OF VIRGIL A. STEWART, AND HIS ADVENTURE 66 IN CAPTURING AND EXPOSING THE GREAT WESTERN LAND WITH THE EVIDENCE; ALSO OF THE TRIALS, CONFESSIONS, AND EXECUTION OF A NUMBER OF MURRELL'S ASSOCIATES IN THE STATE OF EXECUTION OF FIVE PROFESSIONAL GAMBLERS BY THE CITIZENS OF VICKSBURG, ON THE 6TH JULY, 1835. "I am not willing to admit to the world that I believe him."-A bitter enemy "I care nothing for his jealous animosity. He may vent his poisonous spleen. I am sustained COMPILED BY H. R. HOWARD. NEW-YORK: HARPER & BROTHERS, CLIFF.ST. F 396 .M96 H85 [Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1836, by HARPER & BROTHERS, in the Clerk's Office of the Southern District of New-York. ·Grant 1-29-24 -9709 PREFACE. THE public have long been expecting the fina. history of Virgil A. Stewart's perilous and romantic adventure in capturing "John A. Murrell," the great "Western Land Pirate." We now propose giving a full and perfect account of that strange performance, in connexion with the evidence sustaining each important fact as it is related. We make no pretensions to author-craft, or skill in working up materials so as to heighten interest; nor is it necessary. The deep interest that every Southerner and every honest man must feel in the subject matter of this history, is sufficient to invest a plain and simple statement of facts with attraction. Our only care has been to adhere strictly to the truth, and to exhibit the details in a clear and intelligible narrative. We have commenced with a brief account of Mr. Stewart's early life to the time when he undertook the capture of Murrell and his party. We then continue with his adventure on that expedition, and conclude with a full history of the insurrectionary movements among the negroes in the southern country during the summer of 1835. In the perusal of this narrative the reader will be made acquainted with many scenes of horror and depravity. When the "Western Land Pirate" was in course of publication, Mr. Stewart's health was such that he could pay but little attention to the task of supervision, which rendered it very imperfect in many respects, and especially in the omission of some important portions of his conversation with Murrell, and of his reasons for many proceedings that should have been explained to the reader :--but as the only object of that narrative was to arouse the people of that region to a sense of their danger, past and present, he deemed it unnecessary to delay the publication. As an apology for the detention of this work, we would remind the public that Mr. Stewart has been compelled to travel over a vast country in collecting his evidence for the compilation. In conclusion, we would congratulate those of Mr. Stewart's friends who have nobly stood by him in the hour of danger and persecution, amid a legion of exasperated enemies. He has ably sustained himself and his cause, and proved himself worthy of the confidence reposed in him by his fellow-citizens. In the compilation of this work the most of Murrell's profanity has been suppressed; but retaining his manner of expression in every other particular, and in all cases the substance of his conversation has been preserved. LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF VIRGIL A. STEWART. A BRIEF history of the early life of Mr. Virgil A. Stewart, whose adventures will form the subject of the following pages, may not here be out of place, not only as a gratification of public curiosity, but as an important commentary upon the facts to be disclosed in the succeeding narrative; since, in substantiating the character of Mr. Stewart as a worthy and reputable citizen, the reader will be the better enabled to reject the unfounded and malicious imputations attempted to be cast upon him by some of the more daring emissaries of the Murrell gang. Mr. Stewart was born in Jackson county, in the State of Georgia, of highly respectable parentage. His father, Mr. Samuel Stewart, migrated to Amite county, in Mississippi, while Virgil was yet an infant, and died there a few months after his arrival. His widow, becoming dissatisfied with that part of the country, returned to the State of Georgia, where her son Virgil grew up to manhood. He was sent to school until he was fourteen years of age; but little attention was paid to his pecuniary interests, and a large portion of his slender patrimony was squandered. His early desire was to receive a liberal education; but the income of his father's estate would not allow of the expenses attendant upon a classical course. |