Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1866-10-15
Ogro Statesrlrarr,
TERRIBLE RIOT In BLACKBOARD
.."' COUNTY, INDIANA. d''.
The Radicals Tear Down the
o" Stars and stripes.
DESPERATE AND BLOODY FIGHT
Correspondence of the indianapolis HorAld.i

Correspondence Of the Indianapolis Herald.l
HARTFORD CITY, IND, Oct. 8, 1866.
EDITOR HERALD LD:-Saturday last our
county was the scene of one of the most
devilish outrages that the history of the
past bloody five years has recorded. On
that day the Abolition disunion candidate
for Secretary Of State, Colonel Trusler,
Walter March and others were posted to
speak at this town. Accordingly early in
the morning of that day, the air of our
usually quiet village was scented with
strong African stencil. On the same day a
township meeting of the Johnson eonserya-
tives and Democrats was held at the village
of Trenton, in Jackson township, about
eight miles east of this place. In the af-
ternoon some of the prominent disunion
hoWlers of this town induced q set of
drunken vagabonds from Granville, in
Delaware, who pretend to have been SOL
ders, and who belong to the Army'Of the
Republic, to 90 to Trenton, and tear down
the johnson flag that was hoisted there.
Accordingly about four O'Clock z. M. about
thirty of these desperadoes from Granville,
among whom were George Abbot, Thomas
Gregory, John Spence, Jesse Bracken,
Thomas Bracken, Peter Shidef and ---
Bell, but none of the cowardly sneaks from
this place, who had instigated the outrage,
started for Trenton at full gallop. When
they came to the village the meeting had
broken up and all had gone home. They
surrounded the pole on which the stars and
stripes were floating, yelling and cursing
like demons. They ran down the flag and
commenced tearing it to pieces, when one
OF the most esteemed and respected citizens
OF the town, Daniel Landon, a man sixty
two years of age, came out of the store
close by, and asked them TO let him take
the flag. They yelled " Kill the copperhead
son of b-h." He was knocked down
with a club, his skull badly fractured, and
his head hacked in nine places to the bone
with a sword. Lewis G. Landon, the old
mans son, and Fanny, his daughter, who
were in the store, seeing their father beaten
down, came to the rescue, the former armed
with haichet. A deadly tightcommenced
between Lewis, armed with the hatchet,
and the gang, at the head of which was Alb
bots, armed with sword. After receiving
flesh wound in the head and one on the
knee, Lewis disarmed Abbott with one
blow Of his hatchet upon the right hand of
Abbott, which nearly severed it from the
arm. Ea.rrsafs ..s.....rt
In q moment, now armed with the sword
of the disabled leader, he wounded five
others, several dangerously, one it is sup
posed mOrtally. Fanny grasped the flag
with death grip, and although pistol
was snapped within a foot of her head, and
she was thrown upon the ground and
trampled under the feet of the horses, vet
she clung to the stars and stripes and saved
it. BY this time, seeing their leader and
several others bleeding from ghastly cuts
from the hatchet of the brave Lewis, and
seeing the neighbors coming to the rescue,
they fled, some taking the road west and
others south. Their Captain, Abbott, and
one or two Others were held, in the saddle
as they rode off. They left one sword and
several hats on the ground, which were
captured by the victors. Strange as it
may seem, although several were armed
with pistols, yet they refused to go of, and
they were snapped in succession at the
head of the old man, and at Lewis and
Fanny. These are the particulars of the
outrage as narrated by Robert Ransom, a
prominent Republican OF Trenton. ...
This murdeTous assault tupon the starsand
stripes and its brave defenders, unprovoked
as it was, by these cowardly assassins, was
sanctioned and approved by all the Re-
publicans of Delaware county; and band
numbering several hundreds, armed with
sabres and United States muskets, was or
ganiZed yesterday, at Granville, and sent
word by messenger to Trenton, that If
they did not send them the captured sword
and hats, and pay one of the assasslns $25
for watch he had lost ,in the fight, they
would burn the town and murder every
citizen in it. Knowing they would carry
their threats into execution, and having no
hopes of assistance, they this morning
gave up the sword and hats, and the Re
publicans of the more decent class of this
place and vicinity, paid the man for the
watch. The above is a true statement of
facts, most of which occurred under my
immediate observation, in fact, all except
the particulars of the fight, which can be
relied upon as tru 9. -