North Carolina Newspapers

GEN. STONEMAN AND HIS PB.IS ONER. I' A Thrilling: Incident of the War. In the eaily spring of 1865, just before the final surrender of Lee and Johnston, General Stoneman, with a divisionj of federal cavalry, pushed his way from East Tennessee through the range of mountains separat ing; Tennessee and North Caro lina, in a movement made to co operate j with Sherman's ad vance from South Carolina. He expected no serious opposition until after the harrier of the Blue Ridge had been passed, at the foot of this range of moun tains in the manufacturing (vil lage of Patterson in North Caro lina. Here was situated jthe only cotton mill in a radius of near one hundred miles, and it was run to its utmost capacity, day and night, to supply cotton thread and "domestic" cloth for a large portion or tne uaro linas, Tennessee, Virginia and Kentucky. The mills at Patterson were ! of such serious importance that their protection required con stant vigilance ; and there were in the vicinity kept almost constantly there squads of what in the local parlance were called " Home Guards," men exempt from the confederate conscription. j About the mills could be seen at all times then, wagons and teams of citizens and traders from the surrounding territory ; it was not unusual to find buy ers ! there from a distance of more than a hundred miles in north or westerly directions.) The day before Stoneman's arrival at Patterson, his couts and spies had been in the Vil lage. Conflicting accounts were given him about the "soldiers" or home guards around. The factory women reported that ' 4 many soldiers had been seen near." These were the fur lousrhed men of the South sroins: to and from their homes. The day, the General arrived there had come, just in the ad vance and not suspecting the federal cavalry in his rear, a lame and stammering man, well known throughout the whole region. His name was Osborne. He had with him a valuable wagon and team.' For his "pro tection" he always kept with him a sagacious and strong dog and a good shooting pistol. It should be remembered here, that there were, about the time referred .to, bands of plunderers known as " Vaughan's Men," who were constantly prowling through this region. They were the stragglers and outliers from a brigade of confederate caval ry. These marauders, away from their officers, robbed friend and foe alike. The Southern people had begun to dread these clrnllrciTa nnrl 1 r1nnrlori7c I ocs much as they did another band of thieves and robbers, who, S re fusing to enter either army, fed eral or confederate, yet availed themselves of the license of war and the absence of authority and law in tne State, plundered the confederate sympathisers with remorseless hand. Tney were variously known as " Tor ies," "Bushwhackers" and "The Robbers." It often oc curred that robberies were made in the night time, and it was difficult to tell whether the vil lains were "iVaughan's Men " or; "The Robbers." The South erners hated the one no less uiciii me oiner. inis mucn is necessary to explain the action of Osborne in the incident to follow. Osborne was "intensely southern. The man was encamped j at Patterson when the federal cav alry arrived. The advance guard rode into town just after dark, and no one knew exactly "what was j up "in the lan guage of the town. But a Re port at once reached Osborne f.Vinf TVA T?hl'iT', worn unnn the citizens.! He hastened) to his wagon ; when he reached it his faithful dog within was barking furiously at some one endeavoring to get into the front opening of the wagon "body." Osborne, seeing the man, took out his pistol, 'at tempting to drive the man away and supposing him to be one1 of the baud of robbers. i The stranger ran out into the dark a few steps and fired a 11 v U UtlUK clt KJOWLLIKJ. 1111111 1?" diately a cry arose, " One of our men is killed !" Instantly some cay al rymen rushed toward the wagon and struck Osborne sev eral blows over the ' nead and completely frdin his hqacL ! Although a cripple, badly lamed from the effects of "white swelling," Osborne managed to i i i 1 1 make his escape, running jw- shoulders with , their sabres one cut severing: his ear almost ward the main factory building!, which was i faintly lighted up. As he fled a soldier with a car bine fired a shot at him. The fugitive was not a rod away; the shot struck him and Os borne fell at once to the earth!, uttering a horrible groan. j " Now !" said the soldier with an oath. " He'll run no furth er Osborne, however, had fallen into the shadow of one of the walls, and could not be immej diately found. But the report ran at j once to General Stonet man, who by this time naa got ten upon the scene of action- that a citizen was killed. ! The man was not killed. He Jiad been j well nigh fatally struck ; and-so close to the muz zle of the firing piece had he jbeen that his clothing was on jure, and he was m danger of being burned to death. He crawled into the building and begged an operative to put out the fire which was by thi$ time ablaze in his apparel. The workmen had a double fright f the shooting on the outside, and he man on fire on the inside of a cotton mill, and in the "lap room," where the danger was double and the whole event transpiring almost in the twinkj ling of an eye and so suddenly that the inmates of the mill did hot know they were surrounded by the army in blue. j The cotton man drove Osborne from his room. He (Osborne j Went to the outer door, and there he saw the guns of the soldiery awaiting him. He wheeled about, running through, the main building towards the garret of the mill, the soldiers pursuing him. By this time the lights in the upper story had been extin-j guished, and as Osborne was familiar with his surroundings j he had an opportunity to find a place of concealment on the roof of a mill. I j . The soldiers got a candle and made dilligent search - for himl within the building. Failing toj find the man therein, the men! were so enraged they "swore they would discover him with; fire if nothing else could produce him. Whereupon they stuck! the candle in a lot of cotton vaste on the floor, and immedi4 ately descended to the ground below, j ! ' There: were two alternates that were now left to the man i One was to get down and out of the buildings and that quicklyj Or else perish in the flames. j j There ! was a lightning rod! running from the roof to the ground,! and as quick as1 a flash! he thought of descent down itj He cut the tops from his boots! at once,! and made cushions fori his hands, fearing that in the downward slide the friction1 would burn him in that effort.! It was a perilous project, how-: ever; and yet this might fail him; for would he not then be-; come, in the descent, a conspic-! uous marK tor the aun 01 the enraged soldiery ? I A revelation befriended! him.! He saw that the flames beneath him m the cotton were making slow headway, and so he had time for reflection. His decis ion wasjthat he would cry for; mercy, that he would beg fort quarter,! j and appeal in every! way he possibly knew ot. j He shouted to the frenzied crowd gathered below to tle troops who were under the false impression that a comrade had! been fired upon from the build mg. He cried loudly that he was a citizen and wanted to sur render. ! i j When; he came down, he was at once irecognized as the man who had drawn, but not ! fired his pistol upon a soldier. He! was instantly struck by several Ot the! soldier's comrades Whereupon he gave in an em phatic, manner, what is known as the "sign of distress" among the masonic fraternity. He shouted it aloud, . in terms hon est, vigorous, earnest, frantic. j Standing by an adjacent lisrht was an ; umuer looKing over a military! j map. He heard the: prisoners cry of distress, and he at once plunped through the! mass of soldiery, around the man; and with the loud com mand of authority shouting "Hold there ! Let him alone ! Touch him not !" j Instantly the soldiers obeyed and the Drisoner stood tre bling and bleeding and ' for all uie wuriu xiKe a irignienea nare m inecapior s nanus, i "Come with me!" said the ofii cer, arid he ; Ted'OsboTne1 ' away. Several i times 1 in" ihe esrress throiigh! j the! ; "bird"4gtffire"(i drOuhb!? there were ' shb wn"4 ais-i positions to give him further violence; but the decisive tones of the'omcer in charo-A Pt at naught' dll the efforts at further harm.- The prisoner was soon before General Stoneman, who was quartered in the house of Mr. Patterson, the owner of S the mill. : : - :--! ; I -l v "Here is the man, general" said the officer with j the "pris oner. "I thought , he was reported killed," replied General Stone man, somewhat astonished! i "No, he has surrendered. He is hurt and asks for protection. ' ' The general directed that the wounds be dressed, and that the man be placed in comfortable quarters till morning, when he would see him again. i Next morning Osborne! was ordered to report to the general. When he had come again I into his presence, he made his state-H ment that he was simply a trader, exempt from military service in consequence of his affliction, that he had presumed to offer resistance under the sin cere conviction that he was not confroting regular soldiery j but the common enemy, the public robber, known to General Stone man himself to be in the coun try. He showed the sabre and gun scars and cuts over head and face. The bullet the soldier had fired at him had cut through six thicknesses of leather hold ing! his cartridges, had gone through all his clothing besides, and was lodged asrainst the skin near the spinal column; it had knocked him down, severely stunning him; while the fire of the gun, and fr om the explosion of his own cartridge, had burned him seriously.! (It was the ex plosion of these cartridges doubtless that! created the im pression upon the soldiers that they were being fired upon from the ; shadow or the building where the man lay after haying been struck down.) Osborne's left ear was quite gone: but a surgeon's skill had partially saved it. I ! General Stoneman heard the man's story. He then directed that there be restored to him all his j efXects, Wagon and team, including also the faithful 1 dog that had so jealously i guarded the contents of the wagon dur ing the night, and whose fidelity to his charge had been so ap preciated by the soldiers, that they spared his life. Twenty odd years have passed since these events, and the man Osborne, for the first time since, has revisited the scene o his thrilling escape. From his Own lips I have the story I have written for your readers. I For four, years I was myself a sol dier, encountering during the period many tnriiiing ana hair breadth escapes, but none more deserving a place m literature than this episode in the life (of a civilian. I Auburn, Ala Wonders of j the Dead, Sea. One of the most interesting lakes in the world is the Dead Sea, which has no visible outlet. It is not mere fancy that has clothed the Dead Sea in gloom. The desolate shores, with scarce ly a !green thing in sight, and ragged driftwood, forma fitting frame for the dark. ! sluggish waters, covered with a perpetu al mist, and breaking in slow. heavy, sepulchral-toned waves upon the beach. It ( seems as if the smoke of the wicked cities was vet I as- scending up to: heaven, arid as ml if the moan of their fearful bor row would never leave the God- smitten valley . ! 1 It is a strange thing to see those waves, not dancing along and I snarklinar in the snii. as other waves do, but moving with measured melancholy, land sending to the ear, I as they break languidly upon the rOck only doleful sounds. ! i This is no doubt owing to the great heaviness of the water, a fact. I well known, and which we amply verified m the usual way for, on attempting to swimi we went floating about like empty casks. ! . j Tliat fish cannot live in this strong solution of bitumen' and salt is too obvious to need nroof: but to say birds cannot fly over it and live, is one of the exag gerations of travellers, who perhaps were not, like ourselves so fortunate as to see a flock of ucks reposing on the banks in apparently good hesalth. And yet this was all the life we did see. The whole vallev was brie seething caldron, under mure imm a, tropical SUn. IjrOd fbrsakeri : and man-forsaken no green' thihe brows' Nvithih it. arid It reiriains to this d'ay as nllriYi'v nmnUi riinw0 "xm c uivuuuiCUl KJL JJJL o feul4itfdi?nieritf-iaa .-wlteiif 'the firefromv heaven devoured the once mighty cities of the plain , I " I ' ' f ' Subscribe forTHE Democrat Rest! f : ! 1 - i ! f , - . . - : i il ' i.':-.; - ... Estat. ASHEYILLE, :: N. :: c. re.-;, x Dealers in Real Estate In all its branches Refer, by- Permission, to all the SIS Banks ; of Asheville. '! 'i i For Particulars, Price List, Etc., apply or address us ?r - - il l r-5 'f ' - 4 , at this place. I THE ASHEILLE - : 'k. :' 'I: Lare 8jpage A ROBT M. Fu RMAN lASHEVILLE, N. C. THE PAPER FOB THE PEOPLE. r . ' - i 1 It will be a large, 8-page J weekly and Political interests of Western North Carolina. It will be the earnest endeavor of the editors to make THE DEMOCRAT useful tothe great and i - . , -i i- r-.-.j-: : . .. : . ;; -: . .... - varied interests of this rapidly growing city and section. No efforts will 7. : : s i . 1 - I, -.- . ' ' be spared to make it entirely acceptable because of tts usefulness. DEMOCRATIC IN POLITICS It will be Democratic in politics name and the life-time creed of its THE INDUSTRIAL INTERESTS OF THIS SECTION, Agricultural, Mechanical j and Mining, will receeive special attention. The resources of every county', the various enterprises of all the people, will have constant Consideration. The department for the Home Circle will be complete. As THE DEMOCRAT isj already assured a large circulation in the city of Asheville and all the Western Counties, it will be an excellent medium for advertisers. Rates will be reasonable.' ' Send in your names with the cash THE lASpVILLE DEMOCRAT, FURMAN & iA.slieviUe, H. C. We will thank anyj ihe States or Territories that we may DEMOCRAT, ' -' -: ' -: l. - Weekly Paper, BY AND DAVID'iyi. VANCE, t T ir paper, deyoted to the Social, Industrial emphatically and reliably so as its editors imply. at once. Address, VANCE, Editors, one for any name or names of friends residing in any of send spetimen "amies of THE DEMOCRAT.