Two days thereafter, on the 11th of April, there was perpetrated one
of the most diabolical murders ever sanctioned by the forms of law.
It illustrates the atrocious wickedness of the rebellion, and the
peril of sympathy with the Union cause in the South. Patriotism here
wins applause, there a culprit's doom. The facts were these: When
the Rebels were raising a force in Eastern Tennessee, two brothers
by the name of Rowland volunteered; a younger brother, William H.
Rowland, was a Union man, and refusing to enlist was seized and
forced into the army. He constantly protested against his
impressment, but without avail. He then warned them that he would
desert the first opportunity, as he would not fight against the
cause of right and good government. They were inexorable, and he was
torn from his family and hurried to the field. At the battle of Fort
Donelson, Rowland escaped from his captors in the second day's
action, and immediately joined the loyal army. Though now, to fight
against his own brothers, he felt that he was in a righteous cause,
and contending for a worthy end.

In the battle of Pittsburg Landing he was taken prisoner by the very
regiment to which he had formerly belonged. This sealed his fate. On
the way to Corinth several of his old comrades, among them his two
brothers, attempted to kill him, one of them nearly running him
through with a bayonet. He was, however, rescued from this peril by
the guard. Three days after the retreating army had reached Corinth,
General Hardee, in whose division was the regiment claiming this man
as a deserter, gave orders to have Rowland executed. The general, I
hope from some misgivings of conscience, was unwilling to witness
the execution of his own order, and detailed General Claibourne to
carry out the sentence. About four o'clock P.M., some 10,000
Tennessee troops were drawn up in two parallel lines, facing inward,