, 1866-12-06
A NEW PHASE OF REWNSTRUC.
Tl0N.

Tho south Carolina MuEders-The AS
sasnlns Convicted and Sentenced TO
Death-The President Commures the
Sentence, and the Prisoners arc Re-
1ensed on Writ OF Aabeas Corpus.
WAsn1Ss1ox, Decemhers 1860.
Inc recent release Of the parties who
HAnton!y murdered three Union soldiers in
eoutA SaTot1na. about year ago, Is creating
GOOD deal Of comment In official circles
mere, especially as one Of the counsel for the
defence Was Mr. Secretary Browning. then q
iawyes a. ana a. claim agent. The records aud
tna Geur ine IL fass ~tFs al produced before
and the facts are thus laid open to the pub.
lie. The names Of the parties are Joseph
crawford he{s, Robert Keys, his son, Elisha
by'en and F. G. Showers. The crime
ufde tess eoSmted SeFe On tss ssny1f!Sa asst
Of sunday. October s, 1865. The victims
were Corporal W. c. Cerbett, Emory Smith
and Mason Browning, all OF the First Maine
veteran Volunteers, who were Killed while
the military authorities, and the trial took
place before a-Mllitasy Commission. The
facts proved conclusively were these: Some
days before October i, 1866, the officers Of
the Treasury Department had taken pos
sessicn Of fifteen bales Of cotton, lying at
Browns Ferry on the Savannah River, and
had put It In the custody OF W. P. Brown,
owner Of the Ferry, who lived few rods
distant. The cotton was claimed BY Craw-
ford Keys as his property ;. and this Keys had
engaged Showers, one Of the men set free By
Judge Han to carry it By boat to Savannah.
gn Friday, the 9Th Instant, Stower- informed
Brown that the cotton was about to be taken
away secretly, but that he himself was not
to DO 1t, and advised Brown to get himself
relieved lsa,: of its custody By the military au-
ter: Brown, therefore, gave notice to the
military of the intended removal, and the
guard Of three men whose names are given
above were sent to the ferry the same csen-
inE' The trip to Savannah was at once put
gu, s1owcEs 1uHs, gis,ng as reason that his
day night, about II o'clock. five men, fur Of
xho1a were recognized BY Brown and Lis as
sistant, q man named Howell, to be those
named above, and Peter Keys, a second
gate in the direction Of the river. They
were seen to 60 to the ferry, where at once
an alteration began between them and the
guard. A voice Was heard and Identified as
Showers ordering the guard to lay down their
arms. On the soldiers replying that they
were acting under orders wUich they must
obey, the answer was made, ed d-n you,
We have come to throw you into the rivers
Shots were then fired, aud not long after the
same party Of five men returned past the
horses;,- As they passed Howelrs house
Peter Keys ordered Howell to 20 back to
he'd. Both Brown mud Howell were old resi-
dents Ct the district. ard perfectly familiar
With the voices and faccs Of their nelgl,bors.
At the trial Howell swore that he recos-
n'zed CrnH ford Keys, his two sous. Robert
and Peter, Elisha Byron and F. G. Showers.
Brown swore that the moon was two hours
| up. and that he recognized Crawford Keys
and F. G. Showers. The next morning the
Tue river, q rod or two from the shore,
By q detail Of soldiers. Each had beer,
| shot through the head; two With wounds
hich must have caused immediate death !;
the third evidently having been drowned al
ter having received his wound, The hair Of
| each was scorched, showing tue pistols had
| been discharged close to their heads. The
| defence made no attempt to deny the
guilt Of Peter Keys, who wis never arrested,
| and whose whereabouts at the time Of tho
trial were unknown. He was shown, how
ever, to have been at Els fathers house sew
eral times since the murder. In behalf Of
the other four, the defence was an abb,
Which the court rejected as an utter failure.
The morning aiter the murder Stowcn
sGasoIts was proved to haze told his negro
bsen Killed, that they would s'p Probably dY
all tie arrested, and that If questioned about
hin, they must sag that they mad seen him at
home at eleven o'clock the night before, aud
hud got some brandy from him. This was
proved to be fnlsc, and further, he made no
attempt to show how he could have legiti-
mately obtained his information On the
Tuesday following the murder he went by
boat to Savannah, paying no attention to the
eau of guard standing on the bank, who
has never existed the slightest doubt Of this
mans participation in the murder, nor has
there been any ground for doubt that tho
other men named above were equal shatees
ii this att oeious homicide. Every circnm-
stance In their actions during The dag, their
meeting and consulting together, their
absence from home at the time-this,
With other facts proven on the trial
show that, for the sake OF fifteen bales Of cot
ton, and 70 crafty rebel hate, they rutllessly
murdered three men who were doing their
duty as best they knew how, under the or
ders Of their superior officers, and who, Of
course. had no personal interest in the mat
ter. The prisoners, as is NOW known, were
all found Enilty by tho Commission, aud sem
fenced to be hanged. It is also known that
General Sickics COMMITTED the sentence In
the case Of Robert Keys and Elisha Byron
in accordance with the recommendation Of
the Commission, made on account of their
youth, to Imprisonment for He, and ordered
stowers, to be executed on the eth Of
April, lstH- In subsequent order,
dated April "a, he suspended the execu.
4 tlon Of the sentence till tho pleasure of Prcsi-
dent johnson should be made known. This
vas n consequence of n telegraphic order
|
Of the prisoners. Ultimately the President
commuted all the sentences to imprisonment
| for life. md the four prisoners were con-
| vcyed to Castle Pnckney, South Carolina,
| and there confined. Here comes Ii the his
tory of the efforts which secured the final
| release, and also the grounds upon which
the President based his first rerrieval Of the
guilty parties. There are two principal
actors Ia the matter One was the Hon. H.
Trescott, Of South Carolina, who waa
here some months ago Us counsel In
defence, The other was O. II. Brown
Ing. now Secretary Of the Interior.
Through the influence Of these men,
the prisoners had their place Of confinement
changed TO Fart Delaware. and hence they
| were taken on writ Of ha6tas corpus before
Judge Holt Of the United States District
Court for the State Of Delaware, and by him set
free IN some technical point us to the right Of
n Military Commission to try a citizen Of q
state where the civil conrts arc in operation.
The defendants are very rich, and it is stated
one Of their counsel a1one received
$4,000 for his influence with the President
in tue matter. The whole thing is outra-
Gcous, and should bring down shame upon
| all the pArtfcipators. The above is the
whole history OF the matter, aud people can
judge for themselves.
DISASTER AT SEA.
Collision OF the snip kn1c Dyer with
| the Steamer Scot1nnd-The Former
Sunk and the Latter Badly Injured
I