The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1904-09-02

to ~exonerate themselves. it may at least
bring condemnation to more than one
of the civil authorities with whom they
were supposed to have defended the
majesty of the law against the States
boro mob. The soldiers assert in so
many words that Sheriff Kendrick led
the mob to the room in which the. ne
groes were confined. pointed the pris-
onerS out to their would-be slayerS and
silenced the opposition Of the military
guard by telling the soldiers that their
commanding officer acQuiesced in what
he was doing. To this Captain Hitch
adds under oath a declaration to the
effect that a deputy sheriff treacher-
ously attacked him and delivered him
into the hands of the mob. The charges
made are specific, clar-cut damning.
They are not based upon hearsay or
report, but upon the testimony of eye
witnesses, all of whom are men of intel
ligence, speaking under oath. Sheriff
Kendrick has not yet been heard in
his own defence, but it is hard to see
how he will be able to offer anything
in sufficient excuse or explanation of
the actions imputed to him at States
boro.
The defence which Captain Hitch
makes of himself as the commanding
officer of the militia at Statesboro is d
sorry one indeed. He denies that his
men did not have ball cartridges for
their guns, and he denies that orders
were given not to use them In hnal
resort. He says his men fought gall
lantly for hours n succeeded in keep
ing the mob at bay, until he himself
was ~treacherously overpowered. He adj
mits that he found means to send TO
Savannah for reinforcements, but he
t~estiies hat he did not summon to his
relief his own reserves who were 50O
yards away. He m that rather
than see the mob get his prisoners ne
would lave given an order for his men
to load and fire their weapons, but he
says in his opinion the lime for giving
such an order had not come,
the hours of battle that had
been raging. He says there would have
been great destruction of life If an or
der to fire had been given, yet others
testified that one soldier by merely load
ing his gun kept a number of the moo
in check.
Even after Reed and Cato were in the
! hands of the mob, Captain Hitch refus-
ed to permit Lieutenant McIntire to
lead his men to the rescue. The men,
it seems, We're eager to go-some OF
them were in tears over the tragedy
about to be enacted-but Captain Hitch
did not think hat a supreme efo
should even then be made to uphold the
| laws of Georgia. The mob with ats VIC
TINS were but five hundred yards away.
| but Captain Hitch says he thought the
| negroes had been taken of in wagons,
| and consequently hat pursuit was use
| less. AS the event proved, Captain
| Hitch could readily have overtaken the
! mob before the torch was applied II
| the faggots collected abou Reed and
| Cato.
Lieutenant McIntire, who really ap-
wears to have been ready and anxious
| to fight to the death in defence of The
prisoners and the laws, swears thai
some of his own men refused poinl
blank to obey his orders. When he
himself, bleeding from wounds he had
already receive at the hands of the
mob, drew his pistol and was about t.
use it against his lawless assailants
he was restrained from doing SO by q
brother officer, But he believes tne
soldiers would ave followed him AMI
fought with him if need be had Cap.
tain Hitch permitted him to go in pur'
suit of the mob.