Bedford inquirer. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884, 1866-05-18
THE MEMPHIS MASSACRE.

Sickening Account of the lnhumanities
Practised upon the COlored People by
the Rufiian Mob.-The Affair Entirely
a Crusade of the Rebels Against a
Loyal Population.
WASHINGTON, May 9.
Judge Kelley received this morning the
following letters from his correspondents at
Memphis. do not give their names lest
they might fall victims to the mercy of the
wretches whose atrocities they describe and
condemn:
MEMPHIS, Tenn, May 4, 1865
Hon. W. d. Keller
l am thus far on my way to Texas, and
oevpped here TO see sister who has been
engaged in teaching negro children.
| have been here during the late riots,
and am struck Indignation dumb Such
outrageous, fiendish barbarity was never
perpetrated in any civilized age.
have spent FIVE days here (go to New
Orleans to day., during which time have
been an eye witness TO such sights as should
cause the age In which we live to blush
Negro men have been shot down in cold
blood on the streets; BARRIERS at their chairs
and in their own shops; draymen on their
drays, while attempting to earn an honest
| living; hotel walters, while in the discharge
of their duties; hackmen, while driving fe-
male teachers of negro children to their
schools; laborers, while handling cotton on
the wharves, sc. All the negro school
| houses, and all the negro churches and many
| of the houses of the negroes, have been
burned, this too under the immediate au-
spices of the city police and the Mayor-in
fact most OF these outrages were commit
ted by the police themselves-dH Irish and
| all rebels, and mostly dytrlk. This is not
! the half have no heart to recount the
outrages | have seen. The most prominent
| citizens stand on the streets and see negroes
| hunted down and shot, and Muqh at it as a
good joke. Attempts have been made to
FIRE every Government building, and fire
has been set to many of the abodes and bust
ness places Of Union people.
There is no doubt but that there is a secret
| organization sworn to purge the city of all
Northern men who are net rebels, all negro
teachers, all Yankee enterprise, and return
the city to the good old days of Southern
rule and chiyalry.
Night before last they did all the burning
last night they were to have killed all the
teachers; but by the 'treaehery" of one of
their own party, who appears to have had a
little humanity, the teachers were notifed
and all left in the evening boat for Cairo. l
sent my own sister home, because was ac-
tually fearful other lte, although think
you will give me credit for not being very
scarey or much afraid of armed rebels
Something must be done In the South, and
Congress must do it. The Executive won t
the people cant, and Congress must.
From another correspondent:
MEMPHIS, Tenn, May 5, 1866
| Hon. W. ID KeIIeg, WaShiaqton, ID. C.:
Kacfavrlov~ I ~ e. l.
graphing you a brief statement of some of
the atrocities perpetrated by the mob Of
Irish people and Irish police on the colored
people of this city. Of course dispatch
can give but a meagre account, and not
having command of time to write you much
indetail, enclose you extracts from the Ddi-
ty Post of yesterday and to day; and | may
say, while the Posts account differs from
that of other city papers, it does not come
up to the occasion. All other papers In the
city use every endeavor to hide, twist and
pervert the facts, and do not publish tithe
of what they know to be true.
80 far from being exaggerated is the ac-
count given by the Post, that it does not
represent twenty per cent of the truth.
w hen the matter Is investigated and the
truth developed, it win show believe. that
fully one hundred colered people have been
murdered.
When the miscreants had fred Collins
chapel "a large frame church, corner of
Washington and Orleans street, which would
now cost fully $4,000 to lebuild), they
stood around the fire which lighted the mid
night sky and made the night hideous
with their hellish cheers for Andy johnson,
and white mans government" And
the supporters of the President, aside from
being midnight burners Of churches and
schoclhouses, robbed women and children
and men sparing none on account of age,
sex, physical disabilities, or innocence of
crlme-even burning women and children
alive
The Board Of Aldermen had their usual
meetings last night Their proceedings show
no reference TO the riot No rewards have
been offered for the apprehension of the