The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1876-05-17
The Attempted Assassination Of Sen.
ator Twichell of Louisiana.

A Coushatta (La.) correspondent Of the
81. Louis Democrat gives the following
particulars of the shooting of Senator W.
II. Twichell, who will be remembered as
member of one of our Vermont regiments
during the war, and the killing of his
brother-in-law, George Ii. King, at that
place, on the 81 Of May:
"At quite an early hour this morning
stranger was noticed riding into town.
His peculiar attire aud appearance attract
| cd considerable attention. The collar of
his rubber coat was turned up, and the
| rim of his soft felt hat turned down. He
also wore green goggles, and 1t was his ev-
| ident intention to conceal as much of his
face as possible. Ho was spoken to by
several citizens during the morning, but
allowed no one to get good look at his
| features. The stranger was armed with
repeating rifle and eix-shooter.
lie visited the blacksmith shop, and after
asking the price Of sheeing, said that his
| brother would be along soon, and that he
would wait for him before deciding wheth-
er he would have heavy OF light shoes put
on his horse. lie said that he would cit
| by the window of the shop until his BROTH
or came The window commanded view
of the river for some distance up and down,
and there he remained for some time--an
hour or two-and was spoken to by seve-
raj parties, to whom he replied in such a
manner as to imply that he did not care TO
converse, and at no time did he uncover
his face fully. At0o'clock Senator Twch-
ell and his brother .in-law, G.. A. King,
rode down to the ferry and crossed. The
stranger mounted his horse and slowly
dot la,.
and when the skiff reached the middle of the
river he was one hundred yards from the
landing. The man dismounted, tied his
horse and walked toward the river bank in
a careless manner. AS the skif struck the
bank, or lauding, he commenced firing
upon tho party with his rifle. The first
shot Used, the second struck Twich-
ellis arm. King had by this time drawn
bis pistol, and was firing in return, when
the stranger changed his fire and killed
King, who fell in the boat. The negro
who was rowing had managed to get the
skf thirty or forty feet from the bank by
this time, and Twlchell jumped overheard
aud hung to the side of the skf with bis
remaining arm, and was struggling to pro-
tect himself with a board.
The stranger, however, kept up the
shooting with clock-work precision, and
managed 10 break Twichell's other arm,
and he drifted away from the boat, help
less and drowning. At this time Gen.
Mudgett, who was awaiting the return OF
the skiff to cross, commenced firing at the
stranger, but did not hit him, and he ap-
pareniiy paid no attention to him. Several
peraonA in town had run over to see what
was the matter, and had been ordered back.
Finally the stranger walked toward his
horse, reloaded his rifle, mounted and was
about leaving when he saw the negro boy
pulling 1wichell to the boat under the di-
rection of Il lady who stood on the bank.
He rode to the bank and commenced firing
this time with revolver. One shot hill
Twichell in the leg and another struck
the negro in the hand. The lady
begged of the man to desist, but apparent
ly he paid no attention to her. The lady
asked the negro if Twichell was dead, nnC
upon his replying in the affirmative the
stranger turned ard road out of town. He
passed several parties who knew nothing
of the shooting. but their attention was at
tracted to him for lthe reason that he KEEP
them covered with his six-shooter until hi
had passed them some distance. Meanwhile
the negro had reached the bank fron
whence they had started. Twichell wal
shot three times, King three or four times
and the negro once.
Another accoun! says the assassin told {
woman who witnessed his cold-bloode(
crime that he had killed King in self.de
fence, and that he did not come there fo
that purpose, but to murder Twichell.