Cleveland daily leader. [volume] ([Cleveland, Ohio]) 1865-1873, 1866-08-27
OUTRAeES IN LOUISIANA,
Links in the Chain Of Evidenee-Ane
MaItFeatHens of Women, ana the
Murder Of Whites and Blacks.

Links in the Chain of Evidenee-Ahe
MaItreatmens of Women, and the
Murder of Whites and Blacks.
The following letter of W. B. StiCkney,
late Lieutenant of the United States army,
and recently connected with the Freed
mems Bureau in Louisiana, contains an
array of facts, which of themselves out
weigh all the professions of the Philsdel-
phia Convention:
As the late indiscriminate murder OF
Union men in New Orleans has con-
WINGED the Northern public that a malig-
nant spirit still exists in "Rebeldom, and
demonstrated that the brutal outrages, oe-
casionslly reported as having been COM
mitted at different points in the South,
nave not been exaggerated cases OF rebel
atrocity and barbarity, the following
hitherto unpublished and unnoticed ac-
count of acts of violence coming within
| the notice of the writer while on duty as
officer in the Freedmen's Bureau in Lou
isiana, will serve as another link IN the
chain of evidence, proving that the spirit
/ of rebellion still prevails, and that the
| policy Of President johnson, in pardonlng
the leading rebels and restoring them TO
| Office, has only made them moro violent
in their dealings with Union men, and
rendered the lives of the freedmen sill
more insecure. .
E. Bertrand, e teacher employed by the
Freedmen's Bureau, was taken up by the
chivalry in the Parish of Point Coupee,
| where he was teaching, and severely cow
hided and his life threatened if he contln-
ued to teacha niger school. This occur
red in January last. Lieut.. b. +. Burn
ham, formerly of the sth Vermont volun-
teers having been mustered out of service,
proceeded to Monroe, Louisiana, in Feb
ruary last for the purpose of opening a
| school He esl4Al -rne@tine ---~-
ored population. This was set upon by
rufians armed with pistols and knives,
and several of the negroes were murdered
and the Lieutenant barely escaped with
his life, having received a cut with a knife,
five inches in length, across the small Of
the back.
In August, 1865, Corporal J. N. Wal
lace, of the 47th Indiana Veteran Volun-
teers, while on his duty with the freed
mems Bureau at Shreveport, Louisiana,
was kidnapped and brutality murdered,
and in the same parish, during the same
month, the Provost Marshal Of Freedmen
/ reported "that five freedmen had been
killed. and that there were sixty well au-
thenticated cases of assault upon freed
men-that bodies of the freedmen were
found hanging upon the trees and floating
in Red River"
In January last, Charles Cotton, for
merly a Lieutenant of the Sth Vermont,
-az--Ea1 A.haN n-hsln Nraua1f-- IN Alahu-
ma on business, and in citizens dress, DR..
- informed him that he had lately rid
himself OF several of the negroes upon his
1 plantation Said the Doctor, 1t is an
easy matter. They go to the village, but
do not return, and nobody knows any
thing about them. One of my neighbors
disposed of four of his in this way"
Captain Marshall Twitchell, Of Town
send, who was agent of the Bureau in
Claiborne parish, Louisiana, reported the
maltreatment of two ladies who were sent
to his parish to teach, and said "that the
parties who had engaged to board them
refused because they had been threatened
that if they did so their house would be
burned down, and that it was not safe for
him 10 ride over the whole of his parish,
aud that he could not protect the teach
srs."
Lieutenant Charles n. Rockafellow,
4sth Q. S. c. I, A. A. 9. NJ. Of the Blu
reau at Shreveport Louisiana, reported
I" that 1t became necessary to station g
guard at the residence of The teachers to
prevent their being brutality treated. An
attempt was made in March last 10 lynch
General Sypher, formerly Colonel OF the
goth Rhode Island Heavy Artillery (col-
ored) Having left the service, he, in
company with General Fuller, another
e1-United States army officer, leased 4
plantation upon Bayou Beuf, and Gen.
Sypher hired some laborers at Plaque
mine, Louisiana, and was expected 10 land
several miles below the village from an
evening boat, and take the laborers to his
plantation. A mob gathered to lynch
him upon the landing Of the steamer, but
as business in New Orleans prevented his
arrival, he escaped. -
General Sypher Informed me that ne
and General Fuller considered il necessa-
~ to arm the hands upon his place for
their personal protec ion. Other Northern
men adopt the same rule. Colonel FRS
bic hired the men of his regiment before
the order was issued pI ohibiting the black
EOAAiClG HUH purchasing LAEA4 u III lAOnA
the Government, and as the laborers have
the Enfield rifles which they bore in the
army, ne keeps up a guard upon his plan
tation and drills his men regularly. In
Louisians the freedmen are now left en-
tirely to the mercy of their old masters.
The Freedmen's Bureau is powerless.
What can an officer do toward enforc-
ing order in a parish fifty miles long and
from five to twenty wide, without a single
soldier to assist him, and with the possible
assurance from headquarters that he can
not have any military force2 Captain Il.
R. Pease, agent at Monroe, Louisiana, re-
ported that d planter told him TO 90 to
hell with his orders" The Captain went
to New Orleans for q military force, but
could not obtain even 4 corporal's guard.
l repeat, the Freedmen's Bureau, as at
present conducted, is powerless, and the
freedmen are ~defenseless, and Union men
at the mercy of traitors. Said the editor
Of the New Orleans TribNae, the organ Of
the blacks in Louisiana; himself a colored
nan: THE Government protects US, and
how? President johnson appoints Pro-
visional Governors, and allows them and
their successors &c organize a militia in
the South. This militia search the dwell
ings Of the black man and rob him of his
arms. The Constitution guarantees to all
citizens the right 10 the use Of arms, but
the black man can not exercise this
right"
This is the protection which President
johnson gives US, "sueh as vultures give
to lambs, covering and ~devouTing them.
Again, the white soldier, upon being mus
tered out, is allowed to purchase the arms
he has borne in the service; but the Presi-
dent issues an order which deprives the
black man of this privilege.
Facts like the above have a language
which is too plain to be misunderstood.
Comment is unnecessary.
W. B. STIcKNET,
Late Lieutenant Q. S. a, of the Freed
mems Bureau, of Louisiana.
Raymond.
Bolingbroke, in the reign Of George l.
of England, was q CREST writer and public
man, who generally failed to satisfy those
vrs.h -k1., ~ ~, ...-c-rl a.