Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-08-17

and used for cooking. We had one or two
raids upon us while the scaffold was being
made. In the meantime Wirz bad got the
whole garrison under arms. The rifle pits
were filled with infantry and the artillery
men were at their guns and ready to IRE.
When the time arrived for the hanging
there were 5000 men packed about the
scafold which was inside OF the hollow
square made by 200 regulators. My com
pany formed each side of this square, and as
L stood there shall never forget the sight
that met my eyes upon the north side of the
camp. The slope was just gradual enough
to make the heads and shoulders OF each
line of men appear over those of the line in
front of them, SO as to produce the effect OF
o sloping wall of human faces.
TURNED OVER BY wIRz.
In short time Wirz came in with the six
condemned under guard. They were ac-
companied by Father Mahoney, the Catholic
priest of Macon, who was the only minister
of the gospel who made any pretense Of at
tending to the spiritual wants of the prison.
ers, Dressed in the appropriate Church
robes for the occasion, he read the service Tor
the condemned. Wirz rode up on white
horse in his usual suit of white duck, which
| had given him the camp nickname OF
death on the Pale Horse" After he had
gotten inside of the hollow square he pointed
to the prisoners and said in his broken Ger
man: 'Brizners, bring desc men back to
you so goot as I got dem. You haf tired
dem yourselves and found them guilty. You
hat sentenced them, and now do NIT dem as
you bleezes and wash my hands OF the
whole bizness. May Gott haf mercy on you
and dem. CARTS about face. Forward,
marchl'' and with that he left us.
The prisoners looked up at the dangling
ropes and several of them simultaneously
exclaimed: "My Godl boys, you're not 60
ing to really hang u.s." Key, who was
standing by the scaffold, with several OF his
aids, answered: "Boys, that's just about the
size of it." and the murderers then began to
appeal to the crowd that was packed about
| them.
A MERCILEss CROWD.
One of them asked the rest to be still and
let the priest speak, and the priest began to
make an appeal for them. As soon as his
drift was understood terrible cry went up
from all parts of that vast crowd: "No, no!
hang themi hang themp' Just at this mo-
| ment one of the condemned standing nearest
me threw his broad-brimmed hat on the
ground and yelled out: "By Godl I'll try
| for it or Tll die for itp' and throwing his
arms over his face to protect his eyes he
bent his head and came like battering-
ram against our company. We struck at
him with the clubs and knocked him to his
knees. He got up and forced himself
| through the crowd.
A scene of the widest confusion followed.
| Everyone was expecting the cannon and in
| fantry to open upon us and the ID, 600 men
stampeded in every direction away from the
stockade. There had been a number of
wells dug and some of the men fell into
| these and broke their legs, others were
trampled upon and Wirz who was watching
| the scene from the prison headquarters, lost
| his head and yelled to the guards 'Fire,
| frep' The captain of the guards, however,
had more sense and did not give the order.
READY FOR THE WORD.
Two of the boys of my company ran after
the prisoner who had escaped. They fol-
lowed him through quagmire which was
thigh deep and knocked him down. Key
in the meantime ordered the other men onto
the scaffold and as they stood there this man
was brought in almost fainting. He drank
about bucket iull of water and all OF the
prisoners partook of water freely. Father
Mahoney then resumed the reading of the
service but was constantly interrupted by
a fellow named Delaney who was constant;
| 1y shouting out messages to his pals in the
crowd as to what to do with the booty he had
H..
At last Key said: "Only two minutes
and one-half more for talk.
He then stepped back and raised his hand,
wherenpon Delaney yelled out, Goodbye,
boys. If have hurted any of you, forgive
me-"
At Keys signal the six regulators selected
| for hangmen then tied the hands and feet of
the condemned, put the ropes around their
| necks and pulled meal sacks down over their
| faces.
ONE MAN HANGED TWICE.
Two men stood on the ground below and
| held the ropes which fastened the board
which upheld the drop upon which the pris-
oners stood. Key dropped his hand, the
hsngmen jumped from the scaffold and the
men on the ground jerked away the board.
The men all fell and spun around on the end
of the ropes. There was one exception.
| This was tall raw-boned, strong-necked
man, named Mosby, who was second from
the end of the line. His rope broke and he
| fell insensible to the ground. A couple Of
the regulators ran to him, threw water in his
face and brought him to. He thought at
| first he was in the other world, but he was
taken to the scaffold and hung.
At the end of a short time the hospital
steward pronounced the men dead and
they were cut down. The whole camp
passed around and looked at their bodies
and they were buried in separate part Of
the cemetery from the rest of the prisoners.
| Their graves are, 1 am told, there to this
day. The hanging OF them broke up their
band, and after this We had police orgaui-
zation inside Of the prison. We had our
| fixed punishment, and we were as far as
possible community of law and order.
FRANK G. CARPENTER.
1