EXTRAORDINARY OUTRAGES IN AMERICA.

Southland Times, Issue 1132, 29 March 1869, Page 3

EXTRAORDINARY OUTRAGES IN AMERICA.

James A. Keith, formerly a colonel in the Confederate army, now in gaol at Kaleigh, North Carolina, has been accused, and does not deny the commission of one of tbe greatest outrages ever perpetrated. In 1863 the loyal people living in Laurel Valley conceived that the Confederate authorities did not give them their fair share of salt. Joining with the Confederate element, they proceeded to organise a raid upon the Kanawha Valley Salt Works, which proved successful, under the lead of Captain Kirk of East Tenessee. Captain Kirk's men were fired with liquor furnished them by the peon In living near the works who were seized with terror upon the approach of the raiders. They committed a number of outrages. Disappointed in not obtaining a sufficient quantity of salt, they sacked the town and retired. Colonel Keith organised a party and in his turn proceeded to Laurel Valley, surrounded a portion of the valley where he knew his game was safe, and without being over particular as to whether those he captured were concerned in the salt raid or not, proceeded to whet his revenge. Capturing thirteen persons who were assembled at the house of a man named Chaudier, he deliberately took them to a secluded spot, and in spite of the appeals and imploring cries of old aud young, shot them to death. Women, old men, and boys, were murdered without giving them permission to say a prayer. Standing his victims in line, this monster of the nineteenth century ordered his command to fire upon them. Nine fell dead at the first discharge, but the four little boys were not killed outright. They were shot a second time while trying to clasp the knees of their murderers. Keith ordered the dead bodies to be covered with stones, and thus they were left. Nothing was known of the horrible occur, rence for some time, but the facts finally reached Governor Vance's ear, who immediately demanded of the then Confederate Secretary of War, Saddon, the arrest, trial, and death of Keith. The trial was a farce. Keith was free after a time, and immediately putting himself at the head of a band of outlaws, terrorised over the country. Visiting the house of a Mrs Franklin, he shot her eldest son, dragged her boy of fitteen from under the bed where he took refuge, killed him also, then shot and. killed her third son, who had, in the meantime, run out of tbe house. For this and similar atrocities he has been formally indicted, and now that he is secured in gaol, the authorities experience considerable trouble in preserving his life until the day of his trial, which will at once take place. — American Paper. — — ' -»