The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1866-07-04
,e.,a., a Feaerai o1loers n Missis.
sippl.

sippi.
The correspondent Of the New York
Herald accompanying Generals Fullerton
and Stcedman on their trip through the
south gives rather sad statement Of the
way matters are drifting in Mississippi.
His last letter is dated at Savannah, June
%, and thus describes the murder OF Lieu
tenant Banding at Meridian, Miss:
At Meridian, a short time ago, the head
quarters of the Frcedmcn's Bureau were
broken into at night and the officers were
shot at, fortunately without effect. In this
town Grenada -without exception the
worst place we have yet visited-a more
serious result has attended a similar on.
rage. On the evening of the 3Oth OF Apr'i
last. Lieutenant J. b. Banding, the as
sistant commissioner of the Bureau mere
| "a gcptlemantIy, inofiensve man, agaihs.
whom no one seems to have word OF
comrla;nt) was called out of his house by
a man who invited him to walk. Turn
INC tho corner of the street, two other men
- nm mt pistols to the Licutcnant's
load and shot him down. He fingered
I'm the next morning, and then died.
lieutenant Banding suspected the per-
son who invited him out of completely In
the crime, and was able to give a pretty
close description of the other two men,
but no arrests have ever been made. In
fact, i, is said to be impossible to obtain
evidence against the assassins.
ACTION OF TIE DEPARTMENT COMMANDER.
Maior-Gcneral Wood, commander OF the
department, on receiving information OF
this affair, offered a reward of thousand
dollars for the arrest and conviction of the
assassin. There are no troops stationed at
Grenada, and the town at the present day
remains under the influence ola
REIGN OF TERROR
established by band Of outlaws who were
gucrillas during the war, and have been
horse thieves and robbers since, whose
supposed leader is Bill Forrest, brother OF
General Ned Forrest, of the rebel service.
The tyranny exercised by these men is so
great that respectable citizens dare hardly
walk the streets after nightfall, and few
venture out either by day or night without
being armed. They seem to have a regn-
lar organization among them, and at set
times virtually take the town. Merchants
close their stores, and business is suspend
ed while these ruffians go on tearing
drunken spree. This was the case even
before the war, and has continued since.
1t is to this band that the murder of Lieu
tenant Blanding is ascribed. No cause for
or provocation to the deed has ever trans
pired.
INDIGNATION OF THE CITIZENS.
Simple justice compelS me to say that
the murder of Lieutenant Blanding excited
a feeling of horror and detcstation among
the citizens generally. One gentleman
Captain Adams), who before the war was
a wealthy banker, declared openly that the
wretcheS who committed the crime were
no better than Thugs, and ought to be
hanged at once. For this expression of
opinion he was waylaid in the streetsby Bill
Forrest, and dubbed within al inch of his
life, his ribs and arms being broken. The
terrorism exercised by Forests gang pre-
vented even this outrage on Appointment
and respectable citizen OF the town from
being adequately punished. A mild fine
of something like sixty dollars was all the
penalty inflicted upon Forrest. Captain
| Adams'S two sons, young men of high cha
racter and great observation-disclosures OF
whom was at college and the other at New
OrlcanS-hearing of this outrage upon
their father, at once returned home with
the avowed purpose of avenging it, as the
civil authorities were powerless to do so.
In this they were backed by public scntl-
ment, and since their return none of this
cut-throat gang have ventured to show
themselves.