Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 27.djvu/380

 372 Southern Historical Society Papers.

[From the Richmond, Va., Diqxtlch, Feb. 18, 1900.]

THE MURDER OF DAVID GETZ.

AN INSTANCE OF THE BRUTALITY OF CUSTER.

His Retributive Fate.

[This account appears to contain every essential and authenticated detail given in the previous article referred to. ED.]

WOODSTOCK, VA., February 10, 1900.

To the Editor of the Dispatch :

In last Sunday's Dispatch is published an article by Mr. R. D. Steuart, of Baltimore, giving an account of the horrible murder of Davy Getz, of this place, by the command of General George A. Custer.

While the article is generally correct, it differs in some of its de- tails from the account which I have secured from persons who were present, and are still living in Woodstock. The writer personally knew the small family, consisting of Andrew Getz, Elizabeth, his wife, and their simple-minded son, David. David was about thirty years of age. The family lived in a small house close to the Method- ist church. For rent of this humble home they acted as sextons of the church. The fact that Davy was mentally deficient was doubted by no one. A single glance at his countenance would convince any one. Of him were required no duties of a civil or military charac- ter. He was simple and harmless. The boys loved to tease him, and many a Confederate soldier told Davy that he had come from the army to take him back with him. He was, in every respect, nothing more than a very timid child. He had no ambition to be a soldier, but, on the contrary, was always badly frightened when the suggestion was made that he should go into the army.

He had, in some way, become possessed of an old musket^ and with it amused himself in hunting ground-squirrels and small birds. In the summer of 1864, he was engaged in his usual sport in the pines near his home, when a squad of Federal soldiers came upon him. To their question: "Are you a bushwhacker!" "Why, yes," he replied. He had no more intelligent comprehension of the