St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1888-11-01
HOW REBs TOOK ST. ALBANs.
Vermont Invasion IA Nears Ago by Con-
federates.


| federates.
! Those who remember the event of
the St. Adams raid, which occurred
"a years ago, will hardly realize that il
is nearly quarter of a century since
the close of the war of the rebellion
and there is a new generation that
have no remembrance of this affair an y
more than they have of the war, ex-
cept what they have read of it in books
and what they have heard from par
ticipators in it. The st. Adams raid is
one of the peculiar episodes of the re-
bellion, and is memorable as having
occurred on the day on which the bat
tie of Cedar Creek was fought and the
army of the Shenandoah driven back,
until the arrival of General Sheridan,
when the ranks were reformed, the Of
achieved for the Union arms. All this
has been brought to mind by CONVEX
sation with c. N. Bishop, now of Bos-
ton, but at the time of the raid an as
sistant cashier of one of the St. Albans
banks. Here is his story as told in the
Boston Herald of October 10 =
remember that raid, you may de-
pend upon it, and the 10Th day of Oc-
tober, 1864. On that day was COM
PEELED to swear allegiance to the south
ern confederacy. st. Adams at the
time of the raid had between 5000 and
1000 Inhabitants. 1t had three banks
the st. Adams, where l was employ
ed, the First National and the Frank
lin county banks. The raiders, % in
number, were under command of one
Bennett III. Young, who claimed to be a
confederate officer. Their headquar-
ters was at Montreal. During the
summer of 1864 these men visited St.
| Adams at various times in order to ia
miliarize themselves with the place, SO
that when the time for action came
they could do their work more syste-
matically.
The autumn had been, in many re-
spects, like the present one, with a
great deal of rainy, wet weather. The
10Th of October was wet, disagreeable
day. The raiders had arrived in small
squads the day previous and on the
morning of the day of the raid. Every
thing had been planned beforehand,
and there was a concert of action
among the raiders which revealed the
guidance of one mind. Details of men
were made for the purpose of visiting
and robbing the banks, and others
were detailed to visit the livery sta
bles and secure mounts for the raiders,
or seize horses on the street or wher-
ever they could find them. The time
chosen for action was 2.45 o'clock in
the afternoon. At that time [ was sit
ting at u table behind the counter of
the bank sorting out bills and specie,
of which there were on the table some
$4,000 or $4,000 in amount. While
engaged in this work two men entered
the bank and came up to the counter.
They had overcoats on and travelling
bags slung from their shoulders.
AS these men approached L got up,
and stood before them with my hands
on the counter, waiting to learn their
business They both fumbled for a
moment in their breast pockets, and
then the first thing | realized was that
two revolvers were pointed at my
head. On my right, at the end of the
counter, was the door of the directors
room. Uttering cry of
"Murder!"
sprang for that room. | succeeded
in getting into it and had nearly closed
the door, when the robbers reached it.,
and having the end of the counter back
of them to brace against, easily push
ed the door back and came in on me.
A clerk named Seymour was in the
room at his desk He was an old man
and seemed dazed at the occurrences
taking place. When the ruffians got
into the room, both grabbed me by the
collar and threatened, if / made any
resistance, they would blow my brains
out.
At this time, three of their confeder-
ates entered the bank and came into
the room where [ was held. Mr.. Sey-
mour was ordered to stand up beside
me, and two of the men were detailed
to guard us. Then we were ordered
to hold up our right hands and to take
the oath of allegiance to the southern
confederacy. Did we really do itq OF
course we did. What else could we do
with pistols pointed at our heads 2 l
then asked what they proposed to do.
After informing us that they were sol
diers of the confederate army of the
Shenandoah valley, and were on raid
of retaliation, they said they had de-
termined to take all the money in the
banks and burn the town. Then they
ordered me to show them where we
kept our bonds, securities and money.
The safe was open, and everything in
it exposed. | told them we had no
bonds, but showed them what money
we had, all of which they took, and
that evening our cash was short by
some rs, $50 and odd dollars.
While the bank was in possession of
the thieves two or three citizens, not
knowing what had occurred, so quietly
and SO rapidly had the marauders
operated, came in to make deposits.
They were compelled to deposit, how
ever, with the robbers, who did not al
low them to depart, but kept them
prisoners until they themselves were
ready to go. All this that | have re-
lated occupied only about Is minutes
of time, and when the unwelcOme Wis
itors took their departure they backed
out of the door still covering us with
their pistols. On the outside they
found horses awaiting them, and soon
were in the saddle.
At the Franklin county bank, after
obtaining possession of the money and
other valuables of the bank, the rob-
bers thrust the cashier and an old
wood sawyer, who had been doing
work for the bank and was there at the
time, into the vault and bolted the door
on them. A man came into the bank
soon after, and hearing a noise in the
vault opened the door and let them
out, thus saving them from suffoca
ton. At the First National bank there
were a number of government 40