Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1873-08-23
NASHVILLE.
A Bloody Field Day-TwO Men Stabbed,
One OF them Dangerously, and
Another Shot.
Effects Of Bad Whisky-Sketches Of the
Policemen and the Bad Characters
Engaged in the Rumpus.

From the Nashville Union and AraeFican.l
Yesterday party consisting of eigh
men came TO the city from a point il
Williamson county, about eighteen mile
South of Nashville. After dark the
started out for the purpose Of having %
high old time,n and in order to max
the affair & success, began dTinkin,
freely early in the evening. About ter
O'Clock they found themselves In tn
Green Tree saloon, q notorious bagnii
on North College, near the Louisvill,
depot, where they conducted themselve
in such violent manner that one of thu
women of the house went to thu
door and called for the police, which
was responded to by Officers Dick ReeC
and Samuel Plummer. The entire
party were taken under arrest by the
two officers, and were being marched to
wand the station, when, Just as they
reached Linck's hotel, one of the men
suddenly dashed into the alley on the
north side Of the hotel, entering the
building by side door, where he was
followed and Tecaptured. Tha party
then moved on again, hut had only pro-
ceeded q few steps, when five pistol
shots were fred in quick succession, one
shot taking effect in the left shoulder OF
Plummer, Reed was cut in the forehead
at the same time, and then the men
broke and ran rapidly up College street,
the two officers being so badly disabled
that they could not follow them up.
A crowd soon collected. Plummer
was carried into Linck's hotel, and
Reed was put into hack and taken TO
the police station. 1t was then found
that as they ran up the street one of the
men made several cuts with knife at
Charlie Allen, a colored man, who works
at the race-track for George Fuller, and
who happened TO be on the street. 1t
was reported that Allen, who received
two fearful-loOking cuts on the left side
of his neck and was also cut in the
hand, was trying to stop the men, but
he says that was not the case, but was
quietly walking along the street when
the men passed him.
Meanwhile other policemen were sent
in pursuit of the men who had broken
away from Reed and Plummer, and in
half an hour brought in three individu-
ais who gave the names of William T.
Ridley, aged thirty-six; Meredith En-
win, aged eighteen, and William HSm-
ilton Lee Washington Green, aged
twenty-six.
These men were very much excited,
their clothes more or less torn, and Rid
ley, who was bareheaded, was covered
with blood, which ran down from a
wound on one side of his head. He was
given a chair near a bench upon which
Reed was stretched, with a doctor bend
ing over him sewing up the wound in
his forehead. Ridley began talking in
an excited manner, saying: "They took
my weepins from me, and what could
do? l pretend to be q gentleman and
a brave man, This he repeated
over and over again, until Reed
jumped and started for him, saying that
he ridley was the man who did the
shooting, and that he would have all
the shooting he wanted before he got
through with this job, and was on the
point of seizing him, when he was sur
rounded and compelled to lie down on
the bench again. Ridley and Erwin
were finally taken off to the workhouse
and locked up, while Reed was put in
hack and taken home. Green was left
at the police station, the general belief
being that his earnest statement to the
effect that he was merely walking about
in that vicinity at the time the fracas
occurred, was true.
A doctor was called in to see Plum
mer at Linck's, and after making a
careful examination of the wound,
found that the ball had entered the left
shoulder, passing around and lodging
somewhere in the back, but he was un-
able to find the exact location. Plum
mer was also taken home, the doctor
accompanying him. He is painfully
injured, and will require careful tend
ing.
After the cOlored man, Allen, was cut,
he ran up College to Union and down to
the Office of DR.. F. NJ. Hughes, on the
corner of Union and Cherry. Allen
was taken to a house in the alley be-
tween Cherry and College, just below
the church on College street, where his
wounds were sewed up by DR.. Hughes,
who said that he had escaped death by
q miracle, the cash in the neck being
about three inches long and quite deep.
The wounded policemen are two of the
most valuable men on the force. Reed
has been connected with it about four
years, and Plummer about two, but was
also a policeman here during the war.
He has been in several desperate encoun-
ters with law-breakers, and, it is said
has killed five men, three of those in
one night. At one time he entered a
colOred church to arrest a party, when
he was set upon and severely beaten and
thrown from the steps of the building.
A party then gathered around him to
finish him, when he shot one of them.
Reed is one of the pluckiest men on the
force, and is a general fayorite with his
associates.
LATER-Since the foregoing was
written, our reporter learns that he was
misinformed with regard to one partieu-
lar. At the time of the shooting, one
of the arrested party called out "Rally.
boys, rallyw whereupon three or four
started TO run, while one of the remain
ing party cut Reed, who fell senseless,
and another shot Plummer, but the lat
ter did not fall, but followed the men
the distance of a block, firing three
shots. 1t was doubtless one of these
shots which inflicted the wound on Rid
ley's head.
The police were out in force last night
looking for the remainder Of the party,
and their arrest is certain.
LATEST-As we go TO press we learn
that all the party, six in number, have
been arrested.