Goldsboro weekly argus. [volume] (Goldsboro, N.C.) 1885-1909, 1894-07-26

NAtA LIN way -
had planned, had, in great part, re-
turned at the end of the week. At that
time there were by count five hundred
and fifty men of the regiment back In
the cave.
Hendricks sat up all one night read
ing the papers that had been brought
him from Memphis He went over all
the accounts carefully. There was not
in any of them a surmise as to the
truth. The regiment had got away
and it had accomplished it's purpose,
but the further AVA from the scene
the comments were, the less seriously
the regarded the occur
renee. In New York there was some
kind of enormous western practical
Joke suspected. How said one jour
nal, IA regiment of a thousand men
can come and go without observation.
can>dis1nant1e a bank and then depart
with q million dollars in specie without
being detected or interiHred with or
tracked, remains for the imaginative
west to explain. 1t looks very much
at this distance as if the English
company had been operating in phan-
toms to bearitso own market"
An angry official correspondence had
taken place between the governor of
Tennessee and the governor of Indiana.
The town of St Mary's and the city of
Paducah swarmed with newspaper
men and detectives. But it was plain
to Hendricks that fresh troubles at st.
Mary's between the director and the
men threatened to draw attention
from the search for the soldiers.
An official report of Gen. Waterson,
the officer commanding the St. Mary's
expedition, has been preserved.
Whether 1t was forwarded before his
return to Laran OF was written subsc-
q~uently is not known. But it gives a
very clear explanation of the novel
method adopted in this military cam
paign.
It reads as follows:
1.-The whole plan has worked, with = few
Slight discrepancies. as projected. The FEAST
bility of getting the whole regiment into st.
Nary's and the neighborhood without attract
Ing attention was easily proven. My men be-
gan to como in four days before they
They were in fairly good shape and passed for
worhrncn out Of employment sand idlers drawn
IN by the excitement 1t was impossible to go
anywhere without seeing them mingling with
the worSmen and standing about on the corners
with the unemployed In three days seven hun
dred were in St.AIary's and three hundred in and
about PaGucah. with orders to come IN stray
glingly to the former place on the fourth day.
At any other time a thousand men suddenly
added to the population of so small a town
would have excited suspicion, but the excite
ment of the strike was supposed to be drawing
the men from all quarters, ana great credit
must be given to our forces who, as q rule, kept
themselves close and avoided attracting atten-
ton On the night of the third day, three hun
dred were already in the old house on the bar
rens or in the immediate vicinity undergoing
the most extraordinary discomfort on account
of the want of accommodations, and an hour
before sunrise on the fourth day, I had the
| xEhOlo command m9fhfn raoHh and Y1nGt ~ them
uniformed and armed. We formed column at
five O'Clock IN the barrers Just three miles
southeast of the town and marched in on tho
railroad track; took possession Of the bank at
nine o'clock, distributed money among regi-
ments as planned without opposition, each man
carrying a hundred andfifty eagles. The buck
skin belts worked admirably. I deployed two
hundred men, Companies A and I. and kept
crowd one thousand feet from bank, withdraw
ing them in squads and replacing them with
other men who we're loaded up with specie:
successfully avoided collision with sheriff
who was completely bewildered by events;
took camp at six O'Clock p m. on the terrace
as planned and the regiment began at once to
meltaway. Four hundred men got out of their
uniforms in the center OF the camp (where
they were securely shielded) before nine
o'clock. The suits in the knapsacks turned
out better than I expected and Commis5ary
Fenning should be credited with great skill
, and ingenuity in tho provision of these suits.
The uniforms were put into the knapsacks and
at twelve midnight I started the men in Indian
{ file to the old house, and, as by that time 1 had
, four hundred more men ready, there were eight
hundred llnapsacks and eight hundred guns to
be disposed of; by making each man carry two
; guns and two knapsacks, / easily got the whole
I eight hundred into the house. The intense
darkness Of the night was a great advantagc
4 and the hardness of the ground and the special
guards stationed along the lines to proven,
struggling or the littering OF the rout, aided US
much
s "At three o'clock in the morning the regi
r nlent, as u uniformed organization, had GiSap
peared
q The disposition of the men was as follows:
One hundred went scatteringly from the camp
t back to town In their former clothes at ten
I o'clock; another hundred got off at clever
, o'clock, and a third at twelve o'clock. IGrew
them up by companies in a circle in the center
of the camp and started them out in rcdiatina
y lines. 1 calculated that in fifteen minutes, fl
a tho men walked briskly, that there would be q
distance of FIVE hundred feet between each
man, and, Of course, those going south and east
would have to mako q large detour to reach
j. the town. At 1890 ! was reduced to five
hundred men, at least two hundred having
gone toward Paducah In the same struggling
= manner. Tho remaining five companies were
started from the old house between . 81
and four o'clock, going in widening lines
4 south. southeast ana southwest through the
barrens and about one hundred under orders
v to strike the railroad track at long Intervals
r and return to town. I held a detail of twelve
trusty men with me to complete the work
clearing up the fragments and arranging the
DQdIerliI n the mousse Inc guns were uuDG
into the cellar and the knapsacks heaped upon
Q the first floor and saturated by the two barrels
q of kerosene that were knocked In the head on
the floor above. At five O'Clock Cap Ems tein,
" of Company D, who was left behind to complete
. tao destruction. touched a match to the build
fng and t@cn rctreaUcd to the railroad tracA
coming lack later with the few inhabitant
who were attracted at that hour by the flames
II met me the next night at SnowdCns HUI
on the Mississippi, whore 1 was waiting 70
him, and reported that the destruction was com
d plete and that the guns had been cffectually GOV
a cred by the ashes and debris and would not b
dis. overcd until an attempt was made to re
move the rubbish.
g M calculations with regard TO the direction
the search would take for the regiment wer
2 right, as you Will see by the papers, and tn
plan of bring the scows over from the othe
side of the Ohio and cutting them loose abov
e Paducah was a good one, The general belle
d at once seized the authorities that the mel
had crossed the river from Indiana
81 am now convinced by actual demonstra
e ton that 1 can, with a thousand men, carry on
l. the eastern scheme of which you spoke. TIL
chances of success are increased by the audaC
ity of the attempt Whatever appears to b
Incredible will succeed before the communit
Il can bring itself to acknowledge it"
a CHAPTER XVI
< Enough has been already told to in
dictate that Hendricks had in his keep
ing two prisoners whose presence add
ed a perilous element to the under
D ground society. These men, employees
by the secret service of the govern
It ment, were to Hendricks the first direc
10 intimation that the forces of societ
had in some way put facts enough tC
~ gether to warrant an intelligent at
y tempt to run him down. Whateve
theory these officers had been workin,
on had been summarily frustrated b
Hendricks taking them both prisoners
He had, with his usual quickness Q
decision, summed up the whole chain c