The Cadiz sentinel. [volume] (Cadiz, Ohio) 1864-1911, 1866-05-16
From the Ohio Statesman.
Origin of the Late Memphis
Riot.

Only the Memphis AUdlanche and Mem
phis Commercial subs, antially agree in their
account of the late riot in that city. in which
the Negroes suffered severely, as to it's pre-
else origin. The AUdLunche states that ii
originated in a fight between a bite and
negro boy, on South street, in the extreme
southern portion of the city; and that off
GERS O'Neil and Stephens, of the police,
discovered the fight, started to separate
them, when a crowd Of fifteen or twenty Me-
groes, armed with pistols, started for the
same point, at the same time; thai two 9th
er policemen happened along nearly at the
same time; hat the Negroes then surroun-
ded the police, and commenced on them IN
unprovoked assault with pistol shots, and
thenceforward there were acce 'sions to both
sides-the Whites finally gaining the as
tendency. J..t-i.
The Commercial says the riot occurred
from the attempt of these four policemen,
at the instance OF citizens, to stop the fight
between a White boy and a Negro soldier,
which a large number ofthe Negro soldiers
comrades determined should not be done,
and that when the officers had taken charge
of the c~ulprits, the Negro soldiers, many of
whom were under the influence of liquor,
commenced on tneul. ~
According to the account of the argus,
the riot grew out OF the attempt Il two pc
licemen to arrest a man who sold liquor in
South Memphis, when Negro soldiers who
had been mustered out OF service the day
preceding, and who had been %patronizing
this saloon, charged the police, killing
one.
Through the account of the Appeal, we
get the information that a number of dis
| charged Negro soldiers, who had been drink
ing freely, got into a 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 pass
ing the bridge on South street, when they
turned 10 retrace their steps, the Negroes
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 po-
liceman 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 some citizens; that
another version is, that a jew peddler was
robbed Of his pack by the Negroes, and that
the collision occurred while the policemen
were searching for the goods. At the height
Of the excitement. it is estimated that three
| thousand citizens we're on the ground. q.
The evidence we thus gather from the
FIVE Memphis dailies tends to fasten the ORR
gin of the riot on discharged prunken Ne
gro soldiers. As a 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 shan
ties. a,s -