The Nevada journal., 1856-11-14
WHOLE NUMBER 339

were standing after being there mo-
Inent or two, they signaled by whistling
and were answered by some one else.
and man came down into the ravine
below where we were, and advanced
directly towards where Armstrong was
stationed; when about fifteen feet dis
tant he was hailed by Armstrong and
told not to come any closer; the party
who was hailed then asked. "Who are
your to which was replied, "a friend !;
my name is Armstrong; don't come any
closer" Just at this moment, the party
at the horses were hailed, and every
man of our company told to step for
ward. These words were hardly spoken
before shot was fired, by either Arm
strong or the man whom he hailed, /
cannot say which. AS soon as the. shot
was fired, one Of the party at the horses
sung out, "Close up, boys !" and one Of
those then fired shot. which was fol-
lowed in rapid succession by everybody
shooting. After diseharging my gun in
the direction Of the three men who were
near the horses, man came running
across in front of me; L turned the butt
of my gun to try and knock him down
with it; he got out of the way before |
could strike him, and went on about ff-
teen or twenty-five feet and stopped and
went to shooting at me; he fired two or
three shots, when | gave some direction
to our party in loud tone of voice,
when Plumer, who was some distance
off, recognized my voice, and shouted,
''That is Wallace Williams-stop, for
Gods sake! you are shooting your
friends!" and here the affair ended
We then went back to see who was
killed or wounded; the first person we
came to was lying full length upon his
face. distant about ten PAGES from where
the horses had been standing; he was
at that time still breathing some one
turned him over and | recognized W. w.
Wright, the Sheriff; he was shot very
badly in the face and about the breasts;
should think there were forty or fifty
shot holes in him. Bruce Garvey and
myself ran to Armstrong; house and
started Teal and another man to town
for physician; Wright was not then
dead; when we went back to him he
was just breathing his last l did not
see johnson until l saw him in Arm
strong's house, lying on the bed, wounded
in the side. | had a double e-barrelled
shotgun, loaded, when l borrowed it,
with shot for squirrels, as was told by
the man from whom | borrowed it; in
addition to these loads, | put three pistol
balls in each barrel the balls were of
the size for six-inch Colts revolver;
fired off both of my barrels in the same
direction could not say whether Bald
win fired before me or not; Baldwin,
the horses and myself stood almost in a
a triangular form; when the Sheriff fell,
he fell with his head rather towards me,
on his face; when Wright fell he was
alone; he had doublc-barrelled gun
Plumer had double-balrelled gun, and
Teal also; there were but two shot
guns in our party. | suppose Plumer
took to to his heels and ran after he
fired; he was in a northeast direction
on the hill when we hailed him and
found our mistake; Teal was almost
two hundred yards from there when the
firing was over. David johnson said
that Teal left them quick afterthe firing.
| never saw Teal on the ground; first
saw him at Armstrong; house when l
went there to send for the doctor; we
did not have the least idea of anybody
coming there for that purpose, viz: to
arrest the prisoners who had broken
from the jail the night before viz Web
ster and the two Farnsworths. Even
after the firing was over we supposed
the three men who stood near the
horses were these prisoners; we had no
legal writ to arrest the prisoners, but
were acting as police to arrest them on
our own hook, and as good citizens to
sustain the law. L. w. WILLIAMS.
GEO. H. ARMsTRoNG-The first of
my knowledge of the matter was when
Williams came to my house on that eve
ming, at supper time he told me that
two horses were hitched in the ravine,
F, supposed to have been hitched there bv
the prisoners w.iv uroke jail, to enable
them to escape, and wanted me to go
and help guard them; there were four
of us in company, and Williams tied the
horses feet together, and we took our
stations to watch them; we had not the
remotest idea that any other person was
aware of the horses being there. (I
adopt Williams statement as correct
and true up to the time of the man first
coming into the ravine.) That man went
up to near the horses and pecked around,
and then stepping back, said, in low
tone, "All is right" He stepped back
and gave two or three whistles, and two
other men arose in the bushes about
three rods from me. and came into the
ravine; the three were in the ravine
very close together, near the horses l
thought the two that went in last were
the prisoners that we were looking for,
and that the third was an accomplice
they stepped little toward us, thought,
having discovered us, and then whistled,
and were answered by another party
little below us, and | saw this lower
party raise up still thinking it was a