going to shoot us? If you are going to murder us, give us at least time to pray.” Keith responds that there’s no time for praying. The kneeling prisoners raise their hands to their faces, futilely trying to fend off bullets with flesh. For a long moment, the soldiers hesitate, moved by the pleas of mercy from the helpless men.

Colonel Keith can hardly contain his fury. “Fire or you will take their place!”

The soldiers fire. Four of the men fall lifeless. A fifth is gutshot and must be finished off with a bullet to the head.

Five more are made to kneel, including 13-year-old David Shelton. “You have killed my father and brothers,” he pleads. “You have shot my father in the face. Do not shoot me in the face.”

The soldiers fire, and again four men die instantly. But young Shelton is only wounded in both arms. He hugs the legs of one of the officers. “You have killed my old father and three brothers, you have shot me in both arms. … I forgive you all this — I can get well. … Let me go home to my mother and sisters.”

But they haul him back to the place of execution and shoot him again — eight times. Then they execute the remaining three men. The soldiers dump all the bodies into a shallow trench scored out of the snow. One of the soldiers, Sgt. N.B.D. Jay of Virginia, bounds onto the heap of bodies. He cries out to his fellows, “Pat Juba for me while I dance the damned scoundrels down to and through hell!”

But hey, according to you, Number6, CSA forces don't make it up North to commit atrocities......by simply reading the Historic record you can see that they didn't need to....and this is but one example of many I can post. Was the North doing the same things in the South? I'm sure they were as they were likewise fighting guerilla warfare due to the South passing of the 1862 Partisan Ranger Act, which even Robert E. Lee fought against. Both sides share the blame, so please don't take this "holier than thou" approach to it.