The Lee County journal. (Leesburg, Ga.) 1904-19??, 1907-02-15
WHITES BEGAN SHOOTING
Is Sworn Testimony of COlored Solder
Before Committee Investigation
Develops Into a Farce.

nearing Vi JuG ulSCudlS Ecu ASSIO SOi
diers at the investigation by tne sen
ate military affairs committee is al
most invariably that the investigation
is farce in so far as sustaining any
contention heretofore made by Sena-
tor Foraker.
The Ohio senator has diligently
sought to aid the witnesses in making
the best showing possible that they
had nothing to do with the Browns
willie shoot-up and that they knew
nothing about il.
None of the witnesses has admitted
ever entertaining an idea that any Of
his cOlored comrades did the shoot
ing. Some of them even stated that
they did not know whether the shoot
ms had even been discussed among
the troops after the affair Most OF
them took the ground that it WIS
impossible for arms and ammunition
to be taken by their men without de-
lection, Notwithstanding it was elicit
ed from Them that these equipments
were in charge of negro sergeants.
Nearly all of them held to the remark
able statement OF belief that the peo-
pie of Brownsville did the shooting.
One witness, Winter Washington, stat
ed as his first and last judgment That
the Brownsville shooting was done by
MexIcans and cowboys He reiterated
that statement, although his testimony
contained his statement that there
were no marks or signs Of bullets
about the barracks and that he had
heard" something about a man hay-
ing been killed and some wounded
among The people of Brownsville.
One of the witnesses, First Sergeant
Fraser of company D, in giving his
reasons why he believed that the peo-
pie of Brownsville did the shooting,
said he believed they did it to get
the colored troops away by making
trouble for them. The trouble, accord
ing to this witness, as far as the
animosity of the people Of Browns
vile against the three companies Of
cOlored troops at the fort, was that
when they found they would not be
allowed to drink in the front part OF
the saloons of the town, they exclu-
sively patronized saloon that had
been set up in the town by a dis
charged negro soldier This was the
saloon that got their money, and that
was what made the white folks mad.
Hence they shot up some of their own
people in order to have the negro
troops ordered away.
1t was here that Senator Overman
asked the witness:
"DO you mean to say that you be-
lieYe on your oath that the people
of Brownsville, for that reason, shot
their own people - committed muir
der?"
II don't know nothing about any
murder answered the witness, "but
that's what | believe"
Asked where the Brownsville people
could have gotten the ammunition
with which they did the shooting, as
he believed the witness declared: q
don't know unless they got it from
the tWenty-sxrh."
The twenty-siXth regiment was the
white regiment which had occupied
the post at Brownsville before the
colored twentysixth battalion went
lnere
The shooting ~" of the town OF
Brownsville, Texas, was In the form Of
an attack on the garrison at Fort
Brown, according to the testimony Civ.
en- Monday by Mingo Sanders, former
first sergeant Of company i Of the
Fifth infantry before the senate com.
mittee on military affairs
Sanders story created something Of
a stir in the committee, as he said
that while running from his quarters
to company B barracks after being
awakened by the firing on the night
Of August 10, the shooting was going
on, and it came from the town and
was toward the hospital Oh the mill.
tary reservation. He said bullets
were whizzing over his head.
This is the first direct testimony
given by any Of the discharged negro
soldiers that the fire came from tho
town