Conversely, Mabel Hallam had contracted to have her likeness sold by a postcard vendor for money, while her husband was appointed a "special deputy sheriff" to their neighborhood. Mob The Ruse Early in the afternoon of August 14, once Mabel Hallam "positively identified" her attacker, a crowd of about 3,000 white men gathered in downtown Springfield, looking to lynch James and Richardson. The crowd, numbering about 5,000, went to the Sangamon County Jail, surrounded the scaffolding that was being built there for Joe James, and demanded the prisoners be given to them so they could "lynch the niggers!" Around 4:30 p.m., the commander of the Third Division of the Illinois National Guard, Colonel Richings J. Shand, was alerted to the conditions around the jail by Captain H. H. Tuttle, an Assistant Surgeon, with the Fourth Infantry. Shand claimed to have alerted Governor Charles Deneen, who directed him to consult with the sheriff of the area, Sheriff Charles Werner. When Shand arrived to the jail, Werner allegedly told Shand that "he did not consider the situation serious at all," and that troops were not necessary. Shand stated that he told Werner that, given Werner was responsible for keeping the peace in the area, if he rejected Deneen's offer of troops, and a riot broke out, that Werner, alone, would be responsible. Werner then requested one pre-cautionary Company – Troop D of the 1st Calvary (1st)– be placed at the State Arsenal building. Shand convinced Werner to place two additional companies there – Troop D, Company C of the 5th Infantry (5th), and the four men of the Gatling Gun Platoon of the same company. Werner ordered the 5th and the Gatling Platoon to remain at the Arsenal building, and for the 1st to assemble at 8:00 p.m. Shand, however, argued that 8:00 p.m. would be too late, as mobs get more unwieldy at night. He pressed Werner for a 7:00 p.m. assembly, but Werner refused. Werner believed he had the situation under control as he had pre-arranged for firemen to respond to an orchestrated false fire alarm at 5:08 p.m. While people were distracted, watching the firemen, Werner enlisted 49-year-old Harry T. Loper, a wealthy restaurateur, a commissary of the Second Brigade of the Illinois National Guard, and owner of one of the few automobiles in Springfield, to drive James and Richardson to McLean County Jail, about 65 miles away, in