The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1921-08-25
p SHOT STORMING JAIL.
Most of Wounded Are Curiosity-Seek-
ers-:AH Wounded Are White.

ed dead line in approaching the
jail With the avowed purpose of de-
manding Frank Martin, negro held
as a suspect in a criminal assault
upon a country school teacher Thurs
day.
All of the wounded are white Two
are women. Most of the wounded
were curiosity-seekers who were
standing to one side upon the court
house lawn, which is 80 feet above
the street level at the corner where
the jail stands. One officer was
wounded in the arm by return fire
from the crowd.
The machine gun company 117th
infantry, Tennessee national guard,
was on duty at the jail. Half dozen
soldiers joined in the firing with their
revolvers. The machine guns were not
put into operation.
Following reports that the school
teacher today had positively identi-
fed Martin as her assailant, large
crowds began gathering in the vicini-
ty of the Jail before dusk tonight.
Several times the crowd started
down the hill on Main street leading
to the Jail. They were turned back by
police. Efforts were made to hold
them block distant.
Gradually some of the bolder ones
edged down the street. There were
probably 200 men and boys in the
crowd that gradually approached the
jail. Several hundred other persons,
many of them women, were in the
court house yard looking down upon
the scene.
Sheriff Gave Warning.
AS the crowd in the street came
within 100 feet, Sheriff Cate stepped
under an arc light and demanded that
they disperse. He gave warning that
an imaginary line between two tele-
phone poles should not be crossed.
AS dozen men passed these poles,
the sheriff picked up shot gun and
fired over the heads of the crowd into
the air. Four deputies who were with
him then fired two volleys. Two men
in the court house yard and two or
three in the street fired revolvers in
reply.
Sheriff Cate stated tonight that the
first shot came from the court house
lawn almost simultaneously with
which several rocks were thrown from
that hill, one of them striking Deputy
Sheriff Charles Lewis, whereupon he
fired over the heads of the crowd. His
statement was substantiated by Adju-
tant General P. L. Brummit, who hur-
ried here from Nashville, arriving to-
night, and by Captain ]. ]. Schneider.
of the machine gun company.
The shooting then became general.
Many of the loads of buckshot fired
by the officers and intended to go
above the heads of the crowd in the
street, went among spectators in the
court house yard. Several of the
wounded are suffering from bullets OF
large calibre.
At II o'clock heavy detachment
of police, summoned from their homes
for riot duty, dispersed the crowd.
No one was allowed to pause within
block of the jail.
Expect No More Trouble.
At that hour it appeared that there
would be no further trouble.
The local troop of national guard
calvary was modified but had, not ap-
peared on the scene at 1 I o'clock.
On August 80, 1919, the Knox
county jail was stormed and dynamit-
ed by a mob searching for Maurice
Mays, a negro, accused of numbering
white woman. Mayes had been re-
moved during the afternoon but the
mob released many prisoners, six OF
whom were charged with murder.
Following that attack there was a
general race riot over the city and
two men we're killed and 20 wounded
before troops gained control of the
situation. Mayes is in the county jail
tonight where he is held pending ap-
peal from his second conviction on
the charge of numbering Mrs. Birdie
Lindsay, the first conviction having
been reversed by the supreme court.
All of the wounded reside in Knox
vile and immediate vicinity expecting
Jesse Childers, of Elba, Ala, wounded
in the hip and above the ankle, and
R. w. Gleaves, aged %, of Nashville,
who was shot twice in each leg,
through the left thigh, through the
left arm and in the back. Gleaves's
condition is grave.
VIII, %o,rO