April 29, 1863, Montgomery Weekly Advertiser
The Macon Ga., Telegraph, of the 22d, gives the following account of a most flagrant highway robbery committed by females in Monroe county, on Friday last. It is said that these females were not able to plead poverty or necessity as an excuse for their acts, but whether they could or not, it is time such exhibitions of lawlessness were put down with a strong hand. The Telegraph says:
A factory at Seven Islands, in Butts county, had loaded a wagon with seven bales of manufactured goods, and dispatched it by their customary driver, a trusty old negro, to Forsyth, for transportation upon the Macon & Western Railroad. The wagon arrived at Forsyth in due time with only three bales and the driver’s story, (which there is no reason to doubt, as he identified many of the parties, and it is also sustained by circumstantial evidence,) is as follows: When the wagon had progressed about seven miles on its journey, it was stopped by a line of twenty eight women drawn up across the road–the most of them armed with knives and pistols, and in the thicket close to the scene of action sat a man upon a stump, also armed with a double-barrelled gun. The women called upon the negro to halt, upon the peril of his life, and then immediately commenced discharging the load of the wagon–cutting open the bales, and as soon as they had taken as many pieces of cloth as they could carry away, made off, leaving Jim to proceed on his journey with the three bales left.