Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1876-10-26

,1a7.
376. -. ..'.'...
anyhow, as the blacks outnumber them ten to
one.
Now let us consider the condition of mind
those men who were ambushed at Double
Bridge on Sunday night must have been IN
They were openly attacked by, q large number
of armed negroes in the night. After they
scattered, wounded and exhausted, they dis.
covered that another party Of negroes had
killed Williams and shot Stallings horse,
While they were receiving this news, they saw
the skies reddening with two or three incendia.
ry fires, evidently the work Of another party
of negroes. They felt certain, 80 many Of
them informed me, that there had been
general uprising Of the negroes for the purpose
of rape and murder and arson. The GOODNESS
in dispensing so promptly at their captains
call is remarkable.
1t has been said by Senator John Patterson
that the white people wrecked the train on
the Port Royal Railroad for the purpose %
robbery, believing that United States pay.
master with $4,000 was on board. This can
hardly be 30, as the train that was wrecked
was the way freight train, on which no pas.
sengers fmuch lessfa United States paymas.
teri ever travels. Besides this the telegraph
wires were cut in three places on the night
before the train was due a hardly likely pro-
ceeding if robbery was the object. ! have
seen the affidavit Of Tenant, the engineer, in
which he says that the field in front Of the
place where the engine was wrecked was full
of armed negroes. The whites who came up
shortly afterward fired into them and killed
one armed negro. The impression here is,
and it is shared by all, that the negroes feared
the train would bring help from Augusta and
they determined to wreck it.
Your correspondent must recur for q mo-
ment to the strange mystery and exaggeration
that has been thrown over this affair. En-
route to the scene of conflict I was repeatedly
informed by Democrats as we'll as Republi.
cans, that the list of killed was everywhere
from thirty to three hundred. The best in
formed editors and politicians believed that
the slaughter had been terrific; and even in
Augusta, within twenty miles of Ellenton, it
is believed that moi. less than fifty and proba-
bly, more than one hundred we're killed. A
reporter of an Atlanta paper visiting the scene
a week after the occurrence, put the deaths at
ninety. a Chicago correspondent, with pain
full exactness, puts it at one hundred and sew.
enty-nine. General Hagood, who participa.
ted in the conflict, gives the, number at thirty.
one. The causes Of this strange misappre-
hension are manifold. In the first place, the
negroes, in almost every case, fought in the
swamp, leaving it Indefinite as to how many
were killed and lost The fight was being
waged at three or four different points, widely
distant from each other, at the same time,
and reports flying to and from the various
squads we're vastly exaggerated. The fights
lasted for three days and nights, rencontres
being frequent enough to produce the impress
sion ia; $50
THAT THE SLAUGHTER WAS DREADFUL.
A good many careless young fellows came
down from Augusta and other points, and, re.
turning with exaggerated reports, produced
the impression that scores were killed. Above
all, a great many negroes who were prominent
in the fighting, kept themselves bid for days
after the peace, being afraid to show them
selves. Their friends, really supposing that
they had. been killed, reported them dead and
mourned them as such. This very morning
Abram Overstreet and Alec Wright, who
were currently reported dead, and put by
Democrats on the death list, put in their ap-
pearance without a scratch. At Ellenton,
Albert Carroll, Dan Rouse and Alec Williams
were believed on all hands to be. dead. Your
correspondent talked with all of these ne.
groes in Aiken two days ago, where they are
living under protection of the troops. ! have
worked patiently in both places and at inter-
mediate places, comparing lists, looking up
missing men, interviewing all classes and con.
ditions of people, and am positively certain
that no other casualty than those tabulated
above can be substantiated talked with
scores of negroes and asked them what negroes
were missing from their various neighbor-
hoods. In every case they were covered by
one of the names reported above. All the
negroes have shown up now, and now, for the
first time, is truthful report obtainable. /
could publish the afidavits of twenty men in
Aiken County, of the highest responsibility,
that the most rigid scrutiny could not put the
deaths above twenty. I have made search
for the graves of the killed. These graves are
scattered about and have located just seven.
teen graves, two whites being buried and
eighteen blacks. Henry Campbell, who died
last night, not being buried as yet I do not
hear Of single grave that is unaccounted
for, nor of single dead man whose grave can
not be located. n
WHY THE DEATH ROLL Is SMALL.
It appears remarkable, when we consider
the number of men engaged and the time Of
the conflict, that the death roll is 80 small.
The truth is there was enough ferocity and
determination in the conflict to have caused
the deaths of a thousand men. If the whites
had struck the negroes on Monday morning
at Ellenton, there would have been terrible
slaughter. If the United States troops had
been half an hour later at Rouses Bridge
swamp, scores would have fallen right there.
The main bodies of whites and blacks never
colided. The blacks, at the first fire, would
bury themselves in the swamps whittier the
whites were afraid to follow them. The ne
groes lacked ammunition and proper arms.
There we're, probably, thirty Winchester rifles
in the swamps. All else was shot-guns, old
muskets: &c. The negroes loaded their guns
with half charges. Wilkins Hamilton, color.
ed, pulled down his shotgun on Jim Bush, at
about forty PAGES. A spoonful of bird shot
pattered against Bush's thick coat and fell
back from bis shirt bosom. Half the wounds
received by the whites were from small shot.
Wherever the Winchester whistled there was
trouble in the air.