g been
placed in command of the Armies of the West, commenced organizing and
concentrating his forces for the Spring campaign, under the general plan
suggested by Silent and approved by the President and Secretary of
War. The condition of things in the North was as heretofore described.
Sherwood was kept continually on the alert, in order to meet the many
raids that were being made in his Department.

"About the 1st of April, Gen. Forrester, with a large cavalry force,
again moved north, marched between Big and Little Combination Rivers,
and made his way unmolested to Paduah, and there assaulted the Union
garrison held by Col. Heck, by whom he was badly beaten. He made his
retreat, swinging around to Conception River, and following that down
to Fort Pillston, which was held by a very small garrison of colored
troops. After capturing the post the unfortunate troops were most
barbarously and inhumanly butchered, no quarter being given. The poor
colored soldiers and citizens were shot down like so many wild beasts.
Some were killed while imploring their captors for mercy; others were
tied to trees, fires built around them made of fagots, and in that way
burned to death.

"The sick and wounded fared no better. Such brutality is seldom resorted
to by the most barbarous of the savage Indian tribes. What do you
suppose would have been the fate of any Union officer who would have
permitted such conduct on the part of his command?"

"Why," said Col. Bush, "the officer would have been dismissed the
service in utter disgrace, and would not afterwards have been recognized
as a gentleman anywhere in the Northern States."

"No, sir," said Dr. Adams; "such officers would have been compelled to
change their names and to find homes in the mountains, where they would
have been unobserved."

"Yes," said Uncle Daniel, "that would have been so with any of our
troops; yet you never hear this fact alluded to. It is lost sight of,
and if you should mention it publicly, you would only be criticised for
so doing. Our tradesmen and merchants want their Southern customers, and
therefore, no matter what their crimes may have been, they are hushed up
and condoned. But to return to my story.

"Sherwood had made his disposition for an advance, and on the same day
that the Army of the East commenced its movement to cross the Rapidan,
his army moved out against Gen. Jones, who had displaced Biggs and was
in command of the rebel Army of the Center