The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1866-09-20

Major General Gustav has written a
letter, at the request Of General Mere
dith, in which he gives an account of
what he saw relating to the disgraceful
riot in Indianapolis, on the evening of
tho Presidents reception in that city,
and correctS the Misrepresentation
which have been published. General
Gustav says:
| had returned 10 my room from the
supper table, where had left the Presi-
dent and most Of the party. The streets
by the hotel were densely packed by the
crowd, waiting to sec and hear the Pres
ident Loud and continuous calls were
made for Johnsoa, Seward, Grant, Farra-
gut and other. was seated in the
window OF my .JOm, which was III the
secon story q. the Bates House, and
mediately OF Hooking the crowd in
the ST. eet.
Several hunc ed torches and transpa
rencies borne among the crowd rendered
the scene as light as midday, SO that l
could see and distinguish the faces of
every person il, the crowd below. am
thus minute il detail in order to prove
TO you that could see all that was trans
piIing. Nothips of q disorderly charac-
ter occurred un il one of the Marsha,s of
| the day was zen making his way on
horseback through the crowd TO point
where torch beu erS were located
After appare tly receiving direction,
| the {, oh beaI IS moved off Ill column
| This vas the signal for an attack by the
crowG which o44Jlnued without much
resistance for lie space of two minutes,
although several ia the procession had
| been -'ruck anC beaten over their heads.
The lrauspaTe cy bearing the motto
Irish America Citizens, Welcome to
| the President t the United States"
seemed to be the special object of attack,
| and was seizec and attempted to be
| trampled undeI DOT.
This was the signal for a general at
| tack by the Gre Is d. At this moment the
| first shot was ii ed, and as an effort has
| been made 10 atEach the blame and re-
sponslbility of his disgraceful proceed
| ing of hat occasion upon innocent par
ties, aud being n possession of facts
| which enable - to fix guilt where it
belong, l heI by state that l plainly
saw the man wi fired the first shot, and
saw him at IL moment he fired. He
was Que of the sttacking party belong
| iug TO the Gre d, and his aim, when
firing, vas dir, ted into the procession,
| and apparently At the bearer of the tran
sparency referred to above.
This was n signal for other shots, aud
il was not lorg before dozen or so
4 oh NV ha q tx-
| that any was returned by those belong
ing to the proce' ion, when single man
left the process II and stepped into the
| open space which had been cleared by
? the firing, and deliberately aimed and
| fired twice at ono of the mob, who was
SEINE twenty yards distant, aud who was
| still firing TOW ard the torch-bearers
| This closed the disturbance for the time
being. The fac as have related them
were Witnessed 10y Mr.. Spoffard, of Bos-
ton, MI McGin is, of Chicago, and two
| ladies, all of w..Om are members OF the
| Presidents part, who were in my room
at the time. Gru Grant also witnessed
them from another window, and inform
| ed the Presidential what he had seen, a
few moments after it transpired.
| ssAfter the President returned to his
room, facing the balcony, the crowd
again assembled in front, when another
disturbance arose. was standing with
the President in his room when / heard
two or three shots fired; looked out of
the window just in time to see a man
fire pistol at another standing near
him. The wounded man fell. and was
soon after picked up and carried into q
drug store on the lower floor No more
shots were fired. General Grant, after
twice appearing on the balcony, request
ing the crowd to disperse and go home.
induced respectable persons to do so.