The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-04-07
lOESPERADO'S WORK
.EGRo WIPES OUT sHERIFF's
d. POSSE IN ALABAMA.
TWO DEAD; THREE WILL DIE.
rr AND BLOODY BATTLE
NEAR TUsCUMBIA, ALA.

first MortaIly Wounded sherim and
IA. son. Who Undertook TO Arrest
,,.-Tben Was BesieEed in a
,Iouse by Posse, Who Used Mill
Rides-Every Shot of the Des-
r.do Told and Five More Men
n.u-Tbe House Fired and the Ne
.o KILLED and His Body Thrown
n burning Building.
Tuscumbia, Ala, April Sin des-
..rate battle, fought near this place
dov between a sheriff's posse and
VIII REYNOLDS, negro desperate, two
.,or,bers of the posse were killed and
seven wounded by the deadly fusilade
of the negro, who was afterward
vlIlad and his body thrown into burn
ing building.
The dead men are Hugh Jones, Bob
wallace and Will Reynolds, negro
The wounded are Sheriff Gasaway
u.ortaIlv: Will Gasaway, mortally; p
prout, fatally; j. K. Payne serious
II. Jessie Davis, Jim Finney and Rob-
ert Patterson.
Early to-day, accompanied by VIII
cosqwav a deputy. Sheriff Gasaway
won't to a negro settlement, "Knard-
.ouno to arrest Will Reynolds, on a
charge of obtaining goods under false
rretenses. The negro was barricaded in
house and opened fire with a Win
chester mortally wounding Sheriff
Gasaway and Will Gasaway, who was
some three hundred yards away.
As soon as the news of the encounter
reached Tuscumbia, a posse left for the
Gene owing to the location none OF
the officers could venture within the
onon space. Dynamite was procured
and the house in which the negro had
fortified himself was fired upon, but tc
no effect. At l o'clock Capt. Simpson
nj the Wheeler Rifles. arrived with
Twelve guns and 1000 cartridges which
we're distributed among twelve picked
men. This company was stationed
around the house and riddled 1T, but
the negro had taken refuge in the eel
lar and returned the fire, killing Jones
and wounding Finney. Coal oil was
then procured and after four hours OF
hard work the adjoining houses to that
in which the negro was were fred Al
o'clock tonight the house in which
the negro was located was fired by
the Wheeler Rifles. The negro fed to
a shed and reopened fire, killing Wal
lace and wounding Davis but fell II
the next volley from the posse ano
militiamen. The crowd, numbering
1000, seized the riddled body and thew
1t in the burning building.
Wallace who was killed. was ad-
vancing on the negro, who shot him
through the body. His body fell in the
burning debris, but was recovered.
Davis, Wallace and Falkner were the
men who fired the building.
Relic seekers badly mutilated the
body.
Three houses were burned in the eff
forts to reach the negro and several
horses were killed in the battle.
Tonight it is reported that the
sheriff and his brother have no chance
to live. So deadly was the negroes aim
that it was possibly an hour before the
body Of Prout could be recovered. Not
shot was fired by Reynolds that did
not tell when those whom he was fir
ing upon could be seen. The excite
ment all day was intense. Fully 1000
people from Florence and Sheffield
were here and every surgeon in the
town was pressed into service.
No fear of an uprising among the
negroes is anticipated.