The record-union., 1898-05-04
GEN. NEAL DOW'S CAPTURE.
STORY OF THE EXPLOIT BY THE
MAN WHO DID 1T.
He Still Retains the Sword he
Took From the General Near
Port Hudson.


has been ever since. For 30 years there
have been on an average, one daring in
dividual per annum who has joined
the glorious company of alleged Dow
captors and the ranks are still being
recruited.
The latest aspirant to the homer of
having bagged Dow is said to be Colon
e. Allen D. Gambler, Georgia's Secretary
Of State, and, according to some critics,
a gentleman of fertile imagination. HIS
thrilling tale has interested many reo-
pie, but none more than DR.. John c.
MacKowen, sometimes of Louisiana,
sometimes of Capri, Italy, and some
times of the world in general DR..
MacKowen has good reason to be in
terested, because he has a vivid recol-
lection, and sundry proofs, of having
himself captured Neal Dow on June 3,
1868, and without the assistance of Mr.
Gambler or anybody by that name.
DR.. MacKowen is a Colonel by right
of service in the Confederate army;
but in country where such a title may
be earned from cabbies and bootblacks
by the bestowal, or the mere hope of a
tip, he objects to anything more mill
tary than his degree of NJ. D. Having
good many years, he has an abnormal
dread of American reporters and the
Sun" correspondent had to be duly
certified to and vouched for before the
wary ex-soldier would consent to talk.
Once fairly embarked in conversation.
however he is as genial and as unre-
served as one could expect of a man
of pure Irish descent, bred in the South.
y.fV Nv he of
''I have never paid much attention to
these alleged Dow captors," said DR..
AacKowen Their stories, when I
saw them, amused me, but that was all.
AS I live abroad most of the time,
gave my friend, Calhoun Fluker, Esq,
the privilege of capturing Dow as often
as he wanted to if he would agree to
suppress all other would-be captors in
this State Mr. F'luker has conscien-
tiously lived up to the agreement. The
Boston Club. here in New Orleans, has
been the scene of his repeated captur-
ing exploits, and he has religiously kept
all other Louisianians out of the field.
But, with the best intentions in the
world, he couldn't cover the whole
South. you know, so Dow captors have
sprung up with surprising regularity
and frequency. When Gambler cap
tured Dow as political card, however,
some of M old soldiers thought it was
time for me to try to secure a little rest
for the old General The publication
of the exact facts may not have any ef-
feet in suppressing these inventive
geniuses. but have ample proofs of
what I state.
I'm 1863 I was a captain of scouts in
leave my. regular regiment because the
knuckles of my right hand had been
shot out, as you see, at Shiloh. I was
then 81 years old My fathers plan
tatfon was in East Feliciana parish
and the house was full of costly arti-
cles. which I knew very we'll would be
a great temptation to anybody with
such propensity for stealing as that
with which rumor credited Dow. 1t
was to this reputation, in fact, that he
owed his capture. for my original in
tention was to take General Banks
himself.
ACCOMPANIED by five scouts, by
name Henry Berkley, Bragg MacNeely,
Wilson Medearis, John Petty and j.
C. B. Simms, I entered the Federal
lines early in the morning of June Sd.
How did we get inside the lines? Well,
do YOU know what a bayou is? 1t IS
an outlet from the river to the salt
water. It is in reality one of the
mouths of the river the water of which
eats its way in various places through
the soft alluvial soil on a side cut to
the gulf. Owing to the quality of this
soil the mud in the bed of a bayou is
from ten to fifteen feet thick, and there
fore the Federal Generals thought they
had the finest picket line in the world
when they had a bayou between them
and the enemy But there was one
thing upon which they were not in
formed. and that was the subject Of
bayou bridges The planters used to
bridge their bayous by piling logs one
upon another, laying them parallel with
the banks. The water flowed through
the interstices, you see, and yet one
could cross easily.
During the course of the season,
however the logs gradually sank deep
er and deeper into the mud until, II
more logs were not added, they grad
ually sank beneath the surface of the
dark, muddy water. That is what had
happened at the time I speak of; SO
that while the Federal Generals slept
in the sweet confidence of having the
best picket line in the world, there re-
ally existed these submerged bridges,
known to the Confederate scouts, who
came and went at their own pleas
ure.
We'll as 1 said, we entered the lines
early in the morning and lay all day
in the cane brake, about a mile from
Dow's headquarters. AS we waited
there during those long hours 1 thought
the matter over and finally decided to
capture Dow instead of Banks. I kept
thinking, you see, of Dow's rumored
fondness of appropriating what
pleased his fancy, and I was pretty
sure that a certain solid silver table
service belonging to my father would
scarcely fail to tempt him. I knew
nv father to be a peppery Irishman,
who would not be deferred from thrash
ing Dow. even by the presence of Fed
eral troops 1 could see, as a logical
sequence of such an incident that Dow
would have my father shot with small
ceremony. and the longer 1 thought
about it the more ardently leaned
toward capturing the man from Maine.
Banks would have been the easier prey,
but Dow was the more dangerous char
acter. and I finally decided on him.
I'VE waited until after taps and then
walked our horses to headquarters, al
lowing time for the Federa1s to turn
in and get to sleep before we arrived
The house where the General had his
quarters was owned by Mr.. Cage, who
was a good Confederate, as was also
his wife Like all plantation houses
IT stood in a large yard, in which were
scattered the Kitchens smokehouse