Cochrane and Unidentified (no article title)

Case(s)
Source Type: Newspaper
Author: J.B. Neathery
Publisher: The Weekly Standard
Place of publication: Raleigh, North Carolina
Date of publication: May 28, 1869 11:50 pm
Transcript:

A commission appointed by the Governor of Alabama has fully investigated the recent lawless events at Tuscaloosa. Some three or four weeks since, two white men, who were under the influence of liquor, were riding through the streets of that city, when they overtook a colored boy, and thought it would be a fine operation for them to carry him off. The father of the lad, and a colored friend pursued and overtook them. An exciting conversation followed, but no acts of violence were committed on either side. The white men, however, vowed ven- geance. They belonged to a gang of desperadoes, about fifty in number, who live in Sipsey Swamp. The next day they rallied a number of their gang, and proceeded to the house of the father of the colored boy referred to. Preparations had been made to receive them, however. The negroes defended themselves vigorously, and killed one of their assailants. Thus ended the day. The Sipseyites, thenceforward, were determined to avenge the blood of their comrade; and the freedmen, becoming panic- stricken, dispersed in every direction. In the succeeding two days, two negroes were murdered, and one Sipseyite was wounded, through the carelessness of one of his own party, and amputation was followed by death. One freedman was regularly arrested, on a warrant, and to save him from the fury of the mob. But such was not the result. The night after the Sipseyites learned of his arrest, they took him from the jail and murdered him in cold blood. The Sipsey gang has long been a terror, and the public of all shades of politics condemn them. Vigorous measures are now being taken against them.