Louisiana capitolian. (Baton Rouge, La.) 1879-1881, 1879-09-13

i IMDUh Id, 10
GEN. BoUrors ADVENTURE.
/ (From California Paper.)
Reports of the adventure of Gener-
al Bouton with highwaymen near
San Jacinto have been coming in for
some days, but the General himself
arrived yesterday. General BoutOn
was chief of artillery under General
Sherman, who speaks Of him as hav-
ing a record as an artillery officer un-
surpassed in the world. He was en-
gagged in forty two battles and never
lost gun. He tells of his thrilling
experience on the mountain top at
San Gorgonia in the following way :
The General and j. G. Collins, his
partner, started from San Gorgonia
for their rancho at San Jacinto in a
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 the place grows close
to the roadside, and, two, presenting
revolvers and one a shotgun, cried,
''Halt!" The team was stopped,
when they were ordered to give up
their arms. They both promptly an
swered that they had no arms, al
though each of them had revolver
in his pocket unknown. Upon get
ting out of the wagon pieces Of chain
were produced and their hands chain
ed behind them and six-foot chains
placed about each Of their necks.
This jewelry was made from the
chain used about the straw carrier of
a threshlng machine. The links are
made of heavy wire bent into shape
but not welded. and when they were
| placed upon prisoners the links were
pressed down with a pair Of shoema-
| ker's pincers. Collins was chained to
the wheel of his wagon, With the
chain about his neck. The man car
rying the shotgun was handed a pis-
tol 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 q foot from Bouton's back.
The third man had meanwhile been
unllitching the horses, and taking
them ahead a short distance tied
them to some bushes. All this time,
and the time was not nearly 50 long
as it takes US to tell it, the General
had been furtively feeling along the
slack of the chain on his hands trying
to find a link of the chain that was
not entirely closed. His touch,
which must have been intensified by
the tight place in which he was
placed, suddenly 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 de-
pended. Keeping his hands in the
same position he then parted the
skirts Of his coat and caught his hand
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 General ACCOMPLISH
ed this, and it was just at this
time that the man in the
rear noticed his movements and
cried "haltw! At this General Bou-
ton whipped out bis pistol, and, half
turning fired at the man in the rear,
who fell. Quick as thought he whirl-
ed and bored hole through tho one
in front. He then ran to release Col
Inns, when the third man came running
toward the wagon. from where he'd
tied the horses. Bouton, thinking his
purpose was to shoot Collins, waited
until he passed the rear of the
wagon, when he blazed away and
dropped him. 1t took but a moment
to Jerk the chain apart which was
about Collins neck and to free his
hands. Then hitcbing up their team
they drove like wildflre to the office
of Justice Kennedy, some nine miles
distant, with the parted chains still
dangling from their wrists and necks,
where they at once told their story.
With the aid of a file they were re-
lieved of their jewelry, and as soon as
day broke a posse started back to
the scene of the tragedy.
Near by they found where three
horses had been tied and two masks
on the ground. Taking up the trail
of the horses they found, about a half
mile further on, the body of John
Wakefield, who had dismounted, un-
saddled his horse, turned him loose
and then laid down and died. He
was found to have been shot in the
right side just below the nipple, the
ball lodging just beneath the skin of
the back. On Wednesday young
Covington went to his home, near
Ell Casco, Immediately after the
shooting, with flesh wound in the
thigh, where he stated to his friends
that they did not intend to murder
General Bouton, but only wanted to
compel him to sign an order on his
wife for five thousand dollars and in
tended to keep him as a hostage un-
til it was paid.