Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1872-02-02

The Story of Captain Boone,
DEMOCRATS cling. to some falsehoods
with great tenacity. The energy they
exhibit in denying certain assertions, if
1t could be managed on the change of
direction principle, and turned into
practical channel, would give the party
some show of life and spirit. They have
insisted, and still insist, that there are no
ku-klux in the South, and that the
stories Of their outrages are mere fabri-
cations. Facts are stubborn things, how
ever, and when facts come to the surface
on every possible occasion and in every
shape, denials do not weigh much against
them. Facts about the Ku-Klux and
their outrageous doings startle us most
when they come to us in the shape of
personal narrative. When a reliable man
can say, 81 have seen these things" and
can give every incident of events that
have only been outlined in the news
papers, his evidence becomes interesting
to the people.
Perhaps no man is better qualified to
speak of the secret societies of the South,
their nature, their aims and their doings,
than Captain Robert w. Boone, now
in this city. This will appear if we
glance at his career, certainly one of the
most remarkable shaped by the war and
by the events which followed in the
South.
Capt, Boone is a native North Caro-
linia, and a great grandson of Daniel
Boone. He was about fifteen years of
age when the Carolinas seeded, and he
made his mark by tearing down q rebel
flag which had been raised by his broth
er, Captain in the Confederate service.
Encouraged by his mother, he stood firm
in his course as a Union man, left the
State, made his way to Kentucky, and in
few weeks entered the secret service of
the United States Army-a department
that became so famous and so useful in
the army operations In Kentucky and
Tennessee,
Tho old Boone instinct made this Joy
good scout, good n:lot and a good
spy SO efficieri was he that after the
seige of Knoxville he was made CAPTAIN
with headquarters at Knoxville He or
Grated with his organization or command.
in East Tennessee, Western North Caro-
lima, Northern Georgia and South Carolina,
lie was captured seven times, and was
sentenced TO be shot at Salisbury, n. c..
in 1852. lie scaled the walls of the prison,
however, and though shot through the
body, escaped. In 1868 he was Captured
by Wheeler and was -cnienced to be hung
at Ashyille, n. c. Again he escaped.
During these eight years of service he
belonged to eight different Confederate
regiments, serving part of the time as
private and part of the time as a commits
stoned officer, and gaining much valuable
information. He, of course, had many
adventures, and came out with many
wounds. He was known then as Charley
Davis, and hundreds of Union officers,
pilOted by him to the Union lines, rescued
by his command from rebel guards or
prisons, have good cause to remember
him with grateful feelings.
After the war Capt, Davis Boone) came
North, but went to South Carolina i'm 1869
to organize the detective force of the
State. 1t becoming evident that there
was secret organization of rebel svmpa-
| thiZers, against which the legitimate GOV
| erAment could make little headWay,
Capt. Boone disappeared from South Car
olina and appeared in Georgia as a cotton
buyer from North Carolina, rebel in sym.
| pathy, and violent in his talt against the
tyranny of the Federal Government. He
| Joined the order then known as the White
brotherhood, whose declared object was
the protection of the widows and orphans
of deceased rebel soldiers, and whose
platform included the banding together of
all sympathizers of the Lost Cause for the
| advancement of personal and political in
| tcrest. The society, which it was said
| had organized in Washington, numbered
at that time S34, 600 members, including
! all the rebel sympathizers in the South
I merchants, lawyers, farmers, traders, me-
| chanics. Hostility to negroes showed IL
self in violence and outrage, and even
the leaders of the organization admit
! ted that in this way only could they
! intimidate the blacks. Possessing HIM
| self OF all the signs, passwords, etc, Capt.
Boone returned to South Carolina to put
the denials of such an organization in
! that State to the test He Travelled eX.
! tensively, was recognized everywhere as
a member of the order and saw all their
! plans and aims from behind the scenes.
! The Society adopted the name Ku-Klux
to frighten the negroes, and the reckless
men of the order perpetrated Outrages
that were never mentioned in print Dur.
ing the years 80 and 20, nincty-three
cold bloOded murders were perpetrated in
South Carolina alone. Hundreds OF
negroes and many whites were brutally
whipped and otherwise abused. At Law,
renee Court House, eighteen men were
killedin one day, and the struggle at New
berry was what would have been whole
sale slaughter Of Union men, had not
Captain Boone managed to have troops
put in an opportune appearance. In all
his observations he collected facts, names
dates. He thoroughly understood the
animus of the order, and understood theil
mode of action. Finally, when hi,
report to the State officers had caused
action, the signs and pass words of the
order were changed, and suspicion being
directed against himself, his usefulness
ceased
His statement made under oath before
the investigating Committee at Washing
ton and substantiated by the records anC
by the circumstances of the many cases
and by the testimony of others emincntly
hostile to him, is a strange chapter in Tho
history of the Southern States The whole
thing in a nut shell is that the outrage.
have not been exaggerated, but on The
contrary that not one-half have been re
ported, and that when reported many o,
the acts lost something of their brutality
because of the absence of the particulars
that could not be made public in a news
paper,
The Government did not act in the Ku
KluN business moment too soon. Tn,
Government would have been crimna
had ii delayed longer The GOvernmen
acted with the facts as learned by score
of men like Captain Boone, and as comm,
in the stories of thousands of persecuteC
citizens, before its officers, not trusting
alone to the excited narrative of refugees
And the time will come when all GOO,