"Harry Heth and Unionists" Topic

This is from my North Carolina Park Ranger buddy. He egts this from North Carolina History Today. (I'm a day late).

On January 18, 1863, a Civil War tragedy that has come to be known as the Shelton Laurel Massacre took place.

The incident grew out of a series of raids on the town of Marshall by Unionists claiming that Confederate authorities had denied them provisions. Local Confederate commander Brigadier General Harry Heth and his men went into the Shelton Laurel area and marched three boys, ages 13 and 17, and 10 men, 20 to 56, out from their homes and into the woods.

The group, suspected of being Unionists, were ordered to kneel. Hesitating on Heth's first command to shoot the 13, the troops complied with the second. In addition, several women were severely whipped and ropes were tied around their necks. No one was prosecuted as a result of the incident.

Within days of the killings, Governor Zebulon B. Vance wrote that the affair was "shocking and outrageous in the extreme." A writer in 1955 observed that:

"nowhere is there a microcosm more chill and revealing than this episode of war at its heart and core."

In 1968, William and Bud Shelton placed new granite stones at the graves of family members slain in 1863. Six of the 13 men killed were members of the Shelton family.

The State Archives now holds a letter letter written to Governor Vance from some of the women from Madison County after the Shelton Laurel Incident asking for money to compensate them for losing their men and property.

You will recall Heth is the division CO that starts Gettysburg by scouting with two brigades of infantry.

And your point?

Extreme things happen in war.

My point is Heth did this. If I'd been on the ball I'd have posted it yesterday, on the anniversary.

I guess if there's another point, it is that the solid south wasn't so solid, as indeed the north wasn't a monolith.

In another post below I mentioned that R.E. Lee was a skilled general and had no atrocities on his slate. Harry Heth fails on both counts.

R.E. Lee was a skilled general and had no atrocities on his slate

Was he not in command at the Battle of the Crater? There are plenty of colored soldiers who would have disagreed with you about atrocities in that battle. A skilled General Lee was but traitor is a traitor no matter how skilled.

This has nothing to do with Heth – the guilty man was Lieutenant-colonel James A. Keith, 64th NC.

Well what about African Americans who were rounded up and sent South on Lee's two expeditions North of the Potomac? I guess that doesn't matter to Lee's "clean slate"?

the guilty man was Lieutenant-colonel James A. Keith, 64th NC.

Perhaps. The piece above was sent from North Carolina History Today and forwarded by my buddy there.

I believe Mahone commanded the counter-attack at the Crater.

Jowady, I have to rethink my position.

Mahone commanded a single division. Did he get punished or at least admonished for what they did during the counter attack? I have to tell you, Lee was in command. What his subordinates do is his responsibility. If he does not take corrective action, it is just as much his fault.

More war crimes from the pro-slavery traitors. Sad, but not that surprising.

And what was the point, i'll ask again? Just to point out that, oh my, the south did something so long ago that means just about zero, accept to the OP.
If the common, everyday us cit knew what was going on in Kunar province when i was there, and in our AO, there would be war crimes hearings with americans as the defendants.
Let me post about it in a hundred years. No one cares but the tiresome SJW's.

Ivan, crimes were committed by both sides. It was a war and not very civil.

U.S. War Department, The War of the Rebellion Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, reprint 1899 ed. Series I 38, pt. 5 (Harrisburg, PA: National Historical Society, 1971), 76

This document details Gen Sherman's rounding up of civilians around Atlanta, force marching them from Roswell, New Manchester etc to Marietta. How they waited in appalling conditions exposed to the elements and were then shipped North to Louisville, Kentucky, held prisoner and eventually sent to Indiana. Most finally made it back to their destroyed homes after the war. Notice these are civilians not soldiers.

It is not hard to find war crimes on both sides.

The most brutal fights are usually between family members. Just ask the police.