Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1866-08-07
Bloodshed in New Orleans,

men, many of them being men from the North,
adopted State Constitution, and organized
the State Government to suit Themselves
That Government was approved by President
Lincoln and is the present Government of that
State. By this constitution, the whites were
not disfanchised and the negroes we're not
| franchised The Radicals at this time, desiring
to disrancbise the whites, except the Radicals,
and to confer the right Of suffrage upon the
negroes, adopted the expedient of calling to-
gether the Convention which had adjourned
two years ago. The President Of the Conven-
ton, the only person who had the right to do so,
if it can be supposed that any one had the right
to resurrect that dead body, refused to call the
Convention together. A portion Of the mem
bers then met in caucus and elected man
President who was not a member of the Con-
vention, as he had previously resigned. This
man called the Convention to meet at New Or
leans on the 30th ult. Some twenty-odd met
with the view of superseding the Government
they had established two years ago. In the
mean time it seems that the negroes had been
instigated by those conspirators to arm them
selves and make menacing and insulting demon
STATIONS, with the hope, no doubt, that it would
result in conflict and bloodshed, and thereby
furnish capital for the Radical party.
Several circumstances seem to confirm this
view At the beginning of the not, DR.. Dostie,
leading Radical, shortly afterwards killed, re-
marked: 'There is not a negro in New Or
leans who is not organized and prepared -
Mr.. Cutler, another Radical, ON seeing a negro
fall dead, remarked: 'That fixes us and ends
the power of the id rebels"
The New Orleans Times says:
eve have the best reasons for supposing that
for several days vile attempts have been made
to excite the negroes into rebellion, and to Or
ganize them into bands for that specific pur-
pose. This view Of the matter is strengthened
by the disclosures made last night by r. F.
Daunoy, relative to the expected rise Of the ne
groes in the Third District at IL O'Clock last
night, under man named Bertin, but whether
white or black, we could not learn.
The Times gives the following account of the
origin Of the riot:
A procession of freedmen, some 100 to $50
in number, with flag and band of music at
their head, came marching up from the lower
part of town towards Mechanics Institute
A white man, who was standing on the neu-
trail ground looking on, was showed aside by one
of the freedmen, and tripping against the curb
stone, fell.
The policemen in the neighborhood on seeing
this supposed that the white man had been
struck, and advanced to arrest the supposed as
sailant.
The policemen were met by volley Of pistol
Il hr.o o<o puhi oh Of nd q UQn
eral alarm.
The procession marched on to the State
House. The New Orleans Crescent says:
'sIn the vicinity of the State House, as we
have heard, some white and colored boys got
into q quarrel White men standing on the
steps of the House, exhorted the negroes to kill
every white person-man, woman or chlld--Who
interferred with them. -.
About this moment the police, app1ised by
Mr. Creyon of the dangerous state OF affairs,
came on the spot The doors OF the State
House were Immediately closed. Shots were
fred on the police Some five OF SIX hundred
persons, blacks and whites, made fortress Of
the State House. Twice or thrice they made
offers of surrender, and, when the police ad-
vanced to receive the surrender, they were met
with pistol shots.
A terrible excitement spread abroad. 1t
seemed as If q war of races was preclpltated up
on the people with all its horrors. Itwas day
of anguish to every citizen of New Orleans
But in the midst of all that excitement we wit
messed some beautiful instances OF charity. A.
negro who had but one arm, and who, it may
be supposed lost his other arm IN the Federal
army, was pursued by some boys, and the poor
darkie was protected by gentleman, who had
been socalled ''rebel' in the Virginia army.
The conflict in front Of the house might be
called battle. The people inside were in
desperate situation. Occasionally rally was
made. with desperate resolution, but no sally
could drive these men from their place. ltwas
a field of capture or of slaughter, where resis-
lance was offered.
The contest was carried on for about two
hours A number of policemen, whose names
we have not learned, were wounded IN the
struggle But they never gave an inch. !.
We saw gentleman wearing the uniform OF
the United States conspicuous among the gal
liant men who assailed the State House. DR..
Dostie was severely wounded, and his worst
wound was from this soldier, a Massachusetts
gentleman, who proclaimed that the white
should be the ruling race of this continent:
Some 90 or 80 negroes were killed in this en-
counter.
The universal expression of sentiment was
that of regret that the poor negro, who was IN
cited to demonstrations OF violence, was the
victim Of the contest, while the white man, who
had inAamed him, escaped. Nevertheless, a
few Of those, who seemed to love incendiarism,
met their fate" 5'2 2-
The policemen, whilst receiving the fire from
the negroes in front, labored to keep back the
mass of enraged citizens who pressed to take
part in the bloody conflict. The accounts of
the number of killed and wounded differ very
much. We suppose that the number of killed
is about 80 and the number Of wounded proba-
bly, 10 or so, including blacks and whites. In
a despatch to Gen. Grant, two days after the
riot. Gen. Sheridan reports 40 killed, and about
100 wounded, including whites and blacks
More blacks than whites were killed.
The great Wigwam built for the Philadelphia
Convention will contain ten thousand persons.
a.