The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1922-01-24
SOLDIERS BURIED WITH
BLACK CAP AND MOOSE
WAR DEPARTMENT RECORDS
SUBMITTED AT HEARING.
WATSON ATTACKS.

sentation of testimony by way OF de-
lnial, war department records, Sub
mitted today to the senate committee
investigating charges that American
soldiers had been hanged without trial
in France, showed that on the bodies
of two men dug up in the little ceme-
terry at Bazoilles the ropes and black
caps in which they were put to death
on the gallows had not been removed
prior to burial.
Edwin E. Lamb, of Hartford, Conn,
colonel overseas, testified that in the
case of one of the men hanged the
body was placed quickly in a coffin,
and so far as he recalled, the rope and
cap were left just where the hangnan
had placed them.
Senator Watson, of Georgia, whose
charges concerning illegal executions
led to the investigation, sharply at
tackled the burial of men hanged for
"unmentionable crimes" alongside of
soldiers who fell in battle.
Whites and Blacks in Same Cemetery.
Asking a witness if white men and
negroes were buried in the same part
Iof the cemetery, the senator was told
THAT they were-that all were soldiers.
Turning from burial methods, John
Sebastian, sailor of Jacksonville,
Fla. told how, when prisoner at
Gievres, he saw the bodies of two ne
groes lying face down on the ground
and was informed by the guard that
two negroes had been lynched.
Through the insistence of Senator
Overman, of North Carolina, the COM
lmittee of which he is a member IS
determined to find out how Benjamin
King, of Wilmington, N. c. soldier
with the Thirtieth division met death
lin France Some time ago the story
gained circulation around Wilmington
that King had been lynched by Off
GERS under orders of Hard Boiled"
Smith, who later served a prison term
for cruelty. Robert Harrison, Of VIII
lmington, testifying early in the i1l-
quiry, brought forward the first report
about the alleged lynching of King.
Murdered in Prison.
Walters. a former soldier, named
"Sergeants Smith and Stanley" as tho
ones who did the killing"
Charges that he saw surgeants beat
soldier prisoners to death at Camp
Merritt, ~ j., were made before the
committee by George q. Walters OF
/ DunkiTK, N. -
"They beat up somebody every
day." Walters. charged.
'sTheir favorite method was with
pickax handles"
Walters said he saw Smith and
Stanley beat man after man over the
head until they fell unconscious to the
ground" A camp hospital nurse told
him that two Of the beaten men died.
/ Of Max6r York
| civ. told the committee that while in
1.-THE air service in France he was trans
Iferred TO another station, the name OF
(which he did not remember, and in
passing through Paris was picked up
and put in prison as a lost and found
lDerson" DESPITE his transfer orders,
(which were submitted to an American
lof7cer. in charge of the arresting
SQUAD. Walmer said he was forced to
| sign a card stating he was prisoner.
II was put in a room with so many
others that we could not sleep, even
on the focr," the witness said, land
was kept there two days. There was
not even a chair in the room-
Given No Food.
"Were you ever told you were un-
der arrest, or what for?' Chairman
Brandegee asked.
mo, sir"
Did they give you water at the
PRISON."
NO. but we got some on the OF"
Walmer related many alleged griey-
Iances, saying after he left Paris he
was stopped at a village and put to
sleep in a horse stall. Eager to get
away he said, he ate two bars OF soap,
which made him i'll. and he was tagged
as an influenza patient and sent to
hospital Meanwhile, he declared, he
was robbed OF 800 francs and his
mothers picture, found with his mon
ey. was torn up and thrown in his
face.
why did they tear up your moth
er's picture?" Senator Watson asked.
"Tust to aggravate me. They said |
didn't need it"
Walmer declared he had certificate
of meritorious conduct from General
Pershing
Weeps During Story.
Wa1mer wept as he told how the
military police had robbed his bag
gage, stealing the little things his
mother had knitted for him, and a
Bible given him by his grandmother.
Champ E Martin, OF Seneca, 5. c..
standing six feet seven and one-haf
inches in his socks, told of the shoot
ing of Frank Ahenok, prisoner, by
IA sentry in France. The prisoner, he
said, was lying down and was shot
as he started to turn over. An order
to shoot the prisoner if he moved was
given, the witness said, by Sergeant
William L. Born, who was never tried.
Il saw and heard Born tell the sem
try if the prisoner moved to shoot
him, said Martin. "A moment later l
saw the man dead"
at was a shame the way the men
were treated at the guard house at
Camp Merritt" said George G. Wal
tiers, of Dunkirk, N. Y.
Saw Men Beaten.
81 saw Sergeants Stanley and Smith
beat men over the head with a pickax
handle" he said They looked dead
to me when they were put in ambu-
lances and hauled away" Waiter add
ed. "The sergeants were in Fort Leav-