The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1867-01-12
AN INTERESTING NARRATIVE.
The History of a Loyal ArkansIan

captain EnOcn H. ance, until lately
United States Direct Tax Commissioner
for the State of Arkansas, Is a native
of Alabama; of powerful and well pro-
portioned frame, about six feet six
inches in height, with dark gray eyes
and stiff, JacksohIan brush of iron
gray hair, and a strongly-marked face,
| full OF character and determination.
After a checkered life, marked by more
ups and downs of fortune than usually
fall to the lot even of a western man,
he finally settled in Arkansas. By
turns he has been a printer, editor,
farmer, land Spectator, &c. The war
found him man of considerable prop
erty and large influence in his county
lin short, one of the best known men
in Central and Southern Arkansas.
Captain Vance may be regarded as a
fair representative man of very large
class in the South; for neither the very
poor nor the very rich, as rule, dis
tinguished themselves by their devo-
ton to principle, for or against the
Union, during the late struggle, and it
was among the "middle classes, - prup-
erly so-called-self-made men in oil
branches OF enterprise-that the most
striking examples of patriotism, as well
as the most marked developments of
individual character, are to be found
The county of Saline, in which Capt.
| Nance's plantation lay, was entirely at
the mercy of the desperate class OF the
| 81,
ming ofthe war he found his home no
! longer safe. Shouldering his rifle, he
started "across country" towards the
north star, and struck the Arkansas
river at the foot of the Petit Grau
Mountains, closely pursued by his en-
emies, and making small raft to car
ry his clothes and arms, swan the
river, then at flood, and hardly slept
until he found himself safely cover the
border" On his way to the nearest
camp of Federal troops he captured
noted rebel spy, and took him in as his
first trophy-a queer sort of a letter of
Introduction. Raising a company at
once, he received his commission as
Captain, and once more faced south
ward.
Acting as a scout, in advance with his
company, he fell in with a supply train
of forty wagons destined for Marina
dukes command, who were then in
great straits for provisions and forage.
He had but twelve men with him at
the time, but he posted them at the
sides of the road, and alone stopped the
| train, bound the drivers and guard,
and thus, having burned all that he
could not carry with him, returned TO
camp with four times the number of
prisoners that his whole party could
muster. He then returned to his own
county, and added number of his old
neighbOrS to his command. Scarcely
had he completed his muster-roll before
/ his small and unsupported company
was assailed Mt his own home by about
eighty Regulators" So well were his
dispositions made, however, that less
than half the aSsailants escaped. There
were very few prisoners taken in that
fight.
| ADVENTURES.
From this time forward his life was a
continued series of desperate adYen-
| lures and hairbre9dth escapes-a thorn
/ of Il Nl,n
the rebellion, until, in the latter part of
1862, he fell into the hands of the reb-
els, In company with Judge Baxter
afterwards elected to the United States
| Senate by the first legislature of the re-
constructed State, he was thrown into
jail at Little Rock, and his fate was
considered as settled.
| His sufferings from close confine-
ment, in irons, in narrow cell, through
the hot days of Southern summer,
were needlessly aggravated by petty
personal enmity, and the brave old
man will carry to his grave, the deep
scars left on his limbs by the rusty
Shacllles which he wore on wrists and
ankles for so many weary months. At
last, by an ingenious strategem of his
wife, a woman worthy of such a hus-
| band, he escaped from prison, and Law
for five days hidden in a corn.field, IiY-
ing on the ears of green corn. He was
at last aroused from his hiding place by
the drums of the advancing columns of
our forces under General Steele, and
with them, among the foremost, he re-
entered the city of his captivity.
RETRIBUTIvE JUSTICE.
! About year afterwards, when the
| United States courts had been re-estab-
lished, and when, for a brief time, an
effort was made to carry into effect the
retributive enactmentS of Congress- and
| IN the same court room where he was
tried for treason" L heard him give
the following striking evidence In a
suit by the United States, involving the
contiscation of the property of the very
judge who had presided at his trial.
The question was put to him: "What
do you know concerning the-loyalty of
Judge Ringo?"
"What do know of the loyalty of
Judge Ringo, your Honor? 1 will tell
you. A year and half ago, sir, was
| taken prisoner by the rebels. l was
brought into this room in irons, sir, and
l stood about where 1 stand now, sir, o
be tried for my life for treason, your
Honor; treason against the Southern
Confederacy, because 1 had dared to
stand by the old flag L was born under,
and the Union 1 had sworn to defend.
Judge Ringo sat that day where your
Honor sits now, as judge of that court,
and he sentenced me to death for that
treason. They took me from this room
in irons by his order, and that, your
Judge Ringo."
There was little necessity to trouble
the jury in that case with further wit
nesses for the prosecution. The old
mans form became proudly erect, and
his eyes flashed fire as ne gave his tes-
timOny. a defect in his speech, the
consequence of a "hare-lip," gave a
singularly grotesque effect to the bitter
and fiery energy, stern and dignified as
it was, with which the Captain gave in
his evidence.
He was elected to the State Senate
from his county, and has given his best
energies to the task of restoration. His
adventures by no means ended here
but from first to last would fill vol
ume. 1 last heard of him, a few months
ago, defending the dwelling of n neigh
Dor from gang of four bushwhacking
desperadoes. The fight was hand to
hand, and did not last long. The Cap
| tain was not much hurt, but the four
.asSailantS were all killed.
1t is worthy of remark that Captain
Vance, and the singular class of men of
whom he is striking type, are and have
been, since the close of the war, fore
most in efforts to maintain peace and
order, and restore the old prosperity
N. Y. EUeri1g Post.
SIMON CAArERoN.-The Union Repub-
lican caucus nominee of the Pennsyl-
vania Legislature for United States
Senator, was born in Lancaster coun-
ty, Pa, in 1893, and is now sixty-eight
years of age. He was left an orphan at
the age of nine years, and procuring
situation In a printing office, succeeded
in nhtaininor aFnopd