Six Men Shot Down

Item

Title
Six Men Shot Down
Source Type
Newspapers
Publisher
Princeton Telegraph
Publication Place
Princeton, MO
Publication Date
08/19/1898
Transcript
SIX MEN SHOT DOWN. ANTE-ELECTION RACE WAR IN ALABAMA. Bloody Work of Negroes at a Political Rally - Armed Men Called Out United States Conscience Fund Has Received $297,432 Since 1811. Shot by Alabama Negroes. At the village of Cusseta, Ala., two prominent white men and four negroes were shot and several others narrowly escaped a similar fate. It was understood that the Populists would have a negro rally meeting near Cusseta, and H. R. Mitchell, the overseer of the plantation, with a score of negroes of his following. went to attend the meeting. When he and his party arrived at the place they were met and fired upon by a negro named Gus Avery and his associates. Charlie Morgan, Tom Combs and John Hill were shot. Mitchell returned to Cusseta and procured warrants for the arrest of the negroes, and later, as the party surrounded the house in which the offenders were concealed, the negroes opened fire from ambush without warning, seriously wounding W. W. Meadors and W. J. Busby, both white men, and Will Floyd, a negro. Armed forces were telegraphed for to Opelika, West Point and Lafayette, and 200 men armed with Winchester rifles, shotguns and pistols responded to the call. Election excitement was at fever heat.
Sources for
William Claud Floyd