We have recorded a few, among many, of the crimes and outrages that were daily committed in Bannack. The account is purposely literal and exact. It is not pleasant to write of blasphemous and indecent language, or to record foul and horrible crimes; but as the anatomist must not shrink from the corpse, which taints the air, as he investigates the symptoms and examines the results of disease, so, the historian must either tell the truth for the instruction of mankind, or sink to the level of a mercenary pander, who writes, not to inform the people, but to enrich himself.
CHAPTER IX.
PERILS OF THE ROAD.
“I’ll read you matter deep and dangerous,
As full of peril and adventurous spirit,
As to o’erwalk a current, roaring loud,
On the unsteadfast footing of a spear.”—Shak.
On the 14th day of November, 1863, Sam. T. Hauser, and N. P. Langford started for the States, in company with seven or eight freighters. Owing to some delay in their preparations, they were not ready to start at the hour proposed (twelve o’clock P. M.) and after considerable urging, they prevailed upon one of the freighters to delay his departure till five o’clock P. M. representing to him that by driving during part of the night, they would be enabled to overtake the rest of the train at Horse Prairie, where they were to camp for the night. These arrangements were all made at the store of George Chrisman, where Plummer had his office, and consequently their plans for departure were all known to this arch-villain.
During that afternoon, it was reported in Bannack that a silver lode had been discovered, and Plummer, whose residence in Nevada had given him some reputation as a judge of silver ores, was requested to go out and examine it. Plummer had, on several occasions, been sent for to go out and make minute examinations, and it had never been surmised that his errands on these occasions were different from what they purported to be. This notice to Plummer that a “silver lode” had been discovered, was the signal that the occasion demanded the presence of the chief of the gang, who was needed to head some marauding expedition that required a skillful leader, and promised a rich booty as the reward of success. Plummer always obeyed it, and in this instance, left Bannack a little while after noon, taking a northerly direction, towards Rattlesnake; but, after getting out of town, he changed his course and went south, towards Horse Prairie.
Before leaving Bannack, he presented Mr. Hauser with a woolen scarf, telling him that he would “find it useful on the journey these cold nights.”
The two gentlemen did not complete their arrangements for starting till half past seven in the evening; and, as they were about leaving Hauser’s cabin, a splash, caused by the fall of some heavy body in the water, and calls for assistance were heard from the brow of the hill, south of Bannack. Upon going to the spot, it was found that Henry Tilden, in attempting to cross the Bannack Ditch, had missed the bridge, and his horse had fallen upon him in the water. On being relieved from his dangerous situation, he went to the house of Judge (now Governor) Edgerton, and reported that he had been robbed by three men—one of whom was Plummer—between Horse Prairie and Bannack. After he had detailed the circumstances, the greatest anxiety was felt for the safety of Messrs. Langford and Hauser, who, it was generally supposed had started at five o’clock on the same road.
The unconscious wayfarers, however, knew nothing of the matter, but they were, nevertheless, on the alert all the time. Hauser had that morning communicated to his friend Langford, his suspicion that they were being watched, and would be followed by the road agents, with the intention of plundering them, and while Langford was loading his gun with twelve revolver balls in each barrel, George Dart asked him why he was “filling the gun-barrel so full of lead;” to which Langford replied, that if they had any trouble with the road agents, it would be on that night. So well satisfied were they that an attack upon them, was contemplated, that they carried their guns in their hands, ready cocked, throughout the whole journey to Horse Prairie, a distance of twelve miles, but they saw nothing of the ruffians who robbed young Tilden.
It is supposed that Plummer and his gang had concluded that the non-appearance of the party was owing to the knowledge of what had happened in the afternoon, and that they were not coming out at all, that night. This is the more probable, from the fact that Tilden arrived home in time to have communicated the story of his robbery to them before they started, and the freighter with whom they took passage had told them that morning, in the presence of Plummer, that he would leave them behind if they were not ready to start by five o’clock P. M. It is not to be thought that Plummer would have risked a chance of missing them, by robbing Tilden of so small an amount as $10, unless he had felt sure that they would start at the time proposed. It is also likely that, as his intended victims did not make their appearance, he feared that the citizens of Bannack might turn out in search of the Road Agents who had attacked Tilden, and that it would be prudent to return home by a circuitous route, which he did. One thing is certain. When they missed them, Plummer went, in hot haste, to Langford’s boarding house, to inquire whether he was gone, and on receiving an answer in the affirmative, rode off at once in pursuit.
In the wagon with Langford and Hauser, was a third passenger—a stranger to the rest of the party—who had sent forward his blankets by one of the vehicles which left at noon, and on his arrival at camp, he found them appropriated by some of the party, who had given up all ideas of seeing the others before morning, and had laid down for the night.