The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1902-04-03
A TRIBUTE.
CAMP DARLINGTON, u. @. W,
March 10Th. 1000.

1 feel in duty bound to offer my mite
OF praise to the memory of our late fell
low-citizen, Col. B. w. Ball, being as
ISOLATED with him in many of the ups
and downs of Laurens County for the
it forty years. Laurens County yves
aim a debt of gratitude she can never
fully repay for the wise and able man
aRement Of her political affairs in all
the past campaigns up to the last de-
cade. During the days Of negro rule
and State constables 1t took a man Of
great nerve and tact to manage our
meetings without friction, race con-
Hicts and riots. Many were the secret
meetings held at the Courthouse by
u best and truest men, to devise
plans to defeat the party in power and
gain control of our county government
again. Col. Ball was the man selected
to preside over these meetings, and his
wise and timely counsel generally
shaped the work OF the committees.
In 1876, when the call was for General
Hampton and White Supremacy, he
rallied to the standard of his old COM
mander. His training in the Hampton
Legion qualified him 10 command the
red-shirt campaign. The rally Of three
thousand citizen cavalry, with flaming
red shirts on, carried CONSERVATION
into the negroes. EXclamations could
be heard from them: "Where did all
these white folks come from?" Not
often has such a tremendous fight been
made to control the elections of a State,
and carried, comparatively, without
bloodshed, when the ruling party was
firmly entrenched in all the offices Of
the State, Some men are born rulers
of men. When we gained the election
some Of our county officers refused to
v~acate. The Colonel was consulted as
TO what was to be done with them.
Boys, pick them up in their chairs
and set them out in the passageway''-
no violence to be ~used-"then go in and
warrior was eminently O man of peace.
In 1878, when we had the first split
in the Laurens Democracy, when an
independent ticket was placed in the
field, he managed our comfy cam
paign so wisely and adroitly that we
escaped any violence in the debates,
and the rupture was soon healed.
On a certain Monday morning court
had been called and the Bolt and Leake
case was up for trial. The business
was stopped by ~volleys of musketry
from Tinpot. The Laurens riot had
commenced. | say a man running
down the Courthouse steps, hatless,
and the locks of his hair streaming in
TIE wind. He met the clerks coming
out of the stores, armed with Winches-
ter rifles, and rapidly formed them in
to a line between the public well and
the street, facing Tinpot. Volley after
volley was fired from the doors and
windows of the building directly in
front, toward the line OF young men,
but fortunately, not a man was
killed or wounded. They were over
shot: From my position on the front
portico of the Courthouse l could hear
the thuds of the Remington rifle balls
as they struck the brick walls. Col.
Ball would not let a man advance on
Tinpot. What a loss of life would
have occurred or that day IL he had
allowed a charge on the negroes and
constables in the building. What was
done OF the following night was a
small matter to the loss of life that
would have happened in storming Tin
pot. Here again the good Judgment
OF Col. Bal was shown.
Farewell, old comrade! You have
fought a good fight; served your coun-
try nobly; done all o mortal man could
to advance the interest of County and
State.
The old veterans are rapidly passing
over the River. The work will soon
be intrusted to their sons, and may
they not prove %recreant to the trust,
but improve upon the good work of
w. d. s.
Tumbling Shoals, &. O., Mar. 31st.