The Beaver herald. [volume] (Beaver, O.T. [Okla.]) 1895-1923, 1897-09-30
NV.

The first Christmas a young fellow
spends in the army is one he is apt 20
remember. What he did in years be-
fore, or of what nature were the festi,i-
ties in those that followed, may, in
course of time, become but vague ard
shadowy pictures before the minds
eye. After something like 20 years of
service as a commissioned officer Mr..
Lambert was heard to say that never,
even when a homesick plebe at West
Point, had he passed so ~forlorn Il
Christmastide as that which immedi-
ately succeeded his graduation.
The rain was beating down in sullen
shower upon the bare and dripping
woods and sodden fields; the roads
were deep in mud; camp, of which he
was M more commander. Nas wet
and cold and cherries; in the adjoining
tent lay his senior officer grooming on
"a bed of pain, hands and face blistered
and b~andaged, hair and eyebrows gone,
while oven across the way"a pile OF
scorched and 'blackened 'timbers, a
couple of brick chimneys, and the ton
foundations. were all that We're left of
Walton Han.
The story brought in of the big row
at Vernon. though exaggerated, had
been sufficiently confirmed in the
course of an hou OIL so that wintrN
evening Of Lambert's last visit to the
homestead, to- warrant his being or
dered thither with half the company
TO Support the civil authorities in re-
4u.. - ETI-A N.t a.
situation by telegraph 10 department
Headquarters, and the action taken by
him, his dispatch reaching the general
commanding the next day an hour or
80 after that official had been ordered
from Washington To send full particu-
lars of the disturbance in his bailiwick.
for the federal officials in the south and
the partisans OF both sides of the po-
'litical questions at issue had worked
the night wires for all theywere worth,
and the early morning papers were
lurid with details of the tragic out
break.
1T was midnight when Lambert
started on his march with two excited
deputy marshals for guides. Five miles
out they met some horsemen conveying
an old carriage containing Walton
Scroggs. seriously wounded, and a doc
tor. With the escort Lambert held
brief parley. also with The wounded
man, who, though weak. was full of
pluck and spirits; his sole anxiety
seemed Ia be on the score Of his wife
and the shock the news would cause
her. The account given the young Off
Ger of the circumstances leading up to
the facts differed radically from that
with which he and his commander had
thers far been favored. This was TO be
expected, as up TO this point their sole
i~nfcrmants were either negroes or It
couple of whites of the Parmelee stamp.
In the north. as a rule, the affair APP
peaned 60 have been "A wanton and un-
provoked attack by Walton Scroggs and
his friends upon some negroes who had
been instrumental in securing his ar
rcst-nothing short, in fact, of a e d
handed act of vengeance. as was evi-
dent from the fact that Immediately IN
his release he and his party. armed 10
the teeth. had ridden over TO Vernon,
instead of going home, and without
warning or apparent warrant had be-
gun the indiscriminate shooting down
of certain unpopular whites and their
luckless negro supporters.
In the south, except among certain
journals published in the interest of
the radical" republican party. the 9th
er side of the story was promptly cir
culated. "capt. Scroggs and a friend.
e~ndeavoring to reach home by a cir
cuitous N SO as to avoid trouble after
his release from Jail, where he had
been incarcerated several weeks Oh
baseless. trumped-up charges. were set
upon in the streets of Vernon by A
biackguardly pack Of l%oafers, insulted.
abused and assaulted, and finally com