The vigilantes of Montana; Or, popular justice in the Rocky Mountains: Being a correct and impartial narrative of the chase, trial, capture and execution of Henry Plummer's road agent band, together with accounts of the lives and crimes of many of the robbers and desperadoes, the whole being interspersed with sketches of life in the mining camps of the "Far West"Dimsdale, Thos. J. (Thomas Josiah)
History
The vigilantes of Montana; Or, popular justice in the Rocky Mountains: Being a correct and impartial narrative of the chase, trial, capture and execution of Henry Plummer's road agent band, together with accounts of the lives and crimes of many of the robbers and desperadoes, the whole being interspersed with sketches of life in the mining camps of the "Far West"
Dimsdale, Thos. J. (Thomas Josiah)
Criminals -- Montana; Frontier and pioneer life -- Montana; Montana -- History -- 19th century; Plummer, Henry Amos, -1864; Vigilance committees
The quarrel was arranged after some little time, and then it was
found that Buz Caven’s dog, “Toodles,” which was under the table, had
been struck by three balls, and lay there dead. A groan from Carrhart
attracted attention, and his friends looking at him, discovered that
he had been shot through the bowels, accidentally, by Banefield.
Instantly Moore called to Reeves and Forbes, who were present, “Boys,
they have shot Carrhart; let’s kill them,” and raising his pistol, he
let fly twice at Sap’s head. Sap threw up his hands, having no weapon,
and the balls came so close that they cut one little finger badly, and
just grazed the other hand. The road agents fired promiscuously into
the retreating crowd, one ball wounding a young man, Goliath Reilly,
passing through his heel. Banefield was shot below the knee, and felt
his leg numbed and useless. He, however, dragged himself away to a
place of security, and was attended by a skillful physician; but,
refusing to submit to amputation, he died of mortification.
In proof of the insecurity of life and property in places where
such desperadoes as Plummer, Stinson, Ray and Skinner make their
headquarters, the following incident may be cited:
Late in the Spring of ’63, Winnemuck, a warrior chief of the Bannacks,
had come in with his band, and had camped in the brush, about
three-fourth of a mile above the town. Skinner and the roughs called
a meeting, and organized a band for the purpose of attacking and
murdering the whole tribe. The leaders, however, got so drunk that
the citizens became ashamed, and drooped off by degrees, till they
were so few that the enterprise was abandoned. A half-breed had in
the meantime, warned Winnemuck, and the wily old warrior lost no time
in preparing for the reception of the party. He sent his squaws and
pappooses to the rear, and posted his warriors, to the number of three
or four hundred, on the right side of a canyon, in such a position
that he could have slaughtered the whole command at his ease. This he
fully intended to do, if attacked, and also to have sacked the town
and killed every white in it. This would have been an achievement
requiring no extraordinary effort, and had not the drunkenness of the
outlaws defeated their murderous purpose, would undoubtedly have been
accomplished. In fact, the men whom the Vigilantes afterwards executed,
were ripe for any villainy, being Godless, fearless, worthless, and a
terror to the community.
In June of the same year, the report came in that Joe Carrigan, William
Mitchell, Joe Brown, Smith, Indian Dick, and four others had been
killed by the Indians, whom they had pursued to recover stolen stock,
and that overtaking them, they had dismounted and fired into their
tepees. The Indians attacked them when their pieces were emptied,
killed the whole nine, and took their stock.
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