“The _Octavia_ left St. Louis Tuesday, May 7, 1867, on the most important trip I ever made up the river. There were no incidents of note until the boat reached Omaha, where the troops were taken on board. We also received at this point a passenger in the person of a Captain W. D. Spear, 79th Royal Rifles, an officer of the British Army, on furlough from India. He was on his way to Salt Lake _via_ the Missouri River, and was going thence to California. He seemed to be a man of means. This embarkation of the troops and of this officer was the prelude to one of the most distressing tragedies that ever occurred on the Missouri River. The troops were mostly Irish Fenians, and the Lieutenant in charge was an Irishman, all intensely hostile to the English. This fact may in part explain what subsequently transpired. Spear himself felt doubts for his safety, and one day remarked to me that he would be lucky if he got out of this scrape without accident. I did not know what he meant, for he was a very fearless man, going on shore frequently in spite of danger from the Indians. Just after midnight of the 7th of June, or more precisely about 12.30 A. M. June 8, as Captain Spear and Joseph C. La Barge, my son, were going up the steps to the hurricane deck, Captain Spear being a little ahead, a sentinel, William Barry, stationed near there, fired at Captain Spear, the bullet passing through his head at the base of the brain and killing him instantly. The following day an inquest was held by a committee of the passengers consisting of Thomas E. Tutt, Green Clay Smith, Sam McLean, Richard Leach, T. H. Eastman, Geo. W. McLean, and W. J. McCormick, Secretary. Several of the passengers and crew were sworn and their testimony taken. No motive could be discovered for the deed. The sentinel’s orders required him to challenge only parties approaching the boat from the shore, and it was expressly agreed with me, by Lieutenant Horrigan, as a condition of permitting sentinels to be posted on the hurricane deck, that they should not interfere in any way with the passengers. The finding of the committee was that “the shooting was not in accordance with any instructions given to said sentinel, and that he deserves the most rigid punishment known to the law.” There was indeed a strong sentiment among the passengers in favor of lynching him, but the military could easily have prevented it, and everyone believed that he would meet with due punishment in regular order. The sentinel was of course at once relieved from duty and placed under arrest. [Sidenote: NEW METHOD OF EMBALMING.]