Democratic Sentinel, Volume 6, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 September 1882 — A BLOODY RESCUE. [ARTICLE]

A BLOODY RESCUE.

b Sheriff and His Deputy Shot Down by Desperadoes. A Sensational Tragedy on a Tennessee Railroad Train A terrible tragedy was enacted at Sweetwater, Tenn., forty miles west of Knoxville, in which a Sheriff and his deputy were slain. The particulars of the bloody affair are contained in the following dispatch from Knoxville: “Sheriff W. T. Cate and Deputy Sheriff John Conway, of Chattanooga, Hamilton county, had in custody three prisoners bringing them to Knoxville to the Supreme Court. Two prisoners, John Taylor and Samuel Carter, under sentence for murder, were chained together. The other prisoner a negro, was chained to a seat When the train stopped at Sweetwater, three men entered the car. One was a brother of the prisoner, Taylor, and entered the car from the rear, while the other two entered the front Taylor’s brother approached Deputy Conway from behind, placed a pistol to the back of his head and blew Conway’s brains out. He then took the keys from Conway’s pocket and unlockwl the prisoner, Taylor, and the latter secured the deputy’s pistol At this instant Sheriff Cate rushed at the men, firing at them and the prisoner. As he fired the prisoner Taylor shot him through the bowels and the other two men shot him through the breast, the Sheriff falling dead. The prisoner Taylor was slightly wounded in the leg. The three rescuers were not hurt Taylor, with his two rescuers, jumped on the engine and forced the engineer to pull out immediately with a pistol at his head. They made him put on more steam, and forced him to run twenty miles up to Lenoirs, running through three towns without stopping. At Lenoirs the four men jumped from the engine and secured horses which were waiting for them, and all escaped. The prisoner Carter and the negro came to Knoxville without guard and surrendered to the Sheriff of Knox county. Conway’s dead body was brought to Knoxville. Cate’s body was left at Sweetwater, being thrown from the car platform by the rescuers. The gang boarded the train at Sweetwater, but the killing was done at Philadelphia Station, eight miles east of Sweetwater. The Sheriff of Loudon county is following the gang, but has no hope of overtaking them. They are making for the mountains of North Carolina” A dispatch from Chattanooga, says: “The city is in intense excitement. A posse' 1 of thirty men, with Springfield rifles left on a special train on the Cincinnati Southern for Kingston. Another posse will leave overland. A posse has left Kingston and another Loudon. Cate had been Sheriff two weeks. He was one of the most popular men in the city. He is about 50 years old and leaves a large family. Deputy Conway was about 30 years of age and prominent as a local politician. Such excitement has not been in Chattanooga since the war. Five thousand dollars reward are offered for the arrest of the Taylors. The sum will be increased. A company of colored militia left the city for Kingston. One of tha Taylors served a term in the penitentiary, and is wanted in Texas for murder. ”