Turchin Closes His Eyes for One Hour, May 03, 1862.

Sixteen days ago Ivan Vasilevich Turchininov, better known as Colonel Ivan Turchin, turned three regiments loose on Athens, Alabama, in retaliation to partisan guerrilla raids. During one raid a Union soldier, "caught between the tender and the engine when a train was destroyed at Limestone Creek Bridge, was actually roasted alive, in the presence of [the citizens of Athens], who swore they would kill the negroes who offered to cut away and rescue the unfortunate man." Turchin, a former member of the Imperial Russian Army, told his men: "I shut my eyes for one hour." In that hour Turchin's men sacked the town, committing numerous atrocities and stole $50,000 worth of silverware and jewelry. Reports of Turchin's activities eventually reach the ears of his commanding general, Ormsby Mitchel.

HEADQUARTERS THIRD DIVISION, Camp Taylor, May 19, 1862. Hon. E. M. STANTON, Secretary of War: My line of posts extend more than 400 miles. My own personal attention cannot be given to all the troops under my command. The most terrible outrages---robberies, rapes, arsons, and plundering--are being committed by lawless brigands and vagabonds connected with the army, and I desire authority to punish all those found guilty of perpetrating these crimes with death by hanging. Wherever I am present in person all is quiet and orderly, but in some instances, in regiments remote from headquarters, I hear the most deplorable accounts of excesses committed by soldiers. I beg authority to control these plunderers by visiting upon their crimes the punishment of death. O. M. MITCHEL, Major-General.