Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1894-06-15

two orders OF events One Il VlS SLOW
focusing Of public suspicion about the
operations at Laran. The other is the
extraordinary relationship of the prin-
cipal personages at the headquarters
Of the conspiracy.
4 week passes and men are strag
Cling back to the Laran from all over
the country They come in through
the woods at night singly or in little
groups. They arrive at the Wash
bayou, coming down from st. Louis
and crossing at night from the Ar
kansas 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 re-
suits. About fifteen per cent. of the
men never reappeared. This was ac-
cording to his calculations. But the
rest, actuated by the fear of individual
peril, the esprit de corps of military
organization, or the desire TO go on
with the war which a master-spirit
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 its purpose,
but the further away from the scene
the comments were, the less seriously
the newspapers regarded the occur
renee In New York there was some
kind of enormous western practical
Joke suspected How laid one jour
nal, "a regiment of a thousand men
can come and go without observation,
can dismantle bank and then depart
with million dollars in specie without
being detected or interfered 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 bear its own market"
An angry official correspondence had
taken place between tho 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 or was written subse-
quently is not known. But it gives
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, ~ projected The feasi-
bility OF getting the whole regiment into 81.
Mary's and the noighborhood without attract.
ing attention was easily proven My men be.
gan 20 come in four days before they assembled.
They were I'm fairly good shape and passed for
workmcn out Of employment tand idlers drawp
in by the excitement 1t was impossible to &c
anywhere without seeing them mingling With
tho worllnen and standing about on the corners
with tho unem ployed- In three days seven hun
drcd were In St Mary and three hundred IN and
about Paducah, with orders TO come in strag.
glingly to the former place on the fourth day.
Az my other timo a thousand men suddenly
added to the population OF so small town
would have excited suspicion, but the excite
ment Of the strike was supposed to be drawing
the men from all quarters, and great credit
must be given TO ouf forces who. as rule, kepl
themselves close and avoided attracting atten-
uon On the night of the third day, three hun
dred were already In the old house on the bar,
rens 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, l had Che
whole command within reach and most OF them
uniformed and armed We formed column at
flve O'Clock In tho barrens Just three miles
southeast OF the town and marched In on tho
railroad tracli took possession OF the bank at
nine O'clock distributed money among regi
ments as planned without opposition, each man
carrying q hundred and'flfty eagles. The buck
skin belts worked admirably. l deployed two
hundred men, Companies A and +, and kept
crowd one thousand feet from bank, withdraw
ing them Ia squads and replacing them with
other men who were loaded up with specie;
successfully avoided collision with sheriff
who was completely bevildered by events;
took camp at six o'clock p IN. on the terrace
Us planned and the regiment began a once 70
meltaway -Four hundred men got out OF their
uniforms in the center OF the camp (where
they were securely shieldaD before nine
o'clock. The suits in the knapsacks turned
out better than / expected and Commissary
Fenning should be creditel with great skill
and ingenuity in tho provision OF these suits.
The uniforms we're put into the lSnapsacks and
at twelve 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 knapsacks, 1 easily got the whole
sight hundred into the house. The intense
darkness OF tho night was q great advantage
and the hardness Of the ground and the special
guards Ttationed along the lines to prevent
struggling the littering OF the rout, aided US
much.
AT three o'clock in the morning the regi
ment, as a uniformed organization, had disaps
peared
''fhe disposition OF the men was us follows:
One hundred went scatteringly from tie camp
back TO town in their former clothes at ten
O'Clock; another hundred got OF ut eleven
o'clock, and third at twelve o'clock drew
them up by companies IN circle In the center
OF the camp and started them out in radiating
lines. calculated that in fifteen minutes, II
the men walked briskl% that there would be n
distance Of Ave hundred feet between each
man, and, OF course those going south and east
would have to mako q large detour to reach
the town. At 1870 1 was reduced TO nyo
hundred mon, at least two hundred having
gone toward Paducah in tho same struggling
manner The remaining five companies were
started from the old house between 2: 30
and four o'clock, going in widening lines
south. southeast and southwest through tho
barrens and about one hundred under orders
20 strike the railroad track ut long intervals
and return TO town. l held detail OF twelve
trusty men with me to complete the work.
clearing up the fragments and arranging the
material in The housc. 1he guns were lung
into The cellar and the knapsacks heaped upon
the nrst floor and saturated by the two barrels
II kerosene that were knocked in the head on
the floor above. At fve O'Clock Capt. Einstein,
3f Company d, who was left behind to complete
lhe Destruction. touched O match 10 the build.