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January, 1863, Number I
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LETTER OF ADJ. L.A. DUNCAN, OF THE 42d REGT.
IOWA VOL.
INFANTRY. |
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[The following extract of the letter
of Adjutant Duncan, as published in the Iowa City Republican,
was accompanied with the chain described; and it is safely
deposited in the Cabinet of the State Historical
Society.—Editor.]
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| Fort Halleck, Columbus, Ky., ) |
| Thursday, Jan. 8th, 1862. ) |
Eds. Republican:
On the
1st inst, a negro slave came into camp with a chain, weighing
four or live pounds, tightly fastened about his neck, The poor
negro had been guilty of the enormous crime of borrowing a gun
from a Union man to shoot a squirrel for his sick wife and for
this unpardonable offense he was chained like a culprit. But
the negro outwitted his master and got the chain off the
rafter to which it was fastened. He was not ceremonious in
bidding his master an affectionate farewell, but made for
Columbus, where he arrived safely, with one end of the chain
about his neck and the other end in his pocket. Some of the
Company B boys of our regiment soon secured a file, and were
not long in removing the hated load from his neck. I secured
the chain as a present to the State Historical Society of Iowa
City, and sent it to Iowa City by favor of Dr. S.W. Huff,
Surgeon of the 12th Iowa. I hope it will be kept in the
archives of the Institution as an evidence, in future years,
of the barbarity of a system that will soon, I trust, be
numbered among the things that wore. be kept in the archives
of the Institution as an evidence, in future years, of the
barbarity of a system that will soon, I trust, be numbered
among the things that were.
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