Mrs. Henry Martin tells me of some fearful days following the pleasant ones when her father, Professor Holmes, entertained the Old Guard in his garden among the roses and oleanders. “One night, my brother, after seeing a young lady home from a party, was returning along King Street with Mr. Evaugh, when they encountered a crowd of negro rowdies and ran into a store and under a counter. The negroes threw cobble-stones—the street was in process of paving—on them. My brother was brought home in a wagon. When our mother removed his shirt, the skin came wholly from his back with it; he lived several years, but never fully recovered from his injuries. My father cautioned us to stoop and crawl in passing the window on the stairway to his room. In other houses, people were stooping and crawling as they passed windows; a shadow on a curtain was a target for a rock or a bullet. Black women were in arms, carrying axes or hatchets in their hands hanging down at their sides, their aprons or dresses half-concealing the weapons.” “There are 80,000 black men in the State who can use Winchesters and 200,000 black women who can light a torch and use a knife,” said “Daddy Cain,” ex-Congressman and candidate for reëlection, in his paper, “The Missionary Record,” July, 1876, and in addressing a large negro gathering, when Rev. Mr. Adams said, “Amen!”
Northern papers were full of the Hamburg and Ellenton riots, some blaming whites, some blacks, some distributing blame impartially. Facts at Cainhoy blazed out the truth about that place, at least. The whites, unarmed except for pistols which everybody carried then, were holding peaceable meeting when fired into from ambush by negroes with muskets, who chased them, continuing to fire. A youth of eighteen fell, with thirty-three buckshot in him; another, dying, wrote his mother that he had been giving no trouble. A carpenter and a shoemaker from Massachusetts, and an aged crippled gentleman were victims.
“Kill them! Kill them all! Dis town is ours!” Old Charlestonians recall hearing a hoarse cry like this from negro throats (Sept. 6, 1876), recall seeing Mr. Milton Buckner killed while trying to protect negroes from negroes. They recall another night of unforgettable horror, when stillness was almost as awful as tumult; frightened blacks were in-doors, but how long would they remain so? Rifle Clubs were protecting a meeting of black Democrats. Not a footfall was heard on the streets; not a sound broke the stillness save the chiming of St. Michael’s bells. Women and children and old men listened for the alarm that might ring out any moment that the negroes had risen en masse for slaughter. They thanked God when presently a sound of careless footsteps, of talk and laughter, broke upon the night; the Rifle Club men were returning in peace to their firesides.
General Hunt, U. S. A., reported on the Charleston riot, November, 1876, when white men, going quietly to places of business, were molested by blacks, and young Ellicott Walker was killed. The morning after the election General Hunt “walked through the city and saw numbers of negroes assembled at corners of Meeting and Broad Streets,” and was convinced there would be trouble, “though there was nothing in the manner of the whites gathered about the bulletin board to provoke it.” Surgeon De Witt, U. S. A., told him “things looked bad on King and other streets where negroes insisted on pushing ladies off the sidewalks.”
When Walker was killed, and the real trouble began, General Hunt hurried to the Station House; the Marshal asked him for assistance; reports came in that negroes were tearing up trees and fences, assailing whites, and demanding arms of the police. General Hunt found at the Station House “a number of gentlemen, young and old,” who offered aid. Marshal Wallace said, “But these are seditious Rifle Clubs.” Said General Hunt, “They are gentlemen whom I can trust and I am glad to have them.” Pending arrival of his troops, he placed them at the Marshal’s disposal. The general relates: “They fell in with his forces; as I was giving instructions, he interposed, saying the matter was in his hands. He then started off. I heard that police were firing upon and bayonetting quiet white people. My troops arrived and additional white armed citizens. One of the civil authorities said it was essential the latter be sent home. I declined sending these armed men on the streets, and directed them to take position behind my troops and remain there, which direction they obeyed implicitly.”
With the Mayor and other Radical leaders General Hunt held conference; the negro police was aggravating the trouble, he proposed that his troops patrol streets; the mayor objected. “Why cannot the negroes be prevailed upon to go quietly home?” the General asked. “A negro has as much right to be on the streets armed as a white man.” “But I am not here to discuss abstract rights. A bloody encounter is imminent. These negroes can be sent home without difficulty by you, their leaders.” “You should be able to guarantee whites against the negroes, if you can guarantee negroes against the whites.” “The cases are different. I have no control over the blacks through their reason or intelligence. They have been taught that a Democratic victory will remand them to slavery. Their excited fears, however unfounded, are beyond my control. You, their leaders, can quiet and send them home. The city’s safety is at stake.” The Mayor said he must direct General Hunt’s troops; Hunt said he was in command. The Mayor wired Chamberlain to disband the Rifle Clubs “which were causing all the mischief.” Hunt soon received orders to report at Washington.
“Hampton is elected!” the people rejoiced. “Chamberlain is elected!” the Radicals cried, and disputed returns. The Radical Returning Board threw out the Democratic vote in Laurens and Edgefield and made the House Radical. The State Supreme Court (Republican) ordered the Board to issue certificates to the Democratic members from these counties. The Board refused; the Court threw the Board in jail; the United States Court released the Board. The Supreme Court issued certificates to these members. November 28, 1876, Democrats organised in Carolina Hall, W. H. Wallace, Speaker; Radicals in the State House, with E. W. Mackey, Speaker, and counting in eight Radical members from Laurens and Edgefield. The Democratic House sent a message to the Radical Senate in the State House that it was ready for business. Senate took no notice. On Chamberlain’s call upon President Grant, General Ruger was in Columbia with a Federal regiment.
THE SOUTHERN CROSS
General Hampton, while Governor, built this, his residence, with his own hands and with the
assistance of his faithful negroes. The men in the picture, from left to right, are: Hon. LeRoy F.
Youmans, General Hampton, Judge McIver, Hon. Joseph D. Pope, General James McGowan.