Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1910-05-27
ADVENTURE OF THE CIVIL WAR.
How a Federal SPY ESCAPED Hanging.

ROW a eoeral spy ESCAPED ranging.
In Harpers for November there Is
q remarkable true narrative OF the ad-
ventures Of Landegon. q scout in the civil
war. He tells dramatically Of the day
when lie was captured IN a confederate
uniform and narrowly escaped hanging.
1 didn't get five minutes u a trial;
they asked me again where IL been GO
Ing. and told them agaln-lying the
best l cou.j-that I vas only a camp
servant. it had got too no; for me
Up there a the front, and I vas scared.
and getting back 10 the camp where l
belonged.
Some one yelled. He's a spy look a,
his clothes
And I turned on him and says: I'm
no spy. I'm just servant. an theses
all the clothes I have-I don't get a uni
form got 10 wear jus. what can ind
all that sort o. Thing. Anyway II I
wasn't q spy, one Of them said. l was a
damned Yankee, that had stole the
clothes Of some pore. dead Confederate
soldier And they all said: That's 50
all right, Stole en- Of some pore dead
soldier. He ought 10 be hung"
The president Of the court got Up and
sails, Your guilty, Nank, and it is the
sentence o this court that We hang you
by the neck until you're dead
They all laughed a that and got up
ana stood around 10 see NE get hung We
all moved over a hundred yards or so 10
a tree and some started 70 climb up with
a Fppe-they had rope all right-ard
then some one said they'd ought to have
some grease FOR the Tope-uOose wouldn't
Sip good without the rope was creased
and one u the men was sent riding hard
across the fields 20 farmhouse 10 get
some. They got the rope tied 10 a limb
then they kept showing me the moose
te.hng me how Ia dance on air
,"eE weren't going to tie ny hands and
,ert' ana they danced and waved their
hands 10 SHOW me how Ia do
Il had been scared nearly 10 death I'd
;iA then, but when they got TO talking
Ike that l got mad-they might hang
me- all right but they weren't going 10
torture me in that way before l died I
Tried 10 pull away from the fellows hold
ing me, and l cursed them all. and called
them murderers and towards, and I toll
them Ia fight any three Of them-any
hVe-any number at once. if they would
give me my sabre AMI pistol but thar I
wouldn't be hung.
Just then the man with the grease
got back he'd only been able 10 get some
outer Don't waste good butter hanging
damn Yankee; string him up without
greasing the rope and be quick about
IT, some one said
50 they dragged and lifted me onto
morse, and led il under the limb, and thew
put the moose around my neck. I didn't
time got put on the horse, and didn't
see that some Of them were standing in a
little party off to one side Just then
one stepped out and said that l was nor
10 be hung; that l was brave man. and
It wasn't so much that they didn't want
me 10 be hanged, but the other fellows
weren't going 10 do IL: I was as much
their prisoner as I was theirs-that tbay,
hadnt any OF them been selected for
tHe court more Of that sort OF
tnlng Othey were from two regiments-Io
you INTERESTINGLY; and that they had de-
clded 10 send me back to the main column
and have me tried right.
Ihey took the rope OF. and I began tn
get some OF my senses back, and I saw
mat the man VINO was 10 take me forward
was a great, surly- looking devil.
We started-he and land the otbsrs
roae away. The whole business hadn't
taken more than 20 minutes. but n Was
d Wohth 10 me. They wouldn't give me a
morse the fellow rode but l had TO run
along at the horses head. l can see mar
ROAD ahead' II ran like a tunnel into
Dig woods that looked all hazy and blua
Beyond the woods a little way was NIassa-
PgHaA churcn; made up my mind that
what was TO be would take nIaoa a.
that woods and I sort of felt that tbe -. ="
iederate had made up his mind 10 end II
In the woods, too. ''u II
Just then he called to me: Halt
l hahk. TIL l tighten the girth-saddle's
He was dismounting-you know ~
course how man gets of a horse? His
- 4Oot IN the stirrup and swings his
lIsHt reg back over the horse-for lust a
second his back was toward me and "a
that moment he dropped his drawn sabre
,Jsre ''S ground He died right