Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 2.djvu/140

 the county fair was in session. The men rushed to the arsenal, where arms and ammunition were hastily distributed, horses were taken from the wagons and mounted, Colonel J. B. Weaver was called to the command. A company of mounted men was soon organized, and, led by Weaver, started in pursuit of the guerrillas, while Lieutenant-Colonel S. A. Moore took command of the militia to protect the town. The party under Weaver struck the trail of the outlaws at Hurdy’s and followed it with great rapidity until the place was reached where Captain Bunce had been murdered. It was now midnight, they were in Missouri and five hours behind the raiders, as they learned from the citizens. It was impossible to track them in the darkness, and in a region where the raiders knew every bridle path and were among their friends, who would give no information to the pursuers. It was useless to proceed further and Weaver’s party reluctantly turned back, taking the body of Captain Bunce. On the 7th of November, while three men in Davis County were attempting to arrest suspicious characters, one of them, William Wallace, was shot by the raiders and killed. During these troubles in that county, thirteen of the guerrillas were captured by the militia, and delivered to the proper authorities.

Governor Kirkwood, having declined to be a candidate for a third term, there was a lively contest between the supporters of General Fitz Henry Warren and Elijah Sells, Secretary of State, before the Republican State Convention, which assembled at Des Moines on the 17th of June, 1863, to nominate candidates for Governor and other State officers. Colonel William M. Stone, of the Twenty-second Regiment, who was home with a wound in his arm, received before Vicksburg, had a few supporters, who held the balance of power between the two chief candidates. The night before the convention, after the delegates had arrived in the city, a rally was held in the convention hall, at which General Warren and Colonel Stone were the chief speakers. Warren, who was an accomplished gentleman