The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1907-03-18

Galveston, Tex. March 1.-THE mystery
surrounding the murderous midnight raid
of the negro soldiers from the Twenty
fifth Infantry upon the people Of Browns
Vile on August 13 is dispelled by the
reported sworn confession OF D. c. Gray. a
discharged soldier OF Company B, who is
in Galveston, In his statement Gray
said:
"On that night I was in the barrach
room with a number of fellows. and we
were sitting around playing cards. when
one of our fellows came in excited like.
and said that a white man had insulted
a friend of his. and that when he came
into the room the white man had landed
on him.
He was awfully excited. and We all
stopped playing and listened to what he
was saying There We're a lot of the
boys in the crowd with the Mexicans and
white people OF the town, and they came
over 10 where he was bending down over
his trunk and asked him what he was
going 10 do. He said: 7 am going TO fix
that white - so that he will never
fool with another soldiers friend AS
soon as he said that one Of the men out
OF another company swore and said; BY
-, III go with you. Everybody but
me and one or two others spoke at once,
and said they would go with him.
1T was about midnight, and the men
made rush for the gun racks. and
about fifteen men left the barracks.
fixed the sentry. and scaled the wall and
started for town, headed by the leader
Most OF them had been drinking. One
OF the younger boys had fred shot into
the house OF A1r- Cowarts. on Fourteenth
street. Then al of them began shooting.
Negroes Are Like sheep.
Negroes are just like sheep when il
comes to anything of that kind, you
know, and that accounts for it. They shot
into the house of starks. on Washington
street, as some of the boys did not like
him. and they wanted to kill him. They
ran down an alley to Thirteenth street,
shooting, and at this place. where the
alley Joined on to Elizabeth street, they
met the Mexican policeman Dominguez
on his horse.
All this was right near the Miller
Hotel The policeman said: Hey, there.
you boys, what are you doing?' And
pulled his pistol The boys knew he
wanted TO pull them. and thCy shot at
him. Dominguez fired at the boys first.
Anyway, all Of them said that when Mai
Penrose examined them. After the boys
had gotten into the scrape they forgot to
go on down and let - settle his trouble,
for the people were getting on the
streets, and they are certainly fighters.
After they had shot at Dominguez his
horse carried him down the street and
they divided Up. They were afraid of
getting hemmed up in the street
Some of the boys had had trouble in
the saloon run by Frank Nataus. and
they fired in the direction of his place
Just as things would have 1t. he came
out to the back of it to close the gate
and one of the boys shot at him. They
were sun firing and going toward the
post when the bugle sounded at the post,
and they knew It was all OF They
stopped shooting then and made for the
barracks, so that they might get IN their
beds before ii became known they had
been out don't believe they were in
town more than twenty minutes. Then, +
about this time, one OF the boys came
painting into the room. He had his gun
with him and flung IL under his mattress
ana pulled OF his coat and pants and got
into bed, Then two more of them came
In, and before I knew il the whole post
was busy.
Told to Clean Guns.
"One OF the boys from. the guardhouse
ran into the room and said in loud
whisper: II there are any of you fellows
in that dirty business. you had better
be getting your guns into shape and put
them In the rack. Don't lose any time. 4
for l know the captain is calling for the
guard, and there will be inspection.
We all helped some OF them 10 get |
their guns as clean as was possible in /
the dim light, but they had mostly used |
pistols and they did not clean them
until that day about o'clock. Just at /
this time the first sergeant called out to /
hustle our clothes on and fan in. We |
We're all partially undressed and mixed /
up IN the room after helping the boys /
clean the powder out Of their rifles. and /
II was several minutes before We could
ind our clothes and get into them.
We tumbled outside and after some
confusion and scramblina around. the rou
was called. and I believe everybody an
sWered TO their names except some of /
the boys who were excused. There was no
need for any one to answer any one else's
name that night because everybody was
IN line except the men who were excused
on account OF special duty. The fellows
who had done the shooting and worked
ap all the racket had gotten inside
the post and We're lined up with the rest.
We swore 10 stick to the lie. Five of
The twelve arrested were in the raid"