The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1876-06-08
STRANGER THAN FICTION.

AFTER the Battle of the Wilderness
Gen. Lee set out to follow the Union
forces, leaving Col. Cronan, with others,
to bury the dead and care for the wound
ed. Among the disabled on the Confad-
crate side was man named Smith, who
had lost an arm in the battle, and was
strongly suspected of being Union spy.
A council OF officers was held to decide
the status Of the suspected, when Cronan,
dissatisfied with the account he gave of
himself, insisted on his being shot.
Smith-cool, bold ard stute-Confrontcd
the counsel with the air of an injured
man, pointed to his shattered arm, and
asked: "Was it thus that spies executed
the behests of their employers? Was it
usual with spies to bear the brunt of bat
tie? Was it thus that Lee expected the
Confederate wounded to be treated?" Col.
Cronau retorted by observing that spies
not Gntrcqucntly mingled IN DaltIC ~
avoid suspicion; that the accused had
been detected in making inquiries respect
ing the movements of commanders, which
at the least were calculated to arouse sus-
picon, and that, finally, his explanation
of these suspicious circumstances was
doubtful and unsatisfactory. At last a
vote was taken as to his guilt, which re
suited in his acQuittal, Cronan casting his
ballot for condemnation.
"The fortune of war; changed, the
stars Of the Union were in the ascendant,
and the Confedcrates were pressed on all
sides by Grant, and it bctell Cronan to
taste the bitter life of war. He was cap
tured and sent, with eight others, to Flor
ida, where they were guarded by colOred
soldiers. The prisoners, relieved from
the toll Of war, occupied them
selves with plotting to effect their
escape. The colorcd women around the
prison, strangers itmay appear, were their
most devoted friends. They procured fol-
them all the comforts they could COM
mand, gave them all the intelligence they
could obtain, and, in short, were the con
fidants, advisers and secret messengers OF
the prisoners. Constantly plotting, ma
neuvering, dissimulating, the prisoners
occupied themselves for two months,
when one night, at IA signal from their
female friends, they resolved to try for,
tune. 1t was midnight, and black as Ere
bus. Rain poured down in a deluge, the
thunder crashed, the angry and incessant
lightning rent the sky, illuminating the
heavens with momentary glow of lurid
light, and then abysmal darkness envel-
oped the earth. 1t was one of those awful
nights when nature covers, and the BRAY
est experience an underlined sentiment OF
fear The African race is naturally super
stltious, and it was no wonder that the
colored guards became derelict and took
to cover. This was the moment for the
captives. Frustrating themselves on the
ground, they wriggled, snake-like, by
slow and silent movement toward the
guards, with bated breath and glaring
eyes. Through the thick darkness they
could barely see them scattered here and
there in the shelter of trees and other OBJ
iects which afforded security from the
remorseless storm. Noiselessly they crepl
on. When they were within three feet
of the sentinels they paused to concert
simultaneous action, and then with a
sudden bound they sprang on them,
disarmed and gagged them, and then
held Il council as to their next procedure
1t was a fearful crisis in desperate
adventure. Some counseled tying the
guards to trees to prevent them from
spreading the alarm; others to put them
to death as more eflicaCious means OF
insuring their silence; while Cronan, with
characteristic originality, proposed to
seize the guards as fugitive slaves, who
were beyond the pale of law and protec-
ton, and to carry them off to Cuba This
was exactly the kind of rlan to secure the
concurrence of his desperate companions.
They caught the idea at once, and
marched the tied and gagged men down
to the seaside, seized schooner in the
harbor, and by daylight were sailing fol
Havana with their late guards tied down
in the vessels hold as marketable slaves
Arrived at Havana they sold the schooner
and their captives for $2,700, which sum
being evenly divided, Cronan with his
share of the spoil came back to the South
got married, and went into business with
partner in New Orleans. But, instead
of ATTENDING to his business, he took t(
gambling as a more rapid as well as
more easy way of recruiting his shattered
fortunes. Losing in play he drew sur
reptitiously from the funds OF the firm,
hoping by turn of luck in cards to bt
able to restore the distracted money ant
thus save his honor.
But Nemesis would not have 1t thus
The revengeful goddess decreed that III
! should drain the cup of bitterness TO tht
dregs. When the guilty man saw detec