Mr. Alexander, Perry county, shot a negro for being around his quarters at a late hour. He went into his house with a gun and claimed to have shot the negro accidentally. The fact is, the negro is dead.
Mr. Dermott, Perry county, started with a negro to Selma, having a rope around the negro's neck. He was seen dragging him in that way, but returned home before he could have reached Selma. He did not report at Selma, and the negro has never since been heard of. The neighbors declare their belief that the negro was killed by him. This was about the 10th of July.
Mr. Higginbotham, and Threadgill, charged with killing a negro in Wilcox county, whose body was found in the woods, came to my notice the first week of August.
A negro was killed on Mr. Brown's place, about nine miles from Selma, on the 20th of August. Nothing further is known of it. Mr. Brown himself reported.
A negro was killed in the calaboose of the city of Selma, by being beaten with a heavy club; also, by being tied up by the thumbs, clear of the floor, for three hours, and by further gross abuse, lasting more than a week, until he died.
I can further state, that within the limits of my official observation crime is rampant; that life is insecure as well as property; that the country is filled with desperadoes and banditti who rob and plunder on every side, and that the county is emphatically in a condition of anarchy.
The cases of crime above enumerated, I am convinced, are but a small part of those that have actually been perpetrated.
I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
J.P. HOUSTON, Major 5th Minnesota, and Provost Marshal U.S. forces at Selma, Alabama.
Major General CARL SCHURZ.