CHAPTER XXXIV.
THE MURDER OF CAPTAIN SPEAR.
The voyage of the _Octavia_ in the summer of 1867 was one of the most successful and important in all Captain La Barge’s career on the river. It was unhappily marred by a most revolting crime, committed on board, but in other respects passed off without any untoward incident. Its narrative will be presented in the Captain’s own words.
“Early in the spring of 1867 I started in the Weston and St. Joseph trade, and about April 1 advertised for a trip to Benton. Business on the river seemed rather dull at this time, and people ridiculed me for attempting a trip. But within two weeks my boat was filled; in fact it was the largest trip I ever had up the river. I remember that one morning, about two days prior to our departure. Captain Walker S. Carter, a merchant of St. Louis, who was on the levee, said to me, ‘Have you got a trip?’ I replied, ‘More than I can carry.’ ‘It is astonishing,’ said he. ‘Anybody else than you could not have got half a trip.’ ‘That shows the value of a reputation,’ I replied.
“This trip of the _Octavia_ was a very profitable one. The cargo was composed entirely of private freight, Mr. W. M. McPherson having been the successful bidder for government contracts. I had freight for nearly every firm in Helena, besides a good list of passengers, among whom was Green Clay Smith, newly appointed Governor of Montana, and also the Surveyor General for the same Territory, Thomas E. Tutt, now of the Third National of St. Louis, and Robert Donnell, now a New York banker.
[Sidenote: GENERAL SHERMAN.]
[Sidenote: THE MCPHERSON CONTRACT.]
[Sidenote: THE SHERMAN CONTRACT.]
“An interesting incident took place just before the departure of the boat in which no less a personage than General Sherman was concerned. Colonel Thomas, Sherman’s Quartermaster, had contracted with W. M. McPherson, as I have said, for all the season’s business up the Missouri River. The _Octavia_ was to leave port on Tuesday, and on the Saturday previous General Smith came on board and said to me, ‘Did I not understand you to say that you had no government freight or troops to transport this year?’ I answered in the affirmative--that McPherson had the contract, and I would not carry for him. ‘Well,’ returned General Smith, ‘I am just from General Sherman, where I went to apply for an escort. I was told by the General that I would not need one, for he was going to send a hundred men by the _Octavia_ to Camp Cook, near the mouth of the Judith River, under Lieutenant Horrigan.’ To confirm his statement he showed me a dispatch that he had just sent to Omaha to have the men all ready, so as not to detain the boat beyond a few minutes. This was a good deal of a surprise to me, as I had had no intimation of such action, and had my boat about full. I told Smith I would go and see Sherman about it, and did so at once. I found the General in his office, and before I could tell him my business he said, ‘I know what you want,’ and he took down his dispatch book to show me that he had taken all precautions not to cause me any delay. ‘But that is not the question, General,’ I said; ‘I cannot take the troops.’ ‘Ah! that alters the case. Haven’t you room?’ I replied that I could probably make room, but understood that this shipment was under the McPherson contract. The General said it was. ‘Well then,’ I said, ‘I will not carry them, for I will not work for McPherson.’ The General asked my reasons. ‘Because McPherson will not pay enough for the work,’ I said. ‘He gets a good price from the government, but the poor steamboat man who does the work gets nothing for it. For example, he gets fifty dollars per man to haul the troops to Camp Cook. He will pay me fifteen and pocket thirty-five, and do no work nor take any risk. I will not work for him on such terms.’ ‘I think you are perfectly right,’ said the General. ‘In your place I would do the same thing. But you will carry the troops up for General Sherman?’ I replied that I would if he would contract with me individually and directly and pay me the McPherson rates. ‘That’s fair,’ said he, and he called in Thomas and told him to draw up a contract. ‘Well,’ said Thomas, ‘this work is for McPherson to do under our contract with him. If you pay La Barge you will also have to pay McPherson.’ Thomas wanted to argue the matter, but Sherman shut him off by saying, ‘It’s no use, Thomas; you just draw up that contract as I tell you to.’ And he did.
[Sidenote: CAPTAIN SPEAR SHOT.]
“The _Octavia_ left St. Louis Tuesday, May 7, 1867, on the most important trip I ever made up the river. There were no incidents of note until the boat reached Omaha, where the troops were taken on board. We also received at this point a passenger in the person of a Captain W. D. Spear, 79th Royal Rifles, an officer of the British Army, on furlough from India. He was on his way to Salt Lake _via_ the Missouri River, and was going thence to California. He seemed to be a man of means. This embarkation of the troops and of this officer was the prelude to one of the most distressing tragedies that ever occurred on the Missouri River. The troops were mostly Irish Fenians, and the Lieutenant in charge was an Irishman, all intensely hostile to the English. This fact may in part explain what subsequently transpired. Spear himself felt doubts for his safety, and one day remarked to me that he would be lucky if he got out of this scrape without accident. I did not know what he meant, for he was a very fearless man, going on shore frequently in spite of danger from the Indians. Just after midnight of the 7th of June, or more precisely about 12.30 A. M. June 8, as Captain Spear and Joseph C. La Barge, my son, were going up the steps to the hurricane deck, Captain Spear being a little ahead, a sentinel, William Barry, stationed near there, fired at Captain Spear, the bullet passing through his head at the base of the brain and killing him instantly. The following day an inquest was held by a committee of the passengers consisting of Thomas E. Tutt, Green Clay Smith, Sam McLean, Richard Leach, T. H. Eastman, Geo. W. McLean, and W. J. McCormick, Secretary. Several of the passengers and crew were sworn and their testimony taken. No motive could be discovered for the deed. The sentinel’s orders required him to challenge only parties approaching the boat from the shore, and it was expressly agreed with me, by Lieutenant Horrigan, as a condition of permitting sentinels to be posted on the hurricane deck, that they should not interfere in any way with the passengers. The finding of the committee was that “the shooting was not in accordance with any instructions given to said sentinel, and that he deserves the most rigid punishment known to the law.” There was indeed a strong sentiment among the passengers in favor of lynching him, but the military could easily have prevented it, and everyone believed that he would meet with due punishment in regular order. The sentinel was of course at once relieved from duty and placed under arrest.
[Sidenote: NEW METHOD OF EMBALMING.]
“Our trip up the river was a dangerous one, owing to the intense hostility of the Indians, but by taking great precautions no accidents happened. I put off the remains of Captain Spear at Fort Buford to await my return. I asked the commanding officer if he could suggest any way of embalming the body. He advised the construction of a large box and the filling of it with green cottonwood sawdust. The experiment seemed to work well, although I had never heard of such a thing before. The post commander refused to receive the prisoner, who was taken on to Camp Cook. The commanding officer there refused to try him on the ground that the crime had been committed in Dakota. He held him for us to take back to Yankton.
“The troops were left at Camp Cook and the boat went on to Benton. I found many passengers for the down trip and great quantities of golddust. I filled the office safe and every other available receptacle with it. There were no incidents of especial importance on the return trip. The soldier, Barry, was taken down to Yankton and there turned over to the United States marshal, who held him until orders came from Washington for his release, when he was sent back to his company.
[Sidenote: TRIAL OF SPEARS MURDERER.]
“I took Captain Spear’s remains back to St. Louis, where I found telegrams directing the shipment of them to Europe. A Lieutenant Terry of Spear’s company came to St. Louis to get full particulars of the affair. I was then living with my family on the _Octavia_, and invited him to stay there with me. He did so, and I gave him as full an account as possible of Captain Spear’s death. When the news reached England that the assassin had been released without trial, the government promptly took up the matter and I understood that a demand was made upon our government through Minister Thornton for a civil trial of the soldier. This demand was complied with, and the man was tried before Judge Kidder at Vermillion, Dak. Myself and several others went up as witnesses. The evidence seemed to me overwhelmingly against the accused, there being nothing in his favor except his own statement that he acted in the line of his duty. The jury returned a verdict of not guilty, upon instructions from the judge that the man had simply obeyed his orders. They were given a verdict to sign written out by the judge, and thus the culprit escaped.
[Sidenote: TRAVESTY UPON JUSTICE.]
“To us who knew the facts, this travesty upon justice seemed the crowning outrage of the whole deplorable affair. Here was as deliberate, cold-blooded, and unprovoked a murder as the annals of crime afford, actuated unquestionably by the national hate of the murderer for the country of the victim. The crime was considered by the passengers as meriting the severest penalty of the law. The pretense that the sentinel acted under orders had not the remotest foundation, or if it had, it only made the officer _particeps criminis_. The final outcome was the grossest miscarriage of justice which even frontier annals afford, and it was unquestionably a justifiable ground for reprisal on the part of the British government. Let those who lament British obduracy in the case of Mrs. Maybrick ponder upon this far more lamentable case of the unavenged death of Captain Spear.
[Sidenote: PHENOMENAL SUCCESS.]
“Upon my return to St. Louis I called upon McCune, who advised me to attend promptly to my obligations for the construction of the boat, which had now about matured. He offered to help me get them renewed. I told him it was unnecessary, as I should take them all up and clear the debt off. He was greatly surprised and delighted at the success of my trip, which was indeed almost phenomenal. I made a clear profit of forty-five thousand dollars between May 7, the date of leaving St. Louis, and the date of my return. Yet it was a hard trip. The responsibility was very great. I was heavily in debt for my boat. I had on board three hundred passengers and three hundred tons of cargo. The difficulties of Missouri River navigation, the dangers from the Indians, and the many other contingencies of such a trip made it wearing in the extreme. Many boats that had set out weeks before us were passed on the way.[72] On the trip I was awake the greater part of the time night and day. I kept up all right and stood the strain so long as the excitement was on, but the moment we landed at Benton and I knew the danger was over, I went to sleep and instructed my wife not to awaken me even for meals. I slept almost continuously for twenty-four hours.”