Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1910-03-04
Saved by q Second.

saw, thlnk, was at HarperS Ferry In
'65. said Detective c. W. McElroy.
The sight OF man going to his
swn funeral, with the band playing
dead march. is calculated to impress
one, he continued That is the case,
you know. with a man condemned to
death by court-martial The case OF
which ! spoke happened In January,
1865, and the wonderful escape OF the
condemned parties is something shall
never forget. Two Trishmen. John
Shea and Michael Doane. had been sen
fenced TO be shot for desertion There
was considerable feeling In favor of
the men. II was In the time OF big
bounties, and the two young men had
enlisted for something like $1,000
apiece. In few days they were both
missing and were not caught for three
or four weeks They were drunk and
their money was about gone. The
truth of the matter was that IL was no
case of wl--ful desertion The men
had got on a drunk, and had never so
bered up enough to realize their posi-
ton. They were badly frightened, and
were attended by two priests ] can
remember the place we'll They we're
marched mp on little hill on level
plateau, and the soldiers thrown into
three sides of hollow square. The
two men. accompanied by their priests,
and preceded by the band playing the
Dead March, were marched around the
inside of this square and stopped near
" in the ceuter, by the side of their
open collins. The priests were in ear
nest conversation with them. and the
minutes rolled by until they grew into
an hour Twelve o'clock came, and
General Stevenson gave orders for the
priests to leave the men. Very reluCt-
antly they did so, prolonging their
leave-taking upon one preteXt and an
other as long as they could. Every
thing was at last made ready, and il
was only a matter of seconds between
the men and eternity. when the Gen
erals orderly rode. up, swinging his
hat and yelling at the top of his voice
1t was reprieve from Lincoln
1T seems that the priests had tele-
graphed the President the night be-
fore asking for a reprieve, and stating
that there We're mitigating circum.
! stances. Lincoln, who was always
| looking for an excuse to save a man S
life, reprieved them General Steven
/ sons headquarters were nearly a mile
/ from where we were, and the tele.
| graph Office was at his headquarters
! He had left mounted orderly there
| with instructions to rush through any
/ dispatch that came. Nothing came un
| til a few minutes before II. and the
! orderly dashed away. He had to &c
up steep hill. nearly half mile long
| When he reached the top his horse was
| badly winded and could hardly 20. He
met citizen on good horse, and
| without any ceremony pulled the gen
tleman down and mounted the fresh
| animal. Half Il minutes delay would
| have been the last Of Messrs Doane
/ and Shea.
a strange part Of the story is yet
| TO come. Some three years afterward
| j met an old telegraph operator In Os.
| WegO. He was in Washington In the
! winter Of l864-65 We got to talking
over war matters, and found that he
remembered the case | have told YOU
about. He was in charge OF the wire
leading to Harpers Ferry He had
heard of the two men 10 be executed
/ there through the operator They had
discussed the matter over the wires,
consequently remembered the case well.
Upon the morning of the execution. at
| 10 o'clock, the dispatch reprieying the
men was handed him to send out lie
turned to his desk, and what was his
/ horror TO find that he couldn't work
the wire. A storm was In progress, or
something else was the matter. At
any rate the wire would not work.
There was no other way OF reaching
Harpers Ferry The dispatch he
didn't get off until just before y. but,
es ii happened, IN good time. but he
told me II was an experience he could
never forget Altogether, IL was q
pretty close shave for the two Irish
men. and don't believe they ever
forgot the incident, either. Pitts
hftrp nisbatph