The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1855-01-10

| Music muStc at once before his leg
: fail him altogether"
e4 Two drummers and fifer took the
place before the prisoner, and struc
up the Rogue's march. A few score Z
; ruffanly mon with muskots and bayc
nots fell in behind him and partly push
ing their prisoner along, the procession
j with Harrison at their head, mounte,
on his iron grey charger, took their wa,
to the spot selected for execution.
/ Then. ensued such a scene as we freel,
i confess we arc unable to depict. Som,
! fifteen or twenty Individuals mostly
negroes, ran along on each side of the
procession with lighted torches, and
more than two thirds of those who were
assembled at the encampment, having
been previously informed of what was
about to take place at the first tap Of
| the signal drum hurried away from
every quarter of the field, to take part
in the procession. The old field was
alive with some three hundred .individ-
uals, eagerly hurrying along, justling,
and pushing each other in their eager
ness to get a position aear the prisoner.
With yells 1hd fearful oaths intermiu-
gled with cruel jests and heartless laugh
ter the multitude rushed along to the
scene of sacrifice. b, .-sf
+. The spot chosen for the executiCn,l
was about two hundred yards to the
northeast of the oolenel's marque in the
open field. Harrison had ordered that
he should be hung upon magnificent
oak that stood nearly two hundred yards
distant from the margin of the swamp.
A rope had already been thrown over
one of its branches, and the moose hung
to within a few feet of the ground, ready
to be fastened around the neck of the
prisoner, while the other end rested up
on the ground at the base of; the tree,
near which stood savage looking man
to whome had been allotted tho task of
drawing him up. 4.> @ 4
Oh, how lovely and beautiful seemed
the glorious night to the victim led to
Brightly above him shown |
the unclouded moon, shedding q halo of |
light upon the beautiful world beneath
where nature held her Sabbath. Never
had earth seemed more dear or the smile
IF creation more lovely. -. - 4
Z The prisoner seemed not to hear or
70 heed the. deriding voices that Knocked
lin in the fearful hour, when the rageI
# man should have been still, and left
inn to commune with his Maker. Yet
lis thoughts seemed not to grasp at
sernte5 His bright and watehffulif esyeii
old that he still clung to his hope and
ondness for life. - - -
He gazed cody and contemptuously
pom Harrison, as that unfeeling wretch !
urned to harangue the noisy and brawl- |
ng crowd. He offered no resistance II
7hen the ca1lous exeeutioner fastened {
be fatal moose around his neck, for, his
inoned arms deprived him of the power {
. struggle !; he turned in his tracks, q
nd followed with his eye the move t
tents of that i'll favored individual, as q
e retired and stood with his hands | G
utstreached, and grasping the opposite t
xtremity of the rope, ready at the Civ f
d signal to launch the prisoner into | j
sernfty Cody Michael gazed upon f
i'm, with perhaps nearly as much in b
iferance as though measuring the pro- b
ortions of 9 brawnyox. He was a tall !,
ony, square faced aud red 5whiskered I
ant, standing some six feet in his socks s.
i'd with the proportions of a Hercules. e
o doubt he had often taken part in Il
milar scenes, for he stood with a calm, p
old and unrufHed countenanee,f his b
awny arms resting on the rope, some c,
( inches above his head. - s.f# a
Having finished his harrangue, Har- 81
son turned, and drawing his sabre, Il
lied out to the hangman. - .fsssqa Il
!" Tighten away now, my boy, and fe
We the devil his due ln ~ as..5
Then came a moment of intense si- b
nee. Even that drunken and hnazl- sy
2 mob, so loud in their cries but a al
1ment before, stood hushed and mute. al
le ,hangman advanced his foot-his to
ge hands were cliRGhed around the uy
pc. which already began to. tighten al
der his grasp, and already ae began to
feel the weight of his victime, when st
! arm fell to bis side and his knees fu
Ve way under him, and he dropped a he
eless corpse upon the ground, as the pr
bort of a well aimed rifle rang upon hi
, ear from the margin of the swamp LEI
their front. .sas7-4s - wi
len was heard rustling as ofthe wind th
ong the tree-tops-then the tramp ag
g Of fset-then the clanking of sabres an
Ting against their steel seabbards- lai
| with the command to " charge r. an
cred in the tones that fell upon the w
like thunder. fearfully they loomed of
from the shadows of the swamp an
g dusky line of horsemen, with clat- at
ing hoofs and cleaning sabres, rush. csc
in swift, noisy and deadly array up ing
the terror stricken and pale checked Co
les, who screamed for mercy and fed ris
dly and blindly for some place ofiref- ed
: But the aEenger of blood was the
n their track, and the destroying an Co
hovered above their camp and pein- pos
to the sword of Marion s men. The the
cry of Caroline and Independ- y
. ]" coupled with cries of g no quar- on
to the tories ln rung terrible on mel
r guilty ears. In vain they fled for
,or to their camp fires, where many bur
leir comrades stood with thsir Neap- his
by their side. The rifles of Mari mo,
men, leveled from the shades around upo
re aimed with fatal accuracy upon Y
reyelers around the fires, and had reat
ady begun the work Of death In this gazi
ter of the field Unconscious of the E"
ting storm they fell, some in the a to-
It of their drunken orgies. with the ant.
8 and imprecations on their lips eage
RS where they sat playing cards ex- I st
q over their success, or In the midst yent
finished games with the up lifted that
5. -. my
hile the rifles thinned them out by blow
8, tho dragons with cleaning sa- my J
pushing them over the moonlit save