"From Days of Reconstruction: Story of the Arrest and Prosecution of a North Carolina Sheriff in Trying Days" by Captain Ball 1910

 "From Days of Reconstruction: Story of the Arrest and Prosecution of a North Carolina Sheriff in Trying Days" by Captain Ball

"I am here enjoying the fine air and scenery of a most beautiful country. Keuka Lake is a gem among the smaller lakes of New York State. Wild Indian tribes formerly had uncontrolled possession and one can look out upon this charming lake and almost can hear their war-whoops and in imagination can see the canoes of the dusky warriors darting across its pellucid waters.

"All fighting men have some sort of a battle-cry. I do not think the war-whoop would disturb me very much, for I have often heard the rebel yell, which, although disagreeable, was not wholly effacing.

"I lived for twenty-five years among the people who had uttered it and found them with hatreds and affectations like other people. While living there, many things worth of notice and remembrance passed under my observation. I now recall the trial of a North Carolina sheriff by a military commission in Charleston.

"I was employed in the years 1867-8 in the services of the Second Military district, comprising the Carolinas, as assistant judge advocate of the district, under General Ed. R. S. Canby. I have never seen General Sickles but once and I am sure he never heard of me. So the silly story that I was his private secretary was a pure invention. (The insufferable meanness of stating as the truth what is not known to be true, for a supposed political benefit, is inconceivable to honest minds.) It would have been no disgrace, however, to have been private secretary to General Sickles, many of whose General orders have been retained in the statutes of North Carolina.

"My usual duties were to review the proceedings of all the military courts in the two States and to report to the commanding general, each morning, the cases passed upon the preceding day for his final action. The cases related almost entirely to the trial of soldiers for offenses against military law, and had nothing to do with the civil government of the two States.

"Complaint had been made to General Sickles before the commencement of the administration of General Canby, that excessive cruelty had been practiced upon one William M. Johnson, in North Carolina, by Jesse C. Griffith, sheriff of Caswell county. These charges had been put together by our old friend, Judge Touragee [sic], author of 'A Fool's Errand,' who wrote frequent letters of complaint to General Sickles, which were left over by the retiring officer to his successor, Col. Edgar W. Dennis, Judge Advocate of the Second Military District, soon after my arrival in Charleston August, 1867, directed me to review the written statements of Judge Tourgee, with a view to the prosecution of Griffith, if the evidence seemed to justify it. I perused the letters and Johnson's averments very carefully, and my judgment was against proceeding further. Col. Dennis seemed surprised at the conclusion reached, for he had been led to believe that the case was one of unmitigated harshness and cruelty. He gave to General Canby my verbal report, with the result that it was determined by the General and his judge advocate to thoroughly sift the matter. I was instructed to prepare charges and specifications.

"A military commission was organized, with General Robert O. Tyler as president and several officers of high rank as associates. General Canby appointed me special judge advocate of the court.

"Griffith was charged with 'Misconduct in Office,' and the specifications were to the effect that he, having charge of the jail wantonly, unnecessarily, maliciously and cruelly confined Johnson, who was committed to Griffith's custody by order of the Superior Court of Caswell county, under conviction of burglary, 'In an apartment other than that provided by law, to-wit, in an iron cage, nine feet square by six feet high," and that Griffith maltreated Johnson by binding him inside of the cage with an iron chain of about the length of six feet. It was charged that Johnson was confined in the cage 'without fire or sufficient clothing, or other means of warmth in the winter time,' and it was alleged as a reason that Johnson had deserted from the army of the so-called Confederate States, etc. The jail was in Yanceyville, the same time where John W. Stephens was afterward killed. (It will be remembered that Mr. Josiah Turner alleged in his complaint against Douglas, that he was confined in the room where Stephens had been made away with and was accused of murdering him.)

"Griffith was arrested and brought to Charleston for trial. He was a typical Southern back-county sheriff, a large man, more than six feet high, with broad shoulders, decidedly stooping, very strong with a shuffling gait and was clad in homespun, the product of his county. He wore an air of dogged determination, seeming to have braced himself for rough treatment.

"He came into the judge advocate's office in the Citadel, accompanied by Judge Thomas Settle, whom he had brought as a witness to his good character. This was the first time I had seen Judge Settle, a man whom all admired, even his enemies; and I then little thought he would afterward become my near neighbor, with premises adjoining. (Nor did I suppose I should ever live in the same neighborhood with Judge Tourgee, or ever see him).

"Griffith, being introduced, I inquired if he had counsel. Much to my disappointment he replied that he was too poor to employ a lawyer. As he had no one to help him it threw upon me the responsibility of seeing to his defence, that no injustice was done him. Had he been defended by an attorney, the easier task would have devolved upon me of presenting only one side - that of the prosecution.

"While it has nothing to do with my story, I hope it is not improper to say that I have served in very many cases as judge advocate, in the field, during the Civil War (in the Union army, of course), and had noticed that mere soldiers, without legal acquirements, when serving in such capacity, thought it their duty to convict and gave defendants no chance. This was contrary to my notion of the duties of the office and therefore I was always careful to acquaint myself with a prisoner's defense, so that it might be presented to the court for what it was worth.

"On this theory the trial went on. Griffith was treated as a man, which was so unexpected that the hard lines of his face relaxed and he breathed more freely. But indeed, he was in the hands of gentlemen of the very highest character for probity and intelligence; for where can be found better example of honor and just manhood than in the high grades of officers of the regular army of the United States?

"As the result of a faithful investigation Griffith was acquitted and General Canby, after reviewing personally all the evidence, approved the findings of the court, which he would not have done had they not satisfied him.

"I had little thought, when I met Griffith in Charleston that I should ever see him again; but at spring term 1869, of the Caswell Superior Court, he was in attendance and Judge Tourgee was presiding. Among the first to greet me was Griffith and without question he was glad to see me. His friendliness and unmistakable and was extended to me because, in Charleston I had treated him as man. His attentions were so profuse as to be embarrassing. He introduced me to every man we met and said for me a good word to every one, and of course he knew nearly all the men of his county. When I went into the bar, he made me known, with flattering mention, to the lawyers, among whom I recall Governor William A. Graham, Col. Thomas Ruffin, General Alfred M. Scales, Col. Junius I Scales, Hon. John Kerr, and that fine man, John H. Dillard, who for a wonder had no handle to his name but whose legal requirements were inferior to none. My old friend (as he latter became), J. R. Bulla, solicitor, was there with his kind, brown eyes and bushy eye-brows, his brain full of quaint conceits. Uncle Jimmy Morehead had come over from Greensboro by easy stages, driving his old sorrel horse (of the masculine gender, as I remember). Uncle Jimmy was not seeking employment, but came a veritable Nestor, among the moderns, because it was his habit, as every one knew.

"All of these good-hearted men have passed over the river and have received their reward; while I am left to tell the story to such persons as may desire to know it. Men come and go and their places are filled by other men; and so it will be to the end of time.

"In consequence of Sheriff's attentions, I was employed in enough cases to pay me well, without delay; and was also placed upon a pleasant footing with the gentlemen of the bar, who always afterward treated me with courtesy, although classing me with the carpet-baggers.

"While at Yanceyville, that week I visited the jail where Johnson had been confined, having some curiosity to see the spot about which so much had been said, and complaints concerning which had cost the government a good deal of money, in the trial of Griffith. The jail was dreary and desolate enough. The 'iron cage' was not iron at all, but woo. It was constructed of upright studding reaching from the floor to the ceiling. There were spaces between the timbers. This contrivance in the Yanceyville jail and other jails, was called a 'cage.' Into the 'cage' was always placed for safe-keeping prisoners under sentence of death, as Johnson was, having been convicted of burglary, which by the laws of North Carolina was a capital offence. Griffith, if a cruel man, was no more so than the laws themselves, and public usage. I have often wondered if Judge Tourgee ever went to see this cage, for he held court many times in Yanceyville and no doubt, being a capable man, he came to know the law. At any rate, Johnson was not hanged, but was released by orders from headquarters at Charleston.

"It is unlikely that Griffith did not sympathize with the Kuklux. The colored people of Caswell County say so, and some of them claim to have recognized his voice an his great feet, in some Kuklux raids. Indeed it would have been difficult for him to have disguised himself, for no Kuklux gown could have concealed his immense person, the shape of his stooping shoulders, his projecting neck and prodigious feet. If Griffith was elected sheriff time after time by Kuklux votes, in a Republican county, it would be no wonder if he served those who serve him. And so he, like others of his class, combined cruelty with kindness, and crime with gratitude.

"And for myself, I shall always think kindly of Griffith for doing me a favor, the benefits of which I can trace backwards through many years. Had he visited my house in disguise, at dead of night, with others, to maltreat me and mine, no doubt my feelings would be quite different." -- Greensboro Record, Keuka, N. Y., Nov. 10.

The Farmer and Mechanic (Raleigh, NC), 6 December 1910.