MYSTERIOUS ATTACK ON A SENTRY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 6966, 15 March 1884, Page 10 (Supplement)

MYSTERIOUS ATTACK ON A SENTRY.

An investigation has been opened at Wpplwich by the military antlipritus and the police ■relating- tp. an <:x!roizdinary occnrrenee which, took place on a recent night at the government powder magazine,, situfit'ed'in a 'remote, part: of the. Plunistead Marshes below the Royal Arsenal. During the last few years, in c.-oiisi quence of threats find rumours, sentries have, been posted abOut the magazines, the " Fenian guard, " as' :it has been . called,; being furnished evel-y day by the garrison at Woolwich. The special character of the duty entrusted to these nien invests: with: peculiar interest the event which was the sub-, jeot of the present.inquiry. Private O'Xeale, Wiltshire. Regiment, who was placed on sentry at: No; 2 magazine, a large bnilding of briek, standing just behind the river bank, was 1:o have been reliey.ed. at eleven, but at ten minutes before, that hour he was heard to shout twice, the challenge, " Who, goes therefollowing which came the sound of firearms, and when his ci-.mradfes ran. .to his assistance he was found greatly excited, and bleeding from a.gunshot wouud in the right hand, from which, the forelinger .was blown away. He. stated 1 that while walking round the rnagazine lie saw .three men.on the/Government ground, oue-of them carrying a doublebarrelled gun. Fancying that they had merely strayed from the. public, footpath on the. river bank, ,he challenged them a second ■lima and threatened to firej ,at the same time putting a ball cartridge into .the chamber pf his breaehloader, which had been till then unloaded., Thereupon .two of tha men sprang upon him and seized his rifle, -when the/third followed up. the attack, and in the course of. the struggle lie was wouuded, but. whether by his.own piece or by the gun which his assailants had, he cannot, tell, neither. can he, give auy description of the men who perpetrated the outrage, the spot where it was committed being between tho bank and /the. magazine, and very dark. He says that, : all. three made off. across: the marshes on the alarm being raised, and no one else appears to have, seen: anything: of: them. Another sentry was.posted.a few yards in the rear of tho .magazines, and .this man heard the two challenges, and tho report of a rifle,. but .-nothing:else., Sergeant: Lynch, who was in charge of the guardhouse-adjacent to the magazine; states his belief that O'Neale; who is; a young soldier, got nervous, and was frightened by the shallow of pome passing ship ; but if the injury to his hand wa» caused by his own rifle, the circumstances can hardly be explained satisfactorily. His baud having been bound up, he was. sent to his barracks at Woolwich, a distance, of three, miles; accompanied by a comrade, ..and: on the way reported, to the police what had happened. Nothing has, however, -been ascertained to explain the mystery,, unless, a statement /made by the owners of the -lorn! that ipoachers were about the/marshes a ft: ■ the hares during the.-night,.-can-be accept* t.i. : 'aa a 'possible, explanation. . Colouel Talbot, beinc field officer of,the day,-has mn ii-inquiries'-on-the ;spot, and the "polioe.:hav - also been-engaged in a fruitless endeavour to-throw light ou the case. O'Neale, the wounded Bentry, who is in hospital, adheres most positively to.hiß original statement..