New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-05-10
The Coushatta Assassination.

The Shreveport Telegram of May pub
fishes private letter from Coushatta, Civ
ing some of the details of the shooting o.
Senator Twitchell and party. The letter il
dated May 3:
l expect that you have already heard
through the papers, of the excitement here
Yesterday morning about eight O'Clock a
| stranger came into town and rode up to
DeLaney's blacksmith shop, saying that he
wanted his horse shOd. He was disguised
by wearing pair of black goggles. and an
| India rubber OvercOat, which came down
to his shoes and buttoned up 30 closely that
NJ other part of his clothing was visible.
He had bottle of whisky in his pocket and
appeared to be pretty tight. He placed
| himself in the shop SO that he could COM
| mand good view of the opposite side of
| the river. and sat there for about two hours
when he saw M. II. Twitchen and King, his
| brother-in-law, coming down the river IN a
buggy. He then asked Delaney if the police
jury was to meet that day and got on
his horse, saying that he believed he
would ride down and take look at the
"big men" of the parish, as he had heard
of them very often, but had never seen any
of them. He rode down to DR.. Guthres
office and hitched his horse 10 the gallery
and walked to the river bank. When the
skitf containing Twitchell and King was
about landing he fired and struck Twitch-
ell in the thigh. King then opened fire and
fired twice. The fellow, fearing that King
might hurt him, shot him (King) through
the head. killing him instantly. In the
meantime Twitchell jumped out of the skiff
into the river to keep from being killed.
The man shot at him as he was and broke
both his arms. Twitchell was then forced
to let the boat loose, when the ferrymap,
old Dennis, caught him by the arms and
tried to pull him in the skiff. The man on
the bank kept firing, and shot old Dennis
in the hand, taking off one of his fingers.
He had sixteen shooting rifle and
a Remington si1-shooter. After he
emptied his rifle he got his horse and rode
down to the bank to see that his work was
well done, and seeing Twitchell still in the
water fred three ehOts 1T him with his re-
vOlver, without effect He then rode out
of town very leisurely, and did not seem to
care a cent who saw him and who didn't.
Every man in town was at the courthouse
to get the mail, which had just arrived. l
had just gone down when l heard the shoot
ing, and - got q morse to see what it
was. When he got opposite Lisso q store
the stranger leveled gun on him and said,
cd d-n your soul, get" And -
got. - darted out of the bank, and
the man leveled the gun On him and
told him also to march, which he
Obeyed. negro saw the sht Dung
and thought it was an alligator. He
asked the man what he was shooting
at and the fellow said 3. black alligator.
Midget was standing on the opposite bank
OF the river and fired four shots at the man
but missed him. He was certainly a
stranger, for Mr.. George Cawthon and
several others saw him and looked at him
closely an hour before the shooting took
place and did not know hun. Twitchelrs
left arm has been amputated, and The doc
tors think it probable that he will also lose |
his right arm. He has been taken to |
Spring VILE for safety. King will be buried |
this evening. There was . great deal of !
excitement in town between both whites |
and blacks. Tho negro women got together |
and sang. prayed and moaned pitifully. |
boys h.. gone IN pursuit 81 the
man. The doctors think if warm weather |
sets in there u moro probability of Twitch-
ell's dying than recovering.