Georgetown weekly news., 1854-12-28
Rocky CANON, Dec. 2Oth, 1854.

No officer having been within conve-
nient distance to attend to case of emer-
gency that has just happened near our iSo-
lated camp in the mountains here, the un-
derSigned constituted themselves coroner s
jury and held an inquest over the deceased
bodies of twelve men that were killed within
a mile Of our camp, on the 9th inst, full
account of which we deem it our duty to
publish. Three of the undersigned were
eyewitness to the whole scene; though too
far off to give aid in any way, and the rest
of us can readily vouch for their veracity.
On yesterday, the 10Th inst, three men
who afterwards proved to be Mr. James
c. Mcdonald, Of Alabama, (now deceased
DR.. Bolivar A. Sparks, of Miss, and a
Capt. Jonathan R. Davis, of South Carroll
ma, were travelling on foot, on trail within
mile OF our camp, to prospect vein Of
gOld-bearing quartz, some twenty or thirty
miles north Of this. AS they were passing
at the base of mountain, three of the un-
dersigned being out on hunting excursion
on its side, saw party of eleven men who
were concealed in the bushes near the trail,
spring up and commence shooting at them
Mr.. Mcdonald had fallen dead ere he fired
a pistol, or was even aware of his danger
He and his party had nothing but their re-
volSers. DR.. Sparks shot twice at the ban
ditti, and then fell severely wounded. In
the meantime, Capt. Davis, (who was the
first to commence shooting in defence of
himself and party in an instant after the
first volley from the sobbers,) being still I'M
| hurt, kept up an lnceSsant firing upon them
with his revolvers-euery ball forcing ats
Uictim to "blte the dust all the loads
of both parties seemed to have been dis
charged The only four surviving robbers
made charge upon Capt. Davis, three with
bowie knives, and one with short sword
or sabre. Capt. Davis stood firmly on his
ground until they rushed up abreast within
about four steps of him; he then made a
spring on them with large bowie knife,
warded off their blows as fast as they were
aimed at him-gGve three of them 1rounds
that soon proceed fatal and having wounded
the other one, tit seemed very slightly and
disarmed him by throwing his knife in the
air in warding off a bow, a generous impulse
seemed to force him not to infict another
wound upon him and to spare his life. As
this last man expressed in tone of graft
tude before his death, Capt. Davis went to
work at once, tearing up has own shirt, and
binding up oil the qcou,ds Of the llUing-of
both has friends and his enemleS-to stop
their bleeding! The three of the under
signed above alluded to, having reached the
spot just after the close of the tragedy,
Capt. Davis gave them an account of the
affair, ere he was aware that they, or any
one had seen it all from beginning to end,
and having learned that no coroner or other
officer was convenient, said that he would
be better satisfied if all our party would
come down and attend Immediately to the
wounded, examine all the deceased, himself
and companions as well as their enemies,
for evidence of guilt or innocence, ere one
of them was touched; he came up with the
three alluded to, and accompanied all of us
down. He remarked that, ''though his own
conscience justified him in all that he had
done, he deeply regretted that necessity had
forced it upon him, and that he would prefer
at least for the sake of his wounded COM
panion and the friends of the deceased one,
if not for himself, that We would make
thorough investigation of the matter, and
SlfO eAO PupIIC a u uC anu UtC dCCOulG Vi
the whole affair as far as we knew. In our
examinatien of the persons of the deceased,
Of those that commenced the attack upon
Capt. ID. and his party, we discovered pa
pers carefully concealed in their pockets,
purporting to be copy of laws and by
laws by which they were governed-eom-
munications that seemed to have passed
from one to the other of them, and other
papers, all proving without the least shad-
ow of a doubt, that they were a regularly
organized band of robbers. The last of
this band has just died. His wound, he
thought himself, but slight, and seemed in
fair way to recover until within the last
hour, and corroborated all the evidence
proven by the papers found in their pockets.
In conclusion, we deem it due to state that
from all the evidence before us, Capt. Davis
and his party acted solely in selfdefence-
were perfectly justifable in killing these
robbers-and that too much praise cannot
be bestowed upon them for having go gal