been made in September in Poweshiek County. The time for some of the drafted men to report had expired. In Sugar Creek township was a settlement of the disloyal, who had harbored deserters, and had a strong lodge of the “Knights of the Golden Circle.” On the 30th of September, James Mathews, the provost marshal, sent two officers—captain John L. Bashore and Josiah M. Woodruff—into that vicinity to arrest deserters from the draft. They had nearly reached the residence of one of the deserters, fourteen miles south of Grinnell, when they were fired upon by a number of armed men. Woodruff was instantly killed, his body was dragged into the bushes twenty yards from the road, where it was found riddled with bullets. Captain Bashore was lying in the road mortally wounded; he was shot in the head and through the body, then beaten over the head with the butt end of a rifle, which lay broken beside him. A man by the name of Gleason was found lying near Bashore, shot through the thigh, who, when found, said: “I came to the assistance of the provost marshal, and was shot by the band who attacked him.” Bashore, hearing what he said, had strength enough to exclaim, “that is not so, he fought us as wickedly as any of them.”; and in a short time Captain Bashore breathed his last. Upon investigation ordered by the Governor, it was ascertained that a company of pretended militia had been raised in Sugar Creek township, under the command of Captain Robert C. Carpenter, and that a portion of this band had pledged themselves to resist the draft. Joseph Robertson, Thomas McEntire and Samuel A. Bryant, living in that vicinity, had been drafted, and having been notified, failed to report to the provost marshal, and became deserters. When it was learned through spies that officers were coming to arrest them, members of Captain Carpenter’s company assembled in a grove near the road where it was expected the officers would approach the settlement. The men were armed with rifles and shot-guns, and planned to
