Holmes County Republican. [volume] (Millersburg, Holmes Co., O. [Ohio]) 1870-1895, 1873-04-24
MOdG Massacre OltdOlG
The Merciless Slaughter OF
Colored Men by Whites in
Grant Parish, Louisiana.
Sixty-Five Muti1ated Dead
: II Bodies Found. 1

WASHINGTON, D. c., April Is.
Attorney General Williams to-
day received the following:
New ORLEANS, April II.
Deputy Marshal Dekhne has re
turned from Colfax. He arrived
there the day after the massacre
The details are horrible. The Dem.
ocrats, white, of Grant parish at
tempted to oust the incumbent par
ish officers by force and failed, the
Sheriff protecting the officers with a
colored posse. several days after
wards recruits from other parishes
came to the assistance of the assail-
ants, when they demanded the surren-
der of colored people. This was re
fused. An attack was made and the
negroes were driven into the Court
House. The Court House was fired
and the negroes slaughtered as they
left the burning building. After the
resistance ceased sixty-five negroes,
terribly mutilated, were found dead
near the ruins of the Court House.
80 are known to have been taken
prisoners and said TO have been
shot after surrender and thrown in
the river. Two of the assailants
were wounded. The slaughter is
geater than in the riot of 1866 in
this city. Will send report by mail
[Signed.I j. R. BEcKw1rH,
Ral '.' U. S. Attorney.
Marshal Packard telegraphs that
Deputy Marshal Dekline has return.
ed from Colfax, where he arrived
the Tuesday following the collision
of Sunday last, and found the place
almost deserted except l.y women.
He buried the remains of sixty
colored men found in the fields,
The dispatch continues: 1t was re.
ported that subsequent to the burn
lug of the Court House, .thirty-four-
colored men, previously made pris-
oners, were taken to the river bank
in Z couples, aud there shot and
thrown overheard. 1t is also re.
ported that colored men were shot
in the adjacent woods, where their
bodies are still lying. He found al
so twelve wounded, some of them
certainly mortally. The eolored men
present composed the posse which
under the direction of Sheriff Shaw,
White, appointed by Governor Kel:
logg, had taken possession of the
Court House, and were still holding
it,. Nash, who was Sheriff by ap.
pointment of Warmoth, and was su-
perceded by Shaw, led the whites.
From creditable Information there
appeared to have been no loss on the
part of the colored men until after
their surrender, when they were
murdered without mercy after the
massacre in the Court House, from
which they were elected by setting
fire to the building. Sheriff Shaw
is missing, andis supposed to have
been killed. The deputy found it
impossible to make an arrest with
out the presence of u. S. troops.
Armed bodies of whites are scour-
ing the country. The assailants
had in their possession six-pounder
cannon, taken, or, as some alleged,
loaned from the Red river steamer
joint. Moore.
Marshal Packard closed his dis
patch by saying: "When the cir
of this massacre are full
ly known, it will be found to be on.
ly equaled by that of Fort Pillow.
New York, April 1S.-The Times
special from New Orleans, about
the hostilities in Grant parish says:
Not a single colored was killed un-
til all had surrendered to the whites
who fighting them, when over one
hundred were shot down. 1t is un-
defstood that another lot was burn:
ed to death in the Court House.
After the butchery, the whites scat
tered in every direction, few OF
Them going to their homes, Many
Of them left for the Texas borders,
in hopes of escaping the conse-
luenees of their crime. The State
troops, on arriving at the scene of
hostilitles; buried over sixty bodies.
The Federal troops cannot proceed,
for want of transportation. l-g.-..