The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1875-09-29

attacked Us; had a bullet hole throug
my coat before I drew my pistol | thin
the negroes had crowded right up on III
white men, and had actually closed U
against them before the firing commenced
do not think there were more than III
teen or sixteen white men who participat
ed in the fighting, and, As | have stated
the little groups who were pressed by tn
negroes, and who were retreating, as
have already described. consisted Of abou
eleven men. Ii conclusion, / will stat
that the party Of negroes who pursued
Sivley and was led by Charles Cald
well, Jr.; saw him CALDWELL shoot a
US several times; | am unable to state
how the quarrel at the group Of willow:
began, or the persons who commenced
the alteration.
w. A BRAcEY.
Sworn to and subscribed before me,
the 10Th September, 1875.
lsEAL. SILAs J. CAREY, J.P.
Morris Ward (white Dcmocrat)-Ili live
at Raymond at present; came to Clinton
on last Saturday, Sept. 4th; went out
to the barbecue about twelve o'clock i;
while Fisher Republican, was speaking.
| was standing on the outskirts of the
crowd that was gathered around the
speakers stand the first thing that at
tracted my attention was a rush of ne
groes in the direction of the group of
willows where the wagon Of some of the
Raymond men was standing; | moved
down i'll that direction, and got pretty
close to this wagon, where had seen the
Raymond boys short time before the
negroes were running by me drawing
their pistols, and pressing down on a
small party of white men, about ten to
fifteen; this party of white men was scat.
tered in little groups, few PAGES between
the groups some of the negroes said
'sshoOt them, others said ''kill them ;"
these white men were falling back before
the negroes, and the negroes were press
ing them; could hear the white men
talking and pleading with the negroes for
peace; | heard them say they did not
want fuss; the negroes did not stop at
at all but continued to press on; the
white men did not turn their backs in
retredting. but backed off from the ne
groes while asking for peace; they retreat
ed because the crowd of negroes pressed
on them so closely; the negroes from
other parts Of the ground continued also to
reinforce this crowd of negroes that were
pressing the retreating whites the drums
were beaten; the negroes called to each
other to orally" to 'come in and kill the
damn Whites" and "damn sons of
bitches;" | saw the negroes close up,
almost touching the qcdites, and large
negro in the front of the negroes holding
Il large pistol upIifted in his hand at
this time the whites had retreated about
forty yards, and another stream of negroes
had approached them from nearly an
opposite direction | would suppose that
about three hundred negroes were in the
crowd which was pressing the whites
all the negroes | noticed were armed
Many had pistols, and those who had no
pistols had sticks and clubs and knives
[ saw them drawing their pistols as they
ran down to the spot, and as soon as the
first intimation was given that a quarrel
was going on, they commenced drawing
their pistols. About the time that this
crowd of negroes We're so close to the
white men that they could touch them
with their hands, shot was fired L
cannot tell by whom, whether by a white
man or negro; in Two seconds Il general fir /
ing commenced | saw the whites make Il
stand and fire vigorously; then some OF
the white II en- retreated, and most of the
negroes retreated the whites did not
follow, but separated and commenced
leaving the ground in little groups OF
two or three then one negro gave yell
and said "God damn it, are you going
to let these whites off without killing
them" there was one white man still
shooting; the negroes then commenced
back Capt White "a white MANI
then said "boys, stay together or we
will be all murdered" saw Capt White
up the hill in the direction of Clinton
the white men were badly scattered
making their way singly and in twos to-
wards Clinton; the negroes having raj
lied came up and divided into crowds
that followed in various directions the
white men; that is each whit. man
and every two white men who were to-
gether, were followed by 8 separate crowd
of negroes the negroes were still shoot
ing the white men had quit firing,
most of them had no loads in their pistols
and were begging the negroes not to kill
them; / could hear the negroes say 'tkill
them, God damn them, kill them; the
negro women came up and encouraged
the negro men; the whites seemed afraid
to run, but were then walking Oft, soon
afterwards some of them did run | left
the grounds pursued by the negroes;
before | reached the railroad crossing
negro came up with me and pointed a
pistol in my face, and another who called
me Buckley made him desist; another
negro came up and said ''damn him, kill
him, he's a white man :" another negro
pursued me with a Ratchet, when DIR.
West, white man, passed between Us
on a horse, and 1 then got off to the
railroad | could not see what became
of the other white men, the confusion
was so great and they were so scattered;
when | reached the railroad crossing, L
saw ten or twelve negroes on the crossing,
some with pistols, who shot at me as /
passed some distance from them; | next
saw group of negroes in the railroad
below the crossing, shooting l saw an
other group of about ten negroes in the
LANYARD shooting at Mr.. Wells who was
passing in a buggy; l avoided this group
and came into Clinton; | suppose about
fifteen white men participated in the
fight, and | think there were about sixty
white men on the ground; in conclu-
sion, 1 will state that just before the firing
commenced | said to Charles Caldwell.
Sr., who was not more than a few steps
from the party of white men | have
already described, that he must, for Gods
sake, stop this fuss; 1 heard him say, 4
am trying to stop it" | am sure Cald-
well tried his best to stop the difficulty
and to keep the peace; l can safely say
Caldwell did not participate in the fight.
and | think was in position to have
seen and known it if he had, for I was