Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 12.djvu/280

 270 Southern Historical Society Papers.

friend's treachery, and immediately took passage on a two-masted vessel bound for Buffalo, N. Y. Arrived at Detroit, Mich., the ves- sel was boarded by a military officer, who called on the captain for the delivery of "that New Orleans boy." The captain, ignorant of Blanchard's antecedents, and never for a moment suspecting that he was an escaped prisoner, denied having such a passenger aboard, and seemed paralyzed when the Federal officer exclaimed, " There he is !" pointing at the same time to the young man, who was stand- ing near the wheelman, in doubt whether to jump overboard and at- tempt to swim to the Canada shore. Under guard of the Federal officer he was taken to jail and placed in a cell. The captain of the vessel, at the same time, was released on his parole that he would appear at the jail the following morning.

It happened that young Blanchard was the only prisoner in the jail at the time, and no sooner had the Federal officer departed than the jailor, without any cause or provocation, commenced abusing and vilifying his prisoner. This unexpected assault so angered Blanchard that he challenged the jailor to open the cell door and dare to repeat his insults. The jailor then left, but returned in a short while ac- companied by another man, and having opened the cell door, pistol in hand, ordered Blanchard to stand up. His hands were then pin- ioned behind his back with handcuffs, and he was ordered to sit down, and shackles were then riveted to his legs just above the ankle. In this condition he lay on the bare bench of his cell all night. The following morning, on the arrival of the Federal officer and the captain of the vessel, the shackles were taken off, but the officer refused to take off the handcuffs, for the reason that he had received a telegram from the commanding officer at Chicago to keep the prisoner handcuffed.

At about ID o'clock the same day, under the escort of a company of infantry, Blanchard was taken to the United States Court to give testimony in regard to the assistance rendered to him by the captain of the vessel. It is needless to say that his testimony secured the honorable discharge of the captain, who, in solemn earnestness, im- plored the judges to have the handcuffs removed from the youth. The court, however, disclaimed jurisdiction in the matter, and Blan- chard was brought back to Chicago in handcuffs. Here he was in- carcerated in the celebrated White Oak dungeon, in Camp Douglas, where he remained for some forty days.

Immediately after his liberation from the dungeon he set to work to escape again, and on the fifth day thereafter he proposed to make