The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1909-09-29

not find him in the house, but learned altel"alos u''
the poor wretch escaped us by climbing through a Trap
door which led out on the roof and that ne was lying
behind a parapet on top of the house while eXecrauohS
against his name and the purpose to swing MIN were Del"s
EXPRESSED bv the white men below. All of the work being
practically finished the whites began to dlsPerse ana those
from Augusta to retrace. their steps across the bridge.
Gen. Butler and COL. Butler had very quietly departed
some time before without leaving any orders and the mob,
if it may be called such, rapidly thinned out. About this
time lanes Lanham, my %neighbor, and James McKle who
had been on the post with me a great part OF the nlght,
and both first cousins of young Meriwether who had been
killed, came to where a group of US were standing One
of them asked the question as to whether it was not a dear
piece of work for us to lose one of our best men and nave
only two negroes dead and another wounded 1t was
agreed that we could not have a story like that 60 out as
la record of the nights work. Lanham said to me, 81
have no balls in my pistol and no cartridges l told MIN
that I had only shot once at Cook and had five balls lett.
We exchanged pistols and he and McKie soon found others
of their way of thinking. The party made their way to
the place where the negro prisoners were held and Henry
Getzon, who lived two miles from Hamburg and who knew
all of the negroes in the town and neghborhood, was
asked to designate those of the meanest character ana
most worthy of death. As fast as he would select from
Iamong the prisoners those he thought ought to be killed
all miitiamcn-they were taken Oft a little ways Town the
lStreet and shot. Alter hVe mad DeeH III uedl Will |e
little squad of white men who were still remaining in town
seemed satisfied and it was decided that the rest OF the
negroes, some q or 30 in number, should be allowed to
90. The permission was given and they were told TO 60
up the street and you may depend on it that they were
not slow to move. When they had got about 50 yards
awav the crowd fred a volley over their heads, but l
could not see that it added anything to the speed which
they were making. If young Meriwether had not lost his
T 40 vt +b;pL Of these last negroes would nave
been killed, but the purpose of our visit. to Hamburg was
to strike terror and the next morning Sunday when the
negroes who had fled to the swamp returned (some OF
them never did return, but kept on going) the CHASTITY
sight which met their gaze of seven dead negroes lying
stark and stiff certainly had its effect. -.
One of those doomed to die escaped in a rather curl
Gus way. Whether it was that the white men were SICK
of the bloody work or something else l do not Know
Being the last of the doomed men, they either aimed pad
v or some of them did not fire at all at'the word OF COM
mand. When the shots rang out this negro tell as though
dead and as soon as the whites went away he crawled into
the high weeds which were near the road and thus escaped
with only a wound in his thigh. He was afterwards the
star witness against US and the means OF getting the names
Of some of the men who were there. His name was
Pomp Curry and by a strange coincidence ne was the boy
who, when l went to school at Liberty Hill in 1860 and
1851 and boarded with Mr.. Kiah Edwards, made our fires,
brought wood, BACKED shoes, etc. He disappeared
whether by death or fright, I do not know. After the
election of 1876 l never heard of him again.
1t was now after midnight and the moop high in the
heavens looked down peacefully on the deserted town and
dead negroes, whose lives had been offered up as a sacrl-
fee to the fanatical teachings and fendish hate OF those
who sought to substitute the rule of the African Tor that
of the Caucasian in South Carolina.
The party with which I left Hamburg was the last to
leave the place. Young Merewether's %nelghbors crossed
the bridge and returned home on the Georgia side. We
got our horses and when we approached the outskirts OF
the town we stopped at the famous Spout Spring, whose
waters pushed from the bluffs back Of the town. In the
better DAYS of the town this spring had been provided
with granite coping and a cover and was always a place
for travellers to Stake their thirst as they came IN or TO
Guard against it as they were leaving, the roads Leading
through a dry and sandy region. The names OF the men
in the party, as remember were: Henry Getson, chief
of our drum head court martial, Miledge Horne, who
lived two miles below me, James Lanham, Gus Glover
Toe MAYS, Sam Mays, Henry Simpson, John owearlnsen'
lDunlap Phinney, William Cook, and myself. Many OF
these are dead. When we had drank and washed John
Swearingen stepped up on the bank behind the spring ana
seizino the post upon which was nailed a notice, "FlVe
dollar fine for dipping any unclean vessel in this spring.
broke it off at the ground and threw it into the middle OF
the road saving with an oath that lin Cook would never
arrest another white man for drinking at that spring.
TIL. ~ an aUnsion TO an incident Of the preceding