The following facts and correspondence have just come into my possession, and I hasten to send them to you. They show the exasperated nature of the wary in these parts. – Soon the cry will be “No quarter!”
Col. Kellogg, commanding at Cape Girardeau, telegraphs to Acting Brigadier General Paine, at Cairo, thus:
“Yesterday (Feb 8th) several companies of cavalry, with one company of Ross’ infantry, scoured the country west, bringing in fifty prisoners. Our cavalry also encountered a large force of rebel cavalry fifteen miles beyond Bloomfield. They succeeded in routing them, killing seven, wounding many, and taking twenty prisoners. We had two missing and one wounded. They found five bodies, known to be Union men, murdered.
W. P. KELLOGG, Col. Commanding.
Gen. E. A. PAINE, commanding Cairo.”
GEN. PAINE’S REPLY.
“Col. Kellogg, commanding Cape Girardeau:
Hang one of the rebel cavalry for each Union man murdered – and after this, two for each. – Continue to scout, capture and kill.
E. A. PAINE, Brig. Gen. Commanding.
Cairo, Feb. 8th.”
That’s laconic and specific. Had this policy been pursued from the start, rebels would have been scarce in Missouri. I hope Gen. Hitchcock, Gen. Paine’s successor, will act out the example of Gen. now Col. P. – Cairo correspondence of Cleveland Plaindealer.
– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, March 1, 1862, p. 3
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