Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-09-15
THE GIBSON PRISONERS.
Eight Arrive i'm Memphis Under
Charge of a Guard of United
States Soldiers. :
One Of the Missing Ten Negroes, the
Informing Witness-What He Has
TO Say About the Afair-HOW
the Arrests We're Made.

from Gibson county, III. NJ. Fly, Monroe
MoIg gan, W. p. Peoples, j. +. Warren, j.
L. Morgan, F. L. Hudson, W. S. Eldridge
and ]. p. Halle, arrived in Memphis from
Humboldt, in charge of United States
Deputy Marshals TOrbett and Merinds,
with a guard of six soldiers from the bar
racks at the above named town. The
Appeal SAYS the prisoners conversed in a
free and jocular manner with the soldiers,
and did not seem to have much concern as
TO their future.
One of them, young Morgan, says they
had nothing to do with the lynching of the
negroes, and that the entire party is limo
cent Of the affair. They are confident of
being acquitted whenever a fair trial is had
but suppose they will have to remain in
jail till the next term of the United States
Court. They do not know at whose in
stance they were arrested unless at that of
the negroes who We're engaged in the at
tempted murder of the white people. at
is hard for the innocent to suffer with the
guilty." remarked one of the young men.
81 have no fear, however, and give myself
no concern as to the result of the trial, for /
know my innocence will be established"
Mr.. Morgan stated that, learningthat the
Deputy Marshal had a warrant for him, he
did not wait TO be arrested, but surrender
ed at Pickettsville He gave himself up,
he said, because he was innocent and did
not fear the consequences. His brother
and young Warren also surrendered.
The warrants upon which these gentle
men were arrested were based upon the af-
fdayit Of a negro, whose name is not made
known, and they are charged with having
"banded and conspired together; said de-
PENDANTS did then and there, while in dis
guise, and while so banded, felODiously,
willfully and m~aliciOusly, and with malice
prepense, commit murder in the fist de-
gree, by then and there shootingandkilling
ono Jared Borough and certain other per-
sons to affiant unknown, contrary TO the
form of the statute of the United States in
such cases provided, and against the peace
and dignity of the same"
WHO GAVE THE INFORMATION.
For some time past it has been whis-
pered abroad that ten of the sixteen negroes
who were taken from the Trenton jail by
masked marauderS, had effected their es-
cape and that several were in Memphis.
One of the number, named Dug Jamison,
has been confined in the jail there several
days in default Of bail required by the
United States authorities for his appear
ance as a witness in the case. 1t is thought
that the affidavit upon which the prisoners
were arrested was made by him. A re-
potter for the AUGlGRche interviewed this
negro, and gives the result as follows:
When the dUGtGnche commissioner ask
ed for Douglas johnson, Turnkey Reilly
called up a smart looking half-yellow fel-
low of apparently G0yearS, andmOre than or
Observation-Disclosures expreSsedinhis features,
who answered to his name. He is a stout
built fellow, laughs a great deal when talk
ing, and seems possessed of the geuine
happy, careless humOr of the olden time
plantation darkey. In speech he is quick
and given to old fashioned sayings.
The conversation with him, leaving out
names and traDslating idiOms to English
something of the following nature:
Av. CommiSsioner-Well Douglas, they
have you behind better walls than al Tren-
ton at this time.
Douglas-The good Lord, yes; and this
child is glad of it. don't want any more
of that.
Com.-Rather warm times up there?
DOug-Yes, indeedy; / thought it was
dead doc, dead niger, I did. Inever was
scared so bad in all my life as l was that
night.
Com.-YOu were all in the jail together,
were you not?
Doug-Yes, sir, all in there together,
when they came in and unlocked the
door, and told US to march out and be
tied.
Com.-How did they tie you?
DoUg.-Well, I'll tell YOU: they took a
long piece of rope, and making us cross our
hands this way [crosSing his wrists at a
right anglel they tied my wrists together
with one end of the rope, and then Withthe
other they would tie another Niger the
same way.
Com.-What did they do with you then?
Dug We'll, they marched us out Of
town and over the bridge, and along by the
creek, when l broke and AN.
Com-How could you run when you
were tied to another man?
Dug.-YOu see, when / was coming
down the Jail steps | united my hands. |
was tied, l think, to Nels McGhee, who, l
bear. is now in hickman, Kentucky. Ii
was pretty dark, though, and l was pretty
badly scared, and didn't notice very close.
COm-What caused you TO run just
when you did?
Dug-Because the man who was walking
just behind Inc dropped suddenly, just as if
he was dead. l don't know what made
MIN uEOl. WHEN lc lCll, SOuuc OlC odius
seGod damn YOU, what is the matter with
you?'' Another man said: "Oh, shoot the
son of a bitch" and then some n put a
revolver at his head and fired, killing him.
COm-WhO was the man killed
Dug.-That was Jarrett Burrows.
CONDO you know who it was that
shot him?
Dug. Oaughing)I don't know, l can't
give n
COm.-What happened then?
Dug.-We had crossed the bridge then,
and Mr.. - said: Turn to the right
and let the dogs loose" and Capt. - said
turn too. Just as they turned, l looked
around and saw that my guard was back,
! and not looking at me, and L made q jump
| to the left into the underbTush, and got
into the creek, swan across and got away.
| Only one shot was fired at me, as far as |
know, for as they turned toward Inc Nels
| McGhee-I think twas Nei'S-iumped
the other way and they looked after him.
While | was in the creek, somebody else
Jumped in and loUndered around a great
deal between two logs. thought it was
Nel's, and as he topped around like a fish,
l said to him TO keep quiet, or they
would find us. lie made no answer,
but Just kept on with his noise, and then
l left him and went over in a cOrn-feld.
He must have been pretty bad hurt, who
ever he was, but l didn't get close enough
to him to see who it was. While lying
over there in the corn, l heard 30 or 10
shots back where l left the men, and then
| thought about dead niggers.
Com Jarrett Burrows, then, was the
only man killed before you left the party?
Dug.-Yes, sir.
CONDO YOU know how many of the
Tiers were killed?
Dug.-NO. sir, but [laughingl Nefs Nc
Chez is the only n that has been heard
from.
Com.-Did they say anything about
where YOU were being taken?
Dug. Ilaughingl-Yes, sir, they said
they were going to put us on the cars and
take MS to Humboldt, but l knew they
warn't going the right way to do that.
Com.-Have you recognized any OF the
men who were brought in here this after
noon as part of the masked men?
Dug. Qaughingly)| couldn't say, sir
That wouldn't do, you know, but l know
lots of them.
COm.-Were they all masked?
Dug.-Yes; but after we left town some
of them pulled Off their masks or talked SO
that | could recognize their voices.