Carroll free press. [volume] (Carrollton [Ohio]) 1834-1861, 1846-09-04
A Midnight Escape from GaIIOws Hill
An INCIDENT OF NE REvoLUTION.

The strip of ground from Broadway to Centre
street, along Chambers, commencing at the new
store of Stewards, in Broadway, seventy years
ago was burial place. The part nearest Broad
way, was devoted to the negroes for the last rest.
ing place of their dead, and the moiety extending
to Centre street, was kind of Poucr's Field, and
during the revolution, the spot where most of the
private soldiers of the British army, who died in
the city, were inferred. Gallows Hill (the spot
where Manhattan reservoirs now placcd) was de-
corated with gallows, where all dcsertcrs and
prisoners suffered death, whocame under the con-
troll oithc cinfamousprovostma Cunningham.
1t was customary to execute Of the deser-
ters who were native born, at night. There was
policy in this. Public executions Of the Ameri-
cans by the royalsts would have been noised a.
broad, and the injury created thereby, through the
manner in which the continentas themselves
would have made use of it, must have resulted in
the injury Of the Kings cause. These exc
cutions generally took place after midnight
The prisoners condemned to.death were always
confined in the old Jail, within muskot-shot of
the place of execution, and sergeant's guard of
eight men, accompanied by the provost marshal
and his deputy, generally conducted the prison
er to the gallows.
1t was near twelve O'Clock of a night in Octo-
Der, in the year 1880, that young man was re-
clining among the recent graves that raised their
mounds in the vicinity of the gbbet on Gallows
Hill. The hour and the place were singular for
lone individual like the man in question to be
rcposing. | say lone, yet he was not exactly so,
| if human bodies diyostcd of their mortality can
be considered companions; for nearly above his
o,,J fec, tbn ,rht h,,,o
the remains of two soldiers of the fifth regiment
who adboen executed dthatmornng, ,iordesorlion.
The sky was obscurodWith dark murky clouds,
and the moaning of the wind as it swept around
the galows and through the trees that here and
there reared their branches amid the darkness Of
the night, gave desolate and disageeable sound
well befitting the place itself. The man scarce
| ly moved, with the exception now and then Of
raising his head, and pcering cautiously above
the mound of earth behind which he lay, to-
wards the jail, dmly visible with its high massy
walls, in the fields beyond.
At length light glimmered, the tread Of men
was family heard, and the young man, raising
himself from the spot where he lay, gIided along
the rude fence which skirted the burial ground
until he stood within few feet of the execution
place. Here he paused, and looked in the direc-
lion of the approaching light. Family through
the haze appeared three or four files of soldiers,
led by black man, who carried lantern-the
only light which seemedto be intheparty. Then
walked prisoner, with his arms tightly bound
behind him, and directly after Cunningham, the
provost marshal, and five or six soldiers with
muskets on their shoulders.
"One, two, three," repeated the young man to
himself, as if counting the number of men ap-
preaching, "tweIve in all. IT'S a desperate UNI
dertaking, but my comrade shall not die if can
save him. Now for skill and courage. Be cool,
Dick Martin! You hare been on still more peri
lous occasions; if yourcommandingo gollicerspeaks
the truth"
He glided back again on his old resting place,
when he stumbled into newly dug grave, that
he had not noticed before, just in the rear of the
gallows. His first impulse was to leap out, fol
the depth of the grave did not exceed three feet
but a second thought altered his determination
and he murmured: "This is the best place for me
they certainly will not think of looking for lv
ing man in the gravel" and he stretched himsel
at full length in the 'narrow house" that he knew
one day or other, he should have to fill! They
entered the burial ground and proceeded directly
to the galloWs. Forming circle, the black tel
low with the lantern, Cunningham, and the pris
onor in the centre, preparations were made to &C
through with the awful cercmony-that of de
priving fellow being of his life.
The black fellow looked up at the gallows from
, which the two bodies were hanging and then pro
ceeded very deliberately to cut them down obser
, wing; "Dese chaps habhung longa'nuf. | gues
dey ant much better dan dead niggers now."
The prisoner looked on with glance of nc
common interest, for he felt that his soul was ut
terng on the confines of eternity. ltis useles
to talk Of bravery when man in the full vigo
of health beholds the preparations making to de
prive him of existence. True, he may NEE
death with maniness and fortitude. and display L
no human eye, any of the physical shrinkings b,
= which we are apt to measure the outward cour
) age of man; but within there is feeling that tn