Unparalleled Enermity.
Under this heading the Enquirer, of yesterday, publishes the official history, as received at the War Department, of an outrage by Federal soldiers which is the most horrible we have read during the war. It says:‘ The deponents are Caswell Woods and Elisabeth, his wife of the county of Craven. Mr. Woods is certified to by Gen. Evans as being ‘"a respectable citizen, and loyal to our cause, which, with his being a poor man, seem to be the only causes of the fiendish enrages by the hellish savages"’ It is also stated that he is a class-leader in the Methodist Church. It is due to the civilized world and to outraged humanity that the facts stated in these depositions should be known, and yet they are too infamously obscene to be fully described in a newspaper. The house of these quiet and aged citizens was visited on the night of the 2d of October by two Yankee troopers, armed with pistols and sabres. One of them, (the younger,) who was addressed by the other as ‘"Captain,"’ and sometimes as ‘"John,"’ rode into the glance, burst open the front door, and then rode into the house. The other, who was addressed by the ‘"Captain"’ sometimes as ‘"Charlie."’ sometimes as ‘"George,"’ and ‘"Lieutenant, "’ walked in.
Mr. Woods had retired to bed. We copy from his deposition:
"I came down stairs in a hurry, in my night-clothes, and the one on the horse said to me, You d — d old gray-headed son of a b — h, where were you day before yesterday? and when I told him I was at home, he said. 'You lie, for you shot at me. ' Upon this pretence they cut out the cord from a bed in the room, said they would hang him, but finally tied him, took him out of the house, and lashed him to a tree, with the threat of instant death if he made any outcry or attempted to get loose. They returned to the house and locked the door after them, and the old man had the inexpressible agony of listening for the rest of the night to the screams and doleful lamentations of his wife and daughter.
The statement made by Mrs. Woods in her deposition of what passed inside is truly heartrending The unparalleled villains made the poor helpless women not merely the victim of their brutal lust, but accompanied the outrage, which is worse than death, with circumstances that mark them as the most devilish even among the most abandoned of villains. Commencing by cursing Jesus Christ, with pistol in hand and with threat of instant death, the deponent was required by one of the beasts to divest herself of every particle of clothing. But this was almost Christian treatment compared with other acts which may not be related. While such was her own sufferings, the shrieks of her daughter in another room told that her's was a similar fate. About sunrise the next morning the human devils departed.
It is with pain that such as the above is admitted into the columns of the Enquirer. But it is due to our own people and to the world that the villainies of our enemies should be known. The depositions have been laid before us with the suggestion endorsed thereon by the Adjutant-General ‘"that so much of this account as is not too foul for publication should be given to the public, through the press, in order that the righteous indignation of our people, our Generals, and our armies, may, under the providence of God, visit a just retribution upon an enemy so fiend-like."’ Concurring in the propriety of the suggestion, we have acted accordingly.
We are happy to say that General Gustavus W. Smith has directed every effort to be made to as certain the names of the parties, and to ‘"demand their delivery for trial and punishment."’
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