We left for Mobile at 9 A.M., and arrived there at 7.15 P.M.
This part of the line was in very good order.
We were delayed a short time owing to a “difficulty” which had
occurred in the up-train. The difficulty was this. The engineer had shot a
passenger, and then unhitched his engine, cut the telegraph, and bolted up the
line, leaving his train planted on a single track. He had allowed our train to
pass by shunting himself, until we had done so without any suspicion. The news
of this occurrence caused really hardly any excitement amongst my
fellow-travellers; but I heard one man remark, that “it was mighty mean to
leave a train to be run into like that.” We avoided this catastrophe by
singular good fortune.1
The universal practice of carrying arms in the South is
undoubtedly the cause of occasional loss of life, and is much to be regretted;
but, on the other hand, this custom renders altercations and quarrels of very
rare occurrence, for people are naturally careful what they say when a bullet
may be the probable reply.
By the intercession of Captain Brown, I was allowed to
travel in the ladies' car. It was cleaner and more convenient, barring the
squalling of the numerous children, who were terrified into good behaviour by
threats from their negro nurses of being given to the Yankees.
I put up at the principal hotel at Mobile — viz., the “Battlehouse.”
The living appeared to be very good by comparison, and cost $8 a-day. In
consequence of the fabulous value of boots, they must not be left outside the
door of one's room, from danger of annexation by a needy and unscrupulous
warrior.
_______________
1 I cut this out of a Mobile paper two days
after:—
“attempt To Commit
Murder.—We learn that while the uptrain on the Mobile and Ohio Railroad
was near Beaver Meadow, one of the employees, named Thomas Fitzgerald, went
into one of the passenger cars and shot Lieutenant H. A. Knowles with a pistol,
the ball entering his left shoulder, going out at the back of his neck, making
a very dangerous wound. Fitzgerald then uncoupled the locomotive from the train
and started off. When a few miles above Beaver Meadows he stopped and cut the
telegraph wires, and then proceeded up the road. When near Lauderdale station
he came in collision with the down-train, smashing the engine, and doing
considerable damage to several of the cars.2 It is thought he there
took to the woods; at any rate he has made good his escape so far, as nothing
of him has yet been heard. The shooting, as we are informed, was that of
revenge. It will be remembered that a few months ago Knowles and a brother of
Thomas Fitzgerald, named Jack, had a renconter at Enterprise about a lady, and
during which Knowles killed Jack Fitzgerald; afterwards it is stated that
Thomas threatened to revenge the death of his brother; so on Sunday morning
Knowles was on the train, as stated, going up to Enterprise to stand his trial.
Thomas learning that he was on the train, hunted him up and shot him. Knowles,
we learn, is now lying in a very critical condition.”
_______________
2 This is a mistake.
SOURCE: Sir Arthur James Lyon Fremantle, Three
Months in the Southern States: April-June, 1863, p. 127-9
No comments:
Post a Comment