go over to Daniel Brown’s, about a mile and get some bread and meat
for us all. Pool and Stoughton objected, and said, “there is plenty of
green corn in the field; let us make a fire and roast some of the ears
and eat here.” I then objected, and told them that if Harvey discovered
a smoke in the house he would take the hint, and give the alarm, and
that we should have the whole of Black and Red Creek down upon us. They
still persisted, and Stoughton went into the field, gathered about
twenty ears of the best and greenest corn and brought them into the
house. Pool went out and brought in a load of wood and made a large
fire and they roasted their corn.
That was precisely what betrayed us—the smoke issuing from the chimney
of the house.
After the corn was roasted, we all eat heartily; John Copeland was
on guard; Pool took his place, and John came in and eat. A little
before sunset it was Stoughton’s time to relieve Pool. My brother John
proposed to Stoughton to let him relieve Pool, and for Stoughton to
take the next watch around the house. So it was agreed, and Pool came
to the house.
PRESENTIMENT OF POOL’S DEATH.
Awhile after sunset, Stoughton, Pool and I were sitting on the gallery,
talking very low, about the way we should have to manage. We were
fearful Harvey was not at home, or had left the country. Some of us
were eating figs and some eating peaches. All of a sudden our attention
was arrested by a large white fowl, which passed through the yard some
fifteen or twenty yards from us. It was a kind of fowl that I had never
seen before, nor had either of my comrades, as they asserted. It walked
some ten or fifteen yards; we rose to get a more minute view, and it
took flight and ascended, until we lost sight of it in the distance.
This seemed to strike Pool with terror and amazement, and he reflected
a few minutes and said, “Boys, I shall be a dead man before to-morrow
night! That is an omen of my death!”
Stoughton laughed and said to Pool, that if he was a dead man he would
make a very noisy corpse; but Pool still insisted that it was a signal
of his death, and urged hard that we should leave that place, and
retire to one more secluded. “I did wrong,” said he, “in making fire in
the house.” We tried to laugh him out of his predictions, but all to no
purpose; and sure enough, as he had conjectured, before the next night
he was a corpse.
[Illustration: THE FAMOUS HARVEY BATTLE.—[See page 103.]
Just before dark, Stoughton went to where brother John was stationed,
and they both remained until after dark; they then came up to the
house, and Stoughton mounted guard. All this time Pool appeared to
be in a deep study and had nothing to say, appeared dejected and low
spirited. We all laid down, except Stoughton, to try to sleep; I
could see Pool and John; they could not sleep. The moon rose two or
three hours before day, and I got into a doze several times and each
time the most huge serpents would be after me, that I ever beheld. This
would waken me, and finally I got up and walked about; I found Pool was
up. Stoughton said he could not sleep, and brother John got up and said
he could not sleep. We then consulted together and Pool was for leaving
the place before day. Stoughton objected, and said, “Let’s wait until
eight or nine o’clock in the morning; after Harvey gets his breakfast
he may come to the orchard for fruit. If he does not come by this time,
we may leave.”
Daylight made its appearance not long after that, and shortly after the
sun rose, and poor Pool said after the sun had risen above the horizon:
“How beautiful the sun looks this morning; the sky looks so pure, clear
and serene!” Poor fellow! It was the last sun that he ever beheld
encircling this earth.
THE FAMOUS HARVEY BATTLE.
The time passed on until between eight or nine o’clock. We were all out
in the yard, eating figs and peaches; John Copeland all at once cried
out: “Boys, there comes a young army of Black Creek men!” We all dodged
into the house. Pool seized his gun, and says, “boys take your guns!” I
said to him, “they will not trouble us; they are a company out hunting,
and are coming in here for figs and water melons and other fruit; they
are not in pursuit of us!” “Yes they are,” said Pool, “and I will sell
my life as dear as I can!” So saying he cocked both barrels of his gun
and pistol and eased his bowie knife in the sheath.
We had given no instructions, only to be silent and remain still. They
seemed to separate and go in different directions. On coming near the
house, some one of their company hailed to the balance, “come on, boys,
here they are!” “There!” said Pool, “I told you so.” So soon as we
heard this, we knew that we had been discovered, and that it was to
kill or be killed.
I made my escape out of the house the first opportunity I saw, dodged
around a big fig tree, and looked back a moment at the house. Pool was
standing in the door with his gun at a poise. Harvey came round the
corner of the house, on Pool’s right, and jumped into the gallery;
Pool immediately fired, and struck Harvey in the left side. Harvey
immediately squared himself and shot the contents of his whole load in
Pool’s side, and fell on the gallery. Pool stepped into the yard, and
another man shot him in the breast, and he immediately fell dead.
At this moment Stoughton and John Copeland jumped out of the door and
ran; I wheeled immediately as the crowd rushed around the house, and
ran. At the report of the next gun, the shot whistled all around my
head, I then heard several guns. It appeared to me there must have been
five hundred at that moment; and I have no doubt that I made the best
running there that I ever made in my life before. In fact, it seemed to
me that it was no trouble, that I never touched the ground, but flew
over it.
After I had got a sufficient distance from the place, and found I was
not pursued by any of their party, I stopped to reflect to myself, and
wondered what had become of Stoughton and my bother John. Pool, I knew,
must be dead, for I saw him fall, and the blood gush from the wound. I
felt almost certain that Stoughton and my brother John were both killed
also, from the number of guns I heard fired, as I thought.
It was then that I more seriously meditated on my situation than I
ever had done before, and wondered to myself what I should do for the
best. I felt very sad, and thanked my God for my providential escape,
believing that all the rest of my comrades were in eternity. But
after I had thus meditated and reflected upon the past, I felt that I
deserved death, when all my crimes again stared me full in the face. I
then formed a stern resolution within my own breast, that if God would
permit me ever again to reach my home, that I would refrain from all my
evil ways, and become a Christian, believing that God had been merciful
to me, in preserving me, and hurling my comrades and associates into
another world.
After a while I became more collected and concluded I would go over to
Daniel Brown’s, who, I knew, did not live far from that place. I had
been there but a short time when my brother John came up, bare-headed,
and mud above his knees, where he had run through a muddy reed-brake.
He called me to one side, and in a few words he told me that Stoughton
was not killed, but Pool was, and that our enemies had left there. He
saw them carrying Harvey away, and he thought Harvey was dead; that we
had better go over and do something with Pool and get Stoughton, and
leave.
This was on Sunday, the 15th of July, 1848. Several persons had
accidently happened in at Brown’s that day. I went into the house and
told the company what had happened over to the other house, since I
left; that there had been some shooting done, and that Pool was killed,
and I expected Harvey was; that we were on our way to Honey Island, and
stopped there for the night; and that I had come over to Brown’s to get
some bread baked, and that it had all occurred since I left; and that I
would like to go over and do something with Pool, and see if Stoughton
was killed. A number of persons went with us to the place, some ladies
among the rest. When we got there we found Pool lying dead. We laid him
straight on his back. I recollected that he had some money, and I soon
sounded his pockets, and obtained one hundred and twenty dollars of the
money I had given him. There was a five dollar gold piece missing. I
took all he had. As he had other means, I knew that the money would do
him no good then. I went into the house and got John Copeland’s hat,
and went down to the side of the swamp and called Stoughton, and he
came out. We were then all together again, except Pool.
We gathered our guns, returned to Brown’s, eat dinner, and left for
home. But in the affray I had lost my memorandum book, and in that book
was the diagram or map and directions where to find the money which
belonged to Wages, McGrath and myself; I hunted for it diligently, but
could not find it. It certainly went in a very mysterious way, and I
have often since thought that the decree of Justice forbid me enjoying
that money.
After we left Brown’s that day, we traveled on the same route we had
come. We slept in the woods that night, and next day we got something
to eat at Peter Fairley’s, and so continued our journey on home, where
we arrived on Sunday, the 22d of July, having been gone just fourteen
days. When we arrived, old Wages was highly pleased that Harvey was
killed, and he and the old lady very promptly settled with us. He paid
us off with his place on Big Creek, in part, and the balance in hogs,
cattle, pony horses, carts and farming tools and utensils. My father
and mother, with the family, removed to the place.
In a very little while after that, the times began to be very squally.
Old Wages and his wife had to pull up stakes, take their negroes and
leave the country, at a great sacrifice of their property. I was
already an outlaw; my brother John now became one with me. Stoughton,
like a fool, as he was, took a yoke of oxen, or some cattle, which
he had received from Wages in part pay for his services, to Mobile
for sale. While there, he was arrested and put in jail, under the
requisition of the Governor of Mississippi, and conveyed from Mobile
to Perry county, where he was tried and convicted twice. The first
conviction was reversed by the Appellate Court, and while in prison,
waiting a second hearing, he died. So went another of our clan to
eternity.
I still continued laying out and hiding myself from place to place,
fully intending to leave the country just as soon as I could settle my
business; and I even made several appointments of times that I would
go, but some way, or somehow, there appeared to be a supernatural power
which controlled my every action, and I could not leave the vicinity of
Mobile.
During that fall and winter my brother John and I made two trips from
Big Creek to Catahoula to hunt for that money, and the last trip we
made I was prepared to leave. Brother John had left the principal part
of his money at home, and had to go back after it, and he prevailed
on me to go with him. We returned to the vicinity of Mobile, where I
loitered away my time for some month or two, and it seemed that my mind
in some way became confused and impaired, and I took to drinking too
much spiritous liquors. One day, some time in the spring of 1849, my
brothers John, Thomas, Isham or Whinn, and I were at a little grocery
store near Dog river, about twelve miles from Mobile. I drank too much
spirits and became intoxicated, and in that situation I imagined every
man I saw was trying to arrest me. I fell in with a man by the name of
Smith, an Irishman, and a difficulty occurred between us; I concluded
that he intended to arrest me. I drew my double-barrel shot gun upon
him and intended to kill him. He was too quick for me; he threw up
my gun, drew his dirk and stabbed me just above the collar bone. The
wound did not quite penetrate the cavity of the chest, or it would have
killed me; I threw down my gun and ran about two hundred yards and
fainted. My brothers then carried me about two miles, and one of them
went home and got a carriage and took me home. Smith went to Mobile and
told the news. A party came out and tracked me up by the blood, and
arrested and carried me to Mobile jail.
I was now in the worst situation I ever was in in my life. One
indictment against me in Alabama for larceny, and another against me
in Mississippi for murder, and the requisition of the Governor of
Mississippi then in the hands of the officer to carry me there to be
tried. The question was which trial to avoid; if found guilty, as I
felt certain I would be, in both cases, one would be the penitentiary
for not less than four years, and the other would be hanging. I
employed the best counsel that could be procured in Mobile, and on
consulting with him and making him fully acquainted with all the facts,
he advised me to plead guilty of the larceny and go to the penitentiary
of Alabama; “for,” said he, “you may stand some chance after your
four years are out to make your escape from the clutches of the law
in Mississippi. They may not think to file their requisition with the
Governor of Alabama in time, and in that event, when your time expires,
you will be let loose.”
My trial came on before my wound was near well, and I was brought into
court and arraigned, and the indictment read to me in open court. When
asked “are you guilty or not guilty?” I plead guilty, after which
my counsel addressed the court and prayed its indulgence in passing
sentence, and that the term of punishment be made as short as the law
would permit, which was accordingly done, and sentence of four years at
hard labor in the penitentiary of Alabama was passed upon me.
I accordingly served out my four years at Wetumpka, Ala., and all to
avoid going to Mississippi to be tried for the murder of Harvey.
However, I did not evade the rigor of the laws of Mississippi. The
vigilance of the Sheriff of Perry county threw a guard around me, that
secured to him the possession of my person at the expiration of my time
in the penitentiary of Alabama, and he immediately transferred me to
the county jail of Perry county, Mississippi.
I remained in the jail of Perry and Covington counties upward of two
years before I had a trial. I was found guilty of murder; and the
sentence of death was passed upon me, and the day appointed for my
execution. Within eight days of the time the Sheriff informed me that
my time was only eight days, and that my rope, shroud and burial
clothes were all ready. He then read to me the death warrant! My tongue
nor pen cannot express my feelings on that occasion during that day and
night. However, to my great joy, the next morning he brought me the
glorious news that the clerk of the court had received a supersedeas
and order to respite my execution, and carry my case to the High Court
of Errors and Appeals.
I cannot express my joyful feelings on receiving this intelligence.
It removed that cloud of horror and despair, which was lowering upon
and around me, and renovated anew my whole soul. It was to me as a
refulgent light from the sun of heaven cast upon the dark and gloomy
vale; but, alas, how ephemeral that sunshine of joy and bliss! That
fickle dame, Fortune, upon whose wheel I had so successfully floated in
former days, finally brought me to the same point where I started.
I was, therefore, conveyed from the Perry county jail to the State
penitentiary at Jackson, to await there a hearing of my case in the
High Court of Errors and Appeals, and remained there about two years.
In the meanwhile my case was argued before this Court, and the judgment
reversed, and the cause remanded for further proceedings in the Circuit
Court of Perry county.
TRIAL OF JAMES COPELAND.
TRANSCRIPT OF THE JUDICIAL PROCEEDINGS.
At the September term of said Court, in the year A. D. 1857, on
Wednesday of the term, it being the 16th day of the month, James
Copeland was taken to the Bar of the Court and arraigned upon an
indictment, found by the following Grand Jury at the March term,
1857, to-wit: John McCallum, Lemuel Strahan, John W. Carter, Allen
Travis, Lewis H. Watts, James Chappell, G. W. Rawls, Wm. Jenkins,
Peter McDonald, Malachi Odom, Joseph G. Young, James M. Bradler, Sr.,
Stephen Smith, Wm. Hinton, Edmund Merritt, Sidney Hinton, Joseph T.
Breeland, Henry Dearman, Lorenzo Batson and John Fairley, Foreman—which
indictment was as follows:
STATE OF MISSISSIPPI, }
PERRY COUNTY. }
_In the Circuit Court of Perry County—At March Term, 1857._
The Grand Jurors for the State of Mississippi, summoned, empanneled,
sworn, and charged to inquire in and for the State of Mississippi, and
in and for the body of the county of Perry, upon their oath, present,
that James Copeland, late of said county, on the 15th day of July, Anno
Domini, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, with force and arms
in the county of Perry aforesaid, in upon one James A. Harvey, then
and there being in the peace of God and the said State of Mississippi,
feloniously, wilfully and of his malice aforethought, did make an
assault; and that the said James Copeland, a certain shot gun, then
and there loaded and charged with gun powder and divers leaden shot,
which shot gun, so loaded and charged he, the said James Copeland, in
both his hands, then and there, had and held, to, at, against and upon
the said James A. Harvey, then and there feloniously, wilfully and of
the malice aforethought of him, the said James Copeland, did shoot
off, and discharge; and that the said James Copeland, with the leaden
aforesaid, out of the shot gun aforesaid, then and there by force of
the gun powder, shot and sent forth as aforesaid, the said James A.
Harvey, in and upon the left side of him the said James A. Harvey, then
and there feloniously, wilfully and of the malice aforethought of him,
the said James Copeland, did strike, penetrate and wound, giving to
the said James A. Harvey, then and there, with the leaden shot so as
aforesaid, discharged and sent forth, out of the shot gun aforesaid,
by the said James Copeland, in and upon the left side of him, the said
James A. Harvey, a little below the left shoulder of him the said James
A. Harvey, divers mortal wounds of the depth of three inches, and of
the breadth of one quarter of an inch, of which the said mortal wounds,
the said James A. Harvey, from the fifteenth day of July in the year
aforesaid, until the twenty-fifth day of July in the year aforesaid,
languished, and languishing did live; on which said twenty-fifth day
of July in the year aforesaid, the said James A. Harvey in the county
of Perry aforesaid, of the mortal wounds aforesaid, died; and the
jurors aforesaid, upon their oaths aforesaid, do further present, that
John Copeland, late of the county aforesaid, on the day and year first
aforesaid, in the county of Perry aforesaid, feloniously, wilfully and
of his malice aforethought, was present, aiding, abetting and assisting
the said James Copeland the felony and murder aforesaid to do and
commit; and the jurors aforesaid upon their oath aforesaid do say, that
the said James Copeland and John Copeland him the said James A. Harvey,
in manner and form aforesaid, feloniously, wilfully and of their
malice aforethought did kill and murder, against the peace and dignity
of the State of Mississippi.
GEORGE WOOD, _District Attorney_.
Upon this indictment was indorsed “A true bill signed, John Fairley,
foreman.”
At the September Term the following proceedings were had in the case:
“Be it remembered that there was begun and held a regular Term of the
Circuit Court in and for the county of Perry and State of Mississippi,
at the Court House of said county, in the town of Augusta, the place
designated by law for holding said court, on the second Monday of
September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and
fifty-seven, it being the 14th day of said month, present the Hon.
W. M. Hancock, presiding Judge of the 8th Judicial District of
Mississippi, George Wood, Esq., District Attorney for the said 8th
Judicial District, James R. S. Pitts, Sheriff of Perry county and James
Carpenter, Clerk of said Court.”
STATE OF MISSISSIPPI, }
_vs._ } MURDER.
JAMES COPELAND. }
This day comes George Wood, District Attorney, who prosecutes for the
State of Mississippi, and the prisoner is brought to the bar in custody
of the Sheriff, and upon notice of the District Attorney, a special
venue for thirty-six free-holders, or house holders, of Perry county,
and liable to jury service therein, ordered returnable to-morrow
morning, at 8 o’clock; the prisoner, in his own proper person, waiving
two days’ service of a list thereof and a copy of the indictment,
consenting that it be returned at said time; and upon suggestion
that the prisoner is insane, it is ordered that the Sheriff of Perry
county summons twelve good and lawful men of said county, to be and
appear before said Court on Tuesday morning at 8 o’clock A.M., to take
inquisition as to the case of lunacy, and try whether the prisoner be
of sound mind and understanding.
TUESDAY MORNING, 8 O’CLOCK.
Court met pursuant to adjournment. Present as on yesterday.
STATE OF MISSISSIPPI, }
_vs._ } MURDER.
JAMES COPELAND. }
This day comes George Wood, the District Attorney, who prosecutes for
the State of Mississippi, and the prisoner is brought to the bar, in
custody of the Sheriff, whereupon comes a jury of good and lawful men,
to wit: Porter J. Myers, Malachi Odom, Sr., J. M. Bradley, Jr., Darling
Lott, Malcolm McCallum, Angus McSwain, Q. A. Bradley, J. M. Bradley,
Sr., Wm. H. Nicols, W. C. Griffin, D. S. Sapp and James Edwards, who
are regularly summoned, elected and sworn, and well and truly to try
an issue joined, ore tenus, whether or not the prisoner be of sound
mind, and whether he possesses sufficient intellect to comprehend
the cause of the proceedings on the trial, so as to be able to make
a proper defense; or whether the appearance of insanity, if any such
be proven, is feigned or not; and the evidence having been submitted
to them in the presence of the prisoner, they retired to consider of
their verdict, and in his presence returned the following, to-wit:
“We, the jury, on our oaths, find the prisoner sane; that he possesses
sufficient intellect to comprehend the cause of the prosecution on
the trial, so as to be able to make a proper defense, and that the
appearance of insanity which he has exhibited, is feigned.”
And thereupon the prisoner is arraigned on the charge of murder,
as preferred by the bill of indictment; and upon said arraignment,
says that he is not guilty in manner and form as therein and thereby
charged, and for the truth of said plea he puts himself upon the
country; and the District Attorney in behalf of the State of
Mississippi doeth the like.
And thereon come the following good and lawful men of Perry county,
to-wit: Zebulon Hollingsworth, J. J. Bradley, John A. Carnes, Francis
A. Allen, Wm. W. Dunn, Adam Laird, who were regularly summoned on the
special venue returned in this case, and who in the presence of the
prisoner are regularly tried and chosen between the prisoner and the
State; and the special venue being exhausted the Sheriff proceeded
to call the regular jurors in attendance at this term, and Daniel S.
Sapp, Seaborne Hollingsworth and Francis Martin were in the presence
of the prisoner tried, and chosen between the State and the prisoner;
and the regular jury being exhausted, the Sheriff is directed to summon
thirteen bystanders as jurors, and from the number so summoned as
last aforesaid, Milton J. Albritton was in presence of the prisoner
duly tried and chosen between the State and the prisoner; and the
said thirteen persons so last summoned being exhausted, it is ordered
that a venue issue, commanding the Sheriff to summon twenty good and
lawful men of Perry county, to be and appear before the court to-morrow
morning at 8 o’clock, A. M., to serve as jurors in the trial of the
issue aforesaid, and the prisoner is remanded to jail, and John W.
Carter is sworn as bailiff to take charge of the jury.
WEDNESDAY MORNING, 8 O’CLOCK, SEPTEMBER 16, 1857.
STATE OF MISSISSIPPI, }
_vs._ } MURDER.
JAMES COPELAND. }