l:t::r^ft.t f 11 
 
 Cj EX "I I B R I S t Jifea-g^ 
 
 BRUCE COTTEN 
 
 COLLECTION 
 
 GF 
 
 NORTH CAROLINIANA 
 
 ' " ' " I ' . i ? ''i f ' '' ", ';: "ff I I ' ''•!' ir v >iiiiirw 'i | WH ' | i " ii!| w i''i i ii i i ii i' b 
 
 OKBlRBEftsl 
 
Note: This book not to be copied 
 by instant copier. Photo- 
 graphs have been copied and 
 the North Carolina Collect- 
 ion has negatives for re- 
 production purposes. 
 
^j 
 
 
 III pn'scnfiiiirtlils Series of iiitonsoly interostiiis? SEA ROMANCES to the Readinj? Coi 
 iiiiinilv, file riihlislioi- luis the satisfaction of liiiouiii? that they are 
 
 The very best Books of their kind ever issued. 
 
 a 
 
 LIST OF BOOKS COMPRISING THE 
 
 ''RED IWOLiP" 
 
 IVTo. 1. Red mrolf, the Pirate. 
 
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 appears— The Yankee B'rivaleer and King of tl»e Waves-The Beautiful Sistei 
 described-Titrousrhoul the book the ^iVolf sIiowk his fan^s. 
 
 No. 2. Th@ Black Brothers. 
 
 A Sail iu Si:;iu-Thc Criuisuii Oranarht J— Kousrh ^Veather— The Young^ Pilot Appea. 
 — Tlie Queeu of the .nist— Meath on the Altar Steps— Waitiug- for Death on tit 
 ICaft. 
 
 Wo. 3. The Pirate^s 
 
 Ilarrv's StiaSaKem— Ke.l ^Voif% Resol vc-St.irtlinar Discoveries— The Pirate Shi 
 Itlown I'p-Ked AVolf (ondeuined— Horrible Cruelties of the Indians— The Shii 
 on Fire. 
 
 Itfo. 4. The M^ffsterious Cavern. 
 
 l::scupL' from the Pirates-A Misfht in the Convent— The Terrible Coufession— Th 
 .■^1 jsleraous JCxccutioner. 
 
 IVTo. 5. Jamha^ the Blach Pirate. 
 
 'Ihe l»lot— The Meed of Blond— Tlie I»i;ule Ivingr doom« the Vatikcc I'j-ivateer to Beat! 
 -The Brave lieutenant -.^Icctiu^ of Ihe Black Panther and the Albatros 
 
 No. 6. The Black ESagle. 
 
 .\:jrht on the Waters— A Treacherous Trick- The Bandit and his Cliarg-e— The t,on( 
 House- Mysterious Affair— The Accident in the Vaults. 
 
 No. 7. Diana^ the Sorceress. 
 
 The Stransre Missive— The Duel b>- Mooniisrht -The Marocn fterl-An Old Salt— Th 
 'I'erriblc's Cabin— Strange Scenes at the Wedding- of Estelle The C^aptain of th 
 Schooner proves himself to be a Villain. 
 
 No. 8. The Ocean Monarch. 
 
 
 Clever Trick-Fearful Trap— Charley Precipitated into the Y'awning- Gulf !— Ashlej 
 in his Cell -A Strangre Scene— Death of the Black Pirate— Conclusion. 
 
 Kach of the above books is handsamely printed, on nice Tvliite paper fronK cleat 
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 PRICE TWENTY -FIVE CENTS EACH. 
 
 Sitiffle copies sent to any address, in the United States, or Canada, postage free, on recet'p* y ;$tail price 
 ( Ticentif-fue cmts ) Affdras 
 
 R. M. DeWITT, Publisher, 
 
 33 Rose St., betiveen Ouane and Frankfort Sts., New York. 
 
THE 
 
 SWAMP OUTLAWS: 
 
 OR, 
 
 THE NORTH CAROLINA BANDITS. 
 
 Being a Complete History of 
 
 THE MODERN ROB ROYS AND ROBIN HOODS. 
 
 «♦■ 4» «»■ 
 
 NEW-YORK : 
 ROBERT M. DE WITT. PUBLISHER. 
 
 NO. S3 ROSE STREET, 
 {Between Duane and Frankfort Ureets) 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 -^* -♦•^ •»'<^— 
 
 The liomelj'' old ndage tli:it there is noUiin^- " new tinder the sun " is coiiPtantly 
 vcrifu'fl bj- actual facts occm iiif;- evciy day. The accouiils handed down by tradition 
 of" tiie bold arclMM" Kobin Hood" kee[)hig whole counties on the alert, and disputing 
 the li^-lii to kill fat bucks in tlie i\>yal torest with the boldest barons, have scenied al- 
 most too daring forbelief, yetliere we have— in this cnligiitened period of the world's 
 history — a whole State of the most powerful and most enliglilened nation of" tlie 
 earth successfully defied by a band ol less than a dozen Outlaws. Individual 
 hunters essay to track and capture Ihoni, and their bones bleach in t!ie forest paths 
 for their temerit}', troops — regtUar and irregular — alteuipt tlieir subjugation, and are 
 ingloriously repelled b}'^ these dauntles, law-defying Bandits, ' 
 
 Not only are thej' secure in their swauipj-^ retreats. They boldly make raids into 
 the neighboring cotuitry, and release prisoners from the constituted authoi-itios. 
 They fearlessly enter towns and deliberately carry off the municipal archives and 
 county treasiu'es — removing by main force immense Herring safes, whose strength 
 bafllcd violence and whose ingeniouslj'^-coustrucled locks no skill could opoji. 
 
 The most fertile brain never conjuied up such deeds of courage, ciuolty and skill- 
 ful military strat;\gem as bavc marked tiie career of these undaunted men, in whose' 
 veins the blood of tiie Indian antl Negro is sti-angely connningled. indeed, it seems 
 jis if the white Frankenstein by his crimes lias raised a fearful monster that will not 
 tlown at the bidding ot his affrighted master. 
 
 Strange, unlikely and almost incredible as tbc deeJs may appear ■which crimson 
 the sluggish swamp streams of the Old North State, and which are graphically 
 narrated in the following pages,tbey may be relied on as perfeclly antlieutic. They 
 are collected from the cohunns of the ^ <w York Herald. It seems almost superllu- 
 ous, at this late daj', to say anything in praise of the wonderful resources and world- 
 reacliing enterprises of this great journal. At a time when the proprietor of the 
 Herald is supporting a corps of brave men in the dense tropical forests ot Africa, 
 seeking to reach and save Livingstone (a task, by tbe way, that bis own government 
 has slirank from); when his coriespondeuts are interviewing Bismarck and compar- 
 ing notes with Gladstone — be finds time and means to send an intelligent corres- 
 pondent I'igbt into tlie heart of tbe country where the red bowie-knife and death- 
 dealing rifles of tbe Swamp Outlaws are carrying dismay and terror into the heart.* 
 of men, women and children. Indeed, there ai)pears to bo nothing too small foi its 
 microscopic or too large foi- its telescopic vision. A Baxter street light or a Sedan 
 conflict alike find in the ubiqitous columns of the New York Herald " a local habi- 
 tation and a name." 
 
 (vii.) 
 

 THE SWAMP OUTLAWS. 
 
 Among- the L.owerys, the Outlaw Ter 
 
 rors of North Carolina— Tiisonrora. 
 !Seii(\y,al and Caticasian Blood JliiijJ- 
 liii;;' ill Tlicir Veins — Histni\- of tli(!ir 
 Caiiipaig'n — A Bloody Nine Years' 
 Kc;l:oixI— Sixleeu Murders, — Three 
 Ilinidred Robberies, and Not a Man 
 Lo-t to riie Band— Ho|)oles,s Condi- 
 tion ot All'iiis- The Old Nortii State 
 Disniaj'e 1 and Battled — Grajilde Pen 
 Pietnre of Henry Berry Lowery. 
 tiie Ontlaw Ciiief— Portrails ot 
 '• B()>^"" Stroni;-, Steve Lower}', 
 Anilrew Stronij and Tom Lowery. 
 
 Shoe IIkel, N. C, Feb. 27, 1872. 
 The bandit of North Carolina, Henry 
 Berry Lowery, standing in perfect dis- 
 dain of the autlioritics of the State, as 
 well as of the federal troops, it was 
 d(?einod necessary to send a Herald 
 correspondent to study the situation. 
 
 TO THE SEAT OF WAR. 
 
 1 left Washington City Thursday night 
 and reported myself next day at noon 
 in the oHice of Governor Walker of Vir- 
 ginia. 
 
 The handsomest man in the South was 
 
 seated at tlu; table, signing bills, in the 
 
 old Confederate Supreme Court room. 
 
 His beautiful, grayish black mustache, 
 
 healthy gray hair, clear skin and smiling 
 
 exfu-ession, every inch a loi-d lieutenant 
 
 in the oMest of our shires, grew soberer 
 
 as he said : — 
 
 .^ ^, " Lowery ? Why a captain of the Vir- 
 
 ., ginia militia applied to me yesterday to 
 
 ^ pbtain permission for himself and forty 
 
 ^ men to hunt that fellow in the swamps 
 
 > of North Carolina. Lowery must be a 
 
 ^ good deal of a character." 
 
 As I looked over the files of the Rich- 
 mond newspapers, and their intimate 
 exchanges of the tobacco, rice and tar 
 region, I found the question of the day 
 to be— Lowery. He was at once the 
 Nat Turner, the Osceola, and the Rob 
 Roy MacGregor of the South. With 
 iriingled ardor and anxiety, desire and 
 trepidation, I pushed on by the Weldon 
 road to Wilniingt« ii, the largest town of 
 the State, where Lowery had once been 
 confined in prison. There was there 
 but a single question — Lowery. The 
 Wilmington papers called the Robeson 
 county people cowards for not cleaning 
 him out. The Robeson county paper 
 hurled back the insinuation, but hurled 
 nothing else at Lowery. The State 
 government got its share of the blame, 
 and the State Adjutant General replied 
 in a card that the militia and volunteers 
 had no pluck on the occasion when he 
 had tried them. Five men had mas- 
 tered a Communwealth. 
 
 THE SCARE ON TIJE ROAD. 
 
 An instance of the deep sense of ap- 
 prehension created by these Itandits in 
 all southeastern Carolina is affirded by 
 a dream which Colonel W. H. Barnard, 
 editor of the Wilmington Star, related 
 to me. The Colonel's paper is eighty 
 miles from the scene of outlawry : 
 
 " I dreamed the other night/' said he, 
 "that I was riding up the Rutherford 
 Railroad, and came to Moss Neck sta- 
 tion, where the outlaws frequently ap- 
 
 [ix.] 
 
10 
 
 THE SWAMP OUTLAVv'S. 
 
 pear. I thought a yellow fellow, Indian- 
 look incr, came to the car door and said, 
 * Everybody can pass but Barnard! I 
 want him !' This was Henry Berry 
 Lowery. Then I dreamed they to(»k me 
 into some kind of torture place, and 
 poked guns at me and tantalized me." 
 
 The newspapers were, however, 
 making political c;ipital out of the Low- 
 ery gang, instead of calling upon an 
 honorable and united State sentiment to 
 suppress the scandal. The democratic 
 papers cried, " Black Ku Klux !" and the 
 republican papers retorted by asking 
 where was the valor of the wnite Ku 
 Kliix, who could flog a thousand peace- 
 ful men, but dared not meet five outlaws 
 ill arms. 
 
 "The democrats," said one Robeson 
 county man, in my room, "as soon as 
 they upset the republicans in Robeson 
 county startf'd to annihilateScufflotown 
 and its vote by terror. They have been 
 beaten in it. That chap Lowery has 
 made them a laughing stock. He ought 
 to be killed, but they skulk out of his 
 reach." 
 
 CRIME WITHOUT A COMPASS. 
 
 Mayor Martin, of Wilmington, Presi- 
 dent of the Rutherford Railway, which 
 passes through Scuffle-town and the land 
 of the outlaws, relates an incident, piti- 
 ful at least to Northern ears, of the 
 ignorance of these robbers, and the hope- 
 less fight they are making within the 
 limits of all that is available to them. 
 Adjutant General Gorham, who directed 
 the late ignominious campaign against 
 the Lowery band — where, by current re- 
 ports, the main victories gained were 
 over the mulatto women, the soldiery 
 driving the husbands forth to insult and 
 debauch their wives — said that Henry 
 Berry Lowery, when asked to withdraw 
 from the State, replied : — 
 
 " Rol)( son comity is tlie only iaiiH I 
 know. 1 can iiardiy read, and do m-i 
 know where to go if i leave these woods 
 and swamps, where 1 was raised. If 1 
 can get safe conduct and pardon I will 
 go anywhere. I will join the United 
 States Army and fight the Indians. But 
 these people will not let me leave alive, 
 and I do not mean to enter any jail 
 again. I will never give up my gun." 
 
 Mayor Martin's solution for the diffi- 
 culty is for the United States to declare 
 martial law over the whole Congression- 
 al district in which Robeson county 
 stawds, and make a systematic search 
 with regular troops for these outlaws. 
 He says that when they first took to 
 their excursions they were camparitively 
 sober, but of late have taken to drinking, 
 and about four weeks ago they all, ex- 
 cept their leader, got drunk at Ed. 
 Smith's store, Moss Neck, and lay there 
 all night! "Whiskey," said Mayor 
 Martin, " will reduce them in time; but 
 they are very careful whose liquor they 
 drink in these days. Henry Berrr 
 Lowery left his flask hanging an a fence 
 a few weeks ago, and when he returnetl 
 to get it he made everybody at the sta- 
 tion drink with him." 
 
 TO LUMBERTON. 
 
 Early in the morning, Monday, Feb- 
 ruary 26, I took the train for Lumber- 
 ton, and from the forward car to the tail 
 the freight was Lowery. In the second 
 class carriage, escorted by two sheriffs, 
 MacMillan and Brown, of Robeson 
 county, was Pop Oxendine — the previ- 
 ous said to be his literal name — brother 
 of Henderson Oxendine, the only one 
 of the outlaws who was ever brought to 
 trial and han"ed. He was chained to a 
 regular army soldier, who had recently 
 murdered a negro at Scuffletown, and he 
 was a remarkable looking mulatto, with 
 a yellowish olive .skin, good features, and 
 
THE SWAxMP OUTLAWS. 
 
 11 
 
 hfindsnme, fippcnling, uiiroliablc, unin- IThe conductors and enginoers say that 
 
 a 
 
 tpi-pretible pair of black oycs. So j^ood 
 looking a mulatto man, with such a 
 coiujilcxion, 1 had not seen. Like the 
 rest, he had the Tuscarora Indian blood 
 in liini, with the duplicity of the mixed 
 races \vhere the while blood predomi- 
 nates, lie was ironed fast to the seat 
 and looked at me with a look inquisitive, 
 pitiful, evasive and inijcnunus by turns. 
 If I should describe the man by the 
 words nearest my idea I should cull him 
 n negro-Indian gypsy. 
 
 The passengers were apprehensive 
 nnd inquisitive together, wanting to 
 know all about Lowery and dreadijig to 
 encounter him. The fullest, and often 
 very intelligent, explanations were mad(> 
 to me, and every facility was tciidered 
 to assist me to form accurate C(jnclusions 
 as to the characters in the band. 
 
 Cobuiel S. L. Fiemont, General 
 Superintendent of the Rutherford Rail- 
 way, will permit no passenger carrying 
 arms for the purpose of shooting 
 Liiwery to ride on his trains, as he fears 
 that such permission will endanger the 
 Rafety of the railway. Lowery could 
 loss a train olT almost any day, but he 
 seems to hold a supeistitious respect for 
 the United States mails. 
 
 A few months ago a man by the 
 name of Marsden announced that he 
 meant to travel up and down the road 
 as a detect've and kill Lowery on sight. 
 To put him to the test Lowery and all 
 the band appeared with cocl cd shot- 
 puns at Moss Neck station, and stood 
 at a respertable, yet fui tive, "present 
 arms," while the braggart, fur Buch he 
 was, crawled under the car seat. 
 I>nvery offered $100 reward to anybody 
 who would tell him whether Harden or 
 Marsden was on the train, as he meant 
 
 then; is perfect safety on the trains, 
 although none know when t-he outlaw 
 leader may tiike otRnce against the com- 
 pany or its ofiieers. 
 
 LUMBEFwTON IN COURT WEEK. 
 
 The Ruthetford Railway traverses the 
 counties of the southern tier of North 
 Carolina, passing lew towns of the 
 magnitude, I'nt built generally through 
 till' pilch pile woods, whoso white bob a, 
 sti ipped u f jw fiH't from the ground and 
 notched to provoke the flow of the sap 
 and to catch it, resemble the intermin- 
 able tonjbstones of a woodland burial 
 ground. Swamps intersect the woods, 
 and the resinous-lookin<i waters of 
 manv creeks and canals alternate with 
 deserted rice fields, the skeletons of old 
 turpentine distilleries, the stubble of 
 ragged cotton plantations, some oc- 
 casional weatiier-blackcned shanties, and 
 now and then a sawmill or a pile of 
 newly hewn timber. 
 
 Flat, humid, almost uninhabited, is 
 the traveller's (irst impression of the 
 country. But there is a speck of light 
 and lift; at Abbottsville, the home of ex- 
 Uuited States Senator Abbott, who has 
 built up the '" Capo Fear Building Com- 
 pany," to supply ready made houses to 
 the people of his adopted State, and 
 whose private residence, of yellow 
 frame, is next to the large mill and 
 branch railway of the enterprise. 
 
 Alter five hours ride we came to the 
 weather-blackened, unpainted town of 
 Lumberton, on the flowing Lumber 
 River, a branch of the Pedee. 
 
 Lmnberton is the seat of Robesf)n 
 county, the stamping ground of 
 Lowery's band. With one exception — 
 and that disputable as the act of tho 
 
 to follow the fellow up the road but he i band — no murder has been committej 
 would not cross the platform himself, j by tho Lowerys beyond the lines of 
 
12 
 
 THE SWAMP OUTLAWS. 
 
 t,hi3 county. It contains, by the census 
 of 1870, 3,042 men above the age of 
 twenty-one. 
 
 By the census of 1850, the last pre- 
 Ceeding census avaikblo at tliis point of 
 view, it contained 039 whites iinabU; to 
 read, and had at that time 1,171 free 
 negroes, or more than oven Iho popu- 
 lous county in whicii Wilmington 
 stands, and qnintupli; the U-oo ne/^roes 
 po]>i)i.ition of the adj.icent comities. 
 
 Si-ulTlctown a few miles distant from 
 Lumbcrton was one of the lai-gest free 
 noiXn) settlements in the United States 
 before the war against slavery, and it 
 was Ijesides, an ahuost imnu'inurial tree 
 negro settlement. 
 
 This being Court week, ihe town of 
 Lumheiton was full of SL-nffl'.'tou ncrs, 
 and I saw and talked wiih Sinclair 
 L'lWi'ry, elder brother of tho outlaws, 
 and .-dso with "Dick" Oxcndino, who 
 married the only sister of Henry Berry 
 Lowcry, and who kijeps a barroom in 
 the Court, H<H]se village. 
 
 Besides, I visited t!ic scene of the 
 lat< st exploits of tin; Loworys, the cap- 
 ture of the most valuable s:ife in tlie 
 town, as well as the countv official 
 snfe, which they contemptuously rejected 
 o)i 1 he road. 
 
 1 ;i!so visited the jail v, here Hender- 
 son Oxendine's gallows stood, and the 
 couit room, where a noisy crier made 
 proel iinatlon from the oj)en wintlow, 
 and llie garrulous Judge Clarke was 
 delivi'i'lng a charg(i upon the enormities 
 of t!iesc banditti, ci-\ i;ig meantime into 
 his pocket hauilkei'chief. 
 
 E. sides, I talked wiih a great number 
 of ti • leadinix citizens, w ho to a man, 
 wei- • of Scotch descent, and at noon 
 nox' 'lay, I'esamiiig the train, I xisited 
 Sci !"! town and fslept willi cnurleous 
 ent i i iners at L^hije^jHiCi'l, in the heart 
 of I ii •• pine forest. 
 
 The incidents of these excursions will 
 appear hereafter. 
 
 Let me now address mvself to 
 
 « 
 
 describing the outlaws. 
 DESCRIPTION OF TII5] OUTLAWS. 
 
 IIENUY BERRY LOWERY. 
 
 Henry Berry Lowery, the leader of 
 the most formidable band of outlaws, 
 considering the smallness of its numbers, 
 that has been known in this country, is 
 of mixed Tuscari ra, mulatto imd white 
 blood, twenty-six years of age, five feet 
 nine in';hes hi<jrh and weiiihiuir about 150 
 po\inds. 
 
 He has straight black haii-, like an 
 Indiiii : a dark goatee, and a beard grace- 
 ful in shape, but too thin to look very 
 black. His face slopes from the cheek 
 bones to the tip of his goatee, so as to 
 give liim the Southern American con- 
 tour of physiognomy ; but it is lighted 
 with eyes ot' a different color — eyes of a 
 grayish hazel — at times appearing light 
 blue, with a drop of brown in them, but 
 in agitation dilating, darkening, and, 
 although never quite losing the appear- 
 ance ot a smile, 3 et inaction it is a smile 
 of devilish nature. 
 
 His for. head is good anil his fico and 
 expression refined — remarkably so, con- 
 sidei-ing his mixci] race, want of educa- 
 tion and long career of lawlessness. 
 
 A scar of crescent shape and black 
 
 lor li<'s in tl 
 
 le sum below Ins le 
 
 ft 
 
 ey( 
 
 said to have been made Uy a:i iron pot 
 falling Ujiou him when a chiid. 
 
 H;s Voice is sweet an 1 piea^-ant, and 
 in his ni ii.n-r there ii ni>ihing self- 
 imporiaiit or swairrrerin"-. lie is not 
 tilkative. listens qniclly, an<l searches 
 out who ■vif is speaking to liim like a 
 man iHii, lati; in all boolis save tlu! two 
 great hoolis of nature, and huuian nature 
 above all. 
 
THE SWAMP OUTLAWS. 
 
 13 
 
 
 MRS. HENRY LOWERY 
 
 The color of the skin is of a whitish 
 yellow sort, with an admixture of cop- 
 por — sucii .1 skin as, for the nature of its 
 components, is in color indescribable, 
 there being no negro blood in it except 
 th:it of a f'lr remote generation of mu- 
 latto, and the Indian still apparent. 
 
 It is enough to say of this skin that it 
 seems to suffer little change by heat or 
 cold, exposure or sicknes-;, good honse- 
 ing or wild weather. 
 
 The very relatives of white men killed 
 by Henry Berry Lowpry admitted to me 
 that " Tie is one of the handsomest 
 mulattoes you ever saw." 
 
 LOTERY rnYSICALLT. 
 
 To match this face the outlaw'^ body 
 is of mixed strength and beautv. 
 
 It is well knit, wiry, straight in the 
 shoulders and limbs, without a physie.il 
 fliiw in it, and as one said to me who had 
 known him well since childhood, ** Ho 
 is like a trap ball, elastic all over." 
 
 He has feet which would be notice- 
 able anywh.re, pointed and with arch- 
 ing instep, so that he can wear a very 
 shapely boot, and his extremities, liko 
 his features indicate nothing of tho 
 negro. A good chest, long bones, supple- 
 ness, proportion, make his walk and 
 form pleasing to see. 
 
14 
 
 THE SWAMP OUILAWS. 
 
 parage 
 
 lie is negligent about his dress, but 
 his clothes become him and never dis- 
 hiin. 
 
 People have told me that he wore fine 
 clothes; but, when questioned to the 
 point of re-examination, admitted that 
 he had nothing on but a woolen blouse 
 and trousers and a black wide-brimmed, 
 stiff woolen hat 
 
 HIS ARMS. 
 
 To see this trim youth ns he appears 
 whenever seen on the highroads or the 
 piney forest bypath, or as often at the 
 raiUvav stations of Moss Necl<, Eureka, 
 Bale's Store, or Red Banks, is to sec 
 •youn'» Mars bearing about an arsenal. 
 
 His equipment n)ight appear prepos- 
 terous if we do not consider, the pecu- 
 liar circumstances of iiis warfare — out- 
 lawed by the state of North Carolina, 
 without a reliable base of supplies, and 
 compelled to carry arms and charges in 
 them enough to encounter a large body 
 of men or stand a long campaign. 
 
 A belt around his waist accom- 
 modates five six-barrelled revolvers — 
 long shooters. 
 
 Fiom this belt a shoulder strap passes 
 up and supports behind, slinging fashion, 
 a Spencer rifle, wliich carries eight car- 
 tridges, and it is now generally alleged 
 that he has replaced this with a Henry 
 rifle, carrying double the former num- 
 ber of cartridges, while, successively, 
 man after man of the band, by some 
 mysterious agency, becomes possessed 
 of a Spencer rifle. In addition to these 
 forty or forty-eight charges Lowery 
 carries a long-bla'ied knife and a large 
 flask of whiskey— the latter because he 
 fears to bo poisoned by promiscuous 
 neighborhood drinking. 
 
 He can run like a deer, swim, stand 
 
 sleep by little snatches which, in a few 
 days, would tire out white or negro. 
 
 Although a tippler, he was never 
 known to be drunk — a fact not to be 
 justly asserted to his confederates. 
 
 Brought suddenly at bay he is 
 observed to wear that light, fiendish, en. 
 joying smile, which shows a nature at 
 Its depths savage, predatory and fond of 
 blood. The war he has waged for the 
 
 a region of 
 
 past nine years, within 
 twelve or fifteen miles square, against 
 county, State, Confederate and United 
 States iiulhorities, alternately or unitedly 
 is justification for the terror apparent in 
 the faces of all the white people within 
 those limits. 
 
 Lowery's band gives more concern 
 to the Carolinas than did Carleton's 
 Legion ninety years ago. 
 
 LOWERY AS A BRIGAND LEADER. 
 
 "What is the meaning of this?" said 
 I to " Parson" Sinclair — the fijihtin:; 
 parson of Lumberton — "How can this 
 
 fellow, with a handful of boys and illi- 
 lerate men, put to flight a society only 
 recently used to warfare and full of ac- 
 complished soldiers ? Explain it." 
 
 "Lowery," answered Sinclair, "is 
 really one o( those remarkable execu- 
 tive spirits that arises now and then in 
 a raw community, without advantages 
 other than nature gave liim. He has 
 passions, but no weaknesses, and his 
 eye is on every point at once. He has 
 impressed that whole negro society with 
 Ills power and influence. They fear 
 ;lnd admire him. He asserts his super- 
 iority over all these whites just as well. 
 No man who stands face to face with 
 him can resist his quiet will, and assur- 
 ance and his searching eye. Without 
 fear, without hope, defying society, he 
 weeks of exposure in the swamps and I is the only man we have any knowledge 
 crest, walk day and night, and take j of down here who can play his part 
 
THE SWAMP OUTLAWS. 
 
 15 
 
 Upon my word. I believe if he had I 
 lived a^cs ago he would have been a 
 Williatu tlie Conqueror. He reniinda 
 me of nobody but R )b Roy." 
 
 HIS BLOUD AND INCLIN.VTIONS. 
 
 The thi-ec natures of white, Indian 
 and nt'gro arc, however, seen at iiitiM-- 
 vals to come f«»rward in tliis outlaw's 
 natui- . 
 
 The nr'TO trace is in his love of rude 
 music. 
 
 He is a banjo player, and when the 
 periodical hunt fov him is done he re- 
 pairs to some one of ihc huts in SctifHo- 
 town and plays to the dancing of lh(i 
 mulatto yirls and his companions by 
 the hour, his belt of arms ur.slung and 
 thrown at liis foot, the peaceable part of 
 the au.VuMioe taiciui; part with mixed 
 wonder dc'ig'il and a[>i r. hension. Sev- 
 eral times tiiis baiijt> has nearly betrayed 
 him to his pursuers. 
 
 Sherilf MacMiilan described himself 
 nnd posse once lying oat all night in the 
 swamp and limb;^r around Lowery's 
 cabin to wait fur him to come forth at 
 daylight. 
 
 " And," said he, " that banjo was just 
 ♦■verlasliiigl V thrumming, and we could 
 hear the laughter and Juba-beating 
 nearly the whole night long." 
 
 THE MULATIO SARDANaPALUS. 
 
 The licentiousness of Lowery is stifli- 
 cient t > 1)0 uoliceable, but while it never 
 engages him to the exclusion of vigi- 
 lance and activity, it also shows what 
 may be traced in some degree to his 
 Indian nature — the using of women as 
 an auxiliary to war and plunder. 
 
 He has debauched a number of his 
 prisoners with the mulatto girls of 
 Scuffle town, and the charms of these yel- 
 low-tinted syrens broke up the morale 
 of the late campaign in force against 
 
 the outlaws, while, as some allege, the 
 discovery of the Detective Landers 
 plan to capture Lowery was made by a 
 girl in Lowery's interest with whom 
 Landers spent his time. 
 
 Lowery has said, and laughed over it, 
 that he devised at a critical point in a 
 truce between the contending parties 
 that a bevy of the prettiest and frailest 
 beauties in Scuffletown shonM ct)me up 
 and be introduced to one of the officers 
 hi'di m command. 
 
 After that the Marc Antony in ques. 
 tion laid down his sword, and gave 
 practical evidence that the hostility of 
 races is not so great as the slavery 
 statesmen alleged. 
 
 The indifference of the Indian to the 
 loan of his squaws finds some parallel 
 in Lowery's tactics. 
 
 He himself is the Don Juan of 
 Scuffletown ; but he sleeps on his arms* 
 and will go into the swamps for weeks 
 without repining. Women have been 
 employed to give him up; but they 
 either repent or he discovers their pur- 
 pose by intuitive sagacity. 
 
 THE OUTLAWS WIFE. 
 
 The white society around him gave 
 Henry Berry Lowery a lesson in self- 
 schooling and sacrifice so far as women 
 were concerned. 
 
 After the murders of Barnes nnd 
 ILuris — offences which, some think, 
 ou^ht to have been included in the 
 proclamation of oblivion for offences 
 committed by both sides betoie the 
 close of the war — Lowery stood up by 
 the side of Rhodv Slronir, the most 
 Ijcautiful mulatto of Scuflljtown, to bo 
 married. 
 
 Aware of the encasement and the oo- 
 casion, the Sheriffs possic, w ith cruel de- 
 liberation, surrounded the house till the 
 ceremony was over, and then rushsd in 
 
jr. 
 
 THE SWAMP OUTLAWS. 
 
 nnil t )ok tlio outlawed husband from 
 the side of liis wife. 
 
 [J :• was it'iaovcd to Liimberton jail, 
 and tlu'ii scut still fLii-ther away to 
 Culiuiibus comity jail; but lie broke 
 throuiih ih;! hai-.s, csca[n'd to the woods 
 with the irons on his wrists, and made 
 his way to his bride. Th.'V have three 
 (riiildren, tlie fruit of their stolen and 
 rudely iuterrupted interviews. 
 
 A GLIMPSE AT MADAM ^. LOWERY. 
 
 As I rode down on the train from 
 Shoe Heel to Liiinborton, on the 28lh 
 of F> liruary, the eondiietoi-, Coroiiel 
 Morrison, eaiiio to me and saicl : — " if 
 you want to -co Henry Berry Lowery's 
 wife you can find hei- in the forward 
 second-ela-5S car." 
 
 She had tilcen the train at Red Banks 
 for liloss Neck — points between which 
 the whole baud of outlaws frequently 
 ride on the freiiiht trains — and at the 
 latter nolable station I saw her descend 
 with her baby and walk off down the 
 t'(»ad ia the woods and stop there among 
 the tall [Vitch pines, as if waiting for 
 somebody. The baby — the last heir of 
 outlawry — began to cry as she left the 
 train, and she said, mother-lashi -n : 
 " No, no, no, I wouldn't cry, when 1 had 
 bi. en so good all day !" 
 
 This womnn is the sister of two of the 
 five remaining outlaws and wife of the 
 tiiird. 
 
 The wiiites call her satirically, " the 
 queen of Scufflctown ;" but she ap- 
 peared to be a meek, pretty-eyed rather 
 shrinking giil, of a very light color^ 
 poorly dressed. 
 
 She wore many brass rings, with 
 cheap rep stones in them, on her small 
 hands, and a dark green plaid dress of 
 nauslin delaine, which just revealed her 
 new black morocco " store " sh,>es. A 
 yellowish muslin or calico hood, with a 
 
 long cape, covered her head, and there 
 was nothing beside that I I'emember ex- 
 cept a shawl of bright coloi-s, much 
 \\ orn. 
 
 It was sad enoiigh and j)rosaic ein)u<^h 
 to see this small w.nian with hci- babv 
 in her arms, cairying it along, whde the 
 hnsl)and and father, covered with tie 
 blood of fifteen murders, roamed the 
 woods and swamps like a Seminole. 
 
 Rliody Lowery is said not to be a 
 constant wif>, but to follow the current 
 example of SLuflletown. Other persons, 
 the negroes notably, deny this. 
 
 A more persevering newspaper cor* 
 respondent might settle the issue. 
 
 LOWERY AS A TERROR IZER. 
 
 Mr. Hayes, a republican, of Shoo 
 Herl, whose knowledge of iho Scuffle- 
 town seitlement is very g od and whose 
 practical Northern mind is not likely to 
 be deceived, told me that Lowery, 
 among Irs numerous warnings served 
 upon people, stopped one white man on 
 the load and said, •' Yv;u are taking ad 
 vantage of my circumstances and ab. 
 seuce to be familiar with my family. 
 Now, you better pack up and get out of 
 this county.'' 
 
 The man lost no time in doing as re- 
 quested ; for Henry Berry Lowery 
 generally -.varns before ho kills. In ihe 
 niJitter of honesty in the observance of a 
 promise or a treaty the people most 
 robbed and outraged by this bandit ac- 
 knowledge his Indian scrupulousness. 
 " Mr. MacNair," he said to one of his 
 white neighbors, -.v-hom he iiad robbed 
 twenty times, "i want you to cear up 
 and go to Lu'.nberton, where they have 
 put my wife in jad for no crime but be- 
 cause she is my v\if((; that ain't her 
 fault, and they can't make it so. Yon 
 people won't let me woik to get mv 
 living, and I have got to take it from 
 
THE SWAMP OUTLAWS. 
 
 17 
 
 you ; liiit, God knows, she'd like to see 
 rnc niiiicc iny own bread. You go to 
 Liiinljcrton and tell the Sheriff and 
 Cv<iiiity Coinrnissionors that if they 
 diint lei her out of tliut j .il I'll retaliate 
 on the white women of Hurnt Swamp 
 Township. Some of them shall come to 
 the swamp with me if she is kept in the 
 jail, because they cau't get me." 
 
 LOWERT AS A TRUCE MAKER. 
 
 Lowery then named a point on the 
 road wlu!!-G he would meet JtlaeNair, 
 and he nut him instead three miles 
 nearer to Liimberton. Tlie feeling ot 
 terror in 1 lie. county may be understood 
 when, without more delay, Rhody 
 Lowery was set free. 
 
 While in the region several persons 
 urged me to go out and talk to Lowery 
 SlierifT ^racT^rillan and Mr. llrown, the 
 son-In-law of the murdered Shei id Kiiifr 
 -i— strange as it may appear for county 
 ofTiccrs, and T mention it to show the 
 suptirstitiou inspired by this brigand — 
 offered to ol)t:iia an interview for me 
 with the whole gang by sending out 
 some member of the Lowerv familv to 
 negotiate. ^Fy faith was not equal to 
 theirs, and I declined. 
 
 "Do you suppose that fellow would 
 give mo n, talk V I said to Calvin Black 
 a merchant of Shoo Heel. 
 
 '• Yes, if ho could bo made to under- 
 stand lluit your intentions were pacific. 
 The large reward now out fop him, 
 amoiinting, for himself and party, to 
 about forty-five thousand dollars, taken 
 dead or alive, makes him apprehensive of 
 assiX-s^iinlioti. I*utif ho were to promise 
 not to injure you, you could go any- 
 where to see him with perfect i(n- 
 punity." This was general testimony. 
 
 Rev. Mr. MacDiermid, editor of the 
 Robesonian, the county organ, who does 
 his duty by niiintimidated denunciation 
 of this outlaw, said : — " Henry Berry 
 
 Lowery has sent mc word that I had 
 better be cautious now I w rite about 
 him, but I believe that I could go to see 
 him to-day, for he appreciates his con- 
 sequence in the role he has assunu d."' 1 
 noticed, however, that nob idy did go to 
 sec him, and I followed that hi^h and 
 general example. 
 
 PRICE OF LOWERYS HEAD. 
 
 Since Jefferson Davis' fligijt and the 
 reward put upon his head there has been 
 no American criminal — pi-obably none 
 previously in all the history of the coun- 
 try for (iffences at common law — who 
 has been dignified witli the amount of 
 money offered for Lowery's overtaking. 
 
 If it should appear in the Nortli this 
 slietrh is too strong, I point to this re- 
 ward and to the fict that this outlaw has 
 already made a pergonal and bloody 
 campaiirn against societv lonirer than the 
 whole revolutionary war. 
 
 Osceola, or» Powel (who was an im- 
 mediate mixture of Indian and negro 
 blood, ; n 1 who fought over a larger 
 region), gave out in a much shorter space 
 of resistance. 
 
 HIS CHIVALRY. 
 
 Two things arc to bo chronicled in 
 this man's favor, and 1 make them on 
 the universal testimony of everybody 
 in this regioi!. 
 
 ITc has never committed arson or 
 rape or offered to insult females. "While 
 entering private houses nearly every day 
 his worst act is to drive the family into 
 some one apartment and bar them there 
 while the house is cooly and leisurely 
 ransacked. 
 
 A few weeks ago an aged lady, ^Irs. 
 MacNeil and her daughter, were shot 
 with duck shot by somebody taking the 
 name of Lowery's band, doubtless the 
 party accused ; but the wounding of the 
 woman was not foreseen by the brigands, 
 
13 
 
 THE SWAMP OUTLAWS. 
 
 and tliov fired at old MacNcil, whose i 
 fiiinilv of sons and son-in-law had become 
 parlkuLiiIy off usivc to them. 
 
 MacN'il told nic the circumstances 
 as lollows: — IIo h:id heen repeatedly 
 robbed, his son-in-law Taylor killed, his 
 sons ordered to leave the country, and 
 now aliiiost entirely nlone, he was com- 
 pelled to do a good deal of his own 
 watching iuul to w:iit upon himself. 
 
 Staiidiiiir by his smokehouse one 
 mooiili dil ni:'ht lu; saw two men enter the 
 yard ;ind one of them walked straight 
 up to the srnolu horse door and began to 
 pry it open. Partly concealed in the 
 shadow of the fnce, MacNcil cried — 
 "Who is Ihatl" 
 No ans'ver. 
 
 Ho rope itel tlie interrogation and the 
 reply was — 
 
 *' What in the hell is that your busi- 
 ness 1' 
 
 The Scotch blood of the old man 
 mour.ti d to his f ic(% notwithstanding his 
 lonjr ;mi.1 n(»: whollv undeserved mis- 
 fortunes, and he went into his dwelling 
 fur his gi;ii. ITis wife and his daughter 
 besought hini not to venture out, and, 
 on his icfi.isal, followed him to the door. 
 He called again : — 
 
 ** Who's that at mv smokehouse?' 
 The answer was : — 
 "Lov.ery's band, God damn you." 
 And in a nilnutc a charge of buckshot 
 pouri d in at the door, putting, as Mac- 
 Neil sai<l, sixteen buckshot in a place no 
 bigger than his hat from the spot where 
 he was expected to have been, and strik- 
 infT his Mile in the thiMi, riddling her 
 dress, and hitting his daughter in the 
 shoulder and breast, so that the shot 
 catnc out of her back. Both women 
 will iccover, allhough sorely wounded. 
 The cause of this long persecution of 
 MacNcil I will give in another letter. 
 
 RU^rORS AND INCIDENTS. 
 Colonel Wisehart, an old Confederate 
 
 officer and a dauntless man, living near 
 Moss Ni'ck, has shot at Lowery several 
 times, but always missed him, and jnc«; 
 surroimded with a posse the outlaw's 
 cabin, but he got off so mysteriously 
 that they allege to this day that he had 
 an undergnnind passage. 
 
 Lowery is said to whip his w ife some- 
 times and to have threatened also to 
 shoot her, on the occasions of her re- 
 proving his long absences. St)me time 
 ajro she came, accordin"if to rnnior, to a 
 store at Luinberton and remarked : — 
 
 '• Berry put his gun in my fiec to-day 
 and said ho meant to kill me, and I told 
 him to fire it off — not to stop for me." 
 
 The negroes charge that these stories 
 are without foundation, and Deputy 
 Sheriff Brown admitted to me : — 
 
 " Lowery will never leave this country 
 alive." 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 " Because he loves his wife and will 
 not leave her whereabouts." 
 
 1 give some further rumors for what 
 they arc worth : — 
 
 Henry B. Lowery is not a good shot 
 except at close quarters — so says B(»ss 
 Strong. The Boss remarked at Moss 
 Neck one day : — 
 
 " Henry is nothing much with that 
 Spencer rifle, nor his shotgun, neither; 
 but Steve Lowery can shoot liie tail off 
 a coon." 
 
 Some of the ScufHetoAvn negroes say 
 differently, and give marvellous in- 
 stmees of the accuracy of eye and nerve 
 of both Henry Berrv and the in.-joritv 
 of the gang. He cei tainly gei eially 
 kills when he does shoot. H' re is an 
 instance of his coolness. A Mr. McRae 
 who lives on the limits uf lloheson 
 county removed from the imniediato 
 country of the bandits, got <>!! with 
 other passengers at Moss Neck a favf 
 weeks ago, and said aloud funiliary — 
 
 " Where docs this rascal, Lowery, 
 
THE SWAMP OUTLAWS. 
 
 19 
 
 keep himself? I'd like to see the villaiiu'' 
 
 A wliiiiah nejrro, standing near by, 
 unarmed, s:iid, coolly — 
 
 " Well, sir, if you'll step this way I'll 
 show liini to you." 
 
 Tiiis was 'J'om Lowery. The a.^toiiish- 
 ed pasenger was put in a moment in ihc 
 presence of a sombre- looking mu- 
 latto fellow wiih straight hair, whoso 
 body was giit all round with pistols, 
 and who cirricd two jjuns besides. 
 
 " This is Henry Bjrrv Lower v," said 
 the other outlaw. 
 
 *' Yt;s," said H(Miry, " and wo always 
 ask our fiieiiJs to take a drink with us." 
 
 The. passenger saw the significant, 
 bland look on both the half-breed fices, 
 and ho said, with all available assur- 
 ance : — 
 
 " I'll take the drink if you'll let ine 
 pay for it." 
 
 " Oil, yes, we always expect our 
 friends to treat us." 
 
 PICTURE OF '• SWARTHY INDIAN 
 
 STEVE." 
 
 The brigand of the Lowery gan<jr, m 
 appearance, is Steve, whose carri.ige is 
 that of a New York rough, and whose 
 thick, black, straight hair, thin, black 
 moustache, goatte and very loweiing 
 countenance, set with blackish liaz d 
 eyes, give him the character his deeds 
 bear out of a robber and murderer of 
 the Murrel stamp. 
 
 He is the most perfect Indian of the 
 party, superadded to the vagabond. 
 He is five feet nine inches hi<fh, thick set. 
 round shouldered, heavy and of power- 
 ful strength, with long arms, a heavy 
 moufcii, and that brusque, aggressive, 
 impudent manner, which befits the high- 
 wayman stopping his man. 
 
 Sieve Lowery required no great 
 provocation to take to the swamps and 
 prowl around the country by day and 
 night. 
 
 He is mentioned third on the list in 
 the Governor's proclamation, fi^'uring 
 there at $500, or half the price of Henry 
 Berry Lowry's head; is the oM',-st of the 
 gang, said to be thirty-one. and his im- 
 perious temper, ijis.iliable love of rob- 
 Ijery and insubordination to h s younger 
 brother, the leader, o:iee involved him 
 in a quarrel, where he was shot iu tb« 
 leg. 
 
 Steve has the woi'st cnunton.ince of 
 .any man in the gang. IIis swarthy, 
 dirk brown ccjmplexioUj thin visa_:e and 
 quick speech make him fe.ired by any 
 unlucky enemy who may fall inti> the 
 hands of the outlaws. 
 
 W'hen Landei's, the detective, was 
 condemned to death and Tom L )wery 
 slunk away, unwiHing to see blood, 
 Steve Lowery raised his gun aiicl filled 
 the unfortunate prisoner witii ;i eharge 
 of buckshot. Steve has been Concerned 
 in nearly every robbery an.J shooting, 
 perhaps cv^ivy one, committed l)y this 
 party. 
 
 SKETCH OF BOSS STROXQ. 
 
 The youngest of the gan:: and the 
 most t;usted and inseparable companion 
 of Henry Berry L >wery is his boy 
 brother-in-law, Boss Sti-onj. a^ed no 
 more than twenty. The Strongs are 
 said to have been derived from a white 
 man of that name, who came from 
 Western Carolina to Sciifiletown and 
 took up with one of the Lowery women. 
 In this generation they are legitimate. 
 Boss Strong is nearly white ; his dark, 
 short cut hair has a reddish tingu and is 
 slightly curling; a thick down appears 
 on his lip and teinplrs, but otherwise ho 
 is beardless; he has that dull, blueish 
 eye frequently seen among the SeufBe- 
 tonians, and is taciturn. % 
 
 In repose his countenance is mild 
 and pleasing; but the demon is always 
 near at hand when Henry Berry Lowerjr 
 
20 
 
 THE SWAMP OUTLAWS. 
 
 desires iL to appear, and then the heavy 
 bhicU oye-brows of the boy, which 
 nearly meet over the bridge of his nose, 
 give him a (logged, determined lo<)l<, 
 which many a man has seen to his cost. 
 Boss Strong is plastic material in the 
 hands <if iiis brothei'-in-law, and !ie>'t t<> 
 that h'ader is c(inimor.!y regarded as 
 the woi-st of the party. 
 
 He is so 'iistinguishcd in all the offers 
 of lewards. Being the least capable 
 and (>xpei-ieiice 1 of thi' party, he is thei'e- 
 forc must d.;ngei-(nis in other hands, and 
 it is a revoliiig instance of the extremes 
 of i/oixl and ill to see the fidelity of 
 Boss Strong- to ITenry Berry Lowery 
 up to the eonsiDiunaiion of repeated 
 murders willi t!)c coolest militai-y 
 obedience. 
 
 His hands are dyed deep in the blood 
 of old and \ ouii .;■. Boss Sli'ong is 
 about Civi' feet ten, tliiek set, with a full 
 face, and lie handles his arms willi slciil 
 and has the eoiii-a<»e of a bull pup. 
 
 ^^'lle;l Jcjhu Taylor's brains were 
 blown oiil Itv Henrv Berrv, Boss I'ushed 
 npon the hank and aimed at young 
 MacNeil and woinided him witii the 
 wad (if a eh:ii-ge, of buckshot intended 
 to s!ay him. 
 
 ■ The ]U'oj)]e of Tiobeson county and 
 the mililarv aullioiities have long au;o 
 given up all prospect of seducing either 
 of ;!u'.-;e mui'dci-ers to betray each other. 
 
 Boss Sti-oi:g has never been considered 
 asuithin that possil)iity. He, like the 
 leadiuir outlaw, has tjenerallv killed his 
 man at close quarters — seldom at more 
 than from four to ten yards. 
 
 ANDREW STRONG DELINEATED. 
 
 Andrew Strong, elder brother of Boss, 
 is very nearly the same age with Herwy 
 Ber;y Lowery. He is more than six 
 feet high, tall and slim, and nearly 
 perfectly white ; his thin beard is of a 
 
 reddish tinge, and he has dark, stiaight 
 
 hair. 
 
 This fellow is the Oily Gammon of the 
 party, without that higher order of cun- 
 ning which with Henry Berry Lowery 
 amounts to prescience and strategy ; 
 but his eye can wear a look of meek, 
 repi'oachful injury, and his tongue is sof^ 
 and treacherous. 
 
 He was at one time in Court, and 
 when the indictment of his crimes was 
 read he looked out of his great, soft eyes 
 as if ready to weep at snchuijjust impu- 
 tations. Andrew Strong niairied the 
 (hiughter of Henry Sampson, auotlicr o^ 
 the Indian nuilattoes, and has two chil- 
 d:'en. 
 
 II(! is a cowardlv cutthroat, and will 
 st(\al a poeketbook on the high I'oad. 
 
 In the way of killing people he is 
 sinnlarlv Tierfidions, and the liwuex will 
 drop (Voni his touguii almost into the 
 wound he iudiets. Loving to see fear 
 and jiaiu, a profissor of" d( eiit, plau>iljl(', 
 uiieei-tain, tineasy, deadly, this meanest 
 of the band \ et has const quenec in it. 
 
 TOM ].0'\VERY, THE JAFL D'RD. 
 
 Tom Lowei-y has a long, straight 
 Caucasian nose, a good forehead of more 
 ihan avei-ajie heie-ht, sIo|)ing but heavv 
 jaws, vei'y scruliby, black beard about 
 the chin, coininij out .slunt, stiff and 
 sparse, and straight, black liair. 
 
 He would be called cadaverous if h« 
 were white, but in his eye there are the 
 hazel lights (darting and restless, and 
 readily burning up to a large glow) of 
 the Indian gypsy. Perhaps the solution 
 of the white race, which blended origin 
 ally with the Tuscaroras — a subject on 
 which ihe learned Judge Leech, of Lum- 
 berton, has spent much inquiry — might 
 be solved by the gypsy suggestion. 
 The Judge mentioned Portuguese (a tru- 
 ly jtiratical race since the days of Tols 
 nois), Spanish and several other races to 
 
THE SWAMF OUTLAWS. 
 
 '21 
 
 
 u 
 
 ',.< 
 
 ... I •*!: 
 
 i^ 
 
 v':L.y 
 
22 
 
 THE SWAMP OUTLAWS. 
 
 account for the blood wliich others 
 aitriUutcd in the Luwer^ s to negro in- 
 fusion. Might it h;ivc been " Roin- 
 nuiny ?" 'J'iic ]*)nglibh gypsy has been 
 in North Ann licu a hundred years, 
 
 Tom Lowery is a thieving sneak, 
 enpable of murder, but sickened by 
 blood, and the o'uest member of the 
 Lowrry gang. 
 
 lie is thiity-live years of age, has a 
 broad-siiouldered, active, strong body, 
 and is five feet nine inches high. 
 
 The eye of this man is a study — blue- 
 ish gray, furtive, and dancing around, 
 hut when the observei's eye drops away 
 he sends a heathenish shaft of light 
 atraight out from the thieving nature of 
 the fellow, which seems to seize all the 
 situatidii. 
 
 Ho is equally alert in slipping jail and 
 evading capture, and some time ago he 
 got off from the military, peppered all 
 over the back with shot and with his 
 shirt full of blood. 
 
 THE RETIRED PSEUDO OR DISABLED 
 BANDITS. 
 
 The above five men constitute, at 
 present, I he bandits and outlaws ot 
 North Carolina. Together they make 
 an active and formidable, and also a 
 wicked crowd ; and, officered by a man 
 of remarkable ability and powers, they 
 present an anomalous picture in the 
 heart of modern society. 
 
 I append sketches of the other and 
 former members of the band, and now 
 in the foreground : — 
 
 GEORGE APPLEWHITE 
 
 George Applewhite is a regular ne- 
 gro, of a surly, determined look, with 
 thick features, woolly hair, large pro- 
 tuberances above the eyebrows, big jaws 
 and cheek bones and a black eve. 
 
 Mrs. Stowc might have drawn " Drcd * 
 from him. 
 
 IL; is supposed cither to be dead, hid. 
 den jiwav, wounded, or to have aban. 
 doned the country, as lie has not been 
 seen or heard of for several months. 
 
 When last heard from ho was faint 
 from loss of blood, and had received 
 wounds in the breas: from some soldiery. 
 
 He married into the Oxendin^^ fimily, 
 and was present at the inurde*- of Sheriff 
 King and elsewhere, and is therefore in- 
 cluded in the list of outlaws and a re- 
 ward put upon his head. 
 
 JOIJN DIAL, THE STATE'S EVIDENCE. 
 
 John Dial, who lies in the jail of Co- 
 lumbus county, at Whitesville, as Calvin 
 Lowery does in the jail of New Hano- 
 ver countv, at Wilir.in<iton, is a lijiht mu- 
 latto, with a vagrant, fierce look, aggra- 
 vated by a wart or fleshy protuberance 
 of some sort on the side of his nose, di- 
 rectly beside the left eye, which wart is 
 as large as a marble. 
 
 Dial was as bad as any of the jran". 
 but not bold, and ho prefers the repose 
 of the jail to wading the swamps with 
 Henry Lowei-y. 
 
 He pays that George Applewhite shot 
 Sheriff King, while the rest of the band 
 charge that Dial himself precipitately 
 drew his pistol and killed that hale old 
 Carolinian. 
 
 SHOEMAKER JOPIN. 
 
 "Shoemaker John," who at one time 
 had dealings with Henry Berry Low- 
 ery 's party, but has been sent to the 
 P. nitentiary, is an oval-fjced negro, 
 good for stealing, but with little stomach 
 for blood-letting. The Lowerys repu- 
 diate liim altogether. 
 
 THE ONE MAN HANGED 
 
 -.- . . ^ , Henderson Oxendine, han<,'ed at Lum 
 
 lie IS a picture of a slave at bay. K«..f ., o..^ »■ ' i- ■ 
 
 r "'*.'' -.1 Oerton some time ago, was a thick-se» 
 
THE SWAMF OUTLAWS. 
 
 2» 
 
 b'lt trim light mulatt-i, with straight 
 hair and a stoical face. He died with- 
 out more than a sigh. 
 
 I visited Calvin Oxendine in the Wil- 
 mington jail, whence nearly the whole 
 band escaped, he refusing or being afraid 
 to go. 
 
 CALVIN OXENDINE. 
 
 The Wilmington jail is an oblong 
 brick structure, to the front of whicU is 
 affixed the jailor's residence of a plaster 
 imitation of sandstone crowned with bat- 
 tlements. 
 
 The jail is small in size, as big as a 
 country meeting-house, and the rear part 
 and body of it descends below the street 
 level into a sunken lot, which is enclosed 
 by a brick wall capped with nails and 
 broken glass. 
 
 From the upper tier of jail windows 
 to the ground, is about thirty feet, and 
 the walls is twelve feet high. A fierce 
 dog goes at large in the jail yard. 
 
 Our worthic-ii occupied one of the rear 
 corner cells in tne upper tier of this jaii 
 for six months, and they took out the 
 bricks at the side of the edifice, making 
 a small hole, still in outlines distinctly 
 visible though ro-enclosed, and let them- 
 selves down with their blankets. 
 
 The dog made no alarm, if, as is 
 doubtful, he was at liberty that night, 
 and the neighboring vacant lots gave 
 easy means of escape to our bandit des- 
 peradoes. 
 
 Thejiil is, like most county jails in 
 the South, a piece of dilapidation with- 
 out, and of bad construction within, and 
 other holes in the rear attest how other 
 prisoners made their riddance. 
 
 One of these holes, at the present 
 writing, has not been bricked up. al- 
 though some time has elapsed since the 
 inmates cut it. 
 
 TUE BANDIT IN JAIL. 
 
 I visited this jail with the courteous 
 City Marshal of Wilmington, W. P. 
 Canaday, first entering a livery stable 
 adjacent, through the open chinks of 
 which tools were, probably, handed to 
 the prisoners within, the level being 
 nearly the same and the walls only 
 twenty feet apart. 
 
 The jail, in the interior, was of an in- 
 human architecture, the cells beino- en- 
 closed by a corridor, which debarred 
 tin-m from light and gave only ventil- 
 lation by shafts above. 
 
 The grated doors admitted very little 
 light through their narrow chinks, and 
 murderer or mere peace-breaker shared 
 a common fate in them, lying almost in 
 darkness. 
 
 A prison without security for the evil 
 ought to afiord some compensation for 
 the merely erring, suspected or unfor- 
 tunate. 
 
 This jail, while clean enough, is a relic 
 of the Middle Ages. 
 
 If you take from a man liberty give 
 him at least light! One of the iron 
 doors was laboriously unlocked by the 
 negro jailor, and shaking himself from 
 the long vision of darkness, Calvin Ox- 
 endine, an indicted murderer of SheriflT 
 King, walked out into the corridor. 
 
 Here was a situation for John Calvin 
 the Richelieu of the Huguenots ! That 
 name, crossing from France to Scotland 
 and passing into the family nomencla- 
 ture of Gael and Lowlander, had made 
 the passage of the ocean with the immi- 
 grants into Carolina, and these mixed 
 mulattoes and Indians had inherited it 
 from their Scotch neighbors and natural 
 fathers, until now 1 saw before me the 
 reformer and the bandit, the Geuevese 
 and the Scuffletonian in Calviu Oxen- 
 dine. 
 
 lie came out from his cell in a greasy 
 
^4 
 
 THE SWAMP OUTLAWS. 
 
 shirt and a pair of woolen trousers belt- 
 ed at the waist, and with his .searching, 
 round, indescribable eye, looked me 
 through and through. 
 
 It was a black eye, which got its edu- 
 eation from a country place where they 
 make an inventory of strangers in the 
 glimpse afforded by a flash of lightning 
 and rob them before the next flash. 
 
 The speculation in that pair of eyes 
 that he did glare withal mocked knowl- 
 edge. It was the gypsy's encyclopedia 
 of a chicken coop, and I was the chicken 
 in view. 
 
 From my side of the case it was the 
 worst pair of agates I ever saw — furtive, 
 plaintive, touching, repelling. God save 
 us from these mixed races, that we can- 
 not understand, which civilize them- 
 selves on no one line of projection, and 
 give no key t > their tortuous character, 
 and are to themselves a heathen mys- 
 tery ! 
 
 "I came down the road yesterday, 
 Oxendine, from your part of the world." 
 The big eyes repeated the perform, 
 ance. 
 
 " From Robeson county ?" 
 " Yes." 
 
 " Well, did you see that party that 
 went up on Monday — what about 
 
 them r' 
 
 This with a sort of lethargic earnest- 
 ness, like a sleepy nature slowly rolling 
 out of bed. 
 
 " You mean Pop Oxendine ?" 
 
 "Yes; my brother." 
 
 " His trial won't come off for several 
 days. But tell me, Oxendine, how came 
 Henry Berry Lowery to get all you boys 
 in his hands? Has he so much greater 
 power than you, although younger?" 
 
 The fellow rolled his orbs at mt; 
 again, perfectly submissive, but all 
 searching— ignorance and cunning and 
 prowling and wonder reaching out to 
 drink me in and tathom me — and yet, 
 withal, a sort of roadside equality. 
 
 His rrtther over-fed face ; his cracked, 
 slipshod shoes; his drooping breeches, 
 
 were mean enough; but there was the 
 gypsy inquiry nearly nonchalant, in 
 his locrk. Sensual his face certainly was 
 but a deep fallow of powt-r lay in it, 
 generations of the bummer worthy of 
 education from the beginning. 
 
 What crimes against human nature 
 have been committed by Southern pre- 
 judice against everything with a drop of 
 the negro in it ! 
 
 This rascal's eye looked like genius 
 more than anything I had seen below 
 Richmond. 
 
 " Indeed," he said, after finishing up 
 the study, coolly. " I can't tell you ; I 
 don't know anything about it." 
 
 Respectful and polite he was all the 
 time, but in his situation, the answer 
 was diplomatic, and the next remark 
 showed that it was not made without • 
 logical reference to himself. 
 
 '• Sheriff, when is my trial coming off. 
 Am I to lie in this dark place two more 
 years ?" 
 
 " I would insist upon my trial," said 
 the Sheriff. 
 
 " I will. " 1 can't stand it." 
 Then, after a minute, giving me, 
 another roll of his quiet eyes, he said. 
 '* Can you give me a piece of tobacco 
 sir?' 
 
 " No ; but 1 can give you the money 
 to get it." 
 
 He took it, looked at it, and, pro- 
 nouncing my name plainly, with thanks 
 although the name had been mentioned 
 only once, walked voluntarily back to 
 his cell. 
 
 These mulattoes of the families of 
 Lowery, Oxendine and Strong have 
 been locked away in the fastnesses of a 
 hard Scotch population and their develop- 
 ment cramped. 
 
 What might have been the discoverer 
 has become the buccaneer ; the poet had 
 become the outlaw. 
 
THE SWAMP OUTLAWS. 
 
 25 
 
 BLOOD TRAIL. 
 
 Hovr liOwery Avenged the Murders of 
 a Father and a Brother— Cain's 
 Bniud the Test of Admission to tlie 
 Gang— A AVur of Races— The Out- 
 laws iu the Swamps- The Judge on 
 the Beucli— The Ku Idux on Their 
 Ni«-litly Raids— Lowery Breaics 
 PrTson Twice— Slieritt" King, Nor- 
 nient. Carlisle. Steve Davis and Joe 
 Thompson's Slave Murdered by the 
 Band— Killing the Outlaw's Rela- 
 tives When They Cannot Catch the 
 Gang— The Ku Klnx Under Taylor 
 Slay°"MaUe" Sanderson, Henry Rev- 
 els and Ben Botha, the Praying 
 Preacher— A Promise That Was 
 Kept— "I will kill John Tavlor— 
 There's No Law for Us ]\[ulattoes.'' 
 Aunt Phoebe's Story— Tlie Hanging 
 of Henderson Oxendine — Outlaw 
 Zach Mc Laughlin Shot by an Im- 
 pressed Outlaw— The Black Neme- 
 6is. 
 
 LcMBARTON, N. C, Feb. 27, 1872. 
 
 In two previous letters I have describ- 
 ed the persons of the Lowreys and some 
 of their associates, and given the origin 
 of the local feud which has run into an 
 extended career of outlawry and crimes. 
 This letter will recapitulate the leading 
 crimes on both sides, as derived trom 
 the best information. 
 
 THE TWO ARRESTS AND JAIL- 
 BREAKINGS OF LOWERY. 
 
 Although Henry Berry Lowery swore 
 an oath of revenge for the murder of his 
 father and brother in 1R65 he was not 
 yet entirely given up to outlawry, and 
 the republican politicians and advisers 
 of the people of Scuffletown felt some 
 sympathy for him and sought to save 
 him. These looked upon the murders 
 of Harris and Barnes as partly justified. 
 
 in the former case by the monstrous 
 character of the man, in the latter by 
 motives of self defence and the collisions 
 of the races in the war. 
 
 The old slaveholding element of the 
 county, however, unaware of the scourge 
 or humanity they were creating and the 
 talent as an outlaw leader he was Ho de- 
 velop, resolved to have and to hang him 
 at all hazards. 
 
 They found that he was to be married 
 to Rhody Strong, the most beautiful girl 
 in Scuffletown, and, surrounding the 
 house on the night of the ceremony , they 
 took him from the side of his bride — 
 one A. J. MoNair accomplishing his 
 capture. The jail at Lumberton was 
 then in ashes, and the county without a 
 safe receptacle for 
 
 THE YOUNG MURDERER AND BRIDE- 
 GROOM, 
 
 then only twenty years of age. He was 
 therefore conveyed in irons to the jail at 
 Whitesville, Columbus county, twenty- 
 nine miles from Lumberton. Here the 
 desperate young husband filed his way 
 out of the grated iron window bars, es- 
 caped to the woods, and made his waj 
 back to his wife. This was in 186(^. 
 
 In the interrupted enjoyment of fami- 
 ly happiness Henry Berry Lowery ex- 
 pressed a desire to quit the swamps and 
 return to his carpenter's trade and peace- 
 ful society. His republican friends la- 
 bored again in his behalf, and they re- 
 solved to plead the proclamation of ob- 
 livion for ofTences committed during the 
 war, issued by the federal department 
 commanders throughout the South. Dr. 
 
26 
 
 THE SWAMP OUTLAWS. 
 
 Thomas, Ffeed men's Bureau Agent at 
 Soulfletown, arranged with the Sheriff, 
 B. A. Howell, that if Lowery truely 
 gave himself up, he should be well fed, 
 not be put in irons, and protected from 
 the mob. United States troops at that 
 time were quartered throughout North 
 Carolina and the rebel element was dis- 
 Coui'aged. 
 
 The Sheriff and Dr. Thomas called 
 for Lowery at his own cabin, near 
 Asbury church, and brought him into 
 Lumberton in a buggy. A new jail haiJ 
 meantime (18G8) been erected in the 
 outskirts of the town, constructed en- 
 tirely of hewed timber. Lowery was 
 for a time tractable, quiet and confiding 
 in his advisers. The 
 
 SULLEN HOSTILITY OF THE TOWNS- 
 PEOPLE— 
 
 natural enough, no doubt, taward the 
 murderer of two citizens — soon began 
 to develop, and complaints were made 
 that Lowery had three meals a day, and 
 not, two, like the other prisoners. He 
 was fed fi'om the outside by a shoemaker 
 who also acted as jailer, and this good 
 treatment, added to reports of his proud 
 and nnintimidated bearing, led to a 
 public cry that he ought to be ironed 
 and put on hard fare. It is charged also 
 — and the story was told to me by three 
 different persons living widely apart — 
 that some of the towns-people, hearing 
 of the line of defence to be assumed for 
 fco prisoner, had resolved to drag him 
 tromjail and drown him in the river at 
 the foot of the jail-yard hill. 
 
 At any rate Lowery grew suspicious 
 and uneasy, and perhaps chafed at con. 
 finement. One evening, as the jniler 
 appeared with his food, he presented r. 
 knife and a cocked repeater, and said : — 
 
 " Look here, I'm tired of this. Open 
 that door and stand aside. If you leave 
 the place for fifteen minutes you will be 
 
 shot as you cQine out!" 
 
 He then walked out of the jail, turned 
 down the river bank, avoiding the town 
 stopped at a house and helped himself 
 to (^omo crackers, and, crossing the 
 bridge, was never again seen in Lumber- 
 ton. 
 
 THE BAD CHARVCTER COMING OUT. 
 
 From that day to this he has led the 
 precarious life of a hunted man and rob- 
 ber, killing sometimes for plunder, 
 sometimes for revenge, sometimes {"or 
 defence. He has refused to trust any 
 person except those who by bloodshed 
 put themscdves out of the pale of society 
 like himself, and he has collected a pack 
 of murderers whom he absolutely com- 
 mands, and who have finally diminished 
 to five, the rest being sent off as un- 
 worthy, useless or uncongenial 
 
 " My band is big enough," he said 
 last week. " They are all true men and 
 1 could not be as safe with more. We 
 mean to live as lon<f as we can, to kill 
 anybody who hunts us, from the Sheriff 
 down, and at last, if we must die, to die 
 game." 
 
 To another person he said. " We 
 are not allowed; to get our living peace- 
 ably and we must take it from others. 
 We don't kill anybody but the Ku 
 Klux." 
 
 A steady moral aeciine and grow^mg 
 atrocity has been remarked of Henry 
 Berry Lowery, but he has committed no 
 outrages on women and no arsons. His 
 confidence and sense of lonely and des- 
 perate independence have become more 
 marked. A cool, murderous humor has 
 gained upon him, and he is a trifle fond 
 of his distinction. Frequent exhibitions 
 of magnanimity distinguish his bloody 
 course and he has learned to arrogate 
 to himself a protectorate over the inter- 
 ests of the mulatoes, which they return 
 by a sort of hero-worship. There is not, 
 probably, a negr6 in Scuffletown w'hci 
 would betray him, and his prowess is a 
 
THE SWA]\rP OUTLAWS. 
 
 27 
 
 housfthold word in every black family I OXLY A TOOTH AT EACTT SIDE, 
 ill sea-board Carolina. Ilis consistent I 
 
 una 
 
 UNFLINCHING METHOD OP WARFARE 
 
 has gained him awe amon^ the wjiitos, 
 amounting nearly to respect, and by n 
 certain integrity in n'ord and perform- 
 ance he has come to deal with all the 
 community as an absolute and yet not 
 wilful dictator. Like the rattlesnake of 
 the swamps, he sends warning before he 
 kills, and only in robbery is remorseless 
 and sudden. 
 
 " My massta — his name's MacQueen 
 (or MacQuadc) — knocked 'em all out 
 wid an link stick. God knows I worked 
 for him wid all my might ; but, you see, 
 ho wasakeepin'black women and his wife 
 gwine to leave him, he wanted me to say 
 she had black men, and IM a died first ! 
 ITe whipped me and beat me, and at last 
 ho struck mo wid a stick over de monf, 
 and, Massta, I jess put np my hand up 
 to catch de blood and all de teef dropp 
 ed in de palm of my hand. Oh, dis 
 
 The family is divided in verdict uj>on wis a hard country, and Henry Bej-ry 
 
 his conduct. P.itricl<, Sinclair aii.l 
 Purdy, who are^fe'hodists, sp(>ak pretty 
 much in these terms ((pioted from Pat- 
 rick Lowery, who is a preacher) : — 
 
 " My brother Harry had provocation 
 — the same all of us had— wdien thev 
 killed my old father. But he has got to 
 be a ba-1 man, and I pray the Lord to 
 remove liiin from this world, if he only 
 repent first." 
 
 AN ANTE-BELLUM EPISODE. 
 
 A good deal of the above is probably 
 deceitful. The current opinion of 
 Scuffletown is as follows, in the lanifunrje 
 of an aged colored woman at Shoe Heel. 
 
 " Massa," she said, '• Hi-nry Berry 
 Lowery aint gwying to kill nobody but 
 them that wants to kill him. He's just 
 a paying these white people back for 
 killing his old father, brothers and cous- 
 ins. His old mother f knew right well, 
 aud she says, " ^ly boys aint doing 
 right, but I can't help it; I can only jiss 
 pi-ay for 'em. They wan't a brought up 
 to do all this misery and lead this yer 
 kind of life." " Massta," resumed 
 Aunt Phoebe, •' this used to be a dretnl 
 hard country for poorniggers. Do you 
 see my teeth np yer, Massta?" 
 
 The old woman drew her lip back with 
 her finger and showed the empty gum, 
 with 
 
 Lowcry's joss a payin' 'em ba(;k. He's 
 only a payin' 'om back ! Ii's better 
 days for dc brack people now. IVfassta, 
 he's jess de king o' dis countrv." 
 
 This is a perfectly literal version of a 
 Christian old woman's talk. Bandit and 
 robber as he is, and bloodstained with 
 many murders, this Lowery's crimes 
 scarcely take relief from the blotched 
 background of an intolerant social con- 
 dition, where the image of God was out- 
 raged by slavery throug-h two hundred 
 years of bleeding, suffering and submit- 
 ting. The black Nemesis is up, playing 
 the Ku Klux for himself, and for many 
 a coming generation the housewives of 
 North Carolina will fri<ihten the chil- 
 dren with tales of Lowei-y's band. Still, 
 the fellow is a cold-blooded, malignant, 
 murderous being, without defenders 
 even among republicans. 
 
 MURDER OF SHERIFF REUBEN KINO. 
 
 The first great crime succeeding the 
 killing of Brant Harris was committed 
 in the motive of house robbery upon a 
 highly esteemed old citizen of advanced 
 years, the Sheriff of Robeson county. 
 Reuben King. This happened on the 
 night of January 23, 18G9. 
 
 Henry Berry Lowery has since said 
 that he had no inteutiuu of accuin^iish- 
 
as 
 
 THE SWAMP OUTLAWS. 
 
 inu- the death of this gentleman, but that, 
 being poor, and aware that King had a 
 quantity of money in his possession, 
 the" boys" wanted to rob him, and had 
 no notion of putting him out of the 
 world. 
 
 After being shot Kinij lingered till 
 the 13t.h of March, and his antemortem 
 statements, added to the confession of 
 Henderson Oxendine, one of the rob- 
 bers, give us a complete history of the 
 tragedy. Lovvery alleges that he 
 whipped George Applewhite, the negro 
 who fired the fotal shot ; but this may 
 be meie cunning, and, besides, the ban- 
 dits have charged the crime upon John 
 Dial, the State's witness. 
 
 The ruffians, hearing t':at King w.is 
 possessed of considerable money, came 
 down from Seufflctcwn and hid in a 
 thicket near his house, which w:is two 
 miles south of Lumberton. There they 
 built a fire to warm themselves, and, be- 
 ing only partly armed, they out blud- 
 geons from tiie swamp and trimmed 
 them. 
 
 Dial remarked, " The old Sheriff may 
 resist us !" 
 
 " if he does," exclaimed Boss Strong, 
 '* we'll kill him !" 
 
 Tlxey blackened their faces to disguise 
 their identity and race more securely, 
 and then, to the number of eight or nine 
 moved, with the stealth of Indians, up 
 to the dwelling of the hale old gentle 
 man. 
 
 Sheriff King w;is reading the report 
 of a recent Baptist Convention beside 
 his fireplace. In another part of the 
 room — the parlor — Edward Ward, one 
 of his neighbors, who had come to pass 
 the night, was reading a book. Sud- 
 denly the door was pushed open and 
 
 A ROW OF BLACKENED, HIDEOUS 
 FACES 
 
 appeared over the threshold, while a 
 
 gun barrel was pointed at King, and an 
 imperative voice said : — 
 
 " Surrender !" 
 
 The man Ward sat as if paralyzed. 
 The Sheriff. I'oused at the summons from 
 his book, scarcely understood the situa- 
 tion. By a fatal, instinctive movement 
 he leaped up and seized the menacing 
 firearm, and bent it down toward the 
 flour. Henry Berry Lowery, the hold- 
 er of it, struggled at the butt and bent 
 it up again, and in the wrestle the piec« 
 was discharged into the parlor floor, 
 burning and scarring the boards tliere. 
 By this time the cl-oseness of the en- 
 counter and the SherifTs stiff and pow- 
 erful hold upon the gun had brought his 
 body around so that his back was toward 
 the open door. At this instant a pistol, 
 at close quarters, was fired into the old 
 man's head from behind, and he fell to 
 the flour in agony. The robbers im- 
 mediately, and without show of resis- 
 tance, fired at Edward Ward and felled 
 him with a wound which lasted for 
 months. 
 
 The females of the family, rushed in 
 and stood horrified spectators of the 
 miserv of the two men. The blackened 
 and excited faces of the robbers struck 
 them with additional terror. 
 
 "Water!" gasped the bleeding 
 Sheriff; " I am burning up ! For God's 
 sake give nn' 80me water !" 
 
 "God damn you!" cried one of the 
 villains, " what did you fight for? 
 
 "YOU SHAN'T HAVE WATER." 
 
 It was a scene of indescribable bl odi- 
 ness — the screaming women, menaeed 
 by the resolute robbers; the groaning 
 victims, the disguised faces of the fiends 
 and their lust for plunder paramount. 
 No wonder that Henry Berry Lowery, 
 ashamed of the remembrance, threatens 
 to shoot any man who says he took part 
 in the performance. 
 
THE SWAMP OUTLAWS. 
 
 29 
 
 THE HOME- GUARD DEMORALIZED 
 
 After a little time one of the women 
 was allowed to go and get water, while 
 the rest were locked up under guard. 
 Then the robbers ransacked the house; 
 opened trunk after trunk and took some 
 of them out in the yard to investigate 
 their contents. They finally made their 
 escape laden with plunder, and it was 
 not until John Dial pointed out the 
 place wiiere they had cut clubs in the 
 swamp and built the fire that the whole 
 matter was exposed. Dial has now been 
 in jail at Whitesville two years. Two 
 of '.he persons concerned in this murder 
 have been condemned and escaped, two 
 are in jail and one was hanged. 
 
 THE ONLY BANDIT HANGED. 
 Henderson Oxendine was finally 
 arrested at the house of his brother-in- 
 law, George Applewhite, the negro, 
 while waiting for Mrs. Applewhite to be 
 confined. The authorities, aware of the 
 condition of the culprit's sister, stayed 
 around the house all night and got in at 
 daylight, supposing Applewhite to be 
 there. They at once arrested Hender- 
 son Oxendine and Pop Oxendine. The 
 pfrsons named as present at the murder 
 of Sheriff Kinjr, in 18G9, were John 
 Dial, Stephen Lowery, George Apple- 
 wliite, Henderson Oxendinp, and Calviu 
 Oxendine. These at least were in the 
 
30 
 
 THE SWAMP OUTLAWS. 
 
 custody of the officers at one tirnp, while 
 Henry Berry Lo\v(;ry, Boss Strong and 
 others also present, were at large, 
 
 Steve Lowery and George Applewhite 
 were condemned to be hanged, when, 
 prematurely, the majority of the pris- 
 oners, among them the condemned, dug 
 their way out of the prison. 
 
 When Henderson Oxendine was 
 hanged there were about thirty-five per- 
 sons present in the small jail yard, bu^ 
 the tree tops overlooking the enclosure 
 were filled with whites and negroes. 
 
 The gallows was of the rudest con- 
 traction, built against the high picket 
 
 fence of the jail, with a trap, which was 
 
 held up by a rope passing over the short 
 
 beam secured, behind the Upright joist 
 
 by a wooden clamp, so that it could be 
 
 severed by the blow of a hatchet. 
 
 Oxendine's mother came to the jail the 
 
 morning of the execution and condoled 
 
 with her boy. 
 
 He was a thin-jawed, columnar-necked 
 wild, whitish mulatto, with ears set back 
 like a keen dog's, a good forehead, pierc- 
 ing, almost staring round eyes, with 
 dark, barbaric lights in them, a nose 
 eminent for its alert nostril, and a long- 
 ish, near bottomed chin, set with thin, 
 dirtyish beard, and a mouth of African 
 suggestion. 
 
 Pride and stoicism were in his expres- 
 sion, and negro-like, he sung a couple of 
 hymns on the gallows out of the Baptist 
 collection. 
 
 His executioner was a Northern rough 
 named Harden, or Marsden, a waif 
 from somewhere, who resembled a 
 sailor's boarding house runner, and was 
 of lower estate than the Lowerys. 
 
 This is one of the beings who has 
 rung himself in on the people of 
 Robeson county, ostensibly as a detec- 
 tive. He pinioned Oxendine and then 
 severed the supporting rope with the 
 hatchet. 
 
 No attempt at rescue wag made. 
 THE MURDER OF OWEN C. NORMENT. 
 
 The first murder committed in cold 
 blood for revenge was upon the person 
 of Owen C. Norment, who lived four 
 miles from the hut of Plenry Berry 
 Lowery and eight miles from Red 
 Banks station. His house was also 
 three miles from Alfordsville, on the 
 road to Lumberton, and not far from 
 the dwelling of a white desperado called 
 Zach McLaughlin. Aaron Swamp, a 
 feeder of Back Swamp, was near Nor- 
 ment's house. Triis murder was com- 
 mitted by Zach McLaughlin, by order 
 of Henry Berry Lowery, who, with hi.s 
 command, was posted near. It was the 
 first white man killed by the gang since 
 18G4, a lapse of more than five years. 
 
 Norment was an overbearing ex- 
 slaveholder, who had shot a man dead 
 at Charlotte, N, C, for calling him a 
 liar, and had been tried for it and ac- 
 quitted. 
 
 He had very black hair, whiskers and 
 eyes, and weighed about one hundred 
 and sixty-five pounds. 
 
 His ofllence was I'aising the people 
 against the L)werys, charging robberies 
 to them and threatening them. 
 
 Hearing loud noises, as of the stir- 
 ring up of domestic animals, the rat- 
 tling (if wagon chains, &c., outside of 
 his house. 
 
 Norment walked out in the dusk of a 
 Saturday evening and asked who was 
 present. Hearing somebody moving in 
 the dusk, he called for his wife to give 
 him his gun. 
 
 Almost immediatelv a gun was fired 
 only ten feet from Norment and he was 
 shattered in the lower members and 
 elsewhere with shot and ball. 
 
 He fell instantly, and being removed 
 to the house, a servant was despatched 
 for a physician. 
 
THE SWAMP OUTLAWS. 
 
 31 
 
 Dr. Dick obeyed the summons, and 
 being driven in a mule buggy by one 
 Bridgers, they were greeted, one mile 
 from Norment's honse, with a discharge 
 of firearms, which killed the mule and 
 forced the driver and the doctor to take 
 to the woods. 
 
 The same night Archie Graham, a 
 neighlior, was shot and dangerously 
 wounded, and also Ben MacMillan, an- 
 other obnoxious personage. 
 
 Tho house of a Mr. Jackson, on the 
 Elizabeth road, was sIm) fired into and 
 his dog killed. 
 
 The robbers held carnival that night 
 and resumed the reign of terror. 
 
 Norment's leg was amputated, but 
 the doctor was nervous, as the wounds 
 were fata!, for he died on Monday 
 morning, thirty-six hours after being 
 shot, leaving a wife and three children. 
 
 THE MURDER OF JOE THOMPSONS 
 
 SLAVE. 
 
 The Lowervs had once been slave- 
 holders, and Henry Berry always refers 
 to the full blacks as " niggers." 
 
 A good while prior to the time of the 
 killing of O. C. Norment the Lowery 
 gang shot dead a negro belonging to 
 one Joe Thompson, who lived at 
 Ashpole Swamp, sixteen miles from 
 Lumberton, and was a neighbor of 
 Henry Berry Lowery. 
 
 Tlie band had robbed Thompson's 
 house of bedclothing, <kc., and, thinking 
 of some story relative to their doings 
 which the negro had told, they shot him 
 dead at his own shanty. 
 
 Then they ordered Thompson's driver 
 to gear up the family carriage and drive 
 them home, which he did, and they left 
 the vehicle not far from Henry Berry 
 Lowery's house. 
 
 This must have been about at the 
 close of the war, for tho driver narrates 
 that three United States deserters or 
 
 escaped prisoners were then with the 
 mulatto robbers. 
 
 THE FATE OF ZACII M'LAUGHLIN. . 
 
 Tliis Zach McLaughlin, who is alleged 
 to have inflicted the mortal wound upon 
 Mr, Norment, met with a fate justly 
 deserved. 
 
 He was a native of Scotland, and one 
 of a low, sensual, heathenish type of 
 white men who consorted with mulattoes 
 and spent his low energies in seducing 
 mulatto girls and women. 
 
 Having laid out in the swamps with 
 the Strongs, Lowerys and Applewhite, 
 lie picked up an almost equally renegade 
 white by the name of Biggs, when, one 
 evrninc, the twain met at a mulatto 
 shanty upon an identical object — nam.ely 
 a mulatto syren. 
 
 As they quitted the place to go home 
 McLaughlin, who was drinking deeply 
 of villanous liquor, said to Biggs, with 
 an oath : — 
 
 " I'll kill you right here unless yo\i 
 join with me and rob the rmokehouses 
 and shanties of some of tluse fi-eedmen. 
 We want you with our crowd, and 
 you've got to come or die." 
 
 Biggs says in his statement that ho 
 went, out of the feiir t)f death, and 
 helped in the robberies of that night, 
 but privately made up his mind to 
 escape from McLaughlin or to kill hini 
 
 McLaughlin finally grew very drunk, 
 and insisted upon building a fire at a 
 place in the sw:inip and resting there. 
 
 These twu men were now quite sep- 
 arated trom other compani<tnship, and 
 when the fire was lighted, McLaughlin, 
 who possessed a monopoly of the arms, 
 compelled Biggs to sleep between him- 
 self and the burning brands, while he, 
 meantime, bent akimbo over the burn- 
 ing blaze and dozed. 
 
 Biggs began to test the sleeping out- 
 
33 
 
 THE SWAMP OUTLAWS. 
 
 oast by roUiiifj and moving, and finally 
 by jostling McLiughlin. 
 
 Reniemberini; his description of his 
 pistols, and in particular one pistol, 
 which was described as 
 
 NEVER MISSING FIRE. 
 Biggs manage i to pull it from the sheath 
 in McLaughlin's belt. With this he 
 shot the white outlaw through and 
 through and then slipeed away into the 
 swamp to see if he moved. 
 
 The drunken beast being perfectly 
 dead, Bij^gs made his way to Lumber- 
 ton and related the story. Seaith was 
 made, and cfi the spot of ground indi- 
 cated, beside the extinguished fire, the 
 bloody carcass of McLaughlin was dis- 
 eovered. 
 
 Just previous, to. this affiiir — Novem- 
 ber 9, 18T1 — ^McLaughlin and Tom 
 Lowery had escaped from Lumberton 
 jail by availing tiiemselves of a loose 
 iron bar and wrenching the grates off 
 the jail windows. 
 
 Biggs received 8400 for his two shots 
 into McLaughlin's body. 
 
 He has figured in a subordinate 
 degree since that time as a volunteer to 
 capture the outlaw chief. 
 
 McLaughlin was altogether a meaner 
 specimen of mankind than the Strongs 
 and Lowerys. 
 
 THE MURDER OF STEVE DAVIS. 
 
 On the 3d of October, 1870, the 
 Lowery band of outlaws appeared at the 
 house of Angus Leach, near Floral 
 College (female), and pnjceeded to seize 
 a large quantity of native brandy, dis- 
 tilled there for the fruit-jrrowins neigh- 
 bors — some say brandy designed to 
 to evade the revenue Laws. 
 
 Lowery's band was alert and fond of 
 strong drink, and they seized all the 
 available vessels at hand — kegs, pitch- 
 ers, pots and measures — to transport the 
 liquor. 
 
 Unwilling to despoil without inflict- 
 ing pain, they struck old Angus Leach 
 over the hip with ;i gun stock, disabling 
 him, and a negro man, .showing some 
 solicitude for the fluid property, they 
 tied up, whipped him with a wagon 
 trace and slit his ears with a penknife. 
 
 Thi liquor which they did not remove 
 they destroyed bef)re the United States 
 revenue officer could find it. 
 
 Next night the persons who had placed 
 their fruit, &c., for distillation at this 
 place, started in pursuit of the fugitives. 
 
 They found the whole p.irty, very 
 drunk, at George Applewhiti-'s, between 
 Red Banks and PI timer's station. 
 
 Applewhite was an alert, thick-lipped 
 deep-browed, woolly headed African, 
 with a steadflist, brutal expression. 
 
 Firing into the house the outlaws 
 rushed out, well armed and spoiling fo"- 
 a fight. The neighbors wounded nearly 
 every man of the party. 
 
 Boss Strong was shot in the forehead 
 Henderson Oxendine in the arm and 
 George Applewhite in the thigh. 
 
 Steve O. Davis, of Moore county, a 
 fine young man and brave as youth dare 
 be, rushed ahead of the party and forced 
 the fighting in the swampy edge of the 
 field where the outlaws were. 
 
 Henry Berry Lowery took deliberate 
 sight upon him and shot hiwi through 
 the back of the head. He fell dead. 
 
 THE MURDER OF CARLISLE. 
 
 I possesss no data upon the murder 
 of a Mr. Carlisle, who appears to have 
 been killed in the early part of the 
 open and announced warfare, except the 
 record that some of the bobtail followers 
 
 of Lowery's band were accused of the 
 crime. 
 
 One " Shoemaker John," not proven 
 guilty of the murder of Mr. Carlisle, 
 received a sentence of ten years in tha 
 State Penitentiary March 1, 1871, foF 
 
THE SWAMP OUTLAWS. 
 
 33 
 
 burglary. He appeared to be glad of 
 the opportunity to go safely to jail and 
 to escape, on the one hand, the mob, and 
 on the other the Lowery gang. 
 
 "DAL BAKER." 
 
 In the fall of 18G0 Daniel or " Dal" 
 Baker was shot in the leg while near 
 Scuflletown, and his leg hud to be 
 amputated. 
 
 Several other shootings occurred 
 about this time, and the war being now 
 •well understood, the citizens, volunteers, 
 militi;i and two companies of United 
 States troops started in to make a set 
 campaign against the outlaws. 
 
 Here some atrocities were committed 
 properly belonging to this narrative. 
 
 Amonii the ci imes of the Lowerv 
 band must be placed in legitimate con- 
 text some of trie more precipitate crimes 
 committed ngainst the mulatoes of 
 Scuflletown by their white neighbors. 
 
 Eight negroes have been killed by the 
 whites episodically in the hunts for the 
 Lowerys. 
 
 THE MURDER OF BEN BETITA. 
 
 Bon Botha was a full-blooded negro 
 and a violent radical republican among 
 his color, and he was used bv the re- 
 publican politicians to disseminate their 
 doctrines and keep the color in Scuflle- 
 town united in vote and sentiment. 
 
 He was what is called a praying 
 politician, apt to be frenzied and loud in 
 prayer and to exhort wildly, and he has 
 cunning enough to ring politics and the 
 wrongs of the colored people into his 
 prayers, so that he might have been said 
 to pray the whole ticket. 
 
 Last winter the democrats having full 
 possession of the county, and the Ku 
 Klux cfi'iK barefaced and undisjiuisedlv 
 through Samson, Richmond and the 
 adjoining counties, it was resolved to 
 Taake an example of this praying negro. 
 
 The Coroner of the county, KoUer* 
 Chaafin, got a party ostensibly to limit, 
 for Lowery, he being tho pretext for ;ill 
 Ku Klux operations in Robeson, and it 
 is alleged that some members of the 
 party came out of Battery A. United 
 States artillery, then posted in an<l about 
 Scuffletown. 
 
 THE ROBESON COUNl'Y KU KLUX 
 
 seldom wore disguises, the Lowery jire- 
 text covering all their operations. 
 
 With eighteen voung men thev start- 
 ed towai-ds Ben Betha's and the propo- 
 sition w:is then sprung to take liiiu out 
 and kill him that night. 
 
 Alarmed at this, Chaafin, the !Mac- 
 Queens, and somo of the more prudi'Ut 
 turned back, afraid of Judge Russell's 
 bench warrants. Malcolm MaoNeil now 
 took command, and, at the head of tun 
 men, marched up to Ben Botha's door 
 between twelve and one o'clock, and 
 rapping there, said to the negro as he 
 appear! d : — 
 
 " Cotne out here? We want you." 
 T.;e darky seemed aware by their reso. 
 lute faces that his hour, long threatened, 
 had come, and he turned I'bout and said 
 to his w ife — " Ole woman, 1 specs they's 
 gwine to l<in me. Mobbe I'll never 
 come back no mo'." 
 
 *• Go and jjet vourhat!" was the nex; 
 order, and then the negro was lifted out 
 of the shanty, and for one quarter of a 
 mill' there was no sign of his well known 
 foot tracks. 
 
 The fact was that he had been lifted 
 on a horse and ridden off a quarter of a 
 mile, so as to hide his traces. The 
 tracks reappeared after a certain distance 
 and the negro was never more heard of 
 after that night, but was found dead, 
 shot through and through. 
 
 Judge Russell called npon the Gnind 
 Jury to indict every man of this party ; 
 but the Grand Jury, with that prove - 
 
34 
 
 THE SWAMP OUTLAWS. 
 
 bial Southern justice manifested towards 
 the negro, 
 
 IGNORED THE BILL, 
 
 and then the Judge, witli almost extra 
 Judicial severity, put his written protest 
 on the records of the Court, and 
 denounced the action of the Grand Jury 
 as outrageous. 
 
 He then issued his bench warrant, and 
 outlawed every man concerned in the 
 killing of Betha, and they all ran out of 
 the county. 
 
 Malcolm AlacNiel went to Baltimore* 
 where he is a clerk in a store, and his 
 brother has fled lo I\Iississippi. This 
 happened only a few months ago. 
 
 The negio waiter in the hotel at Lum- 
 berton said to me in the presence of 
 several white men of the town : — 
 
 "They say they go up to Scultietown 
 tohuntLovvery ; but I never knew them 
 to go there without killing some inno- 
 cent person." 
 
 THE MURDER OF HENRY REVELS. 
 
 The mui'der of Henry Revels, a mu- 
 latto boy, is nnother case in point. One 
 night Dr. Smith, north of Scuffletown, 
 came into that settlement and said he had 
 been shot at on the road by somebody. 
 
 Dr. Smith was a brother of Colonel 
 Smith, the democratic Treasurer of the 
 county, and also a merchant at Shoe 
 Heel. 
 
 Putting their heads together the Shoe 
 Heelers concluded that the fellow was 
 Henry Revels, a likely mulatto, who 
 had become a leading republican and 
 was somewhat saucy around that region. 
 
 He had been brought up by Hugh 
 Johnson and made a body servant, so 
 that he had a better appearance and 
 more intelligence than the ordinary run 
 of Scuffletowners. 
 
 Fifteen or sixteen men on horseback 
 
 Heel and rode six miles off, to Johnson's 
 place, and took young Revels by force 
 out of the house, telling him not to open 
 his mouth. 
 
 They carried him to the vicinity of 
 Floral College, wliere resided the Rev. 
 Mr. Coble, chaplain on the occasion of 
 the killing of old Allen F.owery. 
 
 There Revels was shot dead and his 
 carcass thrown behind a woodpile. The 
 negroes found the carc.iss and called up 
 the reverend divine to i.lentify it. 
 
 Coble, by this time not anxious to fall 
 into the hands of Judge Russell, had the 
 Coroner cited, but before a jury could 
 be summoned some person concerned in 
 the murder took the body and hid it in 
 a mudhole, where the negroes again 
 discovered it and the inquest was held. 
 
 Warrants were issued for these Ku 
 Klux, and put in the hands of Juhn Mac 
 Niell, of Smith township, the constable 
 there, but he failed to do his duty and 
 all the parties ran away. 
 
 THE OXENDINES SHOT AND WHIPPED. 
 
 This MacNeil, although a constable 
 and head of the militia in his township, 
 was personally concerned in the outrage 
 on the Oxendines. 
 
 Hearing that Tom Lowery, one of 
 the outlaws, was dead, and wishing to 
 prove it and discover the body, perhaps 
 for the purpose of getting the reward, it 
 was resolved to pay the Oxendines a 
 visit. 
 
 They went to the h'Mise of Jesse 
 Oxendine, son of John, who was work- 
 ing quietly at turpentine-making, and 
 MacNiell said : — 
 
 " Where is Tom Lowery buried ?" 
 
 John Oxendine replied that he did 
 not know, and was not aware that he 
 was dead. 
 
 The constable's posse then put a strap 
 around the neck of Oxendine. and, pass- 
 
 and in buggies started out from Shoe ing it over the limb of a tree, hun<rhim 
 
THE SWAMP OUTLAWS. 
 
 35 
 
 up but the man's weight broke the limb. 
 
 They hung him to a second limb, but 
 the sapling- bent toward the ground. 
 
 Thoii they put the strap around his 
 nock so that the ends hung over, and 
 two men pullrd it each way until the 
 nejrro irrew black in the face. 
 
 Nearly at the same time they shot 
 another of the Oxendines, at his own 
 gate-post through both hands. 
 
 Bench warren ts were issued, but they 
 could not have them served by the 
 Sheriff or the United States officers, and 
 the fifteen or twenty men cuncerued in 
 the outrage went out of the county for 
 a while until the thing blew over. 
 
 In this brutal way the hunt for Henry 
 Berry L )wery goes on, and the people 
 who cannot catch him revenge them 
 selves upon his neighbors. 
 
 THE MURDER UF ' MAKE ' SANDERSON. 
 
 The mu filer of Make Sanderson — 
 Make meaning Malclom — would have 
 been fully investigated had it not been 
 for the fact that Tom Rus^sell, a brother 
 of the republican Judge .Russell, was 
 one of the party who murdered him and 
 the Judge let the subject drop ou that 
 account. 
 
 Make Sanderson was a mulatto of 
 such li<:ht skin that before the war he 
 enjoyed the general privilege of whites. 
 He married a sister of Henderson 
 Oxendine, who was afterwards hanged 
 at Lumberton. Sanderson's wife being 
 also the daughter of John Oxendine, 
 who was a half brother of old Allen 
 Lowery, father of the Lowery gang. 
 
 There appears to have been nothing 
 charged against Make Sanderson except 
 his relationship by marriage to the 
 Lowery family. 
 
 Tt is generally asserted that he was a 
 harmlesss man, " bossed" by his wife. 
 On one of tho periodical futile raids for 
 Henry Lowery the militia, or the volun- 
 
 teers, among whom was Murdoch Mac- 
 lain Ji>[u\ TdyU)r, the Pursells, 'i'oni 
 Russell and others, arnsled Make 
 Sanderson and Andrew Strong, and, 
 tying their wrists together so tightly 
 that the blood came, marched them to 
 the house of Mr. liiinan, a republican 
 and lather of the boy afterwards 
 
 KILLED DY THE LOWERVS. 
 
 At Inman's they gi)t a plough line, 
 and, tvins; the two more securelv, then 
 marched the pair to John Taylor's who 
 lived about two miles from !Moss Neek. 
 
 As Jt)hn Tavlor had gone over to the 
 house of his father-in-law, William C. 
 MacNiell, the march was continued to 
 that point, and here, in the dusk, the 
 party stopped in MacNiell's lane, send- 
 ing messancs to and fro until dark. 
 
 The object of this was to keep the 
 crime within the circle and not put the 
 MacNiells in danger of Henry Berry 
 Lowery's vengeance.* 
 
 While the negroes were led together 
 Andrew Stroiis, certain that lie was 
 going to be shot, gave his penknife to 
 Ben Strickland, another negro, and told 
 him to give it to his wife, because it was 
 all that he had in the world, and he 
 should never see her again. 
 
 This latter point came out as circum- 
 stantial evidence,because afterwufdsJohn 
 Taylor attempted to deny that he ever 
 had Andrew Strong in custody when he 
 was brought before the Court for the 
 murder of Make Sanderson. 
 
 At dirk both negroes were brought 
 up to William C. MacNiellJ<s yard, and 
 all the party of capturers took food on 
 the piazza, and while there John Taylor, 
 a black-eyed, black-haired, bearded, reso- 
 lute man and the most determined 
 hunter that ever started against the 
 Lowerys, walked out of the bouse upon 
 the piazza. 
 
 Both the negroes fell on their kuees 
 
36 
 
 THE SWAMP OUTLAWS. 
 
 and held up their hands, bound as they 
 were, and cried : — 
 
 "O, Mr. Tayloi-, save my life! Save 
 my life !" 
 
 A KU KLUX NERO. 
 
 Taylor drew baci< with liis foot half 
 raised, as if about to kick tliem, and he 
 said, bitterly : — 
 
 " If all the mulatto blood in the coun- 
 try was in you two, and with one kick 
 I could kick it out, 1 would send you ail 
 to hell together with my foot." 
 
 The nejiroes were then taken across 
 MacNeill's dam, where John Taylor, 
 within a few weeks, was to fall dead 
 with the roof of his head shot off, and 
 marched to the woods north of ISIoss 
 Neck station, about one mile, until the 
 party reached a sort of wild dell in the 
 lonely country. 
 
 John Taylor did not accompany the 
 party, but the two MacNeills did, and 
 also Murdoch MacLain, Tom Russell, 
 some of the Pursells and John Pater- 
 son, of Richmond county. 
 
 Andrew Strong, who afterwards re- 
 lated these incidents to his lawyer, says 
 that himself and Make Sanderson were 
 now made to stand up together, asked 
 if iney had anything to say, because 
 they had now got to die, and with this 
 their hats were pulled down over their 
 eyes witn an ostentation of pity. Mur- 
 doch MacLain, who appeared to be the 
 captain, then cried out : — 
 
 " The shooting party will be Nos. 1, 
 2, and 3. Step out !" " 
 
 Andrew Strong asserts that No. 2 was 
 " Sandy'' MacNeil, brother-in-law of 
 John Taylor. 
 
 Make Sanderson, who appeared per- 
 fectly resigned, asked if they would 
 give him time to pray. 
 
 After a little conterence the answer 
 was : — " Yes, you may pray." 
 
 Strong says that Make Sanderson 
 
 then fell on his knees and made the 
 most wonderful prayer that he ever 
 heard in his life, the woods ringing with 
 his loud, frenzied utterances as he spoke? 
 of his wife and children, and finally,- 
 negro fashion, he became so earnest 
 that one of the fellows, who had a towel 
 wrapped around his head — so had the 
 majoiity — stepped- up and hit Sander- 
 son with the butt of a pistol, saying. 
 
 "Shut up, you damned nigger! You 
 shan't make any such noise as this if you 
 are going to be shot !" 
 
 AFTER THE PRAYER, 
 
 there was some little delay among the 
 assassins. 
 
 Some ot them were evidently sff^winw 
 frightened between the prospects of 
 vengeance from Sanderson's connections 
 and Judge Russell's Court. 
 
 This interval Andrew Stronjr im- 
 proved to loosen, little by little, the rope 
 which tied his wrists to Sanderson's and 
 suddenly getting his hand out he rushed 
 into the woods and ran like a deer. 
 
 Thev riddled the woods with buck- 
 shot and ball, but never saw him again 
 until he appeared against John Taylor 
 and others in the Court at Lumberton. 
 
 The remaining negro, who exhibited 
 no desire to run, being a weak fellow 
 without much stamina, was taken back 
 to the mill dam by MacNiell's house,for 
 the party had lost spirits and feared that 
 the other negro would inform upon 
 them. 
 
 Here, it is said, they consulted with 
 John Taylor, who said that indecision 
 w(juld do no good, and that now the 
 negro had better be' killed, since his 
 companion would spread the tidings. 
 
 For two days Make Sanderson was 
 not seen. John Tavlor and all the band 
 denied having encountered him at all. 
 
 A negro found him below the mill 
 tail, in the swamp place behind the mill, 
 
THE SWAMF OUTLAWS. 
 
 87 
 
 \\ MYW'f'X 
 
 
 A SPY CAUGHT BY T!HE LOWERY B AIM BITS- 
 
 shot in the abdomen with a great 
 
 quantity of buckshot, and then again 
 
 shot in the back of the neck, in such 
 
 close quaitcrs that his hair was burned 
 
 as by the flanh of a pistol. 
 
 The man looked as if he had first 
 
 been shot and then endeavored to grope 
 
 his way up out of the water, for the 
 
 p.'ilms of his hands and fingers were 
 torn. 
 
 The body was deposited in IMacNiell's 
 mill and then hastily buried, but the 
 Magistrate of Lurnberton, Parson Sin- 
 clair, had it disinterred and the inquest 
 held. 
 
 The verdict was, "Shot by parties 
 unknown to the jury." 
 
 Magistrate Sinclair issued warrants 
 for the leaders in this affair, and sent 
 thorn to prison without bail ; but Judge 
 Russell, notwithstanding the high nature 
 of his offence, released John Taylor on 
 a bond of $500, supposedly because Tom 
 Russell was in the transaction. 
 
 When Henry Berry Lowery heard 
 that John Taylor was out on $500 bail, 
 and that this was considered security 
 (Miough for the murder of his relative, 
 he said — 
 
 " WELL, I WILL KILL JOHN TAYLOR " 
 
 there is now no law for us mulattoes." 
 
 Three weeks afterwards, as John Tay. 
 
 lor crossed tflio mill dam, coming down 
 
38 
 
 THE SWAMP OUTLAWS. 
 
 from ihe house of his f ither-iii-hiw to 
 the station, the gang of outlaws rose from 
 the swamp within thirty yards of the 
 place where Sanderson had been killed' 
 and Henry Berry Lowery shot the skull 
 and brains ont of Taylor and then rob- 
 bed him of his pockctbook 
 
 Tkus perished a man brave, zealous, 
 active and a good citizen to all but 
 
 negr es, whom, with the old-fashioned 
 contempt for slaveholders, he regarded, 
 in the language of Judge Taney, as 
 " without rights that white men were 
 bound to respect." 
 
 Here my letter exceeds bounds, and 
 I will try to finish up the bloody reca- 
 pitulation in one more article. 
 
THE SWAMP OUTLAWS. 
 
 39 
 
 TIIR MrLVTTO CAPITAL, 
 
 Origin of the Free Negro Settlement. 
 Fir-t AppearaiK'e ut the Lowery 
 Ilalr-Kreods Tlie Old Tiisoarora 
 Blood. Life and FiM'liii<? in Sciitnc- 
 towii. Caiiso of the Vciulelta. Low- 
 ery's Cousins Slain by Brant Harris. 
 Tlie Mnrdcr of Barnes and Harris. 
 Old .Mien Lowery and Bill Lowery 
 Shot by tlie Hume Guard. The Vow 
 of Keveu.i;^e. Abortive Eftbrts to 
 Iklake I'eace. The Lowerys Exempt- 
 ed From the Act of Oblivion. 
 
 LuMBERTON, N. C, Feb. 2G, 187-2. 
 
 Here is the place wHere the Lowery 
 gansr has been in jail, whence futile pro- 
 cesses are issued for them, and where 
 any of the members ever caught will be 
 hanired or burned. 
 
 Id is a ti)wn almost wholly built of un- 
 painted planks or logs, which have be- 
 come nearly black with weather stains. 
 The streets arc sandy and without pave- 
 ments of cither brick or wood. 
 
 About nine hundred people reside in 
 the place, and nearly every white man 
 in it and in the surrounding country is 
 Scotch." 
 
 The country was settled by Scotch 
 Highlanders before the Revolution, and 
 afterwards by a promiscuous emigration 
 from the west coast of Scotland. 
 
 About thirty miles distant, at Fay- 
 ctteville, lived Donald and Flora Mac- 
 Donald, the latter the savior of Prince 
 Charles, the Pretender, the former the 
 defeated champion of the royal standard 
 at the beginning 0/ our war of independ 
 ence. 
 _ These Scotch slaveholders were hard 
 
 taslt masters, and they look with pinch- 
 ed and awry faces upon the negro voting 
 beside them. 
 
 The county government is democratic, 
 and so perfectly impotent to catch or 
 kill five outlaws that at present it is 
 mailing no exertions whatever. 
 
 fiideed, the opinion prevails that the 
 SherifTs office has concluded a truce 
 up^n what are called honorable terms 
 with Henry Berry Lowery. 
 
 If it can be said that these bandits 
 are republicans it must also be charged 
 that the county government is demo- 
 cratic, and the honors are easy between 
 pillage and impotence. 
 
 COURT SCENES AT LUMBERTON. 
 
 The Court House is built of brick, 
 with a frame pediment above the eaves 
 in the gable end, and the court room in 
 the second story is covered Milii saw- 
 dust to keep the peace while Judge 
 Clarke, one of the District Judges, goes 
 through the comedy of justice. 
 
 " Make proclamation !" cries he, or 
 his clerk, to the Sheriff, who stands at 
 an open window opposite the bench, and 
 who roars down in a stentorian way to 
 the people assembled in the public aiTa : 
 "Neil Mc Neil ! Campbell McGrcngor! 
 McLcod Duncan ! come into court, as 
 you are this day commanded, or your 
 security will be forfeited to the State!" 
 
 This kind of noise,*^with variations of 
 " Oh, yes ! Oh, yes !" goes on pretty 
 much all day, while witnesses, jurors 
 and attached people are being summon- 
 ed. 
 
40 
 
 TPIE SWAMP OUTLAWS. 
 
 The court room is very crude, large 
 and bare, and the Judge looks amazing- 
 ly hi<;h up behind the long gallery where 
 they expose him. 
 
 He is a queer, affiible old Judge, who 
 has fought in the Mexican war, in the 
 Confederate arntiy, and commanded one 
 of Holden's regiments (Kirk leading the 
 other) against the Ku Klux. 
 
 He is at present what is called a 
 " scalawag," and says, among m.my 
 other things of no consequence, that if 
 he ever sees Lowery he will kill him. 
 The opportunities appear good for this 
 sort of intention. 
 
 Down before the Court House, where 
 the people of the county are congre- 
 gated, there is an old pole well in the 
 public square, where white and negro 
 fill their gourds at the dripping backet. 
 Around the corner stands the old 
 3ray — curious vehicle for such a village 
 — on which the Lowery band hauled off 
 a safe from the rear of a Lurnberton 
 store, deliberately backing the dray up 
 throuirh an alley between two houses 
 and leisurely setting the valuable casket 
 thereon, stopping at the Court House, 
 with a contempt of superstition, to haul 
 off the county safe. 
 
 To do all this required the opening of 
 
 a man's stable, stealing his horse and 
 
 the robbing of a blacksmith's shop of 
 
 tools to break open the safes, as well as 
 
 the impressment of an additional pair of 
 
 wagon wheels to convey the larger safe 
 
 to the woods. The horse could not pull 
 
 the whole load, and the county safe was 
 
 dropped off within town limits. The 
 
 valiant volunteers and posse of the 
 
 Sheriff marched out of town two or 
 
 three miles and found the private safe 
 
 rl93,d of about twenty-seven thousand 
 
 dollars. 
 
 This was money which had been 
 
 placed in the hands of the safe-owner 
 
 \ for private keeping. Strange as It may 
 
 seem, this robbery caused a feeling of 
 relief in many minds. 
 
 With so great a quantity of money it 
 was hoped that Lowery 's band might 
 have quitted the country, and such rid- 
 dance would have been cheaply pur- 
 chased at the figure named. 
 
 LIFE AT THE BELEAGUERED TOWN. 
 
 The tavern at Lumberton is without 
 a sign-post, and is a weather-stained 
 frame house, with small bedrooms, no 
 carpets, no bar and a fair country table. 
 1 found no milk to drink with coffee 
 anywhere in the region, but plenty of 
 esiis and chickens. 
 
 The jail — not on the same site where 
 Henry Berry Lowery was once confined, 
 and whence several of the outlaws ef- 
 fected their escape — is truly a singular 
 edifice. 
 
 It is built in a grove of oaks and pines 
 in the environs of the town, and con, 
 structed wholly of hewn timber, enclosed 
 bv a high paling picket fence, outside 
 of which picket is a log guard house for 
 small offenders. 
 
 I stepped inside the jail yard, nobody 
 objecting, to make a sketch of the gal- 
 lows where Henderson Oxendine recent- 
 ly met his fate stoically, no rescue at- 
 tempted, only the singing of a couple of 
 volnntary hymns himself, negro fashion. 
 The cord supporting the drop was not 
 severed by the Sheriff, but a desperado 
 from Ohio voluntarily assumed the 
 office. 
 
 While I sat within the sloping jail 
 yard I heard a banjo " tumming" in the 
 jail, and ttie negroes confined there were 
 comparing with Pop Oxendine and the 
 newly arrived offenders for Wilmington 
 the relative quality of meals vouchsafed 
 at the two prisons. 
 
 The Lumber River, which flows into 
 the Little Pedee, of South Carolina, and 
 reaches the aea near Georgetown, is at 
 
THE SWAMP OUTLAWS. 
 
 41 
 
 this time of the year little wider than a j 
 cit)- street, and of running water, but 
 barely forilablc and capable of carrying 
 lo'fs :ind rafts of lumber down the six 
 score miles of its cour.se. 
 
 Ileariiig horrible imprecations made 
 on the other side of the river, accom- 
 panied by cries of " Give me my knife ! 
 Yes, I'll cut his heart out ! I say gi'e 
 me my knife ! My blood's been insult- 
 ed. A man ot hoiio' can't live after he's 
 been kicked out o' that court room !" 
 <fec., <fcc., 
 
 I was relieved to find that it was 
 merely a negro lad, rejoicing in his rights 
 as a freem-in, who wanted to escape, 
 Lowery-fashion, from his mother and 
 brother, and vent his whiskey courage 
 upon somebody. 
 
 There are many negroes, as 1 found, 
 whose freedom takes the form of boast- 
 ing and cursing. 
 
 I failed to perceive in the attorneys 
 and merchants of Lumberton any 
 particular cnideness or inferiority. 
 
 Judge L.'ech and several others were 
 representative men of good sense, but 
 of strong, unmanageable political and 
 social prejudices, and they have suc- 
 ceeded in segregating and solidifying 
 the negro vote, so that the two faces 
 may about be said to make the two 
 political parties. 
 
 Here, in the large and motley crowd 
 assembled to attend Court, were to be 
 seen the rival elements of this pro- 
 vicial population. 
 
 The whiles generally wore butternut, 
 copperas-colored or gray home-spun 
 stuff and large-rimmed, flat, stiff felt 
 hats. 
 
 Many of them were very ignorant 
 and could not read, and looked upon the 
 Court as the very judgment seat of 
 Caesar. 
 
 "Yon just stand up and when your 
 name is called you say 'guilty' and pay 
 
 your money," I heard a lawyer say to a 
 boor. The boor looked as if it required 
 vast heroism to say even as much 
 
 THE SCUFFLETOWNERS AT COURT. 
 
 Here, also, were the Scuffletown mu- 
 lattoes — that curious race — imposed up- 
 on for many generations by master and 
 slave, their husbands cuckolded their 
 women debased and intimidated, their 
 freedom! not worthy of the name. 
 
 Had Robeson county exerted decent 
 endeavors to protect these immemorial 
 free people, when slavery was the law 
 and the' horrible radical had not yet 
 subverted " the constitution " which few 
 of tlie folks who weep for it ever read, 
 or, reading, respected — this ( xisLing 
 outlawry would have been precluded. 
 
 Scuffletown, over whose name and 
 etymology there seems to be debate, 
 possibly got its name from the long 
 scuffle of the whites and the slaves to 
 reduce it to peonage and make freedom 
 under the condition of color, contempti- 
 ble among the mulattoes. 
 
 Nobody in the whole region could 
 account for this free negro settlement — • 
 one of two large aggregations of yellow 
 men which has existed in North Carolina 
 since the organization of society. 
 
 There were many theories, but no 
 reasons at hand fur them. 
 
 1 conceive that these negroes might 
 have been the slaves of tories driven 
 from the State at the close of the Revo- 
 lution, or of the emancipated slaves of 
 the Quakers, and that they increased 
 and multiplied by accessions from run- 
 aways, by the birth rate of force ex- 
 erted on them and by the necessity of 
 union or the sympathy of all neighbor- 
 ing free negroes with a homogeneous 
 settlement. 
 
 The comely mulatto women, the 
 strange mulatto men, both sexes decent- 
 ly clad, were plentiful in town — some 
 
42 
 
 THE SWAMP OUTLAWS 
 
 arriving on mule back, some in short, 
 bometnade carts, many on foot. 
 
 There was a good deal of drink ins^- 
 among the men and of covert courtship 
 and ogling among the girls. Virtue 
 was evidently not uniformly high in 
 Scuffletown. 
 
 SCUFFLETOWN TOPOGRAPHICALLY. 
 
 The Rutherford and Wilmington 
 Railroad runs westward from Lumber- 
 ton River. 
 
 Eight miles northwestward it strikes 
 the station of Moss Neck. Seven miles 
 from Moss Neck it strikes the station 
 of Red Banks. 
 
 These two stations bound Scuffletown, 
 which spreads besides three or four 
 miles on both sides of the track, and is 
 surrounded on three sides with swamps, 
 which send branches of swamp up 
 through it, and in wet weather each of 
 these swamps are receivers of supplies 
 " bays," bottoms, or pools, which per- 
 meate the mulatto fortress. 
 
 In fact, it is a part of the "great 
 swamp district of North and South 
 Carolina, below the terrace of hills, and 
 yet is nothing particularly frightful, 
 even to a stranger, and quite unlike our 
 notion of the swamps of Florida and 
 Louisiana. 
 
 These swamps enclose the rivers and 
 their arteries laterally for a few yards, 
 and often, or generally, as the stream 
 winds, there is swamps on one side and 
 low clay sandbluffs opposite. It is a 
 mean country for troops to trespass 
 upon, but not an impregnable country. 
 I believe that I am safe in saying that 
 no Northern society would plead this 
 region as excuse for not following up 
 and annihilating such a crowd as Low- 
 ery's band. 
 
 THE LAND OF LOWERY. 
 
 Taking the railroad as the axis of 
 
 reference, and looking away from Lum- 
 berton northwestward, we see Rafl 
 Swamp leave the river first, and after 
 six or seven miles incursion northward, 
 send on, parallel with the railroad on 
 the right. Burnt Swamp, Panther 
 Swamp, and Richland Swamp, exten- 
 sions of each other. On this side of the 
 track Lowery's band have never com- 
 mitted a murder, unless thev killed the 
 McLeods. 
 
 Two or three miles above Raft Swamp 
 — the river bending to the riiiht of the 
 track — the Lumber River, itself swamp 
 girt, sends off at opposite sides Bear 
 Swamp (for Jack's Branch), which en. 
 closes Moss Neck and Bule's stations, 
 and Back Swamp, which lies about 
 paralled with the Lumber for twenty 
 miles, and projects to the southward 
 Ashpole Swamp and Aaron Swamp. 
 
 Here, then, are four series of swamps, 
 counting the swampy Lumber River, 
 The swamps are only a mile ov two 
 apart and their feeders diminish the 
 distance. On Back Swamp the Lowery 
 band keeps its ambush and secret camps. 
 The Lumber River is his line of de- 
 fence from the railway. The swamps 
 around Moss Neck are the scenes of its 
 boldest assassinations. The house of 
 Henry Berry Lowery, the leader, is 
 bi'yond Back Swamp, five miles from 
 Moss Neck station, and covered in the 
 rear by Ashpole and Aaron Swamps, 
 and all Scuffletown is his political ally 
 and " boozing ken," 
 
 The operations directed against him 
 start from Lumberton on the east and 
 Shoe Heel on the west, twenty-one miles 
 apart, and each twelve miles from his 
 fastness. Further in his rear, on the 
 South Carolina side, the Little P^dee 
 as well, send up parallels of swamp. 
 Florence, a great prison pen for federal 
 troops in the war is fifty miles behind 
 him. 
 
THE SVVA^rr OUTLAWS. 
 
 48 
 
 A3 old Aunt Phoebe said to me at 
 Shoe Heel. 
 
 " Boss, Henry Berry Lovvery is de 
 king o' tlie country " 
 
 SCUFFLETOWN AS A DEFENSIVE 
 TRACT. 
 
 The free negroes settled upon the 
 SoulTletown tract because the poverty of 
 the soil and the half inundated condition 
 of the reiiion brought it within their 
 means and debarred it from the capacity 
 of white men. 
 
 In wot weather, after rains, when 
 the Lumber River and its tributaries 
 rise, this region is almost flooded, 
 and then the only means of iuter-commu- 
 iiication are small paths, known only to 
 the inhabitants, which connect the island- 
 like patches and afford a labyrinthian, 
 mazes for escape to any who keep the 
 clues. 
 
 The Lumber River has bridges at but 
 one or two ])oints, and, being swift and 
 deep, must be crossed by scows or 
 rafts. 
 
 Jn summer a luxuriant undergrowth 
 covers all the swamps and low places, 
 and even the prairie pine land, so that 
 one cainiot see his own length, while in 
 winter the streams are full of water and 
 the Swamps more extensive. 
 
 The gall berry tree, sweet gums, post 
 oak, hickory, cypress and all the pine 
 varieties, grow in the swamps and on 
 their margins, and the bamboo vine, 
 stretching out eccentrically and profli- 
 gately, makes a nearly impenetrable 
 abatis. 
 
 The serpents are numerous and often 
 dangerous, including every variety of 
 the moccasin, the rattlesnake and the 
 largest specimens of water and black 
 snakes known in temperate regions. 
 
 Lizards live in the decaying logs, and 
 snapping turtles appear in the pools, 
 creeks and bays. 
 
 The woods are plentifully supplied 
 with wild cats, which kill pigs and lambs; 
 and the silence of the niglit in the rep- 
 tilian region is broken by the great ill- 
 omened owl, which utters no mere " tu- 
 whil," but appals the silence with his 
 long fo: eboding note, like the ver\« 
 demon of the woods mourning for prey. 
 
 A TOUR OF SCUFFLETOWN. 
 
 The stranger who expects to see in 
 Seulfletown any approach to a munici- 
 pal settlement will be disappointed. 
 
 It is the name of a tract of several 
 miles, covered at wide intervals with 
 hills and log cabins of the rudest and 
 simplest construction, sometime a half 
 dozen of these huts being proxinjate. 
 
 Two or three places to sell a low 
 character of spirits exist where the 
 dwellings are densest. The people have 
 few or no horses, but often keep a kind 
 of stunted ox to haul their short, ricketty 
 carts, and a man with such a bovine 
 hubin and a pair of old wheels is esteem- 
 ed rich; yet, living upon such land and 
 for so many years, the mulatoes of 
 Scuflletown would have esteemed them- 
 selves well to do had they enjoyed any 
 security from their white neighbors. 
 Tiiey had little more equity before a 
 jury than negroes, and it was no great 
 ofl^ence to violate their asylums and 
 court their wives and daughters. 
 
 The whole Lowery war afterward 
 began with Brant Harris' keeping in a 
 sort of servile concubinage some girls 
 courted by the Lowery s. 
 
 To visit a Scuflletosvn shanty, repre- 
 sentative of the whole, is to pass by a 
 cow lane or foot track up through a 
 thicket and suddenly come upon a half- 
 cleared fifld of old pine and post oak, 
 enclosed by a worm fence without a 
 gate. 
 
 A little old lever-well of the crudest 
 
44 
 
 THE SWAMP OUTLAWS. 
 
 mechanism — seldom of the dignity and 
 proportions of a pole well— stands in 
 this lot, the male proprietor of which is 
 sitang on the worm fence, and he replies 
 to youp neighborly salutation without 
 changing his position. ^ 
 
 Advancing, to the cabm it is found 
 built of hewn logs, morticed at the ends 
 the chinks stopped with mud, the 
 chimney built against one gable on the 
 outside, of logs and clay, with sticks and 
 clay fibove, where it narrows to the 
 smoko hole. 
 
 There is beside the large chimney 
 place, a half barrel, sawed off, to make 
 lye from the wood ashes, and the other 
 half of the barrel is seen to serve the 
 uses of a washtub. 
 
 A mongrel dog is always a feature of 
 1 10 establishment. The two or three 
 acres of the lot are generally ploughed 
 and planted in potatoes or maize, both 
 of which come up sickly. 
 
 The yellow woman commonly has a 
 baby at the breast, and from half a 
 dozen to a dozen playing outside on the 
 edges of the swamp. 
 
 The bed is m.ade on the floor ; there 
 are two or three stools ; only one apart- 
 ment comprising the whole establish- 
 ment. 
 
 LOWERT'S CABIN. 
 
 Just such a place as the above is the 
 house of Henry Berry Lovvery, the out- 
 law chief, except that, being a carpenter 
 he has nailed weather strips over the 
 iufcersiices between the logs and made 
 himself a sort of bedstead and some 
 chairs. 
 
 His cabin has two doors, opposite 
 each other, in the sides, and it has been 
 so many times shot through and through 
 with rifle balls that his wife can now 
 stand fire as well as her husband. 
 
 The Scuffletowners go out to work as 
 
 ditchers for the neighboring farmers, 
 who pay them the magnanimous wages 
 of $G a month. 
 
 As many of them arrf intemperate a 
 neijjhborin": trader with a barrel of 
 molasses and a barrel of rum speedily 
 gets the $6 from the whole party. 
 
 The above picture while true of the 
 majority of the ScufRetowners. is not 
 justly descriptive of all. 
 
 The Oxendines are all w.ell to ao, or 
 were before this bloody fend began, and 
 the Lowerys were industrious carpen- 
 ters, whose handiwork is seen at Lum- 
 berton, Shoe Heel and all round that 
 region 
 
 Great crimes in Scuffletown were rare 
 before the war. 
 
 Petty stealing and pilfering of chick- 
 ens and an occasional pig were not un- 
 known. 
 
 The whites hated the settlement 
 because it was a bad example to the 
 negroes. But most of the people were 
 Baptists or Methodists, and nearly all 
 owned their homesteads. 
 
 RISE OF SCUFFLETOWN. 
 
 By the census of 1860 Robeson county 
 contained 8,459 whites, only three free 
 blacks, all males, and the extraordinary 
 number of 1, 459 free mulattoes. 
 There were only 113 foreigners. 
 
 But one county — Halifox — contained 
 so many free mulattoes, and that was the 
 county whence the grandfather of the 
 present outlaws of Robeson emigrated. 
 
 In 1860 there were 2,165 mulattoes 
 and 287 free blacks in Halifax. Wake 
 county had next below Robeson 1,196 
 mulattoes, and after Hertford county, 
 with 1,020. There were no counties in 
 all the State with more than a few hun- 
 dred ; the average was not above fifty 
 to each county. 
 
 At the same time Robeson county had 
 126 slave mulattoes and 5,329 slave 
 
THE SWAMF OUTLAWS. 
 
 4o 
 
 ADVANCE OF THE TROOPS INTO THE SWAMPS. 
 
 blacks. Altogether the county contain- 
 ed 15,489 souls, the free population 
 making alincst two-thirds. 
 
 It stood considerably above the aver- 
 age counties of the State in slaves aiid 
 population, and out of the full-blooded 
 Indians (1.158 in number) ascribed to 
 North Carolina, none were set down 
 either to Robeson or Halifax county. 
 
 The antiquity of these free negro set- 
 tlements might be inferred from the 
 fact that by the census of 1850 only two 
 slaves were manumitted that year. In 
 1860 there were manumitted 258, or 
 one out of every 1,283. 
 
 In the latter year there were 5,202 
 
 fugitives from North Carolina to 17,501 
 from South Carolina. 
 
 Where did the South Carolina fugi- 
 tives hide 'J 
 
 Perhaps no inconsiderable portion of 
 ihein sought the swamp counties on the 
 southern tier of Norih Car(jlina, and 
 begged the cliai-ity of this lai-ge fi ce ne- 
 cro settlement. 
 
 THE INDIAN RACE OF THE LOWERYS. 
 
 The question ensues, whence came the 
 Indian blood of the Lowervs ? who are 
 by general assertion and belief partly of 
 Indian origin. 
 
 Why should they and their blood 
 >relative3 show Indian traces while Scuffle- 
 
46 
 
 THE SWAMP OUTLAWS. 
 
 town at large is mainly plain, unioinau- 
 tic mulatto 1 
 
 ThoJ-e wei-f two sets of aboriginese in 
 Nortn Carolina — the Cherokees of the 
 west, mountainous Cirolina, who re- 
 moved at a comparatively i-ocent period 
 to the Indian Territory and of whom 
 several remnants remain in the extreme 
 western corner or pocket of the State, 
 numbering 1,0G2 in Jackson county 
 alone. 
 
 Jud^e Leech, of Lumberton, says th.it 
 he saw a Cherokee once who resembled 
 Patrick Lnwery so closely that he called 
 out, " Is that Patrick ?" 
 
 Besides the Cherokees there was the 
 Atlantic coast confederacy, led by the 
 Tuscaroras and abetted at the great mas- 
 sacre of 1711 by the Hatteras Indians, 
 the Pamilicos and the Cothechneys. 
 
 These Indians, after adetermin-ed resis- 
 tance to the whites, which resulted in 
 scaring the Bai-on de Gi-aflT, the Swiss 
 founder of Newbern, out of the New 
 World, accepted a reservation of lands 
 in Halifax and Bertie counties, near ihe 
 Roanoke R.ver. 
 
 Tiiey eiiiii^iaied to New York and 
 joined the Five Nati(.ns a few years af- 
 terward, being thought worthy in prow- 
 ess to be admitted to that proud con- 
 federacy, but they held the fee simple 
 of their lands in North Carolina until 
 after the year 1840. 
 
 Some persons of the tribe must have 
 remained behind to look after thftse 
 lands, and among these, as will be seen 
 hereafter, was the grandfather of the 
 
 Lowerys. 
 
 The pride of character of the Tusc;:- 
 roras was such that the Cheroke. s, 
 Creeks, and other tribes joined the 
 whites to subjugate them, and Parkmai: 
 says that the Tuscaroras were of the 
 same generic stock with the Iroquois 
 • and conducted th-^ southern campaigns 
 of those Five Nations. 
 
 Ilildreth says that they w?re reputed 
 to be remnants of two Virginia tribes, 
 the Manakins and iSIanaho* s, iiereditaiy 
 enemies of Captain John Smith's Pow- 
 hatan. 
 
 They burned the Surveyor General, 
 who had trespassed on their lands, at 
 the stake, and were in turn partly sub- 
 jected to slavery by the militia <;f South 
 Cai'olina. Eiiiht hundred of them vvere 
 sold by their Indian enemies to the whites 
 oi' ihe Carolinas at on3 time, and in 17 iS 
 most of those at liberty retired through 
 the unsettled portions of Virginia and 
 Pennsylvania to Lake Oneida, New 
 York. 
 
 This criminal code, enforced against 
 Allan Lowery, the father of Henry- 
 Berry Lovvery, the outlaw, has had the 
 result of making Robeson county the 
 seat of a fierce wai'fare for revenge. 
 
 Persons curious about the severity of 
 this code may see a digest of it in Hild- 
 reth, Colonial, series, vol. II., pp. 271 — 
 275. 
 
 The Tuscaroras, in their prime, had 
 1,200 warriors in North Carolina. 
 
 In l807 they bought a tract from the 
 Holland Land Company with the pro- 
 ceeds of their North Carolina lands, 
 and it was about at this period that th'-* 
 ancestor of the Lowerys removed from 
 Halifax county t > Robeson county. 
 
 THE LOWERYS SETTLE IN ROBESON. 
 
 The following statement of the origin 
 of the family is derived from the note- 
 books of Colonel F. M, Wishart, which 
 were entrusted to me to look at by 
 Captain F. H. M. Kenney, of Shoe 
 Heel :— 
 
 James Lowery, the grandfather of H. 
 B. Lowery, came from Halifax, N. C, 
 and settled at what is called Harper's 
 Ferry (in the centre of Scuffletown, 
 two miles from Ruhr's store), bnilt a 
 bri(J^e across Drowning Ci'eek, and 
 
THE SWAMP OUTLAWS. 
 
 47 
 
 kept it as a toll bridge; also kept a j spirits recoiled from -.vorking on the 
 
 public house for the accomodation of 
 travellers. 
 
 He was wealthy and fairlv "esoected 
 by all, and owned slaves. 
 
 lie married a Moman by tne name of 
 
 , and had three sons, George 
 
 Travis Lowery, Allen Lowerv and Tho- 
 mas Lowery. 
 
 Allen Lowery, the father of the band 
 leader, married a woman by the name 
 of Mary Combes and settled on the 
 south side of Back Swamp, in a desert- 
 looking wilderness, and was the father 
 of Patrick, Purdio, Andiew, Sinclair, 
 William, Thomas, Stephen, Calvin, 
 . Henry Berry and Mary. 
 
 Old Allen Lowery was a good, peacea- 
 ble citizen, and well liked. 
 
 He was a great hunter in his vounfi 
 days. With his neighbors — Barnes, Mc- 
 Nuir, Moore and others — he was willinir 
 to share his last cent. All his boys 
 were mechanics with him, and the fini- 
 ily got on smoothly and industriously 
 until the summer of 1864, when three 
 '' Yankee " prisoners escaped amon" 
 many from the pen at Florence, S. C. 
 
 They made their way to the house of 
 Allen Lowery aud were comparatively 
 safe, as nearly all the white people were 
 in the Confederate arrny and the State 
 laws would not allow the niulattoes to 
 enlist in the ranks. 
 
 The Scufflt'tosvners'Were mustered in 
 only as cooks, <kc., or conscripted to 
 woik on the brestworks about Wilm- 
 ington. / 
 
 There is a story current that the Low- 
 erys in tne Revolutionary War were 
 torv bush whackers, but it is also allc"-- 
 ed that one of the family received a 
 United States pension up to the day he 
 died. Some of the boys were willing 
 to enter the Confederate army ; as their 
 father had kept slaves, but their proud 
 
 fortifications among the netrroes. 
 
 As the war progressed and ihe Low. 
 erys got to understand it ihey Sympa- 
 thized with the North, and entertained 
 at their cabins its escaped soldiery iroin 
 Florence. 
 
 A DEMOCRAT'S ADMISSION. 
 
 Mr. Bruce Butler, an larn' st democrat 
 and a prominent lawyer in Wilmington, 
 said, in reply to an interrogatory : — 
 
 " [ don't think politics has anything to 
 do with this outbreak. It began in the 
 war, when our impressing officers made 
 a requisition upon the free negro settle- 
 ment and pulled away these outlaws or 
 their relatives to work on our fortifica- 
 tions. They complained of the fooil 
 the treatment, the woi-k, and so forth, 
 and, I believe, the chief outlaw himself 
 ran away. Then there was hunting 
 made for him and he got to lying out in 
 the woods and swamps; next to stealing, 
 next robbery. Murder and outlawry 
 followed in time — bad begun grew worse 
 — that's mv understandiufr of it. " 
 
 OLD ALLEN LOWERY 
 
 One evening at Lumberton I sat in 
 the office of Judge Leech, half a dozen 
 gentleman present, and they described 
 old Allen Lowery. The disposition 
 generally manifested by the white peo- 
 ple of Robeson county is to put little 
 stress upon the murder of this old man, 
 but to ascribe the crimes of Henry Berry 
 Lowery's band to lighter cause and to 
 separate the motive of revenge altogether 
 from his offences. 
 
 "The L 'werys," said one of the per- 
 sons present, "were always savage and 
 predatory. By conducting a sort of 
 swamp or guerilla war during the Revfv 
 lution thev accumulated considerable 
 property, and at the close of that war 
 
48 
 
 THE SWAMP OUTLAWS. 
 
 were landholders, slaveholders and 
 people of the soil. Then they grew dis- 
 sipated duiing the time of peace, and 
 their land was levied upon to pay debts- 
 Being Indians, with an idea that their 
 ancestors held all this land in fee 
 simple, they could not understand how 
 it could be taken from them, and for 
 years they looked upon society as hav- 
 ing robbed them of their patrimony." 
 
 "Yes," said one present, "Allen 
 Lowery brought me a case against a 
 man who wished to sell a piece of pro- 
 perty he had forniely owned, and he 
 couldn't be made to understand that the 
 man had a good title for it. When 
 they were holding the examination, just 
 before they shot him in 18G5 the old 
 man pleaded in exleniiation of the plun- 
 der found in his house that he had never 
 been given fair play but had been cheat- 
 ed out of his land. He said that his 
 grandfather had been cut across the hand 
 in the Revolution, fijjhting for the State, 
 and that the State had cheated all his 
 family. He had the Indian sentiment 
 deep in him, of having suffered wrong 
 and imparted it to all his sons. Here 
 is Sink (Sinclair) Lowery with the 
 .same kind of notions to this day. He 
 said a little while ago, ' We used to 
 own all the country round here, but it 
 was taken from us somehow.' " 
 
 " He was a good carpenter," said 
 another, " and brought all his boys up in 
 industriously. He built this office in 
 which we sit. He had a peculiar kind 
 of eyes ; they would prowl around your 
 face until you got off your guard and 
 Mien he would give you a piercing look 
 through and through. He had a heap 
 of mixed white and Indian pride, but 1 
 believe he was whipped at the whipping 
 post once for pilfering, but that was so 
 far back in his youth that nobody re- 
 membered it except by tradition. His 
 sou, Sinclair, married a white woinac. 
 
 jThe Lowerys and Oxendlnes were gen- 
 erally accounted the highest families in 
 Scutrletown." 
 
 " Well," chimed in another voice, " he 
 was considerable of a heathen and never 
 went much to church except very late in 
 life, when he became a Methodist class- 
 leader. Old Allen married a girl early 
 in life and had one child, but being in- 
 different or disappoinied about her, he 
 wandered off two years to South Caro- 
 lina, and when he returned, without di- 
 vorce or notice of any sort, he married 
 a different woman. 
 
 "Taking example from him the first 
 wife also married a new man. By the 
 second wife old Allen Lowery had all 
 these children. Nobody ever had any 
 complaint to make of him or his boys 
 until the murder of Barnes, eight years 
 
 ago. 
 
 THE FIRST MURDER. 
 Henry Berry Lowery grew up with 
 his fjither, a carpenter and a liunter. 
 
 He was noticed to be a boy of good 
 appearance, quiet address, pleasing and 
 modest enough, but also to cherish deep 
 resentments and to readily take affront. 
 His eyes had iiidden in them, a-nd prompt 
 to come forth on provocation, the hazel 
 Indian lights, and when he was ordered 
 to the sand pits, below Wilmington, to 
 do laborer's duty, at the age of seven- 
 teen, he ran away, and returned to 
 ScufHetown, where he was repeatedly 
 hunted, and by none more than by John 
 A. Barnes, his flither's next neighbor, 
 and by J. A. Brant Harris, a white man 
 of bad character, who domineered over 
 Scnffletown. 
 
 He remained for many months be 
 tween the swamps and the shanties_ and 
 was joined by Steve Lowery and other 
 relatives and acquaintances. 
 
 Unable to work for a living under 
 these conditions, the party had to forage 
 upon the whites. 
 
THE swa:\ip outlaws. 
 
 49 
 
 Thus, inssensibly, formed vagabond 
 and desperate habits, in whicli, there is 
 reason to believe, they found apt tutors 
 in some escaped Union prisoners wi'o 
 had made their way from Florence, S. 
 C, by the light of the North Star, 
 straight into Sciifiletown, and who, to 
 avoid capture, hiJ in Baelc and Lumber 
 Swamps with the young Lowerys, 
 Strongs and Oxendiiies. 
 
 Bloody example, the self-reliance of 
 an outcast and distaste for peaceful 
 pursuits soon overcame Henry Berry 
 Lowery, and he grew to hate the slave- 
 holders and to identify himself ideally 
 with the wrongs of all the mulatto 
 settlement. 
 
 BRANT HARRIS. 
 
 This fellow was a bluff, swaggering, 
 cursing, redfiiced bully, entrusted by 
 the rebel county authorities with keep- 
 ing the peace in ScufflL'town anl hunt- 
 ing up deserters and conscripts, and he 
 meantime gained a penny by "farming 
 a turpentine orchard," selling rum, &c. 
 
 He looked like a slave dealer, and 
 was the terror of the poor wretches of 
 Scuffl' town, whom he used to flog, un- 
 roof and insult at will. 
 
 Being a libidinous wretch he took 
 possession of some of the lightest dams- 
 els in the settlement, and one of these 
 was courted honorably by a cousin of 
 young Henry Berry Lowery. 
 
 Seeing the white man so much at the 
 hut of his girl one of the young Lowerys 
 threatened among his people to kill 
 Brant Harris if he did not let her alone. 
 
 Tliis being reported to Harris he was 
 seized either with apprehension or rage, 
 knowin.:-, perhaps, the Indian Qualities 
 of the Lowery lads. 
 
 He therefore put himself in ambush 
 to kill the lad who threatened him, but 
 by mistake shot the wrong Lowery, the 
 brother of the boy he hunted. 
 
 This mistake made Brant Harris 
 aware that his present peril was greater 
 than before, for he had now nfised the 
 savajie ire of all the Lowervs and their 
 Indian kin. 
 
 He therefore seized both the broth- 
 ers of liis victim as persons who owed 
 military service on the fortifications ot 
 Wilmington, and was deputed to march 
 them from Scuffletown to Lnmberton. 
 
 On the way this monster deliberately 
 murdered both boys, and one of the 
 three, at least, was found wi.th his skull 
 beaten in by a bludgeon. 
 
 A fourth brother made his escape to 
 the Lowerys and joined Henry Berry 
 Lowery, who vowed to kill Brant Har- 
 ris at sight. 
 
 The foregoing is thus ingeniously 
 paraphrased by Colonel Wishart in his 
 book said to be designed for publica- 
 tion, part of which, in manuscript, I had 
 the privilege of examining: 
 
 " A man by the name of Brant Har- 
 ris, who had been a sutler and turpen- 
 tine merchant at Red Banks, had a dis- 
 pute with the Lowerys (charged to be 
 about stolen chickens) and he finally 
 killed three cousins of Henry Berry 
 Lowery named Jarman, George and 
 Bill." ' 
 
 Now, there is no record that the 
 Lowerys in question were not as re 
 spectable as Brant Harris, and it was 
 several years before Henry Berry Low- 
 ery's victims amounted to three. 
 
 Brant Harris weighed 230 pounds. 
 
 His character may be inferred from 
 the fiict that some of the females of his 
 surviving family have given birth to 
 mulatto children. 
 
 THE MURDER OF BARNES. 
 
 Before the fugatives in the woods 
 and kinsmen of the Lowerys had dealt 
 out retribution to Brant Harris the 
 family of Allen Lowery had become 
 
50 
 
 THE SWAMP OUTLAWS 
 
 embrfiilcd with thpir nearest neighbor, 
 a bacliclor named John A. Barnes. 
 This Barnes was a fine hunter and 
 could track the fugitives with his prac- 
 tised eye through the swamps, so that 
 he was an obstacle to them as well 
 as an enemy. 
 
 The following is Captain Wishart's 
 version of this assassination, the first 
 in point of time committed by Low- 
 ery's band : — 
 
 After the escaped prisoners from 
 Florence reached the Suffletown district 
 they made the acquaintance and sought 
 the hospitality of Allen Lowery's fam- 
 ily. 
 
 Henry Berry, Stephen and William 
 Lowery, wishing to give their new 
 friends good table fare, went to the 
 neighboring farm of Mr. Barnes, their 
 oldest acquaintance, and stole two of 
 his best hogs, two miles distant, caried 
 them home and salted them nicely 
 away for long consumption. 
 
 Barnes followed the cart track to 
 Allen Lowery's house, saw the remains 
 of the butchering and cleaning, and, 
 getting out an officer and a search 
 warrant, swore to his mark on the 
 ears of the hogs, as found on the re- 
 jected heads among the offar. 
 
 The three young Lowery's — Henry, 
 Steve and Bill — were nowhere to be 
 found. 
 
 Barnes requested old man Lowery 
 and all his boys henceforth to keep on 
 his land or he should help to forward 
 them to the batteries to work involun- 
 tarily. 
 
 ' Here the struggle commenced and 
 threats passed and repassed. 
 
 Oil the 12th dav of December, 1S64 , 
 
 •> 7 7 
 
 while James P. Barnes was going to 
 Clay Valley Post Office, a distance of 
 one mile (the Post Office at the store of 
 Cantaiu W. P. Mores), he was waylaid 
 
 half way by IL B. Lowery, Bill Lowery 
 and (as supposed or charged) by the 
 Yankees and shot. 
 
 He fell with twenty buckshot in his 
 breast and side, and then Henry Berry 
 Lowery deliberately walked up to him 
 with a shotgun, and although Barnes 
 cried, " Don*t shoot me aixain — I am a 
 dying man," the young mulatto Indian, 
 then not more than sixteen or seventeen 
 years of age, replied : 
 
 " You are the man who swore to shoot 
 me," and fired another load into liis face, 
 shooting off part of the cheek. 
 
 The whole party then crept into the 
 swamp and disappeared. 
 
 Some of the neitrhbors, hearing the 
 shooting and hallooing, hunied up r.iid 
 heard the dying statement of Barnes that 
 Henry Berry Lowery was his murderer. 
 
 THE FIRST BURGLARY. 
 
 Soon afterward these young men went 
 to the house of W^idow MacNair, for 
 the purpose of robbing a confederate 
 colonel. 
 
 The sick soldier there lent his pistol 
 to the widow, who wounded one of the 
 robbers, and they carried him off to 
 Colonel Drake's, some distance away, 
 and ordered Widow Nash, the only per- 
 son in the house, to attend to him till 
 well, on pain of death. The man re- 
 covered in perfect secrecy. 
 
 THE SECOND VICTIM. 
 
 It now became Brant Harris' turn. 
 
 The young Tuscarora who had taken 
 the first life without a shudder— and 
 that the life of a man 'generally reputed 
 to be a good neighbor and useful man — 
 built himself a " blind," or curtain of 
 brush and old logs ; and as Brant Har- 
 ris rode by m his buggy, near Bute's 
 store, in the early part of 1865, he was 
 riddled with buckshot, 
 
THE SWAMP OUTLA\YS. 
 
 51 
 
 His horse ran away, and carried him 
 a considerable distance. 
 
 Few people sympathized with Har- 
 ris, although all were now aware of the 
 existence of a savage band of outlaws in 
 the swamps, who resisted and baffled all 
 means to bring them in. 
 
 Before any efficient means could be 
 adopted to arrest young Lowery and 
 his brothers and associates in the in- 
 tricacies of Back Swamp the army of 
 General Sherman, making the grand 
 march, swept on by Cheraw and Rock- 
 ingham to Fayetteville, and the fora- 
 gers or " bummers," who strayed out 
 on the flanks, pounced upon Robeson 
 county. 
 
 ALLEN LOWERY'S OFFENCE. 
 
 At Scufiletowii they found in tlie 
 Lowery's guides, informants and enter- 
 tainers, who posted them as to the sta- 
 tus of the leading rebels of the county, 
 the wealthiest homesteads and such 
 other matters as a rapacious soldiery 
 would wi.sh to know. 
 
 Some of tlie Lowery boys went out 
 with these troops and brought home 
 part of the spoils. 
 
 At this period an execution had been 
 levied on old Allen Lowery, and his 
 son Bill, at law, proprietor of the house 
 and ground where the old man and his 
 wife resided. Bill had probably had 
 association with that part of the family 
 whicn had fled to the swamps, but there 
 13 poor testimony that old Allen h:id 
 ever committed any robberies. His 
 son William, the new master of the 
 place, governed the old man, who was 
 now sixty-fi\e years of age. 
 
 DEATH OF THE OUTLAW'S FATHER. 
 
 When Sherman's army had passed 
 on to Fayetteville and Raleigh the ma- 
 lignant rage of the people of Robeson 
 
 county turned upon this old citizen and 
 the helpless part of his family. 
 
 They little knew what a young de- 
 mon they were to arouse for seven en- 
 suing years in the wild boy who resided 
 in the swamps, and whose motto was to 
 be " Blood for blood ! " 
 
 They resolved that the Lowery's 
 were then committed adherents of the 
 Yankees, that the blood of Barnes and 
 Harris was unaccounted for, and that it 
 was necessary to muke an example of 
 somebody iu Scufflctown to teach them 
 that the end of slavery was not yet the 
 colored man's triumph. 
 
 Blind, inconsiderate, brutal ill-will 
 and cruelty were at the bottom of this 
 movement. 
 
 It started between Floral College and 
 what is now called Shoe Heel. 
 
 A member of the gang was a Presby- 
 terian preacher named Coble, or Cobill, 
 an old apostle, exhorter and Phi/risee of 
 slavery, and one of the leaders in it 
 was Murdoch Mac Lain, who, six years 
 afterward, tumbled out of his buggy, 
 shot through and through by Henry 
 Berry Lowery. 
 
 These, among twenty others, marched 
 j upon old Allen Lowery's cabin, and 
 dragged out the old man and his wife, 
 and two of the sons, found on the prem- 
 ises, Sinclair and Bill. 
 
 Searching the cabin they fouiid sev- 
 eral articles said to have been filched 
 
 I 
 
 ! from the white neiirhbors. This vrtis 
 
 justification enough. 
 
 They carried the old people off to a 
 ; safe nook and there went through the 
 
 farce of examining them. 
 1 The devil's own prirst— Coble or C<v 
 ' bill — got a prayer ready to make at the 
 ' execution, and to make his holy rob 
 
 hypocritieally consistent, he pleaded for 
 
 the life of Sinclair Lowery. 
 ' The negroes say these white Ku KluJt 
 
52 
 
 THE SWAMP OUTLAWS. 
 
 made the condemned people of the fam 
 ily dig their own graves. 
 
 They stood the old man, at sixty-five 
 years of age, up beside his son, both of 
 them enduring the ordeal with Indian 
 stoicism, and, by the light of blazing 
 torches, as one account relates, shot them 
 to deatii with duck shot and ball. 
 
 Coble or Cobill got off his prayer and 
 perhaps his gun. Before they shot the 
 father and son they endeavored, with 
 blanced fear of the vengeance of the 
 North, to mai<e the poor old wife of AI- 
 len Lowery confess to some justification 
 for their act by pointing their pieces at 
 her and firing volleys over her head un- 
 til she was nearly paralyzed with fear. 
 
 From a thicket near at hand Henry 
 Berry, the son of Allen Lowery, saw the 
 volley fired which laid his brother and 
 father bleeding on the ground. 
 
 There he swore eternal vengeance 
 ao-ainst the perpetrators of the act. 
 
 Fourteen citizens have paid part of 
 that penalty in the succeeding seven 
 years. 
 
 He has been the greatest scourge the 
 South ever knew from one of the inferior 
 race, and has developed a cunning, blood- 
 thirstiness, activity and courage unmatch- 
 
 ed in the history of his race. Some 
 have compared him with Nat Turner. 
 
 HENRY BERRY LOWERY AND NAT 
 
 TURNER. 
 
 The insurrection of Nat Turner tO()k 
 place in Southampton county, Virginia, 
 August, 1831, just over the line from 
 Halifax county. North Carolina, where 
 the grandfather of the Lowerys lived. 
 
 In Southampton county, as in Halifax, 
 abode Indians, a few of whom still re- 
 main — the Nottowavs. 
 
 Nat Turner was the senior of Henry 
 Berry Lowery, and was thirty-one years 
 of age and a slave. 
 
 He was a praying ignoramous and 
 believed himself inspired to kill off the 
 whites, which he commenced, with four 
 disciples, by killing fifty-five men, women 
 and children, 
 
 Tiie insurrection lasted only two days 
 and after hiding several weeks the leader 
 was caught and hanged. 
 
 Henry Berry Lowery has never been 
 caught and held. He is a bloodthirstv 
 remoseless, able bandit leader. 
 
 In my next letter I shall take up the 
 catalogue of his crimes. 
 
THE SWAMP OUTLAWS. 
 
 53 
 
 THE BANDIT IN JAIL. 
 
 KOllTII CAROmV OSCEOLA, 
 
 Further Murders by the Liowery Out- 
 laws. A Coiiipiirison. Alive or 
 Dead. ni.e:li Rewards for tlie Cap- 
 ture or Killing of the Bandit?. Tiiril- 
 ling Stories of the Swamp War. 
 Cold-hlooded Assassinations. Sudden 
 Murders, Cool Robberies, Ruthless 
 Retaliation and Footpad Generosity. 
 The Feud with the M'Neills. The 
 Fight. Lowery's Wonderful Escape 
 and Deadly Stratagem. Fearful 
 Death of Sanders, tlieSpy. Tortured 
 lor Three Days, Bruised, Bled, Poi- 
 soned, and Finally Shot. Romance 
 Outdone by Facts. How the Suc- 
 cess ot the Gang Demoralizes Young 
 ScutHetown. The State Powerless. 
 
 Wilmington, N. C. March 2, 1872. 
 Since my return and rest in this city 
 
 1 have seen the report of the Ku Klux 
 Committee, which is, in general, con- 
 firmatory of the information I have sent 
 you from personal investigation, analy- 
 sis and belief. 
 
 The astounding feature of the Lowery 
 band is that they have so long baffled 
 detection and paralyzed the public spirit 
 and citizen resistance of Carolina. Liv- 
 ing upon the border of the North State, 
 they have passed, in their excesses, the 
 boundary line, and some of the murders 
 have been done almost within hearing of 
 South Carolina. 
 
 Yet, when the State proposed a vig- 
 orous campaign against them, and the 
 
54 
 
 THE SWAMP OUTLAWS. 
 
 militia and volunteers were companies 
 of regular United States troops were 
 finally withdrawn because an equal num- 
 ber of citizens would not operate with 
 them-. Adjutant General Gorham stig- 
 matized th(j militia in a newspaper let- 
 ter, and suid that the regulars, men and 
 iillioers, obeyed orders and showed cool 
 professional pluck. 
 
 This campaign was made at the worst 
 season of the year, the heat and miasma 
 rising and the vvoods and swamps cov- 
 ered with thick, concealing vegetation. 
 
 Twenty-eight volunteers enlisted for 
 this ignominious campaign under Cap- 
 ttiin Wishart, " the flower of the coun- 
 try," most of them grown to active 
 years since the close of the rebellion. 
 
 They were spruce young fellows, fond 
 of a drink and a spree, and I am enab- 
 led to present some picture of them 
 from Captain Wishart's diary. 
 
 A GLIMPSE OF THE SWAMP WAR. 
 Thus run f >ur of Wishart's excerpts: — 
 
 Saturday, August 5. — Militia ordered 
 to Lumberton ; a pretty sight ! Ne- 
 groes, mulattoes, whites — all drunk, 
 without arms, ammunition or anything, 
 only money enough to get whiskey. 
 
 Later, in August. — Two of my men 
 drunk ; one lost his boots, one his pistol 
 * * and the pilot was drunk * * The 
 red bugs and yellow flies would kill an 
 elephaiit * *. 
 
 Saturday, October 29, 187L — Henry 
 Berry, Steve, Andrew and Boss were 
 at Bear Swamp Academy to-day at pub- 
 lic speaking on educational purposes. 
 All had two double-barrelled shotguns 
 apiece. They captured old J. P. Sin- 
 clair, who outlawed them. 
 
 Later in the Hunt, — Andrew Strong 
 was seen Saturday, October — , at — , 
 Complained of being nearly worn out. 
 
 THE LOWERYS AND THE FLORIDA 
 SEMINOLES. 
 
 ; As there is a cry for United Statea 
 interference in the Lowery war, it may 
 be timely to advert to a war held in a 
 
 I similar country in the era of Jackson 
 
 ' and Van Buren. 
 
 THE SEMINOLES 
 
 were originally Creeks from Georgia. 
 
 They numbered in Florida, 1594 
 men, and of all sexes and ages 3899, 
 exclusive of 150 negro men, escaped 
 slaves. 
 
 To subdue these Seminoles took a 
 campaign of five years and cost $19, 
 500,000, besides the pay of the regular 
 army and losses sustained by settlers 
 from Indian ravages. 
 
 Above twenty thousand volunteers 
 were called out. 
 
 Osceola, the Seminole brave most dis- 
 tinguished, was thirty-two years of age 
 when- the war broke out; Nat Turner 
 was thirty-one; Henry Berry Lowery 
 was eighteen. 
 
 O-ceola was half white, and his Enir- 
 lish name was Powell, the same with 
 the Florida assassin tif Secretary 
 Seward, who was I'emarked to resemble 
 an Indian when he was hanged as Wash- 
 ing to, in 1865. 
 
 The Seminoles brought into the field 
 1,060 Indians and 250 arms-beai'in<r 
 negroes. 
 
 Persons familiar with the Florida war 
 trace resemblances between Henry 
 Berry Lowery and the Seminole chief 
 called Coacooche, or Wild Cat. 
 
 Both young men, they made war a 
 predatory pastime, grew merry with ex- 
 citement, were cruelly active, and they 
 both ridiculed and laughed at the 
 soldiery floundering in the mud and 
 water to overtaken them. 
 
THE SWAMP OUTLAWS. 
 
 55 
 
 ATTITUDE OF THE CAROLINA NEGROES 
 TOWARD THE OUTLAWS. 
 
 In passive allies the Lowerys are 
 nearly as well befriended as the Semi- 
 noles, for all ScufHetown wishes them at 
 least no ill. 
 
 When the troops pursued the scoun- 
 drels they could hear a peculiar baric 
 like that of a cur precede them, and die 
 away in the distance, the mulatto's war- 
 ning note passed from shanty to shanty 
 to put Lowery on the qui vive. 
 
 If soldiery or armed men are on the 
 railway train a movi ment among the 
 negro train hands will be observed as 
 the locomotive approaches the stations 
 of Scuffletown. 
 
 What happens in Wilmington to- 
 night will be in the knowledge of the 
 outlaws within fifteen hours. 
 
 It is this prescient, omniscient, unac- 
 eountable apprehension and intelligence 
 of the Lowery which has stricken the 
 community infested with a dumb terror. 
 
 The negroes generally in the State 
 show adherence to these colored mur- 
 derers. 
 
 The Legislature passed a bill, ratified 
 by the Governor February 8, 1872, 
 offering a reward of $10,000 for Henry 
 Berry Lowery, and $5,000 for each of 
 the following men : — Stephen Lowery, 
 Boss Strong, Andrew Strong, George 
 Applewhite and Thomas Lowery. 
 
 It was proclaimed as follows : — 
 Now, therefore, I, Tod R. Caldwell, 
 Governor of the State of North Caro- 
 lina, by virtue of the authority in me 
 vested by said act above recited, do 
 issue this my proclamation offering the 
 following rewards in addition to those 
 heretofore offered to be paid in currencv 
 to the party or parties who shall ap- 
 prehend and deliver, dead or alive, any 
 of the outlaws hereinafter named to the 
 Sheriff of Robeson county. 
 
 This reward, in addition to a small 
 reward offered previously by the State 
 and another by the county, brings the 
 price of the band up to about seventy- 
 Hve thousand dollars. The attitude of 
 
 THE BLACK LEGISLATORS 
 
 was ominious. When the question 
 came up of offering an enlarged reward 
 for these outlaws several republicans, 
 chiefly black members, voted against it. 
 It finally passed by 7-4 to l8. Caw- 
 thorn, colored, and Fletcher, colored, 
 made speeches advocating it. 
 
 Mills proposed to increase the reward 
 even more, which Mabson, colored op- 
 posed. 
 
 Page, colored, offered an amendment 
 to the effect that the reward was to 
 be considered open for thirty days, and 
 meantime the outlaws be permitted to 
 leave the State. This was rejected. 
 The yeas and nays were called. 
 The following persons, among others, 
 about half of whom were colored, voted 
 against offering the rewards : — Bryan, 
 Burns, Carson, Hargrove, Ileeton, 
 Johnston, Marler, Page, Smith, Reaves 
 and York. 
 
 This excerpt shows that Lowery 's 
 popularity is not confined to the negroes 
 of Robeson county, but is considerable 
 throughout the State, 
 
 He interrupted an educational meet- 
 ing some time ago with his whole armed 
 band, and demanded the proceedings of 
 the Legislature to be read. 
 
 The State Adjutant General, Gorham, 
 stigmatized the Scuffletonians in his 
 report as deceitful and in collusion with 
 the Lowerys. 
 
 AFRICAN CHARMS FOR THE BAND. 
 
 The superstition of this ganef of out- 
 laws has been suggested as a mode of 
 aflriphting them. 
 
 When Henderson Oxendine was 
 
5C 
 
 THE SWAMP OUTLAWS. 
 
 handed there were found in his coat 
 pockets ;i piece of human bone, appar- 
 ently taken from tlie human hand, 
 and a quantity of mixed herbs. 
 
 Beinnr interroirated as to whether , 
 their many bloody deeds had not given I 
 the surviving bandits visions of ghosts i 
 and fears of being haunted by their 
 dead, the wife of one of them con- 
 fessed that, alttiough never hesitating 
 in determination, both Henry Berry 
 and Tom Lowery and Andrew Strong 
 were often blue and mentally uneasy. I 
 
 At this the county newspaper ofj 
 Robeson — a very complete and spright- 
 ly local paper, edited by a clergyman 
 named McDiermid — printed a local i 
 about the discovery of spiritual artil- 
 lery, baneful drugs, witchcraft, «&c., in- 
 tended to be read by the Loweiys, and 
 to fill them with apprehension. 
 
 These outlaws take the nev/spapers 
 daily, and some time ago, in hunting 
 over the deserted shanty of Lowery, a 
 copy of the Robesonian was found, with 
 the endorsement torn from the wrapper, 
 and then carrried to the publishing of- 
 fice and the address was there identified. 
 
 The person implicated confessed that 
 Henry Berry Lowery gave him the 
 money and ordered him to subscribe 
 vicariously 
 
 WHERE DO THEY GET ARMS ? 
 
 The Lowerys probably procure their 
 improved arms — the breechloaders 
 especially — through some of tlie more 
 avaricious country merchants, and are 
 made to pay heavy rates with the 
 money they have got by robbery. 
 
 They have depleted the whole region 
 round Scuffletown of guns and pistols. 
 
 In one case a white family slept on 
 tlieir arms and walked with them con- 
 tinually; but one Sunday, releasing 
 vigilance, left their guns for a few j 
 
 moments on the piazza, when the Low- 
 ery band, lying in watch, rushed up 
 between them and their arras and 
 drove the men to the woods. 
 
 INCIDENTS OF OUTLAWRY. 
 
 April 29, 1871. Henry B. Lowery 
 and Buss Strons went to a house in 
 Richmond county and took two mules 
 and a wagon out of a citizen's barn, 
 filled the wagon with corn and drove in 
 style to Seufllotown, where the corn 
 was equally distributed. 
 
 Having no use for horses and vehi- 
 cles they returned the team the same 
 day to the owner. 
 
 May 3, 1871, Henry B. and Steve 
 Lowery and Boss and Andrew Strong 
 went on a robbing excursion to the 
 house of Mr. Parnell, near Sciiffletown. 
 
 The males of the family fled to the 
 woods, the females were bolted away 
 in a retired apartment, and the house 
 despoiled. 
 
 The bandits waited all night tor the 
 males to come home, and threatened to 
 kill them if they inopportunely arrived. 
 
 One day in October, 1871, a Mr. 
 McNeill was out in the woods hunting 
 coons with a fine dog which belonged 
 to him. 
 
 As the darkness came on he heard 
 what seemed to be human footsteps 
 around the tree he was watching. 
 
 Filled with the superstition of Low- 
 ery's band he made haste to get home. 
 
 Next morning, sure enough, as he sat 
 at Monbeck station, Henry Berrv Low 
 ery appeared, armed like a pirate, 
 double-barrelled shot gun, Spencer car- 
 bine and five revolvers in his belt, but 
 cool as a cucumber. 
 
 He had a dead coon over his shoul- 
 der. 
 
 " Mr. McNeill," he said, " as your 
 dog treed this coon, I thought it no 
 
THE SWAMP OUTLAWS. 
 
 57 
 
 more than right to bring it to you. I 
 wish vou would lend me that donj to 
 cocn a little on my own account " 
 
 " No," said McNeill, " 1 can't .spare 
 that dog, but 1 have got another one at 
 home which I might lend you." 
 
 " Oh," cried Lowery, *' never mind. 
 I cuess I can cot along without it." 
 And he walked off as demurely as any 
 honest neighbor. To show this outlaws 
 fearlessness, it may be instanced that 
 when he went to the house of one 
 McKinsley, near Red Bank, he pulled 
 off his whole belt of arms and then 
 threw them down on the piazza while he 
 ordered the family to prepare him a 
 meal in a remote apartment and par- 
 cook of it there. 
 
 The leading white families remaining 
 in Souffletown are the McNeills, Ed. 
 Smith, Alex. Mclntyre, Nick and Wil- 
 liam Kelly, John McNair, and the Ty- 
 tiers. 
 
 The ablest leader against Lowery 
 has been J. Nicholas Maclain, who has 
 been obliged, nevertheless, to leave the 
 county and go to Georgia. He is a 
 lighl-complexioned man, sallow, wiry, 
 and beardless. 
 
 EDITORIAL COURAGE. 
 
 Mr. James, local editor of the Wilm- 
 ington Journal, received a letter from a 
 brother editor at Lumberton after the 
 safe robbery in February, IS? 2, to this 
 effect :— 
 
 All the able-bodied men in town have 
 gone west in pursuit of the outlaw. It 
 is needless to say that I start east by the 
 first train. 
 
 One Oxendine, commonly called Dick, 
 keeps a bar at Luinb('rtf>n, unable 1o 
 have any repose at Scuffletown. 
 
 His father was the " best-to-do" negro 
 In that settlement, and was for a time 
 County Commissioner, with a salary of 
 $3 a day. 
 
 The Lowerys have not always been a 
 peaceful family, even prior to the war 
 and it is related that John Quince Low- 
 ery killed a relative about 1858, and was 
 branded for it in the hand nl Lumber- 
 ton. 
 
 Several of these outlaws have been 
 acquitted before the Courts. 
 
 Applewhite was condemned, but broke 
 jail, as did Steve Lowery. 
 
 Tom Lowery was in Lumberton jail 
 when Henderson Oxendine was hanged 
 in the jail yard. 
 
 Applewhite had been a slave at Golds, 
 boro, and, although a blick man, he 
 married a nearly white Oxendine giil. 
 
 Andrew Strong married Henry Berry 
 Lowery 's sister, if I am correctly in 
 formed. Tom Lowery married a girl 
 of Scuffletown named Wilkins, and Steve 
 Lowery married an Oxendine. 
 
 THE DEATH OF APPLEWHITE. 
 
 It appears to be well established that 
 Applewhite is either dead or laid up 
 from serious wounds received in a com 
 bat with the militia, near Red Bank, 
 in October, 1870. 
 
 He was fired upon and pursued, and 
 the bloody tracks in the leaves and 
 bushes showed where he had stopped to 
 rest and supper. 
 
 His little daughter told the Sherifl 
 and posse that he had been hit in the 
 mouth, neck and breast and could not 
 articulate, and that he repeatedly f tinted^ 
 
 His mulatto wife dressed iiis wounds 
 with spirits of turpentine, and the mis- 
 erable man had then to return to the 
 swamp. 
 
 Soon after this he was surrounded in 
 Lowery's cabin, and had to escape as 
 best he might by the aid of the band, io 
 the darkness before the dawn. 
 
 " IN THE SWAMPS 
 these outlaws live on little island-like 
 
58 
 
 THE SWAMP OUTLAWS. 
 
 patches, burrowing under brush, and 
 at one place it was found that they had 
 constructed a commodious cabin. 
 
 They seldom move at night except 
 to do robberies, and take advantage 
 of the darkness to slip into the huts 
 of their relatives and befrienders. 
 
 LOWERY'ri CABIN. 
 
 The homo of Lowery is now deserted, 
 and its log walls and doors show the 
 marks of bullets, shot and balls fired 
 from the woods and swamps. 
 
 There are two doors on the sides, 
 opposite each other, and a trap was 
 at one time concealed in the floor, the 
 hinges hidden or mortised beneath. 
 
 This trap afforded admission to a 
 sort of mine or covered way, which 
 ran under the surface about sixty 
 yards to the swamp. 
 
 This passage way was filled up sev- 
 eral months ago, and the house is no 
 longer tenable by the bandits. Here 
 Lowery was surrounded in May, 1871, 
 by Sheriff MacMillan, George Wisehart 
 and a posse of nine in all, but, after 
 some exchange of shots, Lowery pulled 
 out a small false closet or buttery by 
 the chimney, acting as a concealed door, 
 and he crept off with his entire party, 
 
 THE FIGHT AT WIREGRASS LANDING. 
 
 A few months later than this, in the 
 autumn season, he performed an escape 
 of almost incredible audacity. 
 
 There were twenty-three soldiers at 
 a spot called Wiregrass Landing, and as 
 they looked up the narrow channel of 
 the Lumber River they saw Henry 
 Berry Lowery paddling a small, flat- 
 bottomed scow, his belt of arms un- 
 buckled and thrown in the bottom of 
 the boat. 
 
 Instantly the whole party opened 
 fire, when Lowery, with the agility of a 
 
 terrapin, threw himself into the water 
 on the remote side of the scow, tilted it 
 up like a floating parapet, and reaching 
 inside successfully for his weapons, 
 aimed and fired as ci>olly as if he were 
 at the head of his band on solid ground. 
 In this position he actually wounded 
 two of the men and put the whole posse 
 to flight. Sheriff AlacMillan vouches 
 for the literal truth of this statement. 
 
 A GENERAL JAIL DELIVERY. 
 
 Some of the jail breakings of this 
 party have been remarkable. 
 
 May 10, 1871, Henry Berry and four 
 other men suddenly appeared in Lum- 
 berton jail, where Tom Lowery and 
 Pop Oxendine were heavily ironed. 
 
 The rescuers bored with augers around 
 the staples of three doors, and also 
 bored around the irons fastened in the 
 floor, when all the party went forth 
 nonchalantly. 
 
 MURDER OF GILES INMAN. 
 
 Mr. Inman was needlessly killed 
 while bringing up reinforcements to 
 Sheriff, MacMillan. 
 
 Inman Avas a youth of eighteen or 
 twenty, and a resolute spirit to cleanse 
 the county of its marauders. 
 
 The Sheriff of the county had sur- 
 rounded Henry Berry Lowery's house 
 and had shown the white feather, with a 
 large part of his posse ; and therefore, 
 there was a steady cry for the reserves. 
 As in the ballad of Horatio, 
 
 Those behind cried, " Forward !" 
 And those in front cried, " Back." 
 
 Lowery, meantime, had secretly and 
 like a snake slipped out of his cabin, 
 and he panted for blood. Throwing 
 himself down in the bushes near the 
 path, only 500 yards from his house 
 where the white hunters lay in force, he 
 ordered his band to pick off the advanc- 
 ing party seriatim. 
 
THE SWAMP OUTLAWS. ^^ 
 
 His own carbine brought down Giles MURDER OF HECTOR AMD A. T. MAC 
 
 NEILL AND WILLIAM BROWN. 
 
 Inmaa instantly. 
 
 At the same instant Roderick Thomp- 
 son, another volunteer, was mortally 
 wounded by Boss Strong, and Frank 
 MacCoy was badly wounded. 
 
 Inman's family is said to have been 
 republican in politics. 
 
 MURDER uF MURDOCH AND HUGH 
 MACI<AIN. 
 
 The murder of the two brothers, Mur- 
 doch and Hugh MacLain, was achieved 
 while they rode together along the pub- 
 lic road in an open buggy, and accom- 
 plished after long and cool deliberation. 
 They had several times approached 
 the dwelling of these young men, and 
 rattled chains and stirred up the domes- 
 tic fowls and animals, but Murdoch was 
 too prudent to come out. 
 
 He was a superb specimen of the self- 
 reliant, impulsive, military Southerner, 
 never capable of acknowledged merit in 
 a negro accompanied with humility, and 
 at the murder of Allen Lovvery by the 
 neighborhood he was second in com- 
 mand. 
 
 As he was riding along Henrv Berrv 
 Lowery from a "■ blind" at the roadside 
 and at close quarters snapped his gun. 
 
 Murdoch instantly reached for his 
 arms, which he carried with him perpet- 
 ually, but before he could bring it to his 
 shoulder he was riddled with buckshot, 
 and the horse started off at a gallop 
 with both brothers mortally wounded. 
 
 This murder has been the latest com- 
 mitted by the Lowery band, and its 
 purpose was solely revenge. 
 
 In killing MacLain Henry Berry Low- 
 ery shed the blood of one of the highest 
 youthful spirits in that region, but one 
 unfortunately, whose record against the 
 colored race was long and hard and 
 dark. 
 
 The murders of Hector MacNeill, A. 
 MacMillan and William Brown happen, 
 ed in the summer of 1870, within sight 
 of a large camp of troops and directly 
 upon the railroad track near Bure's sta- 
 tion. 
 
 It had been deemed sagacious to make 
 prisoner the wife of Henry Berry Low. 
 ery and to deposit her and her children 
 in Lumberton Jail as an accomplice of 
 the outlaw chief. 
 
 Filled with rage at this act Lowery 
 and his gang made their way rapidly 
 across the swampy country and, throw- 
 ing themselves down behind some decay- 
 ed railway tier, waited like panthers for 
 the soldiery u> appear. 
 
 They came leading the mulatto wo 
 man and her children, jocular and un- 
 suspecting. 
 
 Suddenly there was a series of re- 
 ports of firearms, and the three persons 
 named were down on the track moaning 
 in the anguish of mortal wounds. 
 
 The woman and children were left 
 standing on the track and the rest of 
 the escort party ran away more or less 
 injured with buckshot. 
 
 Berry Barnes was shot in the head 
 and Alecl; Brown in the ankle. The 
 troops fired the camp, riddled the woods 
 with ball, but the creatures of the 
 swamp were nowhere to be seen, and 
 the woods resumed their melancholy 
 and silence. 
 
 The three victims belonged to the 
 best families of whites in that region, 
 and their summary fate filled the whole 
 country side with the pall of woe and 
 terror. 
 
 Society seemed to have become dis- 
 rupted, the law without avail, and ven- 
 geance without call or reach of God or 
 man 
 
 1 talked on this matter with two of 
 
60 
 
 THE SWAMP OUTLAWS. 
 
 the intimate white neighbors of the 
 Lowerys — viz., MacNeill, and McLeod. 
 MacNeill is a little, thiclv-set, aged old 
 man, with hard, twinkling eyes and 
 homespun clothes. 
 
 " I think I ouj^lit to liave some svm- 
 pathj," he said, "I have been robbed 
 time and again, my wife and daughter 
 shot at my J;hreshold^ my son-in-law, 
 Taylor Willard, and his family, returned 
 upon my hands for support, and my 
 sons banished from their country on 
 penalty of death." 
 
 ■ "They have robbed me," said McLeod, 
 "of above three thousand dollars, com- 
 pel me to give tkem food and set it out 
 on my table for them, and when my 
 wife said the other day to Henry Berry 
 Lowery that he had impoverished us, 
 he answered cooly : — 
 
 " Well, I always know where to come 
 •when I want anything." 
 
 " They took my watch," resumed 
 McLeod, " and stopped me the other 
 day, and seized my pocket-book. Low- 
 ery looked over its contents and said, 
 ' Sixteen dollars, is that your whole 
 pile ? Well, I won't take that.' " 
 
 " 1 have no desire to see any ven- 
 geance done to them," concluded 
 McLeod, " if they only leave the coun- 
 try and never return. I say let them 
 go, for really this band looks like as if 
 it never would be caught and never 
 give us ftny ptace." 
 
 THE MURDER OP DANIEL AND MAC- 
 NEILL M'LKOD. 
 
 In Moorfi county, a night's ride from 
 Scuifletown, a party of disguised men 
 killed Daniel and MacNeill McLeod 
 ai>d stabbed two women and a boy. 
 
 The motive was apparently robbery, 
 as the victims were supposed to have 
 been in receipt of a large sum of money, 
 and, as a horse and buggy had been 
 stolen the previous night near Shoe 
 
 Heel, the act was supposed to have 
 been committed by Lowery's band. 
 
 The perpetrators of the act were 
 never discovered, but a negro nei''hV)or 
 oi the McLeods was shot dead by the 
 citizens on suspicion of having been a 
 spy of the Lowerys. It is not that clear 
 this band in chargeable with the crime. 
 
 The story of John Tayh^r's death was 
 partly recited in a previous letter, but 
 as a crime, and not merely as a codicil 
 to the death of "Make" Sanderson, it 
 deserves repetition. 
 
 THE MURDER OF JOHN TAYLOR. 
 
 January 14, 1871, Henry Berry 
 Lowery murdered John Taylor, the 
 most determined and uncompromising 
 of his pursuers, at Moss Ni-ck, on the 
 mill dam, within two hundred yards of 
 soldiers on guard at the railway station. 
 
 The outlaws had previously robbed 
 Taylor, threatened him, and sent him 
 word that he should be killed on si^ht. 
 Taylor had spent the previous night 
 with his father-in-law, William C. Mc- 
 Neill, who lived a short way from the 
 depot. 
 
 Saturday morning, at eight o'clock, 
 he started with Malcolm D. MacNeill 
 toward the depot to meet the train. 
 Henry Berry Lowery and two others 
 suddenly rose up from the swamp be- 
 side the dam, and Henry Berry fired a 
 shot gun three feet fr> m Taylor's head, 
 sending the whole charge through his 
 head and temples, blowing off part of 
 the skull, and fragments of the brain fell 
 into the mill dam and floated down 
 against the bank with the current. 
 
 Steve Lowery almost instantly fired 
 at Malcolm MacNeill. 
 
 Henry Berry Lowery ran out of the 
 swamp, seized the quivering body of 
 Taylor by the legs and robbed it of $50 
 currency. 
 
 The troops at the depot rushed down 
 
THE SWAMP OUTLAWS. 
 
 6* 
 
 \f<Cb^ 
 
 THE OUTLAW SHOT IN HIS CABIN. 
 
 to the spot where the outlaws disap- 
 peared into the swamp and fired, and 
 the same evening the Luinberton militia 
 took to the swamps, twenty-five in 
 number, and stayed out all night. 
 
 Not finding anything the people began 
 to adviicate bloodhounds as the only 
 way of tracking up the desperadoes. 
 
 THE MURDER OF JOHN SANDERS. 
 
 No crime known to modern society 
 presents such dark, mediaeval features 
 as the killinij of Sanders, a detective 
 polico officer from Boston and a native 
 of Nova Scotia. 
 
 It was the concluding portion of a 
 career of wild adventure, and to this 
 day the people of Robeson county turn 
 pale at the bloody reminiscence. 
 
 Sanders was one of several man who 
 have sought to obtain the large reward 
 offered for these outlaws, dead or 
 alive, in a sum in gross equal to a 
 handsome little fortune, and he was 
 accredited by the Sheriff of New Han- 
 over county to three or four white re- 
 publicans of Scuflletown. 
 
 Sanders appears to have been desti- 
 tute of honor ; but his scheme of cap- 
 turing these men was a shrewd one. 
 
62 
 
 THE SWAMP OUTLAWS. 
 
 Aware that they were anxious to 
 leave the swainps and get safely out of 
 the United States to Mexico, or, at 
 least, to the frontier country, he pro- 
 posed to show them the way, assume to 
 be their protector and friend, and ulti- 
 mately to give them up on the road by 
 arranging, beforehand, to have them 
 intersected at some point in South 
 Carolina or Georgia. 
 
 At the time Henry Berry Lowery 
 fathomed this design and slew Sanders 
 for his treachery a wagon had been 
 prepared and packed, and the outlaws 
 had fully agreed to slip off, escorting 
 their movables and families under cover 
 of the woods and broken country. 
 
 To bind them to his confidence by 
 extraordinary means Sanders prosti- 
 tuted the rites of Masonry and 
 
 ORaANIZED MASONIC LODGES 
 
 in the Scuffletown region while teach- 
 ing a small negro school in that 
 vicinity. 
 
 He spent eighteen months of per- 
 severing cunning to win the sceptical 
 hearts of the bandits, but became him- 
 self corrupted by their females, and 
 reckless of speech and association. 
 Being suspected and looked upon with 
 an evil eye for living among the mu- 
 lattos and teaching them, Sanders also 
 joined the Ku Klux to appease the 
 white population, and, it is rumored, 
 was concerned in several night enter- 
 prises, whippings and vigils. 
 
 Here we have the perfection of 
 Goblin reality — a man sworn into 
 Masonry and, also, the Invisible Em- 
 pire, for the purpose of bringing a 
 band of outlaws to justice. . 
 
 Sanders was a stoop - shouldered, 
 thin-visaged, hook-nosed man, with a 
 broad, sharp forehead ; he had keeness 
 
 if apprehension and undoubted bold- 
 ness. 
 
 He died as he had lived, in mystery, 
 and out of the sight or reach of pity- 
 ing man, and there is reason to be- 
 lieve that his fate was to be attributed 
 to the want of caution of some of the 
 county authorities who had learned his 
 purposes. 
 
 SANDERS' CAPTURE BY THE 
 LOWERYS.: 
 
 In the middle of December, l870, 
 Sanders established a camp in a " bay" 
 near Moss Neck, close by the house 
 of William C. MacNeill. 
 
 Sanders was a loose talker, and had 
 informed many persons of his object 
 and MacNiell's sons visited him in his 
 secret camp and gave him advice and 
 information. 
 
 According to the statement of one of 
 the MacNeill boys, made before he was 
 warned out of the country, there was a 
 x-endezvous of several of the neighbors 
 called at Sanders' camp on Sunday, 
 November 20, 1870. Some of the 
 young men got to the camp at four o'- 
 clock in the afternoon, but MacNeill did 
 not arrive until seven o'clock. 
 
 As he walked down toward the "bay" 
 the young men slipped up to him and, 
 with ghastly faces, whispered that they 
 were all surrounded and that to move 
 would be certain death, covered, as they 
 all were, by the shot guns and pistols of 
 their besiegers. 
 
 The impetuous MacNeill reached his 
 hand toward his pistol, when four men 
 rose up in the bushes close beside him — 
 namely, Henry Berry Lowery, Stephen 
 Lowery, George Applewhite and Boss 
 Strong. 
 
 Henry Berry Lowery advanced, with 
 a cool, fiendish look, and took MacNeill's 
 repeater from its case, and told him to 
 make himself at home that night, for he 
 
THE SWAMP OUTLAWS. 
 
 63 
 
 would be detained. MacNeill, disarmed, 
 joined the other prisoners around th^. 
 outlaw's camp fire. 
 
 After dusk Henry Berry Lowery led 
 MacNeill off from the camp into the 
 swamp and said : — 
 
 " God damn your soul, I want you to 
 tell me where Sanders is. He is expect- 
 ed here. If you don't tell uie where he 
 is and why he don't come I will kill you 
 dead. I intend to kill you anyhow when 
 I get Sanders. You had better own 
 right up !" 
 
 Not obtaininf; anvthin<f from Mac* 
 Neill, the outlaw walked him back to 
 the fire, and, after a little time, Steve 
 Lowery took MacNeill out for a like 
 purpose. Steve Lowery told MacNeill 
 that if he did not make a clean breast of 
 his knowledge of Sanders Henry Berry 
 Lowory would make the whole gang rid- 
 dle him. 
 
 Steve showea a.iIacNeill a pack of 
 cards which he had purchased at the 
 Scotch fair, a few miles from Shoe Heel, 
 and remarked, " We boys go anywhere, 
 and 
 
 THE WHOLE COUNTRY BELONGS TO 
 US." 
 
 Young MacNeill testifies that all that 
 night messengers were sent out to confer 
 with invisible persons, whose voices were 
 heard on the road side. These posted 
 sentinels and the outlaw leaders in camp 
 kept up communication all night long and 
 toward daylight the bandits grew very 
 impatient and threatened their prisoners 
 many times. 
 
 At early dawn Steve Lowery being 
 out on guard, the detained prisoners 
 heard the cry " Halt ! " and heard sev- 
 eral other voices belonging to persons 
 not seen in the camp. Almost immedi- 
 ately the voice of Sanders, the detective. 
 Was heard, saying, " I surrender." 
 
 Henry Berry Lowery, George Apple- I 
 
 white, and Henderson Oxendine now 
 r. n out and the conmiand was heard to 
 take the prisoner on to the Back Swamp. 
 
 In a few moments Henry Berry 
 Lowery and his brother Stephen 
 returned, saying, " We have got the 
 buck we wanted." 
 
 Henry Berry Li»wery then turned to 
 Malcolm MacNeill and said, " God 
 damn you, I have a great mind to kill 
 you right here. I ought to have killed 
 you before. 
 
 " You have been hunting me for years. 
 You are young, stout, and healthy, 
 however, and I don't want to take 'your 
 blood. I hate U> interfere with you and 
 your people ; but you have already 
 done so much to have me hanged or 
 shot that it would be right if I should 
 kill you right here. 1 will let you go 
 this time, however ; but you make 
 yourself scarce in this country. Your 
 folks may keep that siiebang at Moss 
 Neck; but you won't know when your 
 time has come. Get out of this country 
 mighty quick. Your father may stay 
 here if he wants to, but 
 
 TELL HIM TO WALK A CHALK LINE." 
 
 Young MacNeill then retired, covered 
 with the rifle of his unappeasable foe, 
 and he lost no time in obeying commandy 
 and quitting the counti-y. Sanders, 
 wiiose voice he recognized, was never 
 seen again by mortal eyes except by 
 the outlaws. 
 
 Nearly a month after the arrest of 
 Sanders, and on the testimony of the 
 people detained at his camp by the 
 Lowerys, three persons were arrested 
 as accomplices in the murder and charged 
 with being guardians of the road and 
 entrappers of the unfortunate Sanders. 
 
 These were Dick Oxendine, who now 
 keeps a barroom at Lumberton, John 
 Sampson and Robert Ransom. 
 
64 
 
 THE SWAMP OUTLAWS. 
 
 The end of the unfortunate Sunders 
 was related by Henderson Oxendine, 
 one of the outlaws, prior to his execu- 
 tion, and is fully confirmed by Henry 
 Dcrry Lowery himself, who said : — 
 •'The efficiency and morale of my 
 comnumd compelled me to lull San- 
 ders. We all pitied him, but if 1 
 hadn't killed him I would have had no 
 ri^ht to liill John Taylor or any of the 
 rest." 
 
 They marched Sanders to a secret 
 camp on a small island in Back Swamp, 
 near the residence of the late Zach T. 
 Chandler, and proceeded forthwith, 
 with devilish malignity, to torture him, 
 by firing volleys over his head, bruising 
 him with gunstocks and clubs, and 
 finally by administering doses of arsenic 
 to him and 
 
 OPENIXCJ HIS VEIIS'S WITH A KNIFE, 
 
 For three days, or until Thursday, 
 these horrible wretches surrounded their 
 white victim, their dull blue eyes calmly 
 enjoying his agonies, and he reminded 
 every hour that escape or mercy were 
 hopeless. 
 
 Human or savage nature, happily, 
 seldom presents a picture so atrocious 
 as one decoyed and disappointed man 
 guarded in the wild swamps of Caro- 
 lina, but almost within sound of Chrsi- 
 tian firesides, looking into inevitable 
 and violent death after days of pain. 
 
 The victim's fortitude and philosophy 
 earned the respect of his murderers, 
 and before carrying his sentence into 
 execution they permitted him to write a 
 fiirewell letter to his injured wife and 
 family, which they posted by mail with 
 a sort of grim and military observance 
 of justice. 
 
 The object of keeping Sanders alive 
 for the better part of a week has not 
 been explained — whether due to divided 
 
 councils, love of persecuting him while 
 still alive, or the desire to wrest infor- 
 mation from him. 
 
 He had reason to lament that he ever 
 left his residence and associations in 
 enlightened New England, to die thus 
 miserably in the swamps of the Pedee 
 region, among the human moccasins 
 that infested it. 
 
 On Thursday night the outlaws told 
 Sanders that his time had come, and 
 they blindfolded his eyes and tied him 
 to a tree. 
 
 He made a few words of a prayer 
 and gave a signal, and at once Steve 
 Lowery, the darkest Indian of the 
 group, 
 
 EMPTIED BOTH BARRELS OF HIS 
 SHOT GUN 
 into the helpless wretch. 
 
 After the hanging of Oxendine, a 
 party of twenty-five soldiers and citi- 
 zens, led by Mayor Thomas and Lieuten- 
 ants Home and Simpson, followed the 
 directions given by Oxendine, and, 
 without difficulty found the camp w here 
 Sanders hud been confined. It was in 
 the densest part of the swamps, and 
 scattered around were the spade used 
 for digging the grave and some cooking 
 utensils. 
 
 They proceeded to search for the re- 
 mains, and found them decently wrapped 
 in a blanket, and deposited face up, 
 with the hands folded in a dignified 
 manner, and the daugerreotype of 
 
 THE MURDERED MAN'S WIFE 
 
 reverently placed upon his breast. 
 These cool particularities and delibera- 
 tion make the tragedy even more hein- 
 ous by the awe which they inspire. 
 
 It is murder with the appearance of 
 sovereignty and martial right. 
 
 The occurence will frighten the rising 
 generation of Carolnia for the century 
 to come. 
 
THE SWAMP OUTLAWS. 
 
 65 
 
 THE ANARCHY OAUSED BY THE 
 LOWERYS. 
 
 One looks in vain for any other cause 
 of this fateful and scandalous slate of 
 affairs in an old and sedate part of 
 North Carolina than the anomalous fact 
 of a large free negro settlement in a 
 period of slavery, and the shiftless, 
 predatory and insolent' dominion of a 
 few families in it of corrupted and 
 savage blood, wliich could be tamed 
 with difficulty and never quite sub- 
 jugated. 
 
 Freedom fell wiih almost tropical 
 heat and spontaneity upon this settle- 
 ment and warmed to active life the 
 Lowery vipers, who proudly essayed to 
 compete in military qualities with the 
 late slaveholders and Confederate sol- 
 diery. 
 
 Party politics has only availed to 
 
 intensify, prolong and dignify this 
 
 strife, while meantime murders reach 
 
 thi' score and the robberies are innume- 
 rable. 
 
 Enougn can be said on the side of 
 the Lowerys to give them a trifle of an 
 apology, but the condition of things is 
 now such that all classes of the popula- 
 tion are interested in the death and 
 overthrow of th^se scoundrels, who are 
 worse than Ku Klux — they are Apaches. 
 
 They are turning the heads of the 
 colored people and prompting negro 
 imitators, and 
 
 THE VERY CHILDREN OF SCUFFLE- 
 TOWN 
 are growing up barbarians with the lust 
 for plunder and rapine. 
 
 There is little to choose between the 
 politicians of the rival parties. 
 
 The undoubted existence of Ku 
 Kluxism — now perished utterly and 
 without mourners or apologists — has 
 made the republicans take the part of 
 the Lowery gang as a necessary reac- 
 tion and return of resistance. 
 
 But the Lowery feud began in 1803, 
 before the Confeder.icy was suppressed, 
 and proceeded entirely from causes in- 
 separable from the war. 
 
 The leader of the gang, and, indeed, 
 all associated with it, have shown a 
 ferocity, a premeditation and an insol- 
 ence frightful to understand and destruc- 
 tive of all example and order, 
 
 Tne State and county authorities have 
 dene their best and accomplished noth- 
 
 mg. 
 
 The desperation and confidence of 
 the outlaws is greater than ever. They 
 fear nothing and terrify all. 
 
 Can Congress or the President permit 
 the colored people of the South to be 
 longer debauched by this spectacle of a 
 few men of color defying a State ? 
 
 OMINOUS INTELLIGENCE. 
 
 Wilmington, N, C, March 23, 1272. 
 
 The latest intelligence from the 
 Herald correspondent in the hands of 
 the Robeson county outlaws renders 
 even more grave the question of his 
 probable fate. It was his intention to 
 accompany the outlaws to their several 
 hiding places, they agreeing to carry 
 him to their haunts in the swamp blind- 
 folded, and it was his intention to leave 
 them on Monday next if possible. To- 
 day Rhody Lowery, the wife of Henry 
 Berry Lowery, appeared at the depot at 
 Moss Neck and made a statement to the 
 special messenger of the Herald as to 
 the recent movements of the correspond- 
 ent. 
 
 MRS RIIODY BRINGS STRANGE NEWS. 
 
 Rhody states that upon the return of 
 the Herald correspondent fr(jm Moss 
 Neck yesterday, after his delivery of 
 his package of correspondence for the 
 Herald bureau hero, he was seated in 
 her cabin when Andrew Strong and 
 
6C 
 
 THE SWAMP OUTLAWS. 
 
 Steve Lowery suddenly entered and I 
 peremptorily ordered him to I 
 
 " COME AND GO WITH US. " 
 
 Rhody states the Hearald corres- 
 pondent, manifesting great trepidation, 
 immediateiy obeyed their order, and 
 was last seen by her moving in com- 
 pany with the outlaws, whose manner 
 toward him was sullen and menacing, 
 in the direction of the swamp. Rhody 
 has seen nothing of the Herald corres- 
 pondent since his departure from her 
 cabin, and s;ie professes entire igorance 
 of the disposition made of him by the 
 outlaws. 
 
 AN OMINOUS HINT. 
 
 In connection with this 1 make an ex- 
 tract from a letter from your correspond- 
 ent on yesterday. He says : — " In a 
 conversation with Andrew Strong and 
 Steve Lowery of yesterday I asked if 
 I could see ' Boss,' who they say is not 
 dead, though I know he is, and Steve, 
 with a laugh, said to Andrew, ' Yes, he 
 shall see Boss before he goes away,' 
 which remark was accompanied by a 
 villanous chuckle. I am on parole now. 
 They made me put my hand on my 
 heart and swear I would not try to run 
 away, and then I gave them full per- 
 mission to kill me if I did, and not ac- 
 cuse them at the Day of Judgment. 
 They treat me well, except that they 
 compel me to drink their infernal 
 whiskey. " 
 
 Rhody Lowery's statement concern- 
 ing the Herald correspondent, taken in 
 connection with the ominous utterances 
 of Steve Lowery, has created a feeling 
 of profound apprehension here regard- 
 ing his fate. 
 
 THRILLING FACTS. 
 
 The Herald Correspondent Among the 
 Lowery Bandits. A Week in the 
 Hands of the Lowerys. Tlie Father 
 of the Oxendines. The Motiier ol J 
 the Lowerys. Her Bitter bcory by 
 the Grave of tlie Murdered. Khody 
 Lowerj'^, the Queen of Scullletown. 
 Face to Face With tiie Terrors. 
 Their Appearance and Equipment. 
 A Night ia Khody Lowery's Cabin. 
 Lite of the Hunted men. 
 
 Terrible Tales From Terrible 
 Tongues. A Blindfold Journey to 
 Their Hiding Places— The Island 
 Armory. Released from Bondage. 
 Excitement in Wilmino-ton. 
 
 Wilmington, N. C, March 25, 1872- 
 
 ARRIVAL OF THE CORRESPONDENT. 
 
 To the amazement, and yet to the 
 great satisfaction, of^the public here the 
 Heeald correspondent who has been 
 for nearly ten days past in the swamps 
 of the Carolina outlaws returned to 
 Wilmington this afternoon by the Char- 
 lotte road, which traverses the Scuffle- 
 town district. Up to the time of his 
 arrival in Wilmington little or no hope 
 was indulged of his safety, in view of 
 the threats against him which have re- 
 cently been made by the outlaws. His 
 safe arrival in Wilmington this after- 
 noon 
 
 CREATED AN INTENSE EXCITEMENT, 
 
 and despite the fearfully stormy weather 
 the Herald correspondent was the ob- 
 ject of curiosity and the Herald was 
 the theme of discussion and praise. The 
 universal sentiment in Wilmington is 
 that the Herald correspondent is the 
 hero of a wonderful feat of daring, and 
 there is universal rejoicing that he has 
 finally escaped the great perils which 
 have for more than a week past envir- 
 oned him. Details given by your cor- 
 respondent regarding his adventures 
 among the outlaws confirm the accounts 
 given in the Herald despatches of the 
 
THE SWAMP OUTLAWS. 
 
 67 
 
 PERIL AND DIFFICULTIES 
 
 which he has undergone. He left for 
 New York this afternoon, and will give 
 to the Herald the fullest possible de- 
 tails of his thrilling adventures. On 
 Friday last your correspondent was 
 taken by the outlaws farther into the 
 swamp, and 
 
 CONDUCTED BY Til EM BLINDFOLDED 
 
 from Rhody Lowery's cabin to several 
 of their most secret hiding places. At 
 the moment of leaving lihody's cabin 
 the Hkrald correspondent experienced 
 the greatest sense of personal danger 
 suffered by him during his career with 
 the outlaws. Tom Lowery had especi- 
 ally urged the killing of the •» 
 
 "DAMNED YANKEE," 
 
 and as the other outlaws conducted him 
 away from Rhody's cabin, with the re. 
 mark to Rhody that he would never see 
 daylight again, your correspondent had 
 little hope but that Tom Lowery's 
 savage threat would be executed. Con- 
 ducted by outlaws through the swamp 
 blindfolded, except when his captors 
 chose to remove the bandage, he trav- 
 ersed the swamp, in some places wad- 
 ing almost 
 
 WAIST DEEP IN WATER. 
 
 and again reaching solid gronnd, thus 
 gaining one of the hiding places of the 
 outlaws, which he inferred to be situa- 
 ted upon an island. The blindfold was 
 removed, and he found hitnself an in- 
 mate ot a low, pitched cabin, in which 
 a moderately tall man could not pos- 
 sibly stand erect. In this cabin were 
 from 
 
 THIRTY TO FORTY SHOT GL'NS 
 
 but no smaller arms. The outlaws 
 would not permit him to look out of 
 the window and make any observations 
 
 of the surroundings. He was told that 
 he was already the possessor of more of 
 their secrets 
 
 THAN ANY OTHER HUMAN BEING 
 
 outside of their gang, and more than 
 they intended anybody else should ever 
 have access to again. While in the 
 swamps your correspondent was repeat- 
 edly informed by th<; outlaws of their 
 suspicions that he would attempt to 
 chloroform them, and that he was a 
 government spy sent to repeat the role 
 in which the Detective Sanders had 
 been caught by them. 
 
 A DEMOCRATIC DEMON. 
 
 He was also told by Steve Lowery 
 that a prominent democrat of Robeson 
 county had given them information that 
 he was a federal spy and that he would 
 undoubtedly do them great harm before 
 he left them. 
 
 " Still, " said Steve, " we believe that 
 you are honest, and we will trust you ; 
 but 
 
 DONT UNDERTAKE TO COME HERE 
 AGAIN 
 
 because you know too many of our 
 secrets. " Steve then added, " We 
 have trusted three other men besides 
 you and they all betrayed us, but still 
 we will trust you and let you 
 
 GIVE THE HERALD ALL THE INFOR- 
 MATION 
 
 you can about us. " After leaving the 
 swamps the outlaws carried your corres- 
 pondent on Sunday back to Rhody's 
 cabin, and this morning accompanied 
 him to Moss Neck, 
 
 WAVING A FRIENDLY ADIEU TO HIM 
 
 as the train left. As a mark of their 
 confidence in the honesty of his inten- 
 tions toward themselves, the outlaws 
 gave the Herald correspondent 
 
68 
 
 THE SWAMP OUTLAWS. 
 
 A DOUBLE-BARRELLED SHOT GUN, 
 
 formerly belonging to Henry Berry 
 Lowery, the deceased outlaw chief, and 
 Sieve Lowery presented him wi'h three 
 silver pieces, to be given, one to his 
 wife, another to his baby, and the third 
 to be kept by himself as a souvenir of 
 his trip among the Carolina outlaws. 
 Your correspondent is warm in his ac- 
 knowledgment of Rhody's seryjces to 
 himself in aidijig him to retain the con- 
 fidence of the outlaws, and 
 
 PRAISES HER COURAGE 
 and intelligence. Rhody carried him 
 to many points of interest, among 
 others to the grave of the unfortunate 
 Sanders, a spot which the outlaws 
 seemed to dread visiting witharem ika- 
 ble superstitious apprehension. Upon 
 one occasion thts Herald correspondent 
 was within half a mile of the grave of 
 Sanders and begjied the outlaws to 
 
 DO 
 
 CONDUCT HIM 10 THE GRAVE, 
 but they refused, as they also did to 
 visit the graves of other victims of their 
 vengeance. 
 
 The satisfiiction of the community of 
 Wilmington at the safe arrival in their 
 midst of the daring Herald correspond- 
 ent is heightened by his confirmation of 
 the previous tidings from him of the 
 deaths of Henry Berry Lowery and of 
 Boss Strong, the second in cleverness 
 and courage of the gang of outlaws. 
 During the abs' nee of your correspond- 
 (Mit in the swamps the excitement in 
 Wilmington was at fever heat and found 
 some curious forms of expression. 
 
 FIRST LETTER FROM OUR CAP- 
 TURED CORRESPONDENT. 
 
 ) SCUFFLETOWN, RoBHSON CoUNTY, » 
 
 '. N. C, MARcn 1, 1872 f 
 
 That the thrilling pictures given in 
 the Herald of the outlaws of the Robe- 
 
 son county swamps, in North Carolina, 
 with the history of their deeds of daring 
 murder and rapine, had awakened a 
 deep sensation over the United States, 
 was everywhere evident. It seemed 
 incredible that a band of five men 
 should persistently defy a community 
 such as the Old North State. The 
 criminal supineness of the State authori- 
 ties, the inactivity of the federal govern, 
 ment and the terrorized condition of the 
 inhabitants of the district all expressed 
 an anumalous condition of affairs which 
 
 CALLED FOR THE FULLEST INVES- 
 TIGATION. 
 
 The account given by another corres- 
 pondent had exhausted all the infor- 
 mation surrounding the gang, had given 
 graphic sketches of the now famous 
 mulatto settlement, with its ominous 
 name of Scuffletown, had detailed the 
 outrages by the gang, and traced back 
 their history to the days of the rebel 
 fortifications at Wilmington, when 
 Henry Berry Lowery first took to the 
 swamps, to avoid impressment to work 
 with the slaves of the Southern plant- 
 ers. Escaped federal prisoners, too, 
 from the Confederate prison at Florence, 
 S. C, were seen flitting across the 
 swamps and 
 
 HIDING FURTIVELY AMONG THE 
 SH.\NT1ES . 
 
 of the free negro settlement of Scufile- 
 town to take their places awhile with 
 Hinry Berry Lowery and his fellows 
 in the swamps. By and by came the 
 sweep of Sherman's army to the sea, 
 and it was related how the " bummers" 
 found guides and supporters among the 
 free mulattoes of Scuffletowu. 
 
 It came out, to.i, in a ghastly way, 
 that the rebel whites of the district, 
 wishing to wreak their vengeance on 
 the colored people, came in the night to 
 
THE SWAMF OUTLAWS. 
 
 69 
 
 t)ld Allen Lowery's cabin, and, dragging 
 forth himself and his son William, mer- 
 cilessly 
 
 SHOT THEM, FATHER AND BOY, 
 
 with the one volley, and then went their 
 way, pntting two of iheir supposed ene- 
 mies out of the way only to create a 
 pack of avenging devils in the persons 
 of the old man's sons and their outlawed 
 friends. 
 
 The war closed, and, rightly or 
 wrongly, the white people of Robeson 
 county true to their murder of the fa- 
 ther, exempted the Lowerys from the 
 act of oblivion. How truly has it been 
 said that " we can never forgive those 
 we have injured ! " 
 
 The end of the strife between North 
 and South brought no peace to Scuffle- 
 town The " angels " were in the 
 swamps robbing by day murdering by 
 ni<'ht ; the rebels had become Kii Klux, 
 and from fighting manfully in the sun- 
 light were trooping in 
 
 THEIR MURDEROUS MASQUERADE, 
 
 under the pines and cypresses at night 
 and dra^jrin" a negro here and there 
 from his shanty, let him sing his wild, 
 hurried prayers for a minute or two, 
 and then stopping it all with buckshot, 
 but carefully skirting the outlaws 
 themselves, some day to fall, like John 
 Taylor, under a " bead " drawn by 
 Henry Berry or one of his broth<u- 
 outlaws. 
 
 This was not civilization. The irre- 
 sponsible lex talionis of the hater and 
 hated, the state of things that created 
 in the land of Muscovy between serf 
 and feudal master the phrase that de- 
 scribed the murder of the latter by the 
 former as " the wild justice of revenge," 
 existed in the land of the Lowerys with 
 more degrading surroundings than ever 
 before or in any otner country. 
 
 That social, restraining force called 
 government had failed to put an end 
 to it, and there seemed, previous to the 
 Hkhalu's expose, to be a sort of laissez 
 oiler agreed on in tacit apathy by all 
 piirties. 
 
 But even yet the outlaws themselves 
 had not spoken. 
 
 THE OUTLAWS STOHY FOR HIMSELF 
 
 was unuttered, except through his sen- 
 tence of death by word of mouth, fob 
 lowed pretty surely by execution 
 through the barrel (jf a rifle. 
 
 In perhaps any other state of things 
 no more would be needed previous to 
 setting about his censure. As things 
 stood it seemed that there must be 
 something needing fuller detail — some 
 thing of moment in their position which 
 neither the shivering sympathizers of 
 their own race nor the vauntinji but 
 trembling white foes thereof would or 
 could impart. This was to be got from 
 the outlaw's lips along. 
 
 It did not require much deep reason- 
 ing to arrive at this conclusion. It 
 forced itself naturally forward, and the 
 journal whieh had enterprise enough to 
 gather the first part of the story could 
 surely learn the second. 
 
 Without, then, any feeling of rashness 
 or bravado th;it I am aware of, but 
 simply in the exercise of a grave duty, 
 to shrink from which would be abhor- 
 rent to my nature, 
 
 I LEFT FOR THE WOODS AND SWAMPS 
 
 of Robeson. 
 
 My preparations were simple as my 
 mission was direct, and relying on my 
 ability to make the honorable nature of 
 my purpose apparent even to the des- 
 perate men it was my deliberate pur- 
 pose to meet face to face. 
 
 Passinir over the incidents which f'n 
 not properly belong to my narrative, 1 
 
70 
 
 THE SWAMP OUTLAWS. 
 
 may say that on my arrival in Wil- 
 mington 1 found the Lowerys and the 
 Herald expose to be the only topics of 
 interest in that quiet Carolina town, and 
 the tone of the well-dressed, lounging 
 chivalry about the hotels was not at all 
 encouraging. 
 
 I told the object of my visit to several, 
 and the universal verdict was 
 
 " A DANGEROUS GAME, STRANGER, 
 
 rather you than me." They recalled to 
 me with all the discouraging emphasis 
 which a slow ejaculation of alternate 
 ■words and tobacco-spittle can command 
 the fearful fate of Saunders, the detec- 
 tive, and generally finished by saying : — 
 
 " AN' HE WAS SMARTEHRN YOU LOOK, 
 
 STRANGER." 
 
 This continual replication of warning 
 did not tend to cheer me. 
 
 It recalled in a painful way 1 had 
 never before imagined the poem of 
 Excelsior with its dismal forebodings 
 of a fatal ending to my venture, but I 
 dashed these all away. The thought 
 that Longfellow's aimless young mad- 
 man who died in the snow, had nothing 
 in common with a man endeavoring in 
 his own humble way to serve the civili- 
 zation which lay so sadly wrecked out 
 in the swamp region beyond. 
 
 If the scare had reached Wilmington, 
 I reasoned, I shall not then have much 
 difficulty in getting the whites of Robe- 
 son county to assist me in ridding them 
 of the objects of their terror through, 
 perhaps, 
 
 A MORE MERCIFUL "WAY 
 
 n 
 than killing them off like dogs. But in 
 
 this I was destined to be mistaken 
 
 Excepting Captain Morrison ; the 
 "king of conductors " on the Wilming- 
 ton, Charlotte and Rutherford Railroad. 
 
 and Ed Hayes, of Shoe Heei, no one 
 encouraged me to proceed. 
 
 From the ticket agent, from whom I 
 bought a ticket for Moss Neck, at Wil- 
 mington, with his horrified ejaculation — 
 
 "My God! stranger, you are not 
 going to stop there !" 
 
 To the merchants of Shoe Heel, who 
 assured me death would be the sure fate 
 of any stranger who would venture into 
 Scuffletown, I heard but the one opinion, 
 that the Lowerys were devils and would 
 welcome an opportunity to kill a white 
 man. 
 
 Before leaving Wilmington I pre- 
 pared 
 
 A LETTER, DIRECTED TO H. B. 
 LOWERY. 
 
 stating that I desired to interview him 
 for the Heiiald and offered to give 
 myself into his hands if we would grant 
 me the interview. 
 
 It was my intention to stop at Moss 
 Neck and attempt to find a messenger 
 who would deliver my letter, but oh 
 the train Captain Morrison advised me 
 to go on to Shoe Heel where I would 
 find better accomodations than at Moss 
 Neck, and from where I could certainly 
 send a messenger to the outlaws. 
 
 I took his advice, but was unable to 
 find any one in or about Slioe Heel 
 who would deliver or who knew any 
 one who would present my petition to 
 the " King " of Robeson county. 
 
 The reported killing of Boss Strong, 
 it was supposed, had 
 
 SO ENRAGED THE OUTLAWS 
 
 that the time was particularly inauspi- 
 cious for my visit. 
 
 I met here James McQueen, or Don- 
 ahoe, of Richmond county, N. C, who 
 asserted he had killed the notorious 
 Boss. 
 
 He is a tall, awkward, shambling. 
 
THE SWAMP OUTLAWS. 
 
 71 
 
 dark coniplexioneJ man, of Scoitish I once unfDlded the object of my calling* 
 decent, twenty-five years of age; he has iuid asked if I could be permitted to 
 
 very small eyes, which he has a trick 
 of dropping the instant he is looked at. 
 
 The next morning, March 14, I left 
 Shoe Heel and came to Eureka, or 
 Buie's Store, half way between Moss 
 Neck and Red Bank. 
 
 At. the store, close to the railroad, 
 the colored clerk, of whom 1 enquired 
 the road to Patrick Lowery's, left the 
 store to point it tmt to me. 
 
 To him I stated the object of my vis- 
 it, and asked him to inform any of the 
 outlaws he mii^ht see what I was after. 
 
 THE FATHER UF TWO MURDERERS. 
 
 Soon after leaving the store I met an 
 old negro who asked me if I was louk- 
 inj; for anvbodv, when I told him I 
 wanted to go to Pat Lowery's. lie 
 told me I was in the right road, and 
 added : — 
 
 '• Fs skeered of strangers most to deff, 
 but you hain't got no gun. " 
 
 Tiiis was Jack O.xendine, the father 
 of Henderson, who was hung in Lum- 
 berton in 1870, and Calvin, who is now 
 in the Wilmington jail, charged with 
 being implicated in t e King murder. 
 
 At the conclusion of his introduction 
 he said : — 
 
 " ' Fore God, dis is powerful bad 
 country to live in ; ebery now and den 
 de Ku Kluck come iu yer, and with 
 their shootin' an' uhippin' an' hangin', 
 an' de men out by deyselves totin' dere 
 guns, I's scart to defT. *' 
 
 A short half mile from the station 
 brought me to 
 
 THE HOME OF PAT LOWERY, 
 
 the oldest brother of Henry Berry, and 
 a preacher. When 1 got there he was 
 working in his carpenter shop, near his 
 house — for he is not above honest lab(»r 
 notwithstanding his profession. I at 
 
 stay with him a few days while I u«Mld 
 make efforts to meet the outlaws. He 
 was perfectly willing I should make his 
 house my home while here, but thought 
 my chance of seeing Henry was very 
 slim. 
 
 It had been reported for the past four 
 weeks that he was dead, and many be- 
 lieved it, even some of his Jiiends, while 
 the majority thought the story had bee*i 
 originated by his wife and brothere to 
 cover his escnpe from the county. 
 
 Patrick told me S:eve and Tom Low- 
 erv 
 
 HAD PASSED HIS HOUSE A FEW 
 DAYS BEFORE, 
 
 but it might be a lot g time before they 
 would be in their immediate neighbor- 
 hood again. 
 
 After a long conversation between 
 him and James (Jxendine, a well-to-do 
 mulatto fiirmer living near by, it was 
 decided that my best plan would be to 
 go over to the home of old Mrs. Low- 
 ery, the mother of Patrick and Henry. 
 
 They both assured me it would be 
 perfectly safe, for the outlaws never in- 
 terfered with any but those who trou- 
 bled them. 
 
 For a consideration Patrick consent- 
 ed to give me his horse on which to • 
 ride over, and his son Allen, a bright 
 boy of sixteen, to guide me. After a 
 dinner of 
 
 CORN BREAD, BACON AND COFFEE. 
 
 we started on our journey, and I must 
 confess to a slight sinking of the heart 
 as I lost sight of the railroad and plung- 
 ed into the swamps, the lurking places 
 of the Lowery outlaws. 
 
 IN THE OUTLAWS LAND. 
 
 I had ridden about a mile, when the- 
 discomfort produced by my horse'* 
 
72 
 
 THE SWAMP OUTLAWS. 
 
 miserable gait, and the barigiii<r of my 
 valise against my legs, became too 
 great, and I proposed to my guide that 
 he should ride awhile. 
 
 But the change was not for the better, 
 and it had scarcely been made when we 
 came to one of the low places in the 
 road that are so common here, called 
 " branches," and which are feeders to 
 the swamps 
 
 Alons one side of these branches are 
 laid, or erected on stumps, logs for the 
 convenience of pedestrians. 
 
 They are generally unhewn, all very 
 narrow, many of them decayed, and very 
 few that stand firm under any move- 
 ment. At the first of these I came to, 
 after dismounting, 
 
 I LOST MY BALANCE, 
 
 and got into the water knee deep. I 
 remounted the horse, then, and, except- 
 ing the gait and banging aforesaid and 
 crushing of my legs against the trees, 
 first on one side and then on the other, 
 as I followed Allen in the narrow foot- 
 path through which he led me, I suffered 
 no great inconvenience. 
 
 About two and a half miles from 
 Patsedo we came to the " Back Swamp," 
 where for about three hundred and fifty 
 yards the black water crosses the road 
 flowing sluggishly through the brush, 
 and cypress trees. 
 
 Along the foot logs here Allen ran, 
 with the confidence inspired by long 
 practice. 
 
 ANDREW STRONG'S CABIN. 
 
 About a mile from the Back Swamp 
 we passed the cabin of Andrew Stiong, 
 one of the outlaws, where his younger 
 brother, Boss, was shot the Friday be- 
 fore. 
 
 We passed close to the house, and a 
 couple of women came to the door, and 
 
 [ stood there as long as the house was in 
 sight. 
 
 As I have since learned, there was 
 another pair of eyes Avatching us from 
 a thicicet near the house. Andrew 
 Strong himself, with 
 
 HIS GUN READY FOR A SHOT, 
 
 in his hand, studied me as 1 passed. 
 Another long stretch of water, mud, 
 and sand, and wc came to Henry Berry 
 Lowery's house, now in the occupancy 
 of his wife, Rhody. A quarter of a 
 mile further and we reached our desti- 
 nation, the home of 
 
 OLD MRS. ALLEN LOWERY. 
 
 Here we were greeted by the loud 
 and decidedly savage barking of three 
 large dogs. Two or tliree very light 
 mulatto girls drove them away, and 
 opened the gate for me ; as I passed in 
 I was put in the presence of the old 
 woman, who gave me a very hospitable 
 reception, and assured me I was wel- 
 come to st:iy as long as 1 pleased, if I 
 could put up with their rough fare. 
 
 Mrs. Lovvery has the largest house 
 in this section of country ; it is weather- 
 boarded, has four good sized rooms, 
 and a kitchen attached, aud a wide 
 porch in front. It is on a plantation 
 containing about seventy-five acres, and 
 has numerous out-buildings connected 
 with it. There has been no division of 
 the estate or property since old Allen 
 Lowery was killed, the children 
 
 GIVING ALL THE PROFITS TO TPIEIR 
 MOTHER. 
 
 One son, Sinclair, living near, super- 
 intends the farm, and assists her when 
 necessary. This little plantation pro- 
 duced last year eight bales of cotton 
 and four hundred bushels of corn. 
 
 Soon after my arrival I met Sinclair, 
 who is a dark mulatto, with a good 
 
THE SWAMP OUTLAWS. 
 
 73 
 
 BOSS STRONG 
 
 countenance. He told me he did not 
 know whether Henry Berry was alive 
 or dead ; that no one had seen him for 
 four or five weeks. ^Irs. Lowery said 
 the same. Sinclair addfd : — 
 
 " I will be glad it he is dead, for he 
 is a very bad man, and has done a heap 
 of harm." 
 
 He further told me he had not been 
 on friendly terms with Henry since the 
 marriacre of the latter to Rhody Strong ; 
 the marriage it had been announced 
 would be solemnized at his mother's 
 nouse, and Sinclair, fearing that an 
 attack would be made on the house by 
 the oflic^rs in pursuit of Henry, objected 
 to the ceremony being performed theie. 
 When Henry was arrested he accused 
 Siaclair of having informed on him, and 
 
 ON- GUARD. 
 
 they had never been on good terms 
 afterwards. Steve and Tom 
 
 TOOK PART WITH HENRY 
 
 in his qnarrol ; so that Sinclair could 
 give me no information of the outlaws. 
 
 I would here remark that this band 
 are known in thoii- neighborhood by the 
 name "outlaws;" their friends call 
 them and they style themselves out- 
 laws. 
 
 W^hen I returned to the house after 
 the conversation with Sinclair, who was 
 working in a fioiJ. 1 was presented to 
 Iihody, the wife of Henry Berry Low- 
 ery. 
 
 THE "QUEEI^ OF SCUFFLETOWN." 
 This young woman is remarkably 
 
74 
 
 THE SWAMP OUTLAWS. 
 
 prettv ; her face oval, of a very light 
 color; large, dark, mournful-looking 
 eyes, with long lashes ; well shaped 
 moul'i ; with, small, even teeth, well 
 rounded Qhin ; nose slightly retrousee, 
 with profusion of straight jet black hair, 
 combine to make her a very pleasant 
 object to gaze at. She has small hands 
 and feet, and on the latter she wears 
 No. 2, and still cramps her feet less than 
 the majority of white women. She is 
 of medium height, with a very well 
 developed figure, and is lietween twenty- 
 one and twenty-two years old. When 
 I add that she has a low sweet voice, 
 and a great many little graceful motions 
 of her head and body, it will be seen 
 that she is a raj'a avis in ScufRetown. 
 To the above description I regret that 1 
 am compelled to add that this queen 
 cannot write, that 
 
 SHE SMOKES A PIPE AND RUBS 
 SNUFF. 
 
 When Rhody learned the object of 
 my visit she said she would undertake 
 to have my message conveyed to the 
 outlaws, and she had no doubt they 
 
 would ffrant me an interview. Hen 
 
 fy 
 
 Berry, she said, was away, and she 
 could not tell wlien he v/ould return. 
 I walked home with her, r.nd examined 
 carefully the home of the notorious out- 
 law leaden. 
 
 THE OUTLAW'S NEST. 
 
 The cabin of this man is built pre- 
 cisely as are all those of the poorer 
 mulattoes — one story high, logs from 
 three to eight inches apart, the intersti- 
 ces not filled in as in log houses at the 
 North, but covered by boards on either 
 the inside or outside, never both. This 
 house had the- boards on the outside. 
 There are two doors, opposite each 
 other, secured by modern bolts and 
 buttons, and on the third side is the 
 
 capacious hearth or fireplace, with chim- 
 ney built of logs, lined and floored with 
 clay. On the side opposite the fireplace 
 stands the bed, and above and beside it 
 are stretched several poles, upon which 
 hang the clothes of the family. 
 
 There are no windows, nor any open- 
 ings for light but the doors and chimney. 
 Indeed, of some twenty houses of mu- 
 lattoes I visited, 1 found but two, those 
 ofJNIrs. Allen Lowery and Pat'^ick Low- 
 ery, in which there were windows. 
 
 The house of H. 13. Lowery is within 
 a small enclosure, which is surrounded 
 by a large one, and is on his father 
 Allen's estate. The furniture of this 
 house consists of 
 
 A BED, A TABLE, TFIREE CHAIRS, 
 
 and three stools. Over the fireplace 
 are pasted a numb<n" of pictures cut 
 from the illustrated papers, while a 
 colored print, labelled "The Two Beau- 
 ties," hangs over the table. Rhody had 
 left her "help" — a light mulatto, who 
 had been engaged by Andrew Strong 
 to stay with her for six weeks for a pair 
 of shoes and a calico dress — in charge of 
 
 HER CHILDREN— 
 
 Sally Ann, aged five ; Henry Delany, 
 aged three, and Neelvann, aijed one 
 year and two months. They are all of 
 a very bright coloi-, strong, active, and 
 healthy, the boy being particularly 
 bright. He is said to bear a strong 
 resemblance to his father. 
 
 1 spent an hour or more with Rhody, 
 She told me, further, if I would come 
 back the next morninfj she mi";ht have 
 some information for me, and that in 
 the meantime I might rest assured I 
 would be in no danger from the out- 
 laws or their friends. 
 
THE SWAMP OUTLAWS. 
 
 75 
 
 BY THE Or-D MAN'S GRAVE— OLD 
 MllS. LOWEllYS STORV- 
 
 The iTxt moniint; ( March 15) old 
 Mrs. Lowery took nut to a small unen- 
 closed grave in a field near her house, 
 where, marked by four rails lying on 
 the ground, was iho grave of her husband 
 and son William. The old woman's 
 voice was broken, and the tears rolled 
 down her withered face even now as she 
 told mo how they met their death. 
 
 There had been no trouble between 
 them and any of their white neighbors, 
 except that some of their sons had flod 
 from the officers who wanted to take 
 them to wt)rk in the rebel fortifications 
 at Wilmington. 
 
 In 18G1 a party of whites, com- 
 manded by James Barnes, came to the 
 house and took the old man and Wil- 
 liam away, at the same time, 
 
 THEY ASKED FOR SPADES, 
 
 and took some along with them ; some 
 of them r.turned directly and ca;-ried 
 ol 1 Mrs. Lowery and her two daugh- 
 ters to the house of a white man, Rob- 
 ert McKensie, where they wee locked 
 up in a smoke bouse. 
 
 Mckensie then went away saying he 
 was going up to see how the Loweiy 
 men were faring. 
 
 When they returned home, in a 
 thicket not far from the house, they 
 found a new-made, shallow grave, in 
 which were the bodies of Allen and 
 William Lowery, lying one above the 
 other, riddled with musket balls. 
 
 The next day they came back and 
 took me out into the woods and said 
 they were going to kill me if I didn't 
 tell them where the Yankee prisoners 
 were hid. I didn't know and I told 
 them so, but they wouldn't believe me. 
 They blindfolded me and tied me to a 
 tree, and said they were going to shoot 
 
 me. I heard them firing, and then I 
 fainted. When 1 fainted they untied 
 me and sent the girls to bring me too. 
 
 This was old Mrs. Lowery's story, 
 and all the mulattocs whom I met and 
 questioned about it, told me about the 
 same thing. 
 
 From the grave of the Lowery's I 
 went straight to Rhody's house. As 1 
 entered the gate of the outer enclosure 
 I noticed a man standing in the doorway 
 who stepped back within the house. As 
 I reached the inner gate he again came 
 to the door and 
 
 I CONFESS TO SOilE NERVOUSNESS 
 
 as I saw his equipments. But it was 
 no time to stop now, and in a moment 
 1 was in Henry Berry Lowery's house, 
 in the presence of Steve Lowery and 
 Andrew Strong, two of the famous 
 swamp outlaws. With as composed aa 
 air as the nature of the case would pe^ 
 mit I stepped forward. 
 
 " I believe these are the men " (I am 
 not sure but that I said gentlemen) "I 
 wanted to see," and extended my hand 
 to the one nearest me, who grasped it 
 cordially as Rhody mentioned his name, 
 Andrew Strong, and mine, and then 
 repeated the ceremony with Steve. 
 Both of them offered me chairs ; but I 
 accepted that from which Andrew had 
 just arisen, it being nearer the fire, and 
 immediately 
 
 EXPLAINED MY PURPOSE 
 
 in seeking them. I told them the great 
 paper of America had giv. n some at- 
 tention to them, and had published their 
 histories as furnished by the white 
 people of Robeson county ; but that the 
 people of the United States might have 
 a clear and just conception of afliiira 
 here I had been sent down to see them, 
 h'ar their stories and the circumstances 
 that had made them outlaws and se« 
 
76 
 
 THE SWAMP OUTLAWS. 
 
 Qow they lived. I told thein. further' As the shooting of Boss was the chief 
 
 topic I had heard discussed after lea\ing 
 Wilmington, I told them I had seen 
 James ]\lcQueen or Donahoc, at Shoe 
 Heel, and had taken down his version 
 
 that 
 [ 
 
 HAD NO WEAPON BUT A SMALL 
 REVOLVER. 
 
 which they could have while I was with 
 them, but which they would oblige me 
 by returning when 1 left thom. 
 
 They replied that Rhody had told 
 them the nature of my business, that 
 they were glad of an opportunity of giv- 
 ing their story to the country, for the 
 " papers were telling so many d — d lies 
 about them," that I would be perfectly 
 safe with them, and that I might keep 
 my pistol. 
 
 THE MEN I MET. 
 
 Steve Lowery is five feet ten inches 
 high, thick set, with long arms and legs, 
 and is very strong ; he has a very dark 
 yellow complexion, hazel eyes, bright 
 and restless, black straight hair and thin 
 mustache and goatee. He was armed 
 with a Spencer rifle, two double-barrell- 
 ed shot suns, one of the latter and the 
 rifle beinsz slung from his shoulders, and 
 three six-barrelled revolvers in his belt, 
 while two United States cartridge boxes 
 hung from his shoulders. 
 
 Andrew Strong is nearly white, about 
 six feet high, with rather mild eyes and 
 reddish beard and hair, tlie latter cut 
 short. He carried a heavy rifle and the 
 same number of shot-guns, revolvers 
 and cartridge boxes as Steve Lowery, be- 
 sides a heavy canvas haversack. His 
 impedimenta ("turn," he calls it) weighs 
 not less than a hundred pounds. He 
 
 ADJUSTED ALL HIS EQUIPMENTS 
 ON ME, 
 
 and I C0!ild barely stagger across the 
 floor with them. After a few general 
 remarks, Andrew told me they would 
 tell me all I wanted to know if I would 
 question them. 
 
 of the affair, and would : ow like to 
 know if it was correct. 1 road to them 
 McQueen's story as follows: — 
 
 DONAIIOE'S STORY OF KILLING EOSS 
 STRONG. 
 
 " Last Thursday night (May 7), 1 
 reached the house of Andrew Strong, 
 on the edge of Soufllctown, about ten 
 miles from here, at twelve o'clock', I 
 fixed a good blind about 150 vards from 
 the house, and lying down, I watched the 
 rest of the nitfht and all the next dav, 
 eating some provisions I had bi-ought 
 along. About half-past seven P. M. 
 Friday, Andrew came out of the wools, 
 and after stopping and looking around 
 him in all directions he went into the 
 house, and directly come out and gave 
 a low call, when Boss came out of the 
 woods to the house; they were each 
 armed with two rifles and two or three 
 revolvers. A little after eight o'clock, 
 when I thought they woul 1 be at sup- 
 per, I slipped up to the house and look- 
 ed in through the cat hole in the door, 
 as I supposed they were eating their 
 supper by the light on the hearth. Be- 
 side Andrew's wife, Flora and a Miss 
 Cummings were there. I kept watching 
 there until Boss laid down on the floor 
 with his feet to the fire and his head to- 
 wards me and commenced 
 
 PLAYING ON A MOUTH ORGAN. 
 
 Then I saw my cnance, and I pushed 
 the muzzle of my rifle (a Henry) through 
 the cat nole unt I it was not over tnree 
 feet from his head, took a stead v aim 
 by the light of the fire and shot. When 
 I fired the women screamed and said: — 
 
THE JSWAiMP OUTLAWS. 
 
 77 
 
 LIKENESS OF SANDERS THE SPY. 
 
 "HES SHOT," "NO HE ISN'T," "YES 
 HE IS," 
 
 and I looked in as quick as I could get 
 my gun out of the way. Boss' arms 
 and legs had fallen straii^ht from his 
 body, and there was a little movement 
 of the shoulders as if he was trying to 
 get up. Andrew Strong was then stand- 
 
 ing 
 
 IN THE SHADOW IN THE CORNER 
 
 and he stayed there until I left. He 
 said to his wife, '' Honey, you go out 
 
 and see what it is," and opened the 
 door opposite the one 1 was at and 
 pushed her out, but did not come around 
 to the side I was ; but went in directly 
 and said there was nobody about. He 
 sent her out again, telling her to look 
 in the corners and jams ; but before she 
 had got well out, he said, " Come back, 
 Il'ney, he was blowing on that thing 
 and it busted and blnwed his head off," 
 and directly after he said, " My God ! 
 he's shot in the head ; it must have 
 come from the cat hole," and sent his 
 
w 
 
 THE SWAMP OUTLAWS. 
 
 wife out again, and I slipped off. Wlien 
 1 returned the cat hole was shut up and 
 the house was all dark. Then I come 
 bacl^ to Shoe Heel." 
 
 THE OUTLAWS HOLD A COUNCIL. 
 
 Before they left they went out of the 
 house and held an animated conversa- 
 tion of perhaps hulf an hour's duration 
 in the garden, after which Steve address- 
 ed nne : — 
 
 " We've trusted three men before 
 and ebery one of dem betrayed us, an' 
 we swo' we'd neber trust no stranger 
 agin, but you look hmiest, an your story 
 'pears to be all right, an' we is gwine 
 to trust you some. Now you's got a- 
 bout Donahoe's shootiii B ss, we are 
 gwine to keep you heah till you can 
 
 PUT IN DE PAPER HOW WE KILLED 
 DONAHOE. 
 
 We won't hurt you, an' you kin travel 
 about whar you bab a mind to in dis 
 place, but you must swear an oath dat 
 you won't ti-y to go away without us 
 lettiu' you". 
 
 I was somewhat dismayed at this 
 speech, but expressed myself satisfied 
 with the arrangement. I saw I would 
 have an opportunity of seeing wild life 
 not often enjoyed by Northern men, 
 ;and felt that 1 was in no great danger if 
 J acted honestly towards my captors. 
 
 PART TO MEET A^AIN. 
 
 The outlaws then slung on their 
 . "equipments, and after promising to 
 meet me at the *' New Bridge,'' three 
 miles distant, the next morning, strode 
 into the heavy pine forest, and I went 
 back into the cabin, where Rhodv 
 taught me how to rub snuff. 
 
 ScuFFELTOWN, March 22 1872. 
 
 THE DEATH OF HENRY BERRY LOW- 
 ERY. 
 
 As this letter cannot be read by the 
 
 people of this settlement before I have 
 left it, the most important piece of in. 
 formation I have to conimunicate shall 
 be given first. Henry Beny Lowerv, 
 the notable chief of tne notorious swamp 
 outlaws is actually dead. This is denied 
 bv all of his comrades, and his relatives 
 profess to be ignorant of his fate. But 
 from evidence the most reliable, when 
 connected with a well-connected chain 
 of circumstances, I am enabled to give 
 you a correct account of 
 
 T.iE DEATH OF THIS ROBBER CHIEF. 
 
 Between February 13 and 16, in 
 company with his Jidus Achates, Boss 
 Strong, Henry Berry Lowery was 
 ranging the country in the neighborhood 
 of Moss Neck in search of some persons 
 whom he had been informed were hunt- 
 ing him, while Steve and Tom Lowery 
 and Andrew Strong were stationed at a 
 rendezvous on Lumber River, near the 
 " new bridge." Abotit one and three- 
 quarter miles from Moss Nock station, 
 within short gunshot of the road leading 
 from Inman's Bridge to McNeill's mill, 
 they discovered in the bushes a newly 
 made " blind " (a place of concealment 
 or ambush made by intertwining the 
 branching of the thickly grown bushes.) 
 
 it was not then occupied, and Henry 
 Berry, believing it had been recently 
 made by one of his pursuers, who would 
 shortly return to it, ensconced himself 
 in it, while Boss made a blind for him- 
 self a short distance off covering tiie 
 road. But a few minutes after they had 
 placed themselves in their lespective 
 positions the report of a gun was heard 
 from Henry's hiding place, and when 
 Boss, who waited to hear a vvord from 
 his chief or an answering shot from an 
 enemy, cautiously approached the spot, 
 Henry Berry Lowery lay oii his back, 
 with one barrel of his shotijun discharc- 
 ed and his nose, forehead and the 
 
THE SWAMP OUTLAWS. 
 
 79 
 
 WHOLE FRONT OK HIS HEAD BLOWN I horseback for the New Bridge. On the 
 
 I . , . ,, 1-^ . 1 , T-v 5) 
 
 OFF. 
 
 way 1 passed the " Devil's Den,'' ;i 
 
 desolate wild spot in the Back Swamp, 
 
 where is said to be one of the hiding 
 
 wiper showed he had been trying to pj^.^es of the bandits. 
 
 The broken ramrod and the missing 
 
 draw a load from his gun. Boss drew 
 the body into a thicket, and notified his 
 companions, who straightway buried 
 him where, in all human probability, 
 the eve of man will see liim never. 
 
 Thus perished this remarkable man, | 
 and his death marks the dissolution of | 
 this most formidable body of despera- j 
 does.' The large sum of money he was 
 said to be in posessioii of is also lost to 
 the country, for no member of the band, 
 not even Boss nor his wife, knew the 
 whereabouts of his treasure cliest. The 
 remainiu'^^ outlaws have made diligent 
 search, but as yet have had their labor 
 . for their pains. Henry Berry was said 
 to have had a good deal of money, 
 b*ides his share of the proceeds of the 
 Lumberton Bank, from which some 
 thirty thousand dollars were taken. It 
 appears to have been his habit of appro- 
 priating to his own use 
 
 THE LION'S SHARE OF ALL MONEY 
 
 taken, giving the subjects the other 
 
 booty. 
 
 But to resume the story of my life 
 among tt.e outlaws. A little after dark 
 on th^ evening of the day 1 met Andrew 
 Strong and Steve L iwery I returned to 
 Henry Berry's house, in pursuance of 
 his wife's invitation, to spend the night 
 
 there. 
 
 After supper Rhody said 
 
 I SHOULD SLEEP IN THE BED. 
 
 while she would make a coi^ch tor her- 
 self, help and family on the floor. 
 
 The next morning, after a breakfast 
 on the same chicken we had tried the 
 
 Our destination was Moss Neck, 
 where 1 wanted toniail some letters 
 and send some private despatches to the 
 telegraph office at Wilmingtcm, and they 
 wanted to 
 
 SEND THEIR MESSAGE TO THE 
 HERALD. 
 
 We heard the train east coming when 
 we were about a mile from the station, 
 and ran the whr)le distance from there. 
 They would iM)t go up to tbe train, nor 
 would they let me go until i promised 
 them solemnly, with my hand on my 
 heart, that I would not go off in it, and 
 would hand their despatch, as well as 
 my own, to the conductor. 
 
 From Moss Neck, with a young man 
 who had been taken piisoner by the 
 outlaws, when they captured the detec- 
 tive Saunders, but who now appeared 
 to be on very good terms witn them, 
 we went down the railroad about a mile 
 and then half a mile south into a " bay," 
 where Saunder's '-camp" had been lo- 
 cated. 
 
 From tills desolate spot we returned 
 to Moss Neck, where 
 
 1 MET THOMAS LOWERY. 
 
 another of the outluws, and upon whose 
 head is set a price of $5,000. Tom 
 Lowery is five feet ten inches high, 
 strongly built, with a lighter complex- 
 ion than Steve, but darker than Henry 
 Berry. He has rather regular features, 
 a high forehead and the brightest eyes of 
 the three outlaws T met. He has a 
 short, black beard, and straight, black 
 hair, and is more refined in his appear- 
 
 °" , '""l f with a guide furnished bv ancc than Steve or Andrew Strong, 
 
 thff^riends of the outlaws, I started on' He was armed precisely as they, with 
 
80 
 
 THE SWAMP OUTLAWS. 
 
 a rifle and two shotguns and a bolt full 
 of I e vol vers. He said he liad heard of 
 my j)resence in tlie neighborhood and 
 was glad to see me. 
 
 It being now about one o'clock we 
 were all natuiall} hungry, so Steve 
 bought a couple dozen of eggs fi'oin a 
 woman near by, who boiled thein for 
 him, and we went into the store at 
 Moss Neck to eat them, which work we 
 accomplished by cutting them in iialvts 
 with our knivfs, sprinkling coarse salt 
 on them and gulping down each hall 
 from its shell. I ate four, the remain- 
 der being devoured by the three out- 
 laws. In addition to the eggs we had 
 some 
 
 GINGER CAKE, CHEESE AND 
 WRETCiJED WHISKEY. 
 
 After dinner I was taken to McNeill's 
 mill, near Moss Neck, the place where 
 that Make (Malcolm) Sanderson was 
 killed, and where, within a few yards of 
 the formei', one of his murderers, John 
 Taylor, was subsequently punished. 
 The place was pointed out to me, and 
 the story of their respective deaths told 
 by Andrew Strong. 
 
 WHERE MAKE SANDERSON AND 
 JOHN TAYLOR WERE KILLED. 
 
 In September, 1S70, Andrew, who 
 up to that time had been charged with 
 no offence, and was then working at his 
 home, was called up from his bed at 
 about eleven in the night by a party of 
 over twenty men, who said they wanted 
 him to go along with them a little 
 ways. When he had dressed and gone 
 out to the party he found they had 
 another man (Make Sanderson) with 
 them. After they had gone about a 
 mile one of the party, McNeill, turned 
 to Andrew and said, " You'll never see 
 morning again," and upon his prisoner 
 asking why and what he had done was 
 
 ! answered that he was a d — d nigger 
 and a spy for the Lowerys and so was 
 S;iiiderson, and they had determined to 
 kill them all. 
 
 On the road to Moss Neck they were 
 shot by John Taylor, to whom the pris- 
 oners made a scrong and passionate ap- 
 peal f)r mercy, t » which he replied, 
 " If all the mulatto blood in the country 
 was in you two and a movement of my 
 foot would send you to hell I would 
 make it." Soon after the prisoners were 
 tied together and led to a secluded spot 
 about a mile from Moss Neck, where 
 they were to die. Sanderson asked for 
 lime to pray, which, after some consul- 
 tation, was given him. In the midst of 
 his supplications for pardon hi- was in- 
 terrupted by a blow from a pistol and 
 told to hurry up and not to pray so 
 loud, as 
 
 GOD WOULD HEAR HIM ANYHOW. 
 
 "When he had finished they were taken 
 to a proper distance from their captors 
 to be shot at, when Andrew, who had 
 been working at his bonds ever since 
 they were put on him, broke them sud- 
 denly and rushed for the woods, fol- 
 lowed by the shots of his enemies. 
 
 Make Sanderson's hody was found 
 the next morning near McNeill's mill- 
 pond riddled with bullets. It was said 
 he was standing on a plank over the 
 race, and at the first fire fell into the 
 water still alive, and crawling out on 
 the land below was shot on the ground 
 where his mangled body vras found. 
 
 For this murder John Taylor was 
 arrested, but held to bail in the sum of 
 $500. When H. B. Lowery heard this 
 he remarked : 
 
 " We mulattoes must carry out our 
 own laws: I will kill John Taylor," 
 and on the morning of January 14, 
 1871, with a company of soldiers with- 
 in 200 yards of him, he and Boss Strong 
 
THE SWAiMP OUTLAWS. 
 
 fil 
 
 rose from the road, a hundred yards 
 from where Sanderson hud been killed 
 the fall befi)re, and at a distance of less 
 then ten yards shot the top of his head 
 off. 
 
 AN' OUTLAW CONCERT. 
 
 After Andrew had toM nie this his- 
 tory and had shown me where Sander- 
 son and Ta\ lor were killed, and where 
 Henry and Buss were ambushed, we re- 
 turned to the store, where for n couple 
 of hours in a back room Steve and 
 Andr 'W " picked " the banjo, played on 
 the violin and saiijj negro melodies to 
 an appreciative and enthusiastic audi- 
 ence. Steve sings very well, and the 
 peculiar airs with which he was accom- 
 panied on the banjo were novel and ex- 
 ceedingly pleasarit. 
 
 A LODGING PAID FOR. 
 
 When we fiitally left Moss Neck it 
 was for the purpose of finding a place 
 for me to spend the night. About three 
 miles up the railroad we came to the 
 residence of Tom Chavis to well-to-do 
 mulatto, where Steve engaired lodnrinnr 
 for me, telling them to give me a good 
 supper and allow me to retire to bed 
 immediately after, for I was " clean done 
 worried out, " and he would pay the 
 "bill ; and, fixing a point to meet me the 
 next day, the outlaws strode away to 
 ward the swamps. 
 
 THE PRESS ON THE OUTLAWS 
 AND HERALD ENTERPRISE. 
 
 Our rural friends the Southern edi- 
 tors, are at it again. Past all thsir 
 comprehension seems the fact that a 
 New York journal could have a corres- 
 pondent in Africa and one amonjr the 
 Carolina out'aws of the same time. 
 Here, for instance, is an enlightpned 
 little rag from Mississippi, the Pilot. 
 
 Hear what it flutters. ^ord help r 
 country with such pilots, although ihey 
 do boast of being " official journal of 
 the United States." 
 
 THROUGH THICK AND THIN. 
 
 (F m the Duily Mississippi Pilot, Miircli 22). 
 One of the New York Herald cor- 
 respondents was r< cently killed while 
 searching for Dr. Livincfslcjne, in the 
 interior of Africa, and now another has 
 fallen into the hands of the Swamp An- 
 gels, led by the bandit, Stephen Low- 
 ery, in North Carolina. The Lowerys 
 say they will not kill him; only inter- 
 view him until they prove whether he 
 is an impostor or not. Can't the 
 Herald spread this on a little thicker? 
 It seems to us remarkably " thin." 
 
 THE HATE OF COLOR. 
 
 When the bull-fighters of Seville wish 
 to enrage the plunging toro they flash a 
 piece of red cloth before his eyes, and 
 straightway he becomes mad. When 
 you wish to enrage a grand old unpro- 
 gressive, hardshell democrat of the 
 Soutiiern stripe show him som.ething 
 black, and the rabies will follow direct- 
 ly after. The following is the painful 
 result of a Newark man finding out that 
 the Lowerys were colored ! 
 
 IF THEY WERE ONLY WHE 
 
 (Fn.in the Newark (N. J.,) Daily Journal, 
 March 25 ) 
 
 The Swamp Angels are not yet ex- 
 tinguished, and it is even a matter of 
 doubt to the present time whether the 
 leader is dead or has run away or will 
 yet turn up in some fresh raid upon 
 society. Would it not be well for 
 Grant to extend a " protectorate" over 
 Robeson county? The Herald re- 
 1 porter has not vet been heard from, 
 I and when a whiteman, in the legitimat* 
 
82 
 
 THE SWAMP OUTLAWS. 
 
 pursuit of an honorable busines, cannot 
 pass safely through our own country, 
 we think it wouKl be bi-^tter to postpone 
 a protectorate over Mexico until we 
 have regulated matters somewhat bet- 
 ter at home. Had Henry Berrv Low- 
 ery, and his gmg been white men 
 would they have been permitted to ex- 
 ist? We pause for a reply. 
 
 Here now is a southern man, who at- 
 tends to his business of news collecting. 
 We lilve this. He reports that the 
 Hkrald correspondent was in danger, 
 and we are thankful to liim : — 
 
 BRAVE RHODY LOWERY. 
 
 (From the Wiliiiin;^t()n (N. C.) Journal, Marcli 
 24.) 
 
 The wife of Henry Berry Low ery, 
 the outlaw chief, was at Moss Neck de- 
 pot yesterday as the train passed that 
 point, whither she came for the purpose 
 of delivering a despatch from Hender- 
 son, to be sent north from this city. 
 She states that the correspondent was 
 at Lowery's cabin, near Moss Neck, on 
 Friilay evening, about six o'clock, when 
 Tom Lowery, Stephen Lowery, and 
 Andrew Strong entered it and roughly 
 told him to get up and go with tiiem. 
 He told them that he was ready ; but 
 first asked permission to send off a de- 
 spatch to his paper, which was accorded 
 him, when he wrote the despatch and 
 gave it to the Lowery female, who, as 
 we have seen, fulfilled her promise to 
 deliver it lo the conductor of the tr.iin. 
 Henderson then accompanied the out- 
 laws, bound for the recesses of Scuffle- 
 town swamp. 
 
 It was reported here yesteruay, the 
 report coming from Siioe Heel, that 
 Henderson had been killed by the out- 
 laws, but the report is generally dis- 
 credited. 
 
 WHO IS TO BLAME? 
 
 Here is another solution of the ques«- 
 tion. The Edgefield Advertiser said it 
 was Grant ; llie Raleigh Era said it 
 w;is the Ku Klux ; the Wilmington 
 Star now says it is Governor Caldwell. 
 Wonderful ! It admits that he sent 
 down his Adjutant General, but forgets 
 to mention that the cowardice of the 
 population of Robeson county made his 
 efforts ineffectual. They can only tell 
 half truths down there. 
 
 (From the Wilmington Star, M;ircli 24.) 
 
 CALDWELL AND LOWERY 
 
 That Henry Berry Lowery and his 
 little band of robbers and cutthroats 
 should, for so long a time, set law and 
 civilization at defiance — should pillage, 
 outrage and murder with un paralleled 
 impunity — affords food for reflection 
 upon the sort of government we have, 
 and more especially gives ample oppor 
 tunity to know the men who })retend to 
 administer that government in the in- 
 terest of justice, of law, of humanity. 
 
 It is a melancholv thoujiht that is 
 forced upon the intelligent North Caro- 
 linian, that the government of his native 
 State is inadequate to protect him from 
 the ravages of the highway robber and 
 the bullet of the midnight assassin. 
 
 Low, indeed, is the condition of that 
 people Avho are in daily jeipardy of life 
 and property. Terrible is the state of 
 that society that must thus live in con- 
 stant peril. 
 
 We charge it upon Governer Cald- 
 well — and his conduct sustains the 
 charge — that he has been lax, lukewarm 
 and careless in this matter of putting 
 down the Lowerys. 
 
 We charge it upon him, that while 
 innocent blood of good men appeared to 
 him from the swamps and plains of 
 Robeson and invoked high heaven for 
 
THE SWAMP OJTLAWS. 
 
 83 
 
 vengeance he lifced scarce a little fingii 
 to arrest the dangerous course of the 
 assassins, was diiml) to piteous entreaty, 
 heeded not the cries of consternation 
 tliat went up to Iliin from a suffering, 
 outraged, imperilled people. 
 
 We charge these things home upon 
 the Governor of North Carolina, and 
 the people know that the facts sustain 
 the charge. 
 
 He was appealed to for a long while 
 in vain. 
 
 He was appealed to persistently, and 
 after taking much time he sent his Ad- 
 jutant General to the scene on the out- 
 rages. 
 
 The result was a failure. 
 When he should have renewed ajiain 
 and again his i-'xertions to captui-e or 
 kill the outlaws he refused altogether to 
 act. 
 
 But to-day, in North Carolina, not a 
 hundred miles from Wilmington, we 
 have a band of men, not a half ilozen in 
 number, who are open and notorious, 
 desperadoes, killing whom they list 
 without the ft'ar of punishment before: 
 their eyes, going at the dead hour of 
 the night into towns,capturing iron safes 
 and robbing them of their contents — a 
 mere handful of men, riding roughshod 
 over county. State and federal authori- 
 ties, with a iionchalance and bravad) 
 that would do credit to the daring and 
 subtle Bedouin of the desert. I 
 
 Here, in the Litter part of the nine- 
 teenth century, in a land that boasts of the 
 excellency of its laws and the security 
 afforded by its government, what do we 
 see? 
 
 Alas ! it would be well to be blind, 
 if blindness brought contentment. But 
 free citizens, with souls in their bodies, 
 cannot shut their eyes to the attrocious 
 violations of law, peace and order in 
 Robeson county. i 
 
 ^len, with the common feelings of 
 humanity — individuals ujion whom one 
 ray of the sun of civilization has shone 
 — must experience pity, shame, and in- 
 dignation at the spectacle of a petty 
 gang (;f mulattoes committing act after 
 act of the most fiendisii outra<:e of law 
 deed after deed of the most abandoned 
 savagery, perilling the iii.iustrial inter- 
 ests of a whole section, filling the pub- 
 lic mind with ap{>rehension and terror, 
 and doing these diabolical crimes with 
 almost the certainty of non-interference, 
 if not protection, by a radical adminis- 
 tration. 
 
 Upon the head of Tod R. Caldwell 
 rests the responsibility, the terrible re- 
 S[)onsibility of the deeds ol" these mur- 
 derous villains. Let him, and iiim 
 alone, bear the blame and reap the deep 
 curses of a>: outraged, afflicted people ! 
 It will not do for his partisans to say 
 that he could not suppress these pitiful 
 outlaws. He did not try to put them 
 down. He would have shown his 
 humanity and his efficiency as a Govern- 
 or had this band been composed of 
 white men and his party had ciiosen to 
 dub them Kii Klux. Oh, yes! What 
 calling out of militia a la Holden j 
 What making of requisitions upon 
 Grant ! What an upstir of loyalty ! 
 What an outburst of patriotic zeal 
 would there have been had Lowi rv 
 been a Ku Klux ! Pity ! nitv ! So 
 much party capital is lost! Long ago 
 would the little band have gone to the 
 criminal's bourne, and the very name 
 of Lowery have been a stench in loyal 
 Northern nostrils, and a new hate of the 
 South been added to the catalogue now 
 long as the list of ships in Homer. 
 
 Again we pile up the counts in our 
 bill of indictment. We charge it upon 
 Governor Caldwell that he can meddle 
 in law-making, can make himself Legia- 
 
84 
 
 THE SWAMP OUTLAWS. 
 
 lature and Supreme Court, can starve 
 Penitentiary convicts and drive inmates 
 of the Asylums from the place of medi- 
 cal aid b:icli to their homes. W^e charge 
 it upon Governor Caldwell that he is 
 foiivard and meddlesome and obstinate 
 and cruel where these virtuous and 
 praiseworthy quualities of his head 
 and heart can be bestowed upon con- 
 servative enemies. We charge it upon 
 Governor Caldwell that he so despises 
 our party that he cannot in his official 
 conduct do members of that party any 
 justice. 
 
 Governor Caldwell that he does not 
 make a hearty and an earnest effort to 
 stop the reign of lawlessness, rapine and 
 murder around Scuffletown and Moss 
 Neck. We charge it upon Governor 
 
 Caldwell that he is callous and brutally 
 indifferent to the higiier instincts of 
 humanity, that he is active only in 
 belief of party, zealous only when party 
 exigency requires zeal ; that he would 
 long since have stopped the Robeson 
 outrages if the Outlaws had been con- 
 servative whites instead of radical blacks. 
 These charges are pi-efuni'd b}' the 
 whole body of intelligeur, lau-abid'ng 
 people of the State whom he disgraces 
 and outrages. If he quails not before 
 them, if their indignant voices move not 
 his rough, fretful, splciu-tic and sav- 
 •diie nature, then is he sunk and sod- 
 den in the lowest pit of degradation, 
 and there is no hope for him, then is he 
 forever damned in the estimation of all 
 good and peaceable citizens. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 nSToTE.— Manv of tlie foregoing articles are introaucecl merely to explain how such 
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 cariactionists°entirely blindin;^ them to tiie disgrace and injury inflicted upon rheir 
 common country by the toleration of .^Yrong deeds whether perpetrated by one i^ ass 
 Cr another.l 
 
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 ABSTEACT OF OONTEJSTTS : 
 
 Preface, 
 
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 Chiirman— his requisites ; necessity 
 of his impartiality ; dignity re- 
 quisite: 
 
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 Points of tJider. 
 
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 Committees. 
 
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 sented ; form of. 
 
 Amendments — lorra of ; Examp e; 
 (if. 
 
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 how taken ; calling the ; when a 
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 es in American Legislatures ; 
 linglish House of Commons. 
 
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 Points of Order and Appeals — mode 
 of making; form of making. 
 
 Debate— when a speaker may speak 
 twice ; when a Chairman may 
 speak ; every member has a right 
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