The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1910-05-19
TELLS OF FIGHT.
Negro Arrested on St. Helena Island,
Near Beaufort.

Near Beaufort.
| Beaufort, May 14.-ThiS morning
the representative of the State, with
the launch Mystic, took Deputy
Sheriff Matthew O'Donnell White,
who in the past five years has been
sent out after upwards of hundred
reputed negro desperadoes and who
has never failed to get his man, to
st. Helena Island, sea island on
which Fort Fremont Is located, with
a population of about 5000 negroes
and probably 100 white people out
side of the garrison.
The officer and the newspaper man
spent the day in tracing the two ne
groes from place to place through the
swamps and the negro settlements
on ST. Helena and finally found Isaiah
Potter They caught him at $50 to-
night near quarantine station. He
had gone to Parish Island, about four
miles from Fort Fremont, and was
in hiding there. The other negro
wanted will probably be caught to-
morrow, as the searchers believe
they have him located.
Private McNally, one of the SOL
diers shot on Tuesday, has been hav-
;,r ;,+orpo1 bonoorrbo ooc fhouph
the post surgeon says he will recover.
Quigley, shot at the same time, is in
a precarious condition and his recov-
cry is uncertain.
The negro arrested, Isaiah Potter,
known as Little Potter, before the
shooting was a pet and companion of
the soldiers. 1t was he who was cut
a short time ago by one of the SOL
/ diers, which, according to the sold
iers was the cause of the succeeding
trouble.
/ The following is the story of the
affair he tells:
The first trouble between the SOL
diers at Fort Fremont and the Pot
ters was caused by an intimacy
which existed between Will Potter's
wife and Private Brown of the One
Hundred and Twenty-seventh COM
pany, stationed 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 threat
ened Brown with sound thrashing.
The soldier stood what Isaiah Pot
ter says was "a good cursing," 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 a gun in her face and told
her that if she did not give them a
match with which to set fire to the
house and smoke her son out they
would blow her head off. Will Pot
ter, who was in the house, yelled for
them not to come in or to burn the
house, as it was not his house but
his mothers.
The soldiers then began shooting
at the house and rushed in. Potter,
who had retreated upstairs, 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 windows.
The two Potters made their way
across the island and spent the night
with negro friends. The next. day
Isaiah 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. Isaiah Potter says that the
manner in which he received the cuts
inflicted by the soldiers occurred as
follows:
After Will Potter had "cussed out
Brown, he met Privates Pfeiffer and
Maghan, who asked him where that
damn brother" of his was and II ne
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
flicting wounds that required seven or
eight stitches. The Potter arrested
declares he knows nothing of the am