Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Chapter ll of AARON BURR by Milton Lomask

THE TRIAL AT RICHMOND BEGINS


Burr, an the time of his disappearance into the piney
woods and red clay hills of western Mississippi, was "disguised," according to Wilkinson, "in an old blanket coat begirt with a leathern strap, to which a tin cup was suspended on the left and a scalping knife on the right." Squinched on his head was a weather-stained beaver, whose broad brim, even when deliberately pulled down, failed to extinguish the luster of his dark eyes. When on the night of 18 February, in the village of Wakefield near the Tombigbee River, he and Major Ashley paused to ask directions to the farmhouse of a Colonel Hinson, the eyes gave him away. Nicholas Perkins, who supplied the requested information, was a backwoods attorney, currently eking out a living as head of the Federal Land Office in Mississippi Territory. Perkins had read the governor's proclamation offering a reward of $2000 for the seizure of the former Vice President. He remembered the description in it, the statement that the eyes of the wanted man "sparkled like diamonds." The minute Burr and his companion moved on, Perkins made haste to rouse Sheriff Theodore Brightwell from his bed. Soon the two of them were riding in the wake of the strangers. Reaching the Hinson place about eleven o'clock, they halted at the gate for a conference. It had occurred to Perkins that Burr, recognizing him, might take alarm and escape. He proposed to post himself in the
woods near the farmhouse, while Brightwell went in, confirmed the identity of the man with unusual eyes, and then slipped out to make his report. But once inside, for reasons never revealed, the sheriff stayed where he was and Perkins, after an hour or so of shivering in the bitter cold of the night, resolved to act on his own!

HEY YA'LL,

We gotta an incredible opportunity to focus public attention upon Alabama History.

February 19, 2007 marks the 200th anniversary of Aaron Burr's arrest in present-day Alabama.

Please check all this out and try to help THE BICENTENNIAL REENACTMENT OF AARON BURR'S ARREST IN ALABAMA ON FEBRUARY 19, 1807! http://www.aaronburrassociation.org/


bEST,
RR HTTP://ATLASOFALABAMA.BLOGSPOT.COM

HTTP://MYSPACE.COM/PAULBEARBRYANT

HTTP://MYSPACE.COM/ROBERTOREG

HTTP://SNAKEDOCTOR.BLOGSPOT.COM

Sunday, October 01, 2006

Pete:
I left three books on the shelf tonight and I couldn't get Abernathy's article from the Feb. '49 Journal of Southern History. It's in storage so I'll have to request it tomorrow.

I got Wheelan's book. Brand spanking new copy and I'm the first person to check it out.

I also got three other books:

Aaron Burr : Portrait of An Ambitious Man by Parmet & Hecht (1967)

Aaron Burr: The Proud Pretender by Holmes Alexander (1937)

Aaron Burr: The Conspiracy and Years of Exile 1805-1836 by Milton Lomask (1982)

What I really want to do right now is go back on the Net and outline Great Grandson James Wilkinson's defense of General James Wilkinson http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/America/United_States/Louisiana/_Texts/LHQ/1/2/Wilkinson/2*.html

I also plan to ask for some assistance tonight from folks who might be interested in producing THE BICENTENNIAL REENACTMENT OF AARON BURR'S 1807 ARREST IN PRESENT-DAY ALABAMA.

Thanks for the reference. I already love Wheelan's JEFFERSON'S VENDETTA, especially what Burr said in 1836 when he first heard about Texas Independence:

THERE!
YOU SEE!

I WAS RIGHT!!!!

I was only thirty years too soon.
What was treason in me thirty years ago,
is patriotism now.

Best,

RR http://atlasofalabama.blogspot.com
http://myspace.com/paulbearbryant
http://snakedoctor.blogspot.com