The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1876-08-24
THE MIDNIGHT ESCAPE.
An Incident of the Revolution.

A strip of ground from Broadway to
Centre street, along Chambers, New
York, seventy years ago was Il burial
place. The part nearest Broadway was
devoted to the colored people for the
last resting spot of their death, and the
moiety extending to Cantre street was
kind of Potter's field, and during the
| Revolution the spot where most of the
private soldiers of the British army, who
died in the city were inferred. Gallows
Hill, the spot where the Manhattan re-
servoir is now placed, was decorated
with Il gailows, where all deserterS and
prisoners suffered death, who came un-
der control Of the infamous provost mar
shal, Cunningham.
1t was customary to exec rlte most of
the deserters who We're native born, at
night. There was a policy in this. Pub
! lie executions of the Americans by the
royalists would have been noised abroad
and the injury created thereby, through
the manner in which the continentals
themselves would have made use of it,
must have resulted in the injury of the
king cause. These executions generally
took place after midnight. The prison
ers condemned to death were always
confined to the old jail, within musket-
shot of the place of execution, and ser
geant' s guard of eight men, accompanied
| by the provost marshal and his deputy.
generally conducted the prisoners to the
gallows.
It was near twelve o'clock of night
In October, in the year 17S0, that u
young man was reclining among the re-
cent graves that raised their mounds in
the Vicinity of the gibbet on Gallows
Hill. The hour and the place were sin
gular for a lone individual, like the man
in question 10 be reposing. [ say lone,
yet he was not exactly 50, if human bo
dies, divested of their mortality, can be
considered companions; for nearly above
his head, swaying to and fro in the night
breeze, hung the remains of two soldiers
of the Fifth regiment. who had been ex
ecuted that morning for desertion.
The sky was obscured with dark, muir
ky clouds and the moaning of the wind,
rs it swept around the gallows and
through the trees that here and there
reared their branches amid the darkness
of the night, gave desolate and disa-
grceable sound well befitting the place
itself. The man scarcely moved, with
the exception, now and then, of raising
his head and peering cautiously above
the mound of earth, behind which he
lay, toward the Jail, dimly visible, with
its high massive walls, in the field be-
yond.
At length light glimmered, the tread
of men was family heard, and the young
man, raising himself from the spot where
helay, glided along the rude fence, which
skirted the burial ground, until he stood
within a few feet of the execution place.
Here he paused and looked iii the direc-
ton of the approaching light. Family
through the haze appeared to these files
of the soldiers, preceded by a colored
man who carried lantern-the only
light which seemed to be i'll the party.
Then walked prisoner, with his arms
tightly bound behind him, and directly
after, Cunningham, the provost mar
shal, and five or six soldiers with mus
kets ON their shoulders.
s'One, two, three" repeated the young
n:ln to himself, as if counting the num-
ber of men approaching twelve in ALL
'Tis a desperate undertaking, but my
comrade shall not die if l can save him.
Now for skill and courage. Be cool,
Dick Martini You have been on still
more perilous occasions, if your com
manding officers speak the truth.
He glided back again to his old rest
ing place, when he stumbled in a grave
that he had noticed before, just in rear
of the gallows. His first impulse was to
leap out, for the depth of The grave did
not exceed three feet but 4 second
thought altered his determination, and
he murmured
''This is the best place for me they
certainly will not think of looking for ii
living man i'll the grave And he stretch
ed himself at full leugth in the marrow
house that he knew one day or another
he alnnld fill. They entered the burial
ground and proceeded directly to the
gallows, under which they halted. Form
ing n cirle, the colored man, with the
lantern. Cunningham and the prisoner
in the center, preparations were made to
GO through with the awful ceremony
that of deriving fellow being of life.
The colored man looked up at the gal
lows from which the bodies were hang
ing, ana then proceeded very deliberate
ly to es,t them down, observing
''These chaps have hung long enough
I guess.
The prisoner looked mp with gience
of no eonmon interest, for he felt that
his soul was futtering III the confines of
eternity.
The colored man had passed. rope
| through the beam where, out Ii ie" mo
ments before, hung the inanimate ciods
that now encumbered, as it were, the
ground beneath the gallows. This done.
he said
There. Dir. Cunningham, is rope,
that will hold Tie prisoner long enough,
I reckon"
As he finished his speech, he very de-
liberately kicked the body of one of the
dead soldiers aside, and rolled the other
very eoolly into the grave where lay the
miln and the dead rested upon the liv-
, ing! A shudder ran through the frame