St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-02-24
Tragic Death of Gen. Meagher
and a British Captain
Recalled.
Recollections of a Brooklyn
Policeman Who Was
There in '65.
Brooklyn Eagle.

[
II did," was the reply, "but it was
| sheriff in wild portion of the state
which he afterwards represented i'll the
senate. This was in 1866. think. Mon
tana was thinly settled in those days,
| and many of the settlers were men who
| had little OF no respect for the law.
| Horse stealing was q regular business,
| and those who carried it on had grown
| reckless from long immunity from pun
| ishment. Previous SheriffS had made
| scarcely any effort to keep the maraud-
| erS in check, but Mr.. Beidler, as soon
as he took office, commenced cam
| paign against them and carried
it on until all or nearly all
Of them had been driven from his
tions himself and was always at the
front when danger was to be feared. In
his work he was aided by the vigilantes,
who. if they did not proceed exactly &C
| cording to law, did much toward in
| spring the thieves with a wholesome
! dread of capture. Once in the hands of
| the vigilantes, but short shrift was
| granted them. Just outside of Helena
| there was in those days, and it may be
there yet for all I know, an immense
| cottonwood treee, One of whose branches
| extended at right angles with the trunk
| at distance of about twenty feet from
the ground. This limb made a very
convenient gallows, and from it many a
bold horse thief has dangled."
After recalling several interesting in
cIdents in the career of
| THE FAMOUS SHERIFF,
| MIR. Bowden went on to explain how he
happened to find himself in Montana in
| her early days.
sit was in May, 1866" he said. "that
! [ Joined the Thirteenth United States
| infantry. In the same regiment were
many other Brooklyn men, the names
| of most of whom have forgotten. Four
| of them, however. do recollect. They
were Michael Flaherty, Patrick Heaney,
! Thomas Gaynor and James Reilly, all
| good soldiers and full Of life. We were
| sent out to Montana to relieve certain
been captured in the South,
service for frontier duty. They were
a wild lot, these same eX-rebels. and
when the report that they had massa-
cred the whole Thirteenth, including
the paymaster. reached the East, it was
pretty generally believed. Its hardly
necessary to state that nothing of the
| kind occurred. Fights among the john
MES themselves were frequent enough,
but they never moleSted us. That year
we wintered at st. Mary'S Mission, a
place about $50 miles above Fort Ben
ton, and mighty hard winter it was.
We were on short rationS ourselves, and
several of our horses died from starya-
ton. The poor beasts suffered ter
ribly. 1t is an absolute fact that
they ate up the vely posts to which they
were tied. In addition to not having
half enough to eat the Indians were al
ways prowling around, bent on theft
and murder. One night they ran off all
our stock and would have got clear
away with it had it not been for Fla
herty, whom l have mentioned.
FLAHERTY'S HORSE,
very fast and high melted animal,
was the only one in the troop which
was tethered. The others were allowed
down in the middle of the night and
having punched the horses were hur-
riedly driving them away when Fla
herty was awakened by the nelghing of
his beast. He knew what had
happened as soon as he looked
around, and Springing on the
back of his horse he set off alone in pur-
suit. He quickly overlook the band,
headed off the camp animals, and, de-
spite brisk fire kept up by the In
dians, succeeded in getting them back
in safety. While we were at Fort Lara
ME three men deserted from the regi-
ment, intending to go to the mines. Poor
fellows, they had hardly more than
started when they were surrounded by
Indians. They got behind some rocks
on knoll and fought there desperately
until their ammunition gave out. The
firing was heard in the camp, and
company was ordered out to see what
was the matter. When we reached the
knoll. having driven away the Indians,
we found that two of the men had been
killed. One had seven bullets in his
body. The third was mortally wounded.
In the fall of 1866" continued Mr.. Bow
den, ''the Indians were unusually trou-
blesome, and we were sent to cooperate
with a
VOLUNTEER REGIMENT
which had been raised by Gen. Thomas
Francis Meagher, military governor of
Montana, and of which Neil Howe,
United States marshal, had been made
colonel. The troops were taken over to
the Yellowstone, where they were sup
piled with arms and ammunition, that
is the volunteers. Soon afterWard one
captain and two companies of men, who
did not like the prospect of the work
before them, deserted and made their
way to New Mexico. In the spring of
1867. while we were at Fort Benton,
Gen. Meagher was invited to sleep on
board the boat which had brought up
our supplies. During the night he got
UP, intending to go ashore. having some
business to attend to early in the morn
ing, which had escaped his mind. In
some way or another, it was never
known how, he fell overheard and was
drowned. A sad end for such a brave
man. saw him few hours before the
accident as he stood in the center of a
group of officers, the very picture of
dashing soldier.
''Gen. Meagher was succeeded by
Green Clay Smith. of Kentucky, and it
was soon after his appointment that
another very lamentable affair occurred.
A detachment of recruits had been sent
on from Governors Island to head
quarters at Fort Benton, and on the
body guard to Gov. Smith. The boat
was named the Labarge, after its French
owner, and on it was captain of the
English army, also on his way to Fort
Benton, where he was to join party of
his cOuntrymen on a hunting eXpedi-
ton. The captain. have forgotten his
name, was very pleasant man, and
soon made friends with the American
officers. Owing to the many snags in
the river and also to the danger from
the hundreds of Indians who infested
the banks, the boat only tray
eled by day One night she
was laid up at place called
Fort Union. around which the redskins
were unusually thick. AS soon as it
grew dusk they came down to the river
and amused themselves by firing at hap
hazard at the boat. The windows were
all protected and the sentinels were
under cover, so not much harm