wn private purse; I
will claim that boat."

The tardy sun, peering through the dense fog of the following morning,
caught a first glimpse of Madam Blennerhassett when she dismounted
near Fort Harmar, and asked to be ferried across the Muskingum, to the
boatyard on the eastern shore. The resolute lady sought the town
authorities of Marietta--magistrates, lawyers, generals, merchants,
common laborers--whom she importuned to intercede in her behalf. She
argued, she coaxed, she threatened, she tried the persuasive influence
of bribes, and as a last resort, she summoned tears to plead her
cause--but of no avail--she failed to obtain the boat. Enraged,
disappointed, filled with anxious forebodings, she recrossed the
Muskingum, and started back over the road which leads to Belpre,
following the windings of the Ohio.

During her absence from home a very disagreeable surprise was
preparing for her. The militia of Wood County, Virginia, crossed over
to the island and camped on the most eligible grounds they could find,
the premises nearest Blennerhassett's buildings. The commander of this
reckless and undisciplined infantry, Colonel Hugh Phelps, did not
appear at the place of rendezvous until late in the day, having gone
on a reconnoitering errand, to the mouth of the Kanawha, hoping to
intercept Blennerhassett. The soldiers, if a name so honorable can be
applied to the raw levy, mustered on the spur of the moment, assumed
all the boisterous swagger which, as they imagined, was the
prerogative of the citizen dressed in uniform and armed with musket.
It was their idea that a soldier's privilege is insolence, and the
badge of his superiority, self-importance. The captain and lieutenants
exercised slight control over the men in the ranks, who conceived that
the offices had gone to the wrong men. The Wood County militia
regarded itself as an "army of occupation," by law and precedent
warranted in abusing a brief authority. Instead of guarding and
protecting property not their own, the men showed their patriotic zeal
by mutilating or demolishing the results of Blennerhassett's labor.
They took malicious pleasure in wantonly defacing whatever was elegant
or ornamental. They tore off the fence-palings to build their
camp-fires; they broke down young fruit trees and pulled up evergreen
shrubs; they ransacked barns and outhouses, stole hoarded apples,
killed chickens, and frightened the negro slaves out of their small
wits. Peter Taylo