The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-11-19
ROMANCE AND TRAGEDY OF OUTPOST BULL I BY FRENCH


 spiked each cannon. A number Of years later. at the instance of Colonel Watkins. then Indian agent of the United States government several blacksmiths were sent out in pione.r Alabama, and they filed the spikes out of the touch holes.
 The cannons were fired by the Amer leans only on Christmas and ndepen- dence Day The Indians were accus- toned to have great sport loading and firing the deserted cannous.
 History of bid Cannon.
 In 1920. the cannon which is now at the Capitol was brought 4ato Montgon1- cry by a party or pioneers to help In the observance of Independence Day. While 1t was being fired to celebrate the election of John Quincy Adams. the breach exploded and In the explo- sion a pioneer Montgomerian, Ebene- ger Pond, received wounds, the scars of which he carried to his grave. The cannon were later placed as B guard post for the sidewalk on Court Square at the Farley Bank corner From this place # was taken and preserved by Chief Gerald to find a fnal resting place among the relies of the State. second of the eight cannons was car ried to Wetumpka. and & third so Goodwater. In recent years another was seen near the fort, but t has dis appeared.
 The fort and the old cannon are reminiscent of some of the most pie turesque and romantic chapters in the history of the State. The romantic story of Captain Marchand the first commander of the fort. has been writ ten by Mrs. Thomas M Owen, and published in a Southern magazine.
 Marchend's story has in It enough interest to tempt the pen os any one. The French Captain in command of this lonely outpost of civilization, took as his wife. Sehoy, the daughter of | family of Chiefs for she belonged to the famous Wind family of the Creeks. To them was born a daughter, Sehoy. who became the wife of Lachlan Mo- Gillivray a Scotch trader. and the mother of Aiender McGillivray. the fa- nous Creek who figured so conspicu- ously in the history Of the State when it was settled by the whites.
 Marchand was Drurally murdered in the walls of the fort by his Swiss sol- diers who mutined and attempted to kill all their officers. This was fin Swiss soldiers joined in the mutiny, but while they were engaged in mur- dering Captain Marchand, Lieutenant Villemont and Enslgn Pogue escaped, through bastion. Villemont hurried to Hickory Ground a few miles away anu now III the SuDuEDS or w GIumpka, and aroused the Creeks to help him capture the murderers and mutineers. He sent Pogue to Coosada on the sams errand, and he, too, was successful in getting the help of the red men. Mutineers are Punished. In the meanwhile the mutineers stopped to break open the magazine. The persuing party of Indians led by Viilemont and Pogue overlook the murderers at Line Creek. and a des- perate battle ensued, not far from the present village of Mount Meigs Sev- eral of the mutineers. as well as some of the pursuing party, were killed in | the fight.
 In his history of Alabama. Pickett makes mention of the fact that after 1 Alabaam had been admitted to the Union, a pile of the bones of the mu- | tineers who had been Killed in this | fight were to be seen near the home | of Walter B. Lucas a pioneer planter of Alabama, living near Mount Meigs. In the fight, eight of the soldiers were | captured. They were sent to Mobile tried and promptly executed.
 An even greater tragedy was enacted in l75S, some of thea scenes of which 1 were laid at Fort Jackson. 1t, too, was tragedy of mutiny, murder and l terrible retribution. Late in l75T, Du- roux, the commander of the French gar | a discipline, was shot by soldiers of his command lying in ambush He was l shot as he stepped from a boat for a l deer hunt. The mutineers' released
 Beaudrot, famous French guide and leader, who had been put in prison for some slight offense in spite of splendid
 service done for his rellow country men. They forced Beaudrot to guide them through the tracKless wilderness of Alabama that they might escape to the English on the Atlantic coast. The party passed too near Fort Toulose
 however. Hearing of their passage through the Upper Creek Nation. Mont sued and overlook them.
 In the fight that foi;owed three of the mutineers were captured Several of them escaped and were never heard l of afterwards A short while before the party was overtaken, Beaudrot left the party after securing a written | statement from the men that thev had forced him to guide them through inc forests. He returned to Mobile, to which the three captured soldiers were sent by the commander of Fort Tou-. lose.
 Carried Fathers Death Warrant. Beaudrot slipped into Mobile and Iiv- | ed for some time in hiding in his It, tie hut but he was ultimately found. A plea was made for his life on the | grounds of his excellent services to the | French colony, and because he had been an unwilling guide of the mutineers. This plea went to Governor Kerlerec at | New Orleans.
 | Two of Beaudrots sons, living in l New Orleans, went on a visit to their | father in Mobile, not knowing he was l in prison and in the shadow of death | They carried with them a sealed pack l age from Governor Kerlerec to the | Mobile military authorities. The pack age they carried was the death war rant of their father.
 | He was broken upon wheel a terri ble form of punishment. One of the 1 soldiers met the same fate. still T'ore horrible fate was reserved for the other two soldiers. They were nailed up in a long coff1in-shaped box. Then the wooden box with the imprisoned soldiers was cut in pieces with cross | cut saws. No more horrible tragedy has ever been enacted in Alabama than the punishment of these mutinous soldiers and it it all history told by old | French records.
 Pickett's history tells the romantic story of the Russian Princess who fol- 1 lowed her soldier husband from France | to Mobile, and from Mobile to Fort | Toulouse She had been married to and l divorced from the son of Peter the l Great, according to the story Then | che had married D'Aubont, a French | Captain who was assigned to duty m Mobile. He was later put in charge of l the outpost at Toulose His wife he left at Mobile, but she grew impatient at the separation and followed him up