The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1873-04-19

general sense OF Insecurity prevails,
which we are satisfied can only be re-
moved by the presence of troops.
About One-third of a mile below the
Court-House we came upon a party
of colored men and women carrying
away a wounded colored man upon a
sled. At Il little distance in the field
were the dead bodies Of two colored
men. About two hundred yards nearer
the Courthouse were three dead
bodies of cOlored men, and from that
point to the Court House and it's vicini-
ty the ground was tllickly strewn with
dead. We were unable to find the
body Of a single white man, or to as
certain the loss Of the whites. Colored
women assert that two wagon loads
Of whites, dead and wounded, were
carried away, but it is persistently
denied by any of the whites claiming
to have knowledge of the actual loss,
they asserting that but one man on
their side was killed, and Hadnot and
Harris were wounded. We may state
here that Hadnot has since died in
Alexandria.
We send herewith a plan of the
Court House and it's defenses. A space
OF about 200 hundred yards square
was inclosed in a slight earthwork,
with ditch inside. This ditch was
from ten to eighteen inches in depth,
and the breastwork in front Of it from
twenty to thirty inches in height, and
was protected in front by two and a
half inch plankfng. On the lower side
of the Courthouse the greater por-
ton of the breastwork was composed
Of planking alone, laid in zig -zags and
without ditch.
From what information we could
get, we believe that the fight COM
nenced on Sunday, the thirteenth
instant, between 10 and IL o'clock
A. NJ, and continued until nearly
dark. Of the numbers engaged on
either side it is impossible for us to
form any definite idea, though we are
satisfied that the parties holding the
Courthouse were less In number than
their assailants. 1t is asserted by the
colored people that the assailants con
sisted of parties from the parishes of
Winn, Rapides, Natctitoches, Cata-
floula and Caddo, in addition to those
from Grant, but they were either un-
able or unwilling to give us the names
Of any parties participating in the at
tack. This information, however, will
doubtless be obtained hereafter.
All statements that we have heard
agree substantially in the main par
ticulars. It is agreed that the attack
ing party was commanded by c. C.
Nash, and the assailel by man
named Lev. Allen; that a surrender
was demanded and refused; that the
besieged were given thirty minutes to
remove their women and children,
and that at the expiration of that
time the fight was commenced by the
.ssailant party. Appended hereto,
and marked A. is the statement of a
between Columbus c. Nash
an,l Colonel Deklync.
The attacking party had in their
possession Il small cannon, taken from
the steamboat John t. Moore, from
which they fred bolts, sample of
which We deposit i'll your office. The
besieged had rugged up Il couple of
guns by fastening lengths of gas pipe
,n rafter timbers, blocking up one end
With pine plug and drilling touch
hole. One Of these was bursted while
trying it, some days before the fight,
md the other has not the appearance
IF having been used.
Some time during the afternoon the
besieged We're drawn from the field
md from their breastworks into the
Court House. One end of this build
ng was without windows, nor had
he besieged prepared loopholes. A
;olored man named Isaiah Atkins in
ormed us that Mr.. Nash had forced a
;olored man called Pink to come to
his end Of the building and hold Il
oine torch to the edge of the roof
mtil it caught fire. Il is our opinion
hat few of the colored men had been
Silled up to this time, but that when
orced by the fire to leave the Court
House they were shot down without
mercy. The position and condition
# many Of the bodies so far to prove
his. Under the warehouse, between
he Court House and the river, were
he dead bodies Of six colored men
Who had evidently crept under for
and were there shot like
logs. Many were shot in the back of
he head and neck one man still lay
With his hands clasped in supplica-
ion; the face of another was COM
,letely fattened by blows from a gun,
he broken stock of Il double -barreled
hot-gun being on the ground near
lin another had been cut across the
tomacl with knife after being shot;
md almost all had from three to a
lozen wounds. Many of them had
heir brains literally blown out. 1t is
by the colored people that
lfter the fight thirty -four prisoners,
Who were taken before the burning of
he Courthouse, were taken to the
liver bank, two by two, executed and
lurled in the river. We caused to be
,uried in the ditch near the ruins of
he Court House. the remains of fifty-