Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1885-10-09
I SAWED BY a sECOND. 3

SAVED BY a ECOND. q
How ono of Linesla,s Reprisyss vas Do
lsyed bys Drsak In the Wires.
From the Pittsburs Dispa Itch.
The most impressive sight i ever
saw, Think, was at Harper Ferry III
'65, said Detective G. W.. cElroy
recently 3 The detective IS a member
Of Perkins Agency, and was at one
time Sheriff Of OsWego County, N. 4.
The conversation was brought about
by g remark upon the impressiVeness
of the funeral services over Gen. Grant.
The sight Of q man going to his own
funeral, with the band playing a: dead
march, is calculated to impress one"
he continued sThat is the case, you
know, with q man condemned to death
by court-martial. The case of which
spoke happened in January, 1865,
and the wonderful escape of the con-
demned parties is something I shall
never forget. Two Irishmen, John
Shea and Michael Doane, had been
sentenced to be. shot for desertion.
There was considerable feeling in favor
of the men. 1t was in the time of
big bounties, and the two young
men had enlisted for something like
81, 900 q piece. In afew days they were
both missing, and were not. caught for
three on four weeks. They were drunk,
| yo,N %
truth OF the matter was that it was
no case Of willful desertion, The, men
had got on drunk, and had never
sobered up enough to realize their
position. They We're badly frightened,
and were attended by two priests. I
can remember the place well. They
were marched up on a little hill on a
level plateau, and the soldiers thrown
into three sides Of a hollow square
The two men, accompanied by their
priests, and preceded by the band
playing the dead march, were marched
around the insideaof this square and
stopped nearly in the center, by the
side of their open collins. The priests
were in earnest cOnv ersatiOn with
! them, and the minutes rolled by till
they grew into an hour. Twelve o'clock
| came, and Gen. Stevenson gave orders
reluctantly they did so, prolonging
their leave-taking upon one pretext
and another as long as they could.
Everything was at last made ready,
and it was only matter of seconds
between the men and eternity, when
the Generals orderly rode up, swing
ing his hat andyelling at. the top of
his voice. 1t was a. reprive from
Lincoln.
:'It seems that the, priests had tele-
graphed the President the night before,
asking for reprieve, and stating that
there were mitigating circumstances.
Lincoln, who was always looking for
an excuse to save a mans life, repriev-
ed them. Gen. Stevenson's headquar-
ters were nearly mile from where we
We're, and the telegraph Office was at
his headquarters. He had left a
mounted orderly there with instruc-
ton to push through any dispatch
| that come. Nothing came until a. few
minutes before 10 and the orderly
dashed away. He had to go up a
steep hill, nearly half q mile long
When he reached the top his horse was
badly winded, and could hardly 60
He met a citizen on a good horse, and
without any ceremony pulled the gen.
tleman down and mounted the fresh
animal. Half a minutes delay would
have been the last of Messrs. Doane
and Shea.
ga strange part of the story is yet
to come. Some three years afterward
met an old telegraph operator in o.
wego.. He was in Washington in the
winter OF '64 and '65. We got to talk
ing over war matters, and I found
that he remembered the case told you
about. He was in charge of the wire
leading to Harper's Ferry. He had
heard of the two men to be executed
there, through the operator. They
had discussed the matter over the
wires. Consequently he remembered
the case well. Upon the morning OF
the execution, at 10 o'clock, the dis
patch reprieving the men was handed
him to send out. He turned to his
desk, and what was his horror to find
that he couldn't work the wire. A
storm was in progress or something
else was the matter. At any rate the
wire would not work. There was no
other way of reaching Harper's Ferry.
The dispatch he didn't get of until
just before ~, but, as it happened, in
good time; but he told me it was an
experience he would never forget. AL
though it was pretty close shave for
| the two 1rishmen, and I don't believe
they ever forgot the accident either