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Answer. Yes, sir; I had heard of them.

Question. What did you hear of their doing?

Answer. That they had killed a boy down there, and a colored man, and burned a school-house. I did not hear that until after I went down there.

Question. What sort of a school-house?

Answer. A school-house for colored scholars. In fact, I know that was burned, for I saw it after it was burned. They do not know who did it; it was supposed these parties did it.

Question. Who killed the colored boy?

Answer. They could not tell who did it.
Question. What was his name?

Answer. I do not now remember.

Question. Who killed the colored man?

Answer. The same parties, it was supposed.
Question. What was his name?

Answer. It was Daniel Wallace.

Question. Had you known him?

Answer. I had seen him up here before that.

Question. Have you been down in Walton County since then?

Answer. No, sir; I left my tools down there, and never went for them. I sent for them, but they kept them down there a year before I got them away. They broke my chest open and destroyed some of my tools. I have a list of the tools that were missing out of my chest. They broke the lock open; it was a tremendous large chest when I carried it there, weighing 450 pounds, and when it came back here it did not weigh over 212 pounds. There were saws in that chest that I paid from three to six dollars for; sash-planes, &c. The chest came here, nailed with twelve-penny nails. I had been getting $2 a day for my work. When I showed my list of tools that were missing to Mr. Spencer, when he came up here, he laughed and said, that was more than I had. Question. Have you a family?

Answer. Yes, sir,

Question. Have you a wife and children?

Answer. Yes, sir; but I am barely able now to make a support. I paint a little, but I cannot do much, though I am well known in this place.

Question. You have to use your left hand?

Answer. Altogether, for I cannot reach up with my right arm. Doctor Westmoreland charged me a hundred dollars for treating my arm, and I have not been able to pay him.

By Mr. BAYARD:

Question. I understand you to say that this outrage upon you was committed more than three years ago, down in Walton County?

Answer. Yes, sir; on the 7th of August.

Question. At that time General Meade was here in command of the State?
Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. And the circumstances connected with your injury were made known to the Freedmen's Bureau agent, and he made them known to General Meade? Answer. He said he would do it.

Question. Now about this man John Saluda; how old a man was he at that time? Answer. I never noticed him very closely, but from his appearance I supposed he was about 20 years old.

Question. He was a young man ?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. I understand you to say, from the information that was derived from gentlemen whom you consulted here about prosecuting them, that they had nothing that you could recover from them; that those boys had no money and were too poor to pay you anything, and therefore it was not worth while for you to prosecute them? Answer. They did not say they could not pay me anything.

Question. Did you understand that this John Saluda was a dissolute character?

Answer. I have heard it since then; I did not know it before.

Question. That he was a young man of twenty, and a dissolute man?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. Did you understand that he was a drinking man?

Answer. Yes, sir; that he was pretty much of a rowdy.

Question. Those two men came there and committed an assault on you?

Answer. Yes, sir; the two brothers.

Question. John Saluda did the threatening and the shooting, and the other brother aeld you?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. How long did you remain there after this occurrence?

Answer. I left the next day at 3 o'clock in the afternoon on the train.

Question. You say you sent for the sheriff?

Answer. Yes, sir; the sheriff or the bailiff, I do not know which it was; it was an officer.

Question. Did you yourself go before any magistrate, a justice of the peace or ordinary?

Answer. No, sir; I did not.

Question. You made no affidavit or formal complaint?

Answer. Only to Major Mosback.

Question. I mean down there in Walton County?

Answer. No, sir.

Question. You have not returned there since?

Answer. No, sir.

Question. You have lodged no complaint there?

Answer. I saw Mr. Spencer here several times after that.

Question. He was the man who employed you?

Answer. Yes, sir. I asked him if he did not think I had better go down there and take some action in regard to this thing. He seemed to persuade to me not to talk in that way, for the simple fact that he would have to go up as a witness, and he did not want to be a witness. He told me that he did not want his name in it, and I could not do anything without calling him.

Question. I understand you to say that so far you never have made any attempt down there to have these people indicted?

Answer. No, sir.

Question. You placed your case in the hands of the Freedmen's Bureau agent here, and he placed it in the hands of General Meade with the result you have stated? Answer. Yes, sir.

By the CHAIRMAN :

Question. Your employer has given you no protection there, then or since?
Answer. No, sir.

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Question. And nobody there up to this time has made any efforts to have your wrongs redressed?

Answer. No, sir.

Question. And you were afraid to go there yourself?

Answer. Yes, sir. After they came so near killing me then, I thought I would be killed sure if I went down there again. My old mistress who raised me went down there herself. Then she wrote to Mr. Spencer, and she annoyed him so that he insulted her. Old Mistress Few raised me, and I never belonged to anybody else. There was nothing at all done about it; nothing done here or there.

By Mr. BAYARD:

Question. You came away from there some few hours after the occurrence?

Answer. Yes, sir; I staid there from about half-past 10 o'clock at night, until 3 o'clock the next day.

By the CHAIRMAN :

Question. You would have come away sooner, if you could have done so?

Answer. Yes, sir; I would have come away that night if I could.

Question. Did you hear that they had molested the doctor who set your arm the next morning?

Answer. I have been told that they interrupted him a long time since; nothing in regard to my case, I think.

By Mr. BAYARD:

Question. Who was the physician who came there the next morning and set your arm and dressed it?

Answer. Dr. Gibbs; he did not dress it, but only put it in a sling so that I could carry it.

By the CHAIRMAN :

Question. Did he put any splints on it?

Answer. No, sir; he brought a kind of wooden concern like a cup, to fit under the elbow. The arm was so swollen that he could not do anything else.

By Mr. BAYARD:

Question. You brought that wooden cup away with you?

Answer. Yes, sir, and sent it back by Mr. Spencer.

Question. He set your arm so that you could travel comfortably?
Answer. Yes, sir.

By the CHAIRMAN:

Question. What reason did he give for not coming the night before?

Answer. He said he was afraid to venture out there, because there was so much disturbance in the village.

Question. Was there much disturbance that night?

Answer. The village is a little piece from the road. I could hear them talking and hollering up there, but I could not understand what they said.

By Mr. BAYARD :

Question. How far off did that physician live?

Answer. I should suppose about half a mile.

Question. Who did you send for him?

Answer. A colored man by the name of Joe Wood.

Question. About what time of the night?

Answer. It was a half an hour after the accident occurred; about 11 o'clock.

Question. He came the next morning?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. At what time?

Answer. About 7 o'clock. I asked him why he did not come last night, when he could probably have done something with my arm; it was so swollen then he could not do anything with it. He said he was actually afraid to come out.

By the CHAIRMAN:

Question. Seven o'clock was pretty late in the morning there, was it not, at that season of the year?

Answer. I thought it was. It seemed to be 10 o'clock to me. The sun was up high then, in August; I thought it was 10 o'clock. I was suffering, and every minute seemed an hour to me.

By Mr. BAYARD:

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Question. When you told the chairman that nothing was done for you, and no assistance given you, you did not refer to the fact that the physician came there the next morning and put your arm in a wooden cup, so as to enable you to come up to Atlanta ? Answer. No, sir.

Question. He charged you two dollars and a half for putting your arm in that position?

Answer. Yes, sir.

By the CHAIRMAN:

Question. You say he collected the money; how did he do it?

Answer. Mr. Spencer paid me the next morning what he owed me, and I paid the doctor.

By Mr. BAYARD:

Question. You did not know the doctor before or since?

Answer. No, sir.

Question. He is a practicing physician down there?

Answer. Yes, sir; I suppose so.

Question. I understand you to say that the only person who took any interest in your affair and inquired about it was your old mistress, who went down there ?

Answer. Yes, sir,

Question. Is she an old lady?

Answer. Yes, sir; a very old lady. She came back and told me that none of them could be found.

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Question. How many years had you worked for that old lady?.

Answer. All my life; ever since I could work at all. She raised me.

Question. You had done a great deal for her, and she showed her appreciation of it? Answer. Yes, sir; she took great interest in me, and always did. I have always been well treated by her; there is no doubt about that.

ATLANTA, GEORGIA, October 26, 1871.

CHARLES SMITH (colored) sworn and examined.

By the CHAIRMAN:

Question. State your age, where you were born, and where you now live.

Answer. I was about thirty-nine years old last August; I was born in Walton; and I have been living in Walton County.

Question. When did you come up from Walton County?

Answer. I came up five weeks ago last Friday night.

Question. Have you been back there since?

Answer. No, sir.

Question. Why did you come up here?

Answer. Because the Ku-Klux beat me and told me to go away from there. Let me start now and tell it straight as I go. They came on me the 19th day of last March. It was a rainy, cold night, and I was lying in the bed. I heard somebody call at the door, and I answered them. Somebody knocked at the other door and spoke in a curious voice. I knew the voice of the one that called at the first door. My sisten had a girl hired of me, and I thought perhaps the little girl was sick. Then I heard somebody at the other door call with a curious voice, and I did not answer. They knocked one door open, and then they hollered for me to open the other door. My wife got up and opened it, and by that time I raised a plank to run under the house. There was a place boarded up under the house, to keep a pet pig from sucking eggs. Every time I would go to move they would say, "Hush! hush! One man says, "Go in and tear up the house; turn it over, and we will have him." They raced about, raised the plank up-part of it-looked in the beds and everywhere. They said, "Look under the floor." They raised the plank and found me there. One man said, "Shoot under the floor." I was lying by the sill, and I saw which way he poked his pistol, and it was not towards me. After they saw me under the house they said, "Come here." My nickname is 'Dolphus, and they always called me that; but I registered my name as Charles Smith. I ran out, and they shot at me ten times; but they did not hit me. I got away and ran down to where there was a horse I knew, and I stopped and sort of stooped down to look at him, and found that I knew that critter. I went on and run farther and got out of the way. They hit my wife twelve licks, and my sister says they hit her three or four licks. I then went off and staid two days. I took a notion that I was not satisfied, and I came back on Saturday night to see how things were going on. I staid there Sunday, and got sort of uneasy for fear they would come on me again, and Monday I started off. I got about ten miles from home when I met John Crawford, one of my neighbors. He persuaded me to go back, and said they were only trying to scare me. I said that was a poor way of scaring. He says, "Go and work in the day-time at your crop, and then come to my house and stay at night; and if they come to my house I can shoot thirteen times." But I took care not to go to his house. I fixed a place for myself, and I laid out for about two months. Then I took a notion that I would lay in the house; for I supposed they would not bother me again. I laid in the house. I did not sleep much; I kept watching. I laid in the house until September. On the Thursday before the second Sunday in September they came in on me again. They knocked one door down. My wife heard them before I did. She waked me up; she was crying. I had not got awake good then when I heard her hollering, "Ku-Klnx! Ku-Klux!" I ran to the door and opened it, and they gathered me. The first thing they struck me with was a rock, on the head, and then they struck me over the eye. They kept striking me that way with rocks and pistols all over the yard. While striking me they were trying to whip me, and they were in such a hurry to beat me that the mask of this man Felker dropped off on the ground. I thought to myself, "I have got you;" but I did not say anything. They beat me as long as they wanted to with rocks and pistols, and then they took a hickory and whipped me. Eight men struck me eight licks apiece. Question. Did they whip you on your bare back, or over your clothes?

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Answer. On my bare back. They pulled up my shirt. I had been ditching, and I had pulled off my drawers because they were wet.

Question. Were you standing up?

Answer. No, sir; they just knocked me down with rocks. After they had beat me that way as much as they wanted to, they told me to go and get a drink of water and go back into the house. I said that I did not want any water, and I went into the house. My wife was in there, and they took her out and made her get down on her knees, and then they stripped her dress down about her waist. They made my sister get down in the same way, in the yard, and, from all accounts, they stripped her stark naked as she came into the world.

Question. They stripped your sister?

Answer. Yes, sir; and they struck my wife fifty blows. Before they struck her any lick, Sam. Rich just raised his mask to wipe the sweat off his face, he had been working on me so hard. I was looking through a crack, and I saw him. They told my

wife to go and get a drink of water and go into the house. This Sam. Rich had sate down in the door, and Fulker had sate down there. Rich spoke to Felker and said, "Don't you want to use this hickory?" or something like that. He said, "Yes; I want to taste of her meat." He went on and took the hickory and whipped her; I do not know how long. They stripped her stark naked. Well, they whipped her and raised welts and knots, I do not know how much.

Question. That was your sister?

Answer. Yes, sir. When they got doffe whipping, they spoke up and said, "We are going to leave three or four of these wild men here to watch you and see if you watch us when we start off" They asked my wife if she knew any of them, and she said "No." They asked her if she suspicioned any of them, and she said she did not. That is what my wife tells me; I did not hear it, for when they got done whipping her, and had commenced whipping my sister, I stepped to the back door, for I was bleeding so. The first time they come there they got my gun and broke it. There was but one man who knew I had that gun. I had taken the gun to a shop, to get this same Sam. Rich, who was a blacksmith, to fix it. When he came into the house he called for the gun right straight, and broke it in half and threw it into the fire.

Question. How many were there in the crowd that first came to your house?

Answer. I did not see but five of them that come to the house, and two with the horses.

Question. Were they disguised?

Answer. Those that were with the horses were not disguised.

Question. Did you know them?

Answer. No, sir.

Question. Were they strangers there?

Answer. Yes, sir; I think they were strangers.

Question. Were those in the house disguised?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. Did you know the horse you saw ?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. Whose horse was it?

Answer. It was Felker's mare..

Question. Who is he?

Answer. He is old man Felker's grandson, of Monroe. I have been knowing him ever since he was about that high. [Holding his hand about three feet from the floor.] Question. How old is he now?

Answer. I expect he is about twenty-five years old, as near as I can get at it.

Question. What is his business?

Answer. He keeps store at Windsor, and hires hands to run a little farm..

Question. He has some property?

Answer. Yes, sir; he has got property.

Question. How many came to your house the last time?

Answer. About thirty.

Question. Were they disguised ?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. How?

Answer. Some had paper faces on, and some were just blacked and marked up. Some had just these faces on that you see in the stores. Their breeches came up and fastened like little boys', and they looked that broad across, [spreading out his arms,] as if they had something stuffed in their clothes.

Question. Were they armed?

Answer. They had pistols.

Question. Did they use their arms the second time they appeared?

Answer. No, sir; only they poked them all about my head, and one of them jammed his pistol in my mouth.

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Question. What did they say while they were doing that?

Answer. I said, "Men, stop if you please," and they stopped. I said, "What are you whipping me for ?" They never told me, but let in to beating me again, and never did tell me. This man I lived with rode about two days and nights before the Ku-Klux came to my house.

Question. What man?

Answer. Thomas Moore.

Question. You say he rode about two days and nights?

Answer. Yes, sir. He was in a mighty hurry to get his cotton picked for fear it

would rain, yet he rode about two days and nights.

Question. How much was your wife hurt by that whipping?

Answer. She was hurt pretty bad.

Question Had you any children?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. How old were they?

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