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Poole Followers and Innocent Spectators, Ambushed
by The Morrissey Men
After the ceremony the procession broke up into parties and returned to New York by various routes. The Poole and the Light Guards marched together and reached Broadway and Canal Street late in the afternoon, where the New York and New Haven Railroad depot then occupied one corner.
Opposite the depot a house was being torn down and work had been stopped in
consequence of the parade. Behind the brick and timber barricades made by the wreck and that lined the gutter a strong party of Morrissey followers had ambuscaded themselves. They consisted of members of the 36th Engine, known as the Original Hounds, reinforced by a gang of
Buttenders and Short Boys, led by Larry Aiken and Dan Linn.
As the Poole volunteers came within range a volley of stones and bricks darkened the air. Another and another followed. The attack was so sudden and unforeseen that the spectators who were gathered in the street watching the parade had no time to get out of the way and a woman on the other side of the street was killed, while a number of men and women were
badly wounded.
Five of the Poole Guard were included in the list of the injured. They were not long in recovering their order and Canal Street soon became the scene of a pitched battle. The howls of the ruffians and the cheers and shouts of the volunteers made a ringing chorus, through which was heard the sharp crack of pistols, the crash of stones smashing windows and doors, and the shrill screams of the wounded.
The fight continued for an hour, when the Morrissey men, having used up pretty much all of their barricades for missiles, were left without cover and the Poole Guards proceeded to charge them with their bayonets. The Morrisseyites had no stomach for cold steel and they scattered just as the Seventh Regiment, which had its armory in National Hall over the depot, and which had been called out to suppress the riot, appeared upon the scene. The
assailing party had a number of its members disabled and two lay dead. The Poole Guards marched off to the Village, bearing their wounded with them.
That night the Hounds were gathered around the stove in their engine-house discussing the events of the day, when a menacing murmur fell upon their ears. In a moment more there came a crash which shook the building and split the doors. Another and another followed until the doors fell open. Then, dropping the beam that had been used as a battering-ram, the besiegers poured in upon their demoralized foes. The assailants were the Poole Guards which had come down bent on vengeance.
Separated into a number of detachments to prevent the suspicion which would have been roused by the passage of such a large party as their combined one through the streets, they had come together undiscovered at the portals of the enemies' stronghold, which they lost no time in storming. When they got through there was nothing left of the engine-house but four
blackened and smoking walls. The Hounds narrowly escaped with their lives. After which the Poole legion returned to the village and celebrated long into the night. Bill Poole's burial had certainly been a grand and exciting occasion.
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