Kimball enterprise. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1883, 1883-05-25
A TRAGEDY RECALLED.
The Mutiny In the NIan.ofWar Som.
efs Forty Years ARo,

efs Forty Years Ago.
The death reported at Santa Fe a few
days ago of Mrs. Alexander Slidell Mac
kenzie, at the residence of her son, Brig.
Gen. R. S. Mackenzie. q. S. army, San
ia Fe, N. NJ, will recall to mind the ex-
citemeat created some forty years ago,
by the hanging Of Spencer, Cromwell
and Small on board the brig Somers,
commanded by her distinguished hus-
band, Commodore Alex S.idell Macken-
zie. The commodore had achieved
quite a literary reputation aud his name
was familiar to American readers. He
WAS the author of "a Year in Spain, by
A Young American," and "Spain Revis-
tied" He was also author of u popular
some other works which we're favorably
received, besides being a valued con-
tributor to the knickerbocker and other
periodicals Of that day. The Somers
went out in 1912 with a crew Of 100 men
and 96 apprentice boys under age, and
On the return from the coast of Africa,
while approaching the Isles of Pines, a
Mutlny was suspected, which demanded
severe measures, sthe officers believed,
to secure the safety of the ship. After
a investigation the young men
above mentioned were hung to the yard
arm, 1t was believed that the consplra-
tors intended to murder the officers and
divert the vessel into a piratical cruiser.
Commodore Mackenzie on reaching New
York marched with his crew to the
nearest church and returned thanks to
Almighty God for their safe de%liverance.
He also sent on to Washington, a sealed
dispatch, conveying the first news of the
trcgedy that has been enacted. The in
%telligence, asspread throughthe country,
caused a sensation, and what added to
the interest was the fact that Spencer,
the ringleader in the suspected mutiny
was a son Of John G. Spencer, the then
Secretary of War under President Ty-
ler's adm inistration. AS was natural,
Secretary Spe ncer wrote a letter, which
was extensively published, denouncing
necessary, and saying if there were any
grounds for believing that a mutiny was
contemplated the prisoners, after their
arrest and confinement in irons. should
and could have been brought with safety
to the United States, where they could
then undergo a legal trial. The commo-
dore was tried by a court Of inquiry, and
also by a court-martial, the trial lasting
two months, and he vas acquitted.
Complaint was made during the trial be-
cause Benjamin F. Butler and Charles
O'Conor, employed by the father of
young Spencer, were not allowed to sit
by and put questions approved by the
Court. Whatever may be thought
of the character and ne
cessity of the execution at this late lay,
the act of Mackenzie was complimented
by the merchants of New York, and ap-
plauded by the press at the time, and
the public voice generally was in his IA
vor. Regarding the further history OF
Commodore Mackenzie it may be stated
that five years after the tragedy on the
big Somers the Mexican war broke out
and towards its close Mackenzie was
on a secret mission by President Polk
Cat the instance of the late Senator Sill
dell, a brother of Alexander Slidell,
Mackenzie, whose name was changed to
meet some bequest, to Santa Anna, then
at Havana, with a scheme to restore
that ex-dictator to Mexico. upon some
agreement advantageous to the United
States; but the conference did not suc-
Coed. Mackenzie, a few years later. was
killed by a fall from a horse, and the
brig Somers went down to the bottom of
the sea with all on board,