Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 39.djvu/107

Of such property as has been certainly traced into the possession and use of the United States Forces. The amount, $205,552, will be seen to be ridiculously small, when it is patent to every one that of the large number of horses stolen by the rebels and not restored to their owners nearly all were recaptured by the Government forces after the fight in Meigs county, or at the surrender in Columbiana. It appears that there was very little effort made to restore such property to its rightful owners, or else the efforts of a few men were frustrated by the more designing, who hurried off the stock to the front with indecent haste."

Adding these to the 1,308 horses shown in the tabulation, it would seem that the Union troops stole more horses in Ohio during that raid than Morgan's men did.

Among the more curious of the "Rebel damage" claims submitted to the commissioners by citizens of Ohio were the following:

In Adams county, James M. Paul put in a claim for a stage coach taken from him. J. R. C. Brown, of Brown county, lost a "History of the Rebellion," value $2.50. In Clermont county, Wm. Klock claimed $1.20 for 8 pounds of cheese taken from him "per order of Col. Dick Morgan," and Peter Stroup wanted $100 for "damages to turnpike."

The commissioners say of the claim of Mahlon Pearson that it was "trumped," and of another man that "the claimant is a perjured scoundrel." In Guernsey county, John Collins claimed $5 for a bonnet, and James Mott $10 for a bonnet, apron, and silk stockings.

In Hamilton county John T. Redman, engineer, wanted pay for his loss of time from work after his engine was destroyed by the rebels. It appears that Morgan's men took 26 plows from the Jackson foundry, in Jackson county, though they certainly had no time to stop and raise a crop. In the same county Edward Rief, tanner, claimed that "the rebel occupation of the