Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-03-10
CHAPTER Nv

CHAPTER Nv.
1t is necessary now to keep in mind
two orders of events. One is the slow
| focusing of public suspicion about the
operation at Laran. The other is the ex-
traordinary relationship of the principal
personaGes at the headquarters of the
conspiracy.
n week passes and men are struggling
back to the Laran from all over the coun-
| try. They come in through the woods at
night singly or in little groups They ar
rive at the Wash bayou. coming down
from St. Louis and crossing at night from
the Arkansas shore: they come up from
Memphis looking for work and some of
| them ride in from the mountains of East
Tennessee.
Hendricks watches the reassembling with
cool calculation and appears to have been
satisfied of the main results. About fif-
! teen per cent of the men never reap
peared. This according to his calcu-
lations. But the rest, actuated by the
fear of individual peril. the esprit de corps
OF military organization, or the desire to
so on with the war which a master spirit
had planned. had. in great part, returned
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 reading
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 to the truth The regiment
had got away and it had accomplished
its purpose. but the further away from the
scene the comments We're ;he less serious
ly the newspapers regarded the occurrence.
In New York there was some kind of enor-
nous western practical joke suspected.
| How said one journal, "a regiment Of
thousand men can come and so without
observation. can dismantle a bank and
then depart with million dollars in spe-
Gle without being detected or interferel
with or tracked, remains for the imagina-
tive west to explain. 1t looks very much at
this distance as if the English company had
been operating in phantoms to bear its own
market"
An angry official correspondence had
taken place between the governor of Ten
nessee and the governor of Indiana. The
town of St. Mary's and the city of Paducah
swdrmed with newspaper men and detec-
tives. But it was plain to Hendricks that
fresh troubles at St Mary's between the di-
rector and the men threatened to draw at
tcnton from the search for the soldiers.
An official report OF Gen. Watterson. the
officer commanding the st. Mary's eXpedi-
ton. has been preserved. Whether it was
forwarded before his return to Laran or
was written subsequently, is not known.
But it gives a very clear explanation of the
novel method adopted in this military cam
paign.
1t reads as follows:
The whole plan has worked. with few
slight discrepancies, as projected. The feas-
81. Mary's and the neighborhood without
attracting attention was easily proven. My
men began to come In four days before
they assembled. They were in fairly good
shape and passed for workmen GU. of en-
ployment and idlers drawn in by the ex-
element. 1t was impossible to go any
where without seeing them mingling with
the workmen and standing about on the
corners with the unemployed. In three days
seven hundred We're In St. Mary'S and three
hundred in and about Paducah, with orders
to come in stragglngly to the former place
the fourth day. At any other time a
thousand men suddenly added to the popu-
latiOn of so small town would have ex-
cited suspicion, but the excitement of the
strike was supposed to be drawing the men
from all quarters, and great credit must be
given to our forces. who, as a rule kept
themselves close and avoided attracting at
tention. On the night of the third day
three hundred were already in the old house
on the barrens or in the immediate vicinity
undergoing the most extraordinary discom-
fort on account of the want of accommoda-
tons. and an hour before sunrise on the
fourth day | had the whole command with
in reach and most of them uniformed and
armed. We formed column at > O'Clock in
the baTrens just three miles southeast of
the town and marched in on the railroad
track took possession of the BAN: at o
O'clock distributed money among regiments
as planned without opposition each man
carrying hundred and fifty eagles The
bUckskin belts worked admirably. I de-
F, and kept crowd one thousand feet from
bank. Withdrawing them in squads and .re-
placing them with other men who were
loaded up with specie; successfully avoided
collision with sheriff, who was completely be
wildered by events; took camp at o'clock
pm. on the terrace as planned and the reg
iment began at once to melt away. Four
hundred men got out of their uniforms in
the center of the camp (where they were Sc
curely shieldedl before o O'Clock The suits
in the knapsacks turned out better than ]
expected and COmmissary fleming should
be credited with great skill and ingenuity
in the provision of these suits. The uni
forms were put into the knapsacks and at
u midnight | started the men in Indian file
to the old house. and. as by that time /
had four hundred more men ready. there
were eight hundred knapsacks and eight
hundred guns to be disposed Of: by making
each man carry two guns and two KNAPP
sacks | easily got the whole eight hundred
into the house. The intense darkness of
the night was a great advantage and the
hardness Of the ground and the special
guards stationed along the lines to prevent
struggling or the littering of the route aided
much.
AT o'clock In the morning the regi-