Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 2.djvu/134

 result in serious trouble, were realized in the near future. There was a large settlement in Keokuk County of disloyal people who were aggressive in their treasonable utterances and public demonstrations. Their leader was a young Baptist minister, George C. Tally, a rough, uneducated man endowed with a rare gift of oratory. He was a firm believer in slavery as a divine institution, and a bold and fearless defender of the Rebellion. On the 1st of August, 1863, a mass meeting of “Peace Democrats” was held near English River, in Keokuk County. Several hundred came in wagons with arms concealed beneath straw in the vehicles. Threats had been made to destroy the town of South English, which was a Union stronghold. The citizens, having heard of the threat, armed themselves. On his way to the mass meeting Tally, with a disloyal badge prominently displayed, passed through South English and became engaged in an altercation with some of the citizens. He was the chief speaker at the meeting, and by his fervid eloquence in denunciation of the Government and the war, his hearers were wrought up to a state of wild excitement. A large crowd of Union men had gathered on the streets, and, as the armed procession made its way among them, it was greeted with cries of “Copperheads,” “cowards,” “why don’t you shoot?” A shot was fired by some one in the confusion and excitement, which was the instant signal for a general discharge of guns and revolvers by both parties. Tally was among the first to fire. Three shots from his revolver were sent into the crowd, when he fell dead in his wagon, pierced with three bullets. He was the only man killed or seriously injured. The news of the tragic death of their leader, as it spread among his sympathizers, produced a frenzy of excitement. They gathered from Wapello, Mahaska and Poweshiek counties in armed bands, making threats of vengeance. Their rendezvous was on the south bank of the Skunk River, about two miles from Sigourney. Here they formed a camp and soon had nearly 2,000 armed men drilling.