Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1879-08-29
A HIGHWAY ADVENTURE
The Startling Experience of Gen. Bou-
t0n.--GOOd Use Of Pistol.
Cotton tCal.l Semi, Tropic,

NoIton (CRIl Seml-Troplc.
Reports of the adventure of Gen.
Bouton with highwaymen near San
Jacinto have been coming in for some
days, but the general himself has now
arrived. Gen. Bouton was chief OF
artillery under Gen. Sherman, who
speaks Of him as having a record as an
artillery officer unsurpassed IN the
world. He was engaged in forty-two
battles, and never lost gun. He tells
Of his thrilling experience on the noun
tain-top at San Gorgonia in the followics
way:
The general and j. G. Collins, his
partner, started from San Gorgonia for
their ranch at San Jacinto in light
wagon. About three miles out, and
when at the top of the grade on the
new road leading TO San Jacinto, three
men suddenly rose out of the brush,
which at that place grows close to the
roadside, and, two presenting revolvers
and one shotgun, cried Halt" The
team was stopped, when they we're
ordered to give up their arms. They
both promptly answered that they had
no arms, although each Of them had
revolver in his pocket unknown to the
other. Upon getting out of the wagon
pieces of chain were produced and
their hands were chained behind them
and six-foot chains were placed about
elch of their necks. This jewelry was
nj lde from the chain used about the
straw-carrier of a threshing machine.
The links are made of heavy wire
bent into shape but not welded, and
when they were placed upon the
prisoners the links were pressed down
with pair of shoemaker's pincers.
Collins was chained to the wheel OF his
Wagon, with the chain about his neck.
The man carrying the shotgun was
handed q pistol by the other who,
taking hold of the chain about the
generals neck, said, Come on" while
the armed man fell in the rear with his
gun about foot from Bouton's back.
The third man had meanwhile been
unhitching the horses, and, taking
them ahead short distance, tied them
to some bushes.
All this time-and the time was not
nearly so long rs ii takes to tell 1.-THE
general had been furtively feeling
along the slack OF the chain on his
hands trying to find link that was not
yet entirely closed. His touch, which
must have been intensified by the tight
place in which he was placed, sudden
~ found link partly open. He
dropped the other link down, and, with
the slight leverage, which this afforded,
pried open the little opening upon
which his life depended. Keeping his
hands in the same position he then
parted the skirts of his coat and put
his hand upon the pistol, which was a
self-cocker of the bulldog" pattern.
They had not yet gone more than
thirty PAGES, and had just turned out Of
the road into the brush when the gen.
eral accomplished this, ana it was just
at this time that the man in the rear
noticed his movements ana cried
HALT" At this Gen. Bouton whipped
out his pistol, and, half turning, fired
at the man in the rear. who fell Quick
as thought, he whirled and bored a hole
through the one i'll front. lie then ran
to release Collins, when the third man
came running toward the wagon from
where he had tied the horses. Bouton,
thinking his purpose was to shoot Col
Inns, waited until he had passed the
rear of the wagon, when he hlazed
away and dropped him. L took but q
moment to jerk the chain apart which
was about Collins neck, and to free his
hands. Then, hitching up their team,
they drove like wildfire to the office OF
Justice Kennedy, some nine miles dis
tant, with the parted chains still dan
Cling from their wrists and necks,
where they at once told their story.
With the aid Of file they were relieved
of their jewelry, and as soon as day
broke posse started back to the scene
of the tragedy.
Near by they found where three
horses had been tied and two masks or
the ground. Taking up the trail of the
horses they found, about half mile
further on, the body of John Wakefield,
who had dismounted, unsaddled his
horse, turned him loose, and then lain
down and died. He was found to have
been shot in the right side, the ball
lodging just beneath the skin of the
back. On Wednesday man named
Covington went to his home, near III
Casco, Immediately after the shooting,
with flesh wound in the thigh, where
he stated to his friends that they did
not intend to murder Gen. Bouton, but
only wanted to compel him to sign an
order on his wife for $4,000, and IN
tended to keep him as a hostage unit