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remonstrance by General Peck, commanding in North Carolina, Pickett replied, that being deserters they were executed by his orders, and if retaliation was attempted he would execute ten United States soldiers for every one upon whom we retaliated, unless, indeed, the Confederates were deserters from our army, in which case hanging them would be proper.
As Pickett himself deserted our army to take up arms in the Rebellion, the exception was quite suggestive of the duty of our government towards such men as he.
The correspondence in relation to this affair is illustrative of the mode of warfare which we endured.1
I referred the whole correspondence to General Grant with recommendation that stringent measures be taken for the protection of loyal Southern men in our armies, but nothing was done.
I have been often asked why our war was so protracted.
Was not the pusillanimity and want of executive force of the government as exhibited in this transaction, one sufficient answer?
Why was not Pickett hanged for these twenty-two deliberate murders when he was captured by us?
It is needless to say that recruiting for our forces in North Carolina ceased.
Information was received from my correspondents at Richmond that while the troops usually around Richmond were away operating in North Carolina, the enemy, relying upon the almost impassable condition of the roads, had left but a small guard at Bottom's Bridge, over the Chickahominy, eleven miles from Richmond.
Believing that a rapid march and a surprise would carry the intrenchments around the city if the bridge could be seized, Brigadier-General Wistar, whose suggestion it was, was permitted to make the attempt with about three thousand men from Williamsburg.2 His march was a brilliant one, his dispositions admirable, but success was snatched from him, because of the escape, from his guard at Williamsburg, the night before the expedition started, of a prisoner who had been ordered to be executed for the wilful murder of an officer, and who had been reprieved by the President. The man fled to the enemy and gave information, so that when our men reached Bottom's Bridge, we found it held by a strong force.3
A few words are needed to explain fully the objects of this expedition,
A. M. Thayer and Co. 1892.
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