The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1852-04-24
LOCAL MATTERS.

began 10 gather in 'front.' u TING hOHss so 0o1s'J
Jail and by half past o'clock the streets sur.
rounding two sides Of the jail were thronged
| WITH cur;ous spectators Of both sexes and col.
ora Al half past 9 O'Clock, the Richmond
Crews. Montgomery Guard and Young Guard
arrived. having with much propriety and deli.
cacy of feeling, left their music behind, and
marched to the jail through by.streets, so as TO
avoid unnecessary display. At about III o.
clock, Marshal Hall and his assistants, togeth-
| er with few others, entered Reeds apart
men,, where Mr.. feeling and a coadjutor OF Inc
Catholic faith, were administering the last SOL
| emn rites of that church to Reed and Clements,
and seeking to fortify their minds for the great
change that was soon to come oser their spi'
rs, and read to the prisoners their death-war-
rant. They listened to it calmly and respect
| fully, and without the slightest exhibition oil
emotion. Over their usual clothing they wore
their long gown-shrouds, having caps attached,
made of black muslin. After shaking hands
with several of their acquaintance, they were
taken out of the jail with freed limbs, il being
their desire not to be hand.cuffed while on their
way to the gallows, and placed in an open fur
niture wagon, where they took seats with
a minister of the Catholic denomination on
each side of them. During their passage to
the place of exexecution, they were engaged
in deep conversation with their religious COM
| forters. Reed, We understand, protested Ca
tholicism some two or three weeks since Gle
nents had been brought up in the belief OF that
| e. xf,,t therf IN.
the following order The Richmond Light
| Dragons ia advance, and surrounding the
wagon containing the prisoners and their
priests, and the carriage containing the U. >.
Marshal and his Deputies. The Jailors and
| their Deputies also guarded the criminal.van.
Then followed the Richmond Greys. the
Montgomery Guard and Young Guard in reg
ular order. The procession then moved up
Main street to 18th, up 18th to Broad, up
Broad to 18th, and up 18th to Valley street,
and directly to the gibbeting ground. The
streets thro' which the death-pageant passed,
were thronged with serious and plying crowds;
the ladies, who gazed from the dwellings, in
particular, upon the scene, expressing their
strong emotions and natural sympathies in
tears and saddened features. They viewed the
living, moving hastily to the bar of God. The
hills, surrounding the gallows, when the SOL
emn train arrived, were covered with men, wo-
men and children. white and black, to the
number of several thousand. Full one-half of
those present were negroes. There appeared
| to be great many people from the country
| present, judging from the number of horses and
| carriages in attendance. AT little after Ii,
the troops formed into square, the infantry oc-
cupying three sides, and the cavalry fourth,
into which the crimina-van and Marshal's
| carriage drove. The halters were then adjust
ed around the necks of the prisoners, who de-
| scended from the wagon and walked up the
steps upon the traps of the scaffold as compo-
sedfy as if they were entering the house of an
acquaintance. Underneath the scaffold were
the collins, made ofpine. The prisoners then
conversed with their ministers, who read to
them at length from the Catholic Liturgy, and
they expressed themselves as resigned TO their
fate. They stated to Marshal Hall that they
had no further confession to make-that they
had already stated all that they wished to state.
|
sons upon the traps, the black caps were
drawn over their heads, and their hands were
manacled behind them. Just at this moment,
horse became unmanageable in the crowd,
and some mischefmaker crying out the mob
is coming" there was a general breakage of
the line, and soldiers and poupulace, for a few
seconds, seemed to have imagined that their
time had come, for they tumbled over one an
other and run about in the most frantic man.
ner; the consequence being that a number
were knocked into the gullies and muddy wa
ter near by, and completely drenched and plas-
teIed with dirt. One of the members ef the
Young Guard was fshed out from under the
feet of the mob in woful plight. Order was
soon restored, however, and the commotion
ceased.l The ends oftheir neck -halters were
then tied to cross-beam, over their heads,
and the officers descended the steps, and the
prisoners were left standing upon the tram
doors, soon to close theireyes forever upon the
bright and beautiful landscape of nature around
them, which, lit up with the rays Of Spring
sun, and gemmed with the years first vernal
vegetation, presented happy and pleasing
scene. The prisoners here interchanged a few
words, but did not exhibit the slightest dread
or dlscdmposure indeed, Reed very cooly
and lei'u ely examined the ropes to which
the trips of the gaIlows were attached
The u1der.pinnings were then knocked away.
and thy ends of the ropes which still kept up
the traps, andwhch were fastened with staples.
were inhitched, and the traps fell instantly.
leaving Reed and Clements hanging in the air
aoourthree feet and half below where thew
had stood moment before. They moved
spasrodIcaily only for about two minutes
after their fall--the Doctors stating subse-
queatly that their necks were broken the in
s'an1 the traps were lowered. The perfect
machinery OF the gibbet happily ended their
sufirings in the quickest possible manner