Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1874-09-10
REIGN OF TERROR IN LOUISE
ANA.

A special dispatch from New Or
leans to the Chicago Tribune says
Latest advices from Shreveport con
firm the report of the murder of tn,
twelve prisoners taken from Cou
shatta, while on their way to the form
err place. Coushatta, is the county
seat of Red River Parish, and th,
men killed were f. s. Edgerton
Sheriff FL. t. Twitchell, Tax Coliec
tor; Clark Halland, Register Gil
bert Cone, Deputy Sheriff; W. F
Howell, attorney at law and r. A
Dewess, Tax Collector, of Desots
Parish, all white, and six colored mer
whose names are not known. The
white men were all Northern men
and formerly Union soldiers, and al
were Republicans and holding Office
under Kellogg, except Howell. A
demand had been made upon then
some time since to resign their Off
ces, which they refused to do, anC
they were assured that they woulC
again be waited upon by suffi
cient force to compel an acquiescence
Sheriff Edgarton had called together
posse of a hundred or so of coloreC
men, but the force brought to bear
upon him was SO great that he pro
baby thought it useless to make {
fight. On being placed under guard
all of the party that held office volun
tarily proposed, If guard was fur
nished them to Shreveport they
would leave the State to return M
more. This was at once assented to
and the prisoners requested Mr. Johr
Carr, reliable and trustworthy citi
zen present, to take charge of the
guard for their protection. On Sun
day morning at 10 o'clock, Mr.. Carr
with a guard of about sixteen men
started with the above named pris
oners, except the negroes. After
ward party of between forty and
fifty men, supposed to be all Texans
who had come into CONSTANTS, start
ed in pursuit, with the avowed pur-
pose of
LYNCHING THE PRISONERS.
Later in the day Mr.. Carr was ap-
priced of this fact, and put his horses
and those of the prisoners to the top
of their speed to avoid being over.
taken. While nearing the Hutchin-
SOD plantation, on Red River, some
30 miles below Shreveport, with a
view of crossing there, and destroy
ing the flat. boat to prevent further
pursuit, he was overtaken by the pur-
suing party, his guards overpowered,
and the prisoners taken away from
him, and three of them-Edgarton,
Twitchell, and Devices.
SHOT ON THE SPOT.
The other three, Howell, Holland,
and Willis, were carried back q short
distance to near Wards store, and
.here shot. The citizens in the neigh
borhood assembled yesterday morn
ing and buried the parties who had
been killed the first three in the
grave yard near HutchinsoD'S planta-
ton, and the last three on the spot
where they had been killed, near
Wards store.
A Special dispatch from New Or
leans to the Chicago lnter-Ocean
says: Coushatta is Northern
thrifty and prosperous.
Two-thirds of the town and a large
part of the parish being owned by
Northern ex-Union soldiers, it has
long been threatened by the old reb-
ell element ofthe surrounding country
that they would exterminate that
northern colony. McEnery, in re-
cent tour through that part of our
State, advised the people to hang all
and scallswags to the
limbs of trees. This bloody and hor-
rible tragedy is only one of the many
fruits of his advice. There were no
charges of crime against the victims.
They were all residents and tax
payers.
When the Union boys first went to
Caushatta it had but one log house
and store. What they had made up
to the time of the massacre will be
seen by the following account from
a New Orleans paper of Aug. 30:
"Coushatta is one of the most pros
porous towns on Red River, and has
grown into Importance since the war
A majority of its inhabitants are
Northern men who have settled there
since the war, built saw mills, grist
mills, machine shop. cotton pick
airy, and inaugurated other enter
prises. 1t was few years ago selec-
ted as the capital of the new parish
of Red River. A court house and
school house were built, the leveef
were put in good repair, and evory-
thing shows signs OF thrift and ener.
gy. 1t is strongly Republican, and
has been usually quiet, peaceful and
prosperous for that section of the
country. A large portion ofthe par
ish is owned by Northern men, white
Republicans. 1t is know in all the
surrounding country as a Yankee
colony
A Louisiana correspondent of the
Chicago Inter-Ocean says: "ThiI
neighborhood and the whole country
stand this moment upon seethinl
volcano. The colored people arr
struck dumb and motionless will
fear
THEREIs A REIGN OF TERROR HERE.
SURPRISING anything known IN tn
palmiest days of the Kuklux Khan
If could have access to some lead
ing Journal at the North, in which
the true state of affairs here might b
set forth without endangefing my
life, q great good would be accom-
plished thereby. The authorship o
a correspondent of that sort woul'
necessarily have to be kept a pro
found secret.
Certainly something must be don
to arouse the people of the North an
the administration to realizing sens
of the situation here.