Original sentence: As a group of black veterans tried to intervene to stop the arrest of the black man, a crowd of whites gathered at the scene, and fighting broke out.The common denominator in all the accounts is that the incident involved the police and ex-soldiers, which is not surprising due to the recent loss of status associated with the soldiers' discharge.The ex-soldiers did not contribute significantly to the horrendous events that followed.The most widely held account is that policemen were attempting to take into custody several ex-soldiers for disorderly conduct and were resisted by a crowd of their fellow comrades..  Other historians attribute the incident being started by the collision of the carriages of a black man and a white man.This initial conflict resulted in one policeman's death, probably from the mishandling of his own gun, and one ex-soldier plus several injured
Edited sentence: After a group of black veterans tried to intervene to stop the arrest of the black man, a crowd of whites gathered at the scene, and fighting broke out.In each incident there was confrontation between white police officers and black Union Army soldiers.The ex-soldiers did not contribute significantly to the events that followed.The most widely held account is that policemen were attempting to take into custody several ex-soldiers for disorderly conduct and were resisted by a crowd of their comrades.. Some historians attribute the inciting incident to the collision between two carriages of a black man and a white man.This initial conflict resulted in injuries to several people and one policeman's death, possibly self-inflicted due to the mishandling of his own gun