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

armed at all; the meeting was held at
grove about three-quarters Of a mile In
northwesterly direction from Clinton
about 800 yards from the Upper Vieks
| burg road, and between it and the rail
road '. * NJ. X. II. J; the speakers stane
Is aLout a quarter Of nile from tia
Poiut where the public road crosses the
railroad, and this crossing is between the
/ speakers stand and the town of Clinton
and pretty nearly on a straight line TO-
wards Clinton ; few of the RAYMOND
! gentlemen, | think, the two Young Whar.
| tons, Wink Waddell and Thomson and
/ perhaps young Huntly, about ten or fif
teen minutes before the fight, had been
IunchIng at wagon; after lunching.
they walked to their own wagon, about
twenty steps distant from where they had
lunched this latter wagon was at a
branch in little bottom near a gronD of
willows, about 100 yards from the sneak
ers stand | passed this party short
time-a few minutes-hefore the fiobf
they were very near the wagon some
were seated in chairs and some were
standing; they were laughing and chat
ting among themselves, and all in a good
humor; none Of them were intoxicated
and not one Of them was in the least
dlsorderly; am certain Of this; | passed
them and walked towards the stand and
near ut, accompanied by Martin Siyley:
Slvley was sober-in fact, / know that
he did not drink, and has not used any
liquor for at least three years we stood
aolviey and near the stand a few min
utes, when my attention was attracted by
Il Il
l left the Raymond party, and by the
remarks of the negroes as they moved
down, to " come on, we are going to have
night the negroes near me commenced
drawing pistols and moving in that direc-
ton; 1 was surrounded by negroes, and
every one | noticed had n pistol in his
hand not shot had then been fired |
heard nothing of what was transpiring
down at the branch | heard several or
ders given to the negroes to fall in, or
: form ranks, and come on" | then
heard the drums, and Just after the drums
beat pistol shot was fired and the firing
before the shot was fred.
however, Sivley and l walked towards
the group of willows on the branch we
were enveloped in a crowd of negroes,
several hundred, that were
rushing towards the spot, and in fact we
were borne along by the crowd reached
the wagon at the group of willows, where
] had left the Raymond men before the
tlrlng commenced the Raymond white
men whom l had left at the wagon were
not at the wagon, but they had retreate1
at least forty steps from the wagon before
the crowd of negroes; the negroes, a
dense mass several hundred in number,
were crowding close on them, and pushed |
so close to them that | soon afterwards |
lost sight Of them; it was at this point !
that the first pistol was fired, by whom | |
do not know; the first shot that | saw
fired, which was the second shot | heard, /
was fired by a negro at young Ramsey |
hitting him in the head Siv- |
ley was with me at the time immediate |
" after the first shot Il general firing /
the negroes continued to |
rush down to the spot the negroes then
a little on one side of this /
crowd, but the drums continued TO beat,
and numbers Of negroes cried g come
on, and they rallied there were not I
exceeding twelve white men on this part +
Of the ground engaged in the fight; l +
am informed that in addition to these, +
several other white men, not more than I
three or four, whom ! did not see, were /
engaged in the fight; they were broken
into little groups a few PAGES apart, and
were being crowded on by the negroes
the white men retreated all the time, de
Tending themselves as we'll rs they could; |
all the while the white men were giving |
way before the negroes, | heard them
fNv nd I no
to stop firing on them the negroes were /
crying, kill them, damn them, kill |
them; the white men were soon scat
tered. and those who were not killed |
made the best of their way from the |
field Sivley and | started to leave; we
were at first separated by rush of ne
groes; we came together again, still re-
treating, about two hundred yards from |
where the firing commenced; the negroes
were then on us, firing and some striking
Us with empty pistols at this point, Siv-
lev begged them not to kill him, saying
he had not commenced the difficulty |
they told him to give up his pistol; he I
handed his pistol to a negro, holding 1t /
by the barrel and presenting the handle;
as ore negro took the pistol, another ne
gro knocked him down with a pistol, |
the pistol by the blow; Sively /
staggered to his feet, and he and | ran |
off towards cotton field, negroes pur- t
suing, firing at us and crying " kill them, /
damn them, kill them; Sivley, as he
ran, was bleeding from three wounds ; /
we had gone perhaps one hundred yards /
into the field when Martin Sivley fell, i
struck by negro from behind; l ran on |
into little branch, and stopped mo-
ment somewhat concealed ten or twelve |
negroes surrounded him, and heard |
them striking him; after that | came on
to Clinton after the firing became gen
eral, the white men Gas L have described
them) became separated and l lost sight
of them, and cannot say how they lett the
ground or how they escaped | saw two
negroes dead on the grounds, and four or
five others that l supposed to be wound
ed | have since ascertained that three
white men were killed and about eight
wounded (Charles Chiffon is included,
who was killed in his own yard, as | have
been informed). | will here state that
when | reached the group of willows
where | had left the party of Raymond
gentlemen, and where the alteration first
began, found that the crowd of armed
negroes had crowded them from the spot,
and they had retreated about forty PAGES
before the fight began; when | reached
the wagon at the group of willows they
were still retreating; there were not more
than eleven white men, not all quite To-
gether, but little separated In small
groups as the white men gave back, and
before the fighting began, l could hear
.bao, tho Xybita mpD0 SaVinp TO the ne
sroes TO g go back, that there was no
difficulty" % no fuss" and that they
g wanted no difficulty; and the negroes,