The Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1855-1875, 1874-09-23
A More Detailed Account


/
1t is now aseertainod through private dis
/ patches that one of the most horrible massa-
lcres ever enacted in this State has been per-
lpetrated in Red river parish: The accounts
(which have been received thus far have
leone through White League sources, and,
| therefore, it is but reasonable to suppose that
but one-half of the horrible story has been
told. So far as ascertained the followin g
tday, August %, II. j. Twitchell, Deputy
/ Postmaster; w. r. Howell, United States
Commissioner at CONSTANTS, La; r. A. De-
wees, State Supervisor of Registration OF
De Soto parish; Frank Edgerton, Sheriff.
NJ. G. Willis, Justice of the peace; and
Clark Holland, Supervisor of Registration
of Red river parish, We're visited by regularly
Iorganized and armed White Leaguers from
/ the surrounding parishes at Coushatta, capt.
| tai of Red river parish, who demanded that
they should resign their offices. They re-
fused. Shortly after the White Leaguers re-
| turned rein forced and demanded their sur
Irender. They surrendered in order to save
| their women and children the horrors of q
| bloody fight but this was not done until they
had been assured by the White Ieaguers
| that they would be protected from further
! personal violence, and that the women and
children would not be molested. They were
then made prisoners, together with several
| colored men. and inearcerated in the parish
| jail, where they were guarded by the W hite
Leaguers On Sunday, the Goth, their captors
took them all from the Jail, conveyed them
| beyond the jurisdiction of that district, and
murdered them in cold blood. This is the
work Of the White Leaguers, encouraged by
| the rnurderous speeches of McEnery and
Marr who, in the late convention at Baton
Rouge, in set speeches advised the White
| post to organize and arm and drive the Re-
publicans from the State, and offered them
troops McEnery going so far as to say that
Grant would not dare to use United States
| troops against them. Coushatta is North
/ ern settlement, thrifty and prosperous. Two
- l. Aff ha tour nd lore npt Of tba
Iparish being owned by Northern ex-Union
soldiers, it has long been threatened by the
| old rebel element OF the surrounding coun-
| try that they would exterminate that North
Tern colony.
| McEnery, in a recent tour through that
| part of the State, advised the people to hang
all carpet-baggers and scalawags to the lmb s
of trees. This bloody and horrible 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
Ipayers. The greatest anxiety prevails on the
part of the friends and relatives of the muir
dered men. When the Union boys first went
Ito Coushatta it had but one log house and
istore.
! What they had made up to the time of the
massacre will be seen from the following ac-
ICount from a New Orleans paper of August
l3O: "Coushatta is one of the most prosper
Gus towns on Red river and has grown into
Importance since the war. A majority of its
inhabitants are Northern men who have set
iIleu tUefo SLlCe the Wdf, bAiib saw HILLS a
machine shop cotton pickery, and inaugura-
| ted other enterprises. 1t was few years a GO
selected rs the capital of the new parish of
| Red River. A courthouse and sChool-house
were built, the levees were put in good re-
lpair, and everything shows signs of thrift
land energy. II is strongly Republican, and
has been usually quiet, peaceful and prosper
/ Gus for that section of country. A large pof-
| ton Of the parish is own ed by Northern men
white Republicans 1t Is known in all the
surrounding country rs a Yankee colony.
Hence it must have been special object OF
1.-THE hatred of the White Leaguers.n
| The Times of this city, a conservative Jour
nal opposed to the White League organiza-
ttio1, in an article upon the subject of these
murders, SAYS: I'VE have not heard of any
lcrime being charged against these men, ex-
| cept that one of them was tax collector, and
some of the others hold parish Offices" and
lconcl,des as follows: ''The civilized world
Twin net be inclined to attach much credit to
the Judgment of those highwaynaen rs to the
guilt of men who have not been tried, and 50
| far as we have learned, have not been accused
/ of serious crimes. They VIII prefer TO believe
that the real DID scoundrels are the
murderers themselves. We charge distinctly
| that this atrocious deed is the direct and le-
| gitiInate outgrowth Of the violent Red river
White League organizations, and for il the
| able and diaholical " hite League organ, the
Shreveport Ifsfrcs, is IN large measure re-
, sponsible.