DRAWING LOTS FOR DEATH. A Very Strange Story of the Revolution.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 207, 18 June 1887, Page 2

DRAWING LOTS FOR DEATH. A Very Strange Story of the Revolution.

At the first reference is a note signed "J. S." giving an account of the di awing lots by the officers of the English army during the American war to decide who should be surrendered to General Washington to suffer death in retaliation for the execution of a rebel captain by a royali-st officer. The writer gives a list of the British officers who drew lots on thai occasion, and among the names is given that of Sir Charles Morgan. This Sir Charles Morgan was my father. His name, however, at that time was not Morgan, as ho did not assume the narao of Morgan till 1782. He wa3 then Captain Charles Could of the Coldstream Guards, and 1 have oiten heard him narrate the circumstances of the case, which are just what are here reported, and having recorded them, I will give a copy of my notes, which I made at the time. Captain Charles Gould, afterward Sir Charles Morgan, second baronet, was gazetted Ensign in the Coldstream Guards, November 21, 1777; Lieutenant and Captain, March 22, 1781 ; Captain and Lieutenant-Colonel, May 24, 1790, and retired December 5, 1792, when he assumed the name of Morgan. Fie left England for America December 31, 1730, and on October 19, 1781, he was, with 5,000 oi the British army, taken prisoner at Vo ktown, and after eight months his family were able to procure an exchange for him, and he returned to England. He mentioned the circumstances of the drawing lots, but so far as I can i-ecollect, only mentioned the names of three officers of the Guards — Asgill, Ludlow, and Pen-in -who drew lots which should be shot by the Ft ench-Ameri-cans. The lot fell on Asgill, and Captain Gould bore, on his leturn to England, the sad intelligence to his mother, Lady Asgill, who was very intimate with his family. On arriving at the house of Lady Asgill he was shown into a room wheie Lady Asgill and another lady were seated, and when he made the sad communication both ladies swooned away and fell, as it were, lifeless on the floor. The surprise and horror of the servant, who was immediately summoned by Captain Gould, may be imagined when, on entering the apartment, he found the two ladies apparently lifeless on the floor, thinking that, Captain Gould had murdered them. Assistance, however, and restoratives were quickly at hand, but the shock was necessarily \ery great. It fortunately happened that Asgill had great influence with the Queen of France, who succeeded in preventing the sentence being carried into execution. — Octavius Morgan in " Notes and Queiies."