The record-union., 1899-07-27
BURNING THE FLAG.
SebastopoPs Secession and It.
Strange Punishment.


Sebastopops Secession and Its
Strange Punishment.
The story was told me years ago
floating by Dead Mans Slough one
hot afternoon in June. The slough
is bayou Of the upper Mississippi.
Fishermen sometimes find corpses
there attached to their lines.
See" said Bristow, the story teller,
pointing to a bay on the western shore
of the river, "Sebastopol was there
once-a bloody town that went out in
the night. How do I know who laid
it out or what became of those who
were there? Perhaps the river swal-
lowed it up, perhaps the lightning
blasted it out. I wasn't there. But
right where the waters breaking on
the bank now the town stood, and be-
cause the bluffs and the hills bound
it in they call it Sebastopol, and the
sugar and wheat boats come and go.
and the women and children kidded
about the streets, and the men waited
for the town to make 'em all million
aires. All towns in that Sioux and
Winnebago country were gold mines
/
dream.
"a boat throws out her lines one
night and ties up, and when the cap.
tain comes ashore and the best Of the
town was going down his gully he
tells as how the South is for secession
and going to quit the North. He says
in the cotton fields men were working
with guns by their sides, and that
there was a new flag, one with stars
and bars, what was put up over the
other with Stars and Stripes And it
was all about the niger. Sebastopol
didn't care for niggers; there wasn't
one in the town. and those what come
up on the boats stayed on 'em when at
Sebastopol. One what come ashore they
put at foot of a hill with the oak
and elm so thick you couldn't see the
top, and they started him on the climb
up with the hounds after him. And
it was music to the ears below when
the hounds reached him and the yell
of his despair was shut off with the
yelp of the dogs. Did he get away?
Nobody went to see. He didn't come
back, but the dogs did. Tss.. :
Fifteen hundred miles away from
Washington Sebastopol learns Of Sc
cession and decides it'll go out Of the
Union, too, and on a vote there was
seventy-one men for destroying the
town flag, what was a proper banner
Of stripes and stars. There was one
man, Vermonter, whose name was
Jessup, who voted for the flag, and he
got his notice that night to follow the
nigger over the hills, only they didn't
'set the dogs after him. He takes bis
rifle and he goes to the top of the
highest bluff what overlooks Sebasto-
pol, so high up he could look right
down into the town, and he sets right
there all night I heard as how when
morning come some people. maybe
women, sees him kneeling as if he had
prayers to say.
'Ten o'clock that morning the town
folk all meet in the little square what
was the landing place for the boats,
and there's some wood piled up there,
and over the top of the wood two men
stretched the old flag. And then, to
show they wasn't afraid they brings
out a little girl all dressed in white,
and she has little torch and she puts
that to the wood and it lights up.
Perhaps in ten or twenty minutes the
flag and the wood is all gone, and Sc
bastopol is satisfied that it's seeded.
The men was so excited they didn't
work, and the women hung about the
doorways and wondered what would
come next. Somebody said as how the
South was going to take everything
along the river from New Orleans to
ST Anthony, and as how Jeff Davis
would be King. Some of the Sepas-
topol people knew him,o because he'd
been at Fort Prairie du Chen when he
was in the regular army.
"While they were all speculating,
somebody looks up to the top of the
hill where old Jessup had gone, and
there they sees the Stars and Stripes
waving from a pole, and Jessup stand
ing by it, leaning on his gun and look
ing down. Nobody knew how he Got
the f1ag-suppose he must have had it
in his kit for a long time. 1t wasn't
a big flag. but big enough for all Sc
bastopol to see it and. get redhot mad.
The men goes for their guns, the wo-
men got inside the houses, and there's
going to be trouble sure. There was
just one way to get up to Jessup, and
that was straight climb through the
brush to where he was. A couple OF
men took a shot at him from the town,
but he never moved, and the first fell
low that got anywhere near him, Jes-
sup gave him warning and shot him
dead. That stopped the others, and
they went to Specializing. They spec
ulated all day and night and for sew
eral days, but Jessup and the flag
didn't move until they got ready to.
when they did go nobody saw, and
the next word what comes to Sebas-
topol was that the regulars at Tort
Smelling had been notified of what the
town had done, and there was going
to be trouble Sebastopol laughed, but
just like a woman what has the lung
trouble, not bad, but coming slow and
gradual, the town fades away. This
family goes and that one, the docks,
break away, the flood comes, the
houses tumble in the timber wolves
get nearer, there's freshet, Lake Pep
in backs up, and one morning there
~ C01. 1r,%0 ~ ocy