The Western Democrat

THE SOUTH MASSACRE.

Heroic Self-sacrifice.—We learn from a late number of the Cincinnati Enquirer, that one of the victims selected by the Federal General McNeill for his butchery in Missouri was a man who had a wife and several children dependent altogether upon his daily labor for their support. A young man knowing the condition of the family, offered himself to McNeill as a substitute for the husband and father, was accepted, and was one of the ten who were shot. The Cincinnati paper, with more independence than we should have looked for from that quarter, says the history of that atrocious murder would not be complete without the relation of this incident of heroic self-sacrifice; neither would the infamy of McNeill be fully understood and appreciated without its recital. One of the reproaches of the administration is, that McNeill was allowed to remain a single day in service after this inhuman affair had been brought to its notice. From the same source we learn that at the late Fremont celebration in St. Louis, McNeill was present, and that during the occasion he proposed to drink with a brother officer. The result of the invitation was a marked one. The officer invited by McNeill to drink recoiled from the offer as if in contact with dishonor, and denounced him as a murderer, and unfit for the society of an officer of the American army. He told him further, where he could be found if McNeill considered himself insulted by the way he had been treated.