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124 NOTED GUERRILLAS, OR either a stern or tragical beginning. Wood, standing at the back of some friends fighting in the streets of Denver, had re- flected upon him many of the more sombre lights of the quarrel, and felt to lay hands upon him that most monstrous of all organizations of brutality and cowardice, a western Vigilance Committee. It was ten against two hundred. Word went instantly to John C. Moore, then editor, ex-mayor and lawyer, that the toils had closed over Carroll. He neither asked the right nor the wrong of the arrest-he simply saw the danger; he did not discuss the philosophy or the morality of the proceeding -he only informed himself that they had his friend. As he hurried he buckled on a revolver. Wood's ten comrades were about him and nearest to him, but the peril was imminent. He was known to be a rebel, "dead game," not over given to take a slight or a taunt, and the Vigilantes hated him; the hour had come to cast up and count the score and to settle it. "Hang him!" two hundred bass throats roared out--that volumned, ferocious roar which has in it the malignity of the faction and the selfishness of the born coward on top through circumstances and numbers. Moore was not a second too soon. The rope was being knotted and noosed. Wood, just a little pale from the swift blood that flowed so fiercely, lifted up his undaunted eyes to all the hungry faces in front of him and gazed thereon, steadily but superciliously. Splendid scorn might be all that death intended to leave to him at the finish. Moore put himself before the prisoner and the wild beasts showing their teeth and licking their lips, and spoke to them. That he spoke nobly and- eloquently it is not necessary to assert. That he spoke practi- cally and adroitly the sequel made more than manifest. Best of all, however, it was the peroration which exhibited the man. "I have now done," he said quietly in conclusion, "what the duty of the advocate required of me; it is the duty of the friend which I do next." As he finished he came down from the stand and placed himself alongside of Wood, his revolver in readiness and his resolution taken. It is enough to know that there was no hanging. Wood lives to-day, a factor in the great peaceful body of thriving citizens, the past a memory that cannot die, and his acts therein fashioned of soldierly episodes from Lexington, 1861, to Newtonia, 1864. West came to Gen. Jeff. Thompson scarred from a bowie-knife
Object Description
Title | Noted guerrillas, or the warfare of the border |
Author | Edwards, John N. (John Newman), 1839-1889 |
Description | A history of the lives and adventures of Quantrell, Bill Aderson, George Todd, Dave Poole, Fletcher Taylor, Peyton Long, Oll Shepherd, Arch Clements, John Maupin, Tuch and Woot Hill, Wm. Gregg, Thomas Maupin, the James Brothers, the Younger Brothers, Arthur McCoy and numerous other well known guerrillas of the West |
Subject.LCSH |
United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Underground movements Missouri -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 Southwest, Old -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 Quantrill, William Clarke, 1837-1865 Kansas -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 Guerrillas |
Subject.Local | Quantrell, William Clarke, 1837-1865; Quantrell, Charles William, 1837-1865; Quantrill, W. C. (William Clarke), 1837-1865; Hart, Charley, 1837-1865 Anderson, William T. |
Coverage | United State -- Missouri |
Source | St. Louis, Mo. : Bryan, Brand & Company, 1877. |
Language | English |
Date.Original | 1877 |
Date.Digital | 2004 |
Type |
Books and pamphlets |
Format | JPEG |
Collection Name | Civil War in Missouri - Monographs |
Editorial Note | All blank pages have been eliminated |
Publisher.Digital | University of Missouri Digital Library Production Services |
Rights | These pages may be freely searched and displayed. Permission must be received for subsequent distribution in print or electronically. Please contact contributing institution for information. |
Contributing Institution |
University of Missouri--Columbia. Libraries |
Copy Request | Contact Ellis Library Special Collection, University of Missouri - Columbia at (573) 882-0076 or email: SpecialCollections@missouri.edu |
Description
Title | civm000003p0124 |
Description | 124 NOTED GUERRILLAS, OR either a stern or tragical beginning. Wood, standing at the back of some friends fighting in the streets of Denver, had re- flected upon him many of the more sombre lights of the quarrel, and felt to lay hands upon him that most monstrous of all organizations of brutality and cowardice, a western Vigilance Committee. It was ten against two hundred. Word went instantly to John C. Moore, then editor, ex-mayor and lawyer, that the toils had closed over Carroll. He neither asked the right nor the wrong of the arrest-he simply saw the danger; he did not discuss the philosophy or the morality of the proceeding -he only informed himself that they had his friend. As he hurried he buckled on a revolver. Wood's ten comrades were about him and nearest to him, but the peril was imminent. He was known to be a rebel, "dead game," not over given to take a slight or a taunt, and the Vigilantes hated him; the hour had come to cast up and count the score and to settle it. "Hang him!" two hundred bass throats roared out--that volumned, ferocious roar which has in it the malignity of the faction and the selfishness of the born coward on top through circumstances and numbers. Moore was not a second too soon. The rope was being knotted and noosed. Wood, just a little pale from the swift blood that flowed so fiercely, lifted up his undaunted eyes to all the hungry faces in front of him and gazed thereon, steadily but superciliously. Splendid scorn might be all that death intended to leave to him at the finish. Moore put himself before the prisoner and the wild beasts showing their teeth and licking their lips, and spoke to them. That he spoke nobly and- eloquently it is not necessary to assert. That he spoke practi- cally and adroitly the sequel made more than manifest. Best of all, however, it was the peroration which exhibited the man. "I have now done," he said quietly in conclusion, "what the duty of the advocate required of me; it is the duty of the friend which I do next." As he finished he came down from the stand and placed himself alongside of Wood, his revolver in readiness and his resolution taken. It is enough to know that there was no hanging. Wood lives to-day, a factor in the great peaceful body of thriving citizens, the past a memory that cannot die, and his acts therein fashioned of soldierly episodes from Lexington, 1861, to Newtonia, 1864. West came to Gen. Jeff. Thompson scarred from a bowie-knife |
Source | Noted Guerrillas, or the Warfare on the Border |
Type | Books and monographs |
Format | JPEG |
Identifier | civm000003p0124.jpg |
Collection Name | Civil War in Missouri - Monographs |
Editorial Note | All blank pages have been eliminated |
Publisher.Digital | University of Missouri Digital Library Production Services |
Rights | These pages may be freely searched and displayed. Permission must be received for subsequent distribution in print or electronically. Please contact koppk@umsystem.edu for more information. |
Copy Request | Contact Ellis Library special collection at: SpecialCollections@missouri.edu |