The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1881-05-05
Rcdmond's Arrest.
AsHEyILLE. N. c.. MAY 9

kSHEV Lille, IN. C.J MAY Z.
"This is Major Redmond" said Squire
Young, the courteous sheriff as he pointed
to a slender, boyish figure that lay on
bed of straw in front of the IRON barred
window enjoying the cooling breeze from
of the blue hills with which he is so
familiar. He has western window, and
looking westward can see the distant
peaks among which for several years he
has been as much at home rs a chamois
among his native Alps. He extended
small, weather stained hand to your
correspondent and asked him to be seated
on the only chair in his cell, except the
one by which he propped his head.
"Where did you get your title, Ma
jor~
"Well, that" said he, lis nickname
they GIN me when was boy"
"But you have been in command Of
squads of men at different times, have
you not?"
"No, sir, I never was. Them's all q
pack O. lies they tell about me hayin' q
band of men,"
"What, Major, are the charges against
you?"
"They say, some'rs about a year and a
half ago was seen in blockade still
house. The truth about the matter is
that there's q man out there in Swain
county who has been trying to lay his
blockade stillin' on me. He got suthin'
or nurther agin me. We haint got
along g.well together for sometime now"
"Nfajor, tell me something about your
life."
"Well," said he, adjusting the chair
under his head more comfortably, Il was
born close to where Atlanta, Georgia, is
now, in 1854. Then my father moved up
to Transylvania, in North Carolina.
We lived there till the war come on. and
moved to Swain county. After the war
was over I went back to Pennsylvania
and lived there and farmed it till 1877,
when I had some little trouble with some
revenuers. They was to blame, wasn't.
I left then and went over into South
Carolina. That same year about corn.
gatherin' time married old man Ladd' g
gain the upper edge of Picken's
county. / come back then in March T9
to Swain county and leased me some
land on the Tennessee river, about eight
miles from Charleston; but, wherever
I've been alters had good character.
The newspaper men has tole heap o
lies on me-"
"Major, how did the officers capture
you?"
"Well I'll tell you," said he. IT have
| I'M
botherin' nobody fur this is now gwyne'
on three years. mostly stay at home
and don't hardly ever leave my cabin
'cept to hunt little and to work in my
fields. Along about the fust week in
April my wife asked me to step out in
the edge O. the clearing and kill her a
squirrel. And I heard the dogs barking
up on the ridge above the house; 80
| gifts the shot gun and goes up that way.
But when I got in about fifty yards Of my
dogs-where they was barking I seen
somebody move behind the brush and
cliff an six men stepped out an hollered
"halt." l turned around an started
towards my cabin and they kept a
shootin,' aud ever once an while I'd
feel ball hit me, and I heard 'em whiz-
zin' by me till 1 got over the ridge.
They run after me and overlook meabout
a hundred and fifty yards from my
house."
"In how many places were you
wounded, Maor?"
"Se7en places, an they hurt me
mighty bad this mornin', but 1 don't say
much about it"
The officers version differs somewhat
from the Majors statement. Officer Con-
ley says: "We went to his house-or to
a ridge about o hundred and fifty yards
distant-early Thursday morning, April
7. At 10 o'clock a. m. the dogs saw us
and came rushing up to where we were
Redmond followed with his gun. When
in about fifty PAGES of US he lowered his
gun as if to fire. We told him to halt
but as he was still rapidly advancing we
fired. His gun fell from his hands and
he ran towards his house. Passing the
cabin he ran about one hundred and fifty
yards into the woods beyond. All six ol
us closed in on him, and found him
wounded and exhausted. We took him
to his house, and the physician said be
could not be safely moved on an extend.
ed trip on account of his wounds. So
we we're forced to try to keep him in oul
charge there. We anticipated an at.
tempt at rescue on the part of his friends
We plainly told Redmond, when we saw
his neighbors coming to and going from
bis house, that if any attempt should be
made to take him or any attack made on
us that we would shoot him first. This,
we think, prevented his pals from the
dangerous experiment. On Friday,
April 22d, we carried him eight miles on
q litter to Charleston among our friends,
where we slept better. On the following
day, Saturday, 23d instant, we started for
Asheville, reaching here on Sunday. We
brought him to Asheville because the
several rewards offered for him designate
that point as the place for delivery of
his body"
His father is said to have been a moon
sinner, and Jared badly at the hands of
the revenue officers and the law. Hence
it was but natural that young Redmond
should inbibe the prejudices of his faith
er. His antipathy to the agents of the
revenue department was not concealed;
He would speak often of his successful
resistance of the officers of the law, State
and Federal. Flushed with victory, he
became desperate and shot down Deputy
Marshal Duckworth, in Transylvania
county, in 1877, when an effort was being
made for his arrest for alleged violation
of the revenue laws. He then fled to
South Carolina. But he did not there
escape the sleepless eye of the law, but
he managed to elude her officers; Where
upon reward was offered, and we are
informed is still offered, for his person.
Once in South Carolina his wagon and
team wer, seized under the revenue law.
He escaped the small squad of officers
who took his property. But in a few
hours he returned with double. barrel
shot gun, and with the wild daring of
frontier desperate, quickly dispersed the
confscators of his property. Then he,
with his wife. left South Carolina and