St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1888-11-01
secession. AS I said. the raiders on

secession. AS 1 said, the raiders, on
their retreat, fired pronIiscuouSly, and
stray pistol bullet hit Morrison in the
groin, severing an artery, from which
he bled to death that same evening.
A citizen named Huntington was
walking on the sidewalk at the foot of
the common when one of the raiders
on horseback called upon him to halt
Not understanding the popularity of
the situation at the time, and therefore
not recognizing the right of any one to
order him to stop, he kept on his way.
The raider thereupon fired at him, the
ball striking him on the breast, but
glancing off on one of his ribs produced
only flesh wound.
By the way, among our cash appro-
priated by the robbers was a consider
able amount of silver dollars, which
they put into their coat pockets. 1t is
probable that in their flight the motion
of the horses disturbed these deposits,
for considerable numbers of these coins
were found scattered about in the
streets after their departure. Of
course, when it was realized what had
happened there was a good deal of
CONSERVATION among the people of st.
Adams. The raiders had with them a
cOmbustible which they called Greek
fire, with which they said they were
going to burn Gov. Smiths mansion in
the town, but the threat was not exc
cuted. They did try to set fire to an
old store, but did not succeed in burn
ing it. At the time of the raid there
were few cavalry officers in st. AL
bans, at home on a furlough. These
men at once organized pursuing
party, but even then there were no
arms for use for such purpose. How
ever, a pursuit was made and the rob-
bers followed. In crossing Sheldon
bridge, the raiders attempted to fire
the structure, but failed here, too.
They tore up some of the planks to
delay pursuit, but this caused little de-
lay, and the pursuers kept after them
to the frontier, some 10 miles beyond.
Here the pursuit was abandoned, but,
information having been sent to the
authorities at Stanbridge and Slab
City, IA of the raiders were arrested in
these places, and the plumber they
carried was taken from them.
They were sent under guard to St.
John and there lodged in Jail. They
were afterward transferred to Montre
al to be tried for their acts. The trial
was lengthy one, at the end of
which Judge Counsel, before whom the
case was brought, decided that they
could not be held for what they had
done in a foreign country, under the
circumstances, and ordered their re-
lease, and the money which had been
taken from them, which was in the
hands of the chief of police, to be re-
turned to them. Our case was con-
Quoted by Judge Edmunds, through
counsel employed in Montreal. Our
counsel, anticipating some such result
as had happened, had prepared charges
and papers for a re-arrest of these men
for trial of the case at higher court.
But when the prisoners were discharg-
ed not an officer could be found com
petent to serve these warrants, and the
prisoners went off defantly, in posses
sion of the stolen funds. After while
four or five of them were arrested, but
nothing could be done with them. The
fact was, the sympathy of the Canadi
ans for the rebels was at that time so
strong that it was useless to try to get
Justice from them. AS under the cir
cumstances the money, at least-which
was shown to have been stolen from us
should not have been returned to
the robbers, our counsel proposed to
hold the city of Montreal responsible
for the unwarrantable act of one of it's
local judges, and made preparations to
bring suit against the city for the
amounts thus disposed of. At the time
Parliament was in session, and to
simplify matters, some one introduced
a bill to pay the st. Adams banks the
money captured from the robbers and
returned to them. The bill was passed
and the money paid. The share of our
bank was about $4,000. Our net loss
by the raid, including expenses of pros
ecution with money stolen, was, in
round numbers, about $500 The
Franklin county bank was owned by
one man, Oscar Burton. He immedi-
ately put that institution into insolven-
cy, and telegraphed to the Suffolk
bank of Boston not to take the bills of
his bank. AS the raiders got mostly
his bank bills, and as he put his bank
into insolvency, it is fair to assume
that his loss was not very great. When
the Canadian government rendered
him his proportion of the captured
money it was in his own bills, which,
however, he refused to take, and there
fore made nothing by the restitution.
The First National bank lost from S1O,-
900 to $4,000 in money by the raid,
and some 100000 worth of government
bonds, which had been deposited with
it for sale. l do not know exactly how
the bank came out on the bonds, but
have the impression that the govern
ment did not insist on payment for
them.