The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1906-12-14

(SDcClGI TO BaIllEnOTe SUM
Washington, December 4.-Secre-
tary Of War William II. Taft to q large
extent forestalled the resolution intro
duced in congress calling for inI0r.na
ton regarding the discharge Of the ne-
gro troops by making public tonight
that part of his annual report dealing
with this subject. This is under the
head of "Disciplinc-The Brownsville
Array and concludes:
IF the guilty could be asccrtained
they should and would BIZ punished,
but the guilty cannot be ascertained,
and the very impossibility Of deter
mining who are the guilty makes the
whole battalion useless for maintain
ing law and order. The only means of
Kidding the military service OF a land
of WOuld-be nurdcrerS Of women and
children and actuaI murderers of one
mar is the discharge of h entire bat
talon.
This is the gist Of Secretary Taft's
argument in which he does not hest
tate to declare, without eq~uiVocation,
that the battalion OF the TW~enty-ffth
infantry bad shown itself to be. utter
~ unfit for further service in h Uni
ted States army.
Texans Made u Protest.
He recalls the fact that in June,
when the ~attalio was stationed at
Fort brown, residents of Brownsville,
Texas, made q protest against the sta
tiOning of negro troops in that vicinity,
and this protest vas submitted to
Secretary Taft by Senator CulbersOn.
Mr. Tart gives in full his letter, dated
June 4. to Senate CulbcrsOn. stating
that the matter Of possible objections
Of this character was V@rl carefully
considered before the order va made
and ! regret that l cannot So my way
clear to rcSCind 1t.
'"The tact is that q certain amount
OF rae" prejudice betWe@I white and
black seems to have become almost
universal throughout the country"
says the letter, "an0 no matter here
tolOIsd troops are sent there arc al
ways some who make rHieCtiDn~ to
their coming. 1t is q fact, however rs
shown - cur records. m; ,plu:nd
trODpa aTc quite as well diav.pl ned
and behaved as h average Of other
troops, and it does not seem logical to
anticipate any greater trouble froul
them tina from the rest"
How They "Shot up the Town"
In his view O fthe case, Secretary
Taft says:
ION the 18th of August it was re-
man was seized by the hair by a col
Ored soldier and dragged on the
ground. This report among the towns
people caused great bitterness and r%
element of feeling, which gave such
concern to the officers of the battalion
that on the night of the same day Il
sent patrols into the town to bri -
Jack their soldiers to the fort. A f."
minutes after IL o'clock midnight of
the next day, August 13, i. e, on the
morning Of August IA, shots were
fired in the fort toward the town from
the n~eighbOrhOOd of each barrack of
the three companies. The fort is
really in the town and only separated
from the houses by a wall. The
first shots seem to have been fired in
the air. Immediately afterward a num-
Der of men. variOusly estimated from
9 to 20. climbed over the wall between
the fort and the town. There vas
direct evidence that these men were
cOIOred soldiers in KHAKI and blue
shirts. carrying the new service rifle
From IS to 100 cartridge shells and
used clips and some ndiScharged car
tridSeS were found upon the streets Of
the town the next morning, and Major
Penrose. commanding the battalion,
then identified them as ammunition for
the new service rifle and reluctantly
admitted their conclusive weight as
evidence that the shooting was done
by some of his men.
ShO: at Women and Children.
The raiders advanced up an alley
leading from the fort through the town
and first fired into the room of n house
on the alley at the enc of the first
block, III which were two women and
five children. One of the bullets
knocked over and put out a lighted
lamp on the table in the room. Ten
shots were fired nearly all going
through the house at about Az feet
above The floor.
The raiders thcn encountered the
chief Of police on 4 horse, He had
heard the shooting n hurried toward
the sound. When he saw the soldiers
the number Of whom he estimated to
be -. he turned and tried to oS"apc
They fired on him, killed his horse and
wounded him in the arm so that it
had to be amputated Two police
men who had separated from him were
also shot at. a bullet pierced the hat
of one of them. The raiders hen
fired into Miller's Hotel. on the alley at
the end Of the second block. There was
q light in the hotel and a guest at n
of h windows. Six bulle. holes were
found in the hotel the next day.
Killed White Barkeeper.
The party hen divided. One squad
proceeded farther down the alley to
the third block toward a saloon which
had been one of those in which it had
been insisted that the colored men
must drink at a separate bar. The
barkeaper heard them coming and at
tempted to close the door. but was
shot and instantly killed near the door.
The fatal wound was declared by a
competent surgeon with army exper-
fence to have been made by n bullet
Of the caliber of those used in the
Servic,. rifle. A Mexican in the same
saloon was shot in n hand. There
were five Or six shots in the saloon
DOR
The other squad shot into q house
next to the house of the man who had.
as already related knocked down one
- the enlisted men with a revolver. The
"hots were all aimed at about FIVE or
six feet above the floor. ~ went
through the mosquito bars of a bed in
which a woman and two children were
Ill - -f-- ro~ fO,,y1 ~