Clarksville chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 186?-1872, 1869-03-05

i detailed Lieutenant David Cow
lings and two men to take charge of
the engine and fire-room. The en-
gine room communicated with the
cabin by a door on the port side. AZ
ter seeing the men 20 into the engine
room i passed forward, Lieutenant
III. A. Parr having chargeof the deck
In my absence. While forward /
heard a shot fired In the cngine-room,
and at once went aft through the
cabin into the engine-room, where I
found the fireman In irons. Return
ing to the deck / found no one i'm the
engine-roOm, but, much to my regret,
saw the body of the second engineer
of the Chesapeake lying across the
threshold of the door. Going forward
/ found Lieut.. Cowlings, who reported
to me that when he went into the en-
gine-room the engineer was below
oiling the machinery, but after secur-
ing the fireman he found that officer
at his post. He ordered the engineer
to surrender as a prisoner of war to
the Confederate States of America,
and that officer replied by firing q
shot, which MANNED one Of the men
for life. Ibid not see the firing which
followed, but after seeing the man In
the doorway, I sent Lieut.. Parr, who
was regular physician, to examine
him. Lieut.. Parr pronounced the
man dead. One Of the witnesses who
testified before United States Com
missioner Newton, said that he saw
me in my shirt sleeves with q knife
In my hand. This Is not only not
true, but 1t is very unlikely that II
should be true, the day being a bitter
cold day in December. I had no
arms except Colts revOlvers. On ar
riving ut the Seal Cove after the cap
ture, I found that my superior officer
was not there. 1 remained about
three hours, and proceeded up the
Bay Of Fundy, meeting Capt. Parker
at sea in pilot boat, about sixty
miles from st. John, N. B. The cap
tain, officers and some Of the crew OF
the Chesapeake were transferred to
the pilot boat and then to st. John.
Capt. Parker then took command,
and changing the course of the vessel
put into Shelburne, Nova Scotia, for
the purpose of coaling. While the
vessel was in the port l was ordered
to Halifax to procure supplies, and l
was never again Oh board the Chesa-
peake in an official capacity. The
ship was recaptured In Sand Bar
Harbor, near Halifax, by the u. s.
gunboat Ella and Annie, Capt. Mich
oils, and taken to that city, where the
original capture was adjudged an act
of war. The vessel was handed over
to the owners, Messrs. Cromwell Il
Co., of New York, upon deposit OF
$40, 900 being made to the British au-
thOrities, and Mr.. Seward afterwards
made an apology for the recapture.-
l wish to make u clear and unequiv-
Ocal statement that In every capture
! made private property was scrupu-
lously respected and human life never
needlessly sacrificed. The men were
armed with Colts revOlvers, but car
ried no knives or other weapons. In
every case issued strict orders to my
officers and men not to fire upon any
one unless resistance was offered. At
the close of the war l was In COM
mand of the Confederate States
schooner st. Mary's in the West In
dies. Upon being informed Of that
event l burned the vessel, and re-
turned to this country in October,
1865, trusting for security to President
Lincoln's proclamation of amnesty.
l engaged In business at Savannah,
where my family now are. On the
18th of September, 1866, was ar
rested at the Wall House i'm Will
liamsburg, and, after being ironed, j
was taken to the Forty-fifth precinct
station-house, where / was kept all
night without bedding of any kind,
though offered to pay literally for
it. l took cold that night which
has been the cause of much suffering.
States Commissioner, l was sent to
this prison, where ! have been ever
since, my case being continued from
day to day and month to month with
out any trial. L wish to repeat that
| am not by any means the blood
thirsty individual l have been repre-
sented.
Lieut.. Brain was a tall, straight,
and commanding looking parsonage
when in health, but his sufferings in
prison have been so intense that he
can not walk without the aid of q
crutch, and is, perhaps, permanently
disabled. His right foot Is much
swollen from infiammatory rheuma-
tism, a disease he attributes to the
unavoidable dampness of the prison,
and he is indeed wreck of the man
who entered ii nearly three years ago.
He is only twenty-nine years of age,
but says, with truthfulness that is
apparent In his looks, that since his
Imprisonment he has grown old faster
than with the flight of years. He is
u man of mild and affable manners
and agreeable conversation, and
seems, in his bearing, to have kept
himself untainted from the prison at
mOsphere about him. A widowed
mother and two young daughters de-
pend upon him for support, and he
expresses himself as anxious to be
with them. Efforts are being made
to secure his pardon at the hands of
President Johnson, but II he Is not
pardoned, the Constitution guaran-
tees him a speedy trial, and il Is made
the duty of the courts and the gov
ernment to see that this Is not only
accorded to him, but insisted upon
Had either of these things been done,
that wretched spectacle of man,
not convicted of any crime, compel
led to be the daily companion of con
victed felons, would not now offend
the nobler instincts of the American
people. With u shattered constitu-
tion and a frame that Is no longer the
subject of the will, he drags himself
about the prison, and even finds IL
necessary TO appeal TO the judgment
of his visitor that the reports of some
newspapers that he has lost his reason
are untrue. That was a sad and pain
ful record which the hand of the story
writer traced in the life of Philip No
Ian, but here Is man without a coun-
try and without u trial, whose few
years of suffering reverse the natural
order, and make the truth of history