Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1875-10-02

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selected that quiet and unsus peci-
ing neighborhood for better sue.
cess in obtaining he..Awav, and
that, while they had preferred it to
Winchester, as rallying point,
the town itself was intended as the
point of attack-that there the
slaves of the town had plotted the
supposed insurrection, and were
about to attack it in the dead of
night and murder their unsus-
peeting masters. 1t was, therefore,
to warn us of an impending crises
which the very next hour would
surely crash down upon The de-
voted heads of the intended vic
Tins of rapine and slaughter, not
less than to implore help, that the
swift couries had come.
The warning was not suffered TO
pass unheeded. The cry OF, "To
arms, to arms !" at onee resounded
through Winchester, accompanied
with the startling answer, 'Why,
the negroes have risen and are
marcaing upon the town, 10 MUIR
der Us all ~ to questions screeched
from chamber windows through
partially opened shutters, or eau
tiously open doors. Nobody seem
ed to longer hesitate to believe the
| worst, so soon as the rumor had
got fairly started. Every negro
bond or free, whom the white
men under arms CHANGED to meet,
was ordered home, on pain of in
slant death for refusal. But these
needed no such threat to send them
home or to some nearer hiding
place. They seemed, FIJI their un-
consciousness Of intended wrong
from their fellow-servants, while
themselves innocent of evil pur-
poses, to be quite as much fright
ened as the patrolliug squads of
white men who gathered, here
and there, to protect their homes
from the flames, and their wives
and daughters from the revolving
fate their imaginations had de-
picted for them. If fact, we'll
treated as they generally were,
they had no quarrel with their mas
tiers whom they regarded not
as enemies, but as friends --an in
ference well-warranted by the con-
trast between the condition gen.
orally of the slaves of the Eastern
section of the State. But all such
consideration as these were for
gotten amid the terrors of that
Well-remembered night We took
counsel of our fear, and not Of our
reason.
What was our modification, as
well as our relief from all sense Of
danger, to discover, next day, that
we had been the victims of false
alarm The whole of ~ hal had
suddenly grown into a "slave in
surrection," in our excited thot's,
was the fact of a squad of negroes
having been detected in the act of
dividing among themselves the
contents of a meat-house. Fired
at, they scampered away Their
hurrying motions gave the impress
sion to some one that they were
hurrying to join their associates ia
a general uprising While going
from the whites as fast as their
legs would carry them, il was inn
agined that they were "going for
them !" in Nat Turner style!
Such was the famous Winches-
ter scare" whereof write with the
recollection of an eyewitness and
participation the martial ieats
of the OCCASION. For such L was.
But the extent of my usefulness,
had there really been occasion for
the use of gunpowder, will be in
ferred when / state / was armed
with a musket whose flint lock
was out of order and its touchhole
| filled with rust AS it was,it serv-
ed its only use, however. That was
to point it at the poor negroes
met, with the result of adding to
their bewilderment and fear-for,
as / have al .eady limited, the poor
slaves were almost as much fright
ened as their owners.
AS ] think of the many ludi-
crous scenes enacted on that
memorable night, l eau scarcely
refrain from laughter, serious as
my young feelings were for the
time. There was one man at least
in Winchester that night who was
in his glory. He was the comman-
der-in. chief 0f our Instructions
suppressing forces, Colonel Smith,
the most form dable thing about
whom, his epanlettes apart. was
his alphabetical name. II was
John b. ID. Smith, commonly call
ed "BuIl Smith,"
To show the estimation Ia " hich
the gallant Colonel was held for
military prowess, there is an anec-
dote Of him that places his memo
ry In anything but an enviable
light, 10 this effect While he was