Truth. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1901-1908, 1906-12-15
DISCHARGED NEGRO SOLDIERS.

soldiers has developed into a tangled
snarl. The official reports of Major
Blocksom, Lieutenant Colonel Lover
ing, and Inspector-General Darlington,
who were supposed to have investig-
ted the matter as thoroughly as posi-
BILE, made a strong prima facie CASE
against the men. According to these
statements, the people of Brownville
had been strongly opposed to the
presence of the colored troops there.
and their opposition, shown in various
ways, had been resented by the SOL
diers. One grievance was the fact that
the negroes were not allowed to drink
with white people at the principal
bars, although in some saloons sepa
rate bars were put up for them. An
other was the action of the local in
spector of customs in knocking dow
a colored soldier with his revolver for
jostling his wife on the sidewalk. On
the day before the ri the wife of a
white citizen was seized by the hair
and thrown to the ground by negro
of the Twenty-fifth, who ran away.
This caused so much uproar that the
men were confined to barracks, which
heightened their feeling against the
townspeople.
On the night of August 49, accord.
ing to Major Blocksom's report, the
first shots were fired from the bar
racks, and "the soldiers, nine to fif-
teen, possible more, then jumped the
walls and started through town. They
fired about ten shots through house
containing two women and five chill
dren. The lieutenant of police, man
universally respected" rode toward
the shooting. Although he did not
even draw his revolver the raiders
whom he estimated to be about fiji.
teen in number, fired upon him, killed
his horse, and shot him in the right
arm, which afterward had to be am
putated below the elbow. Then they
fired seven or eight shots into a no
tel, killed the bartender of saloon
slightly wounded a Mexican, fired five
or six shots into another private
house, two of which went through
the mosquito bar over the bed in
which a woman and two children were
sleeping, and then apparently ran back
to the barracks. The officers at frs
thought that the firing had come from
the town side, and the men had ne
trouble Ill SeJllnS DdCh anu CiedillHS
their rifles. When the soldiers were
questioned not one would admit an!
knowledge of any trouble.
According to these reports the sol
diers were the sole aggressors, an(
then stood together to prevent thu
punishment of the guilty. On tina
showing the Presidents action wa
natural, although it did involve hard
ship to the innocent. 1t was not
question of punishment, but one o
Kidding the army of known rioter
and murderers. Accepting the state
ments of the reports as true, Gel
tain considerable proportion of tn
three companies concerned consiste
of men of this kind, and owing to tn
determination of their comrades t
make common cause with them Their
was no way of telling which men wer
murderers and which were not. TIL
only way to clear the battalion of tn
stain of having it's rank made up i
Part of assassins seemed to be t
make complete change in its men
bership.
But now comes private organic;
tion the Constitutional League" wit
an investigation of it's own contradic
ing the official reports in every pa
ticular. The League alleges that IN
soldier was connected with tn
Brownsville riot and that no evidenC
exists to show such connection"