The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1910-05-18
the FIGHT With SOLDIERS.
NEGRO ARRESTED ON ST. HELL
ENA ISLAND.
Believed That Another Participant in
Fort Fremont Row Will BE Captur-
ed.

Beaufort, May 13.-This morning
the representative Of The State, with
the launch Mystic, took Deputy Sher-
iff Matthew ODonnell White, who in
the past five years has been sent out
after upwards of a hundred reputed
negro desperadoes, and who has nev-
er failed to get his man, to st. Helena
Island, a sea island on which Fort
Fremont is located. with a popula-
tion of about 5000 negroes and prob
ably 100 white people outside of the
garrison.
The officer and the newspaper man
spent the day in tracing the two ne
groes from place to pace through
the swamps and the negro settlements
on st Helena and finally found Isaiah
Potter. They caught him at $3.50 to-
night near quarantine station. He
had gone to Paris Island, about four
miles from Fort Fremont, and was in
hiding there. The other negro want
ed will probably be caught tomorrow,
as the searchers believe they have
him located
| Private McNally, one Of the soldiers
shot on Tuesday. has been having in
ternal hemorrhages, though the post
surgeon says he will recover. Quigley,
shot at the same time, is in a pre-
carious condition and his recovery is
uncertain.
| The negro arrested, Isaiah Potter.
known as Little Potter. before the
shooting was pet and companion of
the soldiers. 1t was he who was cut a
short time ago by one of the soldiers,
which. according to the soldiers, was
the cause Of the succeeding trouble.
| The following is the story of the af-
| fair he tells:
| The first trouble between the SOL
diers at Fort Fremont and the Potters
was caused by an intimacy which ex-
listed between Will Potter's wife and
Private Brown of the One Hundred
and Twenty-seventh company, sta-
toned at Fort Fremont. Will Potter
met Brown some time ago and accused
him of the intimacy with his wife. The
soldier made denial and the negro
| told him there was no doubt about it.
The negro threatened Brown with a
sound thrashing. The soldier stood
| what Isaiah Potter says was "a good
cussing." and went back to the fort.
| When Private Brown returned to the
fort he said that the two Potters had
| made threats to shoot the first soldier
caught off the reservation, as was
stated in previous report The man
arrested says he knows Of no such
| threat being made. Potter says that
| the soldiers went to the house Of the
| mother of the man who did the shoot
ing, put gun in her face and told
her If she did not give them a match
with which to set fire to the house
ana smoke her son out they would
blow her head off. Will Potter. who
was in the house, yelled for them not
to come in or to burn the house. as
1t was not his house but his mothers.
The soldiers then began shooting
at the house and rushed in Potter,
who had retreated upstirs, fired at
them with a double -barreled shotgun.
He stood on the stair steps, and shot
at the men. who were attempting to
come upstairs after him. When he
shot two Of the men down, the others
ran and jumped out of the window.
The two Potters made their way
across the island and spent the night
with negro friends The next day
lslah Potter, the man captured, had a
friendly negro to row him over to
Paris island, where he went to the
house in which he was found by the
deputy. Isiah Potter says that the
manner in which he received the cuts
inflicted by the soldiers occurred as
follows
After Will Potter had "cussed out"
i'i""h ho Illel TrlNateS Pfelffer and
Maghan. who asked him where that
damn brother" of his was and if he
had threatened to do violence to
Brown or any other soldier. When
Potter told the soldiers that he did
not know or care where the other
Potter was, Private Maghan began
cutting him on the head and ear, in
1llcting wounds that required seven or
eight stitches. The Potter arrested
declares he knows nothing of the am
pushing Of the soldiers on Monday
night.