USA > Georgia > Floyd County > Rome > A history of Rome and Floyd County, State of Georgia, United States of America; including numerous incidents of more than local interest, 1540-1922, Volume I > Part 8
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I have seen Napoleon Bonaparte, I have seen the Duke of Wellington, I have seen the Emperor Alexander, the Emperor Francis, the King of Eng- land, the King of Prussia; I have seen Ney, Rapp, Blucher, Swartzenburg- in short, I have seen most of the con- temporary great men of Europe, as well as America, but I have never yet seen quite so great a man as the Tav- ern Keeper, Clerk of the Court, Post- master, County Treasurer, Captain, Colonel W. N. Bishop. He was now no longer the meek Moses of the Coun- cil Ground. He was all emphasis and frown to the poor prisoners in his power, but with a peculiar affection
to his men of bonhommie. He came into the mess room, exclaiming, "Ah, boys!" (for boys is the cant word by which they speak to and of each other in the lines). "Ah, boys, how are you?" and he walked around shaking hands with each of the boys, but to both of us he was especially cold and formal; to me he scarcely even deigned a specific nod.
Mr. Ross expressed a wish, through one of our sentries, for an interview, but no notice was taken of the re- quest. On the evening of that day, as I was walking to and fro before mny prison, reading, a voice bawled out, "Mr. Payne, that was a mistake of yours about what I said," and I saw Young bearing down upon me, flourishing a club. Someone called to the sentry, "Guard your prisoner!" and the sentry closed up towards me on one side, putting his gun in readi- ness for action, and about 30 of the Guard now drew nigh on the other. I did not conceive that there was any intention on the Sergeant's part to do mischief, although the Guard thought otherwise, and declared if he had struck, it would have been the un- luckiest blow of his life. He attempted to deny a part of his words and then to explain them away, but he saw it was of no use, and so the matter ended.
The Sergeant's revenge, however, was rather amusing. He said Mr. Ross and I should turn out of the bunk of which he was part owner. The men laughed and gave us one of theirs. Here is another instance of their su- periority to their officers. If we were state prisoners, however, we ought not, for our miserable straw, to have been dependent, either upon the men or upon the Sergeant.
Somewhere about this time a very extraordinary incident took place. A Dr. Farmer came into the room with one of the Guard. After sitting a while, he looked at me and said:
"Parlez vous Francais, Monsieur?" "Oui, Monsieur," I replied.
The doctor and the Guard now ex- changed looks, and both smiled.
"Je parle Francais," continued I, "mais Je suis Americain."
The doctor mused for a while and then departed with the Guard, leav- ing Mr. Ross and me alone. I ob- served, "This is a strange business. I think that man has something to com- municate which may be important, and he wished to know if I could speak
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JOHN HOWARD PAYNE'S ARREST BY THE GEORGIA GUARD
French that he might tell me his er- rand more freely."
Mr. Ross asked me what he had said. I replied that he only asked if I understood French, and I answered that I did, but was an American. Mr. Ross observed that he knew nothing of the man, but had heard bad stories of his connections. It then occurred to me that the doctor had merely meant to try his French upon me, and had soon got to the end of his stock. Nor did the scene return to my men- ory until I heard, on my liberation, that he had become one of my most formidable accusers; that he had said I confessed to him that my parents were French, and that I myself was an Abolitionist! The doctor must be within reach of this narrative. If he is innocent of the falsehood, it is due to himself to seek and expose the in- ventor.
The next thing we heard, Mr. John Ridge was in the enclosure and closet- ed with Col. Bishop. It was said that he was at first denied an interview with Mr. Ross, but at length Mr. Ross was sent for to meet Ridge and Bishop. After a few words, Bishop suddenly arose and left them together. When Mr. Ross returned, he exclaim- ed, "It's all out now; we are both Abolitionists and here for a capital offense. We are the agents of some great men, Mr. Clay, Mr. Calhoun, Judge White, Mr. Poindexter, and the Lord knows who; and we have both plotted in concert with them to raise an insurrection among the negroes, who are to join the Indians against the whites!"
I could not even yet regard the charge as having been made seriously, but Mr. Ross was assured it had been, and he added:
"Bishop wishes to screen Currey and take the arrest upon himself, so we had better say nothing about that."
In the evening Mr. Ridge had an- other interview, and on Monday, Nov. 16th, all were closeted for some hours. About four, Mr. Ross entered the room with a bundle in his hand.
"I've got my papers !" exclaimed he, and dashing them into the bunk, we went to dinner. Bishop and his broth- er sat opposite. They were silent, and all the party appeared nettled. I will do the brace of Bishops the jus- tice to own that they both, from first to last, seemed in their hearts ashamed to meet my glance, notwithstanding much outward swagger. When dinner
was ended, Col. Bishop, giving a sort of menacing look at me, exclaimed to the sentinel with an emphatic gesture, "Mr. Ross is discharged."
I walked back to my prison. Mr. Ross, after some time, came for his things. He said he was under the necessity of getting home that night; told me to make myself easy-all would come out right.
"You have never published anything about Bishop or the Guard in Lumpkin County, have you?" was his only re- mark.
"Not a syllable," replied I, "either in Lumpkin County, or any other county in Georgia or elsewhere."
"So I said," added he, "and you may as well explain that when you see Col. Bishop."
Mr. Ross seemed in haste. I imag- ined he had been interdicted from com- municating with me, and therefore asked no explanations, especially as the sentry was watching; nevertheless, I requested he would solicit an inter- view for me with Bishop, and ask a speedy examination of my papers. He went out and after some conversation with Bishop came back, and stated that Bishop had business that after- noon which would prevent his attend- ing to me, but the next day (Tues- day) he would see me; and then my companion mounted his horse and left me alone and with feelings and un- der a suspense and doubt by no means to be envied. This event, I observed, produced an instantaneous effect upon the manner of the Guard towards me; but ere long some of them seemed to feel a deeper sympathy than ever, and were marked, though silent, in their civility. Others were unusually rude. One man in particular, who was to have been a sort of ruler during Young's intended stay at Milledgeville, became very coarse.
"Here!" he bawled one day across the yard to me, after I had been for- gotten at the first table for dinner. "Here, you old prisoner you, come along and eat!"
At one time I apprehended an in- tention to increase the rigor of my treatment. I heard one of the officers calling for the Indian chain. "Where's the Indian chain?" This is a chain they keep expressly for the Indians, and the captive we found there, hav- ing been dismissed, as he was taken without law or reason assigned, the chain had been thrown under one of the bunks of our room and had been
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A HISTORY OF ROME AND FLOYD COUNTY
-
INDIAN RELICS FOUND ON FLOYD COUNTY FARMS
The bludgeon, axes and short shaft spear at the top were used for war and other pur- poses. The pestles in the center were employed to grind corn in wooden mortars. The bowl was unearthed on the E. J. Moultrie farm in the Coosa Valley and the arrow heads picked up In bottom lands and on hillsides here and there.
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JOHN HOWARD PAYNE'S ARREST BY THE GEORGIA GUARD
a while without an occupant. But my impression was not realized. The chain was undisturbed.
Although friends and acquaintances were rigorously excluded from my prison, there seemed no exclusion of any one who came out of mere cu- riosity. A drunken countryman stag- gered in one day. I was reading.
"I've spent all my money," said he, "waiting in this town to see John Ross and that other fellow."
I told him John Ross was gone. After a while he gave me a knowing wink and touched my elbow. "Aye, aye, mighty good books-I like 'em, too. I'm all for the ablutions." I ask- ed him what he meant. He then hint- ed that he had heard that John Ross was one of the ablutions, and so was he. I interrupted him; told him he was mistaken in John Ross; that I presumed I was "the other fellow," and that the story he had heard against us was all an invention, and if he wanted ablutions, as he called them, he must look for them elsewhere.
He begged a thousand pardons. The Guard then said it was against or- ders to talk to the prisoner, and my friend of the ablutions reeled out, bowing and hoping he "hadn't given no offense to nobody, only he did just want to have a look at the ablutions."
The time began to drag on more drearily than ever. I had read up all the books. I had no pen nor ink, nor paper to write with. My only amusement was parading before the door and mentally composing a dog- gerel description of my captivity, of which even the little that I remem- bered is not yet committed to paper. Scenes of extreme confusion were oc- curring hourly in my den. The eve- nings were almost insupportable. The room was thronged. A violin was tor- mented into shrieks and groans which were nicknamed music; there was dancing and singing until tattoo; and after that, conversation which ex- ceeded in vulgarity, profanity and filth anything I ever could have fancied. Almost the only exceptions which in the least could amuse were these:
"Where's that St. Helena," said the Sergeant, "that Kill Blast belonged to ?"
"St. Helena," replied I, "is the place where Bonaparte died. Gil Blas be- longed to another part of the world; Santillane in-"
"Ah yes; well, you remember most everything. I wish you'd remember
that I'm to take a dose of salts to- morrow morning at four, and tell me of it."
"Are you anything of a silversmith?" asked one of the young men. "I want to get some silver work fixed."
"Where's New York?" inquired an- other; "England, ain't it?"
"No, it's the largest city in our own country."
"But you must go to it over the ocean, mustn't you?"
"You may if you go the right way to work," I replied.
One day the sentry who was guard- ing me in a ramble round the grounds made a sudden halt, and dropping his musquet abruptly, stared me fiercely in the face.
"What do you follow when you're at home?"
I paused, returned the fierce stare, and replied, "Literature."
The man looked astounded. He stood a while motionless, then took up his gun. "Go on!" cried he, and we pro- ceeded in silence, he no doubt imag- ining that I had made a full confes- sion of my sins.
One evening the importance of knowing how to spell was discussed. "There's no use in it at all," said the oldest of the party, "because there's two ways to spell everything."
"Yes," I observed, "there's a right way and a wrong one."
"Come now," exclaimed one guard to another. "How would you spell axe? We'll leave it to the man (mean- ing me) to say which way's right."
"Oh, that's easy enough: A-X."
"No," was the reply, doubtingly, and with a glance at me. "There are three letters," observed I, "in the word."
"I know," said a third: "W-A-X."
"That spells wax!" exclaimed the first in triumph.
"E-A-X!" cried a fifth.
"That's eax," called out the third, with a laugh, and they all looked at me.
"There's the number of letters and the proper letters if they were only in the proper places. The E is at the wrong end," I observed.
"Ah, I know!" replied two or three, clapping their hands. "A-X-E." And so the contest ended.
The remainder of Monday, and then Tuesday, and then Wednesday passed off in the Colonel's paying arrearages
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A HISTORY OF ROME AND FLOYD COUNTY
to the men and settling accounts; and the men themselves were engaged in trafficking and settling up their lit- tle bills among themselves, and swap- ping. From first to last they had been wishing to swap for everything I had-my knife, my pistols, my horse, my saddle, my watch; in short, every- thing seemed to tempt them, but above all, a buffalo hide which I used over my saddle. My watch was a perpetual torment to me. Every five minutes, sometimes for hours, I was teazed to tell what o'clock it was; and at night I was desired to hang up my watch that the two sentinels might regulate their movements by it. Some of the Guards borrowed money from me, but except for a trifle, which was only withheld, probably because my sortie was unforeseen, all was punctually repaid. During all the remainder of the time, Bishop and his brother avoid- ed meeting me at table or elsewhere.
And now all pretense of business appeared at an end. Everything of that nature seemed to wind up with an auction, in which the Captain-Col- onel performed as Auctioneer to his men. Some rifles belonging to Indians who had been shot in attempting to escape capture were bid off; then a coat; then the "boys" were asked if they had anything else which they de- sired to sell, and then the "gentlemen" were thanked for their attention, and dismissed. After this the Captain-Col- onel seemed closeted upon secret busi- ness. I inferred from some circum- stances that he was making copies from among the manuscript documents I had transcribed regarding Cherokee affairs. They were mostly the same with the papers returned to Mr. Ross, but fairly written and arranged in or- der and therefore most convenient for a transcription. During this employ. a fine of $20 was proclaimed against any guard who should approach the door of the sanctum sanctorum, and a sentinel was ordered to keep watch and prevent intrusion.
All that I heard from without dur- ing the week was that Mr. Ross had sent a messenger, who was prevented from seeing me; and a guard apprised me that he had been requested by this messenger to say "my friends had not forgotten me; in a few days all would come right."
I learned afterward that this in- formant had proffered to convey to me letters or papers, and a note was consequently given to him, but it never came to hand. I had been told that
Mr. Schermerhorn was expected about this time, and I knew that if we met, decency would have rendered it im- perative on him to bring about my release. I asked Young, and he pre- tended not to know when the Rev- erend Commissioner would appear, but observed "he knew all about it, for news was sent off to him at once."
On Friday morning, Nov. 20th, Ser- geant Young told me he was going to his home. I had already understood that Col. Bishop was preparing for a trip to Milledgeville. Young had several times bantered me about "when I expected my furlough" and "why I didn't get on my horse and ride off." He repeated his jeers this morning. He asked me if I had not seen the Colonel yet. I replied no; expressed a wish to see him and desired Young to name my wish.
"The Colonel's got nothing agin you that I know of, except something you writ about us in Lumpkin." I replied I had written nothing in Lumpkin. "Well, then, in Habersham, when you was up there at Clarkesville."
I said that was equally a slander and asked as a point of common jus- tice, at least, to be shown the articles I was accused of having written. But Young evaded the request by saying, "At any rate, you wrote a letter where you called the Guard banditti, for we found that among your papers; and you ought not to have wrote such a letter.'
"Have I not a right to make what private notes I please? The paper you speak of was never published. Even though it had been, no one can be justified in complaining of me for only exercising a privilege guaranteed to me by the constitution of my native country. But it was not published and could form no part of the cause of my arrest, nor of the pretext for my detention."
"I mean to keep them letters," said Young, "in case you should ever print anything if you ever git out, so as to prove it agin you. I don't give them up. You oughtn't to have said the Guard looked like banditti."
It was not above half an hour after this when I perceived preparations for something unusual. The men were all summoned to be ready at the roll of the drum. My horse was ordered out, as I understood, to be taken to water. But I was convinced from many signs that I myself was the object of the mysterious movements. A son of the
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JOHN HOWARD PAYNE'S ARREST BY THE GEORGIA GUARD
Colonel kept staring around at me with intense curiosity, and many oth- ers looked on in silence, as persons look upon any one about to under- go some terrible ordeal. The Colonel's horse was saddled and put in read- iness, and another horse was also pre- pared, and Mr. Joshua Holden ap- peared, equipped for a campaign. At length the drum beat. I heard the sergeant say, recommending some one to the Captain-Colonel, "He may be trusted."
And now one of the Guard ran to me: "Your saddlebags, your saddle- bags." "Why?" "You're going out." I went to the bunk. "Is there not some mischief intended?" asked I. "I can't tell. but you'd better make me a present of that buffalo hide." "No," answered I; "it was given to me and has been too good a friend to me in trouble." The guard took the saddle- bags and buffalo skin, and with it a very large and cumbersome cloak and some loose clothes. I found them heaped upon my horse. "The straps to fasten these are not here." "I can't help it," was the answer. "Get on, get on!" "I can not over this pile of things." "You must." "This is not my bridle; mine was a new one and double. Where are my martin- gales, my straps?" "Get on, get on!" I was compelled to mount, and the mass of unfastened things was piled up before me; the saddle was loosely girted, and the horse was startled, and, as if on purpose, covered with mud. I still claimed my bridle, but was con- ducted in front of the paraded Guard, he who led my horse muttering as he went, "That's the bridle they said was yours."
The Captain-Colonel stood in front of his men. "Halt your horse there, sir, and beware how you speak a word." I attempted to speak, but he shouted :
"Be silent, sir; look upon them men. Them's the men you in your writings have called banditti."
Whether the eloquent Captain-Col- onel imagined I meant to reply, I can not say, but he repeated eagerly :
"Don't speak, sir!"
And I did not speak, but I did look upon the men, and if ever I compared them in appearance to banditti, the glance of that moment made me feel that I ought to ask of any banditti the most respectful pardon. Spirit of Shakespeare, forgive me too! For if thy Falstaff and his ragged regiment
came into my mind at such a moment, it was my misfortune, not my fault. But I will proceed.
"You've come into this country to pry, ever since you arriv, into things you've no business with. You're a damned incendiary, sir! You've come into this country to rise up the Cher- okees against the whites. You've wrote agin these worthy men (pointing to the Guards). You've wrote agin the State of Georgia. You've wrote agin the gineral Government of the United States. Above all, sir, you've wrote agin me! Now, sir-"
Then turning with an aside speech to some bystander, I think it was Mr. Joshua Holden, "Hand the things," said the Captain-Colonel, and a bun- dle with a loop, carefully prearranged so as to let the arm through, was given to me.
"Now, sir, take your papers; hang 'em on your arm, sir, and I order you to cut out of Georgia. If you ever dare agin show your face within the limits of Georgia, I'll make you curse the moment with your last breath. With your foul attacks on me you've filled the Georgia papers."
I could not well endure to hear as- sertions so utterly unfounded, and took advantage of the pause of the elo- quent Captain-Colonel for breath, and exclaimed rather vehemently :
"Upon my honor, no, sir !"
"Hold your tongue, I say," resumed my jailor. "The minute you hear the tap of the drum, I tell you to cut out of this yard, and I order you never while you exist to be seen in this state of ours any more, for if you are, I'll make you rue it! Let this be a lesson to you, and thank my sympathy for a stranger that you've been treated with such extraordinary kindness; and now, sir, clear out of the state forever, and go to John Ross, God damn you!"
I looked on this pitiable exhibition with more of passion than resentment, and it seemed to me as if most of the Guard felt sorry for their leader. Never before did I so forcefully re- alize the truth of that beautiful pas- sage-
Frail man, frail man, Drest in a little brief authority
Plays such fantastic tricks before high Heaven As make the angels weep!
I claimed my bridle again, but in vain, and I then moved of necessity
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A HISTORY OF ROME AND FLOYD COUNTY
slowly from the place, because I had great difficulty in retaining the things that had been piled upon my horse. When I got outside the lines, some of the affairs dropped off, and I stopped to ask a person to hand them to me, and at the same time to inquire the route to Big Spring .* On turning a corner a stranger told me I had bet- ter stop and dismount and arrange my baggage; and just then a gentleman called to me that he wished a word with me, and approached. He said he had a letter for me. I asked him the direction towards the residence of Mr. Ross. I saw that the letter he hand- ed me was from Mr. Ross, and related to my route. At that moment Col. Bishop and Mr. Josiah Holden dashed up like fiends. Bishop cursed me, threatened me, if I dared speak to any "damned Nullifier," and menaced to make an example out of me if I did not get out of the State. I paused to return the letter and to ask the road, but my pursuers continued to execrate and to roar. I went on and for the last time had the honor of again hearing the Colonel's eloquence, in a volley of oaths as he passed back towards the camp, threatening my life as a "damned old rascal" if he ever caught me daring to speak to another man in Georgia.
I turned abruptly, entirely ignor- ant of the way, into a little wood. Descending a slippery spot, my horse, which had been startled by the rush- ing of the pursuers, stumbled. The saddle, which had been scarcely girt- ed on, turned, the large cloak caught around his legs and I found myself equally entangled in its folds with the horse, one of whose fore hoofs was planted on my breast. He snorted and stood in a sort of stupor of amaze- ment, his mouth open and almost touching mine, his ears erect, his nos- trils distended, and his eyes staring wildly into my eyes, for at least a minute. It is singular enough that I felt not the slightest sense of danger or even uneasiness; I only thought it best to remain quiet until I found what the horse meant to do; and then I took his hoof, lifted it aside, dis- engaged myself, arose and with some difficulty got my cloak from around his limbs. He did not even stiffen a joint when I lifted his foot from my breast, nor did I feel, while it was planted there, the slightest pressure, although the form of the hoof was by the red clay in which he had been tramping, so strongly defined upon my shirt bosom that it might in New
England have answered for a sign to keep away the witches. But no sooner was the danger wholly past than I felt feeble and faint and perfectly unmanned. I had never, from the be- ginning to the end of my misadven- ture, experienced any sensation like that which now came over me.
I could scarcely move. Before me there was a muddy streamlet across which there arose a hill with a hut at its top. I determined to walk up to that hut and there seek assistance in adjusting my things for a journey, and purchase cords or straps of some sort. But I could scarcely drag my horse through the stream. He was ravenous for water and kept me stand- ing in the middle of it while he drank. The woman of the house was much agitated by my appearance. She ask- ed, trembling and in tears "if the Guard would not come to her and hurt her for speaking to me." She seemed exceedingly anxious for me to get out of sight. I answered that I could not think they would be so brutal. I now found that my buffalo hide was miss- ing. I promised to pay another wom- an for going back to look for it, as it must have fallen close at hand. She returned presently and said it was not there.
I had by this time secured my things with ropes. In paying the one woman I gave silver to pay the other. I could not help being struck by the cir- cumstance, under all this alarm at the hut, of my being called to by the one of these people who had fail- ed to accomplish her errand, to know whether I had left any money for her too.
It so chanced that I got upon the direct road to McNair's, some 15 miles off and within the chartered limits of Tennessee. It is an Indian family. Nothing could be kinder or more cor- dial than my reception and treatment, notwithstanding the strong probabil- ity they fancied of my being still pur- sued thither for fresh torment by the Guard. They looked upon me as one risen from the dead. At McNair's I was for the first time fully apprised of the dangers which had beset me and which were still to be dreaded. I found that during my thirteen days' captiv- ity the most industrious efforts had been made to excite the country against me as an Abolitionist and a Foreign
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