The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-12-19

TIT was afterwards aTnputdteQ aDcRS
the elbow. A number of shots were
also fired at two other policemen The
raiders fired several times into a hotel.
some OF the shots being aimed at
guest sitting by window. They shot
into saloon, killing the bartender aud
wounding another man. At the same
time other raiders fired into another
house in which women and children
were sleeping, two of the shots going
through the mosquito bar over the bed
IN which the mistress of the house and
her two children were lying Several
other houses were struck by bullets. It
was at night, and the streets of the
town are poorly lighted, SO that mona
of the individual raiders were recog-
n1zed; but the evidence of many Wit
nesses of all classes was conclusive 10
soldiers. The shattered bullets, shells.
and clips of the government rifles,
which We're found on the ground, ar1
merely cor-oborative. So are the pull
let holes in the houses; some of which
1t appears must, from the direction,
have been fired from the fort just al
the moment when the soldiers left it
Not bullet hole appears in any of the
structures of the fort
People We're Surprised.
The townspeople were completely
surprised by the unprovked and
murderous savagery of the attack.
The soldiers were the aggressors from
start to finish. They met with no
substantial resistance, and one and all
who took part in that raid stand as
deliberate murderers, who did murder
one man, who tried to murder others,
and who tried to murder women and
children. The act was one of horrible
atrocity, and SO far as 1 am aware, un-
paralleled for infamy IN the annafs
of the United States army.
The white officers of the companies
were completely taken by surprise,
and at first evidently believed that the
firing meant that the Iownspeop:e
were attacking the soldiers. 1t was
not until 2 or o'clock in the morn
ing that any of them became aware of
the truth. I have directed careful
investigation into the conduct of the
officers, to see If any OF them were
b1ameworthy. and I have approved
the recommendation of the war de-
partment that two be brought before
a court-martial
AS to the noncommissioned officers
and enlisted men, there can be no
doubt whatever that many were nee
essarily privy, after if not before the
attack, to the conduct of those who
took actual part in this murderous
riot. I refer to Major Blocksom's re-
port for proof of the fact that certainly
some and probably all of the noncom-
missioned officers in charge of quart
ers who were responsible for the gun
racks and had keys thereto in their
personal possession knew what men
were engaged in the attack
Major Penrose in command of the
post, in his letter (included in the
appendix) gives the reasons why he
was reluctantly convinced that some
of the men under him-as he thinks,
from to 10-got their rifles, slipped
out of quarters to do the shooting. and
returned to the barracks without be-
ing discovered, the shooting all oc-
curing within two and half short
blocks of the barracks. It was pos
sible for the raiders to go from the
fort to the farthest point of firing and
return in less than ten minues, for the
distance did not exceed $50 yards.
Such are the facts of this case.
General Nettleton, in his letter here
with appended, states that next door
to where he is writing in Brownsville
is a small cottage where a children's
party had just broken up before the
bullets, fired by United States troops.
from United States Springfield rifles,
at close range, with the purpose of
killing or manning the inmates, in
Guiding the parents and children who
were still in the well-lighted house,
and whose escape from death under
such circumstances was astonishing.
He states that on another street he
daily looks upon fresh bullet scars
where a voIley from similar govern
ment rifles was fired into the
side and windows of a hotel
occupied at the time by sleep
ing or frightened guests from
abroad who could not possibly have
given any offense to the assailants. He
writes that the chief of the Browns
vile police is again on duty from hos
pital and carries an empty sleeve be-
cause he was shot by federal soldiers
from the adjacent garrison in the
course of their murderous foray; and
not far away is the fresh grave of an
unoffending citizens of the place, boy
in years. who was wantonly shot
while unarmed and attempting to
escape.
Defense Is Absurd.
The effort to confute this testimony
SO far has consisted in the assertion or
implication that the townspeople shot
one snotner in order to discredit the
soldiers-an absurdity too gross to
need discussing, and unsupported by
shred of evidence There Is no ques-
ton as to the murder and the at
tempted murders; there is no question
that some of the soldiers were guilty
thereof: there is no question that
many of their comrades privy to the
deed have combined to shelter the
criminals from Justice These COM
rades of the murderers, by their own
action, have rendered 1t necessary
either to leave all the men, including
the murderers, in the army, or to turn
them all out; and under such circum-
stances there was no alternative, for
the usefulness of the army would be
at an end were we to permit such an
outrage to be committed with inn
punity
In short, the evidence proves con-
clusively tl.at a number Of th,. s'I,-
diers engaged in deliberate and con
certed attack, as cold blooded as It was
cowardly; the purpose being to terrorize
the community, ard to Kill or injme
men. women, and children in their
homes and beds or on the streets, and
this at an hour of the night when con-
certed or effective resistance or de-
tense was out of the question, and when
detection by Identification of the cruz
inals in the United States uniform was
well-nigh impossible. So much for the
original crime A blacker never starred
the annals of our army. It has bean
supplemented by another, only less
black in the shape Of a successful con-
spfracy of silence for the purpose of
IL L..