The Monitor., 1891-05-01

get, Wood, &c.
| The above is view Of an antiquate d
| brick dwelling, standing in the village. a
| few rods from the bridge over the creek,
and knosn as Bakers Tavern. In 117e,
when the British were in this county, II
party oi them SURPRISED, at hight. II small
| uodv of Americans in this house, wno haG
| been st titioDed there to guard the bridge.
| The account given by Major Simcoe, who
| commanded The enemy, is given on p. 424
of this volume. The following is from
Johnson's History of Salem:-
| Massacre at Hancock's Bridge That
night, the murdering party being selected,
went, as dir, cted, i'll boats, down Salem
creek TO the river--ihence to Alloways
| creek-thence up the same To suitable
distance from Hancock's Bridge, where
they were to land, aud being favored by
| the darkness oil the night, were to attack
the picket in the house III which they were
stationed as their head quarters, and put
every man to death they found there. lu
that house. the property oiJudge Hancock,
were he, CHARLES Fogg, very aged Inab,
Joseph Thompson, anC-Bacon,a all tsuak-
| ers; few others besides The guard, CON-
! posed full company OF men, were those
persons in that house Oh hatill-fated night ,
| all wrapt in sleep, worn down with watch
lag, nature exhausted, and many of them
| doomed to sleep the long sleep of death.
The heilisn mandate as issued at head
quarteis-"Go-spare no one-put all to
death-give no quarters" These refugees,
only to be associated with their brethren ,
the Imps of the Internal regions, did their
| best. aud glutted their worse than savage
passions Ill the innoceut blood of their uu-
offending neighbors. They Killed and
desperately mangled. with tieudish ferocity,
such whom they saw wIithibg under the
severity of their wounds, and thus destroy
ed more than two thirds of all who weie
within that house.
1t was currently reported, and that re-
port believed to Ge tue, that negro man,
y ho went by the name of Nicholson S
Frank, and a man from Gloucester CO.,
called Jonathan Bal.inger, we're the two
persons who att, i,nded this mur( ering e3-
pedition as pilots.
BalIapger came to the Louise of John
Steward, "a farmer, near Hancock S
Bridge,) armed, that very same night, some
time before day. Steward said, chat he
soon discovt red, from the looks and con-
versation of Bailanger. that some evil " as
about to be dole." With some persuasion,
he prevailed Ion him to 60 iDto the room
| and lie down. When he " ent in, he turn
ed the key in tue door, nor did he open IL
until about daylight in the morning. Whtn
Baliauger came out of the room lie stayed
but a lew minutes, and went away, carrying
| " th him his musket. ga shori time alter
he left the house, the eiepoit of gun was
heard in the direction in " hieh Ballanger
had walked, and by the SIDE of the fence
along which he had gone but few min-
utes before, was found Reupen Sayres.
mortaIly wounded, being distance OF not
more than one fourth OF mile from Stew
ards house."
Bailauger was not seen by any person
after he left Stewards, uutn several years
afterward. The suspicion of the murder
oi Say res could be fixed upon no one but
him. Immediately after the massacre OF
the picket AID private citizens, the refu-
gees returned to Salem over the bridge, the
draw of which they laid. Dallanger and
the negro. no doubt, returned by water
with the boatmen. 1t could have teen
none OF the refugees who were at Han
cocks. The circumstantial evidence
against Ballanger "as most assurediy of
the very uea cly strongest kind, amounting
pretty near to positive. Pab!ic opiai) )n
was decidedly against him, for he was
known to be a ranK tJry, aud from the very
hotbed Of torylsm--of those who secretly
traded with the British willie they occu
pied Philadelphia. It was but a short mile
from Hancock's S Bridge TO where Sayres
was found weltering i'll his blood; he had
escaped Ius far towards the woods or
marshes, i'll his flight from the numbering
refugees. Not siDgle individual OF the
euemy was seen anywhere near t. the field
where Sayres was found. The murderer
was always believed TO be none other than