Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-12-31
NEGRO TROOPS DISCHARGED.
The Affair at Brownsville Of the 25th
Infantry.

| One of the most holly discussed topics OF
| the past two months has been the action
OF the President in ordering the discharge
| of the enlisted men and on-commissioned
| officers of one battalion Of the 18th lnfan-
try (colored) on the charge of engaging In
a riot at Brownsville, Tex, August ID. or in
| conspiring to keep secret the names of the
| rioters The President thus described the
outrage in a message to Congress-:
The attack was made near midnight on
| August Ii. The following facts as to this
attack are made clear by Maj. Blocksom s
Investigation and have not been. and, in
my judgment, cannot be. successfully con-
trOverted. From nine to fifteen or twenty
of the colored soldiers took part in the at
tack. They leaped over the walls from the
barracks and hurried through the town.
They shot at whomever they saw moving.
and they shot into houses where they saw
lights. In some Of these houses there were
women and children. as the wOuld-be muir
derers must have known. In one house. In
which there were two women and five chill
dren some ten shots went through at a
height of about four and one-haif feet
above the floor one putting out the lamp
upon the table.
1.-THE lieutenant Of police of the town
heard the firing and rode toward 1t. He
met the raiders. who as he stated. were
about fifteen colored soldiers. They in
stantly started firing upon him. He turned
and rode of. and they continued firing upon
him until they had killed his horse. They
shot him in the right arm Qt was after
ward amputated above the elbow. A num-
Der of shots were also fired at two other
policemen.
1.-The raiders fired several times into a
hotel. some OF the shots being aimed at a
guest sitting by window. They shot into
a saloon, killing the bartender and wound
ing 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 bull
let's.
at was at night, and the streets of the
town are poorly lighted so that none of
the individual raiders was recognized: but
the evidence of many witnesses of all
classes was conclusive to the effect that the
raiders were negro soldiers. The shattered
bullets, shells and clips of the government
rifles. which were found on the ground, are
merely corroborative. So are the bullet
holes in the houses, some of which it APP
pears must, from the direction. have been
fired from the fort just at the moment
when the soldiers left 1t. Not bullet hole
appears in any of the structures OF the
fort"
Attempts were made to separate the inno-
cent from the guilty. but in vain. A number
of the soldiers were accused before grand
jury, but the latter failed to indict any one.
The President says:
by my direction every effort was made
to persuade those innocent of murder
among them to separate themselves from
the guilty by helping bring the criminals
to justice. They We're warned that If they
did not take advantage of the offer they
would all be discharged from the service
and forbidden again to enter the employ of
the government They refuse to profit by
the warning. 1 accordingly had them dis
charged
A resolution providing for the investiga-
ton of the affair is before the Senate. and
Senator Foraker has already delivered an
energetic speech on it, claiming that the
President had acted without sufficient au-
thority or knowledge.