The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1873-04-24

Nash, and the asSailed by q man named Ton
Allen; that the beseged We're given thirty min
utes 10 remove Their women and children. and
eilat at tne expiration of that time the fight
was GGmmenced by the assailing party. The
attacklng party had in their possessjon q small
cannon, taken from the steamboat James r.
-i U4ie, from winch they fired bolts, sample OF
WIG. we deposit in your office. The besieged
iau figged up couple of guns. by fastening
ienSthS OF gas pipe on rafter timberS, blocking
touch-hole One of these was bursted wi lie
trying it some days before the fight, land the 9th
er has not the appearance of having been used.
THE MASSACRE.
Some time during the afternoon the besieged
were drive from the fight aud from their
breastworks into the court house. One end of
this building was without windows, nor had
the besieged prepared loopholes. A colored
man named Isaiah Atkins informedius that Mr.
Nash had forced a coored man called ink to
come to this end of the building and hold a pine
loren 20 the edge OF the roof until it caught fire.
IL Is our opiulon that few of the colored men
had been killed up to this time, but that when
forced by the fire to leave the court house
they were shot down without mercy. The Do
Siton and condition OF MANY of the bodies po
far to prove this. Under the warehouse, be-
tween the court house and the river, wera.the
dead bodies of six cOlOred men, who had evil
IDENTITY gone under for concealment, and were
there shot like dogs. Many were shot in the
DdCk OI tne ueau ana neck. One man SGlil lay
with his hands clasped in supplication; the face
of another was completely fattened by blows
from broken stock of q double-barreled gun,
lying on the ground near him; another had
been cut across the stomach with knife, after
being shot, and almost all had from three to
dozen wounds. Many of them had their brains
literally blown out.
PRISONERS EXECUTED AND THEIR BODIES
PITCHED INTO TIE RIVER.
1t is asserted by the colored people that after
+ the fight "a prisoners who were taken before
the burning of the courthouse, were taken to
the river bank, two by two, executed, and hurl-
ed into the river We caused to be buried in
the ditch, near the courthouse, the remains of
"a coored men, three of whom were so badly
burned as to be unacceptable. There were
inside the courthouse the charred bones of one
other, and five bodies we gave to their friends
| for interment elsewhere. We saw also twelve
! wounded colored men, two of whom will GER
| tainly die, and others of whom are very unlike
| ly to recover. We are informed that since the
! tight parties of armed men have been securing
the country surrounding Colfax, taking the
| mules and other property of the colored peo-
| pie.
Since writing the above report we have seen
on board the steamboat the colored man, Leon
Allen, who commanded the parties holding the
courthouse, He assures that not single
colored man was killed or wounded until after
the surrender, and that they were shot down
without mercy. On our return to Alexandria
we were again implored by citizens to have
troops sent there at once as the only means of
averting disturbance.