Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1914-03-06

Another document, not signed, de-
clared: "Once in the city it must be
destroyed and Jeff Davis and his
cabinet killed. Pioneers will go along
with combustible material" General
Lee sent Photographic copies of these
papers to General George G.. Meade,
his opponent on the Rapidan line, ask
ing If the acts named in them had been
authorized by the Federal authorities.
The reply was that neither the Fed
eral government nor the army COM
mander nor General Fitzpatrick had
authorized. sanctioned or approved
the burning of the city of Richmond
and the killing of Mr.. Davis and his
cabinet nor any act not required by
military necessity and in accordance
with the usages of war" Fitzpatrick
also made a sweeping denial.
The. Confederate authorities had
good reasons for being nervous over
the captive officers in Libby prison.
The night of Feb. 0 100 officers, includ-
ing eleven colonies and seven majors.
had escaped through a tunnel o.
structed with wonderful ingenuity and
exhaustive labor. Sixty or more
reached the Federal lines, some were
retaken promptly, and a few were hid
ing within the Confederate lines when
Kilpatriek's columns approached Rich
mOnd.
Cushing In a Night Exploit.
Feb. %, 1864, was the date of one of
Lieutenant w. Il. Cushing's famous
exploits in Cape Fear river, North Car
DINA. With twenty sailors in two
boats he pulled past Fort Caswell and
the Confederate batteries at Bald
Head, in the mouth of the river, and
landed at Smithfield, where the Con-
federate headquarters were located.
Hiding his boats and their crews with
in twenty-five yards of a battery, he
went with two men to the house occu-
pied by General Louis Robert Hebert,
passing through the main street of the
town. Near the house were 1,2G0 enc
mics sleeping in their barracks. 1t was
past midnight before the house grew
still and lights We're put out.
Gushing left his comrades on the
porch and, entering the unbolted door,
crept upstairs to the generals room,
which had been located for him by a
negro familiar with the house. With
his hand on the door he was startled by
a crash below and a cry from one Of his
men. Springing down the steps, he
found that his comrades in overcOnfi-
dence had alarmed the adjutant gen
..~1 -. I..s,koI :. x-iOlNur on1 khon
brought 1t down on a Federal revolver
which looked him in the face. Gushing
leaped into the room with a lighted
taper and dragged from bed a dazed
sleeper, who proved to be Hebert's
chief engineer, Captain Kelley. From
him he cleaned that the general, like
Lord Erskine during the Battle of the
Kegs" was lodging away from home.
The adjHtant general had fed
| through a back door after encountering
the revolver at the window, leaving
the drowsy captain as the next best
substitute for the more distinguished
prisoner to grace the admiraps board
next morning. The headquarters desks
were rified of papers and plans, and
while the alarm sounded through the
| camp and the drums beat the long roll
in the forts Gushing and party, with
Captain Kelley under guard. We're in
the middle of the river dropping down
stream as noiselessly as they came.
When Heiert reached his quarters it
was to meet a messenger bringing
from a flag of truce the followingA
My Dear General-I deeply regret that
| you were not horne when l called. l in
close my card. Very respectfully,
w. b. CUSHING.
Cushing's Nerve.
Gushing was not at that date a stran-
! ger to the North Carolina waters. nei-