The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1876-11-08
MISCELLANY.
THE MIDNIGHT ESCAPE.
AN INCIDENT OF THE REVOLUTION.


Tho strip of ground from Broadway to
Centre street, along Chambers, New York,
seventy years ago, was a burial place. The
part nearest Broadway was devoted to the
colored people for the last resting spot of their
dead, and the moiety extending to the Gen.
tire street was kind of Potters field, and
during the Revolution the spot where most Of
the private soldiers of the British army, who
diod in the city, were inferred. Gallows hill
the spot where the Manhattan reservoir is now
placed, was decorated with gallows, where
all deserters and prisoners suffered death who
came under the control of tho infamous pro-
vost marshal, Cunningham.
1t was customary to execute most of the
deserters, who were native born, at night
of the Americans by the royalists would have
been noised abroad and the injury created
thereby, through the manner in which tho
Continentals themselves would have made use
of it, must have resulted in the injury OF the
kings cause. These executions generally
took place after midnight. The prisoners
condemned to death were always confined in
of execution, and q sergeant's guprd of eight
men, accompanied by the provost marshal and
his deputy, generally conducted tho prisoners
to tho galIows.
1t was near twelve o'clock of a night in Oc-
tobor in the year 1880, that young man was
reclining among the recent graves that raised
their mounds in the vicinity of the gibbet ON
Gallows hill. The hour and the place were
singular for lone individual, like tho man in
question, to be reposing. ! say alone, yet he
was not exactly so, if human bodies Invested
of their mortality, can be considered compan-
ions 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 executed that morning for desertion.
The sky was obscure with dark, murky
clouds, and the moaning of the wind, as it
swept around the gallows and through the
trees that reared their branches amid the
darkness Of tho night, gave desolate and
disagreeable sound well befitting tho place it.
self. The man scarcely moved, with the ex-
ception, now and then, of raising his head
and pcering cautiously above the mound of
tibIi, Dtulnu WhiSh iC iayt tOWhlu tuo jail
dimly visible, with its high massive walls in
the field beyond.
At length light glimmcred, the tread of
men was family heard, and the young man,
raising himself from the spot where he lay,
glidcd along the rude fence, which skirted the
burial ground, until he stood within a few
feet Of the execution place. Hero he paused
4 =. Al -. u
ing light. Family through the haze appear
cd two or three files of soldiers, preceded by
colored man who carried lantern--the on
ly light which seemed to be in the party
There walked prisoner with his hands tight
ly bound behind him, and directly after, Gun
ningham, the provost marshal and five or six
soldiers with muskets on their shoulders.
g One, two, three,' repeated the young
man to himself, as if counting the number of
the men approaching "twelvc in all. IT'S
a desperate undertaking, but my comrade
shall not die if I can save him. Now for skill
and courage. Be COOL Dick Martin You
have been on still more perilous occasions, If
yourcommanding officers speak the truth.
He glided back again to his old resting
place, when he stumbled in grave that he
had noticed before, just in the rear of the gal
lows. His first impulse was to leap out for
the depth of the grave did not exceed three
feet but second thought altered his deter
imitation, and he muttered
{" This is the best place for me they GER
tainly will not think OF looking for living
man in the grave ?n And he stretched him.
self at full length in the "narrow house !"
that no knew one day or other he must FILL
They entered tho burial ground and proceed
ed directly to tho gallows, under which they
halted. Forming a circle, the colored man
with tho lantern, Cunningham, and the pris-
oner In the centre, preparations were made to
go through with the awful ceremony-that of
depriying fellow being Of life.
The colored man looked up at the gallows
rom which the bodies wore hanging, and thsn