Litchfield enquirer. [volume] (Litchfield, Conn.) 1829-current, 1841-10-21
THE TRIAL OF MCLEOD.

Bile bloodshed in the Lower province, but
very little in the Upper. The discounted
insurgents fled to the United Statcs-those
from the Upper province mainly to Buffalo
and its vicinity. They found there state
of feeling and circumstances very favorable
to their cause-a great meeting was held i'll
the Theatre to 'sympathise' with them; Il
great many volunteered to aid them; Il
military force was embodied the arms and
munitions of the State were seized the par
tv moved down the river, crossed over to
and took possession of Navy Island, situated
in the Niagara River, near the middle of its
deep and strong current, and only two miles
above tie Falls of Niagara. Here they
planted batteries and commenced firing
upon the adjacent Canada shore, the village
of Chippeway lying just above them
They threatened and were expected to make
q movement upon Canada directly, the ad-
jacent shore being exposed to INVASION from
them at any time, while their own wooded
island, with a surrounding current tending
strongly to the Great Cataract below, was
extremely difficult and dangerous to attack.
But the hastily levied and ill-providcd
force on the Island, while daily Boosting OF
their numbers and prospects, began to feel
sadly the want of money, provisions, and
munitions. Winter had set in, they had
little protection from its severity ;they were
few in numbers and needed every thing,
from competent leaders down to whole
shoes. A, force Of five hundred men sent
against them might have annihilated them.
The lake had frozen up, with all the craft
upon it, though the Niagara remained open,
AS II mainly does at all seasons. The 'Pa-
triots therefore sent word confidentially to
the Executive Committee of their friends
in Buffalo, begging that supplies and a
steamboat be sent to their relief.
The owners of the more valuable boats
refused to leopard them in this service, but
the friends of the Patriots prevailed on Mr..
William Wells, who had recently purchas-
ed for an inconsiderable sum the small
steamboat Caroline to send her down.
She was accordingly cut out of the ice on
the 29th by volunteer aid, hastily manned
by volunteer crew, and sent down on the
29th-Mr. Wells himself and number OF
steamboat captains, engineers, &c. being on
board. She ran down, touching at Black
Rock Dam and Tonawanda, to Schlosser,
where she lay up for the night. She took
on board at each place whatever was offer
ed, and carried a cannon, men, provisions,
sc. to Navy Island, charging nothing for
passage or freight, though some few paid
Voluntarily. Mr.. Wells evidently did not
feel safe at Schlosser, and meant to have
returned to Black Rock Dam to pass the
night, but there was something wrong with
the machinery-so he stayed at Schiosser.
Thirtythree men-twenty-three of them
dodgers merely, who could not find accom-
modations elsewhere-had retired on board,
when about midnight she was approached
and boarded by three boats full of armed
men from Chippewa, who drove her inmates
ashore, severely wounded James H. King,
brother-in-law of Mr.. Wells, took prisoner
Luke Walker, boy; shot Amos Durfee
dead. just after he had stepped from the
others set the boat r Oh EE a handled some
into the current, whence she drifted, pyra-
mid of flame, over the mighty cataract
Her destroyers returned in triumph to Chip
pewa. Such is the deed which, by solemn
adjudication of the Supreme Court Of this
State, is held to implicate every individual
concerned in it in the guilt of Murder, and
for an alledged participation in which AL
exander Mcleod was indicted and put on
trial for his life.
The circumstances which are held to in
volve him in this offence are us follows: He
was Deputy Sheriff in the Niagara Dis
trict, an ardent, active Loyalist: had bust
cd himself prominently in the defensive
operations at Chippewa; on the 2oth was in
Buffalo, doubtless on business adverse to the
Patriots came very near being lynched by
the ssympathisers' who bore sway there,
came back to Chippewa, and with others
rowed round Navy Island early in the
morning of the Goth in search of the Caro-
line--did not see her, but was fired on from
the Island: went back to Chippewa; and
slept two or three hours in the afternoon
So much is undisputed. The witnesses for
the prosecution 20 on to state that he was
seen In private conference with Drew, Ush-
er, and other British officers at Chippewa at
3 or A o'clock in the afternoon, (about which
time the destruction of the Caroline was
doubtless planned } came out OF Davis tav-
ern at 8 O'Clock, about which time the men
were mustered !; was impertectly recognized
by Capt Appleby among the assailants on
the Caroline; was seen to land from one of
the boats after the destruction had been ac-
complished; was followed up to Davis tav-
ern, where he stood some timo before the
door talking of the affair; was seen again
at sunrise next morning and soon after by
two or three, whose attention was attracted
to him by n report that he had been wound
ed in the attack, which his appearance con-
frmed that he was then heard to boast of
his participation in the affair, and that he
has since boosted to various witnesses who
testified on the trial of having "killed one
id Yancee." &c. &C.. This is substan.
TALLY the case for the prosecution.
For the defence-aside from the objection
that the destruction was an act of public
force, to be adjudicated in the forum of ma
tons, and that no murder can have been
committed therein-a plea overruled by the
judgment of the Supreme Court--it is given
In evidence that Mcleod was not in or near
Chippewa at the time the affair took place
that he left that evening at I o'clock for
Niagara went out to Lieut.. Morrson's at
Stamford. six miles distant took tea there