Page:The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade.djvu/760

 Creek broke up in great confusion, its occupants flying in hot haste as the Lawrence forces approached. This fort was entered without resistance; large quantities of provisions and goods taken at Lawrence were recovered; the building was set on fire and entirely consumed. The next blow was struck at Col. Titus' fortified house, near Lecompton. Lecoinpton was the stronghold of the pro-slavery party. It was the capital of the territory, the headquarters of Governor Shannon, and within two miles of the house of Titus, a large force of United States dragoons was encamped. Captain Samuel Walker, a Pennsylvanian, commanded the attacking army. With about four hundred men and one brass six-pounder, he took up a position upon an elevated piece of ground near the house, soon after sunrise on the morning of the 16th of August. The fight, which was a spirited one, immediately commenced, and resulted in the capture of Titus, Capt. William Donaldson (who also had rendered himself notorious at the sacking of Lawrence and elsewhere), and of eighteen others. Five prisoners, previously taken by Titus' party, were released, one of whom had been sentenced to be shot that very day. One of his men was killed in this engagement, and several others wounded. Titus was shot in the shoulder and hand. Walker's cannon was loaded with slugs and balls cast from the type of the Herald of Freedom, fished out of the Kansas river, where it had been thrown on the day that Lawrence was sacked. Walker set fire to the house of Titus, which was completely destroyed, and carried his prisoners to Lawrence. On the nth of August, Governor Shannon, Dr. Rodrique, and Major Sedgwick visited Lawrence, as a committee from Lecompton, to make a treaty. It was agreed that no more arrests should be made of free state people under the territorial laws; that five free state men arrested after the attack on Franklin, should be set at liberty; and that the howitzer taken by Jones from Lawrence, should be restored. On the 11th, a shocking affair occured in the neighborhood of Leavenworth. Two ruffians sat at a table in a low groggery, imbibing potations of whiskey. One of them, named Fugert, belonging to Atchison's band, bet his companion six dollars against a pair of boots, that he would go out, and in less than two hours bring in the scalp of an abolitionist. He went into the road, and meeting a Mr. Hoppe, who was in his carriage, just returning to Leavenworth from a visit to Lawrence, where he had conveyed his wife, Fugert deliberately shot him; then taking out his bowie-knife, whilst his victim was still alive, he cut and tore off the scalp from his quivering head. Leaving the body of Hoppe lying in the road, he elevated his bloody trophy upon a pole, and paraded it" through the streets of Leavenworth. This murderer was afterwards arrested, tried before Judge Lecompte, and acquitted.

Governor Shannon receiving official notice of his removal, Secretary Woodson took charge of the government. He forthwith issued a proclamation, declaring the territory in a state of rebellion and insurrection, and called for help from Missouri, to drive out and exterminate the destroyers of the public peace. Atchison and Stringfellow soon responded to this call, and concentrated an army of eleven hundred men at Little Santa Fe, on the Missouri