The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-12-06

race of any bullet holes could be found in the barracks, and the great weight of the testimony indicates that these witnesses were mistaken.
 The facts as stated appear from the |careful investigation and report of Major Blocksom of the In- supplemented by afidavits and oral ex- animation of many witnesses. conducted by a citizens committee at the invita- tion of Major Penrose, and by the re- port of Major Penrose. Major Block som began his investigation three days after the occurrence.
 Since the occurrence every effort has been made by the commissioned officers and by competent military inspectors sent for the purpose, through cross-ex- animation. of each member of the com pany who was present in the fort that night, to find some clue by which the enlisted men who committed this crime could be detected, and not the slight est evidence tending to establish the identity of a single man has been forth coming. All the enlisted men ,St the battalion were advised that if eVidence was not forthcoming leading to the Identification of those who planned and committed these murders and attempted murders, it would become necessary to discharge all the men present at Fort Brown that night without honor and to bar them from re-enlistment in the army or service in the navy or in the civil service
 Inspector General Darlington then examined every man who came within the operation of the proposed order and was entirely unable to elicit single Icircumstance leading to the identifica- tion of the murderers. He became convinced that there was a conspiracy of silence in the battalion to protect the criminals, and while h econceded that there might be a number of men in the battalion innocent both of the crime and of suppression of evidence, he deemed it necessary in the interest and for the good of the service to re- commend the issuing of the order which by authority he had told the men would pointing to the criminals was forth coming. This Department concurred In General Garlingtons recommendation and the President then directed the dis charge of certain named members of the battalion, which included all the rnllsteN NoR of the battalion who were present at For tBrown on the night in question, without honor, and forever debarred them from re-enlsting in the army or navy of the United States, as well from employment in any civil capacity under the Government, The order of discharge has been duly eX- ecuted. A full copy of the proceedings and evidence Is hereto appended, mark ed hEXhibit-."
 The order has attracted much atten. tion ana has been severely criticised inocent men to uDdeserved punish ment. It is not improper. therefore in this report to review the case and State the reasons which not only jus ttEed It. but made it necessary.
 First-Out of a battalion of lI0 en- listed men in the Army of the United States, from nine to twenty men formed a preconcerted plan to revenge them selves upon the people of town in which they were stationed for the in suits they felt that the townsueoPle had heapUd upon them. In accordance with the plan, they left their barracks Under cover of the darkness-about midnight--and proceeded to discharge their weapons into the houses of the town for the purpose Of killing those against whom they felt a grievance. They came very near killing some one or more of the three women and seven children who were sitting or sleeping in two of the lighted rooms into which they fired They in fact, did kill one man wound another and seriously in- jure the chief of police. They accom- ! anicd their firing with expressions in- dicating the malice which prompted their action There can be no doubt. therefore, that the squad of men who moved together from the fort to the town and did this shooting were guilty of murder, and murder in the first de- gree, and that if they were discovered they could be properly subjected tO punishment. The purpose Q; one was the purpose of all.
 Second--Within ten minutes or moro after this crime was committed, when the whole garrison was aroused by thE noise of the fusilade and by the call to arms which followed it, the guilty men returned to their places and must have