Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1866-05-07
OrIeIn OF one Ln1e NIempMlL RIo1.

OElkhM Oh hmc AlhhC NAcuhpmhh hAlOts
Only the Memphis AUdlanche and Memphis
Commercial substantially agree in their ac-
count of the late riot in that city, In which
the Negroes suffered severely, as to its
precise origin. The Avalanche states that
1t originated In light between white and
negro boy, on South street, in the extreme
southern portion of the city; and that Off
GERS 0'NEIL and STEPHENS, of the police,
discovering the fight, started to separate
them, when crowd of fifteen or twenty
Negroes, armed with pistols, started for the
same point, at the same time; that two 9th
er policemen happened along nearly at the
same time; that the Negroes then surround
ed the police, and commenced on them an
unprovoked assault with pistol shots, and
thenceforward there were accessions to
both sides-the Whites finally gaining the
ascendency.
The Commercial says the riot occurred
from the attempt of these four policemen,
at the instance of citizens, to stop the fight
between u White boy and Negro soldier,
which large number of the Negro SOL
dier's comrades determined should not be
done, and that when the officers had taken
charge of the culprits, the Negro soldiers
many of whom were under the influence of
liquor, commenced on them.
According to the account of the argus,
the riot grew out of the attempt of two
policemen to arrest man who sold liquor
in South Memphis, when Negro soldiers
who had been mustered out of service the
day preceding, and who had been patron
izin gthis soloon, charged the police, kill
ing one.
Through the account of the Appeal we get
the information that a number of discharg-
ed Negro soldiers, who had been drinking
freely, got into sort of free fight among
themselves at Old Morris Cemetery; that
policeman CARROLL and three others who
were standing on the corner of Main street,
walked toward the rowdy blacks, but with
out interfering in any way; that after
passing the bridge on South street, when
they turned to retrace their steps, the Ne
groes commenced brick batting the officers
and shooting at them, and that from this the
riot grew.
The Post which is Radical, pleads an in
ability clearly to discover the cause. One
version, it says, Is that some discharged col
ored soldiers, who were drunk, seeing a
policeman near by, fell upon him and killed
him, and that this provoked an indiscrimi-
nate attack upon the Negroes in that quar-
ter from the police and sore citizens; that
another version is, that Jew peddler was
robbed of his pack by the Negroes, and
that the collision occurred while the police
men were searching for the goods. At the
height Of the excitement, it is estimated
that three thousand citizens were on the
ground.
The evidence we thus gather from the
five Memphis dailies tends to fasten the ori-
gin Of the riot on discharged drunken Ne
gro soldiers. As matter of course, inno-
cent. unoffensive Negroes with Whites, be-
came victims. Undoubtedly, had the dis
charged Negro soldiers gone quietly about
their business, there would have been no
riot, from which resulted deaths and the
burning OF Negroes houses and shanties.