The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-12-06
TELLS WHY TROOPS
 WERE DISCHARGED
CONTINUED FROM PAGE I.


 and blue shirts, carrying the new service rifle. From seventy-fve to one hundred cartridge shells and used clips and some undischarged cartridges were found upon the streets of the town the next morn ing, and Major Penrose, commanding the battalion, then identified them as am- | intuition for the new service rifle and reluctantly admitted their conclusive weight as evidence that the shooting was done by some of his men,
 Advanced Through an Alley.
 The raiders advanced Up an alley leading from the fort through the town and first fired into the room of a house on the alley at the end of the first block. | in which were two women and five chil- dren. One of the bullets knocked over and put out lighted lamp on the table in the room. Ten shots were fired. near ly all going through the house at about four and one-half feet above the floor. The raiders then encountered the chief of police on horse. He had heard the shooting and hurried toward the sound When he saw the soldiers, the number of whom he estimated to be fifteen, he turned and tried to escape. They fired on him, killed his horse and wounded him in the arm so that it had to be amputated. Two policemen who had separated from him were also shot at. A bullet pierced the hat of one of them. The raiders then fired into Miler's hotel on the a- ley at the end of the second block There was light in the hotel and guest at one of the windows. Six bullet holes were found in the hotel the next, day.
 The party then divided. One squad pro- ceeded farther down the alley to the third block toward a saloon which had been one of those in which it had been ln- sisted that the colored men must drink at a separate bar. The barkeeper heard them coming and attempted to close the door, but was shot and instantly killed near the door. The fatal wound was de- clared by a competent surgeon with army experienced to have been made by a bull let of the calibre of those used in the service rifle. A Mexican in the same sa- loon was shot in the hand. There were five or six shots in the saloon door, The other squad shot into house next to the house of the man who had, as already related, knocked down one of the enlisted men with a revolver. The shots were all aimed at about five or six feet above the floor, and went through the mosquito bars in which woman and two children were sleeping. Bullet marks were founu or other houses in the neighborhood. There was much evidence of expressions uttered by the raiders as they advanced and shot. indicating their malicious and murderous intent. The shots fired in a short space of ten minutes were various ly estimated from seventy-five to one hundred and fifty, and all were fired with in three blocks of the fort.
 voIIey Awakens Garrison.
 The first volley awakened many of the sleeping garrison and attracted the at- tention of the sentinel, who discharged his gun three times and called the guard. The sergeant of the guard called out the guard, and then he directed the call to arms to the battalion. The bugle sounded and the men rushed to the gun racks, which the sergeants and corporals in charge say had not been opened until they opened them with the keys which had been in their possession for more than twelve hours. One gun rack was broken open in the hurry of the men to answer the call to arms. The commits stoned officers were awakened by the firing. dressed hurriedly, and came out to call the roll of the men of the various companies. They supposed that an at tack had been made upon the barracks by men in the town, and did not know until some hours later that the shooting had been done by soldiers, and that their men were suspected of any offense. As soon as they were informed of the facts by the Mayor, they caused all the rifles O, the enlisted men to be examined. Every rife was then found to be clean.
 The evidence makes it quite clear that the firing had not ceased when the men began to form in line, and therefore that al, the guns with which the firing was done, could not have been in the racks when the sergeants in charge of quar- ters went to unlock the racks, although they testified that they were there.' It Is also certain that during the formation of the companies. or immediately after. the men who had done the shooting must have returned to their places so as to respond to the coll call or that some one answered for them.
 One or two enlisted men testified that the first shooting was done outside the fort, that 1t was accompanied by cries in- dicating hostility to the soldiers, and that the bullets were directed toward the