The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1872-03-22

Grsphic Picture Of Henry Berry Low
cry, Outlaw Chief-A Bloody Nine
Years Record. II
From graphic description of Low
.ery. the famous North Carolina out
law, and his desperate band, publish
ed in Mondays New York Herald,
we make the following interesting
extracts: Nltst1
TO THE SEAT OF WAR.
left Washington City Thursday
night, and reported myself next dayI
at noon in The office of GOVERNOR
Walker, of Virginia.
The handsoInest man i'm the South
was seated at a table, signing bills, in
the old Confederate Supreme Court
room. His beautiful, grayish-black
moustache, healthy gray hair, clear
skin, and smiling expression, every
inch a lord lieutenant in the Oldest
of our shires, grew soberer as he said:
''Lowery? Why, a captain of the
Virginia militia applied to me yester-
day to obtain permission for himself
and forty men 10 hunt that fellow in.
the swamps of North Carolina. Low
cry must be good deal of charac-
ter"
AS / looked over the files of the
Richmond newspapers, and their in
innate exchanges of the tobacco, rice,
and tar region, / found the question
of the day to be-Lowery- be was
at once the Nat. Turner, the Osceola,
and the Rob Roy MacGregor of the
South. With mingled ardor and
anxiety, desire and trepidation, L
pushed on by the Weldon road TO
Wilmington, the largest town of the
State, where Lowery had once been
confined i'm prison. There was there
but a single question-Lowery. The
Wilmington papers called the Robe
son County people towards for not
cleaning them out. The Robson
County paper hurled back the in
situation, but hurled nothing else at
Lowery. The State Government got
its share of the blame, and the State
Adiutant-General replied in card
that the militia and volunteers had
no pluck on the occasion when he
had tried them. Five men has mas
tered Commonwealth.
The newspapers were, however,
making political capital out of the
Lowery gang, instead OF calling upon
an honorable and united State senti-
ment to suppress the scandal. The
Democratic papers cried, "Black Ku-
KluxW and the Republican papers
retorted by asking where was the
yalor of the white Ku-Klux, who
could fog a thousand peaceful men,
but dare not meet five outlaws IN
arms.
1.-The Democrats" said one Robe
son county man, in my room, las
soon as they upset the Republicans
in Robson County, started in to an
initiate Scuffietown and its vote by
terror. They have been beaten in it.
That chap Lowery has made them a
laughing stock. He ought to be
killed, but they skulk out of his
reach" ~ FL.
CRIME WITHOUT A COMPASS.
Mayor Martin, of Wilmington,
President of the Rutherford Railway
which passes through Scut1ietown
and the land of the outlaws, relates
an incident, pitiful at least to North
ern ears, of the ignorance of these
robbers, and the hopeless fight they
are making within the limits of all
that is available to them. Adjutant-
General Gorham, who directed the
late ignominious campaign against
the Lowery band-where, by current
reports, the main victories were gain
ed over mulatto women, the soldiery
driving the husbands forth TO insult
and debauch their wives-said that
Henry Berry Lowery, when asked TO
Withdraw from the State, replied:
"Robeson County is the only land
know. / can hardly read, and do
not know where to go if / leave these
woods and swamps, where L was
raised. If L can get safe conduct and
pardon L will go anywhere. L will
Join the United States Army and
fight the Indians. But these people
will not leave me alive, and L do not
mean to enter any Jail again. l will
never give up my gun again"
Mayor Martain's solution of the
difficulty is for the United States to
declare martial law over the whole
Congressional District in which
Robson County stands, and make a
systematic search with regular troops
for these outlaws. He says that
when they first took their excursions
they were comparatively sober, but
of late have taken to drinking. and
about four weeks ago they all, except
their leader, got drunk at Ed. Smiths
store, Moss Neck, and lay there all
night. whisky" said Mayor Mar
tin, "will reduce them in time; but
they are very careful whose liquor
they drink in these days. Henry
Berry Lowery left his flask hanging
on a fence few weeks ago, and when
he returned TO get it he made every
body at the station drink with him. "
TO LUMBERToN.
Early i'm the morning, Monday
February 26, took the train tC Lum-
berton, and from the forward car To
the tail the freight was Lowery. In
the second-class carriage, escorted by
two sheriffs, Mcmillan and Brown,
of Robson County, was Pop Oxedine
the previous said to be his literal
name--brotherp Of Henderson OXedine,
the only one of the outlaws who was
ever brought to trial and hanged. He
was chained to a regular army sol
der, who had recently murdered q
negro at Scuffietown, and he was a
remarkable looking mulattO, with
yellOwish olive skin, good features,
and handsome, appealing, unrelia-
BILE, uninterpretable pair of black
eyes. So good looking a mulatto
man, with such complexion, had
not seen. Like the rest, he had the
Tuscarora Indian blood in him, with
the duplicity of the mixed races
where the white blood predominates.
He was ironed fast to the seat. and
looked at me with look inquisitive,
pitiful, evasive. and ingenuously 40
turns. If should describe the man
by the words nearest my idea L should
call him egro-Indian gypsy.
The passengers were apprehensive
and inquisitive together, wanting to
know about Lowery and dreading to
encounter him. The fullest, and
often very intelligent, explanations
were made to me, and every facility
was rendered to assist me to form ac-
curate conclusions as TO the charac-
tiers in the band.
Col. s. l.. Fremont, General Super
intendent of the Rutherford Rail-
way, will permit no passenger carry
ing arms for the purpose of shooting
Lowery to ride on his trains, as he
fears that such permission will en-
hanger the safety of the railway.
Lowery could toss train off almost
ane day, but he seems to hold a
SuperstitiOuS respect for the United