The cause of the alarm was information brought by the watch that the conspirators had left their position and were moving toward the arsenal. At two o'clock in the morning they commenced their march. Their numbers had been variously estimated at from three to eight hundred. There were probably six hundred in all, and one half of them armed. They advanced near to the arsenal and demanded a surrender in the name of Colonel Wheeler, and in behalf of Governor Dorr. The arsenal was commanded by Colonel Leonard Blodget, a fearless man and an excellent officer. His answer was, "I know no such man as Colonel Wheeler, or Governor Dorr.

"Governor Dorr is present and with a sufficient force to batter down and take the arsenal if it is not surrendered. Must I carry back the answer you have given?"

"That or none."

Dorr then ordered the cannon two six-pounders to be brought within musket shot. They were heavily charged with ball and slugs. He gave the order to fire. It was followed by no report. He repeated the order with the same result. Suspecting his men of treachery, he became perfectly furious, brandished his sword, and with bitter imprecations seized a match and applied it himself. The powder flashed harmlessly upon the piece. He probably saw the truth, that his own followers would not sustain him in his desperate career; and, filled with rage and chagrin, he withdrew immediately to his old quarters.

While these events were transpiring at the arsenal, the companies from the city were moving towards the scene of action a mile and a half distant. Their march can never be forgotten by any who were present. The stillness of midnight was broken only by the solemn tolls of the bells, the quick footfall of citizen after citizen as he left his home and hurried armed to join the ranks, and the occasional report of a cannon which came booming across the cove from the rebel quarters. The companies moved on, speechless and without music, a dark mass in solid phalanx, amid darkness and gloom, to a fate they knew not, but resolved to meet it like men.

The sudden retreat of Dorr prevented the necessity of immediate conflict. At daylight a notice issued by the Mayor was circulated through the city requesting all men to close their places of business during the day, and to meet at the Cadet alarm-post, at half past seven o'clock. Dorr ordered his men to breakfast and to be at their posts by seven, prepared to defend him to the last. About seven, the steamboat arrived, bringing the Warren, Bristol and Newport troops, a hundred and sixty-one in number as fine, resolute looking body of men as I ever saw.

Punctual to the hour, the citizens assembled and joined the various military companies, and the whole body, numbering more than five hundred men, with six field-pieces, moved off towards Federal Hill, under command of Governor King and Colonel William Blodget.

As we were approaching Dorr's headquarters, the report came that he had fled--but no one seemed to believe it, it was so unlike what we had been led to expect of him. . . . Governor King, with the High Sheriff, at the head of one of the companies, now entered the house, amid shouts and threats, but without a gun being fired, searched it thoroughly, and announced to the troops that Dorr had actually fled. His flight, it seems, was so secret that only two or three of his own men knew it till a short time before it was thus announced. A company of men on horseback were despatched in pursuit of Dorr, and the attention of the rest directed to taking the cannon from the remaining mob of insurgents, and dispersing them. It seemed impossible to do this without the loss of many valuable lives. They were strongly posted they were men, ferocious by nature, desperate in circumstances, and infuriated by liquor. They brandished their lighted matches within a few inches of their heavy-loaded cannon, and were several times prevented from firing only by some one of them less drunk, who struck off the match with a sword just as it was descending upon the powder. At this time we were facing their cannon, in a perfectly straight street, within half musket shot.

The Governor exhorted them for the last time to disperse. They answered only with oats and threats, and bravado. He waited a short time, and just as the word was given, the leaders of the rebels entreated the Governor to stop, told him that the men were drunk, and that they themselves had lost all command of them; but that if he would withdraw his forces from the ground, they would pledge themselves to return the cannon, and would induce the men to disperse as soon as the madness from rum had somewhat abated. . . . In consideration of these statements and pledges, and to spare the lives of citizens who might otherwise be slaughtered, the Governor withdrew his forces. But no sooner had they returned to the armories than the miscreants, joined by many others, refused to return the guns and commenced throwing up a breastwork to defend themselves. . . . They worked all night, and drank deeply of rum but the cold dews and the hard labor, had a wonderful effect in sobering them, so that towards morning finding they were not reinforced as they expected to be, they brought back the cannon and dispersed.