Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-01-14
which is not in the possession of private

cialy chambered-the Winchester of the
| - model-but it will rarely if ever go off
when in it: and, moreover. the bullets
| picked out of the buildings show the mark
| ings of the four so-called lands which
come from being fired through the Spring
| field but not through the Winchester, the
| latter showing six The bullets which 1
herewith submit, which were found In the
| houses, could not therefore have been fired
| from a Winchester or any other sporting
rifle, although the cartridges might nave
! been put into a Winchester model Of '95
| The bullets might have been fired from
Krag, but the cartridges would not have
gone into krag Taking the shells ana
| the bullets together. the proof is conclusive
| that the new Springfield rifle was the
| weapon used by the midnight assassins
| and could not by any possibility have been
| This of itself establishes the fact that the
assailants were United States soldiers, and
would be conclusive on this point II not
one soldier had been seen or heard by any
residents in Brownsville on the night In
question. and II nothing were known save
| the finding of the shells. clips and bullets.
Fourteen eyewitnesses, namely. Charles
r. Chase, Amado Martinez Mrs. Kate
| Leahy, Palermo Preciado, Ygnacio Domin-
gneZ, Macedonia Ramirez, George w. Rem
| dali, Jose Martinez, j. P. Mcdonald. F. H.
| A. Sanborn, Herbert Elkins, Hale Odin,
Mrs. Hale Odin and Judge Parks, testified
| that they saw the assailants some of
them at varying distances and that they
were negro troops, most of the witnesses
| giving their testimony IN SUCH shape tnat
| there is no possibility of their having been
mistaken. Two other witnesses Joseph
| Bodin and Genera Padron, saw some of the
| assailants and testified that they were SOL
| diers (the only soldiers in the neighbor-
| hood being the colored troops). -Four other
| witnesses namely, S. C. Moore. DR.. Thorn,
| Charles S. Canada and Charles A. Ham
| mond testified to hearing the shooting and
] hearing the voices of the men who were
doing it, and that these voices were those
| of negroes, but did not actually the
| men who were doing the shooting. About
| twenty-five other witnesses gave testimony
corroborating to a greater or less degree
| the testimony of those who thus saw the
| shooters or heard them. The testimony Of
these eye and ear witnesses would esTab-
| lsh beyond all possibility of contradiction
| the fact that the shooting committed
| by ten or fifteen or more of the negro
| troops from the garrison, and this testi-
mony Of theirs would be amply sufficient
| in itself II not a cartridge or bullet had
been found: exactly as the bullets and
cartridges that We're found would have es-
tablished the guilt of the troops even had
not single eyewitness seen them other
witness heard them.
The testimony of the witnesses and the
position of the bullet holes show that fifteen
or twenty of the negro troops gathered in
side the fort, and that the first shots fired
into the town v0re fired from within the
fort; some of them at least from the upper
galleries of the barracks.
The testimony further shows that the
troops then came out over the walls, some
of them perhaps going through the gate,
and advanced a distance of 800 yards or
thereabouts into the town. luring their
advance they shot into two hotels and some
nine or ten other houses. Three of the pri
vate houses into which they fired contained
women and children. They deliberately
killed Frank Natus, the bartender, shooting
him down from distance of about fifteen
yards They shot at a man and woman,
Mr.. and Mrs. Odin, and their little boy, as
they stood in the window Of the Miller
LOTT brill Loco fto fvxyp inch
from the head of the woman. They shot
down the lieutenant of police. who was on
horseback, killing his horse and wounding
him so that his arm had to be amputated.
They attempted to kill the two policemen
who were his companions, shooting one
through the hat They shot at least eight
bullets into the Cowen house. putting out
a lighted lamp on the dining room table.
Mrs. Cowen and her five children were in
| the house: they at once threw themselves
prone on the floor and were not hit. They
fired into the Starck house, the bullets go
ing through the mosquito bar of bed
from eighteen to twenty inches above where
little children were sleeping. There was a
light in the children's ROOM
The shooting took place near midnight.
The panic caused by the utterly unex-
pected attack was great The darkness, of
course, increased the confusion. There Is
conflict of testimony on some of the minor
points,, but every essential point Is eStab-
lished beyond possibility of honest question.
The careful examination of Mr.. Purdy, as
sistant to the attorney general, resulted
merely in strengthening the reports already
made by the regular army authorities. The
shooting, it appears, occupied about ten
minutes, although it may have been sorle
minutes more or less.
1t is out of the question that the fif-
teen or twenty men engaged in the as
sault could have gathered behind the
wall of the fort, begun firing, some OF
them on the porches of the barracks,
gone out into the town. fired in the
neighborhood of 200 shots in the town,
and then returned-the total time occu-
pied from the time of the first shot to the
time of their return being somewhere in
the neighborhood of ten minutes-with-
out many of their comrades knowing
what they had done. Indeed, the fuller
details established by the additional
evidence taken since J last communicated
with the Senate make it likely that there
were very few, if any, of the soldiers
dismissed who could have been ignorant
of what occurred. 1t is well-nigh impos-
officers who were at the barracks should
not have known what occurred.
The additional evidence thus taken rem
ders it in my opinion impossible to ques-
tion the conclusions upon which my or
der was based. l nave gone most care
fully over every issue of law and fact
that has been raised. L am now satisfied
that the effect of my order diSmiSSing
these men without honor was not to bar
them from all civil employment under
the government and therefore that the
part OF the order Wnlch consisted OF a
declaration to this effect was lacking in
validity, and l have directed that such
portion be revoked. rs to the rest of the
order dismissing the individuals in ques-
tion without honor, and declaring the
effect OF such discharge under the law
and regulations to be a bar to their fu-
ture re-enlistment either in the army or
the navy, there is no doubt of my consti-
tutonal and legal power. The order was
within my discretion, under the Consti-
tuition and the laws and cannot be re-
viewed or reversed save by another ex-
ecutive order. The sacts did not merely
warrant the action l took-they rendered
such action imperative unless l was to
prove false to my sworn duty
II any one of the men discharged here
after shows to my satisfaction that he is
clear of guilt. or of shielding the guilty,
l will take what action is warranted; but
the circumstances l have above detailed
most certainly put upon any such man
the burden of thus clearing himself.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT.
The White House, January IA, 1907.