Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1873-11-28

The following graphic and rcmarka.
ble narrative has been obtained by Ills
from q prominent lawyer in one of the
Eastern Kentucky counties. The facts
IN it havexnot before been published,
but for their entiIo accuracy the repu.
tation of the writer will vouch.-Ed,
Cou5'. Jour.
In 1865 was the States Attorney in
the judicial discrict Of Ken.
tucky.
! / had gone to the county of O.,
one of the counties in the district, for
the purpose of being present in the
prosecution OF the criminals. There
had been 10 court held in that county
since 1861, owing to the civil war. I
found everything in the worst confu-
sion possible. Men had been murdered
in could blood, and nothing was done
with them. Murder, arson, robbery
! and all the crimes in the catalogue,
had been committed with impunity,
and the malefactors had gone unwhip-
| ped of justice, owing to the absence
Of law. During the war everything
was anarchy; there was neither safety
| to women nor innocent children-all
suffered alike. When it was known
that there would be a circuit court
| held in that county, the news attract
ed q very large crowd.
| On Monday morning, November Sth,
1865, found a large crowd in B,
! the county seat of O.. Men,
thirty miles. Guerillas and bush
whackers came with their guns and
! pistols, as if to oyerawe the court, and
| determined sthat mono of their gang
| should be indicted for the numerous
| murders of which they had been
guilty. Court opened, and the Sheriff
returnd his list of a grand jury. The
! Court instructed them as to their duty;
| they were sworn and sent to their
| rooms. l had determined in my own
mind that every person that had been
| guilty of felony or misdemeanor in
| o. county should be regularly
indicted, if I could in any way obtain
| the evidence against them.
There was case that was shrouded
IN mystery. A young man, who was
| the pride Of widowed mother, had
suddenly disappeared from the County
/ about two years before, and had never
been heard from. His name was
Charles Belknap: he was al only child;
/ handsome, finely educated, and as
! brave as lion. I made dilligent in
qulry. L had about one hundred wit
| nesses summoned. i examined them
closely, and when 1 dismissed them 1
warned them to tell no one what tran
spired in the grand-iury room. In
that way hoped to keep the real
murderers IN the dark rs 20 what I was
doing.
I could only gather the following
circumstances in the case: That Young
Belhnap had left his home in June,
1853, and was riding very fine horse,
with 81, 800 in his possession. He
failed to return at night. and his moth
er became very uneasy about him and
the next morning set out to make in
quiries concerning him. She went to
the house of Squire Mosely, who lived
about five miles from her, n leading
man in the county, and told her story
and made inquiries concerning her
son. The Squire told her that her
son WAS at his house the day before
and left in the direction Of the town of
B.; that he left about 10 o'clock in the
morning. This was all she could hear
of him. No one else had seen him,
ed mother. She made inquiries of
pC1ooiA stlaASCA thot
passed was interrogated, but all in
vain. She still kept up her search for
her missing boy, ard about twelve
months alter he had SO mysteriously
disappeared she was returning Lome
/; from one OF her searches and met
Squire Mosely. The Squire told her
| he had heard from her boy that he
was in Iowa. He had received lettor
from him, and that he would be at
homo soon: that ho had the letter at
home, sc. Mrs. Belknap went direct
, ly 20 the 'Squire's house without COM
municatinS her intention to him, and
inquired of the family for the letter
; that the Squire had received from her
long-lost boy. The family seemed sur
prised, and k2cw nothing about such
letter having been received.
This was all The evidence I could get
as to the probable fate Of her son.
/ What was to do went to my room
and studied over the matter. How
could ] say that young Belknap had
been murdered His body had not
been found and who would dare to
accuse Squire Mosely Of snch crime2
l lay in my bed that night thinking
over the circumstances, Gn,s is was
near 1 o'c ock IL tie morning when l
fell csleep. ] slept until O'Clock. 1
got up, washed and dressed myself,
i fully determined to indict Squire
| Mosely for the crime of murder. ]
| went to the grand jury room, directly
| after eating Il hearty breakfast. told
| the foreman what nay inteltions were.
/ drew up tho indictment, accusing
/ Squire Mosely OF the crime {: muir
| der, committed as follows, viz:
"The said Squire Mosely, ON the -
: day of August, 1868, i'll tho county Of
o., did feloniously and with malice
aforethought kill and ,aurdor Charles
Belknap by shooting him with gun
| loaded with 8 leaden bullet, against
! the peace and dignity Of the Common
wealth of Kentucky"
! [ presented the Indictment TO the
| grand jury, and they endorsed it
the jury to say nothing about what we
| secret, and if before the court ad
! journed nothing turned up to fix the
! crime on the Squire, that we could de-
stroy the Indictment. The grand jury
! found indictments against eighteen
persons for murder, and so secretly
was it managed that she sheriff had
thera all in Jail at once.
! The indicting OF SO many persons
| naturally produced great excitement
among the citizens. 1 went to my
room that night and double-locked my
door, examined my pistol and put it
under the head of my bed. About Y
o'clock I heard knock at IVY loor: |
demanded to know who was there. \
person ansvsred, 20 friend. got
- lar $,0o IGt1 NV
hand and opened the door. A stranger
stepped in. closed the door and de-
| manded his business. He seemed very
much frightened, and casting hasty
/, glance around the room to satisfy him.
self that there was no other person in
the room except myself, he told sac
that his name was Colby, ana stated
that he wanted to communicate a very
impcrt.,nt fact 10 me concerning the
fate of young Belknap. told him to
proceed. He wanted to know whether