Montreal Gazette on the St. Albans Raid

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Outrage at St. Albans

Montreal Gazette Tuesday morning, October 20, 1864

The following is a telegraphic despatch received yesterday afternoon by the Vermont and Boston Line: --

Captured St. Alban's Raiders in the Montreal Jail

St. Albans, Vt., 19th. -- A party of 20 rebel raiders entered this place this p.m. shooting and killing the citizens. They robbed all the banks, stole 15 or 20 horses, killed 4 or 5 and wounded several. They have left town but are expected back soon with a large force. If there is no error or exaggeration in this statement, a gross outrage has been committed, in a peaceful and thriving village, situated on the Vermont Central Railway, a short distance from Rouses Point, and not far from the borders of Canada. It is not stated that the "raiders" took their departure from Canada, or whether they had gathered and concealed themselves near the village in which they committed their outrage. But there is enough to call for vigilance on the part of the Canadian Government. Probably many of our readers saw in the midnight despatches in our last impression that a Richmond paper (the Whig) threatened reprisal for the horrible destruction which has taken place in the Shenandoa Valley, by burning Northern towns; and that Canada was to be made one of the places of rendezvous. It is the first duty of the Government and the people of Canada to see that the right of asylum which their soil affords is not thus betrayed and violated. The Government must spare no pains to prevent it; and it is the first duty of the inhabitants of this country, especially those who live on the borders, to give instant information of any attempt they may see to the nearest magistrate, and the duty of the magistrate immediately to inform the Government. We must, we repeat, preserve our neutrality, and their right of asylum which British soil affords inviolate, and punish with the sternest severity any breach which can be discovered. If we do not we shall find ourselves dragged into the war for needless cause; our eastern frontier lit up with the fires of now peaceful homes, and the country on both sides of the line made red with murders. We cannot say that the Confederate Government has in any way sanctioned the outrages reported to have taken place at St. Albans; nor can we say that they have been committed by Confederates. But what we can say is, that this country has done nothing to merit the abuse of its soil by Confederate authority, contemplated in the article of the Richmond Whig. To surprise a peaceful town and shoot down people in the streets, committing at the same time robbery, is not civilized war; it is that of savages. The same may be said of laying waste a country which cannot be held by a regular army; but one will not justify the other in the eyes of the civilized world. Civilized war consists in killing, or attempting to kill, men with arms in hand; any other kind is simply murder, calling for the universal execration of mankind.

After writing the above we heard the telegraph wires had been cut; so the midnight report (we write these lines in the evening) may not bring us any further particulars. According to one account, which has reached us by a passenger from Rouses Point, the affair is rather a Bank robbery than a Confederate raid, by persons who had concealed themselves in the vicinity, one of the Banks in St. Albans being erroneously supposed to have a great deal of gold in deposit. And banks in villages may not be fenced around by all the modern safeguards. Our informant further states that when the news came the boat left Rouses Point rather suddenly with the intention of not calling at Burlington. From another informant we learn that a private telegram was received in this city at half-past eight o'clock, stating that persons had been seen hanging about for some days before in the village of St. Albans.

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