HANGING AT OWL CREEK

Execution by hanging

  The bridge made a convenient gallows for the doomed women. Doomed simply because they were the families of rebels. Raped because it was possible and because no one cared enough to stop it. There had been a rather nasty fight in the nearby woods, a fight started as a simple ambush of a small medical detachment. The rebels had made such actions common for their favorite tactic was to ambush small units and slaughter them to a man and then run before help could arrive. 
   This time however they screwed the pooch in a big way. A troop of cavalry was nearby and upon hearing the sounds of battle had ridden into it and the fight became a battle between the superior force of the cavalry and the trapped rebels.  Blood trails and other evidence proved that the town was a rebel stronghold so the troops took action. Maddened by both the actions of the towns people and by the long often frustrating war against the rebels the troopers engaged in an old fashioned sack of the town. Any and all men and boys were simply shot out of hand while the women and girls were gang raped. The rape of the small town lasted two days and be the end of it most of the females were also dead. Killed in the course of the rape. Dying from the internal  injuries of gang rapes, being strangled during a rape, killing themselves, dying because someone thought it would be fun to see, or any of the many other ways death could come for then during the sack of the once quiet town. 
   When sanity returned there were only a handful of survivors left. Seven women and three girls, all in shock and injured to one degree or another. The youngest was only eight or so while the oldest was maybe thirty five. Marched staggering to the bridge each one was noosed and stood dully waiting for death. The railings on one side of the bridge had been removed and ten short planks were laying on the roadbed. The planks would serve as a rude trap to drop each into eternity. One at a time each of the poor females watched as one of the planks was set by her like a diving board with a couple of men standing on the inboard end. After being forced to walk out onto the plank she stood until the men jumped off and allowed her weight to flip the board over the edge as she fell until the noose stopped her. The lucky ones had their necks broken by the hanging while the others were left to strangle. Trying desperately to lift themselves with their hands but to on avail. One at a time each went to her death at the end of the killing ropes. The young girls had perhaps the worse deaths. Too light to have any chance of breaking their spines. Too light to have their windpipes closed tight. Each one hung and fought for a long time. For what seemed like hours to the watching killers and even longer for the poor girls they struggled and fought. Hands grasping and clawing at the thing tied around their necks. Kicking and gasping until at last the noose won. Finally each went limp as her body lost the fight. At the end there were ten bodies left hanging. Left along with the burned town and the other unburied bodies. Left as a warning to others who might thing about joining the rebels. Left also to feed the hatred that had spawned the rebellion in the first place.