The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1880-01-02

| Wilson had been notifying Free State men to
leave the Territory. / had received such Il
notice from him myself
desire to say here that it is not true that
there was any intentional mutilation of the
bodies after they were killed. They were
slain as quickly as possible and left and what.
ever gashes they received were inflicted in the
process of cutting them down with swords
| understood that the killing was done with
these swords, SO as to avoid alarming the
neighborhood by the discharge offirearms.
| desire also to say that did not then APP
prove ofthe killing of those men, but Brown
said it must be done for the protection of the
Free State settlers that the pro-slayery party
must be terrified, and that it was better that
a score of bad men should die than that one
man who came here to make Kansas a free
State should be driven out.
| Brown wanted me to pilot the party into
the neighborhood where lived, and point
out all the pro-slavery men in it, whom lie
proposed to put to death. / positively re-
| fused to do it, and on account of my refusal
we remained in camp all of the night upon
which the attack was first intended to be
made, and the next day. / told him was
willing to go with him to Lecompton and at
| tack the leaders, or fight the enemy in open
| field anywhere, but did not want to engage
| in killing these men. That night and the
acts then perpetrated are wildly fixed in my
memory, and l have thought of them many
times since
then thought that the transaction was ter
rible, and have mentioned it to but few persons
since. In after time, however, became salts
fled that it resulted in good to the Free State
| cause, and was especially beneficial to Free
State settlers on Potawatomie Creek. The
pro-slavery men were dreadfully terrified, and
large numbers of them soon left the Territory.
1t was afterward said that one Free Stateman
| could scare company of Them always UNI
derstood that Geo. w. Grant came to our camp
on Ottawa Creek, near Capt Shores, with a
message from his father, John II. Grant, to
John Brown, asking for protection from
threatened assaults of the Shermans and other
pro-slavcry rufiians. But did not know Geo.
W. Grant at the time, and do not remember of
seeing him frequently heard the circum-
stance mentioned as fact.
After the killing of William Sherman, some
time after midnight, we all went back to camp,
about one mile distant where we had left my
team and other things. We remained in camp
until after noon of the following day, and then
started to again join the PotawatOmie compa-
ny under Capt. John Brown, Jr. When we
reached Ottawa Jones about midnight we
found them in camp at that place.
lllC HcNJ COllllUny was CullCu
together Just after breakfast, and John Brown,
.Jr., announced his resignation, and requested
the company to elect another captain in his
place. The name of III. III. Williams, now of
Osawatomie, and my own were presented and
n vote taken, which resulted in the election of
Williams. The company then broke camp
and started for home. After crossing Middle
Creek at Mount Vernon, John Brown, with
the rest of the party that accompanied him
on the Potawatomie expedition, fell back from
the balance of the company and struck off to
the left of the main Potawatomic road in the
direction of the cabins of John Brown, Jr,
and Jason Brown. That night we stayed at
the cabin of the former, keeping up guard
all night. The next night we went to Jason
Browns, about one mile and half away
Here we remained several days, all the time
on the watch. While we remained here
August Bundy, and | think Benjamin L.
Cochran, Joined u.s. After several days, as |
now remember, Il young man by the name of
Carpenter came to us from Prairie City and
gave the information that Capt. Pate was in
the vicinity in search of Brown. That even
ing we all took horses and started for Prairie
City, where we arrived the next morning
about daylight, and camped in the timber on
Ottawa Creek, near Capt Shores. While
John Brown was cooking breakfast for the
company, James Redpath came into our camp
and had some conversation with Capt. Brown.
| saw Redpath again after the battle of
Black Jack, near Blue Mound, and desire to
say in this connection that | never told Red
path at any time that John Brown was not
present at the Potawatomic tragedy. His
statement, which was read to me, to the effect
that "two squatters, who aided in the execu-
tion," gave him such information is totally
false, so far as | am concerned. AS Winner
and myself were the only settlers in the
neighborhood not members of Browns fami-
ly who were present at the tragedy, / can only
conclude he referred to us. In the afternoon,
after we camped in the woods near Capt.
Shores, we moved up to Prairie City. We
picketed out our horses and laid down not
over a hundred yards from the store. About
the middle of the afternoon six of Pate's men
came riding into town, four of whom we cap
tured and held as prisoners. During the af-
ternoon Capt. Shore raised a company of
about thirty men, and in the evening we start
ed in pursuit of Pate. The next morning
before daylight we obtained information that
he was camped at Black Jack Point, and we
moved forward with about twenty-four men
to attack him. When within mile of Pate's
forces we all dismounted, left seven men in
charge of the horses, and, with seventeen
men, made the attack. In about fifteen min
utes we drove them into the ravine. The fight
continued about three hours, when Pate sur
rendered. About the time we got the cap
tured arms loaded into the wagon ready to
move Major Abbott's company came up, and
we marched back to Prairie City with the
prisoners. Here we remained until Col.
Sumner released them.
At this time left John Brown, and in COM
pany with Charley Lenhart and some other
Lawrence parties, eamped in the timber near
Ottawa Jones's.
make this statement at the urgent request
of my friends and neighbors, Judge James
Hanway and Hon. johnson Clarke, who have
been present during all the time occupied in
writing it out, and in whose hearing it has
been several times read before signing
JAMES TowNsJEy