Messrs. Gottschalk & Hughes paid no heed to this missive, and on the night of the 13th of November, 1871, the Klan assembled and set fire to the mill, destroying it entirely, and compelling its new proprietors to leave the place.
Mr. William Gober, residing in Dade County, Georgia, was an avowed Unionist and Republican. He was active in politics and expressed his sentiments with great freedom, and was consequently classed by the Ku Klux as a carpet-bagger and a scallawag, and warned to leave the country, in the following terms:—
“Death. K. K. K. Death.
Take heed for the pale horse is coming. His step is terrible; lightning is in his nostrils. He looks for a rider. Now this is to warn you William Gober, that carpet-baggers and scallawags cannot live in this country. If you are not gone in ten days, we shall come to you, and the pale horse shall have his rider.
By order. K. K. K.”
Mr Gober smiled at this document, but the sequel shew that it meant something more than a threat. At midnight on the 13th of September, 1871, his house was surrounded by about twenty of the Klan, armed and disguised. He was then dragged out and whipped with great severity. Previous to the infliction of the punishment he fought desperately with his assailants, and succeeded in displacing several of their masks, and recognizing them.
He was left for dead by the Klan, but recovered his consciousness, and secretly made his way to Atlanta, where he made an affidavit, upon which six of the parties were arrested and held for trial.
Thousands of warnings, similar to the above, many of them obscene and blasphemous, were sent to as many persons in various parts of the South.
One more is herewith appended, as showing one of the extremes to which the Ku Klux went in their crusade against Radicals. It was found hanging to a small dagger, stuck into one of the doors of the University, at Tuscaloosa, Ala., with several others of similar import, addressed to some of the students of the University, and read as follows:—
“K. K. K.