The facts which we shall relate in this connection cannot fail to be as startling to our readers as they were to us. They have _never before been related,_ either in book or newspaper form; nor would they now be, but that time has wiped out the passions of the war and the limits of personal responsibility, and made the facts legitimate for the purposes of history.
That our readers may understand that no animosity towards the South, or the Southern Confederacy, nor sympathy with the slave in any way, has led to the divulging of these facts, we may say that Colonel Abercrombie, to whom we are indebted for the facts, is a Southern man (a Baltimorian) by birth, and from his earliest recollection was taught to look upon the negro as a different race from our own--as a chattel, to be bought and sold, the same as a horse or cow; that he was a captain in the Thirteenth United States Infantry in the early stages of the war, but, being convinced that his duty lay with the South, resigned his commission in the United States army, went South, joined the Confederate service, and remained as an officer in that service until the close of the war; and that it was not until soon after the war, when he went from New York to Galveston by steamship, and from Galveston travelled nearly all over Texas on horseback, that he became fully aware of the facts which he detailed to us, and which we now purpose to communicate to our readers.
The Colonel, Captain Philip Lander, and three others, left Galveston for Brownsville about the middle of June, 1865. From Galveston to Houston they went by steamboat; at Houston they purchased mules, and from thenceforth pursued their journey on muleback. At Columbus they found a considerable number of Confederate soldiers, who had belonged to General Kirby Smith's command, and were then on their way to their homes. At Bastrop they found two companies of United States volunteers doing guard duty. At Austin, the capital of the State, they found General Sturges with four companies of the regiment which he commanded, the Seventh United States Cavalry. About the middle of July, they left Austin for San Antonio. On the road they saw two men in one place, and one in another, hanging by the neck to limbs of trees, who had been strung up there by roving banditti--probably on the suspicion that they were Union men--and left to hang there as a warning to others. At San Antonio they found General Magruder, who claimed that he had not yet surrendered, though "lying around loose," and, as they afterwards learned, was probably looking after the interests of slave exporters, rather than the interests of the Southern Confederacy. It was the latter part of August when they left San Antonio for Brownsville. After five days' travel from San Antonio, and just before reaching the branch road which leads to Brazos San Diego, from the main military road to Brownsville, they overtook a gang of from six to eight hundred negroes, in charge of, and driven along by, about forty white men, part Americans and part Mexicans. The negroes consisted of men, women, and children. There were no old men or old women among them. Some were handcuffed together; others were tied together with ropes; others not bound in any way. Some women were carrying children in their arms. All were on foot and seemed weary from long travel. Their drivers were all on horseback, some at the front, some at the sides, and some in the rear, all armed with pistols, all with whips in their hands, and all with curses in their mouths, which were hurled at the poor negroes on the slightest provocation. Like cattle drivers, or worse, those at the sides and rear were constantly hallooing, cursing, and saying to the negroes, "Git along! git along! Faster! faster!" with an oath between each command. Many of the women, especially such as were carrying children, seemed ready to faint from exhaustion, and often turned their faces beseechingly, and with tears in their eyes, towards their drivers, but their pleadings were only met by curses, still louder and still deeper, from their inhuman captors and drivers. Behind the gang were three two-wheeled carts and an old ambulance, in the first of which rations, etc., were carried; in the ambulance, besides old clothes, lay a woman whom the drivers said "was about to kid."