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THE

Chisolm Massacre :

A PICTURE OF

"Home Rule" in Mississippi.

By James M. Wells.

CHT'^AGO:
Agency ChiSolm MoNtv- ^^ Fund."'
19.77,

COPYRIGHT,
BY JAMES M. WELLS.
1877.

• TO EMILY S. M. CHISOLM,
The Faithful Wife, Fond Mother and Devoted Friend,
whose bitter tears,
like the blood of her martyred and beloved dead,
fall to the earth and pass from sight
Unheeded and Unavenged,
THESE pages ARE AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED,

INTRODUCTION.

On Sunday, the twenty-ninth of April, 1877, a body
of three hundred men, styling themselves "the best citi
zens" of Kemper county, in the State of Mississippi,
conspiring together and co-operating with the sheriff
and other officers of the county, coolly and premedi-
tatedly murdered three men and two children; one of
the latter a young and beautiful girl, and the other a
delicate boy aged thirteen years. Against this act
humanity itself, where humanity finds lodgment in the
breasts of men, still cries out for vengeance; and
the withering condemnation of an outraged public senti
ment is everywhere turned upon the whole people of a
State who stand supinely by, dumb and immovable
spectators of such a crime without so much as a pre
tended effort toward the enforcement of the law against
its perpetrators.
The inability of the courts of the country to arrest or
punish is now admitted, and it is sought to palliate and
justify the offense by invading the forbidden and hal
lowed precincts of the grave, and assailing the characters
of the victims whose voices are hushed in the unbroken
sleep of death. In behalf of justice to the living or
dead, the laws of the land and the wail of the widow
and orphan are alike unavailing.

6 Introduction.
Having been providentially called to witness this
atrocity and its results, in their worst form and aspect,
and knowing much of the men whose hands were
employed in the bloody work, as well as of the causes
which prompted them to its enactment ; and, above all,
being thoroughly acquainted with the lives and char
acters of the victims and the circumstances surrounding
those who are left to mourn their untimely and terrible
death, a sense of a solemn and imperative duty has
impelled the author to undertake the difficult task which
has resulted in the production of these pages. Nor has
this been done with the hope of reward or fear of con
demnation from any political organization or other source.
The book is a simple record of facts, and for whatever
there may be in them calculated to win plaudits from
one or incur the displeasure of another the writer is in no
way responsible. In their preparation, however, the
necessity of producing something more than a simple
and unqualified statement by which to establish the
authenticity of the subject treated has been kept
steadily in view, and where the circumstances seemed in
any way to require it, some data or tangible proof of
the correctness of every assertion made has been given,
and the time, place and manner of its occurrence fixed.
The facts, dating back as far as 1870, are gleaned from
personal observation of the author, whose business, car
rying him into different parts of the State, has been of
such a nature as to lead to a close investigation of
the moral, social and political status and conduct of
the people. The past four years, living in a county

Introduction. 7
adjoining that of Kemper, which he has visited regularly
and often, he has been made acquainted from time to
time with the men and things here discussed.
With regard to the existence of the conspiracy to
murder Judge Chisolm and his associates — which had
its beginning soon after the close of the war, and culmi
nated only when the last sod of earth was placed upon
the grave of the faithful and heroic daughter, Cornelia —
the circumstances of the murder itself, the subsequent '
treatment of the wounded, their sufferings and the man
ner of their death and burial, the writer is indebted to
his own eyes, to the death-bed declarations of Judge
Chisolm, and to the story as it came from the pale lips
of the martyred girl, while the angels stood waiting to
waft her spirit above. To all this is added the sworn
testimony of more than twenty unimpeachable wit
nesses now living, whose names for their safety only are
as yet withheld.
This evidence was taken by order of Attorney-General
Devens, at the instance or demand of the British Min
ister at Washington, and was done for the purpose of
ascertaining the facts with regard to the citizenship and
death of Angus McLellan, the alleged British subject,
one of the victims of the slaughter. To make this work
complete and reliable, a special agent — Mr. G. K. Chase
— was sent from Washington to co-operate with U. S.
District-Attorney Lea, of Jackson, Mississippi, and these
gentlemen, in company with Gen. Geo. C. McKee, of
Jackson, and the writer, visited Meridian and De Kalb,
where the facts were obtained, in strict accordance with

8 Introduction.
which these pages are written. The coolness and delib
eration of the plot to entrap the victims under a hollow
pretense of executing the law, and then to murder them
in cold blood; the shooting of Gilmer and McLellan on
the streets and the assault of the mob upon the jail
soon after; the murder of the little boy Johnny by
Rosser, the leader of the savage horde, and the terrible
vengeance visited upon the assassin's head by Judge
Chisolm; the heroic defense of the father by the brave
girl, and the patient ¦ suffering of the wounded through
all the days that followed the dark Sabbath, till death
came to their relief; all taken together afford a theme
well calculated to enliven the fancy of a writer of the
most extravagant tale of fiction, and cannot fail to
arouse the sympathy and indignation of every honest
heart throughout the world where the facts are known.
A reproach to the civilization of the century in which
we live, the cheek of every true lover of all that is
worthy of adoration in woman will mantle with shame
when a record of this horror shall desecrate the pages
which perpetuate the memory of a boasted chivalry, and
American manhood must deny its name and existence
so long as the blood of Cornelia and Johnny Chisolm is
unavenged. " And do we dream we hear
The far, low cry of fear.
Where in the Southern land
The masked barbaric band.
Under the covert night.
Still fight the coward's fight.
Still strike the assassin's blow —

Introduction.
Smite childhood, girlhood low '.
Great Justice ! canst thou see
Unmoved that such things be ?
See murderers go free.
Unsought? Bruised in her grave
The girl who fought to save
Brother and sire. She died for man.
She leads the lofty van
Of hero women. Lift her name
With ever-kindling fame.
Her youth's consummate flower
Took on the exalted dower
Of martyrdom. And death
And love put on her crown
Of high renown. * * * *
Cease, bells of freedom, cease '
Hush, happy songs of peace !
If such things yet may be,
Sweet land of liberty.
In thee, in thee ! "

As a guarantee of the high character and responsibili
ty of this work, and to show the object for which it is
offered for sale, the following letter from Mrs. Chisolm
is appended :
DeKalb, Mississippi, October, 1877.
To my kind friends and sympathizers :
Mr. James M. Wells, who has resided in Mississippi
for the past nine years, where he has won the confidence
and esteem of all with whom he has been associated, and
who is known to me as a gentleman of high culture and
strict personal integrity, has written a complete and re
liable history of the late " Kemper County Tragedy," in

IO Introduction.
which my dear husband and children, with others of our
friends, were foully and cruelly murdered.
Captain Wells was among the first to come to the aid
of our suffering family after they were wounded, and
kindly, skillfully and faithfully nursed them until death
came to their relief, and he is in every way qualified for
the task so generously undertaken.
The manuscript of the forthcoming work has been
carefully perused by me, and meets my hearty approval.
At the solicitation of my friends at home and abroad
the proceeds of the sale of this book will be devoted to
the purpose of removing the bodies of my dear ones to
some Northern State, beyond the reach of the desecrat
ing hand of their enemies, where my home will hereafter
be made, and there to erect a suitable monument to the
memory of the martyred dead.
Captain Wells is fully empowered to transact all busi
ness incident to the publication and sale of the book, and
is now in the city of Chicago, where his time and talent
will be given to that end ; and I earnestly commend him
and the work he has in hand to the entire confidence of
all who may desire the success of this generous under
taking; and any aid thus rendered him will be most
gratefully and thankfully received, and treasured up in
my heart, as the many acts of known and unknown
friends have already been.
Gratefully and respectfully,
EMILY S. M. CHISOLM.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I— (p, 15)— Biographical Sketch of W, W. Chisolm and
Emily S, Mann, his wife. Birth of Cornelia,
CHAPTER II— (p. 22.)— Life in Kemper in the good old ante-ttellum
times.
CHAPTER III— (p. 30.)— The GuUys. Their early career and reign
of outlawry. Death of Sam Gully and attempt of the GuUys to
assassinate Rush. The "Acre Tax." Pioneer Republicans.
CHAPTER IV— (p. 46,)— The caldron of political rancor. Intro
duction of the Free School system, and origin and growth of
the Ku Klux spirit. The "Sixteenth Section" school fund.
Report of Superintendent Pease for 1870. The killing of Ball,
and other terrible crimes committed by the Klan.
CHAPTER V — (p, 64,) — Murder of Judge John McRea, and other
deeds of blood. John P, Gilmer and the death of Hal Dawson,
Judge Chisolm elected Sheriff by the popular vote.
CHAPTER VI — (p, 73.) — Invasion by Alabamians into Mississippi.
The Meridian riot and massacre,
CHAPTER VII — (p, 80.) — Second invasion of Alabamians. Attempt
to murder Judge Chisolm, Gilmer and others. Sworn testimony
in the case.

1 2 Contents.
CHAPTER VIII— (p, 86,)— Southern Republicans. Unsuccessful at
tempt of Judge Dillard to take the life of Judge Chisolm, The
combat. Anxiety of Cornelia for the welfare of her father.
Murder of Hon. W, S, Gambrel,
CHAPTER IX— (p. 94.)— Judge Chisolm again elected sheriff. Nu
merical strength of the two parties in Kemper, A large white
repubhcan vote. Taxation and its causes, "Speculations" in
cotton. Charge of "forgery" against Judge Chisolm, which
fails. The "race war" of 1874, and conspiracy to take Judge
Chisolm's life,
CHAPTER X— (p. 109,)— The Chisolm family at DeKalb. Their
daily life, T he pohtical contest of 1875, Incendiary speeches
*of the "gifted Lamar," and others. Sworn testimony of J, P.
Gilmer. Cornelia graduates with high honors. Character of
the girl.
CHAPTER XI — (p, 125,) — The canvass for congress in 1876, Re
peated attempts to intimidate and murder Judge Chisolm, His
house assailed at night by a mob. The assault renewed at day
light, Sam Meek and John W, Gully, Letter from Corneha.
Sworn testimony of Judge Chisolm relating to the campaign.
CHAPTER XII— (p. 139.) — Indictment of the rioters who assailed
Judge Chisolm and his family. Unsuccessful attempts of the
Deputy U, S, Marshal to make arrests. The Hon. Mr, Money
contributes means to defend his constituency. Attempt to
assassinate John W. Gully. Suspicion is directed upon B. F.
Rush,
CHAPTER XIII— (p, 146,)—" Home rule and local self government "
established. Judge Chisolm and Cornelia visit Washington and
the North. Letter from the latter descriptive of her trip.
CHAPTER XIV— (p. 154,)— The Judge and daughter turn their faces
homeward, A glimpse of Kemper county society in the spring

Contents. 1 3
(
of 1877, Robbery and corruption. The Chisolm family again
at home. Death of John W. Gully, Rush charged with the

CHAPTER XV— (p. 162.)— Burial of Gully Conspiracy to assassinate
, Judge Chisolm and all his associates, George S, Covert acting
under the advice of eminent counsel. The fraudulent warrant
of arrest.
CHAPTER XVI— (p. 170,)— The Klans called together at DeKalb in
the dead hour of night, Sinclair, the imbecile sheriff and ready
tool of the conspirators. Arrest of the two Hoppers and Judge
Chisolm. They are all taken to jail. The Judge is followed by
his family and Angus'McLellan. Gilmer and Rosenbaum arrested
and the former shot to death.
CHAPTER XVII— (p. 176,)— Mrs. Gilmer and the aged mother of the
murdered man. Whipping and hanging of the two colored men
to enforce evidence. The guards inside the jail. Cornelia goes
for ammunition. The mother and Willie go to the stable
McLellan shot. The mob break into the jail. The struggle of
, Mrs, Chisolm, Cornelia and Johnny against the savages,. Johnny
murdered and Rosser killed. The terrible scenes which followed,
CHAPTER XVIII— (p, i8g.)— Second assault of the mob upon Judge
Chisolm and Cornelia; both shot and mortally wounded. The
Judge carried home in a dying condition. Third assault of the
mob I heroism of the wounded girl. Assistance arrives. Gover
nor Stone visits the scene of the massacre.
CHAPTER XIX — (p, 200,) — Letters of condolence and sympathy for
the distressed family,
CHAPTER XX— (p, 216,) — Mrs, Chisolm appeals to Governor Stone
for aid ; it is denied. Death of Judge Chisolm and Cornelia.
CHAPTER XXI— (p. 227,)— The character of the victims assailed
after death. The newspapers of the State defend the murderers.

14 Contents.
CHAPTER XXII— (p. 241.)— The innocence of Rush established.
Attempt to kidnap and murder him in Alabama, Grand Jurors
chosen by democrats. False argument of J, Z. George.
CHAPTER XXIII— (p. 255,)— The Govemor has "no power to do
anything at all " — and again he is all powerful. The real facts
analyzed and the true state of Mississippi society and politics
disclosed.
CHAPTER XXIV— (p. 265,)— Governor Stone's action endorsed by
the people. Welch elected Sheriff of Kemper county. The
Circuit Court. Six or seven of the murderers indicted. Judge
Hamm's charge to the Grand Jury. Walter Riley condemned to
death. No arrest of those indicted. Bulldozers still rampant
and un whipped. The Governor's "powers" once more.
CHAPTER XXV— (p. 276.)— Names of the DeKalb rioters. They will
be remembered.
CHAPTER XXVI— (p, 279,)— Tribute to the memory of the martyred
dead,
CHAPTER XXVII— (p, 287,)— A retrospect. Deductions drawn
therefrom, left to the reader.

The Chisolm Massacre ;
A PICTURE OF
"HOME RULE" IN MISSISSIPPI.

CHAPTER I.

William Wallace Chisolm, a sketch of whose eventful
life and late tragic death will form, perhaps, the most
important feature in the jjrogress of this work, was born
in Morgan county, Georgia, December 6th, 1830. At
the age of sixteen years, together with his parents, he
became a resident of Kemper county, Mississippi, a
country which, then as now, was infested with great
numbers of wicked and lawless men, the records of
whose bloody crimes are still fresh in the memory
of many of Kemper's oldest and most respected citizens.
So marked was the spirit of violence and so light the
regard for human life that the growth and improvement
of the country was veiy slow; a condition which
has followed its fortunes up to the present time. The
accession of sober, industrious and trustworthy families
to a community like that of Kemper, in those days, was
welcomed and hailed with delight by all good people far
and near, and the Chisolm family were not long in

1 6 The Chisolm Massacre.
establishing their claim upon the latter class, where they
ever after took rank among the first.
In the month of March, 185 1, the head of the family
died, leaving William — then a boy nineteen years old —
its guardian and protector. Three of the children were
younger sisters, and on his death-bed the father exacted
of the son the promise that he would discharge all obli
gations of the estate, which amounted to a large sum
for those early times and primitive surroundings, and
that he would also educate the three sisters and provide
for them comfortably in life. To the faithful perform
ance of this duty yoilng Chisolm at once set himself at
work. How well he carried out this pledge the creditors
or their heirs, and two of the sisters in good homes, sur
rounded by happy families, are still living to attest,
while the mother, now at the ripe old age of seventy-
four years, is provided with a neat cottage, situated on a
farm' which yields her a bountiful support, and that
within sight of her early home in Mississippi, where all
her children were reared and around which the survivors
and their descendants are clustered to-day, if not happy,
certainly honored and revered.
The 29th of March, 1856, the subject of this sketch
was married to Emily S. Mann, an accomplished young
lady, a daughter of John W. Mann, who was a native
of Amelia Island, Florida, a prominent lawyer and
a gentleman of high literary and social culture. The
career of the Manns, in the early settlement of Florida,
was somewhat remarkable. The grandfather of Emily
S. Mann, who owned a large tract of land under

^^ Home Rule" in Mississippi. 17
a Spanish grant, was the first settler, and built the
first house where the city of Fernandina now stands.
In the dispute between the early American settlers
in Florida and the Spanish authorities, in which the
former sought to take from Spain the lands claimed
by that government, the MannS, among others, took
prominent part, and by virtue of superior intelligence,
skill and bravery soon rose to distinction. These set
tlers were, many of them, driven from their homes, while
others were put to death outright or carried off and
compelled to drag out a life of refined torture as pris
oners in Moro Castle, Cuba. Whether the theory is
correct or not, it is one of the inherent elements of
human conjecture to credit and foster the belief that the
strong characteristics which may in any way distinguish
the conduct of individuals are sure to mark and mould, in
some degree, the fortunes of their lineal posterity. Per
haps the bold and venturesome spirit which charac
terized the lives of this family in generations past, when
the iron rule of Spain was laid heavily upon these early
settlers, has had its influence in shaping the remarkable
life and character of Emily Mann Chisolm.
The education acquired by young Chisolm, up to the
date of his marriage, was only such as could be gleaned
at odd times in the common schools of the country,
which were then very poor; but with the assistance of a
dutiful and fond wife, his acquirements were soon made
to equal the spirit of enterprise and just emulation
already settled upon his heart. This dates the beginning
of an eventful and prosperous life.
2

1 8 The Chisolm Massacre
Full of vigor and manly strength, young Chisolm first
entered upon the business of farming, almost the only
legitimate pursuit then open to the young men of the
country, most of whom preferred a life of idleness and
debauch to one of uninterrupted toil.
The 30th of January, 1858, W. W. Chisolm, at a
special election held for the purpose of filling a vacancy
in the office of magistrate, was elected to that important
and honorable position in the beat or township in which
he lived.
It was on the eleventh of February, 1858, that Cor
nelia Josephine, the first fruit of the marriage of W. W.
Chisolm and Emily S. Mann v/as born. The sublime
character of this pure girl, who, nineteen years after, fell
a victim of savage outlawry, and died while defending
her father against the assault of a blood-thirsty mob, is
worthy the emulation of America's most exalted woman
hood. Her young life, yielded up on the altar of filial
love, and devotion to those principles of justice and right,
which ever inspired the hearts of parent and child alike,
cannot have been given in vain. The lesson taught by
her example will live on, after the generation and the
spirit which prompted these inhuman acts shall have been
forgotten or numbered with the things of the past. As
time advances and the proud names of our country's
noble women are recorded, that of Cornelia Chisolm will
be written in golden letters on its brightest page.
From this slight digression, the reader is brought back
to the historical events in the order of their occurrence
which enter into the ground-work of this narrative.

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 19
In October, 1858, at a general election, young Chisolm
was again made the choice of the people of his district,
who re-6lected him Justice of the Peace for a term of two
years, which time he served with honor and credit to him
self and to the entire satisfaction of his constituency.
At all events, so well were the duties of this office per
formed, that in November, i860, he was made Probate
Judge of the county, a place which he held almost unin
terruptedly until the year 1 867, when he resigned in favor
of John McRea, who was appointed by the then Provisr
ional Govemor of the State. During the long term in
which he held this important position. Judge Chisolm
was elected three times, running against Judge Gill, an
older man, and one said to have been, next to Judge
Chisolm, the most popular ever elected to an office in the
county. In all these years in which he enjoyed the confidence
of his countrymen to such a high degree, Judge Chisolm
was a pronounced Union man of Whig proclivities, and
an uncompromising enemy of the party which precipi
tated and hurled head-long upon the country the terrible
consequences of the rebellion. When the tide of seces
sion swept over Mississippi like a devouring flame, he,
with thousands of others like himself, who shuddered at
the thought, in an unguarded moment, through force and
intimidation, cast a vote favoring the disruption of the
Union, an act which it is known he regretted all the re
mainder of his life. As a civil officer and citizen he was
always opposed to the fratricidal contest, to which he
steadily refused to lend any personal service, and never

20 The Chisolm Massacre.
entered the army save only in the thirty days militia, and
then under protest. The popular voice of the county, in
the meantime, was in favor of a vigorous prosecution of
the war, even unto the " last ditch."
Against all these odds Judge Chisolm was continued
in office, from term to term. Whig and Unionist as he
was. Young and inexperienced in politics, there must have
been in him, from the beginning, something which won
the hearts of his fellows and called around him the
elements of his unbounded success. At the close of the
great struggle, he was among the few Southern men who
early declared themselves in favor of reconstruction and
the principles of the dominant party of that day, and to
which he ever after adhered with a steadfastness and zeal
amounting to patriotic devotion. Such were the leading
characteristics of Judge Chisolm in youth and early man
hood, and which gathered strength as time and age ad
vanced, and through life marked the conduct of his
public and private career.
Through an acquaintance with the people of Kemper
county, as they were found in an early day, before the
spirit engendered by rebellion could have had anything to
do in moulding Southern character, the reader will be
enabled more clearly to comprehend the peculiar state of
morals which is found to have existed among them in
later years ; and which it must be believed was the
natural outgrowth of a long-neglected and depraved con
dition of society. To make this point clear, the two fol
lowing chapters are written. That there were then, as

''Home Rule" in Mississippi. 21
now, many good and true men and women living in this
wild and unreclaimed region cannot be doubted, and they
have nothing to fear from this record. To them every
meed of praise is given, and should the eyes of any such
chance to meet these pages, it must be borne in mind
that only " the wicked flee when no man pursueth."

CHAPTER II.
For many years before the war and at its close, Kem
per county, if not the whole State of Mississippi, might
well have been included with Kentucky in her historic
designation of "the dark and bloody ground;" for' its
population was, to a great extent, made up from a class
of men who disregarded alike the laws of God and man,
and " upon whom the multiplied villanies of nature
swarmed in unwonted profusion." But unlike Kentucky,
the deeds of barbarity committed within the borders of
Kemper were not chargeable upon the untutored red
man. None but the pure Anglo-Saxon race, and those
to the manor bom, were in any way- responsible for the
facts which are here recorded. Against this class, the
efforts of the better citizens were often powerless and
futile ; and the officers entrusted with the execution of
the law, either did not have the ability or were wanting
in the disposition to arrest and punish.
In the little town of Narkeeta, in the year 1837, there
was a tavern kept by one Geo. Capers, and a grog shop
which was presided over by a rare genius named
Nicholas Caton. The courts of the country at that
time had very little influence in controlling the actions
of men, as the judge, the sheriff or the juries were sure
to have friends on one side or the other of the question
to be settled ; hence brute force became the only arbiter
of peace. As a natural consequence of this, .little neigh-

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 23
borhood factions would spring up, hold brief but abso
lute sway for a day, or a month, and then as quickly
give way to the temporary rule of another, which had
proved itself more valiant in the use of the pistol or
knife. For many years at Narkeeta there were two par
ties of the kind described, which alternated in the brief
establishment of their authority, sometimes extending all
over the county. These were led by the Doughtys on
one side and the McLeans on the other. Horse racing,
rapine, robbery and murder were of almost weekly if not
daily occurrence throughout that and other sections. It
is impossible, at this time to furnish the details of all the
diabolisms that were then and there witnessed, as they
would furnish a record of crime containing volumes.
Only the most aggravated case, the details of which are
still fresh in the memory of Narkeeta's oldest citizens, is
here recounted. It will be sufficient to say, that from
the year 1837 to 1842, there were committed, in the
neighborhood spoken of, eighteen murders, the most dia
bolical of which occurred in the year 1839; in which
George Capers waylaid and shot Nicholas Caton by the
roadside. Caton, it appears, was apprised of his danger,
and fearing death from a concealed enemy, while making
a short journey through the country on horse-back, took
up before him on the saddle a little child, eighteen
months old, believing that its tender years and innocent
prattle would form a temporary safeguard against the
assassin's bullet. But in tho^se days, as has been proved
in more modern times, the presence of childhood had no
power or influence in staying the hand of violence.

24 The Chisolm Massacre.
While passing through a thicket, Caton was shot from
his horse and fell to the ground dead, still clasping in his
arms the innocent child.
In the early spring of 1 860, Adam Calvert had on his
place two colored boys, the property of some heirs for
whom a Mrs. Davis was guardian. The negroes, when
hired to Calvert, had just recovered from an attack of
measles. Mrs. Davis stipulated in the contract, before
letting them go, that they should be subjected to no un
necessary exposure to the weather.
Ferguson, Calvert's overseer, a man of low instincts
and beastial habits, had these two boys at work hauling
rails, one day in the early spring, when there came up a
very heavy and driving rain. Ferguson himself repaired
to a shelter, leaving the injunction with one of the lads
that if he should stop his team to take shelter from the
rain it would be done at the peril of his life. But the
storm came thicker and faster, and the poor fellow, chilled,
benumbed and blinded, took refuge, for a few moments,
under a large tree near by. When the rain had passed,
Ferguson gave him a terrible beating, and left him with
the promise that he would renew the punishment on the
following day. The boy, then suffering from a raging
fever, fearing that Ferguson would kill him, ran back to
his mistress, Mrs. Davis, to whom he told the story of
the cruel treatment he had received. It will be borne in
mind that the penalty for harboring, or in any way aiding
a runaway slave, was very- severe; and, although Mrs.
Davis' heart bled for him, she was compelled to send the
boy back, with a note to Mr. Calvert, asking him not to

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 25
inflict too severe punishment, and not any until he should
recover from his fever. Mr. Calvert, it appears, had gone
from home that morning, and when the slave reached his
place he handed the note to Mrs. Calvert. Before sun
rise of the next day Ferguson took him out behind a
stable, stripped and tied him across a log, and, with a
large rope, having knots tied in the end, whipped him in
a most shocking and outrageous manner. The victim's
screams were heard by the neighbors living a mile and a
half distant in every direction, and then to conclude, the
brute jumped upon his back and stamped him with his
coarse heavy boots. On being released, it was found
that the boy cbuld not walk, and his brother, who was
compelled to stand by and witness the scene, was ordered
to carry him to the house, where he lingered in great
agony until death came to his relief The brother then
ran away, but was subsequently caught and the same
treatment inflicted upon him ; and, with the blood run
ning from his wounds, he waslashed to a plow and made
to follow it all day, without food or water. Ferguson
was never molested for this in any way.
Some five or six years before this, there was a man liv
ing near Scooba, who hired a negro child belonging to the
McCaleb estate, and while having it in charge, whipped
the child to death. The people of the neighborhood
were indignant at this outrage, and the murderer was
compelled to pay damages for the property thus des
troyed. Years passed, and with them the spirit of outlawry
increased, when men became, of a necessity, the more

26 The Chisolm Massacre.
ready to take the law into their own hands. Such a
thing as redress through the courts for any personal
offense was rarely thought of A man named Evret
Roberts hired another to go to the house of Mr.
McLawrin, against whom Roberts entertained a belief
that he had been wronged, for the purpose of whipping
him. McLawrin shot and killed his assailant. At
another time, and on a pretext equally as trifling, John
Edwards killed a man by the name of Eakins. Ed
wards' father, and his uncle. Jack Edwards, employed
Mr. Simms, a lawyer, to go with them to examine some
witnesses to the murder; but before arriving at the place
of their destination. Jack Edwards — the uncle — shot
and killed Simms. It appears they had had a difficulty
before this, but were friendly at the time.
This terrible tragedy was soon followed by another,
more appalling. A man named Tyson assaulted Mr.
Spear with a hoe, while in a field at work. Spear
was thus slain and his head beaten to a jelly. One of
the Spears then killed a man by the name of Coins;
stabbed him with a knife in the town of DeKalb. Sat
isfied with nothing short of a bloody vengeance, a-
brother of the murdered Goins, aided by a man named
Diffey, killed Spear. They shot him from the bushes
while Spear was at his supper.
At Blackwater, in Kemper county, George Alexander,
a brother-in-law of one Phil Gully — whose character
and name will be more fully discussed hereafter — had
some words with Ben Caraway. They subsequently
made friends, shook hands and separated ; and from all

"Hom£ Rule" in Mississippi. 27
civilized or savage usages of which we have any account
one might suppose that further danger of assault by
either party was at an end. But not so in Kemper.
Caraway was a blacksmith, and went to work in his
shop, little thinking of danger, when Alexander walked
stealthily in, stepped up behind, and, at a single blow
with a heavy piece of wood, struck him dead. For this
murder — an unusual occurrence in cases of the kind —
Alexander was arrested, placed under guard, and that
night it is said Phil Gully procured his escape. Gully,
, on being asked if it would not have been better had
Alexander been tried before leaving, replied that he
thought not; he had taken counsel of Judge Hamm —
then a practicing lawyer — and Hamm had told him
that if tried, Alexander would certainly be hanged.
After the war closed there came from Alabama to
Kemper county a young man narhed Jones, who first
lived with a Mr. Madison, as a common laborer. Jones
had had a difficulty with his step-father, in which he
killed the latter in self-defense, and, to evade the ven
geance threatened, fl^d to Mississippi. All this the
young man very prudently kept to himself, remaining at
his work, until one day, not many months after his arrival
at Mr. Madison's he discovered a number of men riding
up to the place, who inquired for a certain house in the
neighborhood where they believed Jones to be. A man
named Hal Dawson — of whom more will be said in
another chapter — was at the head of this party, among
whom the boy recognized the friends of his step-father,
from Alabama. When these men had ridden away

28 The Chisolm Massacre.
Jones told a neighbor all about the trouble which had
caused him to leave his home, and, knowing the desper
ate character of Dawson, he was advised to go at once
to the home of his uncle, Mr. Mardis, who lived in the
same county. In compliance with this suggestion he
went, and while at his uncle's house, and before revealing
to him the secret of his troubles, he again saw Hal
Dawson ride up, in company with one Sloke Gully, a rel
ative of Phil, the one alluded to on another page. Jones
now told his uncle why he had left his home, and at
•once determined to go back, and accordingly started on
foot for Alabama ; but while on the road he lost his way
and came out at Sloke Gully's house. Feeling hungry
and not knowing who lived there, the young man asked
for something to eat. This was given him, and while
partaking, who should again appear but Dawson and
Gully himself. On seeing them, Jones sprang from
the table and ran down across a field, hotly pursued by
Crully and Dawson. After he had reached the cover of
the woods — still pursued — several shots were heard in
that direction by the people who had been observing.
In a few minutes Gully and Dawson returned, stating
that they had been unable to overtake the object of their
pursuit. A few weeks thereafter' some ladies, when out
walking, discovered the body of the murdered boy in the
creek which runs near the place from whence the firing
was heard.
Meantime Mr. Mardis, supposing his nephew had
gone back to Alabama, said nothing of the matter,
until one day some two months afterward, when in

"Hofne Rule" in Mississippi. 29
DeKalb, he was accosted by John W. Gully, then sheriff,
who told Mardis that he had better "go slow," adding
at the same time, " there is catching before hanging, and
you can't prove who killed young Jones."
It was before this that " Etna," a colored woman, was
taken out by some unknown parties, tied to a tree and
whipped to death. Her body was found there on the
following day, in a perfectly nude state.
About the same time, a colored man named Moses
McDade was found dead in the road. He had been wan
tonly shot by some parties unknown. A Baptist minister
by the name of Henry White was present at the lynching
and hanging of a negro for some alleged offense during
the war, and lent material aid in the performance of the
murderous act. He afterwards asserted that he was
ready and more than willing to engage, at any time, in an
undertaking of the kind when his pastoral duties did not
interfere. In the spring, of 1865, James Johnson, a white man,
was waylaid, when going from his home in the South
west Beat, to DeKalb, shot and instantly killed. John
son had been a merchant and was highly respected.

CHAPTER III
During all these years a family by the name of Gully —
the same already mentioned — held almost undisputed
control of the public patronage of Kemper county.
From the Sheriff's office down to the Beat Magistrate
and Constable, a Gully or some one of their immediate
connections wore the official robes, carried the baton of
authority and the keys of the exchequer. By free use
of the jug and kindred influences, their election was se
cured from term to term, and when installed in office the
courts and the juries were by them manipulated and
controlled. So notorious had this become that it was a
matter of common observation, as it was a fact, that un
less a man could establish his relationship to the Gullys,
or in some other way ingratiate himself into their favor,
it was useless to look for political honors, within the gift
of the people of the county ; but when this relationship
was once established, a carte blanche for political promo
tion and immunity for any offense, however grave, was
secured. The first Sheriff of Kemper county defaulted and ran
away. The second was "Sloke" Gully, the father of
Phil, Henry, Sam, Jess and John W. The third Sheriff
was James Hull, a Northern man, who came to Missis
sippi, in an early day, and married a Gully. Hull held
the office for eight years and then vacated it to accept
that of Circuit Clerk, which he held for sixteen years.

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 31
Phil Gully was the next in order, and became Hull's suc
cessor to the sheriff's office. "Old Sloke," — as the father
was commonly called — politically was a Whig, and some
times said that if heaven was to be governed by demo
crats he did not care to enter its pearly gates. For
tunately, as is believed, politics does not enter into the
conduct of affairs in that brighter world; besides it is
the opinion of those who know the Gullys best, that
their counsels will never be sought nor obtained there.
Phil was recreant to the early teachings of his father
and espoused the more popular cause of democracy, as
did all of his brothers. During Phil's administration
the people complained bitterly of the long-continued
reign of the Gully family. Notwithstanding this, by
sheer power of numbers and brute force, John W.
Gully became Phil's successor and held the office for
eight years, during which time the war came on. The
Gullys, although valiant in words, overbearing and aggres
sive when certain of their ability to surmount opposition,
were, in fact, non-combatant all through the memorable
struggle for their "most sacred rights." During that time
John W., himself exempt from military duty by virtue of
being sheriff, had fourteen different members of his family
appointed as deputies, which position also relieved them
from the hazardous responsibilities of a soldier. So
chronic was the desire of the Gullys for office, that while
the State was under Confederate management, Henry
and Phil became opposing candidates for the Legisla
ture, and the contest between them is said to have been
like that when " Greek meets Greek." Only one of the

32 The Chisolm Massacre.
name — Henry — did any service in the army. John W.
was what is familiarly termed in the South a " butter
milk" soldier — a home guard — a hero of thirty days'
duration. His conduct in the department of his choice
is said to have been " gallant," as was that of the whole
command to which he belonged. A recent newspaper
eulogium, written by Judge Foote of Macon, Mississippi
— and who was Colonel of the "buttermilk brigade" —
on the life and character of John W. Gully, assures the
pubhc that "Captain Gully gave him— the Colonel —
very little trouble." Doubtless Gully, if living, could
say as much for Foote. From this it will be seen that
these two gentlemen must have " fought like brave men,
long and well," in defense of their " fires." As it could
not have been Gully's superior prowess as a soldier that
gave him character and influence, the theory already
advanced is the more easily understood ; that, by close
and intimate connection with the worst element of socie
ty, strengthened by the great numbers of his own family
connection, he became the acknowledged leader of his
clan; for certainly the "many virtues" usually claimed
for men seeking the patronage of an indulgent public,
were never found in this man, who for so many years
controlled the political destinies of the county. He was
coarse, vulgar and illiterate; ambitious, arrogant and
overbearing, as will be seen ; with a moral status which
cannot be said to have been above reproach. The
soubriquet familiarly applied to him, is in itself a very
fair index to his character. Wherever known he bore the
more appropriate than chaste appellation of the " Bull
of the Woods."

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 33
So long had the Gully family and their adherents
managed all public enterprises in the county where a
pecuniary reward was made the chief incentive to action
that, as might be supposed, they could but illy brook
opposition, and terrible indeed must have been the
jealousy and hatred which this clan bore toward the
men who first had the hardihood and daring to "beard
the lion in his den," and who were finally successful in
loosing his strong grip. But year after year passed
by, while the iron heel of the Gully rule became more
and more irksome. It is told of Hull, while sheriff, that
he would enter a man's house ostensibly for the purpose
of serving some legal process, and then demand, by
authority of his high office, any sum of money, no mat
ter how exorbitant and unjust. These sums were
frequently paid over to him, and one of the victims of
this peculiar style of robbery is living in Kemper to-day,
and who has kindly lent the weight of his experience in
the establishment of these facts. Charges of corruption
in office and crime out of it were almost continually
being brought against one or another of this clan of
public plunderers.. As sheriff, the most unreasonable
and unjust accounts were presented by Gully to a board
of supervisors, generally under his control, many of
which were by them allowed, and the money for the
whole account finally wrenched from the poor taxpayer.
Accounts of this kind, for extra services rendered and
special deputies employed, have first to be approved by
the presiding judge of the court and district attorney.
When these gentlemen could not be conveniently
3

34 The Chisolm Massacre.
reached. Gully, it appears, was in the habit of affixing
their names to the bills himself
Some years after, when John E. Chisolm — a brother
of Judge Chisolm — became sheriff by appointment of
the governor, a warrant thus fraudulently obtained,
amounting to two hundred and forty dollars — more or
less — was taken by Judge Chisolm, then performing the
duties of the office of sheriff for his brother, for taxes
due the county. But now that a man of a political
faith which they did not endorse had the handling of the
public funds, claims of every description presented
against the county underwent the most rigid examina
tion by a democratic board of supervisors, and this
warrant, offered by Judge Chisolm, was rejected by
reason of the exorbitancy of the account on which it
was based, and other gross irregularities. One reason
assigned for this was, it had been taken by Judge Chisolm
at a discount, and that he now sought to turn it over, in
settlement for taxes, at its face. The judge called up
the man of whom he took the paper — Mr. John A.
Menese, who swore that he had been allowed its full
value. Upon further investigation it was found that the
original account itself was a forgery, as it had never been
approved by the presiding judge or district attorney.
At least the prosecuting officer, Mr. Thomas H. Wood,
declared at the time that the signing of his name to the
document was a forgery, and so it was rejected by
the board. Judge Chisolm's only recourse then was to
sue Gully for the amount, which he did, obtaining a
judgment against him accordingly. Gully appealed

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 35
and, for some error in the declaration, the supreme court
remanded the case, where it remained unsettled until
Gully's death.
. With George Welch — the present deputy sheriff — as
clerk of the court, and, by virtue of that office, clerk of
the board of supervisors, some $1,900 in warrants thus
fraudulently obtained were found, which the taxpayers
were compelled to cash, and for which no satisfactory
explanation has yet been made.
It is said that while sheriff of Kemper county after
the war, John W. Gully turned over to the treasurer
between two and three thousand dollars of old Confed
erate warrants, issued by the board of police — or super
visors — during the progress of the rebellion, and with
them paid the county tax of 1866. One of the items
was a warrant for $500, issued to him for collecting a
military tax. This, with the balance, had been paid in
Confederate money. These warrants were received by
the treasurer on Gully's making oath that he had paid
their face value. By this the crime of perjury was
added to that of unlawfully taking the people's money.
By the aid of his ring of Confederates he bought up
warrants at twenty-five to forty cents on the dollar, and
turned them over to the treasurer dollar for dollar, under
oath that he had taken them for taxes, without dis
count. For three years following that of 1856 this man
collected a sum of money due from the county to the
Mobile & Ohio Railroad Company, amounting to $3,000,
and which, up to the year 1870, at least, had not been
given to that corporation; while the receipts for the

36 The Chisolm Massacre.
money paid to Gully can be seen to-day. During this
great and good administration of the people's affairs,
many disgraceful acts and foul crimes not connected
with his office were charged against him. The nature
of these are such as to preclude the possibility of their
publication in a work of this kind, and it is with pleasure
that a further recital of this peculiar phase of Kemper
county society is omitted.
In the spring of 1 868 this man Gully, who had been
ungovernable and rebellious toward the authorities
placed over the State by the General Government, was
removed from the office of sheriff, and A. H. Hopper, an
ex-Confederate soldier and a native of Alabama, was
appointed in his place. Benjamin F. Rush, who was
also a Southern man of high personal character, and
who had been a soldier of marked gallantry, was made
Hopper's chief deputy.
On the accession of Hopper, county warrants were a
drug in the market at twenty-five cents on the dollar, and
bankruptcy and ruin stared the people in the face.
Before this, however. Rush had been associated with
Gully and another gentleman in the mercantile business,
during which time they quarreled, and Gully openly
accused Rush of foul dealing, while Rush preferred
counter charges against Gully. A personal difficulty,
which appears to have been the only means of settling
disputes of the kind, was the result, when Rush attacked
Gully with a pistol, driving him within the cover of his
house. From the date of this collision the war of crim
ination and re-crimination ceased between them, and they

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 37
met again on terms of comparative friendship. It was
not until Rush became the recipient of the emoluments
of the sheriff^s office, which had so long been an undis
puted heritage of the Gullys, that a second rupture
occurred between them.
From the date of the appointment of Hopper, Gully's
persecution of Rush knew no rest, and, already leaning
toward republicanism, the latter was soon driven into the
ranks of that poor and despised party ; while Chisolm,
McRea, Hopper and one or two others, formed a nucleus
around which a strong and effective organization sprung
up. This marked the beginning of a war of political perse
cution and proscription — somewhat local in its character,
it is true — as cruel and unjust as the religious oppression
of the Huguenots under the' reign of Philip the Second
of Spain, or that of Pedro Melendez in the early history
of our country. What added fresh fuel to the flame of
disappointed ambition, the colored man stepped forward
with that most potent of all weapons in a political con
test — the ballot — and rallied around the men who had
been first to espouse the principles guaranteeing to them
equal and exact rights under the law. Thus shorn of
their power, the Gullys — most of them illiterate as the
negroes themselves — first grew restive and then desperate
as the vision of their former greatness began to fade.
Like many others, they feigned the belief that the negro
was soon to be made the equal, socially, morally and
pplitically, of the proud Caucassian race, his "natural
master." For it is a fact, and upon reflection the prin-

38 The Chisolm Massacre.
ciple is readily understood, that the greater the ignor
ance and the lower the moral status of a white man
reared in the South, the more bitter is his prejudice
against the late slave, and the greater his fear that the
despised race will eventually become the white man's
equal in the common scale of humanity.
Up to this date, through all the years of Judge Chis
olm's public career, he had been so well liked by the
Gullys that at all times he received their earnest and
hearty support ; for without it he could not have been
continued so long in one of the most honored offices
within the gift of the people of the county, in which the
political power and numerical strength of the Gullys was
so great, and this fact is conceded by Gully's friends
to-day. Aside from his individual merits. Judge Chisolm
had growing up aroiind him, at this time, an interesting
and cultivated family. The early training of his accom
plished wife, had peculiarly fitted her for that compan
ionship so much needed by a man surrounded with the
exciting and often demoralizing influences incident to and
inseparable from public life ; while, to her children, she
was at once a true mother, a faithful tutor and an engag
ing companion, as well as a blessing to the society which
she adorned.
Thus is outlined at the beginning the characters of the
individuals whose life-record furnish much of the material
upon which this truly remarkable narrative of facts is
founded. Their relations to each other and the commu
nity in which they lived for so many years before the
direful consequences of the civil war came upon the.

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 39
country, have been presented. The social and moral
standing of each is truthfully given, and it will not re
quire the closest attention in the progress of this work,
to enable the reader to mark the causes of complaint as
subsequentlj^ charged upon one by the other, and to
discriminate between the false and the true. If a just
discrimination should thus be arrived at, after reading,
then the great object for which these pages are written
will have been well-nigh accomplished ; for to refute false
charges made against the dead — and the living who are
equally powerless for defense — charges given strength
and currency through the agency of a partisan press, as
incapable of truth in the discussion of any topic where
political questions are in any way involved, as it is weak
and imbecile upon all others, has been one of the chief
inspirations of this work.
The 14th of September, 1869, John E. Chisolm, the
same spoken of on a preceding page, who hved near
the old family homestead, in a remote part of the
county, was appointed by Governor Ames to succeed
Hopper as sheriff; while Judge Chisolm — then ineligible
on account of having served in a civil capacity under the
Confederate govemment — was made his brother's
deputy, and assumed the whole responsibility of the
office. Before the administration of John E. Chisolm, under
the supervision of a democratic board of supervisors, a
tax was levied upon the county which, was known as
the " acre tax," and against which there appeared, at the
time of the levy, no especial objection ; but when Judge

40 The Chisolm Massacre.
Chisolm undertook to collect the tax there went up a
terrible cry against the law which was characterized as
a great " radical steal." No better explanation of this
matter can be given than that found in the sworn testi
mony of Judge Chisolm before the Congressional Inves
tigating Committee at Washington, February 14th, 1877,
page 757, and but a few weeks before his cruel
assassination. In answer to a question by Mr. Teller, Judge Chisolm
said : "There was a tax levied in 1869 by a democratic
board of supervisors of the county for county purposes,
levied upon land — upon the acres of land. One cent
given in upon land at such a price, two cents upon land
given in at another price, and three cents upon land given
in at the highest price."
Question. — " Per acre?" Answer. — "Yes; the tax books
were turned over to. me, or rather to my brother (I was
doing the collecting and was running the office; it was
before my disabilities were removed), and a number of
gentlemen asked me what I thought about the levy. I
told them that it was not my business to decide any
legal question; it was simply a matter to enjoin the
sheriff about, or else to pay the tax ; that the board of
supervisors left no discretion with me. I had to collect
the tax or be enjoined. A majority of the land owners
of the county enjoined the sheriff from collecting the
tax. Some paid the tax rather than enjoin. That tax
was paid over to the county treasurer, and I got his
receipt for it. I never heard any one make complaint
about it except Esquire Mills, who was a kind of crazy

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 41
man down there. He paid the tax, and then commenced
a lawsuit against me for not paying it back to him. It
was my duty, under the law, to pay it to the county
treasurer." Question. — "Did you pay it to the county treasurer?"
Answer. — "I did; I paid it tothe county treasurer. Mr.
Mills commenced suit against the treasurer, and the cir
cuit and superior courts both decided that I had done
right in the premises."
And thus vanished in smoke the first specific charge
of dishonesty ever preferred against Judge Chisolm by
his malicious and vindictive enemies, seeking only to des
troy the power and influence of the man who, of all
others, now stood most in their way. Meantime the
slanderous tongue of hatred spared neither age or sex,
and the sanctity of republican homes was invaded when
all other efforts failed to catch the quick ear of an ignor
ant rabble, whose passions and prejudices might thus be
further excited against the men whose ruin had already
become the chief goal of democratic ambition in the
county. Gully once more took up the cudgel against
Rush, pursued him with a keen scent, and all the venom
of his nature. Unable to bear his taunts and insults
longer, Rush, sometime in August, 1870, sent. Gully word
that he would attack him on sight. Gully armed him
self with a gun, and in company with his brother, Sam,
and a Dr. Smithy started down the street, in DeKalb,
toward his home, on horseback. Rush saw the three
men coming and approached them, with a gun in his
hands, from an open square, in plain sight. Gully reined

42 The Chisolm Massacre.
his horse across the street, bringing his orother and
Smith between himself and Rush. Rush called out to
him to stop — that he wanted to settle their difficulties
then and there. At this, Sam Gully shot Rush with a
pistol which he had previously drawn, and at the same
moment seized Rush's gun, which went off in the
struggle that followed. Upon this Smith fled for his
life, and John Gully jumped from his horse, ran behind
the nearest building and then turned and fired twice upon
Rush, one shot taking effect, bringing him to the ground.
At this time it was discovered that Sam Gully had been
shot in the right leg, which, while sitting on his horse
in the position he occupied when struggling with Rush,
was on the side next to his brother John. Sam Gully
died, from the effects of his injuries, that night. The
evidence elicited before the grand jury was to the effect
that a shot from Rush's gun, at the time, could not have
inflicted the wound that caused Gully's death. Not
withstanding this fact, an indictment was found; but it
is believed, to this day, by all who have gone into an
impartial investigation of the subject, that John Gully,
in shooting at Rush, accidently shot and killed his own
brother. Rush was carried home, and lingered for days
and weeks at the point of death. His trial was after
ward had in the circuit court for the killing of Sam Gully,
and he was acquitted. John W. Gully stood trial for
the shooting of Rush, and was also acquitted. After the
trial of these men, the decision of the public seemed
to be that honors were now easy, and in all probability,
there would be no more personal collisions between them.

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 43
But in this they were mistaken, for Gully proved to be
a,s vindictive and untiring in the pursuit of an enemy, as
he was arrogant and ambitious of political power and
distinction, and Rush had no sooner recovered from' the
effects of his wounds, and entered upon his accustomed
avocation, than Gully renewed his attack, but this time
in an entirely new and unlooked-for manner. Rush had
always been open, bold, and when driven to the wall,
aggressive. All through the war, while Gully was
screening himself and his relations from the rigors and
hazards of the tented field. Rush stood without a peer
in everything that went to make up the gallant soldier.
His public and private record was without a blemish^
and no one beUeved that he could have had an enemy
so cowardly and mendacious as to undertake to assassin
ate him in cold blood ; and certain it is that no one but a
Gully has ever been accused of that crime.
In the month of March, following this disastrous
collision, in August an attempt was made to assassinate
Rush, which came very near proving a success. He was
shot from behind a church — a singularly chosen place to
screen an assassin — which stands just across the street,
opposite his house, while going into his gate, after dark.
The best idea, perhaps, of how this attempt to murder
was brought about, and by whom, can be gleaned from
the testimony of Judge Chisolm, as taken before the
Joint Select Committee of Congress of 1871, appointed
to inquire into the condition of affairs in the late
insurrectionary States.
On page 247 of the official report will be found the

44 The Chisolm Massacre.
following: In answer to a question by Mr. ^Poland,
the chairman. Judge Chisolm said:
" I ^¦a.s, the first man who got to Rush's after he was
shot; was at the court house when I heard the shots.
We were trying to secure a person at the time Captain
Rush left the court house. I had seen a great deal of
maneuvering going on among men whom I regarded as
very bad men in the community. Just at dark I told
Captain Rush that I thought he had better look out,
that I thought there was going to be another raid in the
county, that I saw some maneuvering going on that I
did not like. I told him that I thought we had better
do all we could to the jail and get back home before
dark. There was a man by the name of Hunger in jail
for housebreaking. He came near escaping two or three
times. He seemed to be a very powerful man. Captain
Rush said to me just as he left, 'Judge, you stay here
until the workman has done all he can do to the jail, and
I will go home, for I do not feel well' His house was
perhaps seventy-five yards from the jail. Rush was my
deputy, and had charge of the jail."
Question. — "You said you had discovered some suspi
cious movements, then, that day ?" Answer. — "Yes, sir;
and I had informed Rush and three others there, that.
evening, that there was something wrong going on ; that
the men who had concocted bloody schemes before were
concocting them again, and I requested three different
men to have their guns ready for a night's fight if it was
found necessary to make it. These movements con
sisted mainly of seeing a number of men collected

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 45
in the back of Gully's store — a gentlemen there whom I
think every man in the county, irrespective of party^
regards as one who does not care anything about having
the law executed. There were several men there from
out in the country; two of them brothers of this man
Gully, and several other suspicious characters. There
was one other man in town whom I did not know
at all."
Question. — "Why did you suspect these men of hos-
tiHty toward Rush?" Answer. — "I suspected them of
hostility toward any man who was opposed to lawless
ness, and rioting, and doing things illegal and wrong in
the county; more especially to Rush, because he and
they were not friendly, as these parties are not friendly
to any man who does not agree with them in politics.
Captain Rush was a republican and the others were
democrats. Rush was very badly wounded. The mid
dle finger of his right hand was shot off, and he was
shot through the groin and through the abdomen ; but
the bullets did not go to the hollow. Four shots struck
him; but his' pocketbook and knife turned them, and I
think saved his life. His right hand was in his pocket
when he was shot. He was shot twice with a double-
barrel gun. He was about ten steps from his gate
when the first shot was fired at him. He then made a
spring for his gate, when they fired at him again. It
was the first shot that hurt him worst. When they
fired at him the second time some of the shots went
into the house, and came very near killing his wife."

CHAPTER IV.
Years have passed since the government emerged from
a hfe struggle scarcely equalled in the history of nations.
Old land marks are lost sight of the statute books of
the country changed, and the constitution of the fathers
has been remodeled and placed upon a higher plane of
justice and humanity. But civil convulsions or the visi
tations of Providence, no matter how sudden and terrify
ing, do not always appeal to the reason or conscience.
The wicked hearts of men are slow to change, and in
Mississippi, in 1866, are found the same discordant and
turbulent elements which existed there in 1836.
The caldron of political rancor had now been raised to
a boiling heat throughout Mississippi, and the hand of
persecution and the ban of social ostracism fell heavily
upon every one who dared to express an opinion that
was not first entertained by the leaders of the old seces
sion party. Ku-Klux organizations existed in a majority
of the counties, while those not so fortunate as to
possess a safe-guard of the kind, had only to despatch
couriers to adjoining counties, or even States, when an
emergency seemed to demand it, and before the sun rose
on the day following the despatch fifty or a hundred
mounted and masked men would appear ready for the
execution of any crime, no matter how cowardly and
dark. The system of free schools, which had been
established in the State, seemed to be one of the

-^^^ (iS^:^.^.^^

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 47'
strongest incentives to the development of the Ku-Klux
spirit, and the whipping of teachers, the killing of negroes
and burning of school houses, proved an occupation in
which they took special delight. It is hardly necessary
here to undertake to impress upon the reader the magni
tude of this great evil, which extended all over the
southern States. Its history is well known, and the sub
ject is alluded to only as a link in the continued chain
of events. The estimate placed upon the education of
the youth of the State in ante-bellum times, and the
care taken of the funds donated by the General Govern
ment for that purpose, will throw a light upon this
subject not generally understood. It will account in
some degree, perhaps, for that hostility claimed to have
existed against the inauguration of the free school sys
tem in the State; and it will strengthen the evidence
already adduced, tending to show the outlawed condition
of society wherever republican institutions were sought
to be introduced and maintained. By the twelfth sec
tion of the Act of Congress of March 3, 1803, regulating
the grant and disposal of lands south of the Tennessee,
the section number sixteen in each township, " is reserved
for the support of public schools in the same." Missis
sippi received a large proportion of this grant. The
report of Hon. H. R. Pease, State Superintendent of
Pubhc Education for the year 1870, which is in part
reproduced, will show the condition in which this fund
was found at the close of the war. Here are the reports
of the various superintendents of the counties :
In Claiborne county : " The work of ascertaining the

48 The Chisolm Massacre.
exact condition of the school lands was very much
retarded on account of the loose manner in which the
business has heretofore been done. With regard to the
claims due the school fund, the amounts ' regarded as
worthless,' are worthless indeed. Some are against per
sons that are dead, and have left no estate, or one cov
ered up by judgments; some are against persons who
have bankrupted against them, and a few are barred by
limitation. I think much of the above funds could have
been saved if the President of the Board of Police had
taken steps to secure it, as required by an Act of the
Legislature, approved December 2, 1865, and entitled
'An Act the better to secure the payment of the School
Funds of the State.' See Acts of 1865, Chapter 20.
Of the amounts ' regarded as good,' there may and prob
ably will be some considerable loss when the solvency of
the debtors is tested in court."
In Clarke county : " Sometime has been spent in inves
tigating the condition of the Sixteenth Section Fund
and all school moneys. The old records of this county
have been so badly kept, that no satisfactory results have
been obtained."
In Tallahatchie county : " Prominent amongst the
difficulties we have been called upon to encounter, is the
fierce opposition of the white people to paying taxes for
the establishment and support of colored schools, for
'ruining and demoralizing the negro.' This prejudice,
bitter and uncompromising, has deterred many appli
cants for certificates from accepting colored schools.
The party recently appointed to the office of treasurer

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 49
of the county is known as an open and uncompromising
enemy of public schools, and he has informed apphcants
for certificates that they would not be paid, as there was
no money in the treasury, and that the tax levied for
'Teachers' Fund' would be paid in depreciated county
paper." In Yazoo county: "At this date, February 9, 1871,
there are in operation, under the free system, forty-one
schools in this county. We find it impossible to get at
a correct estimate of the ' Common School Fund.' The
ante-bellum claims ai-e in such a fix that but little will
be realized from them. Bankruptcy, death and emigra
tion has destroyed all hopes of getting the most of
them. Many of the papers are either destroyed or mis
laid. Some thirty-six thousand dollars of this fund was
invested in the Mississippi Central Railroad stock, some
twelve or fifteen years ago. The 'Sixteenth Section
Fund ' is in a very bad condition, so much so that nothing
approaching accuracy can be stated."
In Kemper county: "When organized, my Board of
School Directors went to work looking after the notes,
books and papers due the several townships, for the pro
ceeds of sale of Sixteenth Section lands, which were
turned over to Esquire A. G. Ellis for collection. I can
not give you a definite answer, as to the condition
of these claims ; but am of opinion that about half of
them may be considered good. * * * We have
several school houses free of rent, and with the excep
tion of two sub-districts, the people have built their own
school houses, and all seem satisfied; except, however,
4

50 The Chisolm Massacre.
the disappointed party — the revolutionists or seces
sionists. They are not satisfied, and would not be at
anything, be it to their interest ever so much. We have
now between forty and fifty schools, with good teachers,
organized and in a flourishing condition. I adopted in
the outset the prerequisite 'that no teacher should be
Employed unless indorsed by the parents and guardians
of the neighborhood in, which he or she proposed to
teach.'" In Franklin county: "I have made every effort to
obtain from the old school officers the notes which were
in their possession, showing the disposition which has
been made by them of these funds, and the indebtedness
of parties to whom the funds have been loaned. Many
of these notes I find to be against persons who are now
insolvent, and many are barred by limitation."
In Jackson county : " Most of the records were
destroyed by fire during the year 1862, and lately the
minute book of the board of police has been spirited
away by some unknown party."
In Neshoba county : " I have heretofore informed the
State Board of Education that the school lands of
the county, known as the Sixteenth Section Lands, were
nearly all disposed of by lease or otherwise many years
ago, and that the proceeds arising from the leasing of
the same have been so managed, both during and since
the war, that they are at this time al^most entirely worth
less. The aggregate amount of school funds on out
standing claims is $18,738.73; one-half of the above
amount secured by very doubtful paper, and in a manner
worthless."

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 51
In Prentiss county : " We labor under another disad
vantage, which perhaps is not general. The ignorance
among the people in the rural districts here is absolutely
astounding. Indeed in some localities they seem to
need missionaries to teach them civilization more than
school teachers."
To conclude. Superintendent Pease himself subjoins
the following :
" Over thirty buildings, used for school purposes, have
been destroyed by mobs or burned by incendiaries in the
past year. The following extract from an official report
received at this office, will exhibit the character of hos
tility manifested in certain localities of the State : * *
' Duty once more prompts me to inform you what has
transpired in relation to the public schools of the county
since my last communication upon this subject. There
have been four school houses bumed since my last report,
two of which were used for white pupils and the other
two for the colored children. We do not know whether
these outrages were committed by private parties or by
the Ku-Klux. The town of Louisville was visited, a few
nights ago, by some thirty-six or seven disguised horse
men. They went to the residence of Mr. Fox, an honor
able and well known gentleman, who was engaged in
teaching a public school, and forbade him further comply
ing with the contract made with the Board of Directors.
They then went in search of one Peter Cooper, a colored
man, employed in teaching a colored school, and failing
to find his person, they sought revenge in destroying his
property. They burned his trunk, together with the

52 The Chisolm Massacre.
most of his clothing, also destroyed or carried off twenty-
six dollars in money. They then called on two others,
using the lash pretty freely, then departed to parts to us
unknown. They have notified a good many of the
teachers to stop teaching public free schools in the
county, some of whom have obeyed their command.
There have been, by burning and otherwise, eleven public
schools stopped in the county. They seem determined
to break up all the schools in the county.' Many
instances of a similar character, in the eastern counties,
have been reported. I will state to your honorable body,
in reply to your resolution requiring the location of the
school buildings destroyed, that I am unable to report
the exact location, as the reports from which my state
ment is taken simply give the numbers, without giving
the exact location. I have taken steps to secure this
information, and will, if required by competent authority,
fumish the same, accompanied by affidavits setting forth
the facts.
" From the reports received up to date, I am able to
present the following results. I will add, in this con
nection, that these figures exhibit the result of a prelim
inary investigation only :
Amount of loss in loans for want of proper
security,  $61,660 00
Amount of loss in rents of school lands, . 58,960 00
Number of acres of school lands occupied for
which no rent has been paid, .... 16,018 00
Total amount of loss of school lands on
account of neglect and want of proper
management on the part of former school
officers,  402,729 00

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 53
" I am of the opinion that when full and complete
returns are made of the amount of loss of the sixteenth
section school funds alone, to say nothing of the semi
nary fund, and the Chickasaw fund, will exceed ONE
MILLION OF DOLLARS absolutely squandered and irre
trievably lost."
In Kemper county the spirit of blood-thirsty intoler
ance toward the negro and his " white allies," as all white
republicans were called, became so great, and murders
and whippings by the Ku-Klux so alarmingly frequent,
that troops were finally called in and a military camp
was established at Lauderdale Springs, the most accessi
ble point on the Mobile and Ohio Railroad. Among
the nightly raiders upon the unoffending blacks of Kem
per county there came up at this period a special genius
named Ball. He was arrested by the military and
carried to Lauderdale, charged with murder. He subse
quently made his escape and fled, as is believed to
Texas. So aggravating was this case that a large
reward was offered for Ball's apprehension. But a few
months passed before he secretly returned ; yet strange
to tell, did not ally himself with his old associates in
blood. This strange conduct aroused a suspicion in the
minds of his former confederates that he was about to
turn State's evidence and expose all their fniquities. At
any rate, one dark night his house was surrounded by
some unknown parties and several shots fired into it,
in precisely the same manner in which Ball himself with
his masked brethren, had so often fired into the cabins
of defenseless negroes. His guilty and cowardly heart

54 The Chisolm Massacre.
doubtless revealed to him the terrible truth that, who
ever his assailants might be, their purpose was to avenge
the blood for which his own hands were accountable,
and under cover of the thick darkness he sought to
escape by flight; but was finally shot down, receiving
wounds from which he died in a few days. This oc
curred near the house of Phil Gully; though whatever
else may be said of him, it was not then believed Gully
would willingly imbue his hands in blood. But at that
time, as to-day, it was asserted by Judge Chisolm's
friends that he planned Ball's murder and was fully cog
nizant of every other murder committed by the Klan;
that he furnished the brains for maturing their plans and
carrying them into successful execution, under the per
sonal supervision of John W. Gully, his brother. At
the instance of Phil Gully two negroes were arrested,
charged with the killing of Ball. There being no jail or
other suitable place for the confinement of prisoners, one
of them escaped, while the other stood a trial and was
honorably acquitted.
Ball's depredations, however, were not always done
under the cover of night or the black mask; nor
were they yet confined to the colored race. Some
time before Ball's death Judge Chisolm had been depu
tized to collect some taxes in the southwestern por
tion of the county, and when returning, with a large
amount of money on his person, he encountered Ball in
a dense swamp at the crossing of a creek. This was
near Phil Gully's house. Ball placed himself in the road
with a double-barrel gun, and demanded of Judge

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 55
Chisolm if he intended to arrest him or expose his
whereabouts to the military authorities.
The Judge replied that he was not himself an officer,
and had no authority to arrest any one. Peering into
the thicket near by, Chisolm then discovered that Ball
was not alone; for there, crouched in the brush, with
guns in their hands, he saw a half dozen other men.
The Judge was in a defenseless condition, having no
arms on his person but a small pistol. While talking
with Ball and assuring him that he would not inform on
nor undertake to arrest him, Judge Chisolm rode away
and escaped without injury.
The night of the 26th of May, 1871, a body of dis
guised men visited the plantation of ex-Govemor R. C.
Powers, for the purpose of killing a colored man who
lived there at the time. The superintendent on the
place — a white man — refused them admission to the
room where the object of their search was sleeping.
Upon this they opened fire upon the cabin with their guns,
two balls passing through the door in which the yoimg
man stood when disputing their entrance. This was
followed by a personal assault upon the door, which was
soon beaten down; but, during that time, one of the assail
ants fell dead from a shot delivered by the superintend
ent, who, with the negro, then fled for his life. They were
followed by several shots which did no harm, when the
would-be murderers, taking up the dead body of their fallen
comrade, hurried away, but in their haste and consterna
tion, left behind them two Ku-Klux masks, which had
accidentally fallen off. George Evans, the young man

56 The Chisolm Massacre.
killed, had been raised in the county, and was well known
by everybody. Two of his brothers were arrested by the
military previous to this, charged with killing a freedman.
Evans" body was buried secretly, on his father's place,
early the next morning, and the report was circulated
that he had died suddenly of cholera morbus. His
father said that his death was caused from eating {too
many oysters and sardines the night before. The tind
of which he partook was unhealthy, no doubt.
The immediate occasion of this visit of the Klan to
the plantation of ex -Governor Powers, was as follows :
Matt Duncan, the colored man whom they sought to
kill that night, some two years before had reported to the
military, at camp Lauderdale, the murder of a little
brother of his by the same crowd of men. This boy-^—
Matt's brother — was taken from his cabin, drawn and
quartered and his mangled body thrown into the Talla
dega swamp. Matt's offense was that of reporting this
" little act of pleasantry " to the authorities. He was a
hard-working and industrious negro, and seldom quit the
place for any purpose.
This is the sworn testimony of ex-Govemor Powers,
as taken before the investigating committee of Congress
in 1 87 1. The ex-Governor lives in Mississippi to-day,
and his testimony will hardly be impeached.
During all these years of outlawry, unequaled in the
history of barbarous tribes anywhere on the earth,
according to the sworn testimony of Judge Chisolm, the
headquarters of the Klan for Kemper county, were at the
grocery store of John W. Gully, at DeKalb. Here the

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 57
\vhisky was doled ^ut which inspired their hearts to
deeds of chivalry in masks. Here the Gullys and Dr.
Fox, (says the evidence quoted,) when in solemn con
clave, designated the men upon whom the visitations of
their savage lust should fall, and the various detachments
of the Klan throughout the county were there assigned
their particular and especial duty. James Watts and
A. G. Ellis, two sycophantic and hypocritical lawyers,
were their legal advisers, when, at the same time, they
were under pay of Judge Chisolm and his friends, for the
transaction of legitimate business.
Thomas W. Adams, a white man, having been a clerk
in the republican constitutional convention, which met in
Jackson in the winter of 1868, had thus incurred the
wrath of Fox and the Gullys, and accordingly was
carried from his house at night and whipped. While
undergoing the tortures of the lash, Adams was told by
the Klan that their object was to teach him to take the
whip like a " nigger," as he had been associated with the
"niggers" in the "radical" convention. Adams knew
and recognized many of the men engaged in this affair,
gave their names to the military, and they fled the
country. Henry Greer, a negro, was dragged from his bed at
night and severely beaten.
Near Tamola, in Kemper county, three negroes were
taken out, the first one killed and his house burned
down ; the other two were carried to the woods near by
and there murdered. One of the victims was a woman
Near the same place a colored school house was

58 The Chisolm Massacre.
burned immediately after the opening of free schools in
the State. ,
At McLendon's another school house was burned,
rebuilt and burned again.
In August, 1873, a colored school house, on the place
of the widow Chisolm (Judge Chisolm's mother), was
burned at night.
The same night Charles Robinson, a young man and
teacher of a free white school, was staked to the ground
by disguised men and threatened with death. His life
was spared on condition that he would leave the county.
It is needless to add, perhaps, that he left.
Also a negro named Peden was known to have been
killed by the Ku Klux.
In the month of July, 1865, Thomas Burton waylaid
and shot on the road, near Narkeeta, a colored woman
-and boy. Burton's apology for this crime was that they
had been stealing watermelons. Not having been in
any way interfered with for this dual murder. Burton
soon after committed another, if possible more heinous
and diabolical. He went to the cabin of an old negro
living in the woods, fully two miles from any other
inhabitant, and there shot and killed him, and then
undertook to burn the cabin, to cover up the evidences
of his guilt.
Miles Hampton, a colored man, living on the place of
Mrs. Thomas Hampton, was shot in the night time, by
Ku-Klux, and killed.
Below is a letter, written by Mrs. Chisolm to a friend.
which affords a very clear and striking picture of the

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 59
treatment herself and household received in those days
at the hands of these chivalrous gentlemen. From its
perusal alone the women of the country will learn some
thing of the sacrifices which southern ladies are called
upon to make whose husbands have sought to uphold
their manhood in the free exercise of their opinions.
The letter bears date DeKalb, June, 1874.
" The disturbing elements were for a long time busy
with their intermeddling tongues, supposing Chisolm
' rode the elephant,' as the saying went ; and finally it
began to be whispered that the life of no man was safe
who did. On going to his office one morning he found in
his room, just under the door, an engraved card, I pre
sume about three inches long and two wide. On this
was printed a black coffin, and just below a skull and
cross-bones; on the back were the letters 'K. K. K.'
On his bringing it home I treated the whole thing as a
joke. About the same time the negroes of the county
were much alarmed by accounts of a wild man, who
made steps ' seven miles long,' who had hair reaching to
the earth, and lived in the swamps, and ate all the
negroes that crossed the bridges. This man proved to
be the Ku-Klux Klan. The name and story of the wild
man, together with the bit of engraved card, afforded
infinite merriment in our house for both myself and
children, Mr. Chisolm having already understood its
meaning, but refraining from explaining because of the
uneasiness he knew it would give me. This was in
the year 1869 and '70. During that year there were
regularly appointed club meetings held, with open doors.

6o The Chisolm Massacre.
by the republicans. The democracy have held their
meetings with locked doors. While Mr. Chisolm would
be at these meetings the creatures would come around
our house at night. We were then living out half a
mile from town, and on the hillside was a grove of
trimmed oaks. These they would get among and use
the most obscene and profane language, professing to
address Mr. Chisolm, knowing, by virtue of sight, that
he was in the court house. One night they shot into
the house, at the dog, which was lying on the steps;
but the gate was far from the house, and they were
afraid to come quite to the fence. I had no other
earthly protection than an old negro woman (NelHe). . I
made her come with me and carry a gun, but before
I could fire it they ran out of sight, under the shadows
of the trees. Later Mr. Chisolm had started to Macon,
and they, finding it out, came at night and took about
twenty-five panels of fence down on each side of the
road, for the purpose of letting the cattle destroy his
crop. Some kind friend sent him word at Scooba,
before he left town. He hastily returned, and, going
among the friends of the Gullys, Hulls, Waddles, etc.,
said very publicly he would deceive them about being
absent, and the next time they approached his house he
would himself be among the trees, with several guns,
and would select his men to suit his own judgment, and
he would be sure to bring them down. This stopped
most effectually that manner of attack. Time passed
on, and Mr. C. had the attack of asthma I have told
you of in a previous letter, in which even the doctor

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 6i
thought he had died. The news went to a county
church. The gentlemanly Gully, with horrid oaths,
asserted that he ought to have been dead long since.
But God, for that time, disappointed him, and my hus
band began to recover, as if by magic. Tuesday night,
after the severe spasmodic attack of asthma, (it occurred
Sunday), he being still unable to lie down, heard the
voices of men outside the gate, and, listening attentively,
found they were in quite a large number. He told me
what he thought; but not being able to stand, I took
him his pistols. He then found his strength insufficient
to hold and cap the pistols. I sat by him, and, with
his directions, re-capped both his pistols and his gun.
All this was right in front of the. door, Mr. Chisolm
being still unable, from., his terrible attack and from his
present difficulty in breathing, to go into another room,
and not thinking best to close , the door. It was also
known his friends and kindred had been visiting him
from his mother's neighborhood, . and they could not
know how many were still there. I called from the
house for the negro man who lived nearest us, and who,
was in our employ. The Ku-Klux began, during the stir,
to go away, starting in the direction of the Hulls. I had
it afterwards from one who professed to be an eye-witness,
that they ate supper at John Gully's that night, having
their horses hid in the woods, where they also dressed in
their hideous robes and masks. Soon after, another
negro told one of our hirelings they took a meal they
called breakfast at four o'clock in the morning at old Phil
Gully's By nine o'clock of the next day Phil and Bob

'62 The Chisolm Massacre.
Gully, of Neshoba, were at our house, Phil, in his great
affection, riding through the gate and seeming inordi
nately glad to see my poor, persecuted husband. He
inquired if he saw any Ku-Klux the night before. Mr.
Chisolm told him he was not able to see out at any
thing; but heard men talking, and, being sick was not
in a state to be dragged about by them. Old Gully
then said he thought they would not hurt a sick man,
and announced himself opposed to any such plans.
But not yet done, he insisted, as soon as Mr. Chisolm
would be able to ride, I should put him in a buggy and
take him to his house to spend a week eating water
melons; to his house, in the very edge of the creek
swamp and the very nest of the Ku-Klux, where you
might blow a horn and bring up a small army."
From late in 1869 to 1871 — less than two years, —
some thirty-five negroes were known to have been killed
by the Ku-Klux; while whippings took place almost
nightly. By the untiring perseverance and courage of Judge
Chisolm and a few of his associates, the military were
enabled to raid heavily and more successfully upon the
Klan, and numbers of them were arrested, while others
fled for safety and sought new fields of glory in more
hospitable climes. Many of the men apprehended, says
Judge Chisolm in his testimony, told by whom they had
been encouraged to perform these acts of lawlessness.
Foremost among the names given in this connection were
those of John W. Gully and Dr. Fox. Gully and Fox
had' promised these young men to defend them in case

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 63
of arrest by the courts or military, but when adversity
came they had failed to do so in a single instance. This
had the effect to well nigh destroy the influence of the
Klan as an organization, but the work of death and out
lawry did not stop here.

CHAPTER V.
The patient reader is asked to follow still farther this
dark pathway, strewn with the accumulated evidences
of a generation of crime defiant and unwhipped of justice.
John McRea, who, as stated before, became Chisolm's
successor in the office of probate judge, being a republi
can and a young man of brilliant promise, had also
incurred the displeasure of John W. Gully; and, a ren-
countre between McRea and Hull, in which McRea
chastised Hull severely with a cane, added to the inten
sity of Gully's hatred, and, as in the case of Chisolm,
Rush and others, pursued him unrelentingly.
A brief account of McRea's life, and the manner of
his death at the hands of John W. Gully, becomes neces
sary here, and will be of interest to the reader. The
story is furnished by McRea's sister, now living in Kem
per county. It is given in her own language :
" It has often been denied that politics had anything to
do with the frequent killing of republicans in Kemper
county, but I am certain it had in the case of Judge John
McRea. It is true, there was a family feud between the
McReas and Gullys that dated back to the fall of 1848,
and as the Gullys bragged they never forgave, so did the
McReas. They had been on speaking terms for years
before the death of Judge McRea, but nothing more;
The hate was still there, and was only fanned into a
fiercer flame in the bosom of the Gullys by the sons of

"Home Rule'' in Mississippi. 65
the McReas rising in life, and displaying talent which
the Gullys never possessed. Judge McRea was a lawyer
of ability. When the war broke out he went as a
private soldier and rose to the rank of adjutant of his
regiment. He remained in the army until the summer
of 1864, when he came home and said his conscience
would not permit of his continuing in a cause he
abhorred. He was the first white person in Kemper to
declare himself a republican, which was in the year 1867.
John W. Gully was then sheriff, and from that time
commenced to insult and persecute the Judge. McRea
was appointed probate judge by General Ord, and after
ward circuit judge by General Ames. McRea and
Chisolm began to recommend men to office whom they
knew had been loyal. This gave an additional offense
to the Gullys, as they knew they would have to go out,
for they had formerly controlled all the offices of the
county. John Gully had a habit of blustering and
scaring people out of his way. He tried it several times
with Judge McRea, but found it would not work, and
concluded he would use buckshot. In February, 1869,
as Judge McRea was leaving the court house, in
company with the district attorney and his (McRea's)
father, an old gray-headed man. Gully came walking
down the street, singing a vulgar song, evidently for the
purpose of insulting Judge McRea. McRea stopped
and told his father and the district attorney to stay there
until he could ' see that man,' meaning Gully. Gully
had his pistol in his hand, and Judge McRea had his in
his sheath. As McRea advanced Gully backed, neither
5

66 The Chisolm Massacre.
speaking a word, until Gully reached his own store door,
when he reached out a double-barrel . gun, dropping his
pistol. McRea's father had followed, and was just
behind the Judge. When Gully raised his gun, McRea
said: 'You are not coming it right, sir;' when Gully
fired. McRea kept advancing and Gully discharged the
other barrel. Then McRea said : ' now I'll get you,' and
rushed forward. Both barrels of Gully's gun took effect
in McRea's face and breast. When Gully fired the last
barrel he ran into his store and shut the door after him,
and on through the 5tore into the back room and shut
that door. By the time McRea got to the door he was
so blinded by blood that he could see nothing. He
pushed the door open and fired every round of his pistol
in the store, playing sad havoc with dry goods, but fail
ing to hit Gully. The Judge sank down from loss of
blood, and was taken up by his father and some negroes,
carried home and a doctor sent for; but Gully's gun
happened to be loaded with squirrel shot. Some boys
had had it the day before and had drawn the buckshot
out, and left it loaded with small shot. The doctor
examined all the wounds, and when asked by McRea's
brother-in-law, in the presence of McRea's sister, if any
of the wounds would prove fatal, answered: 'No!
unless some of the shot penetrated the lungs. In that
case consumption would be likely to follow.' McRea
was confined to his room three weeks, and when he left
it, he had a cough which was pronounced consumption
by the best physicians in the country. He died in the
March following, i860. As he was the first McRea who

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 67
had ever died of consumption, as far back as the family
could be traced, the world can judge what brought it on.
The case was not brought before the grand jury of Kem
per until after the death of McRea. Then there was no
indictment found."
It was not far from this time that a man named
White said some disagreeable things about Higgins, a
school teacher. Higgins was a spirited fellow, and com
pelled White to give a written retraction or apology for
the insult offered. Floyd, who was a brother-in-law of
White, felt himself aggrieved that White should have
been compelled to do an act so disgraceful as to publicly
retract a statement he had once made and declared to
be true ; and accordingly headed a crowd of desperadoes,
who went to Higgins and tried to force him to give up
the writing which White had been induced to sign and
deliver to him. White and his crowd, who resorted to
every species of insult and threat, were unable to obtain
the coveted paper. Higgins, feeling very much incensed
at this attempt to bully and humble him, grew desperate,
and on the following day met Floyd and killed him,
never trying to escape nor in any way avoid the conse
quences. There still being no jail in DeKalb, he was
sent to Macon, in an adjoining county, and there con
fined. When brought back for trial, Higgins was placed
in charge of a man named W. G. Edwards, who was so
well liked by the democracy as to have been made a
constable by them. Higgin's father and Edwards, to
gether, contrived the escape of the prisoner. They were
all members of the same great and good party.

68 The Chisolm Massacre.
Some time after this Dennis Jones, a negro living on
some railroad land near Judge Chisolm's plantation, pro
cured the Judge's consent to build a fish trap in the
creek which ran through it. One night, when on his
trap, Dennis was shot and killed. His wife charged the
crime upon a white family living near, who had accused
Dennis of stealing their cotton.
Bob Dabbs then had a difficulty with a freedman
named Walter Riley, and one night soon after, he was
shot by some one from the outside of Gully's grocery,
and mortally wounded. Before his death he expressed
the belief that it was, the negro with whom he had had
the difficulty who shot him. This is all that is known
at ,this time of the killing of Dabbs.
As late as the year 1875 Mr. Morton, while returning
to his home in Kemper from a trip to Meridian, where
he had been, as was thought, for the purpose of collecting
a large amount of money, was waylaid and shot by some
one in ambush. Two negroes were suspicioned, arrested
by Judge Chisolm, while sheriff, convicted and sent to
the penitentiary. Morton is still living.
In November, 1869, James L. Alcorn was made gov
ernor of the State by the popular vote. Soon after
Alcorn's election Judge Chisolm was appointed sheriffj
holding the office by virtue of the appointment until
1 871, at which time he was elected by the people, and
Charles Rosenbaum, a young man of sterling character,
who was born and raised in DeKalb, was made his chief
deputy. In the canvass of 1 871, John P. Gilmer, a native of

J^^^'^^^^^.^^c.....-^:^

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 69
Heard county, Georgia, where he was born February 29,
1846, an ex-Confederate soldier, and a young man
engaged in the mercantile business in Scooba, came out,
openly declared himself a republican, and supported
Judge Chisolm for sheriff. Up to this time Gilmer's
character was good, and no slighting or slanderous word
had ever been whispered against him. He moved in the
first circles of the society where he lived, and the very
worst that could be said of him was that he partook
too much of the reckless habits of a very large majority
of the best young men of the country. Being of good
reputation otherwise, bold and vigorous, it is not to be
wondered at that a sagacious man like Judge Chisolm
should make the most of the acquisition of Gilmer to
the ranks of his party. But alas ! in the case of Gilmer,
as in that of every white man who ever voted the repub
lican ticket in the county, he was soon branded as the
vilest of all vile men.
It was here that " Hal " Dawson first appeared upon
the scene in Kemper county politics, and for a time he is
made a central figure in the progress of this story.
Dawson was. said to have sprung from a family, that, for
generations back, were noted chiefly for their deeds of
violence ; and Dawson, himself, was admitted by all to
have been a very dangerous and desperate man, especially
when under the influence of hquor. He appeared from
day to day in the streets of Scooba, clad in a gaily
colored flannel over-shirt, open at the neck, without vest
or coat, and pants fastened at the waist with a large
leather belt, from which was generally suspended a six-

7°

The Chisolm Massacre,

shooter and a knife of enormous size. The grotesque-
ness of this costume was increased by the addition of a
pair of very high topped boots, and Mexican spurs the
size of a small cart-wheel. "Hal" was in the habit of
getting drunk every day, and his special province seemed
to be to curse and abuse " radicals." He had repeatedly
threatened Gilmer, and said that he would either drive
him from the town or kill him. On one occasion, while
Gilmer was sitting in front of his store, reading a paper,
Dawson leveled a gun at him from across the street, and,
with both barrels cocked, called the attention of the
by-standers to the fact that he was about to shoot the
paper out of Gilmer's hands. Some of his friends
insisted that he should not do it, fearing that Gilmer
himself might receive a portion of the lead. Dawson
insisted that he could hit the paper without injury to
Gilmer, and while the friend stood in the street, at a
distance of ten or twelve paces, with his feet some
twelve inches apart, arguing the case, in momentary
expectation of seeing Gilmer killed, Dawson fired
between his friend's legs, and killed a hog just in the act
of passing, a short distance behind him.
It was while in the enjoyment of one of these festive
occasions that Dawson was especially abusive of Gilmer,
and Davis, Gilmer's clerk, who was a m.ember of the
board of registration. Taking his pistol in his hand,
Dawson went into Gilmer's store. Passing Gilmer at the
door, as he entered, he remarked that Davis was the man
he wanted to see. Davis had taken a position in the back
end of the building, armed with a double-barrel gun, which

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 71
he discharged at Dawson, just at the moment the latter
fired his pistol. Dawson then wheeled around, facing
Gilmer, who also fired, when Dawson fell to the floor
mortally wounded, still grasping the pistol in his hand.
On examination by Mr. Clay McCall and B. F. Rush,
who went into the store upon the instant, it was found
that one chamber of Dawson's pistol had just been
discharged, and upon further inquiry the marks left by
the bullet were discovered in the wall.
The killing of Dawson was at once heralded abroad as
a most wicked and diabolical murder. Gilmer and Davis
were both arrested and carried to DeKalb, the county
seat, and there placed in charge of the sheriff. The
prisoners were confined at the court house, in charge of
an officer.
The night following the killing of Dawson, Gilmer's
store was broken open by a mob, his goods taken out
into the street and all not carried off were burned.
The following day a crowd, numbering ten or twelve
men, went from Scooba to DeKalb, and demanded
of the sheriff that the prisoners should be carried
back to Scooba for a preliminary hearing. To this
demand the sheriff — Judge Chisolm — would not con
sent, knowing very well that if Gilmer and Davis ever
passed from under his guardianship they would be shot
in cold blood ; besides, under the sheriff's watchful eye,
and at the county seat, was the proper place for prison
ers to be held charged with a high offense. An examina
tion was had in DeKalb, at which three magistrates
presided, one of whom, at least, was a democrat, and the

72 The Chisolm Massacre.
prisoners were placed under a bond of $3,000 each, for
their appearance at the ensuing term of the circuit court.
Dawson's rare genius in the indiscriminate use of the
pistol and knife, had endeared him to a large circle of
kindred spirits in Alabama, who determined to avenge
his death. These Alabamians, from the inception of the
Ku-Klux Klan in the South, seemed to take the lead in
deeds of atrocity. They were more thoroughly organ
ized and much better mounted and equipped than the
brotherhood in almost any other portion of the South,
and they seemed to take special delight, whenever an
occasion presented, and " occasions " could be gotten up
to order at any time, in setting an example before their
weaker and less effective brethren along the Mississippi
border. As a proof of their superior skill and entire
willingness to make their benefactions general, let us
turn aside for a moment and call to mind the riot and
massacre at Meridian, which took place on the 6th of
March, 1871, a few months prior to the occurrences just
enumerated. From a recital of its lamentable details it
will be seen how these organized desperadoes were in
the habit of invading the soil of an adjoining State,
committing there any act of violence and blood which
their savage hearts might prompt them to do, and then
to return with g,ll the pomp and assurance of a conquer
ing army.

CHAPTER VI.
Meridian, like Scooba, is situated only eighteen miles
from the Alabama line, and thirty-five from DeKalb.
Previous to the riot this place was one of the most thriv
ing in the State, and indeed, it might be said, the whole
South. It was a new town, having sprung up mainly
after the close of the war. Its reputation for thrift and
enterprise was becoming national, and men and money
from every quarter of the union were fast coming in and
adding to its wealth and prosperity. William Sturges, a
native of Connecticut, and well connected in the place,
a gentleman of culture and refinement, was first made
an alderman and afterward appointed Mayor by the
Governor. Sturges' private character was good, and his
executive ability such as to have made for him an excel
lent reputation as Mayor. But unfortunately for him
and the prosperity of Meridian, he was also a " radical,"
and had been " foisted upon the people " by the indirect
aid of the poor and despised negro. Under Sturges'
supervision the colored men were organized into clubs,
had a band of music, and, when occasion required, they
would promenade the streets, just the same as their
white brethren do, and ever have done since the formation
of the government. They were in the habit of holding
public meetings, at which time the speeches made, it is
true, were not always such as to please a democratic
auditory. The marching of large bodies of negroes.

74 The Chisolm, Massacre.
headed by a band of music playing patriotic airs, in
itself was sufficient to arouse a spirit of hostility toward
the newly made citizens; but their "incendiary"
speeches threatened the "peace and dignity" of the
" good people " of the place. To use a phrase which has
long since passed into a proverb. Meridian must be
carried, " peaceably if we can, forcibly if we must."
Some time in the winter preceding the riot, a man
named Daniel Price, who had been driven from his home
in Alabama, took refuge in Meridian, where he became
a teacher of a free school. Price had been a gallant
soldier in the cause of the Confederacy, was a man of
fair education, a native of the South, and, so far as has
ever appeared, of good character. He was followed to
Meridian by an armed band of his old persecutors, who
sought his life. Price had drawn around him a number
of friends, who secreted him from his pursuers, who
returned after raiding the town in wanton violation of
the law and the peace and dignity of the people. But a
few days after this occurrence there arrived a negro from
Alabama, who stated that he was a deputy sheriff; that
he came with the proper papers to arrest certain parties
in Meridian — colored men — and carry them back to
Alabama. Never having shown his authority to any
one, it was believed that he was an impostor and trying
to act without the shadow of law ; and one night, when
prowling around among the negro cabins, some one
assailed and gave him a severe beating, whereupon the
negro returned to the persons who had sent him. This
treatment of their agent in crime was made a pretext

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 75
for a second raid into Meridian, by the same men, and.
this time they came in larger numbers and with an
apparent determination to do greater mischief Price,
meantime, had been arrested, charged with having com
mitted the assault upon the Alabama negro, who had
falsely assumed to be a deputy sheriff. Price had given
bond for appearance, and, on the day set for examination,,
about seventy-five or one hundred of these Sumpter
county desperadoes came, as they said, to "see a fair
trial." Price was urged by his political friends to leave,
as it was beheved by them that he would be. murdered
if he remained, and that a general riot might follow.
He finally left, forfeiting his bond, which was paid by his
republican associates, and he has never been seen or
heard from in Meridiari since. Their failure to reach
Price seemed to increase the fury of the marauders, who
took entire possession of the town, and especially the
" groceries." Republicans, both black and white, were
insulted, and the most prominent among them finally
sought safety in flight. Unable to find a pretext for a
general riot and killing, the mob, after kidnapping three
negroes, returned with them to the place of their ren
dezvous, in Sumpter county, Alabama. What then was
done with the negroes is not known to this day.
Saturday night of March 4th, but a few days, or weeks
at most, from the date of these occurrences, a fire broke
out in the storehouse of Sturges, Hurlbut and Company,
in Meridian, a leading and influential mercantile firm,
doing business in the place. Theodore Sturges, of the
house just named, was a brother of William Sturges,.

76 The Chisolm Massacre.
the mayor. The mayor was his brother's bookkeeper,
and lived with him at his home. Notwithstanding this
fact, absurd as the statement will readily appear, it was
rumored that the fire had been set by some negroes, at
the instance of WiUiam Sturges.
A whole block was bumed down, and the house of
Sturges, Hurlbut and Company was destroyed. During
the progress of the conflagration riotous conduct on the
part of a few prominent negroes was charged by the
whites, and one colored man was knocked down with a
gun and left for dead. Still 'unable to find sufficient
cause for a riot, that night several negroes were arrested
and carried before Judge Bramlett for trial the following
Monday — March 6th — on a charge of "trying to incite
riot," by making incendiary speeches, etc. A large crowd
of white men, citizens of Meridian, had assembled, osten
sibly to listen to the trial ; but really, as will soon appear,
for the purpose of raising a general row and killing off
the leading republicans, black and white. A white man
was placed upon the stand to testify against Warren
Tyler, one of the accused. Tyler, who was an unusually
bright and intelligent fellow, and brave as Julius Caesar,
proposed to impeach the testimony of the witness. The
idea of a negro attempting to impeach a white gentle
man's evidence was too much, and could not be endured.
The witness seized a heavy walking stick and approached
Tyler, who stepped backward to avoid a blow aimed at
his head. Tyler had been disarmed when arrested, and
exhibited no weapons, according to the testimony of a
large number of witnesses ; and it is admitted that when

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. yj
he went into the court room he had no arms. But as
the man advanced with his stick a score or more of pis
tols were drawn by the whites, who began an indiscrim
inate firing. A pistol shot, coming from the side occu
pied by the whites, struck Judge Bramlett .in the fore
head, and he sank dead upon the judicial bench. Two
negroes were killed on the spot; one of them was
robbed and his throat cut from ear to ear. The court
room was cleared in an instant, and for three long days
and nights riot and murder ran wild and unbridled
throughout and far beyOnd the limits of the town.
Before ten o'clock at night of the same day one hundred
and fifty armed men arrived from Alabama, who were
immediately joined by the " good citizens " of Meridian.
Together they took possession of the town, and high
ways, and railroad trains leading into it. Colored men
were hunted down like wild beasts, and shot in the fence
corners and in the woods, where many of them fled for
safety. Their churches and residences were burned, and
hundreds fled the country, never again to return.
That portion of the mob made up from Meridian was
composed of doctors, lawyers, ministers and merchants
— those who pray loudest in public places — and in short
the " better class " of people. The mayor took refuge in
the hoiise of his brother, prepared himself with a dozen
loaded guns and pistols, and determined to sell his life
as dearly as possible. Several times the mob, three or
four hundred strong, surrounded the house and de
manded that Sturges should be given up or the house
would be burned down over his head and those of the

78 The Chisolm Massacre.
brother and his family. Bar rooms were forced open,
and whether willing to do so or not, their keepers were
compeUed to pour out whisky without stint or limit, and
of course without price ; and the natural brutality of the
rioters was warmed into more active life by the aid of
that most potent of all weapons in the . hands of a
Mississippi democrat — bad whisky. About twenty
lives were sacrificed.
It will be remembered that Sturges was a good Mayor,
and in the thorough and impartial discharge of every
duty pertaining to his office, the very best the town has
ever had, before or since. This fact, perhaps, was the
cause of greater hostUity toward him than anything else;
for, in the matter of making arrests and in the treatment
of aU parties who came or were brought before him in
his official capacity, he made no distinction on account
of color or previous condition. But his integrity was so
great, and his administration so thorough, that he had
many friends and admirers, even among his worst politi
cal enemies ; and, when it was found that his life was to
be sacrificed, a few came to his assistance by the way of
remonstrating with the mob, and promising that if his life
was spared, he should leave the town and the State for
all coming time. These terms were finally agreed upon,
and under an escort of one hundred men, headed by R.
L. Henderson, a brave man and a good citizen, he was
taken to the train and permitted to depart.
At the time of the riot. Meridian had a vigorous and
growing population, numbering nearly or quite six
thousand. To-day about twenty-five hundred souls can

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 79
be counted there, many of them without thrift or pros
perity. Along the busy streets that were traversed, in
those dark days, by this wild and ungovernable mob,
with loud shouts and curses, brandishing in mid air the
torch, fresh lighted in the burning ruins of the humble
negro cabin, and carrying in their belts the knife or pistol
dripping with his innocent blood, can now be seen whole
blocks of solid brick whose only occupant is the cock
roach, the bat and owl. " Democracy " has reigned there
supreme from that day to this, but the hand of the
assassin and the torch of the incendiary have neither of
them been suppressed. There are no more bands
of music in the hands of jubilant and happy negroes
discoursing patriotic airs, it is true ; the " good people "
are spared all that, but arson and murder, bankruptcy
and ruin meet the beholder on every hand.
Only last year the mayor of the city was indicted for
and convicted of crime and misdemeanor while yet in
office, and was subsequently re-elected and stiU holds
that honorable position, with the decree of the court,
unanswered, hanging over him.

CHAPTER VII.
The night of the 3d of November following the killing
of Dawson, a body of Alabamians, numbering about
fifty men, arrived at DeKalb, in Kemper county, and
stopped at the grocery store of John W. Gully. For a
week or more previous to this an unusual stir had been
noticed among the leaders of the Klan in DeKalb. At
Gully's, frequent and prolonged meetings or consultations
had been held, by day and night, for some purpose,
nobody knew what, save the plotters of iniquity them
selves. This had aroused a suspicion on the part of the
repubUcansin the place, that a "big job" of Ku-Kluxing
was soon to take place somewhere in the county, and
they were on the alert, and, upon hearing of the arrival
of the Alabamians, Gilmer and Davis, who were still in
custody, accompanied by one or two others, by consent
of the sheriff, took to the woods for safety. Judge
Chisolm, himself, had gone home that night, sick with
asthma. No clearer statement of what followed can be
given than that taken • from his testimony before the
investigating committee, at Washington, a few months
later. This evidence will be found on page 250 of the
official report of the committee. In answer to a question
by Mr. Poland, the chairman, Judge Chisolm said :
"On the night of the 3d of November, I was not weU;
I am frequently bothered with asthma, and I did not go
to sleep until three o'clock in the morning. About that

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 8i
time I got relief and slept soundly. About half an hour
before sunrise of that moming, a colored boy came to my
room and woke me up. He had been my driver since
the war. This boy came into my room and told me that
old Aunt Charlotte, who lives over on a hill near by, had
told him that there was a body of armed men between
my house and town, secreted in the bushes ; that they
had been there for two hours or more. I told the boy
that I supposed it was only some men who had been
drinking down there and had alarmed Aunt Charlotte.
After looking to see what time of day it was, I turned
to go to bed again. The colored boy started out, and
when he got to the door, said: 'Judge, the old woman
thinks she is positive about these men, and she is very
much alarmed ; had you better not see something about
it?' Said I, 'Hezz, you go and see who they are; if
you know nothing about them, and they are armed,
come back and we will go after the rascals.' I then laid
down and went to slgep again, and slept until after sun
rise, when my little boy came in and told me that my
breakfast was waiting for me. After eating, I started
out in the direction of DeKalb, when I met the boy, in
company with another from Neshoba county, whom I
had under arrest. I had arrested him, but had released
him to stay at my house until the Neshoba court met.
I met them at the gate, and saw that this boy was very
much excited. He said, 'Judge, there are twenty-five
or thirty men over there after you.' Said I, 'What in
the d — 1 are they after me for? Where are they ?' He
said, ' They have gone on in the direction of DeKalb,'
6

82 The Chisolm Massacre.
Said I to Hezz, ' you go by and tell Joe, Tom and April
to get their guns and come up town as quick as they
can.' I went back into the house, got my gun and went
to the court house. I did not go, however, the regular
way. When I got into town, the people were very much
excited. In fact, before I got there, I had been told that
several notes had been sent to my house warning me of
the presence of these men. The notes did not reach me,
as they were sent by the big road. I asked the people
what it aU meant, and they told me that they knew
nothing about it. They had seen these men come
into town and go in the direction of my house, but
they had no idea where they were going, and thought
it was a body of soldiers. They were on horses,
and when they came back from my house they
stopped at John Gully's grocery and got a gallon of
whisky, and then left town. The first boy they seized —
the one I had there from Neshoba county — said they
arrested him about day-light, when going toward my
house. He said they asked him what his name was and
where he was going. He told them that he was going
to the house of a man by the name of Judge Chisolm.
They asked if I was the sheriff. He said he knew
nothing about that; that he had never been in DeKalb
until three days before ; that a man had come up to Col.
Powers' place, brought him down there and put him in
jail, and that a man called Judge Chisolm came there
and took him out of the jail, and told him to stay at his
house untU the court was held in Neoshoba county.
They then asked the boy if I did not come that way in

"Home _ Rule" in Mississippi. 83
coming to DeKalb. He told them I did. He was
asked if I could get to DeKalb by any other route,
and he said not that he knew of They asked what
time I usually went to DeKalb, and the boy said, gener
ally about sun-up. One of the crowd then struck him
with a stick and said, ' G — d d — n you, you are playing
off on us ; you know he goes to town sometimes by this ¦
trail-way.' They proposed to hang him to make him tell ;
but a man they called ' Captain ' interfered and said that
the boy might be telling the truth; that he might have
just come and might know nothing about what was
there at aU. When the other boy whom I sent
from my house went out they were in the bushes, and
he said that when he got within twenty steps of them,
while not on the look-out, and before he saw or
knew anything about them, they had up their guns and
pointed in his direction, and told him to come to them,
and of course he went. They asked his name and he
told them. They then asked where I was, and he said
I was sick. They asked if he did not live with me, and
he said he did. They said, ' How is it that he is sick
this morning, when he was not sick last evening?' The
boy said he knew I was not sick the evening before, but
that he had just left me in bed sick. They wanted to
know if I was not going to DeKalb; he said he did not
know anything about that; that he only knew I told
him I was sick, and that he supposed I was not going
to DeKalb that day. They were along the road that
leads to my house. I lived at that time about a mile
out of town. The men took him down to the other

84 The Chisolm Massacre. ,
comer, to a crowd of men, and asked for a man they
called 'Captain' — no other name — who was in the
bushes, and said to him: 'There is a boy that lives
with this fellow, the sheriff; he says he is sick.' The
'Captain' and this Lieutenant (the boy said they called
him Lieutenant, he did not know his name) went off
• and talked a few minutes together. He heard one of
them say, 'What wiU we do now?' The Lieutenant
said to the Captain, 'Well, I am not going to the house.'
The Captain said, ' Neither am I, by  ! '
They then called their men up and sat these boys
down on a log, and ordered them not to teU one word of
what had been said to them or they would kiU them.
One of the men took out a watch and gave the time of
day, and told him to remain there one hour; said that
they were going down to Saluda creek, below town, and
were going to stay there until Saturday night, when
they would come back. This is what they said to
the colored boys ; but they did not remain. I got up
a posse of fifteen men, black and white, and foUowed
them to the Alabama line, to PainevUle, in Sumpter
county." Effort was made to indict Gilmer and Davis for the
kiUing of Dawson; but so notorious was Dawson's
character, and so generally was it known that he was
the aggressor on the occasion in which he lost his life,
that, notwithstanding the bitterness which existed
against GUmer and Davis on account of their politics
the idea of a prosecution was abandoned.
The names of the grand jury before whom the facts

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 85
were brought are here given. Eight of this jury were
democratic and seven were republican ; and members of
this jury assert that every possible effort was made to
indict, but the evidence would not permit. Mr. B. Y.
Ramsey, the attorney who represented the State before
the jury, and a fierce democrat, instructed the foreman
that the cases could not be separated ; that if one was
indicted the other must be. This the acting district
attorney said in answer to a question as to whether or
not a case of malicious mischief could be found against
Gilmer, who, it was alleged, shot Dawson after he, was
dead. One of the witnesses called by the State — Mr.
Scott Spencer, also a democrat — testified before the jury
that he tried repeatedly on that day to prevent Dawson
from going into GUmer's store. The following are the
names of the jury: J. A. Burton, Thomas W. Adams,
Peter E. Spinks, William Dear, T. H. Morton, J. J.
Tinsly, J. C. Carpenter, C. P. Chancey, George Robin
son, Thos. Orr, Henry Greer, James Welch, Kinch Welch,
Charles Nichols, and Henderson Ramsey.

CHAPTER VIII.
But the persecution of Judge Chisoliri by the Ala
bamians whom he had so far thwarted in their endeavors
to take his life, did not stop here. In another chapter it
is stated that the family connections of Dawson had for
generations been conspicuous for their deeds of violence
and blood. Among these there was a man named DU-
lard, who lived at GainesvUle, not far from the Mississippi
line. Dillard had been somewhat conspicuous as a poUti-
cian, and at one time claimed to be a repubhcan ; but in
some way forfeited the confidence of the party, and
failed to receive promotion correspondingly great with
the estimate he had placed upon his own services and
ability. From this Dillard returned to his first love,
and again became a violent democrat.
To one unacquainted with the history of southern
politics it is not readily understood how a man can one
day espouse a principle, and as quickly turn and become
its most bitter and uncompromising opponent. The case
becomes very plain, however, when the fact is known
that there never was any principle involved in the con
version. When Southern men once affiliate with the
republican party and fail to reach the object for which
the evolution is performed, they are forced to take the
opposite extreme in going back, in order to be admitted
to anything like equal terms of membership within the
ranks of the party once deserted. They are like

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 87
northern men living in the South during and since the
war, who become the most violent and senseless advo
cates of the old doctrine of secession and State rights —
a cause which, from education and instinct, most northern
men abhor — becoming more bitter, violent and unreason
able in advocating the genuine southern faith than the
most radical natives of that section. With aU the
assumed hostility to the teachings so early instilled into
their hearts and minds, it is often difficult, and indeed
many times impossible, for them to retain the confidence
of the citizens among whom, at best, they can be but
casually and incidentally adopted. This, however, is only
applicable to those of either section who have reversed
the old orthodox creed of " conviction before conversion."
An honest conviction will often carry men far beyond
the reach of selfish motives, even into the jaws of death
itself, and so it is with the southern man who sacrifices
social position, incurs the bitter and relentless enmity of
kindred and early friends, and whom the tortures of the
rack itself are unable to swerve from those principles of
right and humanity which cannot be enjoyed within the
ranks of the old party of disunion, hatred and intolerance.
In the early fall of 1874, more than two years after the
killing of Dawson, when in Meridian, on his return from
a trip to Jackson, Judge Chisolm was confronted by a
large, "red-faced" man — to use his own language — in
company with one or two others, aU appearing to be
intoxicated. At every turn he was met by these men,
with an angry and insulting stare. The Judge purposely
avoided them, dreading the consequences of a difficulty,

88 The Chisolm Massacre.
which he believed to be the object of the strangers.
The following day, as soon as the business hour of the
morning arrived. Judge Chisolm repaired to the law office
of Messrs. Hamm & Fewell, and while there, very much
to his surprise and somewhat to his annoyance, who
should come in but his disagreeable acquaintance of the
day before. Preferring to transact business more
privately, and still fearing a collision, the Judge, and one
of his attorneys, stepped into an adjoining room, and not
untU then was he made aware of the fact that his " red-
faced" friend of the day before, was none other than
Judge Dillard of Gainesville, Alabama, the man who was
known to have been foremost in inciting the invasion
from Alabama into Kemper county, two years before, for
the purpose of kUling the leading republicans there.
Judge Chisolm, soon after, went on the street in further
pursuance of his business, and, when turning a corner,
met an old acquaintance, who was at the time engaged
in conversation with Judge Dillard. This friend, address
ing Judge Chisolm, and not knowing that any enmity
existed between the two men, proposed the usual courte
sies of an introduction. Dillard at once very indignantly
drew back, and said that he was not " receiving intro
ductions to d — d radical scoundrels! You are ad — d,
thieving, radical scoundrel, sir ! " said he to Judge Chis
olm. Still dreading the consequences of a difficulty,
Chisolm, very much against his will, and sense of honor,
again turned away and crossed the street.
Dillard, in a voice loud enough to have been heard
half a square distant, continued to curse and abuse Judge

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 89
Chisolm in the grossest manner, heaping upon him every
insulting epithet known to the vocabulary of a southern
politician of the democratic school. From this man,
Dillard, Judge Chisolm received insults far greater than
he had ever before taken from any one when himself
placed under the most adverse and unfavorable circum
stances, and much less had he borne them from any person
who stood singly and alone ; and while Dillard still had
him at a disadvantage, Chisolm resolved to die rather
than tamely submit to farther abuse. Having on a
heavy talma, he threw it back so as not to be incumbered
in drawing his pistol, and then started across the street
toward Dillard, who, seeing him coming, drew and leveled
his pistol and warned Chisolm off, still cursing him.
Judge Chisolm drew and steadily advanced, the eyes
of each peering into those of the other, without
saying a word. When two or three steps distant, both
fired. The shot from Judge Chisolm's pistol struck Dil
lard in the side, when they clinched, Chisolm throwing
his antagonist to the ground, and, holding Dillard's
weapon with one hand, he was just in the act of shoot
ing him with his own pistol which he held in the other,
when a gentleman ran up and wrenched Chisolm's
revolver from his grasp. Believing it was a life and
death struggle, and not knowing how many men he
might yet have to contend with. Judge Chisolm deter
mined upon finishing this one, at least ; and still
holding Dillard prostrate, he reached into a hip pocket
and drew another small pistol, which was quickly taken
away from him, and the two were separated.

90 The Chisolm Massacre.
Before a warrant had been issued for his arrest, Judge
Chisolm placed himself under the protection of the
sheriff, Capt. Bob Mosely, and while at the house of
that officer, to save his little daughter, Comelia, then
attending school in the place, unnecessary alarm, he sent
her a note, stating that he had had a difficulty with
Judge Dillard — whose designs upon her father's life the
daughter knew very well — and that he had wounded
Judge Dillard, but himself was unharmed. This state
ment did not satisfy CorneUa, who feared that if her
father had escaped thus far, he would again be attacked
by greater numbers and finally killed, and she at once
hurried to his room-. The writer remembers well the
appearance of this girl as she came into the presence of
her father that day, when, choked with sobs, she under
took to return thanks for the kindly offices of those who
had come to the aid of her beloved guardian. Though
many evidences of her fondness for him had been wit
nessed before, this left a deeper impression than all else.
Little was it thought then, however, that her unselfish
devotion and sublime character— afterward so strikingly
displayed — would soon place her name upon that scroU
which holds sacred in the hearts of all true men and
women, the good and virtuous deeds of those gone before.
As usual, the cry of " an attempt to murder by an
infamous radical" was raised. Judge Chisolm was
arrested and placed under a bond, and at the following
term of the circuit court, which convened very soon
thereafter, a true bill was found, charging him with
" assault with intent to kill." At the May term of the

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 91
next succeeding court — in 1875 — he was tried on the
indictment and acquitted; the jury returning a verdict
in fifteen minutes, without consultation or disagreement.
William M. Hancock was the presiding judge, who,
although a republican at the time, had been considered
good enough by the democracy to hold the same respon
sible position for many long years, and through succeed
ing terms of office.
In the year 1872 J. P. Gilmer was elected State
senator to fill a vacancy occasioned by the death of
Hon. W. S. Gambrel, a sketch of whose life and career
as a union man and republican in Kemper county it now
becomes necessary to present. The account given below
is furnished by a lady, who for many years lived neighbor
to Mr. Gambrel, and who knew the femily and their cir
cumstances well. The statement of this lady is alsO'
corroborated by a member of the family now living in
the county. Neither the intelligence nor the integrity of
this witness will be questioned by any one. Her own
language is quoted as nearly as possible.
" At the opening of the war Mr. Gambrel was engaged
in teaching school near a small town now known as Rio..
He had the misfortune to have been born in Ohio, but.
came South in early youth. He married into a southern
family, and was at the opening of the war, the father of
several children. Always a strong unionist, and so
expressing himself, he did not vote on the matter of
secession, because there was no other ticket out. Soon
after the opening of hostilities his wife, then in delicate
health, became insane. His task was a hard one. The

92 The Chisolm Massacre.
" committee,' as usual, while staying home from the war
themselves, ' waited on him ' and ordered him out. He
refused to comply, and soon after some of his pupils
were taken sick. They accordingly decided to hang him
if he did not go to the war, pretending that he had
poisoned the spring because his pupUs were southern
children. Mr. Gambrel told them that his wife and
children, his home and interests were all southern.
Judge Chisolm, by his firmness and courage, prevented
the hanging. Senator Gambrel was then compelled to
leave his afflicted wife and little ones to the mercy of
the savages of Kemper. He went into the army and
•delivered himself a prisoner in the first engagement,
without firing a gun. The Federal officer gave him a
position, the writer is quite sure, in the commissary
¦department. He lived frugally, and at the war's ending
had saved money enough to bring home many much
needed comforts. His poor wife had recovered her
mind, but the family were in squalid poverty. He soon
placed them in comparative comfort; but the trials
Mrs. Gambrel had passed through sent her speedily to
the grave. He was often compelled to leave his chUdren
under the protection of the colored cook. One night
Mr. Gambrel returned and retired without awakening his
family. Before morning a negro broke into the room
occupied by some of the older children. A faithful old
servant gave the alarm, and when the father came in
told him who she believed the intruder to be, and showed
the place and manner of his escape. Mr. Gambrel after
ward confronted the supposed guUty negro — Flander

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 93,
Jones — and struck him a blow in the face. Jones then
went to the cabin of another colored man, and, while
there, ran some bullets, which he told were for the pur
pose of kiUing Gambrel. When the two met again a
collision took place in which both fired pistols. Jones'
shot took effect, from which Mr. Gambrel died soon
after. WhUe on his death-bed he was visited by Judge
Chisolm and many other friends."
Mr. Gambrel often spoke, when in the presence of
the lady who furnished the above facts, in the highest
terms of Judge Chisolm and his many acts of friendship,,
at a time when he, being a republican, had no other
friend. After reconstruction and the organization of
the Ku-Klux, Gambrel became the object of their
especial hatred. His house being visited on several
occasions, he was finally compelled to call in his neighbors
— a few who were friendly and whom he could trust —
to guard himself and premises at night.
But it is now told by the great party of reform that
Gambrel was killed at the instance of Judge Chisolm, ta
make room for Gilmer in the State senate.

CHAPTER IX.
In November, 1873, Judge Chisolm was again elected
sheriff by the popular vote, his term of office expiring in
1875, at which time the political destinies of the whole
State passed into the hands of the " good people." The
registration of the vote of the county, since 1868, shows
the numerical strength of the blacks as compared with
that of the whites, to have been very nearly equal.
There never was but a slight preponderance of one over
the other; yet for the constitutional convention of that
year there was a republican majority of six hundred and
eighty-seven votes. For Governor Alcorn, in 1869, there
was a plurality of over two hundred; and in 1 871, at
which time Judge Chisolm was first elected sheriff,
the excess of votes for his ticket reached about one
hundred and eighty. In 1872 it was over four hundred,
and at the State election for governor, in 1873, the
republican majorities for the various offices reached as
high as two hundred. From these figures it wiU be seen
that the strength of the party against which this terrible
hostility existed did not depend upon the newly enfran
chised citizens. From the very outset it must have
received a large native white vote; for upon no other
hypothesis can these large majorities be accounted for.
During the terms of Judge Chisolm's office he accu
mulated property, as every other sheriff in the State did,
without a solitary exception. But the duties pertaining

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 95
to that position meantime were performed by him to the
letter, and he was never accused of misappropriating a
single doUar of pubhc funds, notwithstanding the con
tinued hostUity of those who sought his destruction in
every possible way.
That Judge Chisolm sometimes resorted to extraordi
nary measures to carry out the object in view will not
be denied, an'd that the circumstances justified such
means will hardly be doubted. A verification of the old
adage or proverb of " fighting the devil with fire '' would
have been warranted, no doubt.
Owing to the unsettled condition of the whole State
and the inauguration of free schools in the county, the
building of bridges and other changes and improvements
made necessary by the results of the war, taxation
became heavy, though credit had steadily improved;
and, as already stated, county warrants had advanced
since the accession of the men then in power, from
twenty-five to seventy-five cents on the dollar. The
greatest tax imposed upon the county, and the one of
which the people complained most, was that made neces
sary by the establishment of the free schools, and it is
a fact Worthy of notice in passing, that the board of
school directors for the county were, during the whole
time, pronounced and uncompromising democrats, as
they were also " racy of the soil."
It is a fact, well known in the South, that for several
years immediately following the close of the war, and
even before that period, " speculations " in cotton became
very common. In these operations vast fortunes were

96 The Chisolm Massacre.
sometimes made, and almost every one, who, by dint of
good luck, or what often proved better, a determination
to " win," could in any way become a party to a " cotton
transaction," entered upon it with a will equaled only by
their cupidity. To this good day it is the pride and
delight of these men to relate their experience in running
off " the great staple " and swindling the government out
of its dues ; and, what is more to their shame, " Uncle
Sam " was not always the sufferer. In these transac
tions John W. Gully was a fortunate adventurer. His
operations began early, and while he was sheriff a large
amount of money placed in his hands by the Confederate
authorities, with which to buy cotton, was thus expended,
but when the war closed he sold the cotton then on hand
and put the money received for it in his own pocket.
This cotton, by the terms of the surrender, belonged to
the United States government, and should have been so
accounted for. Several hundred bales were thus appro
priated by Gully. This fact is well known to the people
of Kemper to-day, and Gully himself often boasted of
his shrewdness in thus swindling the "d — d Yankee
government." Having learned from experience the best manner of
conducting little schemes like this, who so well as Gully
could plan an illicit operation of the kind, place an enemy
in the foreground, and make him appear to one unac
quainted with the " ways that are dark," as the principal
operator and beneficiary ? It was not, however, untU the
year 1871, when Judge Chisolm became a candidate before
the people for the office of sheriff, that an accusation.

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 97
in the form of a " cotton speculation," was brought
against him. It was then charged by John W. Gully,
that Chisolm, in the capacity of probate judge — some
four or five years before — had forged an affidavit by
which a number of bales of cotton, supposed to belong
to the United States authorities, were placed in the
hands of gentlemen who clandestinely disposed of them,
as Gully had disposed of that which fell into his hands.
This charge Judge Chisolm refuted at the time it was
brought, and despite the efforts of his unscrupulous
enemies, was elected sheriff by a large popular vote. In
the fall of 1876, when he became a candidate for Con
gress, the same old story was renewed. It was done
after the Judge had left his home and gone into the
canvass, beyond the reach of friends who were conversant
with the facts, and through whom he might be able
to establish his innocence, and first appeared in the
Jackson Clarion, a leading newspaper of the State. To
this publication Judge Chisolm repUed on the first oppor
tunity, through the columns of the same paper. As will
be seen, his letter was written while at Greenwood, one
hundred and fifty miles distant from home.
CARD FROM W. W. CHISOLM.
Greenwood, Miss., Oct. 16, 1876.
Editors Clarion : I respectfully request that you pub-
Ush this, my reply to certain charges which appeared
against me in the columns of your issue of the 3d inst.,
and ask that other papers which have copied the article
wiU likewise do me the justice to copy this. If there are
those who think I have been slow in giving attention to
7

98 , The Chisolm Massacre.
this matter, I will state that, as a candidate for Congress,
I have been busy in the canvass, away from home, and
have been compelled to rely upon a correspondent to
procure such documentary evidence as I deemed import
ant for my vindication.
Your readers will remember that the main charge, and
the one upon which all th^ others are based, was con
tained in the affidavit of one George L. 'Welsh, and
which I here reproduce :
THE FORGED AFFIDAVIT.
{Perry Moore was dead when this affidavit was made)
The State of Mississippi, ]
Kemper County. f
Before me, W. W. Chisolm, judge of probate in and
for said county, personally came Perry Moore, to me
well known as a just and reliable citizen in said
county, who, after being by me duly sworn accord
ing to law, deposeth and says, that he was with the
United States forces under the command of General
Sherman, in the county of Lauderdale, in the year (1864)
eighteen hundred and sixty-four, in said State of Missis
sippi, on or about the 20th day of February, of said
year, on the road leading from Marion Station to HUls-
boro, in Scott county, Mississippi, and he, the aforesaid,
saw at one White's gin, on said road, about eight or ten
miles from Marion Station, the said United States forces
put fire to and burn one hundred and eighty-four bales
of lint cotton (184), belonging to Robert J. Mosely.
They, the United States forces, stated and told me it
was by order of General Sherman.
Perry Moore.
Sworn to and subscribed before me, this, the 2d day of
[L. s.] February, A. D. 1867.
W. W. Chisolm, Probate Judge.

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 99
THE FRAUD ACKNOWLEDGED.
I certify that the foregoing is a true copy of the
original papers, and that the name subscribed thereto,
purporting to be the genuine signature of Perry Moore,
is a base forgery, and so admitted to me by W. W.
Chisolm, at the time I arrested said papers in his hands.
Said Chisolm was at that time Judge of the Probate
Court of Kemper county, and I was Clerk of said court.
Geo, L. Welsh.
DeKalb, Miss., September 30, 1876.
To convict this poor wretch, Welsh, of being at once
a simpleton as well as a liar, I call the attention of the
public to the following extract from the records of the
Probate Court of Kemper county:
State of Mississippi, )
Kemper County. j
To the Honorable John McRea, Judge of the Probate
Court of said county :
The undersigned, Jordan Moore, petitions your Honor
to grant him letters of administi-ation on the estate of
Perry Moore, deceased, of said county, and in making
this petition would state that said decedent departed
this life on or about the eighth day of February, 1867;
that he died without a will, seized of effects in said
county, upon which it is necessary that administration
should be had, and in duty bound your petitioners will
ever pray. JORDAN MoORE.
Sworn to and subscribed before me August 12, 1867.
Geo. L. Welsh,
The State of Mississippi,
Kemper County.
I, H. Rush, Clerk of the Chancery Court, In and for
said county, do hereby certify that the foregoing is a
correct copy of the letters of administration upon the

i

lOO The Chisolm Massacre.
estate of Perry Moore, deceased, as appears upon file
and on record in my office at DeKalb, this October 23d,
1876. H. Rush, Clerk.
Welsh says that Perry Moore was dead before the affi
davit in regard to the cotton was made, and that was
on the 2d day of February, 1867; and yet Jordan
Moore made affidavit, before this same George L. Welsh,
that Perry Moore died on or about the 8th day of Feb
ruary, 1867. See how plain a tale will put a lying
scoundrel down. By the records of his own court he
stands a convicted Uar. Need I say more? I would
not trouble myself to say this much to people who
know this Welsh; but many read the Clarion who have
no means of knowing what reliance is to be placed in
this fellow George L. Welsh. So I present them these
two papers, that they may have no difficulty in deter
mining. Now, upon this slandrous charge of Welsh, all the
superstructure of persecution against me has been raised.
Proving the foundation to be false, what becomes of the
edifice ?
This same George L. Welsh says that " he arrested
Perry Moore's affidavit in my hands; that I admitted
that it was a forgery; that he demanded my resignation,
and I did resign." I congratulate Welsh in doing what
he seldom does — stumbling upon one scrap of truth;
for " I did resign." But that I did it upon the demand
of George L. Welsh, or any one else, is a falsehood too
infamous to be coined by any other than his brain,
notoriously fruitful in such productions. When I re
signed my successor was appointed upon my recom
mendation. Where we are both known, the idea of
George L. Welsh demanding anything at my hands wiU
sound preposterous indeed. Alone and together he
would not risk his carcass within reach of the toe of my
boot, except he was acting the part of a cringing cur.

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. lox
Affidavits from Thos. H. Woods, District Attomey,
and Jas. Haughley and Wm. B. Lockett, members of
the grand jury in 1868, declare that I was indicted for
forgery in uttering the Perry Moore affidavit. That may
be true; but I was present at the close of that inqui
sition, and never heard of it. If so, it was ex parte, and
founded, doubtless, upon the testimony of Geo. L.
Welsh, who we see has written, and doubtless then
swore, that Perry Moore was dead before the affidavit
was made. Whatever the grand jury thought, if they
ever found such a bill upon Welsh's testimony, it is now
beyond dispute that he lied, and lied in the face of his
own records. It is true that the records of the court
were stolen in 1868, and that a Ku-Klux cap was found
in the office after the thieves had departed.
But, whether I was indicted or not, the fact remains
that fourteen terms of the circuit court had been held in
Kemper county since that time, and I have never been
called to answer.
In addition to this, I may say that this is not the first
time this matter has been before the public. In 1871,
an anonymous letter, addressed to Governor Alcorn,
appeared in the Clarion, containing substantially the
same charge. It was a subject of investigation by the
Governor, but he became satisfied that it was a malicious
slander, and subsequently appointed me to the office of
sheriff of the county, to which position I have been twice
elected, since that time, by the people who knew of
Welsh's slanderous falsehoods, and knew what value to
give them. It is true that I was expelled from the
Masonic lodge. Welsh is a Mason, so were his coadju
tors. Pending the movement against me in the lodge, I
was assured by T. C. Murphy, S. Gully and Charles BeU,
that if I would be quiet politically, it would be aU right
in the lodge. Having been taught, even before I be
came an entered apprentice, that the obligations of

I02 The Chisolm Massacre:
Freemasonry would not interfere with my religious or
political opinions, or duty to my God, my neighbor and
myself, I declined to yield to the demands of the " breth
ren," and was expelled because I was a republican, and
forced to avow my sentiments.
Besides showing how basely slanderous and false this
creature Welsh is, I might introduce him in a new act,
and cast another shadow upon his character, by showing
his connection with county warrants in Kemper county,
and other deeds, darker stiU. But at present I am only
engaged in proving him a liar, too distinct and unequivo
cal for the public to regard. I may give a chapter on
other elements of his character hereafter, if any one
should question his business.
Very respectfully yours, etc.
W. W. Chisolm.
As appears, fourteen terms of the circuit court passed,
and although there is no bar to the statute in certain
criminal cases, in which " forgery " is named as one, the
indictment was never renewed, and for a very good
reason, no doubt : The one originally found had failed
in accomplishing the villainous work for which it was
procured, and a further waste of time was deemed
inadvisable. Thus vanished the second and only specific
charge of dishonesty ever brought against Judge Chisolm
while living.
But we pass now to an account of treachery scarcely
equalled in the annals of crime, and certainly an atrocity
evincing a degree of recklessness and disregard of law
never before attained in a community claiming to be
governed by the dictates of common humanity.
In the month of October, 1 874. some one, in the night-

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 103
time, entered the room of a daughter of George Calvert,
who lives in the southwest Beat of Kemper county.
The young lady awoke, in great alarm, and just in time
as she believed, to see some one, whom she did not
recognize, run through the door and escape before the
family were aroused. Suspicion of this grave offense
centered upon one of two negroes living on the place,
but no evidence whatever, and no circumstance tending
to strengthen this suspicion, was ever obtained, farther
than the boy was not found at home that night ; his own
explanation of his absence was that he had been out, as
he had often done before, to witness a fox hunt in which
some gentlemen were engaged not far away. Notwith
standing this he was taken into custody, without process
of warrant, or any legal arrest, and carried to DeKalb,
when the deputy sheriff, Charlie Rosenbaum, very prop
erly refused to take the prisoner, save only in the manner
and form prescribed by law.
It was believed by the leaders of this affray that an
opportunity was now presented for carrying out a long
cherished desire: that of murdering Judge Chisolm, and
making it appear as the voluntary act of the whole com
munity. The arrest of the negro was on Saturday, and
aU that night and the next day — Sunday — couriers
were riding to every part of the county, and even to
adjoining counties, in hot haste, with a lying report on
their tongues to the effect that the negroes, headed by
Judge Chisolm, had risen in great numbers and were then
marching on the poor and defenseless whites, killing,
burning and ravishing as they went; though it never

I04 The Chisolm Massacre.
appeared where this march began, nor in which direction
its desolating pathway led. Yet the "good people"
were quick to credit any story of the kind, and, by the
following Monday, at least five hundred armed and
mounted men, ready for any act of viUainy which, in
their barbarity, might seem to be necessary for the "pubUc
safety," had assembled in the neighborhood of one J. L.
Spinks, a justice of the peace. To further whet their
appetites for blood, and encourage the doubting and timid
ones, the negro boy was taken out amid the shouts and
yells of the savage throng, and hanged to the limb of a
tree. But, as Judge Chisolm was aU the time at his
home in DeKalb, foUowing his legitimate business, as the
negroes were also at work in the cotton fields throughout
the county, this Quixotic war upon an invisible foe must
be turned to account in the manner and form originally
designed. The kiUing of one poor negro, on a campaign
of such gigantic proportions, was a very unsatisfactory
result, and the real object of the " race war," as this affair
was styled in Kemper county, soon began to develop
itself, and in the following manner :
After consultation among the leaders it was deter
mined to send a note to Judge Chisolm, asking him to
coine out and aid the " good people " in suppressing the
riot and bloodshed likely to take place, as he was weU
known to all parties, was the executive officer of the
county, and had more influence than anybody else.
Accordingly the note which is copied below, was sent to
him by the hands of the following named gentlemen, as
appears by the envelope in which it was addressed:

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 105
"A. McMahan, J. E, Driver and others." From this it
would seem they were calculating on " driving " a good
business. The writing is all in Adam Calvert's well
known hand. The paper itself emanates from a lodge of
peaceful and unoffending grangers. Here it is :
MOUNT PLEASANT GRANGE,
No. 230.
J. R. Davis, Master. J. L. Spinks, Sec'y.
"Moscow, Miss., Oct. ist, 1874.
'Judge W. W. Chisolm, DeKalb, Miss.:
"Dear Sir: We have been requested by at least some
two hundred persons now assembled at J. L. Spinks',
Esq., to inform you that we are proud of the conversa
tion you had with Archey McMahan and A. P. Davis in
regard to the excitement now in our Beat about the
negroes rising in arms against the whites. We have
additional evidence to substantiate our fears upon. We
have arrested several negroes, and the proof is positive
against them. We do not intend to do anything in
violation of the law or anything without reflection. We
intend to defend ourselves in case the negroes come
upon us, as they say they intend to do. We insist on
your immediate presence at J. L. Spinks', Esq., to-day,
just as soon as you can possibly come. We assure you
that you will be treated as a gentleman, and hope
you wUl not fail to come.
" Respectfully, your friends,
"Adam Calvert,
"J. L. Spinks,
"John R. Davis."

io6 The Chisolm Massacre.
The names affixed to the above are those of old and
responsible citizens. Two of them at the time were
peace officers. With this message McMahan and Driver
were at once dispatched to Judge Chisolm, at DeKalb.
The fact of the communication being sent to him at all
is in itself a proof of the hoUowness of the pretense
under which this mass of rioters had come together, y
They knew very well, before a single step had been
taken, that Judge Chisolm was at his home; that him
self and the colored men of the county were as free from
the thought of instigating riot and bloodshed as a sleep
ing infant. But believing their appeal to have been
made in good faith. Judge Chisolm was about to ride
out to the place designated, in answer to it. His
friends, more cautious than himself, thinking a scheme
was on foot to take his life, besought him not to go, and
he was finally prevailed upon to heed the timely advice.
Thus the object of the conspiracy was thwarted, and
this " race war," began for the purpose of shedding inno
cent blood, failed ignominiously, save only in the hanging
of one poor negro.
The admonition of friends saved Judge Chisolm's
life on this occasion, as that which follows will clearly
prove. David Calvert — a brother of Adam Calvert —
who married a sister of Judge Chisolm, afterward told
his wife's family that he was cognizant of the note being
carried to his brother-in-law on the occasion of the
"negro hanging," near the house of Justice Spinks; that
he knew the object for which it was delivered, and, to
thwart the purpose of the men who sent it, and prevent

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. \oj
the shedding of innocent blood, he himself dispatched a.
man with a message to warn Judge Chisolm of the
danger which awaited his arrival at the scene of the riot.
With no further evidence than the statement of an indi
vidual to prove a conspiracy like this, there might be
found room for que oning its existence; but, fortu
nately, whatever evidence may be needed to dispel every
doubt in the matter, is at hand, and will be found in the
letter which follows : Rio, Miss., September  .
Judge W. W. Chisolm :
Sir: I believe there is a plan on foot to assassinate
you. This belief is founded upon an assertion that I
heard one William Pearse make, in the presence of four
respectable ladies. He said that you would be taken
out of DeKalb before next Saturday night and meet
with the same fate that the negro did who was hung on
last Saturday near here. Other, remarks, similar to this,.
have been repeated to me by your friends, which I will
not take time to mention now.
There was an armed force of from fifty to one hundred
men met at the grave of the hanged negro on Monday,.
to prevent the holding of an inquest.
Your friends in this neighborhood think you would do
weU to be on your guard.
My light is dim, and I don't see weU at night.
I wUl close by saying that I hope you will be on your
guard. The hanging of the negro was an outrage of the
blackest character. Your friend, as ever,
S. S. Windham.
P. S. The excitement in the neighborhood is great.
The above was written and sent to Judge Chisolm by
a special messenger. Mr. Windham, its author, was an

io8 The Chisolm Massacre,
honest and kind-hearted man, although a democrat and
a brother-in-law of Adam Calvert. His opportunities
for knowing the facts were the very best, and his state
ment in writing, over his own signature, wUl hardly be
doubted. The fact that he is now dead and out of the way of
all harm, accounts for his name being given here.

CHAPTER X,
Amid all the disparaging influences by which he had
been surrounded ; violently assailed in person and in char
acter; hunted at night by armed bands of ruffians ; when
leaving his home on business, compelled to go under
cover of darkness by one route, and retum secretly by
another; branded and pointed at as one in every way
mean and despicable. Judge Chisolm had around him an
intelligent and refined family, consisting of wife and four
children. Cornelia, the oldest, whose name is now a
household word, at this date had been some two years
at school in Meridian, a bright and joyous girl, beloved
and admired by all who knew her. After Cornelia came
Clay, and then Johnny, whose memory is closely
linked with that of his beloved sister; and Willie, the
youngest. Their home at DeKalb was a model of taste
without, and bore the unmistakable evidences of culture
within ; and what is better still, it was an asylum for the
poor, without regard to color or political affiliation..
Born and reared as children were under the ban of social
ostracism, their society had been formed largely within
the home circle. The want of social and friendly inter
course with the outside world seemed to have molded
and endeared the family to each other. That unfailing
perception usually accorded to woman had early enabled
Comelia to mark the expression of care and deep con
cern which, from year to year, settled upon her father's

no The Chisolm Massacre,
face as the result of the daily life of hazard which he
led, and she had thus been drawn to him by sympathy
as well as love ; and this two-fold force, acting upon her
naturally warm and impulsive heart, made her fondness
for him fall but little short of devotion. Nowhere on the
broad earth could there be found a domestic picture more
pleasing than that presented around the hearthstone of
the Chisolm's at DeKalb. As the Judge grew in power
and influence, his charities were dispensed with a lavish
hand, and these were not confined to his party friends.
His generosity developed with his means, and, shocking
as it is to humanity, scores of the hands which for years
had taken food from his board, on that fatal and dark
Sabbath were raised against himself and lovely children,
and were among the first to strike them foully to the
earth. But for the present a casual glimpse of this picture
must suffice. We have yet a long way to follow the
unbroken chain of circumstances woven around the
doomed man and his party adherents, gathering strength
with the growth of years, and culminating at last in a
crime not equalled even in the dark days of the reign of
the bloody Robespierre, and ending with as complete an
overthrow of every principle of law and right as ever
marked the passage of that bloody era in the history of
unhappy France. The story of the political contest
of 1875 in Mississippi has never been told. The acts of
tyranny and savage cruelty, the false swearing and utter
disregard and desecration of the most sacred mandates
of God and man, as yet are only recorded in the hearts

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. iii
and memories of those who were made to suffer most ;
and its horrors will not be recalled here, excepting so far
as they may have direct bearing upon the persons and
objects discussed in these pages.
Guided by the firm hand and unconquerable will of
one man, the county of Kemper, for a succession of years,
had stood the tide of hatred engendered by secession
and nursed by the overthrow of the " Divine Institution "
and the final elevation of the late slave to citizenship
and equal rights under the law, and that stronghold of
"radicalism" became an object of special attention by
the white-line democracy all over the State. If the pro
gramme of intimidation, fraud and violence which had
been decided upon in their State councils could be made
to win in Kemper, then the first rays of the morning sun
of the day following the election in November of 1875
would fall upon a State " redeemed." To this end the
barbed shafts of the best orators of the State were
turned upon this republican Thermopylae, whUe the
native bulldozers were untiring and persistent in their
watchfulness and zeal.
A few weeks preceding the election the "great and
gifted " Lamar delivered an address at Aberdeen, which
the Vicksburg Herald, a leading democratic paper, com
mented upon as follows : " At Aberdeen, last Saturday,
Colonel Lamar made an eloquent speech. A better
democratic speech we do not care to listen to; and in
manly and ringing tones he declared that the contest
involved ' the supremacy of the unconquered and uncon
querable Saxon race.' We were glad to hear this bold

112 The Chisolm Massacre,
and manly avowal, and it was greeted with deafening
plaudits. We have never seen men more terribly in
earnest, and the democratic white-line speech made to
them by Colonel Lamar aroused them to white heat."
***** jjj another place the same paper makes
use of the following language, which is calculated to
serve well in connection with " Lamar's great speech : "
" The wanton kiUing of a few poor negroes is something
unworthy of our people. If the killing of anybody is
necessary, we repeat what we have heretofore said:
' Let the poor negro pass, and let the white scoundrels
who have fired his heart with evil passions be the only
sufferers.' " The utterances above quoted were repeated,
verbatim, by Lamar at Scooba, in Kemper county, a few
days after ; the only difference . being that stronger
language was used in that immediate connection, and
the name of Judge Chisolm given as being the only man
within the county whose power and influence stood in the
way of the realization of their cherished hopes ; and the
people of Kemper were enjoined by this great statesman
to carry the county, " peacefully if they could, forcibly if
they must ! "
The Saturday before the election took place. Prof
Thomas S. Gathright, for many years one of the most
influential and popular educators of the youth of the
State, made a speech at DeKalb, within sight of Judge
Chisolm's Louse, in which he used words very nearly as
foUows. After repeating Judge Chisolm's name, he said:
" Gentlemen, if you ever expect to have peace and har
mony in your county, you must get rid of this man. I

"Home Rule" in Mississippi, 113
will not undertake to teU you how to get rid of him ;
that you know as weU as I, but you must get rid of him I"
Then, encircling his neck with a gesture, he raised his
hand up and down several times in imitation of dangling
some object from the end of a rope. This speech and
pantomime were responded to with loud and continued
cheers. On the following Monday the same language was
repeated at Moscow, a cross-roads store, ten miles
distant from DeKalb.
The fact that hundreds of such harangues were made
all over the State, pointing out individuals, and republi
cans indiscriminately, by local politicians and lawyers,
lank, lean and hungry as most of them were, without
character or responsibility, signified but little. But when
such poisonous words fell upon the ears of an ignorant
populace, direct from the lips of men like Gathright
and Lamar, terrible consequences might be expected to
follow. The natural result of this teaching upon a
systematically organized body of men, sufficient in
numbers when backed by the moral support of a whole
people, to carry out and enforce whatever edict or dogma
might take possession of their wicked hearts, was seen
all over the State during that memorable canvass, but in
no part was its influence felt more keenly than in Kemper
county. To clearly illustrate its effects the testimony of
John P. GUmer, before the investigating committee, is
given. On page 497 of the official report will be found
the foUowing :
"John P. Gilmer, sworn and examined by Mr. Teller,"

1X4 The Chisolm Massacre,
"Question, — Where do you reside?"
"Answer. — I reside in Scooba, Kemper county, Missis
sippi." "Question. — How long have you resided in Missis
sippi?" Answer. — I went in December, 1868, to Scooba, and I
have since lived there and at DeKalb. I was born in
Georgia, raised in Alabama and have been in Mississippi
since 1868. Have only lived in these three States. I
was a Confederate soldier, and was in the political cam
paign of 1875 in Mississippi; was in several counties
during the time. I then represented the district that my
county is in, in the State Senate. I was a candidate for
re-election. There are three counties in the district —
Noxubee, Neshoba and Kemper. I canvassed Kemper
county only ; did not engage in the campaign when it
was opened. At the time the republicans held their
convention I was in St. Louis. They nominated their
candidates for representative and county officers, but, for
some reason, did not make any nomination for State
Senator, and held a convention for that purpose after I
returned. I had decided not to be a candidate for
re-election. However, after being nominated, I concluded
to go into the campaign. It was then about half com
pleted. I made several speeches at Scooba, Wahalak,
DeKalb and two or three other places. So far as the
campaign was conducted, on both sides, there was con
siderable feeling. Large numbers of democrats attended
"the republican meetings, which was something unusual
for them, and the speakers were generally interrupted

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 115
with questions in various ways. So far as my individual
recollection is concerned I do not think I was ever inter
rupted at all, on the stand, while attempting to make a
speech. At some places reports would come to us that
we could not have meetings ; that we were going to be
interfered with during the time of speaking ; but the real
excitement that amounted to anything seemed to be
about the latter days of the campaign ; that is, when I
was present, at Scooba, Wahalak and DeKalb. We
closed the campaign with public speaking, at Scooba, the
Saturday before the election, which was. held on Tuesday.
By Mr. Money.
Question. — "On Saturday?"
Answer. — "On Friday or Saturday; I wiU not be
positive about the date. There was a gentleman up
there, and I do not remember his name, from Enterprise.
He had succeeded in getting a large portion of the
colored element, and a great many white people, who
were in there, and he was making a very bitter, and as I
thought, a very incendiary speech. There had been
threats made to me prior to that, in Scooba, by leading
men, in this way: ' Next Tuesday, or the first Tuesday
in November, your sort wUl go up, and you . will have no
longer any influence in Kemper county;' and even in
terms worse than that, but I did not pay much attention
to it. As there seemed to be some excitement that day,
I went into the office of the mayor, Mr. Wood. There
were present myself. Judge Chisolm, Mr. Miller and Mr.
Duke. These threats had been made to me prior to
that. They said : ' You shall not, as you have done

II 6 The Chisolm. Massacre.
heretofore, put the tickets into the hands of the negro
and make him vote your way.' We were there con
sulting about the manner in which the election should
be held. Judge Chisolm and I made the proposition to
Messrs. Duke, Miller, Jones, and Wood, the mayor of
the town, that we never had been guilty of these
charges, and we had never forced anybody to vote any
way except according to his own conscience, and we
were perfectly wiUing to let it be understood by both
sides that the democrats could electioneer as much as
they pleased; but we would put tickets in some place
where it could be understood that republican tickets
could be had ; and all parties who wanted to go and get
a ticket, whether republican or democrat, could get them,
and nobody should interfere with or talk to them at all,
but just let them go about and vote as they pleased;
and that on the day of the election we would have no
canvassing whatever, and not try to influence a single
vote. Mr. Wood was disposed to agree to that, but Mr.
Duke would not. They were democrats. Mr. Duke said
he proposed to canvass as much as he pleased. Mr. Jones
said he did not intend that there should be tickets taken
away from the negroes, and they cursed for having voted
the democratic ticket, as had been done before — or as I
had done, rather. I said, ' Mr. Jones, if you say I ever
cursed any one or forced any body to vote any way but
according to their own conscience, it is not so ! ' He
said, 'That is the report all over the county.' I said
' That the report all over the county then, is a d — d lie,
and the author of it is a liar!' At that time Mr.

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. wj
Dunlap, the marshal, came in and said there was great
excitement out on the street, and he wanted the police
force of the town increased. Then I left and came
around to the rear end of the store that myself and
brother were occupying, and we got some goods boxes
and assembled a big crowd and had some three or four
speeches. WhUe the speakers were interrupted occa
sionally, I did not see any excitement at the time ; but
during that evening and the Sunday following there
were colored men who came to me, and some white men,
too, democrats, and told me, in a confidential way, that
they did not want their names exposed, lest it should
result in their injury; but that efforts would be made to
assassinate myself and Judge Chisolm, the leading
republicans, on the day of the election; that Alabamians
would be over there, and that on Monday night they
would have torchlight processions, and that they in
tended to assassinate us. Mr. Orr, one of the managers
of the election, told me : ' There is no use in talking ! I
am afraid to hold the election.'"
"Question. — Was he a democrat or a republican?"
"Answer. — He was a republican. Mr. Orr was a
white man. He sent word to my room, late on
Sunday night, that he had just been up to see his sister —
whose husband was a democrat — near Wahalak station,
that day ; that she had sent for him to be sure to come
there; that it was very important that he should go
there. His sister had informed him that she had heard,
from her democratic friends, what would be done with
himself and other leading republicans there, and advised

Ii8 The Chisolm Massacre.
him not to remain in Scooba, but to leave until after the
election, and have nothing to do with it. He seemed
very much alarmed. I knew there were good grounds
for being alarmed, but I did not know it was so bad. I
informed him that I did not think there would be much
trouble; that nobody would bother him; that these
reports might be put out for the purpose of scaring
hiin. That night there were couriers coming in from the
country and teUing me of threats they had heard, and
asking if we could not get assistance in the way of
United States troops. They said that night-riders had
shot into the houses of the colored people, and there
were men traveUng over the country at all hours of the
night. On Saturday and even Friday night previous to
this, I saw men coming in with guns. On Monday
morning these men were in the streets. There was a
crowd, and appeared to be great excitement. As I
walked down the street to my store, I heard curses of
'   the radical party,' and '   the
United States government,' and threats that, ' We ought
to hang them,  them,' to a great extent aU
along the streets. They were all white men and demo
crats, whom I heard make these threats. I had been
sent for by a personal friend, who was a democrat, and he
informed me that my life would be in danger, and that
in a very short time there would be a lot of Alabamians
over there, armed, coming for the purpose of assassina
ting me ; that, perhaps, they would go on to DeKalb and
assassinate Judge Chisolm and other leading republi
cans. I left for DeKalb ; was advised by this friend to

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 119
go there, and take a by-way, and not the main road. I
started, knowing the country pretty well, and took trails
winding about a way I did not think was traveled
very often, except by deer and other wild animals of the
forest. I saw at the roads, as I would approach them
at the forks, that there were guards stationed, and men on
horse-back with guns. I got to the house of a man
living some six or seven miles from DeKalb, who I did
not think had much interest in politics. I had befriended
him on occasions, and I thought he would be a friend of
mine, I called for some water, intending to talk with
him. Said he, 'Gilmer, what is aU this excitement for?'
I said, ' I do not know, I am nearly famished for water,
I do not see any men about.' I wanted him to teU me
if there was any trouble, first. He said, ' yes, there is a
young man who just left here, and several parties have
passed my house with guns. Young Mr. Overstreet
just left here; he came for my gun, and I refused to let
him have it. He said the negroes were fighting in
DeKalb, and that Judge Chisolm was at the head of it,
and the people were hurrying on to Sucarnochee bridge,'
a crossing about two mUes from DeKalb, and he said to
me, 'Gilmer, if you go there, you will be killed.' I
repUed that I guessed not. He said, 'I will just swear
that you will be killed ; but don't say a word that I told
you.' I said, ' I want to get to DeKalb ; can I get there
without going the road?' He says, 'yes, but there are
guards along the road every mile, and you cannot go in
that way to DeKalb without being assassinated.' I
said, 'You do not think they would shoot me down

I20 The Chisolm Massacre.
without giving me some showing, do you ?' He said,
' yes, I do not think they would say a single word to
you. That is the programme; not to open their mouths
at all, but just shoot you and Chisolm on sight.' I said,
' Well, then I should like to get you to pUot me through
the woods.' He said, ' I will go and show you about a
quarter or half a mile, and after that will show you a
road in which you will be safe." We started, and when
about a quarter of a mile he got scared, seemed to be
very much excited, and wanted to go back and get his
gun. I waited for him. He told me that I had better
leave my horse and take through the woods by myself
He went back, got his gun, and then said, ' I will go
with you a quarter of a mile further, and perhaps you
can make your way all right.' I insisted upon his going
with me, and finally gave him fifty dollars to go. This
gentleman conducted me some four or five miles through
the woods to within about two or three miles of DeKalb.
After crossing the creek I came upon a colored man and
his wife picking cotton ; I did not know them, but they
knew me. The gentleman who piloted me absolutely
refused to go any farther. I asked the colored man to
go with me; he consented, and piloted me through
the woods to the town. Not very long afterwards his
wife told me that I had scarcely got out of sight when
two parties rode up, with double-barrel guns, inquiring
if I had passed that way; they said I was somewhere
in the woods trying to make my way to DeKalb. I
took the precaution, before leaving, to tell her if any one
came and inquired for me to say that I had not been

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 121
there, and she says that she so answered. I got into
DeKalb and found considerable excitement there; did
not go down the streets, but was nearly there when I
met some of my friends, and found that a lying report
had been put out about me. I had recently been to
Jackson, and found that the story had been started that
I had shipped arms to Shuqualak and to Scooba by
rail, and, in addition, that I had brought a trunk
from Jackson, heavily laden, supposed to contain amu-
nition; also, that a wagon-load of arms had gone
through the country to DeKalb from Jackson, for the
purpose of arming the negroes, and, beside, we had
shipped about forty barrels of whisky, which they
claimed to be an unusual amount for that little town,
and it was for the purpose of making the negroes drunk
before attacking the whites. I was informed of this by
republican friends. I asked for the informant, and they
referred me to Capt. James Watts and E. G. Ellis, both
lawyers and democrats. My friends said they had obtained
their information from Watts and Ellis, and that the
latter were talking about moving their families out
of town to get them away from any trouble which might
arise on account of a riot gotten up by the radical
party. I asked Watts and Ellis if they beUeved any
such thing. They answered that they did not think
such a thing of me before, but that this report came
from a very reliable source. My understanding was,
they told me that Mr. Duke wrote the letter giving
them the information. There was no truth in the report
about the arms. If I had shipped those guns at either

122 The Chisolm Massacre,
place, by freight or express, or sent a package, the agents
at each of those depots were democrats and white men,
and they would have known it. There was no excuse
for the story and no truth in it. I would not have gone
to the woods if it had not been for safety. Before going
there was some excitement about holding the election.
Mr. Brittain, Mr. Welsh, Dr. Fox, Mr. Ellis and myself,
and some republicans, were in the conversation. These
first were democrats. They told me that if the election
was held at Scooba, the managers would not be interfered
with. I told them that if they would write to their
leading men to give these parties protection, I would
write such a letter to Mr. Orr, one of the republican
managers, I wrote the letter and then went into the
woods. We staid there — Judge Chisolm, Mr. Rosen
baum, Mr. Hopper, myself and two or three others — for
several days. We returned, either the first or second
morning after the election, to our private residences, and
did not go down town. I do not think there were more
than three or four republican votes cast at DeKalb, a
precinct which constituted a whole board of supervisors ;
and the colored majority there was at least a hundred,
and perhaps more. Many whites vote the republican
ticket when they can, and the democrats voted about the
usual number."
This testimony is fully corroborated by that of Judge
Chisolm, taken before the BoutweU Committee, in Jack
son, but a few months before.
The campaign of 1875 resulted in the complete over
throw of every principle of republicanism in the State,

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 123,
and republican officials whose term of office had not
expired, were unrelentingly pursued ; for it seemed to be
a part of the plan to drive them from citizenship as well
as place. Governor Ames himself was finally compelled
to yield to the edicts of a white-line legislature as radical,
prescriptive and tyranical in the exercise of its power as
the most unwarranted dictations of the Paris Commune.
By his forced resignation, the democratic president of
the senate /w tempore — ^J. M. Stone — became govemor.
But the excitement and high blood which had been
aroused in this revolution was not allowed to cool before
the canvass of 1876 was begun. This, as in the case
of the preceding year, is not made use of only so far as
its history has direct influence upon the subject under
consideration. In the fall of 1876 members of congress from the
various districts were to be elected, and while republi
cans had no hope of success, candidates for that office
were put in the field, so that it could not be said
they had meanly submitted without a second trial, and
Judge Chisolm received the nomination of the party for
the district in which he lived.
In June of this year Cornelia Chisolm, at the age of
eighteen, graduated with the highest honors of her class
in the East Mississippi Female College, situated at
Meridian. In music and art she was especially profi
cient, having received the very highest plaudits in these
branches which the institution and an admiring pubUc
could bestow. But the training received at school did
not go far in making up the real worth of her accom-

124 The Chisolm Massacre.
pUshments. Possessed of inteUigence and judgment
beyond her years, no opportunity for the acquirement of
useful knowledge was allowed to go unimproved, and her
mind was thus stored with a fund of practical informa
tion seldom attained by one of her years, no matter what
advantages of wealth and position they may have had.
Upon all the topics of the day, especially that of politics,
in which her father took such a deep interest, and in the
advocacy of which she knew his life had been so many
times involved, she always manifested a concern equal to
the importance of the subject, and few men or women,
either in private or public life, are better informed upon
those national questions which for the past ten years
have agitated the public mind, than was this young girl.
Thus fitted for a useful and happy life, and fuU of
hope for the future, she returned to DeKalb, where, in
the Chisolm household and the hearts of the few
associates found in the neighborhood, she was at once
coronated queen of love and beauty.

CHAPTER XI.
Owing to violence and repeated threats of violence,
there was no organized effort on the part of republicans
to carry the county of Kemper in 1876; and this is true
of a large majority of counties in the State.
The very atmosphere was filled with a spirit of hos
tility toward the national administration and the friends
of republicanism everywhere, so perceptible and even
appalling in its nature as to terrify the oldest and
stanchest members of the party, and the men who had
always been found in the front rank, themselves and
their famUies ostracised and struck from the pale of good
society — so called; branded and pointed at as felons
and penitentiary convicts; assaulted, wounded and
maimed ; men of character, resolute and brave ; in most
cases in the canvass of that year failed to come forward
and attempt an organization of the party, however slight
and imperfect, and but little effort outside of the execu
tive committee at Jackson was ever made to carry the
State; while the colored voters slunk back into their
cabins, voiceless and breathless, only too glad to evade,
by such a course, the visits of midnight raiders, in black
masks, armed with guns and whips. So effectual had
been the reign of terror established over them that it
was a common remark, whenever an opportunity pre
sented for expressing themselves to a white friend and
sympathizer, that, in the days of slavery their moneyed

126 The Chisolm Massacre.
value was an assurance of protection to life, at least;
but under the existing state of affairs that safeguard
had been withdrawn, and there remained absolutely
no guarantee whatever of life or Uberty. Hence in
Kemper, as in other counties, there were no clubs
formed, and no meetings, of any kind, in the interest of
republicanism were held. There was but one speech
made in the county by members of that party during
the whole canvass. Sometime in July, before the cam
paign had fairly opened in Mississippi, and before Judge
Chisolm had become a candidate for Congress, whUe on
a casual visit to Scooba, he was invited by the democracy
there to make a speech, indulging the fond hope, as is
believed their leaders did, that he would now abandon
the cause of republicanism, then on the eve of entire dis
solution, and become a bulwark of strength in buUding
up the party of " home rule," But in the dark days of
its adversity, as in the years of its prosperity. Judge
Chisolm stood like a great rock, true to his principles
and colors. His speech in Scooba that day was ortho
dox to the core; but he was listened to respectfully
throughout. This act of courtesy seems to have been
performed for a purpose, as subsequent events will
show. Some two weeks following this without his
knowledge or consent. Judge Chisolm was advertised,
by means of posters put up in public places, to hold a
^' joint discussion," at Scooba, on a day set, with some
orator named. Believing, from the treatment before
received, that a spirit of fair play had seized upon the
democratic heart and conscience, the Judge reluctantly

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 127
consented. Immediately upon his arrival in Scooba
he was quietly informed by friends that the feeling
against him was bitter, and if he undertook to speak
his life wonld be endangered. It is weU understood by
all who knew Judge Chisolm that he was not a man to
be frightened with a shadow. If there was danger he
must test and know the fact. Accordingly, the condi
tion of an equal division of time was faithfully agreed
upon. At the Judge's solicitation a large number of
colored men were kept together for hours while three or
four democratic orators harangued them. After the
fiery eloqence of the democracy had ceased to burn.
Judge Chisolm got up and quietly intimated that inas
much as he had been invited there to " take part in a
joint discussion," he should now be permitted to speak.
Just at this time the gentleman in front of whose store
the crowd had been standing, was impressed with the
melancholy fact that the passage-way to his door was
obstructed, and in consequence no more speaking could
be allowed at that stand. But removing to a place near
by, the Judge undertook the hazardous part which he
was to bear in the "joint discussion." As predicted,
he had spoken but a few minutes when he was
interrupted, in a most violent and threatening manner,
and curses, loud and deep, were heaped upon his head
from every quarter. His life was threatened, and pistols
were drawn to carry the threat into execution. After
repeated efforts to quiet the mob, he was compeUed to
quit the stand in order to save his life.
Thus the campaign opened. But we wiU not attempt

128 The Chisolm Massacre.
to follow Judge Chisolm through all the devious windings
of that eventful canvass. Its history, like that of the
preceding year, is yet to be written.
As the election drew near, Judge Chisolm's appoint
ments brought him closer to DeKalb. The last before
reaching home was on the 3d of November, at Scooba,
to which place it was understood he would go from
Macon by rail, and a large crowd had assembled to
receive him. Before leaving Macon, however, he had
been urged not to go ; if he did, it was said, he would
certainly be mobbed and probably killed; that the
" reformers," in force, maddened with bad whisky, headed
by a band of desperadoes from Alabama, were in waiting
for him, and nothing short of his blood would appease
their appetites. Heeding the timely waming, the con
templated visit to Scooba was abandoned, and Judge
Chisolm went across the country, that day, to DeKalb.
Whether he acted wisely in so doing or not, is best
shown by the conduct of the mob in Scooba when the
train arrived on which it was hoped and believed he
would come. Filled to excess with the democratic "elixir
of life," armed with guns and pistols, bloated and red-
eyed, with yells and imprecations which might shame the
most hardened denizens of the regions of the damned,
they rushed in a body to the station to " welcome " the
expected speaker. The disappointment at not seeing
him only increased their fury and hate. As soon as it
was known that Judge Chisolm had gone overland to
DeKalb, where he was advertised to speak on the foUow
ing day, the mob, with increased numbers, at once set

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 129
out for that place, taking with them a cannon, shot-guns,
pistols and plenty of liquor, and all other equipments
necessary to the safe and sure conduct of a campaign on
the " Mississippi plan."
Arriving in DeKalb, that night, they moved stealthily
to within fifteen paces of Judge Chisolm's door, just as
his children were in the act of going to bed. The first
warning the family had of the approach or intent of this
band of outlaws, was the discharge of the cannon, which
shook the glass from the windows of the house, and this
was followed by the discharge of small arms, accom
panied by continued beating of drums and yells of
besotted men, who repeatedly called upon Judge Chis
olm and the ladies of his household, to "get up and
listen to the music," demanding that they should
acknowledge the compliment of the serenade. These
acts of barbarism were kept up around Judge Chisolm's
home until two o'clock in the morning, and before noon
of the same day the assault was renewed in a much
more violent and threatening manner. Quite early,
loaded shot-guns were carried into the jail building
immediately in front of the Judge's premises, ready for
use by the mob at any time, while the crowd, which had
already assembled in large force, carried small arms which
were frequently brandished and discharged in the air.
About nine o'clock a note was handed Judge Chisolm
by A. G. Vincent, over the signature of John W. Gully,
" chairman of the democratic executive committee of the
county," inviting the Judge to take part in another
" joint discussion." He replied that the meeting, if one
9

I30 Tlie Chisolm Massacre.
was held, was his own ; that it was so advertised, and
democrats had no right whatever to a division of time.
He stated, further, that he believed it to be exceedingly
dangerous for him to leave his house, and much more so
to undertake a republican speech in DeKalb that day, as
information had already reached him from the streets,
that his Ufe had been openly threatened, Mr. Vincent,
although a fierce democrat, had the fairness to
acknowledge to Judge Chisolm, afterward, that he acted
wisely in refusing to accept this challenge. By this time
the "citizens" had assembled to the number of three
hundred or more; many of them uniformed with red
shirts. Beating of drums, shooting and yelling was now
the order of the day. The name of Chisolm was
mingled with their curses and cries of " hang the 
radical scoundrel ! " were heard by his wife and chUdren
at home. All day long, on that memorable fourth of
November, was kept up a scene of drunkenness, debauch
and riot which baffles description. A prisoner, from the
county jail named Spencer — being a good democrat —
charged with waylaying and shooting in cold blood a
young man just married, and at the time riding by the
side of his young wife, was released from confinement
and gave eclat to the festivities by joining the mob and
shouting lustily for " TUden and reform ! " Repeatedly
throughout the day, did this crowd of ruffians and jail
birds march by Judge Chisolm's door, to the tune of
"Dixie" and the "Bonnie Blue Flag," firing cannon at
intervals and pistols by voUeys. The latter were at first
discharged upward, but as the crowd became emboldened

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 131
from the excessive use of liquor, and meeting with no
resistance, the shooting was directed over the house and
finally against it, when two or three shots were embedded
in the piUars and weather-boarding. These chivalrous
gentlemen, who could thus surround, menace and assault
a house occupied by women and children, breathing in
their faces the fumes of the pot-house, and hurling
upon their heads obscene and blasphemous oaths, were
headed by no greater man than Colonel S. M. Meek,
of Columbus, one of " Mississippi's favorite sons. ' A
Chevalier Bayard; a man who must hide beneath the black
cloth and clean linen that he wears a cowardly and
craven heart. Close by the side of this beau ideal of
southern chivalry, walked John W. Gully, the presiding
genius of the demoniac festival.
For the purpose of throwing additional light upon
this subject, a letter written by Cornelia Chisolm but a
few days after these occurrences, is here appended.
Little did this brave girl, whose sensitive heart then
bleeding afresh from the wounds just inflicted upon her
self and other members of the family, by the insults of
a brutal and mendacious mob, think that this communi
cation would ever find its way into a work of this kind,
thereby adding a strong link to the chain of evidence
showing the outrages practiced upon her beloved father
during the progress of the canvass of that year. Its
candor, frankness and depth of feeling — written to a
private individual, and as it must have been for no other
purpose than that of giving temporary relief to an over
burdened heart — give it the weight of a whole volume

132 The Chisolm Massacre.
of testimony derived from any other source. Here is
the letter: DeKalb, November 13th, 1876,
My very dear friend :
In your kind letter, which came this evening, the con
tents of which I know are from the depths of your dear,
loving heart, you ask me to tell you " all " concerning the
late terrible assault upon our house by a band of
drunken and riotous men. Now my dear  , I am go
ing to relate, as nearly as I can, the details of at least a
part of the wrongs and indignities which our family have
endured, and which wounded me much deeper, being
aimed, as they were, at the one who is dearer to me than
almost all else on earth beside — my darling father.
These repeated insults to papa and his household came
from the fact that he chose to be guided in his political
acts by that which, in his heart of hearts and own good
judgment, he deemed to be right — loyalty to his
country and its flag.
Pardon me if I speak too strongly, and remember
what has driven me to this. When papa received the
nomination for Congress in his district we entreated him
not to accept it, as defeat was certain, under the present
administration of the laws of the State, which aUows
mobs of armed men to force the voters from the ballot-
box and drive them from their homes; and, what is
much worse, we knew his life would be in jeopardy every
hour. Notwithstanding our appeals he accepted the
nomination, and said he was determined to canvass
the district, as he deemed it his duty to do. He had
large audiences everywhere he went, and not only invited
but insisted on his opponent meeting him at aU his
appointments and arrange for a joint discussion. Mr.
Money — the opposing candidate — met him at only one
place, and he forgot that decency required of him at

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 133
least civil treatment toward a stranger, but instead
procured the seivices of a band of music, and a large
crowd of men, in battle array, uniformed with red shirts,
armed with guns, swords and pistols, to heap insult
after insult upon papa. When papa got up to speak
two men were stationed on the stand behind him, dis
playing dirk knives and pistols. Papa then gave his
opinion of such proceedings, and told them that he
would not speak unless the stand was moved against
the house, and all buUies put in front, where he could
watch them, giving as a reason that he did not want to
be stabbed in the back. They did as he requested ; but
when he began they commenced screaming and hallooing
so loud that no one could hear him, and he was finally
compelled to quit the stand.
A committee then came to insist that he continue his
speech. He reluctantly consented; but had no sooner
started again than they repeated their interruptions.
It was just the same everywhere he went. In Macon
he was obliged to divide time with a democratic negro —
Younger — in order to be allowed to speak at all. He
had a good many friends there; but at most of the
places he had no acquaintances even. He was to speak
an hour and a half at Macon and the negro the same
length of time ; then papa to have half an hour in which
to rejoin. Two of papa's friends overheard the demo
crats talking among themselves, and found that their
plan was to kill him when he undertook to reply. These
friends sent papa a note to that effect while he was on the
stand, and he left just before the negro finished speaking.
Another one of their committees went to his room to
urge him to reply, but he sent them word that he would
have no more to say.
In Shuqualak he did not speak at all, because he
received intelligence convincing him, beyond any ques-

134 T^fi-^ Chisolm Massacre.
tion, that if he undertook to do so he would be shot
down from the stand.
He had an appointment at Scooba, but didn't even go
there; for his friends, and enemies also, said that he
would no sooner get off the train at that place than he
would be shot by a crowd of Alabamians, who had
come there for the purpose, at the instance of the editor
of that vulgar and indecent paper, published in your
place, the Meridian Mercury.
But now comes the "tug." The wretches hired the
Gainesville band to come here, only to insult our family.
On Friday night, just as we were all undressed for bed,
and some of the family had already lain down, they
marched up to our gate with a great crowd, " serenading,"
as they said, and nearly frightened me to death. You
see I was then only just being initiated ; others of our
family had often seen the Uke when I was away at
school. They brought the old cannon right in front of
the door, and I devoutly prayed that it might burst and
blow them all into the "fiery furnace," where I am certain
they wUl eventually land.
Well, they left after finding how little they had
accomphshed; got some more men and whisky and
came back about twelve o'clock at night and tried it
over again. But all the family had to console and
comfort me. I teU you I thought I should die. I hardly
slept one bit aU night. By the next morning at day
light papa's friends came in trom all parts of the county,
including four gentlemen from Macon. They were aU at
our house — about fifteen good, true white republicans,
who swore they would die by their leader and best
friend. There were hundreds of negroes in town, and nothing
but papa's constant and vigilant efforts kept them from
firing upon the bloodthirsty demons as they passed by

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 135
on their march. They had the democratic flag, the band
— playing "Dixie" and the "Bonnie Blue Flag" — a few
ragged, old negroes and hundreds of villainous white
scoundrels, half of whom were owing papa for the clothes
that covered their backs. He stood on the steps and
cursed them in language more forcible that elegant. The
first time they yelled and screamed like the savages they
were, and one man shot off a pistol in the air. The
next time two or three fired, and a few more each time they
passed, until the shooting became incessant, and several
shots struck the wall, just by the door. At this time
nearly all the gentlemen who had been with us were
over at Mr. Gilmer's and Captain Rush's, to get Mrs.
Gilmer and her baby, and Mrs. Rush and her daughter,
to come to our house, as all of them had been insulted
and frightened nearly to death, while their men folks
were with us.
Several of the gentlemen were worn out, or crippled,
in the canvass, and so you see papa and brother were
about the only ones who could shoot to do any good,
and but for mamma's- entreaties, they would have made
some of the beggarly dogs bite the dust.
I kept close to papa's side all day, and when he told
me that, if another shot was fired, he intended to kill
some of them, he begged me to leave him, because those
who did not run would fire at him, and he feared some
of the shots might hit me. I told him that I prayed
the same shot which killed him might also lay my life
less body by his side. My dear  , I once thought
that I never would tire of life ; but, if such is to be mine,
death, if I could share it with my dear ones, would indeed
be a sweet relief.
Colonel Meek and John Gully headed the procession.
At one time Meek passed by with his arms around the
neck of a ragged, filthy and degraded negro. I call him
" degraded " not because of his black skin, but rather for

136 The Chisolm Massacre.
being found in such company, exchanging embraces with
so low and disgusting a being as Meek that day proved
himself to be. Next to Meek and the negro came "BiU"
Preston. I shudder at the thought of desecrating these
pages with the name — a young gentleman (?) of your
town. I have now given you some of the detaUs of the
insults we have received. When I see you I will say more,
and, like the Queen of Sheba, who came to visit Solo^
mon, you will exclaim : " The half has not been told me ! "
Again begging your pardon for having spoken, as I fear,
too bitterly, but asking you to consider what we have
all endured, with much love, I remain your friend, Nelie,
The following is the sworn testimony of Judge Chis
olm touching this same matter. It will be found on
page 755 of the congressional report of last winter:
"Question. — Did you have any further meeting?"
"Answer. — Yes, sir; I had a meeting advertised at
Scooba. Rosenbaum went home the night before and
wrote me that I had better not come there, and advised
me to go through the country to my home ; believing, as
he said, there would be a crowd of Alabamians there,
and that it would be dangerous for me to go to Scooba.
I took a carriage and went through the country to
DeKalb. I arrived Friday evening, about half an hour
before sun-down. That night, about ten o'clock, there
came a crowd of men right in front of my gate. I sup
pose they, were within twenty paces of the house ; they
had with them a band of music from Gainesville, Ala
bama, and they played and shot off their cannon and
small arms, cursed, and asked me to 'come out.' My

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 137
appointment to speak in DeKalb was on the following
day. That is where I live. They returned about one
o'clock that night, and went through the same demon
strations. The next morning there came in a good many
of my white friends of the county — there is a right
smart white republican vote there — a good many want
ing to see me, and I not being down town, they came
up to my house. It was tolerably "early — I suppose ten
o'clock — when I got a communication from Swanzy, and
from J. W. Gully and some others whose names I forget.
They signed themselves, ' by authority of the democratic
executive committee.' I received this from the hands of
a man named A. G. Vincent. I read it and said, ' Mr.
Vincent do you think that I would be allowed to make
a speech here to-day?' He said he did not think I
would ; or, perhaps, I could ; I don't remember just what
his answer was. I continued, ' I understand from a
hundred sources that they will not let me speak, and I
won't answer this note.' He asked me, 'why?' Said I,
' this carries a lie on its face. It sets out by stating it is
a democratic meeting, when you know that such is not
the fact; it is a republican meeting; the democratic
meeting was held yesterday — that is, by appointment.'
He said he had forgotten about that, and says I, ' I will
not attempt to speak unless I am satisfied there will be
no interruption, I am not afraid, under ordinary circum
stances, of anybody interfering with me, but when you
have got a crowd of two or three hundred men, I am
afraid of what they may do.'
He went off and I did not see him again. A few

138 The Chisolm Massacre.
minutes after the crowd came around my house with
their cannon and band. They did not shoot when
they came the first time until they had passed the gate;
but they cursed me very extravagantly. When they
had passed they fired a volley of small arms, it seemed
to me, in the air over the house. They went around by
the grocery and took on some more whisky, I suppose,,
and then came back and fired all along by the side of
my house, cursing me terribly, and saying, ' Come out !
What are you in your hole for?' About the fourth or
fifth time they fired into my house, and the bullets were
imbedded in the walls. Since that time I have had a
conversation with the same man who brought me the
message — Mr. Vincent. He says that my proposition
was right; he did not think I would have been per
mitted to speak, and said there was a strong probability
I would have been murdered. I made no effort to speak.
This was Saturday before the election. It was held on
Tuesday. I did not go out of my house at all on that
day, nor the day of the election."

CHAPTER XII.
By these " little acts of pleasantry," as this long list of
outrages was styled by the virtuous citizens of Kemper
and the press of the State, the complete overthrow of
republicanism was secured, the organization of the party
broken up, their newspapers suppressed, and in Kemper,
as elsewhere, it was proclaimed and circulated abroad
that a peaceful, quiet and impartial canvass and election
had been held. But the perpetrators of these villainies
in Kemper were not to escape thus easily. Some thirty
or more of the gang which had wantonly assailed Judge
Chisolm and his family were reported to the United
States grand jury, comprised of men of both political
parties, and indicted under that clause of the Enforce
ment Act which guarantees to every citizen who may be
a candidate for office a full, free and uninterrupted can
vass. Judge Chisolm, Gilmer and Hopper, in answer to
a summons from the court, gave testimony before this
jury. Two or three unsuccessful attempts to make arrests
under the finding of the court, by as many different
deputy marshals, were made before process could be
served on any of the persons indicted. Walter Davis^
one of these deputies, was shot at by parties in ambush,
while passing from DeKalb to Scooba, but escaped with
out injury. Papers were finally served, but there never
was anything like a formal arrest made. The rioters

140 The Chisolm Massacre.
took their own time for going before a United States
Commissioner and entering into a bond for appearance
at the following term of the United States Court. All
this on the part of the authorities was characterized by
the press of the State as the "most inhuman and
uncalled-for act of tyranny and oppression ever perpe
trated upon a free people,"
It was sought by the Gullys, who had been foremost
in every broil and iniquity perpetrated during the can
vass, and some of whom were among the first appre
hended, to clothe the arrests with all the horrors of an
inquisition by the general government. Through their
especial mouthpiece — the Kemper Herald — the democ
racy of the county was invoked to " rally to the defense
of its outraged citizens." The Hon. Mr. Money, who
had been the opposing candidate to Judge Chisolm in
the canvass for congressional honors, having a high appre
ciation of the services rendered him by his constituency
of Kemper county, responded promptly to their call,
and addressed a letter to the Herald, which elicited the
following editorial remarks :
" We received a letter a few days since from Hon, H.
D. Money, in which he made arrangements to pay us
twenty dollars for the purpose of defraying the expenses
of our Kemper 'buUdozers,' and stated that he would
pay more if it was needed. He expressed the kindest
feeling of sympathy for those of his fellow-citizens of
Kemper who were indicted, and declared his willingness
and determination to bear his full share of all the result."
Thus it is seen that the conspiracy to intimidate and

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 141
murder was not confined within the narrow limits of a
single county, nor were the poor "white trash" to do the
bloody business and at the same time furnish the means
with which to defray current expenses. The " fortunes "
as weU as the " sacred honor" of the leading men of the
whole State were pledged to this work, and it was the
moral and material aid lent by them that carried it into
successful execution.
On the first day of January, 1877, foUowing the
arrests, a "citizens' meeting" was called at DeKalb, to
give expression, in some substantial way, to the public
indignation. It is not believed, as one might suppose,
that this call was for the purpose of organized resistance
to the Federal authorities. There was an object ahead,
far more significant, and one which might be realized with
less trouble and expense to themselves. It was the
determination of the leaders then to assemble a large
crowd of ruffians at DeKalb and take the life of Judge
Chisolm and all his associates; for by so doing they
hoped to destroy the last chance for a successful prose
cution of their clan in the United States court.
The first of January came ; but owing to a heavy fall
of snow the night before — an unusual occurrence for
that climate — and the bad condition of the roads, the
"meeting" was not well attended. Besides, Judge
Chisolm, knowing their intent, had quietly called around
him on that day a sufficient number of his friends to
guard against the possibUity of an attempt being made
upon his life. Ten men like Chisolm, when prepared,
were able at all tinies to hold the " citizens " to a careful
consideration of their acts.

142 The Cidsolm Massacre.
On the 20th of December the community was startled
with the announcement of the fact that John W. Gully
had been waylaid by some disguised person secreted by
the roadside, not more than half a mile from DeKalb,
and shot from his horse. The animal it appears was
uninjured and went on into town under an empty saddle,
while Gully, recovering from the shock of his wounds —
which were about the chest, and inflicted by two charges
of buck-shot — followed not far behind, on foot. The
news of this cowardly attempt at murder spread rapidly
over the county, and reports were conflicting as to who
had probably done the deed. After the first impression
upon the people in the immediate neighborhood, incident
to an occurrence of the kind, there seemed to be little
feeling of surprise manifested, and expressions Uke this
were frequently heard :
" Well, the only wonder is that Gully was not killed
long ago. There are scores of men living in the county
who would feel warranted in taking his life in any
possible way."
On reaching DeKalb, where he arrived shortly after
his narrow escape from death on the road. Gully, being
asked who had thus intercepted him, replied that it was
a negro, who was known in the neighborhood, giving his
name. On this statement the accused was immediately
arrested by some of the Gullys, It appeared at once,
and conclusively, that this man could not have been
guilty as charged. Then Gully s.aid it was WiUiam
Hopper, a white man who lived near by. Accordingly,
Hopper was set upon by the young Gullys, who found

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 143
him at work in' a field adjoining the place where their
father had been attacked. But they soon became satis
fied that Hopper could not have done the cowardly
deed. The question of course naturally arose, "Who
did do it?" This, perhaps, might have been answered
with some degree of satisfaction by propounding an
other : " Who, if anybody, had a right to do it ?" Gully,
with death and the ghosts of the victims of his own
murderous hand staring him in the face, might thus have
soliloquized. After a lapse of several days, when it was ascertained
that B. F. Rush had not been seen since one o'clock of
the day on which Gully was wounded, it was rumored,
in a sort of mysterious way, that Gully knew the man
who shot him; but, for reasons which have never yet
been given to the public, he refused to tell who it was, at
least until the March term of the court convened, at
which time an indictment was. found against Rush,
charging him with the attempt to murder. As a matter
of course. Gully must then have sworn that Rush was
the guilty man, as there could have been no other
important witness in the case.
Gully's wounds proved to be slight. In a few days he
was upon the streets again, and the attention of the
" citizens " once more called to the great " outrage " of
their arrest by the United States authorities ; and on the
fifteenth of January another meeting was called at
DeKalb. Meantime it was secretly whispered about that
Ben Rush was positively known to have been Gully's
attempted assassin, and that he was aided and abetted

144 The Chisolm Massacre.
by Judge Chisolm, Gilmer and other repOblicans. Hav
ing obtained information of this report, the Judge
feared, at the time, the terrible consequences which
followed in April of the same year, viz : that a warrant
for the arrest of himself, Gilmer and others would be
forged, charging them with complicity in the assault
upon Gully ; that they would all be arrested, confined in
jail, and while there, during the session of the great
" citizens " meeting, they would be turned over into the
hands of a mob and murdered. To prevent this. Judge
Chisolm again called around him a number of men upon
whom he could rely in any emergency. On the fifteenth,
a "large and enthusiastic" crowd of "citizens" assembled,
armed with guns, to deliberate upon their grievances.
The weapons were stacked in Gully's store, ready for use,
and the rioters were only prevented from the accomplish
ment of their purpose, that day, by the unflinching bravery
and bold front of Chisolm and his few devoted followers.
Rush, meantime, had not been heard of since the
attempt was made upon Gully's life.
Let it be borne in mind here, that the day on which
John W, Gully and his followers assailed Judge Chisolm
and his wife and chUdren — the 4th of November — a
few chosen friends rallied to their defense and remained
in the house a greater portion of the day, closely watch
ing the conduct of the mob, thirty-five of whom were
afterward indicted. All persons present on that occa
sion would have been important witnesses in the prose
cution under these indictments. Their names are here
given : W. W. Chisolm, Emily S. M. Chisolm, Cornelia

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 145
J. Chisolm, Clay Chisolm, Johnny Chisolm, John P. Gilmer,
Angus McLellan, Charlie Rosenbaum, B. F. Rush, Alex.
and Newton Hopper. The reader has already divined
the fate of these witnesses.

10

CHAPTER XIII.
The reader should not lose sight oi the fact that, long
before the enactment of the barbarous scenes described
in the preceding chapter, "home rule and local self-
government" — twin messengers of mercy and peace —
had been thoroughly established aU over the Stajte,
and that the dreaded camp fires of republicanism had
everywhere ceased to bum. The judiciary, from the
supreme court down to the humblest magistrate in a
country village, clad in the dignity and majesty of their
official robes, looked benignly down in righteous judg
ment upon the minor transgressions of poor, weak and
sinful humanity, and in solemn state passed upon the
real intent and true application of constitutional law;
while the executive, from the governor down to the beat
constable, was left untrammeled to enforce every mandate
and decree of the courts. But over and above all, the
people, in their simple and unoffending dignity, leaned
contentedly upon the strong arm of a legislature which
assumed unto itself almost unlimited power to make and
unmake at will. No " venal wretch " presumed to lift a
voice to ask "why is this so?"
The "good people," those representing all the virtue
and intelligence of the State, had solemnly pledged their
faith to the restoration of good government, justice and
equal rights before the law, and who shall dare to say
that "our promises" are not fulfilled?

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 147
On the 29th of January, Judge Chisolm, in answer to
a summons from the investigating committee, in company
with his daughter, set out for Washington. On the
28th, the day before starting, Comelia wrote to friend as
follows :
" We are ready to start for Washington, and expected
to have gone to Scooba this afternoon, untU yesterday
evening, when papa decided that he could not possibly
go before to-morrow. I was real sorry I had to wait, for
I am growing impatient. ('Hope ^ferred,' etc) You
don't know the joy I anticipate in t^ing this trip. The
pleasure which new scenes and associations will be to
me, however, will not. equal the sense of real security and
delight I shall feel to know that papa will be free from
danger of the assassin's bullet, at least for that little
length of time."
While in Washington Judge Chisolm gave the testi
mony which is quoted in the preceding pages. Himself
and daughter spent the winter at Washington and in
travel, amid the most agreeable surroundings.
Here is a letter written by Comelia, at home, shortly
after her return — and the last she ever wrote — describing
the scenes which absorbed her attention, and in the study
of which her time was largely employed while on this
trip. To say nothing of the interest found in the communi
cation itself, it affords more satisfactory evidence of this
girl's fine qualities of mind and heart than could be given
in any other way.

148 The Chisolm, Massacre.
DeKalb, Miss., April 27, 1877.
My dear friend : I have allowed one bright spring
day after another to pass, still leaving unanswered your
very kind and very much appreciated letter, until (I'm
ashamed to acknowledge it), the fact that it has been on
hand a week, forces me to realize how dilatory I am, and
animates me to the pleasant task of replying.
Were it possible for me to tell you how delightful a
tour I had, or even to convey the faintest idea of how
much I enjoyed it, you would think the picture was
over-drawn ; and if I could write a letter long enough to
give you the minuiiae — the most interesting portion to
myself — I'm sure you would have many chest-breaking
sighs during a perusal of such a missive, were you to
have the courage to go over it aU. Washington is by
far the most beautiful city I saw in all my long journey.
Its broad avenues, great thoroughfares, magnificent
buildings, lovely parks, and, best of all, handsome gen
tlemen, combine to make it seem to me a perfect paradise.
Speaking of the buildings, the first and grandest
object of interest to the sight-seer is the Capitol, a mag
nificent structure, conspicuous on entering the city, and
prominent for many miles from every section of the
neighboring country. It is situated a little east of
the center of the city, which has grown more rapidly to
the west than was anticipated, and stands on the brow
of a plateau ninety feet above the level of the low-tide
water of the Potomac. This commanding position was
chosen by George Washington. The Capitol grounds
are in the form of a parallelogram, and contain fifty-
two acres. There is a magnificent conservatory of
flowers within the enclosure, and beautiful fountains,
which throw the clear, limpid waters from the earth,
sprinkling the bright green surface beneath with myriads
of dew-drops, sparkling in the sunshine, as though the
spot was covered with glittering diamonds. But the

"Home Rtile" in Mississippi. i/^g
principal feature of the grounds is a spacious court on
the east front, which approaches from all the avenues
and streets leading toward the Capitol. Except where
these approaches enter it, the court is bordered by an
esplanade, at the rear of which is a continuous seat, from
which a view is had of the Capitol, A parapet of pierced
stone-work forms the back of the seat, separating it from
the green park-like glade. The parapet is broken at
intervals by piers, which support beautiful bronze stan
dards, sustaining each two lanterns. The colossal statue
of Washington stands in the court facing the east front.
It bears the inscription, " First in war, first in peace, and
first in the hearts of his countrymen." It was made in
Florence, Italy, and you may judge of its exquisite finish
when it was under the hand of the artist eight years.
Its weight is twelve tons. The dome of the Capitol is,
save three, the highest in the world, and from its top
may be had the finest view on the continent of the sur
rounding country.
One of the most pleasant days we spent was the one
on which we visited Mount Vernon. We left Wash
ington at ten A. M on the steamer " Arrow " The day
was slightly cloudy, with a mystical haze (Hayes) over
aU things, which gave an air of enchantment to the
scenery and made one dream of Paradise. All the bays
and inlets which indented the shore seemed like havens
of peace and rest, and the white houses peeping through
the misty atmosphere. They were far more lovely than
they possibly could have looked in the strong glare of the
noon-day sun. The Arsenal, with its willow -bordered
sea-waU; the St. Elizabeths Insane Asylum with its
turreted red walls, looking Uke some abbey of the olden
land; Fort Foote, perched upon the highest land along
the route; the ancient city of Alexandria, or Zelharen,
as it was called in the early time, where the old style
spire of " Christ Church," of which Washington was so

150 TJie Chisolm Massacre.
long a vestryman, is readily identified; Fort Washington,
with its strong embrasures and parapets, mounted with
guns, and planned by Washington himself; and, at last.
Mount Vernon, most sacred shrine of aU lovers of lib
erty. All were bathed in a gauze-like veil, which hung
like enchantment around us. We passed many steam
ers, flying rapidly to and from the capital. While hund
reds of sail-boats, of all sizes, floated along in the still
waters like huge birds, saiUng with the current. Land
ing at Mount Vernon, we were introduced to Col. Hol-
lingsworth, the superintendent of the house and grounds
once belonging to Washington, and now owned by the
ladies of America. The "Mansion House" looks quite
stately from the river, situated about two hundred
feet above the water. It is, indeed, the most lovely
place I ever beheld. To the left of the road, as we go
to the mansion, is a high, well-wooded hillside, abound
ing in trailing arbutus and other flowers. About half
the way up, in a small ravine, are several weeping wil
lows, brought from the grave of Napoleon, at St. Helena.
We were conducted to the .tomb, where, in the two
sarcophaghi, inside a vault of red brick, lie the remains
of George and Martha Washington. From there, we
passed to the old vault from whence the bones of Wash
ington were taken, after the new tomb was built. We
walked through every room, from the observatory to the
cellar. In the latter, is a corner stone, with the initials
of Lawrence Washington, who built the central portion
of the mansion, one hundred and thirty-three years ago.
The large painting of Washington, by Peale; the model
of the Bastile, in France, cut from a block of granite,
from the famous old prison; the key of the same, pre
sented by Lafayette; the clothes, camp equipage, water-
buckets, spy-glass, tripod, and many other things were
examined with great interest by our party. The room
in which the great man died, is between the two south

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 151
windows, where they were at that time. ' The same
table, upon which his medicine stood, and, also, that
upon Which his candle was placed, are in the room;
and the old andiron and wire screen at the fire-place.
Our guide told us that when one died in the good old
days, in Virginia, the room was closed for two years after
the death. Mrs. Washington selected the room imme
diately above this one — an attic — because, from its
windows, she could watch the tomb of her husband.
Here she lived for eighteen months, admitting no one
but a favorite servant and cat. The corner of the door
may still be seen where it was cut out for the ingress
and egress of the cat. And here Martha Washington
died. We were told she passed the winter without a
fire, as there was no way to buUd one in that room. Is
it not probable that this hastened her death ?
I cannot begin to tell you the half. I know you are
worn out now, so I'll say no more about Mount Vernon;
though, did I not know that I'd weary you, I could write
about it aU day. The whole scene and events of that
visit are stamped on my mind more vividly than any I
ever passed through. I have spent so much time
describing the two places which were most interesting to
me, that I must cut the others short.
We witnessed the inauguration ; and, oh ! it was a
a grand scene ! I also attended Mrs. Hayes' first recep
tion, and called on President Grant. I attended the
theater and opera quite frequently, and "all my cares
flew away " while there. I did not see Grace Greenwood
to know her, but did see Dr. Mary Walker ! Beat that,
if you can ! Neither did I see Gail Hamilton, but I
heard John B. Gough in one of his best lectures, and
was at the very door of Mrs. SouthWorth's rustic, vine
clad cottage, where the waters of the Potomac might
lull her to sleep every night, and the crowing of the
chanticleer at General Lee's old home arouse her every

152 The Chisolm Massacre.
morning, from ArUngton Heights, just across the river.
I was also in the House and Senate, almost daily, where
congregated the finest talent of the land, and where is
diffused more eloquence than beneath any other roof in
America. I heard Morton, Blaine, Garfield and all my
favorites speak.
We went north after leaving Washington, and spent a
week in New York city. We also visited the FaUs of
Niagara. Such a scene beggars description, and makes
me feel too plainly how feeble are my powers of speech
in attempting to describe a sight so grand. When papa
and I first saw the cataract, we could only stand as
though riveted to the spot, and gaze, gaze; until it
seemed as though we would go over into the mighty
waters, so terrible was the flow. We were completely
awe-struck ; words seemed as though they would be out
of place at such a time, and a feeling of reverence, for the
Giver of all Good, that He should bestow such gifts
upon His unworthy children seemed to creep involun
tarily over us. We were loth to leave the spot where
we had seen more of grandeur concentrated than was
elsewhere to be found. I leave it to your imagination.
Oh ! that I might ever retain the memory of the scene
which met my eyes when I visited Niagara Falls !
¦I did come home "heart whole," but not exactly
" fancy free."
We have been very anxious to send for Lillian, but aU the
horses are on the farm, and papa can't stop them just yet.
I'll be very glad when she can come, for we are expecting
the boys — Johnny and Clay — to leave the first of May
for St. Louis, where they wiU take a commercial course,
and I'll be very lonesome while they are gone, and LUlian
would be so much company for mamma and I.
I'm very impatient to see the twins, too; especially
little Rosalie, as you say she resembles her cousin Nelie.
I fear I'll be partial to her, though I'll love them both

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 153
just as much as I can. Has Alexander grown to be as
large as his father ? or, has he passed into oblivion and
given place to his sisters in his father's heart ? You said
not a word of him.
If I were to apologize for this long letter, it would
only make it longer, so I refrain.
Papa has gone to Mobile. All are weU and join me in
love to the family.
With many good wishes, I am your niece,
Nelie J. Chisolm.

CHAPTER XIV.
In the month of March, on turning their faces home
ward, when the foreboding shadows of the old life in
Kemper once more fell across the bright pathway of the
joyous girl, it will not be surprising that the precursor
of danger again appeared — a faithful and sleepless
guardian of unselfish love — and, settling upon her fond
heart, called forth the following expression, uttered in
tears :
"O I do so much dislike to go back to DeKalb to
live ; for I feel as though something terrible is going to
happen to papa."
From a glimpse of Kemper county society at this time,,
an entire stranger and one little thinking of evil might
well have turned heart-sick and weary away. At that
very moment the circuit court for the month of March,
1877, was in session, when Judge J. M. Arnold, by
courtesy exchanging with Judge Hamm, a democrat
of the strictest school, an officer of high ability and
a gentleman of uncompromising integrity, was com
peUed to doff the judicial robes, and for the time assume
the functions more commonly made incumbent upon a
chaplain of a penitentiary or an overseer of a house of
correction. Ascending the bench, he delivered a lecture
upon the depraved and lawless condition of society
found among the "good people." John W. Gully had
now recovered from the wounds received in December,

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 155
and, as usual, was at the head of a strong and aggressive
faction of his own party; and there being no common
enemy to fight, as a matter to be looked for, he had
declared war upon the more timid members of his par
ticular faith, and between his own and the opposing
factions there grew up an enmity and jealousy as bitter
and malignant as that known to have existed against
the republican party in its palmiest days. The sheriff,
himself an imbecUe in the performance of any legitimate
duty connected with his office, but a ready and wiUing
tool in the hands of the vUlainous men who foisted him
into it — as will soon appear — had permitted the doors
of the jail to be flung open, and men under indictment
for crimes so heinous that bail hafi been refused even by
a democratic judge, were turned loose and aUowed to
roam the streets at will. The circuit clerk of the county
living thirteen miles distant from his office — which he
entrusted entirely to a young and irresponsible deputy
— was then under a bond of two thousand dollars
for his appearance to answer to a charge of embezzle
ment and obtaining money under false pretenses. The
sheriff's deputy — George Welch — who really furnished
the brains for running the court house " machine," a sly,
unscrupulous and intriguing wire-worker, aspired to
become the sheriff's successor in office as against the
GuUy dan, with John W. Gully at the head, still
repining for new fields of conquest. Between Welch
and his friends and the Gullys and their friends, there
was a jealousy and hatred such as could exist nowhere
else under similar circumstances, and it is impossible to

156 The Chisolm Massacre.
divine what would have been the result of this contest
had John Gully lived, as indeed it is now impossible to
tell what were the immediate causes leading to his death.
With this refreshing picture of " home rule " before the
somewhat dazed and mystified vision of Judge Arnold,
he opened the March term of the court, and on requesting
the clerk — or his deputy — to produce the records, lo!
and behold, the office had been robbed ! Every judg
ment and civil process usually entrusted to the keeping
of the clerk, and every indictment for crime, had been
spirited away. The executive and judicial functions of
the county had thus been paralyzed ; and here was pre
sented the striking spectacle of the people of a whole
county, under the reign of " peace and good will toward
men," living without law and without order. Judge
Arnold, unable to proceed further, adjourned his court
untU the following morning, for the purpose of gaining
time to deliberate upon the situation. He then, through
the sheriff, called to order, and, in the presence of the
various officers of the county and citizens generally,
administered the most scathing denunciation of the
shameful and lawless condition in which he had found
them — a state, to use very nearly his own words, "of
anarchy, misrule and corruption, which, if permitted to go
unbridled, would lead to murder and arson, and aU the
crimes known to the catalogue of infamy."
He admonished the "good people" to waken to a
sense of their surroundings, and, for the love of every
thing dear to humanity, to rally in defense of law and
justice trampled under foot. He especially appealed

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 157
to the board of supervisors and directed them to use
every means in their power to bring the perpetrators of
this and all other crimes to justice ; told them that they
should offer a reward of $500 or $1,000 for the apprehen
sion of those who had robbed the clerk's office, and
said that he himself would recommend the govemor
to offer a similar amount. He stated in the course of
his remarks, or lecture, that now, under the benign
influence of " home rule and local self-government," the
people everywhere looked, and, from the fair promises
made, had a right to expect better things. That Judge
Arnold is a man of far-seeing judgment and close obser
vation, will be shown by the events which followed upon
the scene just described.
By this masterly stroke of viUainy, murderers, thieves,
robbers, house-breakers, swindlers of every grade, and
malefactors in office, were turned loose upon the commu
nity, and to-day are plying their various avocations
without let or hindrance. Some eighty-five criminal and
forty civil processes were thus lost, M. L. Naylor, a
magistrate, indicted for misdemeanor in office, was thus
set at liberty, and the grand jury, of which PhU Gully
was foreman, failed to re-indict in this, as indeed they did
in nearly or quite all the cases where a member of the
great party of reform was in any way involved.
Some months before, the merchandise of M. B. Wood &
Co., a firm doing business in Scooba, was attached by their
northern creditors, who suspicioned them of fraudulently
disposing of their goods. In certain cases of attach
ment the sheriff has authority to demand a bond of

158 The Chisolm Massacre.
indemnity from the plaintiff. It was believed that good
and sufficient bonds in the case were given, but on com
ing up in the circuit court — September term of that
year — the sheriff objected to the bonds, alleging that
the sureties, for various reasons, were insufficient. Upon
this a warm and prolonged controversy arose between
the lawyers employed on either side. Finally the court
adjourned until the next day, when it was found the
sheriff had dissolved the attachment, as the statute
gives him power to do, when, in his judgment, sufficient
indemnity is not offered. Thus the plaintiff was
defrauded of his just dues. The plaintiff's attomeys,
believing this act on the part of the sheriff to have been
fraudulent and Ulegal, made a motion before the court
charging the same, and claiming damages of the sheriff,
on his sureties, for the amount of plaintiff's whole claim,
amounting altogether to eighteen or twenty thousand
doUars. It is the opinion of some of the best attomeys
of East Mississippi — those employed at the Kemper
county bar — who are famUiar with the facts, that the
sheriff, Sinclair, could and would have been held responsi
ble for' this large sum of money had not the robbery of
the clerk's office been procured, and every paper in the
case stolen and destroyed. By the theft of these papers
alone, then, one of the most villainous swindling schemes
of the age was perpetrated.
Under the conciliatory poUcy, as indicated by the
message of the newly inaugurated president, the whole
power of the State govemment being under con
trol of the " best citizens," Judge Chisolm indulged the

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 159
fond hope that a spirit of greater tolerance would pre
vail, and that possibly he might be permitted to return
home, and there remain unmolested until such a time as
he could dispose of his property and leave the country
forever, which it was his settled determination to do.
On the 29th of March, the father and daughter arrived
at DeKalb; he to resume the accustomed routine of
business on his plantations, and she once more to become
the central star, around which the hopes and aspirations
of the household clung in the fondest admiration and
love. The delight experienced by the fond wife and mother,
on the return of her loved ones, knew but one cloud, and
that was the ever present fear that assassination would
overtake her husband, before he could settle his business
and get away.
Possessed of an amiable and contented disposition,
it was the good fortune of Cornelia to be able to make
the most of her surroundings, and she was not among
those to sit down and repine at any condition, however
displeasing it might be in fact; and a few days later she
sent a friend in Washington by letter, the foUowing
cheerful and animated picture of her daily life. The
message bears date DeKalb, April 22, and is addressed
to her/' Dear Flora." Only a brief extract is given :
" This afternoon, brother and I mounted our horses and
galloped away for a ride. We left the road about five
miles from town and took to the woods, and I would
tell you how beautiful they looked, if I could. The
trees are all clothed in a soft, tender foliage — the leaves

i6o The Chisolm Massacre.
being about half grown. There are lovely flowers of
every color and variety now in bloom along the creek.
Brother and I dismounted, and galloped on foot through
the woods for an hour or more. I will send you a Uttle
bouquet of wild flowers that I picked by the creek,
down at the fish-trap, on papa's plantation. The banks
there are very steep and high, and the stream being now
much swollen by rains, the water dashes over the trap in
a perfect cataract. The beautiful yellow jessamines meet
across the stream, and clasp their soft, sweet blooms and
tendrils together; while the banks are gemmed with
forget-me-nots, buttercups, wild violets, dogwood and
honeysuckle. Oh, I wish you could have been with us,
on our ride; then you would know how delightful it
was. It is getting quite late, and I'm sleepy. * * *
Sweet papa just returned from St. Louis, yesterday, and
is going to Mobile this week. He sends his kindest
regards, * * * Remember me to your mama, with
love. Your affectionate friend Nelie."
But to the household generally, the time passed with
the usual monotony of country life, save only the
excitement incident to the preparations being made to
send the two older boys. Clay and Johnny, to school at
St. Louis, The Judge had been to Mobile for the pur
pose of negotiating with his merchants there, for funds to
defray the necessary current expenses. In the afternoon
of the 26th of April, he returned with the money and
suitable equipments for the boys, and the tickets for
their transportation to St, Louis in his pocket. Coming

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. i6i
up the open common, in front of the house, the Judge
was first greeted by Cornelia, who, running down the
pathway, threw her arms around his waist and kissed
him, and the two walked to the front gate, where they
were met by Mrs, Chisolm, and together all passed on
to the house, taking seats on the front porch, where they
were soon joined by the three boys. While there
engaged in conversation concerning the future, and dis
cussing the probability of their soon being able to leave
DeKalb, and go to some place where greater security to
life, and the pleasures of friendly intercourse with their
fellows might be found, John W. Gully rode by on the
accustomed route to his home, about a mile and a half
out of town. He had been from sight but a few min
utes, when a negro came riding hurriedly up from the
direction in which Gully had gone, and reported that
Gully had been waylaid and shot, and was then lying
dead in the road, but a short distance from his own door.
The shock which this sudden and terrible inteUigence
brought to the happy little group just described, can
better be imagined than told; but certain it is, not one
of the family from the father down, bitter and malignant
as Gully's enmity toward them had been, who did not
shed tears of sorrow and regret. Sorrow for the mur
dered man and his afflicted family, and regret that they
were compelled to live in a community where such ter
rible crimes were permitted to go without the shadow
of investigation by the courts of the country.

II

CHAPTER XV.
This was on Thursday, and event followed event in
rapid succession. For some reason never yet explained
to the satisfaction of any one except the enemies of
Judge Chisolm, and very much contrary to the custom
usual in a climate like that of Mississippi, Gully was not
buried until Saturday, the 28th. And here it becomes
necessary to introduce a new character in the progress
of this story, and one whose significant name wUl be
closely allied with the darkest phase of the infamy now
to be disclosed. At the burial, a large crowd of citizens
had assembled from all parts of the county. George
S. Covert, who had married a niece of Gully, and lived
in Meridian, a distance of thirty-five miles from DeKalb,
appeared upon the scene, and became the central figure
in the conspiracy which was there consummated. Covert
was from the " city," wore a clean linen shirt, and words
from his mouth fell upon the ears of the savage horde
like an inspired revelation. These men, quick enough at
best to inaugurate a scene of debauch and riot, and
ready at all times to credit any story, no matter how
false and groundless against a political opponent, were
told by Covert and his wife's kindred, that Ben Rush
was Gully's assassin ; that he had been hired to do the
deed by Judge Chisolm, who was then at his home in
DeKalb, and now an opportunity had presented itself
in which they could rise in the majesty of their might.

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 163
and rid the county and the world of this man. Nor
must they undertake so hazardous a task alone. Chis
olm, they well knew, would fight with that desperation
and strength which a consciousness of right and a
determination to defend his home and his children to the
last, would lend him, and numbers sufficiently large to
insure success without danger to themselves must be
gathered. Accordingly a courier was dispatched to
Ramsey Station, in Alabama, and the aid of their old
confederates in blood invoked. The Alabamians, it
appears, were somewhat loth to respond to this call,
unless some more plausible excuse for riot and murder
in open day could be shown, and we are thus spared the
pain of adding another horror to the long list of their
terrible deeds.
To give character and tone to the statement already
circulated, implicating Judge Chisolm in the murder of
GuUy, it was told at the funeral that Rush had been
seen but a short time before by two negroes — George
Fox and Dee Hampton — at night, in a saloon in com
pany with Chisolm and Gilmer, when in the very act of
concocting the scheme for the assassination, and all the
time Rush held in his hand the fatal shot-gun with
which his work was to be accomplished. To this was
added the story that he had secretly met Judge Chisolm,
while the latter was at Mobile, when the barter and sale
of death was finally agreed upon, and the money actually
paid to Rush. The ghost of this man Rush, whose
destruction Gully himself had so many times sought,
would never " down." Rush, who singly and alone, in

164 The Chisolm Massacre.
open battle, had faced the whole murderous Gully clan,
was the only one upon whom they could, with any
degree of plausibility, fasten the guilt of John W. Gully's
untiipely taking off. Upon this point alone their case
rested ; for, through no other device or subterfuge could
they reach the object of their especial hate and fear.
Chisolm was the real murderer, and Rush the guilty
agent. This theory must be established or their case
fall to the ground. Upon this theory Covert claimed
to be acting under advice of eminent counsel from
Meridian. A case against them could be sustained far
enough, it was beUeved, to accomplish the original design,
and quench their thirst for blood. But this work, it was
agreed, must be effected without danger to themselves.
What was done must be done quickly, and time should
not be taken for reflection. If, by any means, Chisolm
should become apprised of their purposes before his
arrest and confinement had been accomplished, they }veU
knew he would call around him again, as in times past,
a few devoted and heroic men, upon whom an assault
could only be carried at a most alarming sacrifice to the
assailants. The better to secure the object of the con
spiracy, Gilmer and Rosenbaum, who lived at Scooba, and
the two Hoppers living at DeKalb, were to be taken sim
ultaneously with Judge Chisolm, disarmed, and together
all to be locked up in jail. The arrests must be made
under the forms of law and the promise of protection,
else they would not be tamely submitted to, and these
men, when thus warned of danger, would be left to
band together at wUl, in defense of their lives and

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 165
homes. All the work that remained, after the cell doors
were fastened upon the victims, could be done easily and
with no risk. The accomplishment of this, then, became
the great strategic point ; and to George S. Covert was
mainly assigned that delicate and refined piece of
villainy. If the Meridian Mercury, a newspaper published
in his own town, is in any way to be credited. Covert had
recently met with unparaUeled success in keeping a
bosom crony out of the penitentiary by means of bribery,
false swearing and the like, and it is not surprising that
the Gullys should have made choice of this one of their
numerous relatives, whose rare genius in the art of deceit
and perjury had been so well established, to assist them
through a similar means, in getting Judge Chisolm and
his associates locked up in jail, where they might be
burned or shot to death as circumstances presented.
Before these men could thus be arrested and confined,
a warrant, or something having the appearance of a war
rant, authorizing it, and based upon a solemn oath, must
be presented. Covert, though not valiant in the use of
the shot-gun, was ready in the performance of this work,
and J. L. Spinks, a justice of the peace — the same of
whom mention is made elsewhere— himself undoubtedly
knowing its full purport and meaning, issued the warrant
which is copied below, verbatim et literatim :
State of Mississippi, )
Kemper County., j
To the sheriff or any constable in said county greeting :
Whereas, Geo. S. Covert has this day made complaint,
on oath, to the undersigned, a justice of the peace in and

i66 The Chisolm Massacre.
for the county, that he fully believes and has good
reason to believe that B. F. Rush did, on the night of
the 26th inst., kill and murder. John W. Gully, and that
W. W. Chisolm, Alex Hopper, Newt Hopper, J. P. Gil
mer and Charlie Rosenbaum were accessories to the
deed. Wherefore we command you to forthwith appre
hend the said B. F. Rush, W. W. Chisolm, Alex Hopper,
Newt Hopper, J. P. Gilmer and Charlie Rosenbaum, the
accused, and bring them before T. W. Brame, Esq., or
some other justice of the peace of said county, at
DeKalb, on Monday, the 30th day of April, 1877, to
answer the above charge, and do or receive what, accord
ing to law, may be considered touching the same, and
have you then and there this writ.
Witness my hand and seal, April 28, 1877.
(Signed) J. L. Spinks, J. P., [Seal.]
Kemper County.
State of Mississippi, )
Kemper County. j
Before me, J. L. Spinks, a justice of the peace, in and
for said county, personally came Geo. S. Covert, who
stated, upon oath, that he fully believes and has good
reason to believe that B. F. Rush did, on the night of
the 26th inst., in said county, feloniously kill and murder
John W. Gully, and that W. W. Chisolm, Alex Hopper,
Newt Hopper, J. P. Gilmer and Charlie Rosenbaum were
accessories to the deed ; whereupon he prays that war
rants be issued for their arrest, and they be made to
answer the charges brought against them.
(Signed) GEO. S. Covert.
Sworn and subscribed to before, me April 28th, 1877.
(Signed) J. L. Spinks, J. P.
Witnesses:— J. J. Griffin, S. Evans, Esq., Jno. W.
Smith, J. R. Smith, Dr. Edwards, M. Rosenbaum.

' WARRANT.

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 167
The following indorsements were found written across
the back of this warrant:
" The State of Mississippi ">
vs..
B, F, Rush,
W, W. Chisolm,
Alex Hopper,
Newt Hopper,
J. P, Gilmer, and
Charlie Rosenbaum.
Rec'd in office April 29, 1877.
(Signed) F. C. SINCLAIR, Sheriff,"
" I hereby appoint W, W. Holsel my legal and special
deputy, to execute and return this writ according to law,
April 29, 1877. (Signed) F, C, SINCLAIR, Sheriff."
M. Rosenbaum, whose name appears above as one of
the "witnesses" to the murder of John W, Gully, has
been for twenty-five years one of DeKalb's most hon
ored and respected citizens. He is the father of Charlie
Rosenbaum, one of the accused, and upon his honor as
a gentleman, declares that he never was approached by
Covert, or any one else, in regard to the killing of GuUy;
that he knows nothing whatever of the facts, and that his
name was there used without his knowledge or consent.
" Dr." Edwards, whose name, even, they did not know,
and J, R. Smith are residents of Meridian. They have
both been life-long friends of Judge Chisolm, and make
the same declaration in reg'ard to their connection with
the pretended warrant, and their knowledge of the guilt

i68 The Chisolm Massacre.
of the accused parties, that Rosenbaum does. The
names of the two negroes, it will be borne in mind,
do not appear on the warrant as witnesses at all. John
W. Smith and S. Evans are the attorneys under whose
advice Covert acted, if his own statements are to be
relied upon. Smith lives in Meridian and Evans at
Enterprise, distant thirty-five and fifty-five miles, respect
ively, from DeKalb and the scene of the assassination
concerning which their names are written down as wit
nesses. What they proposed to testify to has never
been divulged, as the warrant does not appear ever to
have been "executed and returned according to law."
But what signified an act of false swearing to a man like
Covert, with a soul not only void of honor, but human
sympathy as well.
The warrant, as will be seen, was issued, or claimed to
have been issued Saturday, and made returnable before
Esquire Brame, in DeKalb, on Monday. This early
return was arranged to meet any doubt which might
arise in Judge Chisolm's mind as to the danger of delay
after his arrest, whereby a crowd of ruffians might be
assembled for the object of taking the law into their own
hands. He would then expect to pass over the Sabbath
in custody. Meantime, by the quick despatch of couriers
to every portion of the county, at the dead hour of
night, through dark and unfrequented bridle-paths, across
streams, lagoons and swamps — the old familiar routes
so often traveled by these men in days gone by, when
their mission had no worse significance than the
whipping or killing of some poor negro or teacher of a

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 169
public school — willing hearts and hands could be
gathered at DeKalb early on Sunday morning, sufficient
in numbers to" guarantee their ability to murder two or
three men already disarmed and securely locked up in
jail, awaiting the process of a judicial investigation, and
that without incurring much danger to themselves.
This was the plot by means of which the great work,
so many times defeated, was finally to be accomplished,
and in which George S. Covert, an "honored and
respected citizen " of Meridian, appeared as the great
overshadowing genius.

CHAPTER XVI. ¦
All night long the sound of iron hoofs rang out upon
the motionless air, soon to be rent by the murderous
discharge of guns, mingled with the shouts of savage
men, the shrieks of despairing women and affrighted chil
dren, whose prayers and tears and warm life-blood were
to add fresh fuel to the unbridled flame of hate and
fury. All night long, girt about with pistol and leathern
belt, and guns across the saddle's pommel, the grim-
visaged and grinning barbarians rode into DeKalb by
twos, threes and fours. Before the soft and genial rays
of the sun of early spring had kissed away the dew of
that beautiful Sabbath morning, two hundred and fifty
men, reared in the most degrading ignorance and trained
in a school of blood and crime, were hovering about the
environs of DeKalb, ready to do the will of any one
who might assume leadership.
They had not long to wait. Sinclair, the imbecile
sheriff and ready tool of the conspirators, with two
deputies, had already gone, fortified with his forged and
fraudulent warrant to the house of Alex Hopper, arid
placed him and his younger brother Newton under
arrest. Hopper expressed unwiUingness to go with the
sheriff until he had breakfasted, and the sheriff reluctantly
consented to wait. During this delay. Hopper clandes
tinely sent a note by a negro to inform Judge Chisolm
that he himself had already been arrested under a

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 171
charge of complicity in the murder of John W. Gully,
that the sheriff and his deputies would next visit him
for the same purpose, and that warrants were also out
for the arrest of Gilmer and Rosenbaum. This, as will
be seen, afforded Judge Chisolm ample time to have
escaped, if he had desired it, and which he certainly
would have done had he felt the gnawings of a guilty
conscience. His wife and children, with quick intuition,
accustomed as they had been to scenes of danger and
outlawry, knowing well the spirit that possessed the
hearts of the men who were thus seeking to place their
beloved gyardian within a mesh from which escape
would be impossible, implored him to mount a horse and
leave at once. To this Judge Chisolm replied that he
had nothing to fear; was innocent of any crime or
offense against the law, and that for no consideration
would he incur the suspicion of guilt by leaving his
home, or in any way trying to avoid any just and legal pro
cess. While his breakfast was being prepared, his wife
sent a servant to the stable for a horse, thinking that
possibly the Judge might yet be prevailed upon to go-
She also ordered a cup of coffee to be placed upon the
table in advance of the regular meal, and with all the
earnestness of her nature, begged her husband to drink
his coffee, and then mount the horse and fly from the
certain and inevitable death which awaited him.
While the mother and daughter were thus beseeching,
the sheriff and deputies, with the two Hoppers, came
up, and the warrant produced in the preceding chapter
was handed him to read. Judge Chisolm wiUingly

172 The Chisolm Massacre.
submitted to its decree, but objected to being carried to
jail, where he had reason to believe he would be mur
dered, and asked that a guard might be placed over him
at his own house. To this the sheriff at first objected,
stating that " they say you must go to jail." By this
time a number of men had gathered about the house,
and the sheriff consented to leave his prisoners there, in
charge of men appointed, until they could have a hear
ing the following morning. Judge Chisolm named some
of the persons whom the sheriff designated as guards,
and he then despatched a courier to inform Gilmer and
Rosenbaum of their contemplated arrest, advising them
to come to DeKalb, and give themselves up peaceably
as he had done. Men in greater numbers, with guns in
their hands, continued to assemble around the house
from every direction. Finally, without a reason being
given for so doing. Judge Chisolm was removed to a
small building apart, and in which there was no fire
place, and composed of thin weather-boarding, having
no lock or other means of fastening the door. On pass
ing into the room, the Judge for the first time saw that
his premises from every quarter were occupied by armed
men, while others stood in the streets leading by.
He asked the sheriff the meaning of all this, and his
reply was that, " They say your guard must be in
creased." Mrs. Chisolm then came in and protested
against her husband being confined in a damp room,
without fire, as he was otherwise in poor health and
subject to asthma. The sheriff then consented to the
prisoner being conveyed back to the house, and, as they

"Home Rule" in Missis sippL 173
were passing the open space in the yard, between the
building in which he had been temporarily confined and
the dwelling, a large crowd of villainous looking men
rushed in a body, with guns in their hands, and sur
rounded him. The Judge again asked the sheriff if this
was the usual mode of treating a prisoner when, in
charge of the proper officers of the law. His only reply
was, " They say that you must be securely guarded,"
Judge Chisolm then asked who he meant by "they"
Was he the sheriff of the county, acting under the
proper requirements of the law, or was he simply
the instrument of a mob, which only sought the life of a
defenseless victim ? To this no reply was made, and in
a few minutes, after first going out upon the streets and
holding a conversation with a man named Jere Watkins,
who had just ridden up from the rear of Judge Chisolm's
house, at the head of a large body of armed men, and
who is known to be a most notorious Ku-Klux des
perado and villain, the sheriff returned and told Judge
Chisolm that he must now go to jaU. " They say you
must go to jail," were the exact words he used. Mrs,
Chisolm then asked the privilege of being alone with her
husband a few minutes before he left, and, without wait
ing for the sheriffs consent, she went with him into an
adjoining room, where she opened a closet from which
there was a trap-door leading into a garret above. She
then besought her husband to take refuge there; that
she would hand him his guns, and he could defend him-'
self against the whole cowardly horde, and if finally
killed, which she believed was more than probable, he

174 The Chisolm Massacre.
would not die Uke a felon, but his last breath would be
drawn in his own house, where he would be surrounded
by his wife and children, who worshipped him. This he
also refused to do, stating that he had submitted to the
mandates of the law, and that he must wait and obey
its processes. Besides, if he were to secrete himself in
the house, as the mob knew he was there, when the
shooting began, his wife and children would probably be
sacrificed and the building burned down over their heads.
Without further hesitation he placed himself in the
hands of the sheriff and his guards — none of whom
were those originally selected by Judge Chisolm — and
the procession moved toward the jail. The Judge's wife,
and the children, Cornelia, Clay, Johnny and Willie, all
followed close by his side.
Before leaving the house, Angus McLeUan, a brave
and sturdy old Scotchman, and a subject of Great
Britain, who h^d stood by Judge Chisolm through many
a trying scene before ; kind and gentle as a woman when
not aroused, but determined as fearless when in defense
of that which he conceived to be the right, came in and
volunteered whatever assistance he might be able to ren
der the distressed family ; and, arming himself with Clay
Chisolm's gun, foUowed them to the jail. When near the
door at the foot of the, stairs leading up to the cells,
the sheriff stopped Mrs. Chisolm and refused her admis
sion. She insisted, and, despite his efforts to prevent,
went up, as did all the children and McLellan,
Meantime GUmer and Rosenbaum, who had received
Judge Chisolm's note, set out for DeKalb, in compliance

"Home Rule" in Missis sippn. 175
with his request to come in and give themselves up to
the sheriff, Gilmer, when preparing to leave home, took
off his watch and all valuable papers about his person
and gave them to his wife, and while at the glass,
arranging his toilet — with which he took more than
usual pains — he said to her, " Effie, if I were to die sud
denly, you would not have me buried until certain that I
was dead, would you?" To this she replied "no," and
then, holding her little child in her arms, she went up to
her husband, and with tears in her eyes, begged him not
to go to DeKalb; or, if he would go, to take her with
him. Having no conveyance ready at the time, Mr.
Gilmer could not grant' her request; but told his wife
that if he was sent to jail she could come up late in the
evening and remain with him until his release, which he
felt sure would take place the following day. They pro
ceeded on their journey, and when about half way to
DeKalb, Gilmer and Rosenbaum met a deputy sheriff
who had started to Scooba for the purpose of arresting
them. This man said nothing about making an arrest, but
when aside with GUmer, showed him the warrant and
told him as he valued his life not to go to DeKalb at
all that day. But they rode on, and when arriving at
the residence of Mr, M, Rosenbaum, father of the young
man alluded to, they stopped and sent a note in to the
.sheriff, stating that they were there and would remain
subject to his order. This was about twelve o'clock.
James Brittain, a citizen living near, who had been
deputized by the sheriff, came, took them into custody

176 The Chisolm Massacre.
and started to the jail. As they passed along the
streets squads of armed men fell in at intervals from
every accessible point. The two prisoners began to
show signs of uneasiness, when Brittain took Gilmer by
the wrist, and while thus holding him, one of the GuUys
emptied a charge of buck-shot into his back between the
shoulders. Gilmer exclaimed :
" O ! Lord ; don't shoot any more ! I gave myself up
and you promised to protect me ! "
He then broke loose and attempted to run into a
narrow alley, between two buildings, but was confronted
at the other end of the passage by a crowd of men and
there shot down and his prostrate body riddled with
bullets. That evening, before leaving home, while pre
paring to follow her husband to DeKalb, his mangled
and bloody corpse was laid down at Mrs. Gilmer's feet.
Rosenbaum appealed to a friend whom he recognized in
the mob — none of them were disguised — and through
his assistance kept out of range of the guns which were
frequently leveled at him, and. was in that way carried
on to the jail, where we left Judge Chisolm and his
family but an hour or two before.

CHAPTER XVII.
Gilmer was already dead, and the young widow with
her orphan child, and Gilmer's aged mother, paralyzed
with grief, were bending over his cold and inanimate
form, Chisolm, Rosenbaum and the two Hoppers were
now securely locked up, and no friend of either bore arms
save the dreaded Scotchman, McLellan. All the work
which had been assigned to Covert and his aids, was
thus successfully accomplished, and that worthy had
already withdrawn to some safe retreat. He was him
self th^ father of a blooming family, with young daughters
just budding into womanhood. Doubtless he did not
care to linger where the screams of women and children,
mangled, torn and bleeding, would soon rend the air, and,
like a poisoned and barbed arrow, strike deep into his
cowardly and guilty heart. Now this much was done,
before the final slaughter began it was desirable that
the alleged proof of the complicity of these men in
Gully's murder should actually be produced. Where no
proof is known to exist, in fact, in some countries the
process of manufacturing it is slow and often impossible;
but not so in others. At least, a process which had
before served weU in many a case on record in Missis
sippi, and which had seldom failed, was left the people
of Kemper.
The two negroes, who were reported to have seen
Chisolm and Rush in their mysterious nightly vigils when
12

178 The Chisolm Massacre.
concocting the scheme of murder, were to be compelled
so to testify; and now that the confinement of Judge
Chisolm and his friends prevented the possibility of
interference on their part. Fox and, Hampton, the pre
tended colored witnesses, were taken into a wood, near
by, and hung by the neck for the purpose of enforc
ing them to testify to something which they never saw
or heard. Knowing nothing, as a matter of course, they
told nothing, and, after having been strangled and beaten
nearly to death, were permitted to go, and the alleged
proof has never yet been found.
Within the dark and frowning waUs of the county jail,
shut up" with common thieves and prisoners of the
lowest grade, from an early hour on that Sabbath morn
ing until the sun had sunk well-nigh down the western
horizon, the doomed family waifed, and watched and
prayed; while without, three hundred yelUng savages,
like hungry wolves, were clamoring for their blood.
The quick, sharp report of a dozen murderous shot
guns from up the street, and the subsequent appearance
of Charlie Rosenbaum, who was thrust into jail like
a felon upon the scaffold ; the loud curses and yells of
the infuriated mob, all together, told too well the fate
which had befaUen Gilmer.
Inside the jail, the pretended guards would put down
their guns, and pass out and in at will. Many of these
were men who had known Judge Chisolm and his fam
ily well for years ; and not a few of them had, for as long
a time, been pensioners upon his bounty. Among others,
Phil GuUy came in and spoke of the many acts of

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 179
courtesy which had passed between himself and Judge
Chisolm in days gone by. At one time the guns were
stacked in a corner, and nearly all the guards went out,
when Cornelia discovered that some of the pieces, at
least, were loaded only with blank cartridges. She told
her father that in case the guards did not come back, he
might have to withstand a siege, and in that event
would need amunition, and expressed a desire to go
to the house for the purpose of getting it. To this the
father objected, at first, fearing that she would meet
with insula, and probably personal harm in passing
through the mob without. She insisted, and after get
ting consent of the jailor to pass, under the pretense of
going for food, took her little brother Willie, and
together they went to the house. While there, she
gathered up all the jewelry, silver-ware and other val
uables, packed them securely in trunks, locked the trunks
and carried them into closets, which she also securely
fastened ; then secreting powder, bullets and wadding
under her skirts, took some provisions in her arms,
and with Willie returned to the jail, and there informed
her father that the servants had all taken flight, and that
the premises were deserted. Judge Chisolm then ex
pressed a desire that the stock, especially the horses,
should be watered and otherwise cared for. In the
excitement of the morning they had been entirely neg
lected. Not one of the family cared to go, fearing that
an assault upon the jaU would be made during their
absence, and the bloody work of the mob accomplished.
The Judge was particularly anxious concerning the

i8o The Chisolm Massacre.
horses, apparently having a faint hope that they might
yet in some way be of service to him. Mrs. Chisolm
concluded that she could best be spared from the jail,
and asked Johnny to go with her.
This little fellow, thirteen years of age, as tender and
delicate as a girl, had often been made the subject of
pleasant jest by other members of the family, on
account of retired manners, taste for books of an
elevated moral tone, and strong passion for the cul
tivation of flowers. But on that day his true character
was developed, and rose to a height in cpurage and
devotion worthy the emulation of the most exalted hero.
In reply to the request made by his mother, he said,
his eyes filling with tears:
" O, mother, I don't want to go, for as soon as I leave
they will kill father. But if you say I must, I will go ! "
Then taking little Willie the mother went to the
stable, and, whUe attending to the stock, the report of
the dreaded shot-gun again rang out upon the air. Run
ning through the yard to the gate in front of the house,
in plain sight of the jail, she saw two or three guns dis
charged at a man then on the side facing her. When
the smoke cleared away he had sunk upon the ground.
Calling out to Willie to hurry on, that another man
had been killed, Mrs. Chisolm ran across the common
toward the spot. When half way there, fearing that
an accidental shot might kiU her boy, she told him
to hide in a deep ditch which they were then compelled
to cross. Taking a second thought, and believing they
would kill him any way if found, she told him to go

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. i8i
to a negro cabin, situated on the Teft about a hundred
yards distant. The boy did as he was told, and Mrs.
Chisolm hurried on to the jail. In passing, she recog
nized the dead body of McLellan, the one whom she
had seen two of the Gullys in the act of shooting but a
moment earUer, while she was at the gate. Before Mrs.
Chisolm left the jail for the stable the sheriff came up
and demanded of the old Scotchman that he should go
down stairs ; that in refusing he was resisting the legal
authorities of the county. McLellan replied that he
had never disobeyed a law in his life ; that if the law
required of him that he should leave the jail he would
go, and the old man reluctantly and sorrowfully put
down his gun, went below and for some time stood in
the haU, at the foot of the stairs, leaning against the
waU with his head down, in a thoughtful and abstracted
mood. While passing out, on her way to the stable,
Mrs. Chisolm saw him standing as above described.
After she had gone the sheriff, according to his own
testimony, went to McLellan and repeated his demand
that he should leave. In compliance with this the old
man went through the door — the only outside opening
in the building — which is on the south side, and passing
around the east end of the jail, went to the north side;
and while walking in the direction of his own house,
his head still down, he was fired upon by the Gullys
and his body riddled with bullets.
At this time, Cornelia, who stood looking through the
grates of a window at the ghastly scene below, fully
conscious of the impending fate of her father, in the very

1 82 The Chisolm Massacre.
agony of despair, fell upon her knees and begged that a
single spark of mercy might be shown them. " O ! why
do you do my papa so bad ?" she cried. " He never has
harmed any one in his life, much less any of you, so
many of whom have taken food from his hands ! "
"  him ! " exclaimed BiU Gully, who stood
below with a gun on his back, " we'll do him worse than
that ! " and this, with a half dozen shots fired at the
window at the same moment, was the reply she received.
The blood of the old Scotchman had given fresh
impetus and courage to the mob ; for, by his death the
last dangerous obstacle that interposed between them
and the victim whose life they most craved, had been
removed, and they rushed furiously into the jail, headed
by Rosser and the Gullys. With superhuman strength
Mrs. Chisolm worked her way through this crowd to the
door at the head of the stairs. This door opens into a
hall which leads entirely around the jail, outside of the
cages or cells, which are buUt in the centre. In this
corridor, directly back of the stairway. Judge Chisolm
had taken refuge. Within the door stood Comelia and
Johnny, with Overstreet and Wall, the only remaining
guards. Finding the door fastened, Rosser, with loud
and angry oaths, called for an ax, and cursed his confed
erates who feared to come up the stairs. One ax was
brought and then another. Mrs. Chisolm, seizing Rosser
by the arm, implored him to desist, and asked if he
did not have a wife and children at home. To this he
made no reply, but rudely thrust her aside and vigor
ously plied the ax. Comelia entreated Overstreet to

"Home Rule" in Mississippn. 183
shoot through the grates in the door at Rosser and the
mob coming up the stairs. Overstreet repUed that he dare
not ; stating as a reason that he knew his own life would
pay. the penalty of such an act. He begged them, how
ever, to go back, but to no purpose.
The numbers around the door increased, and guns were
thrust through the grates and fired into the hall at
random. Judge Chisolm, seeing that his time drew near,
then cried out, " Daughter, bring me some guns from the
comer ; I know I must die, but I will go down with my
colors flying!" Seeing that the door must soon give
way, Cornelia then took up an armful of guns left by the
guards, who had deserted their posts, and carried them
to her father. Coming back to the door, she was just in
time to receive the contents of a load which, first strik
ing the flat, iron grating, filled her face with chips of lead
and burnt powder, causing the blood to flow from more
than a score of ugly wounds.
Despite the frantic efforts of Mrs. Chisolm, who never
ceased to labor and pray, the lock was chopped out and
there stood Rosser and Bill and Henry Gully, with guns
ready for use. Cornelia and Johnny, with a courage
scarcely ever before recorded" in the annals of great and
chivalric deeds, endeavored to hold the door back
against the fearful odds. But steadily it gave way, and
Rosser's gun was put through the opening and dis
charged, shooting off Johnny's right arm at the wrist.
So close was the muzzle that his clothing was set on
fire. At this the little fellow screamed out, in the agony
of fear and pain, and Clay came and carried him behind

184 The Chisolm Massacre.
one of the iron cages ; but was no sooner back to the
door, where he went immediately, than Johnny had
returned and placed his shoulder against it, and with all
his little strength sought to hold it back. Finally, with
a sudden crash, the door flew open and Johnny ran into
his father's arms, crying out as he did so, "O! don't
shoot my father ! "
Cornelia then seized Rosser's gun and interposed her
fast-failing strength against the monster.
" Go away," cried he to the girl, " or I'll blow your 
brains out."
" For shame ! " said a fellow at his heels, " would you
shoot a woman?"
" Yes,  her ! " was the reply; " I will shoot any one
that gets in my way ! "
Then, with terrible force, he hurled the frail girl against
the wall, and no further power remained between Ros
ser's second barrel and the special object of his rage save
the slender form of the innocent boy. His weapon was
leveled, and the bullets went crashing through Johnny's
heart. Judge Chisolm, seeing his boy thus murdered in
his arms, seized the gun left by McLellan and sent its
contents into Rosser's head, scattering his brains against
the waU. At sight of all this, and from loss of her own
blood, Cornelia, feeling faint, ran back to her mother,
who had not yet been able to get through the door, as
the opening was filled with men who were firing down
the passage-way at random, in the direction whence the
shot came that had kUled Rosser. In the meantime
their own bodies were out of range, and consequently

" Hotne Rule" in Mississippi. 185
out of danger. Charge after charge of shot, fired in this
manner, was emptied into the solid wooden casing
around the cells, and there the deep, ragged gashes
remain, sickening mementoes of the darkest infamy and
most disgraceful cowardice ever recorded of beings
wearing the human form.
Seeing their leader fall, these miserable creatures
quailed under the steady gaze of that one man at bay,
and fled like frightened sheep, dragging the dead body
of Rosser down the stairs by the heels, and the stair
way and hall below were cleared in an instant. The
mingled blood and brains of this poor wretch were left
on every stair, from the top to the bottom of the jail.
Up to this time Mrs. Chisolm did not know that
Johnny had been killed, and before the mob fled, she
reached through the grates, and placing her hand on
Cornelia's head, tried to give her words of encourage
ment; told her to think of her " poor papa," whose life,
if she continued to be brave, might yet be saved. Again
the fainting giri rallied and ran to her father, whom she
found bowed down over the body of his murdered son,
Just at this moment the mother and Clay came up, and
together all sank upon the floor, and there over the body
of that young and martyred hero there went up a wail
of agony and despair, such as is seldom heard on earth.
No time could be lost in weeping. As long as life
lasted there was hope, and Mrs. Chisolm, as quick in
expedient as she was brave in the defense of those
she loved, tried to get her husband into a cell where she
could exchange clothing with him, thinking he might

1 86 The Chisolm Massacre.
thus escape in disguise; but this was found to be
impracticable, as no unoccupied cell could be opened.
While her mother and father were thus engaged, Cor
nelia lifted up the dead body of little Johnny, put out
the fire which was still burning the clothing on his shat
tered arm, and then laid the arm carefully across his
bleeding breast; kissed again and again the pale cheeks
and lips; prayed God to give him breath to "speak to
sissy once more," and then, with her handkerchief, wip
ing up the last drop of his precious blood from the floor,
she carried the lifeless body down the hall and placed
it behind a cage, where it would be, for the time being,
secure from further violence.
Baffled, defeated and driven from the jail, the cowardly
mob knowing that there was but one man to resist
them, dare not renew the assault, and a stratagem
worthy of savages was resorted to. At once the cry of
"Run them out!" "the jaU is on fire!" feU upon the ears
of the doomed family. The hall already fiUed with
smoke from the burning wads and gunpowder, the pris
oners confined in cells, believing that the jail was already
in flames, began to howl like wild animals in a burning
amphitheatre, making the whole a scene to have equaled
in horror MUton or Dante's most extravagant concep
tion of heU itself; and it was believed by all that the
building would soon be enveloped in flames. Sooner
than remain, Cornelia said to her father, " Oh ! papa, see
how easy poor Mr. McLellan died; it is much better for
us all to go down and be shot to death, than to stay
here and be burned alive!" It was then decided to

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 187
descend the stairs, and take whatever chance of escape
might be offered. Mrs. Chisolm and Clay, with the dead
body of Johnny, led the forlorn hope, whUe the Judge,
with a gun in his hands and Cornelia's arms around his
waist, followed close behind. Mrs. Chisolm and Clay
made the landing below without interference, and laid
their sorrowful burden upon the floor, but the Judge and
Cornelia were met before reaching the foot of the stairs
by Henry Gully, with a guti already presented. Here
was another door with iron grates, and after seeing
the immediate danger that threatened her husband, Mrs.
Chisolm shut this door, whUe Comelia shielded her fath
er's body with her own, at the same time puUing him
down out of range, and there, with one arm around his
neck, the hot, scalding tears mingling with the blood
that ran down her girlish cheeks, she cried out, " Oh !
Mr. Gully, if you must have blood, I pray you to take
my life and spare my darling papa, who has never done
you a wrong."
This appeal was answered with a charge of shot from
the monster's gun, which struck a heavy gold bracelet on
the girl's arm, cutting it in two, and driving a piece of the
ragged metal deep into her wrist. A bullet passed
entirely through, shattering the bone from the wrist
nearly to the elbow. The same charge grazed Judge
Chisolm's neck in several places, and cut off a small
portion of his nose. Gully then stepped back for
another gun, when Comelia, still clinging to her father,
opened the door and came on down. They had no
sooner reached the foot of the stairs than the assault

1 88 The Chisolm Massacre.
was renewed with increased fury. Still this frail girl,
shot and bleeding from a score of wounds, clung with
one arm around her beloved father, while with the other
hand she pushed aside the guns which were leveled at
his breast. Where, in any account of remarkable filial
love, unselfish devotion or great physical daring in
woman, do we find a picture like this ? Nothing short
of the Divinity, which is said to have raised up a Joan
of Arc, could inspire a courage and heroism like that
displayed by Comelia Chisolm throughout that fatal day.
At this time the two Hoppers and Charlie Rosenbaum
were permitted to come down without arms, and turned
loose in the street with the threat of instant death if
either of them sought in any way to release or defend
Judge Chisolm. The three escaped without injury.

CHAPTER XVIII.
While Mrs. Chisolm was struggUng with the mob at
the outside entrance. Bill Gully came up and deliberately
shot at her twice, but a merciful Providence seemed to
protect her, as neither load took effect. Mrs, Chisolm
then seized the gun which had been brought down the
stairs by her husband, and discharged both barrels at
Gully, The wadding struck him full in the breast and
fell harmless to the ground. This was one of the guns
furnished the guards by the sheriff and left by them
up stairs. It was loaded only with blank cartridges.
At the suggestion of his wife. Judge Chisolm now
tumed to walk down the hall in rear of the stairs to take
shelter behind a pile of goods belonging to Mr. Gilmer,
which had been taken from him by the sheriff and there
stowed away. Before this cover was reached, Phil Gully
stepped out from a door opening into the hall, and, with
a heavy hickory stick uplifted — the same that he carries
to-day — advanced toward Judge Chisolm, as if to strike
him down ; but, by this time, shots had been fired into
his body from front and rear, and Phil was deprived of
the satisfaction of giving the finishing touch to this
scene in the drama; for the Judge, at that moment, sank
upon the floor, begging that he might be carried to his
house and not permitted to die like a felon in jail.
Believing that their work had been fully accomplished,
the mob left, and coolly awaited further developments
from the outside.

190 The Chisolm Massacre,
While Mrs. Chisolm was bending over her husband's
prostrate body in momentary expectation of catching
the last words that feU from his lips before the spirit
took its flight, the Judge, in a low whisper, said: "My
precious wife, I am about to die ; but, when I am gone,
I want you to tell my children that their father never did
an act in his life for which they need to blush or feel
ashamed, T am innocent of the charge these w,en have
pyref erred against me, and have been murdered because
I ain a republican and would live a free man ! "
CorneUa, who, in the melee before descending the
stairs, had been struck in the face by some brutal hand,
which, in addition to the gun-shot wounds already
received, had blackened and disfigured her countenance
in a horrible manner, now went to the door to beg for
assistance to carry her father's and little brother's dead
bodies home. This appeal was answered by a shot
which struck her below the knee. Fifteen large duck-
shot and one buck-shot were thus lodged in her leg,
while another passed through the counter of her shoe
into the foot. This was overlooked in the multiplicity
of her other injuries and never was discovered until after
her death, though before that time her heel had become
very much swollen and inflamed, when upon examination
of the shoe the place where the shot entered was found.
A missile of some kind also struck her hip, causing a
severe and painful sore. Her bonnet strings, which were
tied in a bow knot under her chin, were nearly severed
by a shot which thus narrowly missed her throat. These
ribbons only hung together by the hem on one side,

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 191
three separate baUs having passed through them.
Thirty buUet holes were counted in the skirts of her
clothing, which was a mass of blood, from the little
silk hood she wore on her head, down to her shoes.
On receiving the last charge she ran back to her mother
exclaiming, " O ! mamma, they have shot me again ! "
This was the first and only exclamation she made
throughout, concerning her own wounds. Mrs. Chisolm
then went to the door and in turn begged for assistance,
while Cornelia stood bleeding over the inanimate forms
of her father and brother. Presently a young man
stepped forward from the mob and volunteered his
services. Mrs. Chisolm, still in full possession of her
quick faculties, said to him, pointing to the body of her
husband, " Sir ! did you do that ?"
" No, madam," was the reply. Then pointing to her
dead boy and bleeding giri she asked, "Did you do
that?" "No!" was the second answer; "I have not dis
charged a gun to-day."
" Then," said the heroic woman, " your touch wUl not
pollute the dead bodies of my darlings, and, if you wUl,
you may help me to carry them from this terrible place ! "
Stooping down, Mrs. Chisolm raised her husband's
head and placed his arms around her neck. Clay lifted
his feet, whUe the young man took hold in the middle,
and together they started for the house, not more than a
hundred yards distant. When out of the jail they were
joined by Bob Moseley — better known as "Black Bob"
— a man whom Mrs. Chisolm and Clay both knew very

192 The Chisolm Massacre.
well, and whom they had seen foremost among the riot
ers throughout the day. Loathsome as his presence
was, they permitted him to become a bearer in the
mournful procession, as they could not well proceed
without him. When about half the distance to the
house there arose a fresh cry from the mob, whose
vengeful thirst, it appears, had not yet been fully satis
fied. " He is not dead yet," they said ; " let's go and
finish him!" Seeing them ccme, headed by a brute
named Dan McWhorter, Cornelia lingered behind, and,
as they came up, with her shattered arm raised to
heaven, she declared that her father had died before
leaving the jail, and besought them not to mangle his
dead body. By this declaration and appeal they were
deceived and turned back.
Reaching the house, it was found locked and the ser
vants all gone. A smaU window from a back porch was
broken open and the Judge's helpless body dragged
through it into the house. With no domestics, and
everything securely locked, great difficulty and delay
were experienced in finding anything for the relief of the
wounded. Dr. McClanahari, a near neighbor and life
long friend of the family, although a feeble old man,
came in and rendered all the assistance in his power.
With the aid of two negroes he carried home the corpse
of the murdered boy, Henry, Gully remarking to him as
he gathered the body up, " Doctor, I have killed your
best friend, meaning Judge Chisolm. Cornelia was
placed upon a low bed, in the same room with her
father, and while Mrs. Chisolm was busy preparing

-"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 193
something for their comfort in another part of the house.
Bob Moseley returned, and uninvited walked into the
room where the victims lay. Cornelia, believing that he
had been sent back by the mob to ascertain if her father
was really dead, or likely to die, rose from the bed and
drove him out of the room. It was subsequently ascer
tained that he did, in fact, return for the purpose divined
by the girl, as his confederates, it has since been learned,
condemned him for having aided in carrying the dying
man away, knowing that life was not yet extinct, Moseley
was therefore desirous of reinstating himself in their con
fidence and esteem. Besides, he had been once admitted
into the house, and was, they believed, a suitable person
to return for information concerning the extent of Judge
Chisolm's wounds, which, if not fatal, were to have been
made the signal for another attack.
On examination, the Judge's worst wound was found
in his left hip, where a full charge of buck-shot entered
from the rear.
Several different men Uving in DeKalb, all of whom
were known to have been active participants in the con
spiracy, came to the house that evening, and, professing
friendship and sympathy, offered their assistance. As
might be supposed, their offers were rejected, Dr, Fox,
the only competent surgeon in the place, or anywhere
within immediate reach, was known to have been one of
the instigators of the riot, as he had been a counselor, if
not a member of the Ku-Klux in days past; and as a
matter of course none of the family would voluntarily
place themselves within his power,
13

194 The Chisolm Massacre.
Thus they were shut out from sympathy or aid, save
that which came from a few friends, the greater number
of whom were beyond reach, on account of the distance
they lived from DeKalb, or because of the barriers which
the threats of the mob interposed.
Those who came were faithful and true, but unfor
tunately but few were skilled or experienced as nurses,
and what made the situation still more alarming, the
necessary means for relief or comfort were not always to
be obtained.
About ten o'clock that night, Judge Chisolm's two
brothers, John and Marbury, and two or three of his
young nephews arrived from the southwest beat, a dis
tance of twenty-two miles, to which place a courier had
been despatched for them by the Judge early in the
morning, when his arrest was first made.
Some hours before their arrival, Henry Rosenbaum, a
brother of Charlie Rosenbaum, in answer to a des
patch sent him in the morning at Meridian, had gone to
Scooba and thence to DeKalb. On arriving at the
scene of the massacre, he proceeded at once to Judge
Chisolm's house, where he rendered every assistance
possible. He had come to DeKalb in anticipation of
aiding his brother.
All of these friends had been compelled to travel by
an unfrequented and circuitous route; were all day on
the road, and knew nothing of the terrible fate of the
family, until their arrival at Judge Chisolm's house, too
late to render such material aid as they would gladly
have done. All that could be, with the means at hand,

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 195
was done for the sufferers through the night, and early
on the following morning the despatch which is copied
below was sent to Meridian :
"Scooba, Miss., April 30, 1877.
, Received at Meridian, April 30, 8: 15 A. M.
To Capt. J. M. Wells :
Come to us immediately, by the way of Scooba, and
bring the best surgeon you can get. Brother Johnny is
murdered, and father will die. Sister is badly wounded.
H. Clay Chisolm,"
Up to the time of the receipt of this despatch in
Meridian, the reports concerning the massacre were
wild and conflicting; the anxiety with the few who sym
pathized was great, while the excitement incident to the
terrible affair in a neighboring town, where most of the
parties concerned were well known, was general. The
despatch was answered at once, as follows:
"To H. C. Chisolm, DeKalb, Miss.:
No train this morning; will bring surgeon across the
country immediately.
J. M. Wells."
Two different surgeons whom the writer requested to go,
made excuses of one kind or another. Finally Dr. John
D. Kline was asked, and at once consented, but after
ward sought an opportunity of getting from some prom
inent democratic citizen a letter of introduction, a pass
port or safe-guard of some kind, against molestation by
the citizens of Kemper, while on his way to DeKalb,
and a guarantee of protection after his arrival. This he
obtained from a gentleman well known and highly
esteemed by the Gullys and their co-workers. Even

196 The Chisolm Massacre.
after this precaution, the doctor objected to going with
the writer, as the latter was well known in DeKalb as a
political and personal friend of Judge Chisolm. An
effort was then made to find some one whose known
friendship with the Kemper County murderers would-
afford protection. .There were many of this kind in
Meridian, but out of the dozen or more who were
approached, not one would go. There was in Meridian
at the time, however, an under-current of strong and
earnest sympathy for the distressed family. At last a
colored barber who had once lived in DeKalb, and who
knew the road well, volunteered to go as a driver, and
with him Dr. Kline started across the county, while the
writer took the first train for Scooba, arriving in DeKalb
the next day, after having ridden from Scooba thirteen
miles through the country. The doctor reached
Judge Chisolm's house at ten o'clock that night, and
found the condition of the father and daughter not so
iminently dangerous as had been at first reported.
More than twenty-four hours had passed since the
wounds were inflicted, however, and it was impossible to
probe Judge Chisolm's wounds, to ascertain their full ex
tent, yet the physician and all friends of the family were
encouraged to believe that he might recover. A thorough
examination was made of Cornelia's injuries, which she
bore without a murmur. They were severe and exceed
ingly painful, but no one at the time believed them
fatal. The next morning Mrs. Chisolm, herself, prepared little
Johnny's body, which had lain in the parlor alone over

"Home Rule" in Mississippi, 197
night, for the grave. The coffin came from Scooba, and
after carrying the body to Cornelia's bed-side, she
kissed the pale cheeks again and again, when it was
placed in the coffin, and Willie, accompanied by two or
three friends — all who could be spared from the house —
took it off and buried it. A prayer offered at the house
by the agonized mother, was the only service held.
The same day Judge Robert Leachman, with two
ladies — Mrs. Christian and Miss Caskin — friends of
Cornelia, arrived from Meridian. They, however, could
not remain but a short time, and that same day the
doctor himself was obliged to return.
In the shadows of death, like birds of prey, they
hovered nigh, impatient of the final dissolution, and
hearing repeated threats of a renewal of the attack by
the mob as soon as they should find that Judge Chisolm
was not likely to die from the wounds already received,
a close watch was kept at night from without, while a
dozen loaded guns were always ready for use within.
For better security, planks were nailed up at the bed
room windows. The mental strain and anxiety incident
to all this, together with the inability to secure prompt
and constant medical attendance, materially lessened the
chances for recovery, and it was determined to remove
the patients to some place of safety as soon as a force
could be raised sufficiently large to insure the success of
such an undertaking.
But this it was found difficult to do, as Judge Chis
olm's friends living in the county, who had attempted to
come to the assistance of the sufferers, had, in many

198 The Chisolm. Massacre,
instances, been stopped on the highway and made to
turn back, so that now very few ventured to come, Mrs.
Griffin and her sister. Miss McDevitt, were the only
ladies in DeKalb, outside of the political friends of the
family, that ever pretended to approach the house.
They came constantly and rendered invaluable assistance.
A young man living some distance in the country,
although a democrat, visited the house once and volun
teered to assist in guarding it, or in taking the patients
to some place of safety. Another gentleman, a resident
of DeKalb, and also a democrat, came several times in
the night, and under cover of the darkness stole away,
fearing to have it known that he sympathized with them
in their affliction.
About the third day Governor Powers arrived from
Macon. The Governor remained but a day or two,
when he returned, determined, if possible, to raise a
posse and send them to our assistance. Before Gov
ernor Powers left, however, J. M. Stone, the governor of
the State, came. He told the writer, while sitting on
the steps of Judge Chisolm's house, that, after thorough
inquiry among all parties, he had been convinced that
there was a conspiracy existing in the county for the
purpose of taking Judge Chisolm's life; that he did not
believe there had ever been found a particle of proof
showing the complicity of the murdered man with the
killing of John W. Gully, and that in his belief the very
warrants for their arrest were false and fraudulent. He
further stated he did not believe that Judge Chisolm was
free from the danger of another attack by the mob, if

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 199
once it was thought he was likely to recover or get
away. On being asked if he could do anything in the
way of assuring the family protection while they might
remain, or a safeguard in moving, he replied that he
could only direct the sheriff to appoint a special deputy,
^yho might be selected by Judge Chisolm or any of his
friends. Under this deputy a number of guards, suffi
ciently large to insure protection, and chosen in the
same manner, might be placed at his disposal. To this
the reply was made that there was nothing to select a
guard from, for the very good reason that all the friends
Judge Chisolm had within reach were already enlisted,
and they needed no appointment from an imbecile and
villainous sheriff. Beside that, the experience with
guards, taken from among the citizens of Kemper county
generally, within the past few days at least, had been
such as to warrant us in not again voluntarily placing
him or his family under their protection — which would
most likely be such as vultures give to lambs.

CHAPTER XIX.
The patients both grew weaker from day to day, and
Cornelia was removed into an adjoining room. Her
solicitude for the welfare of her father knew no rest up
to the hour of his death, and often was she quieted with
the promise that on the foUowing day she would be
carried to his bed-side ; but as often were we obliged to
disappoint her, as she was never in a condition to be
removed. The physician did not return from Meridian until a
peremptory order was sent for him. What were the
influences that kept him _ away no one ever knew. The
wounded had then suffered three days without any
skiUed attention.
Within five days from the date of the tragedy every
maU that came brought letters of condolence and
sympathy, most of them coming from entire strangers,
but many written by the friends and admirers of the
bright and joyous girl whom she had met while on
her visit to the North. From the Northern States,
especially, the warmest letters came, while the news
papers of that section thundered the indignation felt by
the people in tones which could not be misunderstood.
It was the privilege of the writer of this to open and
read many of these letters, and in the lonely hours of
Cornelia's prostration, they were a source of great satis
faction and delight to her. Many of them, at her

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 201
request, were replied to at once and the answers read to
her. Then her face would light up with a sweet smile
as she would say, " Now lay them carefully away, and
some day, if I ever get well, I will answer them all
myself" A few of these letters, given here, cannot fail to inter
est the reader, as they are a further proof of the feeling
and sentiment of the people in that section of the
country from which they came ; and it is a great grati
fication to me and to all the friends of the martyred
dead, to be able to place upon record here the fact that
human nature is not everywhere dead to that boasted
sympathy which has so often been falsely claimed for it.
Washington, D. C, May 2, 1877.
My Dear Miss Chisolm :
I have read the newspaper reports of your sorrows
with a sad heart, and hasten to express my sincere sym
pathy. My husband regarded your father as one of the
kindest hearted men living, incapable of injuring his
worst enemy. In conversing with Judge T. this morning,
he made the same remark, and said it was impossible
that your father could in any way be connected with
the assassination.
I have been thinking of the last time I saw you; you
remarked " I was never so happy in my life," and now to
think of the contrast. What can I say to comfort you ?
Words cannot express the deep sorrow and sympathy I
feel for you at this moment. If I could only be with
you — take you in my arms and try to soothe your sor
rows, how gladly would I doit — but words are cold.
I can only commend you to lean on Him who loves you
better than earthly friends, and whose tender love and
compassion wUl never fail you. In aU my own troubles

202 The Chisolm, Massacre.
this has been my comfort, that " Like as a father pitieth
his chUdren, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him."
Plow is your dear mother? No doubt weU nigh
crushed by her many troubles. As younger and stronger,
a double duty falls to you ; that of tenderly caring for
both father and mother. I pray that you may have
strength for the burden thus suddenly laid upon you.
After you are calm enough to write I would like to
hear all about the matter; in the meantime please inform
me, by postal card, what are the probabilities in your
father's case? Will he recover? I most earnestly pray
that he will. Assure him of my confidence in his perfect
integrity and innocence. Judge T  wishes me to
convey to you and your family his sympathy in your
terrible affliction.
I was disappointed in not again seeing your father and
self before you left Washington ; but felt sure that you
failed to find my residence.
My kindest regards to your father and mother, and
much love for your own dear self. Lovingly yours,
Mrs. j. L. R.
This excellent letter was followed within a day or two
by another from the same kind author. The two were
read to Cornelia, and at her request the subjoined, writ
ten at the bed-side of the patient sufferer, was sent in
reply. This communication soon after found its way
into the newspapers of the country, and will be recog
nized, no doubt, by many readers :
DeKalb, Miss., May 12.
Madame: At the request of Miss Nelie Chisolm,
whose wounds render it impossible for her to write, I
serve as her amanuensis. She takes great pleasure in
acknowledging the receipt of your kind letters, which

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 203
have come to hand since the DeKalb horror took place,
and let me assure you your kindness is appreciated. I
have had the pleasure of opening your letters and reading
them to her, and from your writing judge that you do
not know the brave and devoted little daughter was
shot, beaten and mangled equally with the father. Her
right arm was shot through and through while endeavor
ing to shield her father. A whole charge of buck-shot,
which first hit the flat iron bars of the cell, struck her
full in the face, fiUing it with chips of lead and burnt
powder. A blow in the face from some brutal hand has
blackened and disfigured it in a fearful manner. She
was also shot in the leg below the knee, and is now
lying prostrate and helpless as an infant, and nothing
but the tenderest care and best surgical aid can save her
arm and precious life. Her father is still alive, but
suffering intensely; yet we have some hopes of his final
recovery. The house is being guarded by a few faithful
friends and relatives ; but we do not know at what hour
the savage barbarians may renew the attack. You can
do us all no more good at present than to lay the enor
mities of this massacre before the people at Washington,
especially the President.
AU of these kind letters touched a responsive chord in
the hearts of that household, and will never be forgotten.
The effect produced by them will remain with those who
listened to their hopeful greetings so long as the name of
Chisolm shall be perpetuated.
Philadelphia, Penn., May 2, 1877.
Judge Chisolm:
In behalf of myself and fellow members, of one of the
most influential republican clubs in this city, permit us,
one and all, to offer to yourself and noble famUy our
heartfelt, sincere sympathies in this your hour of

204 The Chisolm Massacre.
distress. Would to God we could offer you material pro
tection and effective aid. Be of good cheer; keep up
a stout heart; and may Heaven hear our prayers for
your safety. The indignation with which we received
the news of the murderous attack upon your gallant
little band, has not yet subsided, and were the distance
not so great you should sit beneath the shadow of
fifteen hundred breech-loading rifles, (the number of our
club). Oh ! for just a few minutes' interview with those
cowardly miscreants who think it so chivalrous and
brave to murder defenceless Union men. Let them
remember that although "the mills of God grind slowly,
yet they grind exceeding small," and that the avenging
goddess will, at no distant day, blot them out. The
people here at the North are beginning to talk as they
did in '6i, and it is among the possible things to have
" Sherman's march " repeated.
If you, or any of your family, will communicate to me
a full and fearless account of the events in which you
have all been such prominent actors, my thanks will be
of a substantial nature. A friend at my elbow has
suggested that if you are in need of fire-arms, be good
enough to give us the name and address of a trusted
friend. In the meantime, we all hope for your speedy
recovery, and if there is any way in which we can serve
you or yours, do us the favor to make it known at once.
Pardon this disjointed epistle, for I am laboring under
some excitement from having just finished the details ,of
your martyrdom, which wUl account for my rambUng
thoughts and tremulous chirography.
Accept, again, our sympathies and well-wishes, while
our prayers, we trust, are registered above for you all.
Yours sincerely, V. P,
The above was responded to at the time by the
request of Judge Chisolm himself and other members of

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 205
the family. Here is the reply to it, which was afterward
printed in a Philadelphia paper, with editorial comments
as follows :
"THE MARTYRED CHISOLM FAMILY.
" Throughout the length and breadth of our land the
hearts of patriotic men and women now turn with deep
and heartfelt sympathy to the lonely and broken-hearted
widow, who in her desolate home in Mississippi, grieves
with a sorrow none can know, and feels most keenly
that life is indeed a burden, with naught of happiness
for her. Mrs. W. W. Chisolm now mourns the death of
a favorite son, a beloved and accomplished daughter and
a noble and affectionate husband. In the agony of her
grief she surely is almost tempted to cry unto God and
say, ' my trials are indeed greater than I can bear.'
" We cannot give full expression to our thoughts as
we reflect that the dead are the victims of political
hatred; have been hurried to untimely graves because
of the political opinions of the head of the family.
Surely their martyrdom will give inspiration to loyal
men to move in solid column for all time to come, and
never cease in their efforts on behalf of liberty and the
republic until every traitor is driven from the land, or
made to bite the dust at the hand of avenging justice.
"The story of the attack upon Judge Chisolm, the
heroic defense on his behalf by his daughter, is too well
known to our readers to call for repetition here.
Wounded, she died for want of proper surgical and
medical treatment, which was denied her by the inhuman

2o6 The Chisolm Massacre.
mob which surrounded her. He, too, now sleeps th^
sleep of death .
" The following letter, written to a prominent citizen
of this city, is given to our readers, but, for obvious
reasons, the names of both the writer and the recipient
are withheld. As will be noticed, it was penned before
the death pf the Judge and his daughter :"
DeKalb, Miss., May 9, 1877.
* * * Philadelphia, Pa.:
Dear Sir: On behalf of Judge Chisolm and his
bereaved and afflicted family I acknowledge the receipt
of your favor of the 2d inst,, tendering them sympathy
and encouragement.
Be assured, my dear sir, that the good wishes and
thoughtful solicitation of the Republican Club, as
expressed in your letter, are well understood and
thoroughly appreciated, and every word therein con
tained finds lodgement in warm and responsive hearts.
As I write, the widow and orphan child of one of the
victims of the massacre is sitting near by — Mrs. Gilmer
— almost forsaken by her kindred, whose sympathies are
with the murderers of her husband. It is needless for
me to say she is utterly broken-hearted.
The members of the Judge's family who still survive
(himself and heroic little daughter) are both lying before
me, writhing under the affliction of a score of ghastly
wounds. Both are doing even better than we could
have hoped, though the Judge's life is despaired of The
daughter wUl probably recover, carrying through life a
maimed and crippled hand.
Little Johnny, with one arm shattered to pieces and
his heart shot out, is sleeping quietly under the ground.
The house is being guarded by a few faithful friends and

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 207
relatives, who are well supplied with shot-guns and
revolvers, and will struggle to hold out against the fearful
odds of " home rule and local self-government."
The family stand in no immediate need of assistance
of any kind ; yet God only knows how soon they may
be stripped of all earthly goods, and themselves, with
others, driven like beasts to the woods and there
murdered. We shall be pleased to hear from you at any and all
times, and would gladly detaU the full particulars of this
bloody affair, which, in all its plottings and final consum
mation, is more diabolical, cowardly and inhuman than
the Mountain Meadows massacre itself.
You can probably do us no greater good just now
than to aid in every possible way to spread the horrors
of this affair before the northern people, and at the same
timejet us all pray to God that the " hope " of a renewal
of Sherman's march may yet be a reality. Again thank
ing you, I will close. .^^ «. * 4..
Bristol, Penn., May 8, 1877.
Dear Miss Chisolm:
In your great sorrow, affliction and bereavement, which
must be almost insupportable, silent sympathy with you,
on our part, would probably be better ; but for the reason
that we know that no earthly comfort can avail, would
we write commending you and yours to the merciful care
and support of our Heavenly Father. He will not
utterly desert us, though allowing us to be sorely
afflicted and bereaved.
We have prayed for you constantly since learning all,
that God, in his infinite mercy, may restore your father
to life, and succor and enable you to get away from that
dreadful country,
I wrote to the New York Times, and hope that a
thorough investigation wiU take place, and a severe

2o8 The Chisolm Massacre,
punishment be meted out to the murderers and assassins.
Some time they wiU get their deserts, you may rest
assured. God's hand is not shortened ! •
Bear up in this great trial of your life, our dear friend.
Do not give way to despair, but commit all to God, and
light and comfort will come at last.
Be assured of our deepest sympathy; and the Lord
take care of you and yours, is the fervent prayer of your
sorrowing friends, Mr. and Mrs, T. H,
New Orleans, May 6, 1877,
Cornelia Chisolm:
Respected Miss : Please excuse the liberty taken to
address you. I am very sorry to hear of the death of
your father and brother. I hope you are not badly
wounded. Should you need any assistance let me know,
and I will do aU in my power for you. I am a republi
can and a gentleman, in every sense of the word. Should
you be in need of a home, my house is at your service.
Wishing you may soon be well, allow me to remain
very respectfully, G. M. L.
Sullivan, III., May 21, 1877.
Miss Chisolm:
Please pardon my boldness in thus addressing you,
but I could not resist after reading an account of the
troubles lately in your place. My desire is to find out
whether or not the enclosed account is true. I had the
pleasure of visiting your town in 1874, looking out a
location, but was not entirely satisfied with the climate.
You will confer a great favor on me if you will give me
the facts regarding the matter enclosed ; and I further
assure you not one word will be made public without
your consent.
Please honor me with a reply. Very respectfully,
T. B. S.

"Hovte Rule" in Mississippi. 209
Newport, R. I., May 13, 1877.
Miss Chisolm:
Pray do not consider it an unpardonable liberty when
I, unknown, write to you to express my deep admiration
of your brave conduct. I trust, with all my heart, it is
not necessary for me to add words of condolence. Please
pardon me, for I believe I shall feel better all my Ufe for
having even so much to do with such a brave, devoted
daughter. But if my writing is to be excused, I suppose
it must be because it needs no notice, so I shall write
no more. Believe me, I am yours, very humbly,
H. T. C.
Lincoln, Nebraska, May 15, 1877.
Miss Cornelia Chisolm :
Dear Friend: Although an entire stranger to you I
trust that I may yet address you as friend.
I have just been reading, in a Chicago paper, a descrip
tion of the dastardly assault made by the mob upon
your father, and of the heroic resistance made by him
and yourself Although my own work in this world is
to repeat the proclamation made by the angels to the
shepherds on the plains — "Peace on earth, good will to
man" — yet I felt a good degree of satisfaction when I
learned that at least one of the mob had been made to
bite the dust. Surely those men must have been dead
to aU sense of honor and to all the finer feelings of
human nature, I have read many accounts of mob
violence practiced upon the poor negroes in the South;
but I do not remember to have read one that equalled in
inhumanity this assault upon your father.
It is my sincere hope that your wounded father is still
alive and that he may entirely recover. It is sad to lose
a parent, but doubly sad to lose one by the hand of
savage men.
You will pardon me for saying it, but your heroism on
14

2IO ¦ The Chisolm Massacre.
that occasion has challenged my admiration. Few
young ladies would have had the nerve to face a crowd
of such desperate men. But you did it in devotion to a
father whose life was dear to you as your own, and for
this I honor you. I sincerely hope that your wounds
may speedily heal, and that your brave right hand may
not be seriously or permanently injured.
As I read the account of the brutal deeds of those
men, and of their threats of further violence, my heart
was touched, and I wished earnestly that I might be of
service to you in your hour of sore trial.
If these lines, hastily written, will in any degree
encourage you I shall only be too glad. If I could help
you in any other way I would do so. Be assured that,
though a stranger, and hundreds of miles away, my
sympathies and my prayers are with you.
Your friend, S. M. C,
Pastor Bapt. Church.

Fort Dodge, Iowa, May 17, 1877.
Miss Cornelia Chisolm:
I have just read in the New York Tribune, of May
1 1 th, an account of the most atrocious barbarism it has
been my lot to read in connection with southern politics.
Will you kindly allow me to tender you my profound
sympathy, and to express the hope that happiness may
still be in store for your wounded parent. Your conduct
I cannot sufficiently admire. I have seen few women
whom I think would have had the courage you dis
played. I trust your wounds may be speedily cured and
no permanent injury to yourself be sustained. Again
allow me to express my appreciation of your noble and
heroic conduct. I am yours respectfully,
Chas. E. T.

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 211
Terre Haute, Ind., May 10, 1877.
Miss Chisolm :
I have read with the deepest interest Mr. Smalley's
account, in the New York Tribune, of your heroism and
sufferings, and I cannot refrain from offering you a
stranger's appreciation and sympathy. Such rare courage
as you have shown must awaken the deepest interest
everywhere in the North, I know from personal expe
rience the depraved condition of society in parts of your
State, and I can comprehend somewhat the trials through
which you have passed. Pardon me if I intrude upon
your grief; I only want to say a kindly word which will
tell you that you have many friends whose faces you
have never seen. If you could spare the time, at a later
day, to send me a line, telling me of the result of your
own and your father's injuries, you will receive the grati
tude of one who, though a stranger, will always be your
friend, O. J. S.
The answer to the above afterward appeared in the
Terre Haute Express. It is copied below :
DeKalb, Miss., May 14, 1877.
Dear Sir: I am requested by Miss Nelie Chisolm and
others of the family, to retum thanks for your kind favor
to them of a recent date. Your expressions of sympathy
and regard are highly appreciated, and at some future
time, should the life of the poor girl be spared, she will
take pleasure in acknowledging her gratitude in some
more substantial manner. Her father died Sunday eve
ning last, at eight o'clock. She is yet unconscious of the
fact, and her physician says that the only hope for her is
in keeping the terrible truth to ourselves. It is beyond
the power of language to describe the affliction and dis
tress which has been experienced in this family since
that dark and bloody Sabbath. The savage coolness

212 The Chisolm Massacre.
with which the plot was matured for the destruction of
the victims, is not surpassed in the annals of crime since
the beginning of the world. While Mr. Smalley's letter
contains some truths, when taken as a whole it is a farce,
and I am surprised that a Northern man, coming here
upon the ground, should not have taken some pains to
obtain the whole truth, and, obtaining it, have the man
hood to pubUsh it.
Judge Chisolm had as noble and true a heart as ever
beat in the breast of man. He was judge of probate
of his own county before the war, and was re-elected to
that responsible position by the unanimous vote of the
people immediately after its close. He has raised an
elegant and refined family, and what better proof do
you need of their appreciation of his virtues and good
ness, than to know that every one of them, from his
innocent little boy thirteen years of age, up to the tender
and deUcate wife, followed him to the jail, where he had
been induced to go by connivance of the sheriff, under
promise of a safeguard ; and then, under the shadow of
its blackened walls, when they were assailed by three hun
dred yelling savages, fought for the husband and father
with a desperation and heroism which ought to have
palsied the most brutal arm. The sight of the little
daughter, shot, beaten and mangled in a most shocking
manner, is propf enough, it seems to me, to convince the
world that there must have been something in the heart
of the father, now dead, better than ordinarily falls to
the lot of man.
, The work of that Sabbath day is the culmination of a
scheme which has been on foot here for seven years, and
for no other purpose than that " democracy " should have
ascendancy in the county. The scenes enacted here on
the twenty-ninth of April are liable to be repeated any
where in the State when any considerable number of
republicans may see fit to organize. If you could have

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 213
any sort of conception of the indignities and dangers
through which Judge Chisolm and his family had to
pass last fall during the canvass, to say nothing of every
preceding canvass for the past seven years, you would
be compelled to relinquish at once all hope or faith in a
government tolerating such enormities. * ^f, 4^
East Mississippi Female College,
Meridian, May 13, 1877.
My Darling Friend:
Don't censure me, please, for not writing to you before.
I expect you have thought it strange that the one who
professed herself to be your greatest and truest friend
has forsaken you in the hour of darkness, when the
clouds of trouble hung thickly o'er you and your devoted
family. Believe .me, Nelie, the reason I have not written
before is, that my heart was too full of sorrow, and I
felt bowed down with such excruciating pain to think
of my loved friend suffering so much. Indeed I sym
pathize with you deeply. It is with anxiety that I
¦ hear your hand is worse ; you must be suffering agony.
If I could be with you and help care for you. I under
stand that the Christians have been very kind. It
requires misfortune to show us our true friends. I heard
of your bravery with great pride, for I understood so
well your affectionate love for your father, and knew so
weU how outraged you felt. These are mere words, yet
they come directly from my own heart, but they seem
void when compared with what I would express. If it
was in my power I would come to you at once. This
you know is impossible, as our school soon closes, and so
much is expected of me. Nevertheless, I hope I will be
' able to see you anyway as soon as it does close, which
will not be long. All the girls sympathize with you
deeply, and desire me to assure you of their sincerity. I
will write soon again, my darling. May the Lord, "who

214 TJie Chisolm. Massacre.
keepeth His people in the hollow of His hand," watch
over you and your afflicted family during this time of
trouble, and provide for your comfort ; for " He doeth all
things well." Believe me your ever devoted friend.
Annie.
Meridian, Miss., May i6, 1877.
My dear suffering friend:
The telegraphic wires brought us the doleful and
heart-rending news, yesterday, of our sweet Comelia's
death. We had previously heard that her father had left
us. Oh ! what a woe is thine, my darling friend !
This is to let you know that in all of your sorrow I
have been grieved, and have been to the altar with the
petition that the Healer will be with you and enable you
to " pass under the rod " with safety, with your armour
brightened and your sandals buckled on, ready for the
future contest with the evil one. Dear madam, I pray
that this mountain of your troubles may flow down Uke
a plain at His bidding, who holds in his hand the destiny
of nations ; and cordially join in St. Paul's prayer that
this present affliction, which is but for a moment, wUl
work out for you a far more exceeding and eternal weight
of glory.
Ah, me ! what shall I say about my dear, sweet child,
Cornelia ? I can't write about her. I wiU only say, come
expressive silence and tell my woe ; for, if I had the pen
of an Archangel, I could not make known what I feel.
Mrs. L  and all the children join me in tendering
to you and your two children their heart-felt sympathy.
Mrs. L  requested me to say to you if she could pos
sibly leave home, at this time, she would gladly come to
your house and try and console you by her presence.
Poor F  ! she was so hurt about our dear Cornelia.
We heard, yesterday, that Captain Wells was sick. I
do trust that it is nothing serious. Give him my kindest
regards. I hope he will .soon be well again.

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 215
With my prayers for your future happiness, I will have
to sink silently into a signature, M. S. B.
Washington, D. C, May 23, 1877.
Mrs. W. W. Chisolm:
Dear Madam : I do not write expecting to be able to
speak to your sorrowing heart any words of consolation,
or to say anything which will lighten your heavy burden
of grief, but I want you to know that the people of the
whole country grieve with and for you. I have just
received a letter from a gentleman in Ohio, who called
with me upon your late husband and daughter while
they were in the city. The gentleman begs me to write
you and ask for your dear lost daughter's picture, and I
assure you it could not be given into more worthy or
patriotic hands. If you can do so, will you not send me
one also ? I want to show it to the Secretary of War,
with whom I am somewhat acquainted. I called upon
the President, Attorney-General and Secretary of War,
while you were surrounded by that terrible mob which
prevented you from taking your loved ones to a place of
safety. Before any decisive steps could be taken, a hand
more powerful than a mob released them. We mourn
with you for them, and for you in your great sorrow. If
it is not too sad a task, will you write me ? If you
have a picture of the Judge, wiU you send it to me? I
wiU take it to Brady and have his portrait hung among
the nation's honored dead. My friend from Ohio, Mr.
S. M. L., who wants Miss Cornelia's picture, is a personal
friend of the President and General Garfield, I hope I
may sometime see you, and be able to speak of the many
pleasant hours I spent with your dear ones here in
Washington, Hoping to hear from you soon, and that you will have
strength to bear your terrible affliction, I am your friend
in a ftiutual sorrow, Mrs. H. H. S.

CHAPTER' XX.
Up to the hour of her death Cornelia would spurn
with contempt any good wishes tendered her that did
not cany with them the same feeling for her father, and
the very last act of her life was to tear out the leaves of
her autograph album on which were written the names
of young gentlemen whom she had reason to believe
were in sympathy with her father's enemies.
Six or eight days had passed when Capt. Shaughnessy
and Major McMichael, friends of Judge Chisolm, came
from Jackson. A plan was then entered into for carry
ing the wounded to some place where they might at
least be free from the fear of a night attack by the mob,
and accordingly Mrs. Chisolm addressed the following
appeal to Governor Stone :
To Hon. J. M. Stone, Governor of Mississippi :
Sir: Believing you to be humane and desirous of
preventing the needless effusion of blood, I most humbly
and respectfully appeal to you for aid in protecting my
husband and children, until such time as I am able, with
those of them whom God in his mercy may spare to me,
to leave the county and their home. If you can aid me
in behalf of my wounded and dying husband and
daughter, I would ask that Capt. M. Shaughnessy, of
Jackson, be authorized to raise a body of men suffi
ciently large to protect and remove us to some place of
safety. Respectfully,
Mrs. W. W. Chisolm.
This letter Capt. Shaughnessy carried with him to
Jackson, where he hoped to meet the governor. Oh his

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 217
arrival there he found that Mr. Stone had gone to
Natchez, and to that place Capt. Shaughnessy then des
patched the contents of the letter, to which the governor
repUed by telegraph as follows:
To M. Shaughnessy, Jackson, Miss.:,
I cannot consent to your proposition to go to Kemper
county with a. body of armed men. I will return as
soon as possible. J. M. Stone.
Ready to take advantage of any circumstance;, no
matter how trifling, to detract from the real facts con
cerning the outrage, and, as it would appear, add to its
horrors by persecuting any one who might openly
express a feeling of sympathy for the sufferers, a scurri
lous article charging Capt. Shaughnessy with duplicity
'in manifesting so much interest in their behalf, came
out in the Vicksburg Herald. To this editorial Capt.
Shaughnessy replied through the columns of the Com
mercial, another paper published in the place, branding
the charge as false and infamous. His reply resulted in
a challenge from Mr. Charles Wright, editor of the
Herald, to fight a duel. The proposition was promptly
accepted. The challenged party having the selection of
weapons and ground, Capt, Shaughnessy chose navy
pistols at ten paces, and named the Louisiana shore
near by as the place of combat, and thither, in company
with two or three friends and a surgeon, he at once
repaired. After having waited for many hours in vain
for the appearance of the belligerent newspaper disciple,
it was ascertained that Wright, for some reason, had
lingered in Vicksburg until arrested and placed under

21 8 The Chisolm Massacre.
bond to keep the peace. Hearing of this little act of
diplomacy, Shaughnessy's friends returned to the city,
and, without delay, put a check for the amount of
Wright's recognizance at the disposal of his bondsmen,
thus setting him at liberty to fight or "back down"
entirely, as the case might be. Some thirty-six hours
beyond the time for the hostUe meeting had passed
when the Herald chieftain, in suitable war-paint, accom
panied by his friends, appeared upon the scene. On
their arrival the thick gloom of a foggy night on the
Mississippi set in, and it was thought by the party last
on the grounds that the darkness would preclude the
possibility of a passage at arms until daylight. Capt.
Shaughnessy's friends objected to another postponement
on any pretext whatever, contending that fires could be
built, from the light of which a collision, as fair at least
for one as the other, could be had. While the commu
nications incident to all this were passing and repassing,
a proposition for the settlement of the difficulty came
from Wright's seconds. This was finally agreed upon,
Wright first withdrawing the charges made by him
through his paper, reflecting upon Shaughnessy, when
the latter, in turn, recalled the offensive language appUed
to Wright.
Thus the family were left alone, and without the hope
of aid; menaced and threatened on every hand by the
barbarians who surrounded them, thirsting for the little
blood that remained. The few friends who had come to
their aid were ready to do and die, if necessary, but
utterly powerless should the threatened attack be made.

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 219
Is it to be wondered at, then, that we are now called
upon to record the worst ?
The following private letter, addressed by Mrs. Chis
olm to Capt. Shaughnessy, but a few days after his leav
ing for Jackson, explains itself and shows something of
her feelings on the receipt of the intelligence that the
Governor had expressed his inability or unwillingness to
assist her: DeKalb, Miss., May 9th, '"jy.
Capt, M, Shaughnessy:
Kind Friend of tny Husband: — I was both grieved
and surprised to learn through this afternoon's mail, from
Gov. Stone's Private Secretary, that the Governor refused
us any protection other than that of F. C. Sinclair, who,
with the pretense of an arrest, played into the hands of
the mob. Having great reliance in your judgment, will,
and fearless bravery, I hasten to communicate the fact
to you. I hear nothing tending to give me quiet, and
everything to the reverse. Both husband and daughter
are suffering severely, more so than when you were here.
Hoping to hear from you, or better, see you,
I am very respectfully and gratefully,
Emily S. M, Chisolm,
One day, not far from this time, the writer was sitting
by the bed-side holding Judge Chisolm's hand, when he
gave the grip of a Master Mason. Thinking that he
desired to communicate something, I said:
"Judge, I did not remember that you were a Mason!"
" Yes," replied he, " I was a Mason, but the men who
tried to murder me and my children the other day, for a
long time undertook to force me to renounce my repub
licanism and join them in their nefarious political schemes.

220 The Chisolm Massacre.
To accomplish this they threatened to expel me from
the lodge. Failing in that, they sought to blacken my
character in every possible way, and finally expelled me;
but even after that I was told by Gully, T, S, Murphy,
and Charles Bell, all prominent members of the lodge, if
I would only keep quiet, politically, that I would again
be restored to honorable membership."
This is only one of the many affecting incidents which
occurred during the dark hours preceding the final scene
of desolation and woe, in witnessing which the stoutest
heart must have sunk.
Two weeks of anxious watching and labor by day and
night, with varying shadows of hope and fear on the
part of family and friends, passed by, while the pain and
suffering of the victims steadily increased, until Sunday
evening, just before eight o'clock of May 13th, Judge
Chisolm died, with his head resting in the arms of his
devoted wife. By advice of the surgeon, a knowledge of
his death was carefully kept from Comelia. To do this,
we were compelled, almost by force, to carry the widowed
mother into another portion of the house, where her
screams could not be heard by the suffering girl. During
the terrible night which followed — terrible indeed to the
inmates of that household — Cornelia, many times called
for her "mamma," who was then wholly unable to come
to her. The poor girl was deceived with the story that
her mother had a very severe head-ache and had lain
down for a little rest, and the doctor's orders were that
she must not be disturbed. In this way, Cornelia was
pacified until the morning came, when she again called

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 221
for her, and would hardly consent to be put off longer.
" Only think," she said, " I have not seen mamma since
last night, before dark; now you must let her come to
me!" After having been informed of Cornelia's request to
see her, I asked Mrs. Chisolm if she could go into her
presence without betraying any unusual emotion, calcu
lated to arouse a suspicion in Cornelia's mind of the
death of her father. "Yes," said she, " I am equal to any
thing;" and, after bathing her face in cold water, she
walked deliberately into the room and caressed the fath
erless girl, who lay there unconscious of her orphanage.
That morning the coffin came and Judge Chisolm's body
was carried off and buried as Johnny's had been, two
weeks before.
Tuesday, the r5th, the physician came in and informed
the writer (who at the time was her only attendant) of
his determination to perform an operation on Cornelia's
arm, which had become very much swollen and inflamed
from erysipelas and other causes, some of the wounds
having but imperfect drainage. A similar operation,
though not so severe, had been tried before with very
satisfactory results, and the doctor's opinion was that
this done she would begin to recover at once. The
necessary preparations for this operation were entered
upon with the greatest reluctance, as the girl was very
much reduced, and more especially as chloroform had to
be administered. This, however, was given only in small
quantities, enough to deaden the sensibilities, though not
sufficient to put her entirely under its influence.

222 The Chisolm Massacre.
The surgeon lanced the arm in several places, the
blood flowing profusely but before the operation had
been completed she returned to consciousness, com
plained of great pain and immediately fainted. All
needful restoratives were at hand, and from this she was
soon rallied, but fainted again, exclaiming as the swoon
came upon her, " O ! how dark, dark, dark ! Will the
light never come again ?" Only that light which illumines
the pathway of the glorified in heaven, appeared to her
again. Every remedy was applied that could possibly be
devised, but she continued to sink. The day was
bright and balmy, and as the breath of the dying girl
grew short and labored, the doors and windows were
opened and the fragrance of sweet flowers, from a
hundred different varieties growing in the yard, wafted
by a gentle and refreshing breeze, filled the room. A
pure white lily, almost the last object upon which she
bestowed a look or caress, rested on her bosom as she
lay in a reclining posture in a large arm chair. But the
scent of her favorite roses, or the touch of soft winds
from the cool forest shade failed to catch that eye
already dimmed by the leaden shades of death. The
heart-broken mother and little brothers, wild with grief,
gathered round, and their cries and sobs went out over
the frowning walls of the county jail, and far beyond the
limits of that blood-cursed town.
" O ! God of mercy," cried Clay, " must sister die, too ?
My sweet, sweet sister ! Murdered ! murdered ! mur
dered ! " The stricken family, together with the few

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 223
friends that stood by, sank upon the floor by the martyr's
side, while in the mute eloquence of woe, all prayed God
to spare her precious life. As long as respiration lasted
her clear and powerful intellect seemed to be at work,
for, in answer to the appeals of her mother to " try to
breathe again for papa's sake," she would struggle for
another breath ; but already her spirit was reaching out
to be welcomed by that of her beloved father in another
world ; and " Homeward she walked with God's benedic
tion upon her."
Among the stricken mourners gathered there, none
were more deeply moved than the negroes about the
place, many of whom had watched the growth of this
bright being from a child, and who loved her with an
honest and unselfish devotion. These gathered in large
numbers as they had done at the death-bed of Judge
Chisolm, and their tears were mingled with those of the
family and friends.
At two o'clock her spirit took its flight; and there,
almost under the shadow of the slaughter-pen, where the
victims were offered up, its grim walls looking down as
fixed and immovable as the hearts of those whose savage
thirst for blood had thus been satiated, lay the mangled
corpse of this pure and innocent girl, with the dark blue
marks left by blows from the assassin's hand still visible
upon her fair face and brow, now calmly composed in
death. The loving hands of Mrs. Griffin, Mrs. Hopper, Mrs.
Rush and Miss McDevitt, dressed and prepared her for
the grave, and if an angel from heaven had lain there

224 The Chisolm Massacre.
asleep, its loveliness would have been eclipsed by the
surpassing beauty of that dead girl.
By the direction of the physician, the mother, who now
sat cold and dumb and tearless, was placed under the
closest surveillance, as it was feared by all that she would
become hopelessly insane.
Wednesday the coffin came, and the martyred remains
followed those of the father and brother a distance of
twenty-two miles through a desolate and unreclaimed
region, right past the haunts of the men whose hands
were yet dripping with her blood, and who stood by the
roadside and gazed upon the mournful scene with an
expression of stolid indifference. From early morning
until five o'clock in the evening the solemn march pro
ceeded, when a bright and cheerful little spot broke upon
the view — an oasis in the great desert of Kemper
County — the place where our heroine was born nineteen
years before, and where now the father, daughter and
son sleep side by side.
Thus, within sight of three christian churches, one'
after another the victims sank and died, and not a min
ister of the gospel nor a member of the congregation with
which the mother and murdered daughter worshiped, ever
offered to cross the threshold of the house of mourning.
One after another the mangled forms were carried out
and buried, with just enough hands to perform the man
ual labor incident thereto, and not a requiem was sung
nor a benediction offered, save only the prayers yvhich
came silently and spontaneously from the hearts of the
faithful few who stood around.

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 225
After diligent inquiry, it is yet to be learned that any
clergyman preaching in DeKalb, Scooba or Meridian —
aU immediately adjoining towns — has publicly alluded
to this in any way. What may be said of a condition
of society, which so bridles the mouths of the chosen
messengers of the Great Prince of Peace, that they dare
not lift their voices against such a crime as this; and
that because of the peculiar political faith of those who
are made victims of the sacrifice?
Thus the curtain falls upon this act in the tragedy,
and with it ends the career of a family whose only rule
of law in the domestic circle was that of love, and
whose worst offense against their feUows, was the free
exercise of an honest conviction which the constitution
of the country guarantees to its humblest citizen. From
the father down, a kiss or a fond caress was the only
sure password to their hearts, and the only punishment
ever offered for any disobedience of parental authority or
other supposed wrong-doing.
Cornelia, at once a martyr to a God-like filial affection,
and a victim of savage outlawry, the oldest of the
children and the brightest jewel of the household, was
the star of her mother's hope, and her father's especial pet
and idol. Happy and vivacious, tender, true and faithful
to every kindly impulse, her heart was capable of loving
the whole world. Possessed of superior intelligence, her
character was graced with a purity which gave her an
elevated and commanding place in the scale of young
and useful womanhood, into which she had just entered,
and her untimely and terrible death has left a wound in
15

226 The Chisolm Massacre.
the hearts of all who knew her- well which time can
never heal, while a million accursed lives like that of
Rosser and his followers can never atone for a single
drop of her pure and innocent blood.

CHAPTER XXI.
The traces of the bloody sacrifice extended around
the iron cages from the top of the jail all along the stair
case and haU way to the outside entrance; over the
smooth, grassy common to the house; through the Uttle
window from the back porch and across the floor to the
room where the wounded were placed; and from there to
every closet and corner where busy fingers, leaving red
stains, turned in search of lint, bandages or whatever
could be found for the relief or comfort of the wounded.
These crimson marks had scarcely had time to dry when
every species of falsification and evasion of or detraction
from the real facts concerning the massacre were put
forth, through the agency of the local press and volun
tary newspaper writers of the State. A number of
journals, it is true, condemned the crime as the murderers
themselves should have been condemned and executed
long ago; and among the people there was a goodly
number who really sympathized with the family and
their friends; but these were slow and exceedingly
cautious in the manifestations of their feelings. A com
munication of the kind alluded to, which appeared in
one of the leading newspapers, is here given. It tacitly
admits the horrors of the slaughter in an endeavor to
find justification for the act. The assertions made by
"A Subscriber" have been fully discussed and answered
in the preceding pages, and this sweeping and unquali-

228 The Chisolm Massacre.
fied statement of an individual who was himself one of
the prime movers in the conspiracy, is not nor can it be
sustained by a single corroborating circumstance, or wit
ness, living or dead. It is reproduced to show the spirit
which moves the hearts of these men, after the voices of
their victims have been silenced forever, and they seek to
violate the graves filled by their own red hands, when no
power on earth remains to vindicate the honor of the
dead. Here is the letter :
DeKalb, Miss,, June 15, 1877.
Editor Meridian Mercury:
Knowing that you are using all your powers to put
the Kemper riot in its true light before the world, I have
concluded to give you a few of the leading facts in
respect to it. During the last eight or nine years, Kem
per county has been infested with a set of well organized
forgers, thieves, robbers and murderers. The very best
man among them was without a peer in villainy among
the Murrell or Copelan clans. They would rob, forge
and steal by day, arid kill and murder by night. For
illustration: Numbers of men, and women too, widows,
have paid their taxes every year on their lands and have
their receipts to prove it ; but their lands have gone to
the State for from five to eight years, and are delinquent
and not one cent of taxes paid in. Men who now,
under honest tax gatherers, pay eight to ten dollars,
under the Chisolm-GUmer clan paid from twenty-eight
to thirty-five dollars; the tv/enty to twenty-five dollars
was clear robbery of the people every year. They per
petrated frauds and swindles innumerable, mostly in
county warrants, some of which I could specify if time
and space would allow. The first of the bloody crimes
was the murder of J. H. BaU in 1869. It was peculiarly

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 229
atrocious and heart-rending. His house was surrounded
at night with himself and family in it. Guns were fired
into it, and the vigorous assault demonstrated the
murderous intent. It was death to remain, and almost
certain death to fly. The latter presented a gleam of
hope and he tried it. He cleared the house and passed
his assaUants, but was seen, pursued and barbarously
butchered away out in his cotton field. He did not die
immediately, but lived to tell who his immediate
murderers were. They were negroes known to be tools
of Chisolm. That, with a thrilling scene between him
and Chisolm about three weeks before, with no eye to
see and no ear to hear, when and where it was in truth
Ball sacrificed his own life to his weak humanity, demon
strates, to a moral certainty, that his killing was of
Chisolm's procuring. He was shot and killed in the night
time, if not, to quote the special correspondent of the
New York Tribune " by some one in hiding by the road
side." The proofs were produced in this case, but the
parties were acquitted. It was only a white man and a
democrat was killed. In 1870, Sam Gully was killed by
Ben Rush, on the streets of DeKalb. He was tried and
acquitted, though he had deliberately gone out with his
gun to intercept his victim with intention to commit
murder. Hal Dawson was killed, in 1871, by Bill Davis,
at Scooba, in conspiracy with J. P. Gilmer, two notorious
members of the Chisolm clan. Gilmer inveigled him to
where Davis could shoot him down with impunity, and
shot two bullets into his head after he was down.
Chisolm was all-powerful then, and as sheriff protected
the murderers, and so powerful was he in his wickedness
that they were not only never punished, but never in any
danger of being punished by any legal method. On the
contrary, he was rewarded by being elected to a seat in
the State Senate ; and ever after that was near to Chis
olm and a co-worker in all his schemes. The virtuous

230 The Chisolm Massacre.
friendship of Damon and Pythias, long ago, was not
surpassed by the love and affection these twin workers
of iniquity bore each other. W. S. Gambrel, a mUd
republican, and generally beliked by the good white
people, was State Senator when Hal Dawson was killed
and Gilmer set his covetous eyes upon the office as a
reward for bloody service. It was easy for them to do,
and poor Gambrel " was shot by some person in hiding
by the road side," and thus was made the vacancy in the
State Senate for Gilmer to fill as his reward for kiUing
Hal Dawson. In killing Gambrel they accomplished
two desirable ends — they got rid of a man who refused
to become an accomplice in their villainies, and made the
way clear to reward a favorite.
A young man by the name of Floyd was killed in his
store, in 1873, by a hired assassin. The murderer was
arrested, but Chisolm was sheriff and permitted him to
escape. The murderer rode away a gray pony furnished
by McClellan, the "British subject." He took up and
staid awhile in Jasper County, and in a drunken spree
told the tale, and then left for parts unknown. About
this time, Bob Dabbs was waylaid in DeKalb, and shot
and killed by a negro clansman. There was then an
unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Mr. Thomas Morton
" by some person in hiding by the road side," occurred in
1875. A charge of buckshot was -sent through his
shoulder, severely wounding him. Dennis Jones, colored,
was shot and killed "by some person in hiding by the
road side," in 1876. The shooting of John W. Gully in
December last, had the design of it been fully successful,
would have been the best laid plan of them aU. He
was to have been killed on the road between two negro
houses, one hundred and fifty to two hundred yards
apart, and it was to have been laid on them. And on
his final taking off in April, it was attempted to make
the same impression that it was the deed of negroes, by

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 231
robbing him of his boots, hat, pistols and money. Chis
olm had made a threat that he intended to make the
people of the county feel him. From his past record
and present success in procuring a good citizen to be
killed, the people might well dread he would make good
the threat, and enquire, who next ? That question pre
sented a horrible and maddening thought. For ten
years Chisolm and his gang had pursued their course of
public robbery and private murder, unchecked and un-
baffled by human laws, and they had begun, now, to
execute his latest threat, to make the people of the
county feel him in a bloody murder, and the dread ques
tion each man wHb helped to bury John W. Gully put
to himself — who next? What wonder the next day
brought the DeKalb riot? The 29th of April tells the
tale of people in madness thwarting the bloody threat
in blood. Put forward, as it has been done, in its worst
aspect, we must confess that the killing of the son and
daughter looks savage-like; but stated in its true light
and without any coloring, and it is not so 'oad. The
guards stationed in the jail all agree, that after the first
gun fired by Chisolm, which killed Dr. Rosser, several
shots were fired at him filling the room with smoke.
The little boy, frightened, ran in front of his father, and
he, seeing him indistinctly, supposed him to be one of
his assailants, and shot him. His daughter was wounded,
frantically clinging to her father by some one over ex
cited and rendered incautious thereby. It was deplor
able, and none deplore it as the actors in the tragedy.
These men, whom no written law could ever reach, the
unwritten higher law took hold on that 29th of April;
its adjudications were soon made, and the execution of
them a terrible example, for the crime which has had a
long and successful career, defying law or evading it by
ways scarcely less criminal than the infraction of the
law whose penalties they avoid.
A Subscriber.

232 The Chisolm Massacre.
The men against whom the grave charges in the
above are aimed cannot answer them. They are dead.
They cannot compel the murderer tq produce the testi
mony against them, or by his failure to do so prove him
self a liar as well. The falsifier and traducer believes he
has now as little to fear from resistance to the assaults
of his envenomed tongue, as the assassin did from
defense against his bullets after the chosen victims had
been disarmed and securely fastened in jail. But in this
at least let us hope they have committed an error.
There is but one statement in this voluntary libel having
the semblance of truth, and that is found in the para
graph relating to the existence, in Kemper county, of a
" well organized band of forgers, thieves, robbers and
murderers ; the very best man among them being with
out a peer in villainy among the Murrell or Copeland
clans." If the writer had gone back forty years instead
of " eight," in dating the beginning of organized robbery
and murder in Kemper county, his communication would
have been spared the condemnation of unblushing and
unqualified falsehood ; for Copeland himself, in his " Con
fession on the Gallows," as published by Dr. F. R. S,
Pitts, the sheriff who executed him, draws heavily from
Kemper county for the material of which that thrilUng
and blood-curdling story of crime and outlawry is com
posed. The names of some of these men are there
given. Their descendants are living in Kemper and
adjoining counties to-day, and the most diabolical mur
ders and robberies of which the annals of crime furnish
proof have been committed within its borders during the

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 233
past six months, and there never has been but one white
man executed in the county for any offense since the
admission of the State into the Union.
The question is now asked, if the charges of the
writer quoted be true, why were these " great criminals "
— Chisolm, Gilmer and others — never punished, or
sought to be punished, in some legal way, after the over
throw of their power and the corrupt rule of 'radicalism'
in the county?" Rush had gone from their reach into
another State, it is true; though nothing but the fear
of death from a concealed foe caused his flight. The
two Hoppers and Rosenbaum, all of them "accessory
to the kUling of Gully," and thieves and robbers on the
most gigantic scale — "the good people" of Kemper
would have us believe — are alive and well to-day, and
two of them are still within the county, and they fear
nothing but the murderous bullet from ambush. No
process of the law has any terror for them. Rosen
baum and one of the Hoppers, under the threat of
assassination, have been forced to seek employment
elsewhere, and the other Hopper has been whipped into
temporary obedience to the will of the Klan; other
than this they are in no danger. If Judge Chisolm, as
sheriff, ever "robbed the widow and the orphan," as
claimed, why were not the " tax receipts " in the posses
sion of those robbed produced in court, the sheriff sued
upon his bond for misdemeanor in office, the money
recovered and himself sent to the penitentiary?
But as an ultimatum and a proof positive of his
many crimes, the argument is made that Judge Chisolm

234 The Chisolm Massacre.
grew rich while sheriff. It is true, as stated before, that
he accumulated property while in that office, as did
every other sheriff in the State during a corresponding
period, without regard to party affiliations. The posi
tion is admitted to be the most lucrative, as it is certainly
the most influential in the disposition and control of
public patronage within the State. This, no doubt, is
the secret of the great crime, growing out of its posses
sion for so many years by some one adverse to the
Gullys and their especial favorites.
But the groans of the wounded, pent up by barred
windows and closed blinds, were yet wringing the hearts
of the few friends and relatives on watch, while editorials
like the following were being printed and circulated
throughout the country.
The Meridian Mercury, always first in a good work,
regaled its peaceful and law-loving readers with senti
ments of this kind :
Perhaps the time is now ripe for us to speak what we
had intended to.
What Governor Stone has requested Judge Hamm to
do about holding a special term for an early investigation
we don't know. Judge Hamm has ordered no special
term, and we think it is safe to predict that he will not.
If we ever had a strong conviction about anything, we
never had a stronger one than that it is best not.
April 29th, in DeKalb, never ought to be investigated,
and if wisdom and statemanship prevail, never will be.
On that day, the higher law, which antedates common
law and all other law, ousted them all and their ministers
of jurisdiction, and for a brief period of time, sufficient
to its purposes, held sway. Its judgments were final.

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 235
As they affect the living and the dead, they are res
adjudicata, and will ever remain so. No court is com
petent to disturb them. Every attempt to review them
will be both futile and mischievous. Special instructions
to grand jurors are likely to go unheeded, and to save an
exhibition of their impotency had best not be given.
The best thing the law and the ministers can do about
the tragedy is to save their strength for the future as
wiser than wasting it foolishly and vainly on the past.
* * * * * * *
From all accounts, we estimate there were three to
four hundred men. Every man of these was equally a
principal in the murder, if murder was committed, with
any other man. Besides this, nearly every adult white
man in the county, who was not present, is resolved to
stand by those who were there, and approve them as good
and true citizens and not criminals. Can three or four
hundred men who were present, and all principals alike
in any crime committed, with an entire county besides
resolved to protect them against any consequences the
law denounces against their acts, be indicted, tried, con
victed and hung or sent to the penitentiary for Ufe ?
This was followed by Mr. P. K. Mayers, of the
Handsboro Democrat, who murdered Mr. Orr at Pass
Christian, in open day, and now writes editorials compli
menting the courage and chivalry of his Kemper
brethren, who, if possible, are more cowardly and brutal
than himself
Here is the language of the Democrat :
We have refrained from editorial comment upon the
unfortunate but necessary kiUing of scallawag Gilmer,
and the wounding of scallawag ex-Judge Chisolm, in
Kemper County, because we were loth to blame before
we were in possession of all the facts, and because we

236 The Chisolm Massacre.
were determined not to justify a lawless act, no matter
by whom committed. 'We are for compelling individuals
to seek remedies for wrongs, real or supposed, in such
a way as not to endanger the peace of society. But
when the conduct of individuals offending is so violent,
that society must be outraged and ruined before legal
remedies can be applied, the summary punishment of
such individuals becomes pardonable.
The facts in the case under discussion, disclose a fear
ful state of affairs in Kemper County. It appears that
Gilmer, Chisolm and their confederates, for several years
pursued a system of robbing, murder and assassination,
and have defied and eluded the law. Three times they
attempted to murder the unfortunate man, whose un
timely death led speedily to retributive justice on their
own heads. The last time they succeeded. It appears
that the barbarous brutes and cowards, in addition to
the waylaying and butchering of two Gullys, have stolen
the records of the Courts, and thus cut off the only
chance society had to protect itself What wonder is
it, then, that the people outraged have at last seized the
law in their own hands, and administered a fierce and
swift justice on the heads of the butchers of the res
pected but unfortunate Gullys. However we may
deplore the manner of their " taking off," we cannot but
be glad society is rid of the monsters Gilmer & Co.
¦We regret to observe, on the part of all the Radical
press of the State, a disposition to make political cap
ital out of the unhappy affair, and we are ashamed of
that portion of the Democratic press, which has been
swift to condemn the avengers of the Gullys, simply
because surviving scallawags and carpet-baggers of no
better repute than their defunct co-partners in crime
may howl over their timely demise. Doubtless these
wretches, like their Mormon prototypes, Brigham Youqg
and " Mountain Meadow " Lee, would even be glad at

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 237
society patiently bearing their atrocities. It will not do
so. They must meet the consequences of their crimes.
For years they have plundered, robbed, murdered, burned
and assassinated with impunity. They must now pay
with their lives and necks for a continuance of these acts.
The slow but leaden hand of Justice crushed the MoUie
Maguires of Pennsylvania, it will crush the banded clan
of murdering scallawags and carpet-baggers in Miss
issippi. We are for law where it can be had, but above
all for justice.
The Jackson Clarion, which is really an able and
influential journal, and truthfully represents the brain
and heart of Mississippi's best citizenship, comments
upon this grave affair as follows :
Major Ethel Barksdale is responsible for this :
The long era of corrupt and inefficient government,
through which both Mississippi and Louisiana have
passed, has brought about a want of confidence in and res
pect for the law, and given to violent and lawless men a
dangerous latitude of action. This evil must be vigor
ously eradicated from both States. We have heard of
no more atrocious crime, than that which was perpetrated
in Kemper County, and Gov. Stone has now an oppor
tunity, by fearless and determined action, to strUce such
terror to the hearts of lawless men in Mississippi, that
he will, if he avails himself of it, have little trouble of
a simUar nature in the future." — New Orleans Democrat.
This is a specimen of the tub, which some Southern
newspapers that ought to know better, is throwing out
to -the Northern whale, which they imagine is craving
for a sensational feast. The conductors of those papers
cannot but know, that sometimes there are evils to be
uprooted, for which no peaceable methods provide suf
ficient remedies, and that others besides "violent and

238 The Chisolm. Massacre.
lawless men " resort to them. Chief among them is sys
tematic and premeditated assassination, the evidence of
which is necessarily circumstantial, but of which there is,
nevertheless, confirmation as strong as proof of holy
writ to the public mind. That the Kemper County
affair is the product of the bad passions which were
propagated under Radical misrule, and that they were
indulged by depraved and vicious men, who flourished
under it, cannot be questioned. But that the men who,
to rid the community of the evils which it "inflicted were
compelled to resort to summary measures were "lawless
and violent" in the sense employed, we utterly deny.
If our New Orleans cotemporary will tax his memory
just a little he wiU readily recall "crimes" equally as
" atrocious " as the Kemper affair, when outraged com
munities were forced, by abuses for which they were not
responsible, to inflict summary vengeance upon evil
doers. It happened at Mechanics' Institute, in New
Orleans, in 1868; in Grant parish in 1874; in New
Orleans again on the memorable 14th of September;
at Clinton, Miss., in 1875, and at Hamburg, South Caro
lina, in 1876. If our New Orleans neighbor will tax his
memory he will recall the scenes at San Francisco just a
few years preceding the war; and the summary ven
geance the Indiana people inflicted upon the Reno clan,
after finding that the slow processes of the law were
wholly inadequate to the punishment of assassins who
lurked in thickets on the way-side, and made their tracks
under the cover of darkness.

We don't understand what is meant by the call upon
Governor Stone to strike " terror into the hearts of law
less men in Mississippi." The governor is as much
bound by the law as other people are, and it distinctly
prescribes his duties. It gives him no authority to try

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 239
anybody, to hang anybody, or to put anybody in the
penitentiary. The men engaged in the Kemper affair
did their work in open day. They will not run away
nor hide themselves. They are amenable to the laws,
and judicial tribunals are established to try them. It
will be time enough for the governor to exercise his
power as commander-in-chief when the laws for the
punishment of the accused are defied and the courts are
shown to be powerless to execute their decrees.
The Okalona Southern States thus addresses the
people of the North, whose eyes are turned upon Mis
sissippi in just and withering condemnation of its whole
people for suffering such acts as are here recorded to go
unheeded and unwhipped :
Talk of the Kemper county outrage ! Was that any
thing when compared to the murders, and burning, and
devilish outrages of every character and description that
you visited upon us while the civil war was in progress ?
Down, down on your knees you wretches, and pray God
to forgive your atrocities before you dare to rebuke us
for anything. We have had just about enough of this
tigerish interference on your part.
Elsewhere, mention is made of the responsibility of
Thomas S. Gathright in bringing about the horrors
of the 29th of April, in DeKalb, and here again an
opportunity is found for quoting his language bearing
upon that matter. What is reproduced will be found in
a letter written by Mr. Gathright to the Jackson Clarion,
and bears date, "Central Texas, June i, 1877." It is
over the well known nom de plume of " William." Here
is his language :
It is high time that some people in Mississippi were

240 The Chisolm Massacre.
learning the lesson written in Kemper in lines of blood,
that the tyrant, the traitor and the assassin will sooner
or later be overtaken by a frightful retribution, and that
all who are partisans and mourners of such are but
biding their time.

CHAPTER XXII.
Time advances, and whUe these scenes are fresh in the
memory of all who witnessed them, five victims offered
as a bloody sacrifice, and three others are driven from
their families and homes, it transpires that the pretended
evidence of their guilt is no where to be found. Not
even a resort to the halter or lash could wring from the
two negroes a statement calculated to imperil the life of
an innocent man. The witnesses whose names appeared
on the forged warrant of arrest, have been questioned
and declare their entire ignorance of the facts, if such
facts ever had an existence save in the fertile brain of the
perjurer and assassin. The next startling intelligence
comes from the same reliable source quoted in the
preceding chapter — the Meridian Mercury — with an
admission like the following :
We have information of a fact which, if true, as we
beUeve it to be, leads almost irresistibly to the conclusion
that Chisolm was an accomplice of the assassin of Gully,
Ah ! we are now consoled with a declaration from the
excicutioner that he is in hopes, ere long, to be able to
fasten the evidence of guUt upon those whose heads
have already fallen into the basket. The Vicksburg
Herald comes to the defense of the Mercury and, in a
similar strain, says :
i6

242 The Chisolm Massacre.
It is now coming to light that there is some very con
vincing proof that Gilmer, Chisolm and Company were
accessory to the cowardly murder of John W. GuUy.
Following this, the paper first named again steps to
the front and places the question beyond the reach of a
doubt :
We have stated the " fact " for " information of the
Times" which " leads almost irresistibly to the conclu
sion that Chisolm was an accomplice in the assassination
of Gully." Though Rush was unseen to the general
public after the attempt of the 20th of December, he
was seen in Chisolm's house — business house — in
DeKalb, with some of the Chisolm gang, in the night
time. Even in that secret place, he kept his double-
barrel gun in hand. He went behind the counter to mix
him a drink of whisky, and yet held on to his gun the
while. This is a bit of circumstantial evidence, it is true,
but we ask the Times if it does not "lead almost
irresistibly to the conclusion that Chisolm was an accom
plice." All that the author of the above seems to require is a
little time. If the people will remain silent and allow
the ghosts of the murdered father and children to rest
quietly in their graves, sufficient proof will be found to
convince the world that Comelia and Johnny, McLellan
and Gilmer and Judge Chisolm ought to have been
entrapped in jail by the sheriff and there butchered.
Whether in compliance with this prophetic advice or
not, those entrusted with the execution of the law have
rested quietly enough, God knows.
A few short and eventful weeks have followed, while
the hearts of the widow and orphan, still writhing under

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 243
their bereavement, and pouring forth a ceaseless fountain
of tears, have anxiously waited the fulfillment of the
above revelation, terrible though its reaUzation might be
to them, having nothing better offered upon which to
settle down and rest a future of absolute hopelessness
and despair. While thus living in daily anticipation of
this promised disclosure, another and a very different
scene suddenly bursts upon the view, and which estab
lishes conclusively and at once the entire innocence of
the accused, and as quickly and effectually exposes the
enormities of the conspiracy, through means of which
the " Slaughter of the Innocents" was procured. Refer
ence is had to the affidavit sent by B. F. Rush, from
Russellville, Arkansas, which clearly shows the fact that
he could not possibly have had anything to do with the
assassination of Gully on the 26th of April, as he was
at Russellville on that very day. The affidavit is here
presented, bearing the signatures of twenty-five good
citizens of that place:
The State of Arkansas, ]
Pope County, j
To all whom it may concern :
We, the undersigned, citizens of said county and
State, hereby certify that we are acquainted with B. F.
Rush, and have been since some time in March last. He
has been in regular attendance at our Sabbath school;
he is now living and has been since the time above
specified, with one J. W. Harkey, which fact many of us
know of our own personal knowledge, having been at
said Harkey's, and meeting with said Rush there, and
well know that he was not nor could have been in Mis
sissippi at the time he was alleged to have been. In

244 The Chisolm Massacre.
testimony whereof, we hereunto affix our names this the
lOth day of June, A.D. 1877:
C. B. Falkington, M. W. Parker,
L. G. Turner, Wm. Duncan,
J. M. Moore, W. H. Rushing,
J. J. Stout, G. W. Rushing,
John L. Stevenson, W. M. Mullins,
B. A, Tully, O. D. Wilson,
E. B. WooTEN, S. J. Mullins,
W. J. Briman, David McCormick,
H, C, Hamilton, A. B. Willifson,
L, D. Bryant, J. S. Wheeler,
J. M. Berryhill, Z. T. Turner,
A. P. Bryant, A. H. Humphreys.
The State of Arkansas, )
County of Pope. j
I, J. W. Sharkey, do solemnly swear that I am well
acquainted with B. F. Rush, and have been since the
22d day of March, 1877, since which time he has con
tinuously lived with me, and I know that he was at work
with me_ at my farm, in said county, on the 26th day of
April, 1877. J. W. Sharkey.
Sworn to and subscribed before me this 13th day of
June 1877, and I certify that said affiant is a creditable
and respectable citizen of said county.
A. J. Bayliss,
[Seal.] Clerk Circuit Court Pope Co., Ark.
But not yet satisfied, an effort is made to bring Rush
from Arkansas on a requisition, charging him with the
intent to kUl Gully on the 20th of December, at the
time the latter was wounded. That everybody believed
if Rush was brought back he would be murdered there

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 245
is no doubt, and that Governor Stone himself enter
tained this view is shown by the fact that, after reflec
tion, he telegraphed the governor of Arkansas — Mr.
Miller — not to recognize the requisition. Upon this
despatch of Governor Stone the prisoner, after having
been arrested and placed in the hands of the agent for
Mississippi — a member of the Gully family — was released
on an imperative order from Governor Miller, of Arkansas.
The following letter, written by Rush a few days
later, will explain the matter more fully, and shows the
extent of this conspiracy to take his life :
Russellville, Ark., July i, 1877.
Dear Friend: Enclosed I send you a copy of a let
ter which I have written Gov. Stone, of Mississippi, in
reference to my recent arrest, in which you will see that
I have been kidnapped and put to a great deal of
trouble; though, thank God, I had the sympathy of all
Russellville and vicinity, and I state to you in confidence.
Gully would never have gotten away from Russellville
with me, from what I have since learned. My friends
were on the alert. I am fully pursuaded that it was a
grand conspiracy for my assassination. I don't believe
I would have been permitted to have seen Little Rock.
I am confident, and so are my friends, that the plan was
to kill me before reaching Mississippi, for it appears that
Gully would not release me under any consideration, but
said I would be released in Little Rock. After the
Governor had ordered my release, he then refused to
allow me the privilege of a private conference with my
attorneys, saying that he was governed by what his
brother-in-law. Col. Jacaway, advised. The sheriff, after
seeing Gov. Stone's despatch, which virtually released
me, when I asked him, as my protector, not to deliver
me into the hands of my enemies, did so, and then pro-

246 The Chisolm Massacre.
ceeded to take from my pocket my key, and dive into
my private letters and matters generally. Hand-cuffed
they took me to the hotel, where, thank God, I had good
friends. Gully not being acquainted. I was lodged in a
room up stairs, and there, by Gully, chained down. You
can well iniagine my feelings. The landlord, Mr. Tucker,
gave up his room below, and occupied one adjoining
mine. He slept none, I am confident, because I could
hear him at all hours. I will ever bear him in kind
remembrance. Judge Davis, Col. Wood and W. C.
Ford were my attorneys. My financial matters were
limited, but with the aid and assistance of kind friends
— Mr. J. W. Haskey especially — I was furnished with
a plenty to put me through. I looked upon my sit
uation as a life and death matter, and so did my friends.
You can have my letter to Gov. Stone published, if you
think best. I would like my friends abroad to know of
my troubles. I have now made up my mind to go to
some Northern city. It appears that I am to be per
secuted and hounded down all my life. I am in a crit
ical condition. My friends think it best for me to keep
private, not knowing who may be lurking for me. I am
now out on the mountain writing. Am out of money,
and in my condition, can make none. My friends think
I had best not be stirring about. Would Uke for you
to go up to DeKalb, at your earliest convenience, and
read this letter to my wife and children.
Your friend, B. F, RUSH.
P. S. — If my friends in Mississippi see proper to help
me — I do not ask it as a gift — I am yet able, notwith
standing I am shot up and crippled for life, to make a
living, and more, too, and will repay all they may con
tribute to my relief in this time of trouble.
B, F. R.
'With the affidavit presented by Rush, the bottom
upon which the superstructure of the conspiracy was

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 247
reared, falls out. To find palliation or justification now,
the conspirator must go outside of the assassination of
Gully, and beyond the reach of any record left by
the men upon whose heads have already fallen the visita
tions of his deep villainy. Rush, having been in Arkan
sas continuously from the first of March preceding, could
not have killed Gully on the 26th of April, at DeKalb,
Mississippi. This, to the friends of the martyred dead,
signifies much, as it places beyond the possibUity of
belief the last charge which their persecutors have been
able to bring against them. Yet, to the red-handed
plotters of iniquity, it all goes for naught, as their work
is accomplished, and they are left free to commit any
similar act whenever occasion presents.
But a sense of shame seems to have found lodgement
in the hearts of some of the apologists for the killing of
defenseless women and children, and sooner than main
tain absolute silence, the following grave and alarming
aspersion is cast upon the physician under whose treat
ment the wounded sank and died. If Mississippians are
content with the assertion and belief that a surgeon,
because of his blind adherence to the pecuUar political
faith which they have made essential to citizenship,
would suffer the victims of prejudice and hate to die
when it was within the power of human skill to have
saved them, after having been entrusted to his sacred
care as a physician, then indeed the case becomes " ten
fold " more horrifying. In connection with this subject,
the Vicksburg Herald comes to the relief of the broken
hearted survivors, even at the risk of the terrible conse-

248 The Chisolm Massacre.
quences foreshadowed above, in language as follows:
The accident of Miss Chisolm's death caused by mal
practice, and not by her slight wound, adds tenfold to the
deplorable consequences.
Now that the "good people" of Kemper have had
ample opportunity to assert their inherent manhood in
the selection of leaders whose " virtue and inteUigence "
is found to be in keeping with that of the sovereigns
themselves, and when again it is asked why these men
never were convicted of the multifarious crimes with
which they were and are still so freely charged, it is said
that the courts and the juries were so completety under
their control as to make the indictment of one of their
political faith an impossibiUty. Let us examine into the
facts, and see if this be true or false.
Since 1866, the boards of supervisors elected in the
county, with the bare exception of the year 1869, have
been under the management of the democratic party.
That is to say: a majority of each board has been con
servative and democratic, which signifies its entire control
by that party. To make this statement good, and place
the fact beyond contradiction, the names of the men
comprising the various boards in the order of their elec
tion, since the year 1866 is given, designating each by
showing opposite the name their political affiliation :
BOARD OF 1866.
John R. Brittain, .... Democrat.
R. Jarvis,
D. H. Garner,
C. F. Johnson,
James W. Hardin, . , , . Democrat;

"Home Rule" in Mississippi.
BOARD OF 1867.

249

John H. Oden,
J. W. Hardin,
M. D. Crawford,
R. Jarvis,
C. F. Johnson,

T. N. Bethany,
D. McNeil,
G. E. Priddy,
Wm, Ezell,
Hozie Flore,

E. Edwards,
D. McNeil,
Wm. Hudson,
G. E. Priddy,
T. N. Bethany,

Moses Halford,
John R. Davis,
R. Nave, ,
G. E. Priddy,
W. K. Stennis,

John R. Davis,
E. Edwards,
J. A. Jenkins,
R. Nave,
T. W, Adams,

BOARD OF 1869.

BOARD OF 187I.

BOARD OF 1872.

BOARD OF 1874.

Democrat.

Republican.
Independent. Republican.

Democrat.
Republican.Democrat.
Independent.Republican.

Republican. Democrat.Republican.
Independent. Democrat.

Democrat.Republican.

ISO

The Chisolm Massacre.

BOARD OF 1876.

T. H. Hampton,
John R. Davis,
E. Edwards,
J. C. Carpender,
Robert Griggs,

Democrat.

Republican.

Following this the Revised Code of Mississippi is
quoted, showing the power that a board of supervisors
has in the selection of grand juries :
Article IX., Section 726. — Grand jurors in each county
shall be selected as follows :
The board of supervisors in each county, at least thirty
days before each term of a circuit court, shall select
twenty persons, to be taken as equally in numbers as
may be from each supervisor's district, possessed of the
requisite qualifications to serve as grand jurors at the
ensuing term. * * *
Section 727. — The names of the person so selected
shall be entered on the minutes of the board. The
clerk of the board shall, without delay, hand the sheriff
of the county a certified copy of such appointment of
grand jurors, and the sheriff shall summon such jurors
by personal service, if to be found, or, if not, by written
notice left at their respective places of abode, at least
five days before the commencement of the term, to
appear and serve on the grand jury.
It so happens, then, that the grand juries of Kemper
county have been, for the past ten years, chosen by
democrats. This body of men, after a foreman has been
selected by the circuit judge, is placed under the personal
supervision of the district attorney, who, in Kemper,
has always been a pronounced bourbon and white-liner.

"Home Rule" in Mississippn. 251
Hence the grand juries have been largely composed of
white men, but few negroes being impanneled at any
one time. The scarcity of white republicans has some
times made this a necessity, and afforded a pretext for
making a majority of each jury Anglo-Saxon, and favor
able to the great tenets of "local self-government."
These facts, if nothing else, have often compelled the
presiding judge, although a republican, to appoint a fore
man from among those entertaining political opinions
opposed to his own. Now, with this exhibit before us,
it is told that these men have not been indicted, con
demned and imprisoned, , because, forsooth, " the courts
and the juries have been so completely under their con
trol, as to make a conviction for an offense committed by
them impossible." Fearing that an enlightened people
may not be quite satisfied with a subterfuge like this —
and since the courts, juries and everything else have gone
into the hands of the "home people," and those who do
not agree with them politically, are whipped and mur
dered without mercy or the hope of justice — a proposi
tion more astounding, and if possible, more hoUow and
groundless is offered. It is now told that red-handed
crime goes unwhipped in Mississippi, because the pres
ent "constitution and code of laws were framed and
adopted by the republican party, and forced on the peo
ple of the State contrary to their will." To give force
and credit to this, the genius of the great law dictator
of the State, Gen'l J. Z. George is called in, and with a
pen ready in all the wiles and deceits of a pettifogging
attorney, he puts forth a State paper having especial

252 The Chisolm Massacre.
reference to the outlawed condition of society in Kem
per county, in which the following language touching
the Governor's want of power to enforce the law is used.
He says:
That Gov. Stone has not greater powers, is not the
fault of the white people of Mississippi. His powers
are derived from, and limited by a constitution and a code
of laws which were framed and adopted by the Repub
lican party, and forced on the people of the State con
trary to their will.
The code of laws under which the courts of the State
are now operating, was revised by a commission
appointed by Governor Alcorn, composed. of the follow
ing gentlemen : Judge J. A. P. Campbell, Amos R.
Johnson and Amos Lovering. The two first named are
democrats, and now stand at the head of the bar of the
State. It is a fact well known to every school boy, that
the criminal code of to-day is the same as that of 1857,
save only so far as was madfe necessary to alter and
amend by the requirements of the late amendments to
the constitution of the United States relating to slavery.
It is almost a verbatim copy of that of the State of New
York, the code which was originally adopted by the early
colonies, and taken from that of the old English laws
which have also been received by each succeeding State
of the Union since the formation of the government,
and stand on all the statute books of the country as
they have stood for two hundred years.
It is told, then, that the laws were not enforced
against republicans accused of crime, because of the

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 253
inability of the courts to reach them through the grand
juries, the great committing tribunal; and now, that
crime under democratic rule stalks abroad in defiance of
all law, we are consoled with the announcement, from so
high an authority as that of General George, that the
statutes are not enforced because they were thrust upon
the people against their will by a republican administra
tion, and in consequence it is not desired that the laws
should be enforced. But this argument is in keeping
with the spirit manifested throughout, in a vain endeavor
to paUiate and cover up a crime too disgraceful and
humiliating to be quietly passed over by any people or
government claiming rank among the civilized nations,
and which the authorities have neither the manhood or
the disposition to try to punish. The author quoted,
who lives a hundred miles from Kemper county, and who
knows nothing whatever of its people, in the same paper
alluded to, has another assertion equally erroneous and
groundless. Here it is :
To say that these men (meaning the victims of the
Kemper tragedy) were killed because they were republi
cans, and that it is unsafe for a man to proclaim himself
a repubhcan in Mississippi, is a gross error.
Strangely in contrast is this with the reasoning of one
Robert J. Love, who has been a resident of Kemper
county since 1836, and now an old man just tottering to
the grave. Mr. Love, from his long and intimate asso
ciation with the people, ought to be able to speak with
some degree of correctness — setting aside, of course,

254 The Chisoim Massacre.
the old man's manifest sympathy for and loyalty to his
" county." He says :
I think I know the territory of the county and the
people of the county as well as any man living, and I
say to-day, take the radical population out of the county
and in proportion to numbers, the people of this county
have as many good citizens as any county in this State
or any other State.

CHAPTER XXIII,
The fact has never been denied that Judge Chisolm
and his associates were originally from among the best
class living in Kemper at the time. As such they were
received and accepted prior to the organization of the
party to which in after years they allied themselves.
And now the authority of Mr. Love, a venerable citizen,
a resident of the county for forty years, is given, who
declares that as soon as these men espoused the cause
of "radicalism" they became mean and despicable, as no
other reason for this sudden transition of character is
given. Besides, he says, " take the radical population
out of the county" and everybody left in it is found to
be good and virtuous.
The two letters quoted from in the preceding chapter
one written by General George, who knows nothing of
the people of Kemper, and the other by Judge Love,
who knows aU about them, were both printed in the
same issue of the Meridian Homestead. One of the
writers claims that politics had nothing whatever to do
with the massacre at DeKalb, while the other as firmly
asserts — with far better grounds of authority — that
politics was the primary and only cause of all the
trouble had there. The conflicting elements which seem
to have dethroned the reasoning faculties of these great
writers have seized upon the governor himself; for, on
the 4th day of October, 1876, in a letter to Attorney-

256 The Chisolm Massacre.
General Taft, assuring that functionary of the political
and domestic tranquility of the State, Governor Stone
wrote as follows :
I am more than willing, and have been able to exe
cute the laws of Mississippi and conserve the public
peace. * * The perpetrators of wrongs are respon
sible to the State authorities, and I am able to bring aU
such to justice, and am determined to do so.
On the 24th day of May, 1877, but a little more than
a year Jater, just a few days after having visited the
scene of the most wanton .and appalling outlawry ever
committed by beings wearing the human form. His
Excellency said :
I have no power to do anything at all. I think it
doubtful whether a jury of that county (meaning Kem
per) wiU ever convict one of the mob.
• In the face of all these facts the govemor, in his
annual message of the 2d of January, 1877, addressed
to the assembled wisdom of the State — the democratic
legislature — is heard in the following language:
It is with feelings of profound pleasure that I congrat
ulate you on the domestic and social prosperity and
tranquility of our beloved State. During the recent
exciting political canvass, comparative peace and good
order prevailed. No disturbance was reported that was
not promptly met and suppressed by the local author
ities, nor has it been charged that any citizen of the
State refused to submit to, or in any way resisted the
authority of any civil officer. So far as I am advised,
not a single disturbance occurred on the day of election;
and at no time since the organization of the State Gov
ernment, have the people been more peaceful, quiet and
law-abiding.

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 257
In times of "comparative peace" in Mississippi, there
is shown a want of respect for the laws, and a lack of
energy on the part of the "local authorities" in their
execution, which in many of the states of the union
where a wholesome fear of the courts is maintained,
would at once produce a sense of insecurity to life and
property so great, as to call out at once the united voice
of the people, for a revision of the code or an immediate
change of officers entrusted with its enforcement. Indeed
there is a spirit of lawlessness pervading the State,
shocking to the better sense of many of its older and
better citizens. Scores of men die from violence of one
kind or another, year after year, amounting in the aggre
gate to thousands since the war, and not a solitary
white man has been executed during the time. Feuds
spring up between individuals and families, coUisions
occur and deaths follow, and in many cases there is no
interference by the " local authorities." At the most, if
the offender sees proper to give himself into custody —
and there is generally a division of sentiment as to which
may be the offender, the murderer or the murdered — he
will be placed under a nominal bond, at once released
and there the matter to him is virtually at an end, unless
a Relative or a friend of the deceased, taking the law in
his own hands, in turn kills the assassin. It is by no
means a rare occurrence for "difficulties" like these
spoken of to be followed up through succeeding gen
erations. One after another the victims faU; chUdren
are trained up to avenge the loss of those gone before,
and during all the years of bloody sacrifice, not a man
17

258 The Chisolm, Massacre.
involved sees the inside of a prison wall, nor feels the
gentle pressure of the elastic hemp. This vengeful
thirst — it is said with sorrow — is not always confined
to the stronger sex. The writer has seen a pretty girl
with white hands, large, dreamy eyes and drooping
lashes, one who would cry out horror stricken to see
a worm wantonly crushed under foot, on being ques
tioned as to her feelings toward General Ames, the
republican governor .of the State, (who, with his accomp
lished wife and interesting family of children lived in
the same town with herself,) at once bristle up with an
expression as savage as an enraged tigress and exclaim:
"I could tear out his tongue and heart and burn him
alive!" The people of the South are governed by passion and
prejudice more than by reason or law. This, to many,
may sound strangely and even harsh, and when such
things are said of woman, it should be done with due
regard for the facts, and at the same time with reverence
for all those higher and more refining influences which
she is admitted to exert over the conduct of men.
But when the women of a country, lost to all those
tender emotions peculiar to the sex — which are some
times wanting in men — can contemplate, with cool
deliberation, scenes of cruelty which might appall the
heart of a Catherine de Medici, then indeed there is little
hope for its people.
Neighborhood broils are of frequent occurrence, in
which the friends of either party rally upon the streets
under arms — generally, though not always, concealed

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 259
weapons — menacing and threatening each other with
instant death, whUe the "better citizens" and the "local
authorities " stand back aghast in momentary expecta
tion of seeing the pavements drenched with blood. To
promenade the walks armed, with a double-barrel gun,
avowedly for the purpose of " killing on sight " some
unfortunate individual, supposed to have been guilty
of a breach of etiquette, is a scene which often and
again enlivens the monotony of our best regulated
towns ; and the natural solemnity and grandeur which
an act of this kind is sure to inspire, is often made
doubly imposing by contrast, when the holy quiet of the
Sabbath is called to witness its enactment.
Not many years ago, nor far removed from the city of
Jackson, while traveling on one of the railroads leading
into that place, a lady, still wearing the widow's weeds,
might have been seen to enter one of the coaches, lead
ing by the hand a little boy, six or eight years of age.
After taking a seat, her eyes soon became fixed upon a
gentleman, well dressed and apparently in the full enjoy
ment of life and all its attendant blessings, who was
sitting in another part of the car. Remaining, with
her gaze for a moment upon him, she arose from her seat,
still leading the boy, and advancing directly in front of
the object of her attention, pointing her finger fuU in the
man's face, in a clear and distinct voice thus addressed her
child : " My son, there sits the one who murdered your
father!" What a volume of condemnation and reproach is con
tained in this brief sentence of that widowed mother;

26o The Chisolm Massacre.
and what a commentary it is upon a state of society
that winks at and tolerates such outrages, and suffers
them to go unpunished. How many widows and
orphans, made so by the unrestrained hand of violence,
there are in Mississippi to-day, God only knows, but
they may be counted by tens of thousands.
The State teems with Uttle newspapers ; for when the
fact is weU established that a man is utterly incapaci
tated for carrying on any legitimate trade or business he
is most likely to ascend the tripod, and through the
agency of a " patent inside," and the logic of the shot
gun, become a dictator of public sentiment and morals.
If an editor's credit survives a dozen issues of his sheet,
he is entitled, by the law of a long established custom,
to honors of some kind, and there being nothing else so
cheap, a "handle" is at once affixed to his name, and one
supposed to be commensurate in "tone" with the number
of his subscription list, exclusive of "dead heads." This
. is the means through which Mississippi gained a large
share of its notoriety in the production of "titled"
gentry. For the bestowal of these doubtful compli
ments upon public benefactors, age and length of service
very properly take precedence, and we have, first: the
"Nestor," "Blucher," or "Sage and Philosopher of the
Mississippi press." Then, coming down to more sublu
nary things, there is presented an array of titles — more
commonly applied to military chieftains — in regular
gradation, from the rank of " general " Idown to the hum
ble grade of "captain." The development and flight of
genius in the sphere of journalism in Mississippi, in this

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 261
respect, has been remarkable. It is with pride, however,
that a few are excepted from this general rule. There is
scarcely an issue of one of these journals that does not
contain an account of some act of outlawry, horrifying
enough in its details to freeze the blood of a savage.
Before me, as I write, lay four different papers of the kind
alluded to, all published within one week, in remote and
separate parts of the State, and each one reciting the
details of a local tragedy, the most heinous and diaboli
cal. And by whom are these murders committed ? By
men who are at once branded as outlaws and enemies to
their race and kind ? Not at all ! Are they at once
hunted down by the officers of the law, backed by an
indignant and outraged populace, arrested and confined
in jail, there to await speedy trial and execution at the
end of the law? No; by no means. Neither are they
to be compared with the leaders of the recent terrible
riots in the Northern States ; their cases are wide apart.
The men spoken of here are the aristocrats and leaders
of society. They represent the wealth, intelligence and
virtue of the communities in which they live. Mechanics,
operatives, and ignorant day laborers are not counted
among these. They are " gentlemen " of education and
too often of leisure, taken from the ranks of the learned
professions and the higher walks in life. Teachers,
lawyers, doctors, and those who pray loudest in public,
if not ministers themselves, are the leaders of riots in
Mississippi, and their operations are against the ignorant
and defenseless masses; in short, they are "gentlemen,"
and as such their "dignity" must be respected. Hence

262 The Chisolm Massacre.
it is that in every town and neighborhood may be found
more or less men who walk the streets like a very lord,
and boast of having " killed their man ! " The writer
can call to mind nine of the class last named, whom he
meets on the street every day. Indeed a newspaper
that fails to keep up with the complete details of the
numerous tragedies which are being enacted from day to
day is deemed wanting in the proper spirit of enterprise,
and its patronage falls off.
And all of this in times of " comparative peace," when
the issues to be adjusted — if an issue is at stake — are
free from political considerations, and exclusively between
white men and "gentlemen." At the same time, let a
negro be accused of a crime against one of his own race,
even, and his punishment, after the most extreme inter
pretation of the law, will be swift enough ; but let the
offense be committed by the negro against a white man,
and the slow and cumbersome processes of a judicial
tribunal are deemed inadequate to meet the demands of
palpitating justice, and many times the victim is made
to pay the penalty at once, under the lash or the hempen
cord, according to the nature of the offense, or rather,
according to the height of the "indignation" to be
appeased. The will of a single white man is sufficient
to procure the arrest and summary punishment of a
negro at any time. These things are matters of com
mon observation, when the body politic is in a quiescent
state and no direct question of section or race enters
into or forms any material part of the subject matter
in controversy. But once let an "exciting political

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 263
canvass " begin, such as the governor faintly alludes to in
that portion of his late message above quoted, and such
as is here feebly described ; then it is that a realization
of the facts just enumerated may be felt. When all the
bitterness, passion and prejudice engendered by the late
war and its results, so disastrous to the material interests
of the southern people, and so humiliating to their sec
tional pride, is aroused to the pitch of frenzy, then it is
that " comparisons " become odious when speaking of
" domestic tranquility." When the antagonisms existing
between the old master and the late slave assume the
attitude and alarming proportions of an " irrepressible
conflict"; when all these influences are brought to bear,
then it is that a light as unmistakable as that afforded
by the noon-day sun bursts upon the view, and aU the
terrifying features of the hydra-headed monster, which
the lovers of republican government have to confront,
are revealed. However much the more sagacious leaders
in the South may strive to conceal the fact, it is never
theless true, that in each succeeding political contest
since the war, the issues have been very closely allied
with those which were made the subject of debate and
bitter contest at the beginning of that eventful period.
The friends of republicanism meet with the .same
uncompromising opposition, that union men did in the
South in i860 and 1861, and the stronger the hold which
is fastened upon the government, and the greater the
number of "Confederate brigadiers" who secure seats
in the national congress, the more bitter, persistent and
determined seems to be the opposition to everything

264 The Chisolm Massacre.
sought to be introduced and maintained here, that is not
democratic in name and southern in principle.
For generations the youth of the country have been
educated and trained to spurn the very form of the gov
ernment under which they lived and prospered for so
many years. The same sentiment is fostered and encour
aged in their institutions of learning to-day.
The cardinal principles of popular government are too
plebeian ever to be appreciated by the high-born sons of
the South; and a constitution which places the sturdy
men of toil upon an equal footing with themselves in
the management and control of national affairs, never
has been nor never will be by them cherished and
adopted. Thus, in an "exciting political canvass," there is no
such thing as peace, save that peace which is secured by
armed and organized opposition to the will of a large
and defenseless class, in open defiance of law, justice and
humanity — a peace purchased at the alarming sacrifice
of the dearest rights known to an American citizen.

CHAPTER XXIV.
The first of August following the massacre at DeKalb,
Governor Stone received the nomination of his party, in
general convention assembled, for continuance in the
responsible position at the time filled by him. On the
eleventh of the same month Phil Gully, at a primary
canvass in Kemper county, was similarly endorsed for
the office of sheriff; and on the sixth of the present
month — November — the Governor was re-electd, with
out opposition, to fiU that place of honor and trust;
while Gully was defeated by George Welch, the present
deputy sheriff, who ran independently.
Already the reward of merit in the realization of a
hope long deferred is received, and upon the regal brow
of Welch rests the coronet of leadership in his county,
while upon Governor Stone are lavished the highest
honors within the gift of the whole people.
Thus the first opportunity is improved for retuming
thanks, in a substantial manner, for the services rendered
by these two patriots ; one chief among the conspirators
and murderers, and the other the chief executive officer
of the State, who, in answer to the pathetic appeal of
Mrs. Chisolm for aid, "had no power to do anything
at all."
Weeks and months dragged their slow length along
and no effort was made by any one to apprehend or
bring these men to an account. They walked the streets

266 The Chisolm Massacre.
from day to day, and rode past the homes desolated by
their bloody hands, while the widow and orphan at the
door, in the sable garments of mourning, were made the
subjects of rude and insolent jest. Confident in the
belief that no legal process would ever reach them, or
bring their names in any public way to notice, they
became boastful of the individual gaUantry displayed on
the memoral 29th of April, and among themselves and
their admirers there existed a strong rivalry of opinion
as to whom should be awarded the honor of having
been the first, second or third to mount the breach at
the head of the stairs and face that girl, whose white
hands offered the only resistance to their free passage
into the jail. It has already been told that the first one
to enter — Rosser — met the fate he so richly deserved.
Upon another "young man," if we are to believe the
organ whose province is truthfully to represent the sen
timents of the people and record passing events, the
Meridian Mercury, has been assigned the " third " place
of distinction. The venerable editor of the paper
alluded to, in his notice of this chivalrous scion of a
noble ancestry, through some unaccountable fatality,
neglected to give to the world the name of his hero, but
leaves us with the inference that, from a safe retreat at
the head of the stairs, the "young man" calmly viewed
the field, and was thus enabled to teU all the girl did
"up thare," who, to use his own language, only "run and
screamed and hollered!"
During four long months of masterly inactivity on
the part of the " local authorities," the eyes of the country

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 267
were turned upon Mississippi, and the voice of condem
nation fell heavily upon the people of the State, stand
ing supinely by, voluntary witnesses of open and undis
guised murder in their midst, without the expression of
of a desire for the execution of the law. Through the
continued cries for justice, there settled upon the hearts
of a class not altogether lost to shame or remorse, the
feeling that at least the forms of a legal investigation
should be observed. This was strengthened and encour
aged by their leaders aspiring to political honors, for now
the era of reconciliation and good will had come and
spread its soft wings over the whole country. The olive
branch had been extended to the "erring brethren," who
had solemnly plighted their faith to lie down and sleep
quietly by the confiding lamb. " Home rule and local
self-government" had been guaranteed to them for all
coming time, and they were not without the hope of a
complete restoration to the old place of power and
influence in the political control and management of the
government. Already the well-preserved and shapely
outlines of the "Lost Cause" which had passed but tem
porarily from view, could be seen in the no distant future
like a bright star cheering them on their lonely pilgrim
age. No rash act should be committed now. The cost
of a hasty and unguarded step, showing' want of sincerity
in their professions of good faith could not be estimated,
for it might dash to earth the cup so near the famished
lips. Accordingly, the September term of the circuit court
for Kemper county was held, when, with a great sound

268 The Chisolm Massacre.
of trumpets, true bills for murder in the first degree were
found against six or seven of the leaders in the Chisolm
massacre. It was known and well understood in the
community for weeks and months before, that the blood
iest of the gang would then be indicted. They them
selves knew this to be a part of the programme, and
were by no means adverse to such a course, believing
that the finding against them would have the effect to
satisfy the demand for justice from abroad, and knowing
very well that no inconvenience would ever be expe
rienced on account of any further interference by the
courts, these villains looked on and viewed this farce
with an air of quiet composure, if not absolute delight.
The circuit judge had occupied all these months in
which to prepare a charge to the grand jury, well calcu
lated in its diction and subject matter to meet the
emergency and fall like a soft lullaby song upon the
Northern ear. Upon this "masterly paper" the Jackson
Clarion of October 24th — after copying the "charge" in
fuU — comments as follows:
Judge Hamm's charge to the Kemper county grand
jury will be found on our first page. It is an invaluable
contribution to the jurisprudence of the State, and,
indeed, will form a separate and distinct chapter in its
history. No member of society, no matter what his
avocation, can fail to be benefited by reading it. It is
"profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for
instruction." The Northern partisan press which, for
getting the beam in its own eyes, have discovered no
respect for law and order in Mississippi, will do our
State justice and their readers a benefit by copying this
masterly paper.

" Hom.e Rule" in Mississippi. 269
How it is that the action of these men, sworn to
secrecy, has been heralded to the world, after having
found six or seven indictments for murder in the first
degree, before an arrest or an attempt at arrest has been
made, does not appear. The statutes of the State pro
vide that the accused shall be apprehended and confined
in jail, without bail, there to await trial, and until sucli
time no juryman, without violating a solemn oath, can
reveal the secret of their finding. Are not the above
facts, taken in connection with the Clarion's editorial on
Judge Hamm's charge, a sufficient proof to convince the
most skeptical of the hollow mockery with which the
name of "justice " is clothed in Mississippi ? But we are
not prepared to stop here with this " Picture of Home
Rule." One more brief chapter, however, on Kemper
county, and the dark record closes.
In another place it is told that a colored man named
Walter Riley was suspected of having killed one Dabbs
some years ago. Since then little has been known of
the facts or of Riley himself, until just before the assas
sination of John W. Gully, at which time, it is now said,
Riley was seen in the neighborhood of DeKalb; and being
unable through all the devilish enginery at their command
to fasten the guilt of John W. Gully's untimely taking
off upon Rush, thereby making Chisolm accessory to the
crime, a new departure is resorted to and a plan, if pos
sible, more diabolical than that of murdering innocent
men and women in open day. In the communication of
"A Subscriber," elsewhere printed and commented upon
— a writer evidently with a prophetic and omnipresent

270 The Chisolm Massacre.
eye, who reads the thoughts of men with greater ease
and exactness than he could read a book — we are
informed that no negro could have been the assassin of
the great chieftain of their clan ; that the crime was com
mitted by a white man who took off his victim's boots
in order to make it appear like the work of some one
who had the object of plunder in view. But here, as in
former chapters, the language of the conspirators them
selves is used to fasten the evidence of their guilt upon
them. Riley's relations with Gully are said to have been
of such a nature as to warrant him, at any time — under
the Kemper county code — in taking the life of the latter
whenever an opportunity might offer, and presently it
was .whispered about that Riley was the guUty man.
Accordingly, just before the sitting of the court in Sep
tember last, Riley was kidnapped from Tennessee, where
he had taken refuge, and brought back to Kempei
county, without process of a lawful re(^isition, or any
other legal authority. But a few days had elapsed
after his arrival before he was convicted of the murder
of Dabbs and sentenced to death ; and here follows the
denouement. Riley was to have been hanged on the 9th
of November following his condemnation. Meantime,
Phil Gully and his associates had free access to the
prisoner's cell, and from time to time, it is well known,
the condemned man was approached with the promise
of a comrriutation of sentence, or a reprieve, if he would
only say that he was the one who killed John W. Gully,
and that it was done at the instigation of Chisolm and
others. It is now said that Riley has confessed to

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 271
having killed Gully, believing himself justifiable in so
doing, but, in the face of death, has steadily refused to
say that any other man, living or dead, was cognizant of
the fact.
Meantime, it is told, that three different attempts have
been made to burn the jail and every one in it. The 9th
of November came, and the victim, Riley, was about
to be led to the gallows through an immense throng of
" good citizens," who had turned out to " hear his confes
sion " or to see him " dangle," when, lo ! apd behold, a
respite of thirty days comes from his Excellency, the
Governor ! Thus thirty days' more time is given the
Gullys, through their attorney, Mr. Woods, and the kind
offices of the Governor, in which to devise means to
wring from Riley a confession of the guilt of Judge
Chisolm, whose martyred remains have long since
become food for worms. As these pages go to press
— November 24th — it is difficult to teU what may be
the final result of this last and most damnable of all the
murderous conspiracies which the history of Kemper
county civilization furnishes proof.
Seven months have passed since the slaughter of
April was committed, and three since the murderers were
indicted, and they walk the streets as freely and uncon-
cemed as they did before the sitting of the great tribunal
of justice, the circuit court. The newspapers of the
South, like the Clarion, are loud in their praises of Judge
Hamm and the "good people" of Kemper for uphold
ing " the majesty of the law," and it is now claimed that
northern vandalism against the good name and intent of

272 The Chisolm Massacre.
our " erring brethren," must forever cease. Possibly this
is said with a degree of plausibility and even in good faith.
If so, it is certainly wrong to " stir up," by unjust
criticism, the old wounds of distrust, which the gangrene
of sectional pride and jealousy have kept open for so
many years. A charitable view leads one to the adop
tion of this theory ; and we are about to bend in humble
reverence and submission to its teachings, when the eye,
already wet with penitential tears, falls accidentally upon
a paragraph in the Meridian Mercury, like this, and the
dream of restored confidence vanishes like the " baseless
fabric of this vision." Hear the Mercury once more :
Imagination fails to conceive of anything better calcu
lated to turn the county over to riot and bloodshed than
the indictment of one, or two, or many, for a crime com
mitted by a great number of people acting together, and
who have boldly stood up to their acts, neither hiding
nor shirking the responsibiUty. They put out of the
way men who, for a long series of years, had made a
mockery of that justice we have seen so efficiently
administered for the last two weeks, and who had made
murder and assassination safe in the county from the
law's retribution, under the maddening provocation of an
assassination they held themselves responsible for, and
yet hold them. If it appear that these indictments have
been procured to appease a northern public sentiment,
and to gratify any home prejudices, we may expect the
demon to be awakened again in these people now so
calm and acquiescent in the law, and we may dread the
result. The ministers of the law always make a mistake
when they assume that the law is to be pushed straight
through to the letter, under all circumstances, regarding

"Home Rule" in Mississippi 273
nothing. That sort of a mistake we fear the Kemper
grand jury is making.
The writer of the above is well known to the author
of this book, and it is no more than justice to him here
to state, in this editorial he utters the honest convictions
of his heart. That he speaks the sentiments of the
people generally there is no better proof needed than to
know that for many long years he has been supported in
this style of journalism ; that, meantime, his paper has
grown in power and influence, and whUe pursuing this
undeviating course touching these grave questions —
consistent at least in being straightforward — the Mer
cury has lived to see a half dozen more liberal organs
spring up in the same town and die for want of patron
age. We have not only this proof of its endorsement
by the people, but its editor was last summer at the
State convention, which met in Jackson the first of
August, a prominent candidate for lieutenant-governor.
But to this day it will be denied that there exists, or
ever existed in Mississippi, an ungovernable element
now familiarly styled "Bulldozers;" a class of men as
formidable in numbers as they are brutal in instinct, dis
regarding alike the laws of God and man. Many of our
incredulous friends at the North are impressed with the
truthfulness of this denial. Here is an extract from the
Liberty Herald, published some time in August or
September last, headed " Bulldozing," It may throw a
ray of light upon this subject :
We have been asked more than once why, as a public
journalist, we have not, through our columns, opposed
18

274 The Chisolm Massacre.
and denounced in befitting terms the lawlessness which,
under the above significant term, is rapidly destroying
the material interest of our county and surrounding
sections, and bringing us, as a community, into public
scandal and disgrace. Our answer has heretofore been,
we were ashamed to give any more notoriety to the
matter than it already had, and we trusted that a
healthy public sentiment would silently but successfully
and speedily suppress it. But it seems we were mis
taken. It is not only as rampant as ever, but is steadily
increasing in the diabolism of its acts and the audacity
of its demands. Public sentiment, although opposed to
it, is silent, while its advocates are noisy, blatant and
organized. This is followed by an article from the Vicksburg
Herald ; for now that this great evil is falling heaviest
upon those who have been most persistent heretofore in
denying its existence, the "laugh" — so to speak — is "on
the other side : "
All our citizens feel that there is something wrong in
regard to the protection of life and property in our
midst, but many do not know where the cause lies.
There is a well defined feeling that too many crimes are
committed; that too many people are shot or cut, or
assaulted with deadly weapons, and that there is too
much bummerism and bulldozing of, one sort and
another. We feel that we are drifting along, and that
the lawless are not restrained or promptly punished.
Again His Excellency, the Governor, has been forced
to acknowledge the virtue found in the old adage, " It
makes a difference whose ox is gored."
Contrast his language of May, in answer to Mrs.
Chisolm's appeal, when he had "no power to do any-

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 275
thing at all," with that of September last, in answer to
the call of his own distressed brethren. Here is his
language of the latter date:
Executive Department, )
Jackson, Miss., Sept. 8, 1877. j
Hon. A. C. McNair, Brookhaven, Miss. :
Dear Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge receipt
of your favor of  instant, detailing the condition of
affairs in three of the counties of southwest Mississippi.
I am now in correspondence with leading citizens in
those localities, with a view of ascertaining what the
emergency demands, and then to determine what lawful
means to adopt to meet that emergency.
Such a state of things cannot be tolerated, and cost
what it m.ay, it must and shall be stopped.
Yours very truly,
J. M. Stone.

CHAPTER XXV,

Of the "Chisolm Massacre," the names of its active
participants are still unknown to the outside world.
Unwilling that they should be lost to posterity, a list of
those most deserving of notice is furnished below :

Henry Gully,
Phil H. Gully,
Bill Gully,
Jess GuUy,
Houston Gully,
Virgil Gully,
Slocum Gully,
John Gully, (Phil's son,)
 Gully, (Phil's son,)
Jere Watkins,
Dan McWhorter,
Jim Overstreet,
Robt J. Moseley,
James H. Brittain,
Willie Brittain,
Tom Lang,
John H. Overstreet,
John Hunter,
Jim Wanen,
Sloke Wanen,
Sam Wanen,
Baxter Camel,
John Camel,
 Hodge,
Sanford Jordan,

Jim McRoiy.
Charles L. McRory,
John T. Gewen,
Tom P. Bell,
Arch Adams,
BiU Adams,
John Adams,
Dr. Stennis,
Dr. Camel,
Jim Whittle,
Robt Waddle,
Pat J. Scott,
J. W. Lang,
Doland Coleman,
Wallace Morrison,
Peck Vandevender,
George Hull,
Philander HuU,
Jess Hull,
 Shot,
George Eldridge,
BiU Clark,
Foote McLellan,
Dee McLellan,
John Bounds,

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 277
Ed Davis,  Ivory,
BiU Williams, J.J. Hall,
Joe EUerby,  Jenkins,
Joe Hodge, Theodore Clark,
Rufus Bounds,  McWiUiams,
Ruff Turner, Ebb Felton,
Albert Lilly, W. J. Overstreet,
Frank Hawin, Bob Goodwin,
Sam Hawin, Ed Weston.
Jim Scott,
Of these, PhU Gully, John J. Overstreet, Sam and
Frank Hawin are each indebted to the estate of Judge
Chisolm in sums ranging from five dollars up to or^
hundred and thirty. Tom Bell represents the county ja
the State Legislature. Ed Weston is coroner aiia
ranger. J. L. Spinks, the justice of the peace whose
name illumes so many of the preceding pages, was pro
moted at the November election to succeed Bell in the
house of representatives.
Let these names, in golden letters, be hung up along
all the public avenues leading into the State. To the
weary immigrant who may chance to turn, in the future,
for a home in the soft, genial clime of Mississippi, they
will appear like the terrifying warning inscribed against
an entrance into Dante's ideal hell, "All hope abandon
ye when enter here."
Let them be placed in the capitol at Washington;
they will inspire the "gifted Lamar" to honeyed words
of reconciliation. The Hon. Mr. Money, when he rises
in the seat allotted to the member from the third
congressional district of Mississippi, wiU point with

278 The Chisolm Massacre.
pride to the names of his constituency who carried him
through the blood of the murdered Chisolm and his
sweet girl and boy, against an honest majority of more
than four thousand votes in the district, thus opposed
to him, to a place among the nation's great men.

CHAPTER XXVI.
In the face of all the disparaging truths which these
pages have recorded, and whUe the cold rains of Decem
ber are drenching the graves of the martyred dead, it is
a source of gratification to know that the heart of the
people has never ceased to beat in the fond hope of
justice and the Nemesis yet to come.
American womanhood is everywhere aroused to a
sense of that deep shame which overshadows and mocks
at our boasted chivalry, so long as the blood of Cornelia
Chisolm is unavenged. The talent of the best writers
has been employed in condemnation of this crime, and
in utter execration of the depraved condition of society
which suffers it to go unpunished. To the pen of
Grace Greenwood, the Washington correspondent of the
New York Times, a double debt of gratitude is due.
This writer, from the first, has been unremitting in her
endeavors to place the matter, in all its enormities, fairly
before the people. Others have moulded into verse, a
more graceful and touching tribute to the memory of the
dead. A letter printed in the New York Tribune the latter
part of May following the massacre, touching the sub
ject of the erection of a monument in honor of the
heroism of Miss Cornelia Chisolm, full of thought and
well worthy the consideration of the " young men of the
country" is here appended. It is in response to a sug-

28o The Chisolm Massacre.
gestion which first appeared in the Indianapolis Journal,
and is worth a place in these pages :
A MONUMENT TO MISS CHISOLM.
young men should erect it— what its signifi
cance would BE.
To the Editor of the Tribune :
Sir: The suggestion which has been made by a
Western paper that the ladies of the country should
erect a monument over the grave of Cornelia Chisolm is
one that should not be overlooked. If surprising courage
in a sex which Nature has not formed for scenes caUing
for physical courage ; if self-devotion, if filial affection, if
all that is most beautiful in woman deserves to be
honored, then this generation should see to it that it
commemorates the sublime manifestation of these quali
ties in that young girl. I have read no incident in the
history of my country, from the landing of the Pilgrims
down to the close of the last war — which was iUustrious
in deeds of individual heroism — that has so thrilled me
with admiration for the individual, or has so elevated my
ideas of womanhood, and, I may say, of my kind, as
that struggle of Cornelia Chisolm against the murderers
of her father. Nay, I defy any one to point out, in the
annals of the past, any exhibition of high qualities which
is more worthy of the world's reverence than this. The
scene has already passed into history; it should be, and
I doubt not it will be, commemorated by art, and it
should receive the homage of a generation which she
honored and for which she died.
But why should women raise this memorial? Let it
rather be a tribute of the young men of this country to
womanhood, whose highest qualities Cornelia Chisolm

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 281
so strikingly iUustrated. Let them show that the man
hood of this country honors woman's affection, which
shrinks at no sacrifice or danger to protect the object
around which it clings, and does not band together to
shoot down an innocent girl who throws herself between
her father and a murderous mob. And more, let such a
memorial teU a debased civilization around it of a man
hood which spares weakness and does not crush it;
which respects sex and does not make woman's helpless
ness the measure of its own courage ; which honors filial
affection and does not make it a pretext for murder;
which honors heroism and does not assassinate it; which
reverences sublime self-devotion and does not put bloody
hands upon it; which has regard for innocence and law,
and does not band together to trample upon both. Let
it be thus at once a vindication of the manhood of this
country, which has been shamed by an outbreak of local
brutality, and the proclaimer of a true chivalry in a
region where bloodthirsty ferocity, undignified by any
noble sentiment, usurps its name.
There is yet another reason why this monument
should be reared by the young men of this country. It
will be a menace as well as a memorial. Telling of what
in human nature they reverenced most, and forming a
silent protest against the dishonor with which it has
met, it will suggest, inevitably, that there are arms which
will be raised to avenge such outrages against what they
regard as a sacred thing. A civilization which tolerates,
defends and practices the murder of innocent women as
a means of political intimidation, has no right to exist
upon God's fair earth. Neither constitutional nor pre
scriptive right will stand before the outraged moral sense
of mankind. The Turk is being driven out of Europe,
and the turk must be crushed down in America. Let
such a memorial as I have advocated speak in Missis
sippi this voice of the people, which, in this case, is the

282 The Chisolm Massacre.
voice of God. Let it proclaim, that if that murderous
civilization shows no signs of improvement, there is a
power in this country which, in the fullness of time, will
grind it to powder. Redington.
Below is reproduced a beautiful poem, by Mary Clem-
ner, read last summer on the occasion of the celebration
of our Natal Day, in one of the northern cities. This is
followed by others, which have come to the notice of the
author, during the progress of this work. The poems
cannot fail to add interest to its pages, as they must
certainly touch the hearts of all who read them :
What do we celebrate?
Freedom's new birth Elate
While on the sad East's verge.
The sullen war waves surge.
And lines of battle break
In blood, "for Christ's dear sake?"
Our bells of Freedom ring.
Our songs of Peace we sing ;
And do we dream we hear
The far, low cry of fear.
Where in the Southern land,
The masked, barbaric band,
Under the covert night,
Still fight the coward's fight.
Still strike the assassin's blow,
Smite childhood, girlhood low?
Great Justice ! canst thou see
Unmoved that such things be?
See murderers go free.
Unsought? Bruised in her grave
The girl, who fought to save
Brother and sire. She died for man.
She leads the lofty van
Of hero women. Lift her name
With ever-kindling fame.
Her youth's consummate flower
Took on the exalted dower
Of martyrdom. And Death,
And Love put on her crown
Of high renown. * * *

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"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 283
Cease, bells of Freedom, cease!
Hush, happy songs of Peace !
If such things yet may be,
"Sweet land of Liberty,"
In thee, in thee !
On hill top and in vale
Lie low our brethren pale,
June roses on each breast.
Beloved ! ye are blest !
Ye yielded up your breath,
Ye gave yourselves to death.
For Freedom's sake. We live
To see her wounds. We live
To bind her wounds. To give
Life up for her high sake.
If life she need. We take
The Cross that ye laid down.
The world may smile or frown.
We kiss the sacred host.
We count the priceless cost,
We swear in holy pain,
O ! sacrificial slain,
Ye did not die in vain !

"LITTLE JOHNNY,"
BY W. S. PETERSON.

Softly breathed the coming May
On that Southern Sabbath day.
In that genial, sunny clime
May days come before their time.
Earth and sky were bright and blest
On the holy day of rest.
But no sound of prayer and psalm
Rose upon the Sabbath's calm.
And the morning sun looked down
On a mob-beleaguered town.
Horsemen galloped here and there.
And their curses filled the air.
Soon a hundred ruffians yell
Round the home where heroes dwell ;

284 The Chisolm Massacre.

Brave Judge Chisolm scorning fear
Though the wolves of hell were near ;
And Cornelia, heroine rare.
Fair and young and brave as fair ;
Little Johnny, aged thirteen.
Bravest boy the world has seen !
When the Judge to j ail was led,
" I'll go too! " brave Johnny said.
Sire and son walked hand in hand
Through the threat'ning ruffian band.
And within the prison gate
Johnny shared his father's fate.
When the mob, with savage yell
On their helpless victims fell,
Johnny stood and faltered not
In the furious storm of shot —
Stood beside his sister there
On the splintered, bloody stair —
Held the door, and kept at bay
Fiends who would his father slay,
Till the leader of the band
Shot away his little hand !
Then, to save his sire from harm,
He stretched out his shattered arm,
Sprang before the powder flame
That toward his father came,
And received in his own form
The full fury of the storm.
Till his body, torn with lead.
At his father's feet fell dead !
Is !|" •P 5T" Sp •!*
When he to his grave was borne,
Few there were for him to mourn,
Mississippi, murder-wild.
Mourned not for her noblest child.

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 285
Not a hymn or prayer was heard.
Priest nor preacher spoke a word.
Only she who gave him birth
Sigh'd the sad words, " Earth to Earth,"
Only his own mother wept
Where her darling hero slept.
But his little grave shall yet
With a Nation's tears be wet.
And through all the coming years.
With their eyes bedimmed by tears,
Mothers to their sons shall tell
How heroic Johnny fell.
Storied page and poet's song
Shall his praises still prolong;
And while Love and Valor live.
Men to Johnny's name shall give
The first place on history's page
With the heroes of the age.
Johnny Chisolm, aged thirteen.
Bravest boy the world has seen !

OUR HEROINE,
DEDICATED TO MRS. JUDGE CHISOLM,
In all the tears that woman can shed.
With all the sympathy that woman can give.
Into the precinct of thy heart.
Where pierceth deep the poignant dart.
We would not penetrate.
E'en to uproot the pang, 'T were vain,
Since husband, daughters, sons are slain.
God only can remove the sting.
Unto Him all thine offerings bring.
With feelings all akin to those
Felt when we read of Him who rose
Triumphant from the grave,
Would we, as if in solid rock,
Write the one universal thought,
Our heroine died to save.

286 The Chisolm Massacre.
Inspired forever be thy kind.
To nobler deeds and loftier mind.
Our murdered heroine.
Proud freedom's cause was on the wane ;
It springeth to new life again.
Be all the glory thine.
Untrammeled by earth's lesser aims.
Unfettered, free from all its pains.
Thy spirit lingereth nigh.
It woos us e'en to bravery.
To die for right, if need there be.
Avenged ! thy death we cry.
" Vengeance is mine ; I will repay ;"
As in the past is ours to-day ;
The edict is his own.
Beside Joan of Arc in fame,
We place in mem'ry thy dear name.
Martyred Cornelia Chisolm.
Mrs. W. F. Lutz.

CHAPTER XXVIL
In the characters whose lives form the important fea
tures of this work, are presented a considerable number of
men whose rights and immunities as citizens of a com
mon country entitled them, at the outset, to equal consid
eration and respect with any other class.
Alienation of birth or distinction of caste was not
made a pretext for marking them in any way as objects
of distrust, derision or contempt. Their daily conduct
did not differ materially from that of the better people
.with whom they were associated. No conventionaUties,
no prejudices incident to religious belief, race or condition
singled them from their fellows. Natives of the soil from
which their sustenance was drawn, the interests of these
men were identical with those of others among whom
their life fortunes were fixed. That unfortunate genius
to whose villainy is ascribed all the mischief and crime
committed in the Southern states since the surrender, was
not found among them. No one had a better right to
judge of the wants of the community or to devise means
for supplying its demands than they. No "vile carpet
bagger" ever polluted the sacred soil where the scenes of
this story are laid. But as time advances the onward
tide of thought keeps pace. In passing, truths are gath
ered up and errors cast off by the wayside, old land
marks are swept away and new theories in science, art
and statesmanship are adopted. In the course of years.

288 The Chisolm Massacre.
emerging from a great national convulsion, which in its
resiilts is said to have solved the problem of human
bondage on the American continent and settled forever
all the vexed questions growing out of its existence, we
find in Kemper county, the class of men above alluded
to, have honestly accepted the situation and in common
with all good citizens undertaken to live and act in com
pliance with the requirements of the constitution and
its late amendments. Against these are arrayed those
who have made the overthrow of the Republic and the
principles upon which it was reared, the one great crown
ing object of their lives. The one, actuated by a sense
of duty, struggle to maintain the supremacy of the law
and the perpetuity of republicanism; the other, blinded by
sectional jealously and trained in a school of hatred to
every principle of popular government, moved by the
spirit which inspired them in 1861, are still worshiping
the god of rebellion and disunion.
Following the picture to its close, we find the former
overpowered by organized and armed opposition, hum
bled, beaten and subjected; their leaders slain and their
ranks broken and thinned by the assassin's bullet; while
the latter, jubilant and defiant, conscious of their abiUty
to defeat the ends of justice, and dead to human sympa
thy, laugh at every effort to bring them to an accounta
bility of their great crimes.

On a little plateau overlooking the village of DeKalb,
not more than one hundred and fifty yards distant from
its business centre, stands the Chisolm cottage. At its

"Home Rule" in Mississippi. 289
front door and windows the widowed mother watches
for the return of her two little boys, who, with the rising
sun leave the house for the plantation three miles dis
tant, where their time is employed in the endeavor to
secure a crop with which to discharge the pressing obli
gations of the estate. At evening, when listening for
their returning steps, the coarse laugh and loud curses of
drunken revelers at the Gully grocery and other kindred
places, are wafted to her ears. In these voices she recog
nizes the men whose blood-stained hands have desolated
her hearth-stone, and robbed her of husband and children.
At every sound of pistol or gun, trembling with fear, the
anxious mother looks -out, ever conscious of the danger*
which threatens the older boy. Clay, whose advancing
years have already made him an object for the attention
of his father's murderers.
Every officer of the county, with perhaps one or two
exceptions, and through whose hands the business of the
Chisolm estate must pass in settlement, either partici
pated in the slaughter of April last, or are in active sym
pathy with those who did. Charlie Rosenbaum, the
only willing and competent man in the county who
knows anything about the late Judge's business affairs,
under repeated threats of assassination, compeUed to
abandon his own business at Scooba, where, at the time
of the DeKalb massacre he was a prosperous merchant,
is powerless to render the assistance so much needed.
While Southern statesmea of the Kemper school are
gaining admission to the highest places in the national
councils, the "bloody shirt" by common consent of
19

290 The Chisolm Massacre.
their Northern co-laborers, is sneeringly held up as a
vulgar and unclean thing. Meantime Mrs. Chisolm,
through the dark hours of her desolation, turns from her
lonely watch at the windows to the pictures of her
murdered darlings, and weeps as only a wife and mother
crushed and bruised, can do. Leaving the portraits, with
a dead heart she turns to the room once her daughter's,
still ornamented with the touch of her deftly fingers.
There stands her piano, its mute keys unmoved since
that brave right hand was struck by the assassin's bullet.
There on the walls are Cornelia's first girlish efforts at
art, placed in humorous contrast with those of a more
mature date. In a corner are laid away the keepsakes
and playthings of her happy chUdhood, only just passed.
Turning from these, the mother goes softly and silently
to the wardrobe where is carefully placed the clothing
worn by her loved ones on that dark Sabbath of April 29.
The first article that greets her tear-dimmed eyes is
Cornelia's little hood, with the strings shot off and stained
with blood. Then her clothing, from the neck to the feet
clotted with gore and perforated with bullets, not even
the shoes escaping the leaden charge. The shattered
bracelet and the ball which passed through her arm, with
the yellow metal clinging to its battered surface, next
appear. Then Johnny's shirt, with the sleeve shot off,
charred with burning gunpowder, and the hole in the left
breast, four inches broad, where his heart's blood oozed
out. Turning, the tattered garments of Judge Chisolm,
containing blood enough to "incarnadine the multitudin
ous seas," are found on the other hand. There, apart

"Hotne Rule" in Mississippi. 291
from civilization, shut out from all friendly intercourse,
menaced, and her little boy, at the very hour of this
writing, driven to the woods for safety; alone and with
out hope of relief, the patriot widow lives on.

This beautiful monument of white bronze, with appropri
ate inscription, will be erected over the remains of the
Chisolm martyrs, in Cedar HUl Cemetery, Clinton county,
Pa,, by C. J, Sigmund. Height, 20 ft, 4 in, ; base, 6x6 ft.

YALE UNIVERSITY

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