The Sperryville Outrage

Three men in blue thought they could get away with rape and terror on an isolated Virginia farm. They were wrong.

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BY THOMAS P. LOWRY

With two months of intense training under their belts, the gunners and horsemen of Battery I of the 1st New York Light Artillery took to the parade grounds of their Buffalo, New York, camp for one last time. There they stood proudly in their dress uniforms, buttons and buckles flashing in the sun. Freshly painted tampions graced the muzzles of their cannon. It was October 16, 1861, and the time had come for these German immigrants to march off to war and prove their mettle.

For the most part, this unit commanded by Captain Michael Wiedrich of Lancaster served admirably. Wiedrich’s Battery, as the unit was known, began its wartime service among the defenders of Washington, D.C., and remained at the capital until March 1862. Next it joined Major General John C. Frémont’s army in chasing Major General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson’s army in April and May and fighting against Jackson in the Battle of Cross Keys in June. Future years would find the unit at Gettysburg and marching through Georgia with Major General William T. Sherman’s army.

But July 1862 found Battery I encamped at the town of Sperryville, Virginia, where two of the artillerymen got seriously sidetracked from the business of fighting a war. On the night of July 16, Private Louis Sorg, Private Louis P. Troest, and Jerry Spades, a black servant of Wiedrich’s, wandered out of camp and ended up a few miles away at the home of a widow whose name was recorded only as “Mrs. Swindler.” Perhaps believing they could behave as they pleased in enemy territory without fear of punishment, the men tore apart Swindler’s house and outbuildings, taking valuables and destroying property. The ugly situation took a turn for the worse when Polly Walker, a slave owned by Swindler, was raped.

Union authorities responded to the incident quickly, arresting the three men and convening a court-martial within the week, on July 22. The court, presided over by Colonel James Cantwell of the 82d Ohio, was to consider the charges of absence without leave and “committing numerous depredations upon the private property of a Mrs. Swindler,” property that included a slave woman. Troest was also charged with rape, and Spades, with assisting in a rape. The first defendant to be tried was Troest, who pled guilty to charges of A.W.O.L. and theft, but denied the accusation of rape. But then came the witnesses.

Swindler herself was the first to testify. “He rode up into my yard about the 16th of July and called for cherries, and then for bread, and next for milk,” she testified. “I set some milk, bread and honey for them to eat, and they had taken seats at the table.”

Up to that point, Swindler said, she had been concerned, but not frightened. “Then they got up and went through the house breaking locks and plundering whatever suited them,” she continued. “They pretended they were looking for a pistol and a gun. Then they turned my things upside down. They asked me a great many questions, and said there would be many men there presently to set my house on fire. I started to leave, but they ordered me back, so I set in the door. They said if I left, they would kill me.”

The court asked her if the men stole anything. “They robbed my house, my henhouse, my springhouse and my garden,” she responded. “They went upstairs and through all my rooms and took coverlets, blankets and oilcoat clothing, socks, dried cherries and other articles. They put a silk dress and a coverlet on the floor, poured preserves on them, and then trampled on them until they were spoiled. There was only me there, no man, and a Negro boy, and a Negro woman.

“They took all my sugar, coffee and preserves, then abused me for not having more. They killed some fowls, which they did not carry away. All the time they called me a ‘god dammed secessionist.’ I went to this man here [indicating Troest] and requested him to leave my pitcher. He drew his sabre on me and ordered me to go into the house.”

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