Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1886-02-27
BEATS DAnvILLE AND coPIAH.
From The Statesman
FROM A PARTICIPANT.


SOUTH BERKELEY, Feb. 20. 1886.
EDITOR STATESMAN: You will
doubtless be as much surprised to re-
ceive this letter as am to find myself
writing it, but in justice to the body
of so-called lynchers, seeing SO many
garbled reports in different papers, /
feel it my duty to give You correct
report of the proceedings of last Thurs
day night.
In the first place / will state that
the /" big man, who made so much
noise and made himself so officious
was not our commander by any
means, / will describe the real lead
er before / get through.
The meeting point was four miles
South of Martinsburg in the woods
West of the pike. At the appointed
hour a large body of men, including
some of the citizens of Arden, Mill
Creek and Gerardstown Districts as
sembied. The line was formed at
that point and the men were divided
by numbers into five squads with a
subordinate commander to each. We
marched slowly until the blacksmith
shop was reached where we pressed a
wagon, in which to haul the negro,
thence 10 the Brick House, where the
order was given to halt, as we were
ahead of time, it being then fifteen
minutes before IL o'clock. The COM
mander rode on in front and found a
body of men on foot whom he organ
lied. AT the signal, two pistol shots,
the command forward march was
given, and right here / must say that
the sand bag of the Martinsburg crowd
bursted and all their sand ran out.
The second command to halt was oc-
cassioned by the appearance of Cap
tain Colston, who wished to address
our leader, he was listened to by our
commander, who was close to the
Captain, until he felt that sufficient
respect had been shown him, and
then 7" Forward to the Jail, and let
squad do its duty ~ was the deter
mined order. When we arrived at
the Jail we met with two would be
prominent citizens, "Jumbon and
Baby Elephant" whose actions sur
prised me very much, and if it had
not been for the GOODNESS of our COM
mander they would have been rough
ly handled. They should have done
as our States Attorney, performed
their duty and left. They might
have known that our crowd was not
like the one that took out the MUIR
derer of Lantz. There was no back
ing down. Our object was not to
hurt any one, but the negro must
come. When the report came that
the Jail had been searched from top to
bottom, our commanders cool and
determined order was "Go back and
search thejailor's private house from
the ground to the shingles, and then
the Jail yard and bring out the cul-
prit, know he is there for / have
had spies here and he has not been
taken out" In five minutes the
shout came up, We have got him."
During the search the horse hitched
to the wagon ran off, broke the wag-
back. The crowd of men engaged in
that undertaking were not "a mob,"
they were as law abiding citizens as
are to be found anywhere, but deter
mined to protect their wives and
daughters from the ravisher, be he
white or black. The noise and dis
order reported in some of the papers
was not from the crowd that met in
the woods west of the pike, but from
outsiders. I promised to describe
our commander: He is not an ex-
perienced military man, was not in
our late war because he was too
young, but he was at the bottom of
the hill when the sand rolled down
and got his gizzard full. Now, Mr..
Editor, you can say what you please,
express as you desire, but we ask
room in your paper to vindicate our
selves. Your Friend and SUBsCRI-