PROCEEDINGS

OF THE
COMMISSION APPOINTED BY GOVERNOR
T. W. BICKETT
TO
INVESTIGATE THE CONDUCT
OF THE
DURHAM MACHINE GUN COMPANY
AT
GRAHAM, N.C.,
ON MONDAY NIGHT, JULY 19, 1920.

COLONEL A. H. BOYDEN, SALISBURY, N.C.,
Chairman.

JUDGE W. H. WHEDBEE, GREENVILLE, N.C.,
Member.

GENERAL B. S. ROYSTER, OXFORD, N.C.
Member.

PROCEEDINGS OF THE COMMISSION APPOINTED BY GOVERNOR T. W. BICKETT TO INVESTIGATE THE CONDUCT OF THE DURHAM MACHINE GUN COMPANY AT GRAHAM, N. C., ON MONDAY NIGHT, JULY 19th, 1920.

Durham, N.C., August 2, 1920.

The Commission met in the Superior Court room of the Durham County Court House at 10:00 o'clock A.M, all the members of the Commission, to-wit, Colonel A. H. Boyden, of Salisbury; General B. S. Royster, of Oxford, and Judge W. H. Whedbee, of Greenville, being present. The Commission unanimously selected Colonel A. H. Boyden as Chairman.

COLONEL BOYDEN: Citizens of Durham, we are here simply as investigators and trying to get all the facts in connection with the unfortunate occurrence at Graham, N.C., on the night of July 19th, 1920. The Commission will be delighted to have the full and active cooperation of the citizens of Durham; and to ask you to introduce all the witnesses you see fit and we will be glad to hear all; and we hope that you gentlemen will not take up too much time as the time of this Commission is valuable, and we are trying to get through here to-day or to-morrow. We are trying to do a patriotic duty for our government, and we are here only to investigate and try to get all the facts. The Commission is ready now to hear any evidence you may have to present.

CAPTAIN MARION B. FOWLER: Gentlemen of the Commission; I don't know just how to start. I am the Commanding Officer of the Durham Machine Gun Company. In making up the report to the Adjutant General of the details of the shooting at Graham, I got together all my men and heard what they had to say and had it typewritten and that will be at the service of the Commission. I have several copies of it. I also have a roster of the Company here that took part in the affair, and I will turn that over to the Commission for any or all of the member of the Company to testify. I haven't got all the men here now for the reason that I didn't know just who you wanted as certain members live outside the city. I can get the Company together on short notice. I suppose it will be well, with your permission, for me to just give a short resume of the occurrence.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: We have come to the conclusion, gentlemen, that we will hear and taken the evidence and conduct the hearing just as we would in Court in an orderly manner.

GENERAL ROYSTER: I would suggest also that all the testimony be given under oat.

Judge Whedbee administered the oath to all the witnesses.

CAPT. FOWLER: On the afternoon of Sunday, July 18th, I was called with some of my Company to go to Graham under orders of the Assistant Adjutant General, to protect three prisoners who were held in jail there, to report to the Sheriff upon my arrival for instructions. I got the Company together and left here at 4 o'clock by way of auto and arrived at Graham by 6:30, and proceeded to go to the jail. I placed a machine gun at each entrance of the jail, three doors, one gun at each door; placed sentinels on duty up and down the sidewalk; and after conferring with the Sheriff and the County Attorney we decided to allow no one to pass the road beyond the cement sidewalk around the jail, except on lawful duty, and we established that as the deadline. When we reached Graham there were 2,000 people on the jail yards, on the porches and all around; and we had quite a hard time keeping the people from pushing beyond the cement sidewalk.

COLONEL BOYDEN: What time was that?

CAPT. FOWLER: That was about 6:45. During the rest of the evening the crowd gradually diminished, and the crowd dispersed when it commenced to rain, but we had quite a crowd until midnight. During the afternoon and evening, from 6:30 till dark, the men of my Company suffered threats and vile language to be directed to them, and all kinds of remarks, and I ordered them not to speak to anyone except in the line of duty, and I don't think any of my men returned any remarks. I was there and heard these remarks and paid no attention to them. The Guard was established and, of course, I reported to the Sheriff before I did that, and that was all we decided to do at that time. I had no further orders from the Governor at that time.

Gradually the crowd go away until about 2 o'clock Monday morning there didn't seem to be many people around, just a few autos and people there. Previous to that time I received orders from Governor Bickett from Asheville to protect the prisoners at all hazards and to shoot straight, if necessary. I immediately gave orders to my men to fire if fired upon, or if a mob tried to attack the jail. About 2 o'clock , I aroused the Sheriff, who was sleeping in the jail and suggested to him that it would be a good idea to get the prisoners t Raleigh before daylight, and that I would make arrangements to keep them in and have autos to carry them to Raleigh, and I offered all the protection necessary from my Company. He told me he didn't know what to do about it and he wasnted to see Mr. E. S. Parker, the County Attorney, about it; and we went to see Mr. Parker, and we reached his house, and he told us after about an hour's conference that he wanted to keep them there for further investigation. He asked me what I thought about it; I told him while it might be more convenient to have the investigation take place there, I thought it very dangerous because we didn't know what would happen. We decided to keep them there, so we kept them.

The next morning the Sheriff and County Attorney were in the jail, they came for an investigation together with other prominent men of Graham, and we guarded the prisoners in the jail during the investigation, in one of the living rooms. We got the prisoners there and had no trouble. There weren't many people around the hail on Monday morning; and I again suggested that perhaps it would be best to carry the prisoners to Raleigh while it was quiet, that we might have some trouble.

COLONEL BOYDEN: Who did you suggest that to?

CAPT. FOWLER: To Sheriff Storey. The Governor's office informed me over the phone that they had phoned the Sheriff that morning to carry the prisoners to Raleigh. In the afternoon things were comparatively quiet except for the fact that there were continually rumors brought to me that we were to be attacked that night at 9:30.

COLONEL BOYDEN: Where did you get those rumors?

CAPT. FOWLER: From men of my Company who had been uptown. I would try to let three or four men at a time go uptown to get a little rest from duty. I tried to discountenance these rumors, and I cautioned the men not to be excited, and after several came to me with those reports, I took the precaution to put the most level-headed and experienced men on guard.

After dinner than evening - I hadn't had any rest from Saturday night - I left Lieut. Barbour in charge of the Company and went upstairs to the jury room and laid down across a bed without taking off anything except my pistol and cap; and tried to get some rest. About 9:25 I was awakened by Sergeant Cole who was sent to me by Lieut, Barbour, with the information that a crowd of several masked men had been seen lurking around the jail. I put on my belt and started downstairs. 

Before I got to the door I heard one shot. It seemed to come from back of the jail. Before I reached the bottom steps I heard 5 or 6 stray shots. I do not think they were fired by the men of my command. From the information I gathered from my company, these shots were fired before my men fired. Coming down the steps I heard one of the shots hit the jail right near the window, and by the time I reached the bottom of the steps, Sergeant Price who was commanding the machine gun in the rear, I heard him give the command to start firing. I reached the back porch in time to see a flash of a pistol from the cornfield directed toward my men; and the machine gun fired the first 25 shots and then stopped. Then there seemed to be a rush from the cornfield; then a volley of 25 shots more and then I commanded to cease firing. I saw the rush from the cornfield and I saw no further flashes, and I looked all around, and the firing had ceased immediately upon my command to stop. I don't believe the firing lasted altogether over two minutes. We fired two volleys of 25 shots each, about 50 shots, directly into the cornfield.

COLONEL BOYDEN: Where the man was killed?

CAPT. FOWLER: No, sir. The muzzle of the machine gun was trained toward the ground nor more than ten feet high. I gave this precaution by reason of the fact that there was a house about 50 yards back of the cornfield, and I didn't want to fire into the house. The gun cut the corn down within two feet in front of me. At the same time the gun was firing, the men on the back porch were firing their pistols into that cornfield, and they fired further than the guns. The pistols were 45-automatics. I immediately rushed to the front of the jail in time to see 5 or 6 men rush around the house immediately in front of the jail in a corn patch.

COLONEL BOYDEN: You mean other men?

CAPT. FOWLER: Yes, sir, some had on white shirts and some raincoats, they were civilians. Immediately after the firing I got a telephone message from a gentleman in Graham, Captain Scott, that great crowds of people were sending out for men to Burlington and Graham to attack the jail. So I threw out my guards again as they did before the firing and cautioned the people to keep away. Several people hollered back at my men. That was after the firing. I told Lieut/ Barbour all we could so was to warn them. After I received this telephone information, I ordered the guns placed inside the jail and all the guards withdrawn from the outside, and the rest of the guards were placed at windows inside and the lights turned out. I had 37 men including officers there. I placed men at all the windows and turned the lights out ready for any attack that might be made upon the jail. Captain Scott informed me he thought the crowds assembling were going to attack the jail. This was after the firing about 9:45.

After the shooting I also received information over the phone that two men had been wounded, and Mr. Ray had been wounded and was expected to die, and afterwards got the information that Mr. Ray was dead. After taking these precautions and getting the jail well guarded and receiving this information from Captain Scott, I called up the Adjutant General and told him that I was expecting an attack and if he could render any assistance I wish he would do it by sending troops out. He said he would order out further troops and he would be there himself, leaving Raeligh by auto. During the rest of the night I spent most of the time talking over the telephone. However, just after firing the Chief of Police and Jailor - one man occupies both positions - came down the street in an auto, and I recognized him and passed him into the jail.

During the firing there was no official of the City or County in the jail; the family of the Jailor was there, but the Sheriff was not there, nor any of his deputies, nor the Mayor or any county or city official. As soon as the Jailor got there, we immediately got his family out in safety, and I told him to call up the Sheriff. He tried to call him for about two hours. After about two and a half hours, he got him, and the Sheriff said he would come down but he never came. Then I talked to the Sheriff about 2 or 3 o'clock and he asked me if it was necessary for him to come down, and I told him I thought then we could make out without him, but he could come if he wanted to. He said he would, but he was afraid he might be shot, and I told him he would not be harmed by any member of my command, that previous to that the jailor had come past the boys and I knew no harm would come to the Sheriff in passing.

About 12 o'clock midnight Monday or a little after, there were then three shots, several people firing at the jail and struck close by where I was sitting at the window on the northeast corner of the jail. We didn't return the fire because we couldn't see where the bullets came from and saw no crowd, except we did see some people in the fire-house, but could not tell where those shots came from. Then the Adjutant General came here reached Graham about 4:30.

COLONEL BOYDEN: What time were those shots fired?

CAPTA. FOWLER: About twelve midnight. We then decided to remove the prisoners to Raleigh, and I divided my Company into two sections. I put the men and the machine guns in two trucks. I was ordered to be ready to leave at a quarter of six, and I was ready, and about 5:30 or 5:45, the Sheriff, General Metz, Colonel Scott and the Deputy Sheriff came into the jail. They came and got the  prisoners out, and we placed the prisoners in among the men and put them in the machines that were waiting outside in front of the jail. The auto with the prisoners was between the two trucks, and we put a machine gun on each truck. When the trucks rolled up we started for the station where they had a special train waiting, and we got them to Raleigh; turned them over to the penitentiary authorities; came back to Durham and dismissed the Company. That is just briefly a complete resume of the whole affair. There are certain members of the Company who saw and heard a great deal more than I did, before the shooting and while it was going on. I would like the privilege of putting them on the stand.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: You say you heard a rush from the cornfield. How many men did you obviously see?

CAPT. FOWLER: Just about a squad. No, that is eight men; it seemed ten or twelve men.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: How far were they from the jail?

CAPT. FOWLER: About fifty feet from the machine gun.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: It was right at the jail.

CAPT. FOWLER: Yes, at the steps of the jail.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: After the firing you discovered them for the first time?

CAPT. FOWLER: Yes, sir.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: Did you see anybody in the cornfield before they fired?

CAPT. FOWLER: No, sir, I did not. I was upstairs.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: Was all your firing in one gun?

CAPT. FOWLER: No, sir, in two. All the firing from the machine guns were in the direction of the cornfield. I know most of the men on the back porch, who fired the pistols. Privates Charles M. Watkins and John C. Chandler were there, and others.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: Will you have them here?

CAPT. FOWLER: Yes, sir.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: You have referred to Captain Scott. Who is he?

CAPT. FOWLER: I think it is Colonel Don E. Scott. Would it be in order for me to tell what my men told me immediately after the firing, or would you rather hear it from the men themselves?

JUDGE WHEDBEE: Go ahead and tell us.

CAPT. FOWLER: Immediately after the firing Sergeant Price, who was in command of this machine gun that did most of the firing, came to me and said: "Captain, I take the responsibility for ordering the firing. Then sentinel I had on duty about 150 feet out in the cornfield, John C. Chandler, rushed in to me with this information. He said he had seen ten or twelve men coming toward him in the back of the cornfield, and he ordered them to halt. Instead of halting, they hollered at him several vulgar names and one of the men shouted to shoot him; also that a truck came along with some men in it, and one shouted 'All right, you G-- D--- Boy Scouts, we'll be back and get you at 9:30.'" He then dropped back to jail, according to my orders, because if we had to open fire we didn't want to kill any of our men.

Sergeant Price then had Corporal Sorrell to examine the gun, he is in immediate command of the gun. He examined the gun, and just about the time that Chandler got back to the steps, a bullet form the corner of the jail, about 30 feet, came past his head, dangerously near him. All the rest of the men heard the bullet and saw the flash of the pistol.

Sergeant Price then had a short conversation with Sorrell with regard to the electric light in the middle of the street crossing. Sergeant Price said he had better shoot that light out as it put the men at a disadvantage and they could be shot at from the rear. Corporal Sorrell went to shoot the light out, and three bullets passed over his head which came from the cornfield, and he said "I know those bullets; I've heard thousand before; those are lead bullets in steel jackets. It has a dead sound, doesn't whistle." Sorrell didn't get to the street to shoot out the street light. He got about half-way between the street and the jail, and he was afraid of hitting a house, so he went on up the street and shot high as he could to hit the light out. About that time after these three bullets had gone by him, Sergeant Price gave the order to fire in the cornfield. Two bullets struck right near Price and his men. One of them splattered up mud about three feet from hi, and he saw the flashes from the cornfield, and that was when he gave the order to commence firing. That accounts for the shooting on the rear.

On the front of the jail all the shots fired were fired by pistols. Sergeant Tandy and Lieut. Barbour were in charge in front and they had eight or ten men in front. Both of these men, Tandy and Barbour were out in the street trying to get the men to move along who had stopped in front of the jaile. Some were masked, they both told me that at first they were not sure whether they were masked or not, but they investigated and found they were. While Sergeant Tandy was trying to get some of the men to move on, he was shot at from across the street, and several men on the porch saw the flash from a little garden patch. He fell back and the men from the porch opened fire on that spot. I don't know how many shots were fired. That is the story that was told me immediately after the shooting.

COLONEL BOYDEN: Have you been in the Army before?

CAPT. FOWLER: Yes, sir. I belonged to the 36th Division, of the Texas-Oklahoma National Guard.

COLONEL BOYDEN: Were you across the water?

CAPT. FOWLER: Yes, sir, saw duty in France.

COLONEL BOYDEN: What did you understand by those order given you?

CAPT. FOWLER: I considered those orders to protect those prisoners at all hazards, that we were to shoot if necessary, to protect them and I considered the orders that we were to protect ourselves also.

COLONEL BOYDEN: You didn't regard it as a blanket order? Suppose in the line of duty across the water, how would you have obeyed the orders?

CAPT.FOWLER: I would obey that order overseas by shooting everything that came towards the command across the dead-line. We did not dare do that here. We waited till we were fired upon.

COLONEL BOYDEN: Then you did not regard this a blanket order, only a positive order to shoot and protect those men if fired upon?

CAPT. FOWLER: Yes, sir.

COLONEL BOYDEN: And that was the order you received?

CAPT. FOWLER: Yes, sir.

COLONEL BOYDEN: And that order was repeated to you by wire?

CAPT. FOWLER: No, sir, not a telegraph communication; it was over the phone, as I recollect.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: Repeat again the order from the Governor.

CATP. FOWLER: It said, Inform the people of Alamance and be guided yourself by this statement: Protect those prisoners at all hazards and shoot straight if necessary.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: As a military man you regarded the order of the Governor as your Commander-in-Chief?

CAPT. FOWLER: Yes, sir.

V. S. BRYANT, Jr.: Gentlemen of the Commission, you have heard the evidence of Captain Fowler, and we have here typewritten statements of members of our Company, which may be of some assistance to the Committee, it may save you some time. In all probability, there may be a great deal of conflict in testimony. There will be some contradiction of the veracity of the witnesses, and for that reason we would like the privilege of putting on some character witnesses:

THE COMMISSION have no objection.

W. J. BROGDEN: I suppose all you want me for is a character witness. I have known Captain Fowler for twelve years; I have known him rather intimately from the time he was a student in the city schools, and into the University. I know his general reputation in this community, and it is good.

I also know Luther Barbour. I have known him for about two years, and his general reputation is good.

I know Sergeant Tandy. I have known him about five years, and his reputation is good.

I know John C. Chandler; have known him for ten years, he has been a near neighbor for nine years. His reputation is good. I don't believe I know any of the other members of the Company.

MAYOR M. E. NEWSOM: The reputation of Captain Fower is as good as any man in the community. I don't know of any citizen who stands higher so far as veracity and reputation for integrity is concerned. I have known him all of his life, since he was a young boy. He is employed by one of the local banks. When Governor Bickett called on me as Mayor for recommendation for someone as Captain of the Militia, Fowler was one of the first men who came to my mind, and it was with the knowledge I had of his general character that I recommended him for that office.

I have known Luther Barbour for several years, five or six years before he went overseas. His reputation is good in every way. I have know Sergeant Tandy for several years while he was at the University, and since he has been qualified as an Umpire and as a business man, and his reputation is good. Tandy is considered to be a man of unusual fairness, and this evidenced by the fact that he is now holding the position of Umpire in the Piedmont Baseball League.

I have known John Chandler for about two or three years, and his reputation is good. I don't know any of the others.

VICTOR S. BRYANT: I know Captain Fowler and have for quite a while I don't know how long; I knew him when he was a little boy; and his general reputation is good and he stands very high here.

I know Mr. Tandy very well and his reputation is very good.

COLONEL BOYDEN: I would like to ask you to tell me now what you think of the character of Captain Fowler in commanding the men?

VICTOR S. BRYANT: I should think that he was a fearless man; that he was an intelligent man; that he had nerve, and I imagine he is a man who would stand fire very well. This machine gun company was organized here long before they were sent to Graham, for the purpose of meeting emergencies, and you will find among their number quite a number of men who had been under fire in France, and you will find quite a number of men among their numbers who are college bred men, and I think Mr. Fowler himself has a diploma, and several of the men have those advantages.

EVIDENCE OF LUTHER H. BARBOUR.

I was put on duty about 6:30 Monday night as Captain wanted some rest, and we didn't have enough officers with us. I was next in command and so he put me on duty then. I had orders to stay in front of the building and see that things went alright. Sergeant Tandy and myself decided that since there was so much talk about attacking the jail that we would sleep in the jail. We went in and got some blankets and put them on the lfoor. Before we went to bed we talked some, and while we were talking a report came in that there were some masked men, and we decided to see the masked men, but did not see them. However, a few of the men of the company that I know saw them personally.

I went out to see the masked men, but I did not see them; and then I stayed outside, and in the meantime went around and told the guards on duty that if they were attacked to retreat into the jail, and told them where to go if attacked. I went out to the rear hall of the jail, and told one man to go out to the house. I went back to the front of the jail and four men passed on the northside of the jail, and the guard on that post reported they were masked, and I took a look at the men, but I wouldn't think they were masked; they had raincoats and caps pulled way down, but I was still undecided as to whether they were masked or not. In making my rounds of the guards, I forgot to go to the guard on the south side; and I went down to him and while I was talking to him two masked men came across the street and went south from the jail and I know those two men were masked. I walked on down and followed them below the house to the south and they kept on going, so I turned back, and before I got back the first shot was fired.

COLONEL BOYDEN: From what direction?

LIEUT. BARBOUR: I couldn't say. They were firing on the rear of the jail. I hurried to get back there, and before I got back two shots were fired from the cornfield; I saw the flashes of those two shots, and I hollered for the men to hold their fire until I got there, and in going by the machine gun I cautioned the man at the gun to keep his gun trained in the direction behind the jail. Then I went on the porch and we had not opened fire by that time. Then some men came to the north going straight down the street, and we hollered to these men and told them to get back, and they passed to the corner, and then the men on the porch opened fire. The men that had fired in front of the jail I didn't see, except these two flashes, but they were also fired by these men going down the street, and then most of them retreated in to the house. During the course of the firing I detected two flashes from the upper floor of the fire-house until after the firing was over, and two men on the front porch reported the same thing to me.

After the firing was over I went up to the street and told some people to get back form the front porch and keep back, and those men informed me they were not afraid of our blanks, and I went back to the porch, and after the the Captain came in command.

Before I went into the room downstairs in the early part of the night we had had trouble with a good many men by crowding up and congregating on the corner. If the men of our Company had obeyed orders strictly they would have been perfectly within the law to shoot, because they came over the dead-line in crowds, and they had a lot of trouble with the guards on the south side of the jail. They would get over the dead-line and say we had nothing to do with them, and that kind of talk, and they said they owned the side-walks we had nothing to do with it. We had trouble with several crowds coming during the early part of the night, and they wanted to know if we had blanks and if we would shoot if they would try to get the prisoners. But there was no one on guard that lost his head.

People seem to be under the impression that as soon as the first shot was fired we opened fire right away, but that is incorrect, because we had time to get back from the street and had given orders in going before, we did not fire in front of the jail. From that time on my statement is the same as Captain Fowler's. I heard the shots fired before we opened up.

COLONEL BOYDEN: I understand you were in command during the firing?

LIEUT. BARBOUR: Yes, sir.

COLONEL BOYDEN: What were your orders?

LIEUT. BARBOUR: To fire if fired upon, and to protect the prisoners.

COLONEL BOYDEN: Did you feel yourself fully qualified and justified?

LIEUT. BARBOUR. We were fired at three times from the cornfield before we ever fired, and we gave the people warning to get back before we ever opened fire. If the machine gun on the front porch had not jammed, ten or twelve would have been killed instead of one. The machine gun on the front porch didn't fire. The machine gun on the south side fired between the rear of the jail and the cornfield, and the one on the north side fired toward the cornfield. The machine gun on the front was towards the people and it jammed and did not fire.

COLONEL BOYDEN: Have you seen the bullets that hit Ray?

LIEUT. BARBOUR: No, sir.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: How many shots were fired in the direction of the jail before there was firing by your Company?

LIEUT. BARBOUR: Six or seven.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: You said something about some running down the street?

LIEUT. BARBOUR: I saw at least ten men across the front porch of the house and run through the alleyway.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: After you began the firing or before?

LIEUT. BARBOUR: After the firing. The firing had started before I got up the steps to the front porch. Sergeant Tandy retreated back to the house and told them to open fire.

GENERAL ROYSTER: Have you been in the Regular Army?

LIEUT. BARBOUR: Yes, sir, I was with the 30th Division, and saw service overseas in France.

COLONEL BOYDEN: You were in command of the firing. I would like to ask you the same questions as Captain Fowler: How would you construe those orders?

LIEUT. BARBOUR: As I understood those orders we were to protect those prisoners at all hazards, and as soldiers to have some respect for people, but not to let them run all over us in violation of our orders. In putting up with these people who continually hampered us with the guards, we had a great deal of respect for them, but if we carried out orders to the letter, why we would have killed five or six that night, because the people had been warned and they were worrying us ever since about 6:30 that day.

COLONEL BOYDEN: Is there anything else you know that may be of interest?

LIEUT. BARBOUR: I might add this, that after it was reported to me that 7 masked men had been seen going by the jail. I told the guards to keep a lookout, and later I saw 4 men going in a westerly direction on the street which runs by the side of the jail, and my impression was they were wearing masks. Then I saw two men going south along the street in front of the jail, and I am positive they were wearing masks.

The next morning after the firing I examined the corn field and saw tracks, both in the corn field and in the old field to the rear of the jail. There was also a burnt stump in the rear of the jail. The rain had washed the soot from this stump and it had run down on the ground for some distance from the stump. The earth around this stump was packed and stamped and looked as though it had been a gathering place.

EVIDENCE OF SERGEANT G. W. TANDY.

Starting from the time I left Durham, 5:08 Sunday afternoon, I didn't leave with the Company, for the reason I had been out to the hospital to that and had not heard the fire bell. Consequently I got there about 5 minutes before six o'clock. I believe I reached Graham about 6:10 or 6:15, and I went immediately to Colonel Scott's house, and I didn't know whether our men had gotten there or not, and Colonel Scott was not at home. His wife found him for me, and I ascertained from him that the men had already arrived and were then at the jail. I immediately took an auo and went down to the jail, where I reported to Captain Fowler and he sent me up to the duties of taking care of the command as far as eating was concerned right at that time.

After I was there about half an hour, I should say, there were 200 or 300 men around the jail, and the crowd was not dispersed, and they were in the street and on the sidewalks, and we got back as far as the sidewalk, and wouldn't let them cross over the dead line. I then took four men with me across the street where we ate four at a time, until all the men had been fed. It was during this time that one citizen called me aside and asked me and said: "If we take the jail to-night, will you boys fire?" I said: "Well, we have our orders from the Governor, and if you have any friends in any intended mob, I would advise you to tell them to stay away, or if they come to the jail with that intention or anywhere near, that we are going to carry out instructions."

He said: "You are not going to shoot anybody - you have only blanks." I told him if I was him I wouldn't take any chance. After feeding the men, we went back to the jail, and the pickets were out all that night, and there was no disturbance at any time the first night.

About one o'clock that night, after we had been served sandwitches and coffee, I went inside the jail, and Mr. Moser, the jailor was inside, and I took him to one side and I said to him: "Everything is quiet now, but I believe it would be the best thing if we could get the men away from here." That was about one o'clock.

COLONEL BOYDEN: That is the jailor and Chief of Police?

SGT. TANDY: Yes, sir. He said to me "I believe you are right". So I roused up the Sheriff and I told him that I would try to get some means of conveyance to get them to Raleigh, and he said: "I think the best thing to do is to get them away." It was suggested to me that Mr. Scott had a car, and so I together with Sergeant Bagley went around to his house, and I guess it was about half past one when we got there; and he told us he would have liked to let us have his car, but he could not let us have it, because he was expecting his Mother in from the North. We didn't know where to go for a car, and it was suggested that we get a hired car from a man living two blocks south of the jail. We went up there, and there was something the matter with his car, so we had to give that up.

In the meantime the Jailor had gone to sleep, and I woke him up and I told him we would have to use his car if we could; his was a five-passenger car. It was decided to use his car. I sent one of my men to notify Captain Fowler and to get his approval of what I had done, and he came downstairs. We then woke up the Sheriff and Captain Fowler talked to him, and after he had agreed to take them away, he sort of hedged on the proposition, and wanted to pass the buck on to somebody else; and it was decided that he and Capt. Fowler should see Mr. Parker, who was the investigating attorney, and they went to see him; and the negroes remained at the jail. I don't know what took place between them; I only know the negroes stayed there.

Everything passed quietly the next day, Monday. About 7:30 o'clock, I met Lieut. Barbour on the back porch, and I asked him what he was going to do. He said he would go to sleep in the front room. I decided to do the same, as I hadn't got any sleep the first night. It was then about 9:10, I think, and Lieut. Barbour and I went inside, and we stayed in there and we talked a little before going to sleep. And then I heard Corporal Ross calling me. So I went down and he called my attention to seven or eight men who were passing by the front door of the jail, and he was under the impression they were masked. Their coat collars were turned up, and their caps pulled down over their eyes. I looked and I thought that was mighty strange. They walked on down past the jail about 50 yards south, turned around and walked past the jail, walked past the corner, and got under cover of darkness, and then turned and ran directly toward the firehouse, and then disappeared between the fire house and the house on the corner.

Of course, we didn't know what their actions meant, and I cautioned the men to be on their guard, but not to fire unless fired upon. At this time there had been one shot from the rear of the jail. At this time a lone individual was seen coming up the street and he had his coat collar pulled up, and I went out to find what he was up to, and he said he just came up to see what was doing, and I advised him to go on back home as soon as he could, because we didn't want to hurt anybody. He just started to take my suggestion and go back down the street when from across the cornfield directly opposite the jail a shot was fired, and the bullet came close to my head, but I didn't see the flash. I looked up in the direction from which it came and I saw two flashes in quick succession of two more bullets. It was not until then that my men started to fire. I rushed back to the cover of one of the porches, and I couldn't get up on the porch very well. So I had to stay there until I saw a chance to get on the porch, and told the men to cease firing. Right then I met Captain Fowler at the door, and the firing stopped absolutely.

We then, Captain Fowler and myself, went to the rear of the jail to see if anybody had been hurt. Finding none of the men had been hurt, we spread word of encourgaement among the men, who were bound to be a little nervous after the shooting, and Corporal Ross stated he had not fired a shot from the front porch on the machine gun. He struck a match to lift the cover of the machine gun and showed us that not a shot had been fired.

Captain Fowler then received a telephone message that a mob was forming in Burlington and Graham and preparing to attack the jail. He then gave the command to withdraw the machine guns inside the jail and stand guard at the doors, and not to show themselves, and this was readily complied with, and the men were stationed at the guns inside. Everything was quiet then, and Capt. Fowler had a number of calls, one from the Adjutant General, and from Colonel Scott, and it was then that we were notified that Mr. Ray and two men had been wounded, and he was called up two minutes later and notified that Mr. Ray had been killed by the firing. Of course, all the boys expressed their sorrow that one of the men had been killed.

We then looked for a mob at any time to attack the jail, and we were prepared for it, and we were going to defend our lives. Captain Fowler and myself were sitting in the front room of the jail, and there wasn't any conversation at that time that I could remember, and then we heard three or four shots, like from an automatic pistol or a rifle, and I heard as if they struck the jail, and one right close to Fowler's head. It was not returned, because we couldn't tell what direction it came from.

That is about all I know, except that the rest of the night was spent quietly, and the next morning Captain Fowler gave me orders to line the men up to take the prisoners to the train in the autos, one truck with one machine gun on it went forward, then the negroes in the auto next, and the second truck last. We had no trouble and boarded the train and went on to Raleigh.

COLONEL BOYDEN: You were the Sergeant in command of the machine gun?

SGT. TANDY: Yes, sir.

COLONEL BOYDEN: You have been a soldier in the Army?

SGT. TANDY: Yes, sir.

COLONEL BOYDEN: I want to ask you if you had cause enough to defend yourselves and the prisoners that night?

SGT. TANDY: I feel fully justified, yes, sir.

COLONEL BOYDEN: What branch of the service were you in?

SGT. TANDY: I haven't seen active service in the Regulars, only National Guard duty.

V. S. Bryant, JR.: We would like the privilege of calling some more character witnesses.

J. S. HILL: I know Captain Fowler. I have known him for the past four years. He is now Assistant Secretary and Treasurer of the Building, Loan & Trust Company, of which I am President. He occupies a highly important and much trusted position. He is a very remarkable man. I never had any opportunity to size him up as a soldier. I know that he won his commission in the Regular Army, and that he was a student at the University, and I talked with him several times and he went to one of the training camps and came out with a commission. I know he was in the Regular Army; I had letters from him in France.

COLONEL BOYDEN: Not afraid to do his duty?

J. S. HILL: No, sir. He is sober, clean. He worked his way through college very largely by his own efforts.

I have known Mr. Barbour a number of years. He is a man of high character; served in the war and has a good reputation.

I have known George Tandy for a number of years, and by reputation for even longer. He is a man of high character, well known in Durham.

I know William H. Woods, I was a member of the Home Guards here with him, he is a man of high character, clean fellow.

I know V. S. Bryant, Jr., for many years, he is a fine, clear headed fellow, cool, and has a good reputation.

JOHN F. HARWARD: I am the Sheriff of Durham County. I have known Captain Fowler all of his life. He is a good man of excellent character. I think I could depend absolutely on him. He has good judgment, and is clear headed. Absolutely trust-worthy.

I have know Mr. Barbour for many years, ever since he was a small boy. He has a good character and reputation.

Have known Tandy for five or six years, and he is a man of good character. 

I have known Dewey Hunt all of his life, and he is a man of good character. I know all of the men more or less.

R. P. READE: I have known Mr. Fowler for ten or fifteen years. He is a young man of most excellent character.

I have known Luther Barbour for ten or fifteen years, and he is likewise a man of very excellent character.

I have known Victor S. Bryant, Jr., all of his life, and he is a young man of very high character.

Have known George Tany, four or five years; likewise he is a man of good character.

EVIDENCE OF JOHN C. CHANDLER.

I was put on guard duty Monday night about nine o'clock back of the jail about twenty feet, on the edge of the cornfield. About five minutes after I was there, I notice the weeds rustling and there was rain and the wind blowing so I didn't pay much attention to it, because I thought it was the wind, and it kept up so I walked across about 20 feet from one post to the other, and as I got about 10 feet from the burnt stump there, there were 10 or 15 men jumped up from the stump; and I gave the command to Halt, and one of the men yelled "Shoot that son-of-a-bitch, he hain't got anything but blanks." I turned back and told Corporal Sorrell about that. Just as I was talking to him, I glanced back and some one cut the light on in the jail, and one fellow was there. I saw close enough to see that he had a raincoat with a cap pulled down, and his face was either smutty or it had been blacked, and he had a rifle or long stick in his hand, and the Corporal told me to go back to the gun.

Just as I went to the steps, Sergeant Price went down the steps and he started to say something about the street light being at a disadvantage, I didn't exactly what about. About that time I was in the act of lying down on the steps when a shot was fired right by my head. As Corporal Sorrell got half-way up to the light, three or four shots were fired and they came from the cornfield, and after that about five or six shots were fired, and then Sergeant Price gave orders to fire, and the machine gun fired about 25 shots, then stopped 30 seconds and fired again, and he gave orders to train the gun on the ground, and just as the second volley was fired some man in the cornfield gave a yell, and Dewey Hunt was lying beside me, and he said he heard the man holler. As soon as the Captain came up on the porch he said "Cease firing", and we stopped firing. 

I heard severl threats on the street. Prior to the shooting I heard a man in a Ford truck say: "All right, Boy Scouts, we will be back at 9:30."

JUDGE WHEDBEE: How many shots were fired in the direction of the jail before the machine guns started?

PRIVATE CHANDLER: About six or seven I should say. One from the rear of the jail first, and then two or three more from the cornfield.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: Is that the cornfield where you saw the men jump?

PRIVATE CHANDLER: Yes, sir; there are two cornfields, and this stump is between the two cornfields.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: You say you saw ten or fifteen men there?

PRIVATE CHANDLER: Yes, sir.

EVIDENCE OF CORPORAL A. H. SORRELL.

The first thing that happened, I was upstairs in the bed room and Private Watkins and I decided there wasn't room there to sleep and that we would go downstairs and find room. We started out the door and Sergeant Woods came up and he said there are masked men down there, Go down and man the guns. I was not assigned to that gun. It was about 9:30, and I was off. I rushed out with Private Watkins and I told him to take No. 2 at the gun, and I found Remington sitting at No. 1 at the gun, and I jerked the cover off, and I examined the gun to see if it was feeding properly. Just a few seconds after that Private Chandler came and said there are 12 or 15 men there, and I told him to lay down there by the gun, and Sergeant Price was with me, and we got to discussing about the street light. Before I went there were six or eight men on the porch, and I told them to protect us from the rear, because they could rush around from there and get in directly behind the gun and we couldn't swing the gun around. I went out and got half-way to the street light, when I saw that if I shot the light that I would shoot toward the house, and I saw a man standing there, and he said something about "What are you shooting the blanks for", and I did not pay any attention to the exact words he said, but I got there and saw I could shoot the light and shoot over the fire house, so I was in the act of shooting and fired one time and didn't hit it, and just as soon as I was shooting two shots were fired from my right and three men were standing there, and two shots came right by men. I heard them and felt the wind.

COLONEL BOYDEN: Did you see the direction from which the shots came?

CORPORAL SORRELL: I don't think they came from the men, they came from the direction of the cornfield in the rear of the jail.

COLONEL BOYDEN: Were the bullets going in the direction where the men were standing?

CORPORAL SORRELL: No, sir. I then heard Sergeant Price say: "Here they come." and he gave orders then to fire the machine gun, and just as I was to turn around another bullet came from the cornfield and directly over my head. I rushed out to the gun, and just as I got there, I heard men running from in front of the gun, about eight or ten men. I couldn't see them, but I heard them, they ran and fell down in the corn, because they fired several shots at us, and the flashes were coming from there. It was then that Sergeant Price gave the orders to fire, and they fired about 25 shots and some of the porch with pistols, and I fired three shots in the corn field myself. And Sergeant Price said "Hold your fire" but some stopped on their own account. There was a lapse of about thirty seconds; then there was a big stir in the corn. There were pistol shots on the opposite side of the house, and I don't know who was doing the shooting. Sergeant Price gave orders to fire again, and they fired again 25 shots, and the men rushed out of from the corn and rushed to the rear of the jail, and then Captain Fowler came out and gave the orders to cease firing; and I heard 6 or 8 shots from the gun on the porch fired directly after we ceased. And I heard a fellow holler out in pain.

In a little while after that, Captain gave orders to have the guns brought inside, and we brought the guns inside, and we found out that one of the tripods had been broken, so I pulled the gun inside the jail, and we got another tripod from the other gun, mounted that gun ont he tripod; then Captain Fowler wanted me to take the other gun and mount it on the table in the kitchen, and they brought that gun up there. I mounted the gun on that table, it would cover down the steps if we were attacked again. In a few minutes I heard several shots fired form outside the jail, and then it was quiet.

COLONEL BOYDEN: What was your position?

CORPORAL SORRELL: I was corporal of the gun.

COLONEL BOYDEN: Ever had any experience?

CORPORAL SORRELL: Yes, sir, across the water. I was in Company A 317th Machine Gun Battalion, 31st Division in France.

COLONEL BOYDEN: You have had orders issued to you before?

CORPORAL SORRELL: Yes, sir.

COLONEL BOYDEN: I want to ask you if you felt justified in firing?

CORPORAL SORRELL: Yes, sir, we had the order to fire if fired upon.

COLONEL BOYDEN: And you were absolutely carrying out the orders of the command?

CORPORAL SORRELL: Yes, sir.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: How many shots were fired in the direction of the jail before you began firing with the machine guns?

CORPORAL SORRELL: I heard four shots before I came from the street where I went to put out the light, two of which went over my head, something like a foot over my head.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: How many more did you hear?

CORPORAL SORRELL: When I got back to the gun, Sergeant Price said "Here they come". And I dropped to the gun and I heard fully four or five more, and I saw the flashes.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: That makes eight or nine. After you shot other shots were fired at the jail after you ceased?

CORPORAL SORRELL: Yes, sir, something like four or five shots, and some hit the rear end of the jail, they sounded like they came from a 22-rifle.

GENERAL ROYSTER: How many times did you shoot at the light?

CORPORAL SORRELL: One time.

GENERAL ROYSTER: One time.

GENERAL ROYSTER: Was it a swinging lamp?

CORPORAL SORRELL: Yes, sir. I fired at it and I aimed at the light, and missed.

EVIDENCE OF CHAS. M. WATKINS.

I was with Corporal Sorrell. We started on downstairs to get a place to sleep, and we met someone in the dark, and he said there was trouble outside the jail, and we went on down, and I had No. 1 at the gun. I heard Sorrell, and I think his name is Sergeant Price, talking about the street light, and Sorrell got up, and I lay at the gun, and I heard shots but I didn't see any flashes while he was gone. When he got back, just before he got back the order was give to fire, and just about the same time the order was given to fire, a man shot at men from the cornfield about twenty feet in front of me lying on the ground, and it hit in front of me because the dirt flew up in my face when he fired. That was about the time the order to fire was given, so I empited a magazine pistol in the direction of the corn where he was, and I saw them when they fell, because it was right in front of me. As soon as they hit the ground, they fired and I saw flashes. Then we fired one volley of about 25 shots, and waited, and then fired another volley, and the order was given to quit firing.

That evening at six o'clock, I was on guard on the street and there was a man who kept watching me as I passed by and back on the post, and I had to pass by a little corn patch right next to the street and he worked himself down that way and caught up with me, and he said "You boys are going to catch a little hell tonight". I said: "Well, I hope not, I or any of the rest would hate to shoot against any of you men down here." And he said "Well, you would not shoot, would you?" he said: "None of them here believe you would." He said: "now, tell the truth, if a bunch was to come after you, wouldn't you just all come and give up and let them have the whole damn thing." I said: "Well, I won't say. Orders is orders, and you can use your own judgment." He said: "Well, I am going to supper; you might just as well expect something." and he walked on across the street toward the church, and on out of sight. I reported it to Corporal Sorrell.

COLONEL BOYDEN: Would you know him when you see him?

PRIVATE WATKINS: Yes, sir.

Colonel BOYDEN: You didn't get his name?

PRIVATE WATKINS: No, sir.

COLONEL BOYDEN: Were you in the service?

PRIVATE WATKINS: No, sir; this is the first experience.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: How many shots were fired at the jail before it was returned?

PRIVATE WATKINS: The shots were fired all around the building. I couldn't say how many. 

JUDGE WHEDBEE: Were any fired at the building before the machine guns fired?

PRIVATE WATKINS: Yes, sir, as many as half a dozen or more.

EVIDENCE OF PRIVATE JOHN E. REMINGTON.

Sunday evening after we got there, I was put on the gun and there was a bunch standing around the jail, and I didn't know how many, and right across there was a big bunch of fellows. That evening some fellows got out of the car, about five of them, and one of them pulled a pistol and snapped an empty chamber. He snapped four or five times and left and put it back in his pocket, and I stayed on guard for two hours.

On Monday I was put on guard duty again, and the night when this shooting occurred, I went on guard duty again at 9 o'clock; so I thought I would go upstairs and get some sleep. I had been up there a little time, when a Private came up and said Sergeant Cole ordered them downstairs, that masked men were walking around and were expecting trouble. So I dressed and got on the back porch and stayed there, and I saw five fellows come down the street from the Courthouse to the corner where this electric light was and cut across to the other side of the street and go right back to the fire house, and they had raincoats pulled up and caps on. I saw the side of their faces. So I sat around until the time to go on duty at 9 o'clock, and Private Chandler was on guard duty, and I couldn't say how long I was down there when Chandler came running back and told Sorrell that ten or fifteen men were coming, to look out; and he told me to go back behind the gun and lay down, and I had just gone back there when a shot was fired and it came from my left; I heard the sound, but didn't see the flash. So something was said about shooting out the street light and Sorrell went to shoot it out, and while he was gone a few more shots were fired, and two or three from the cornfield were fired, and then shooting began all around, and Sergeant Price ordered me to open the gun up, and I waited a couple of seconds, and then the barrel was tilted down toward the ground, and it cut the corn stalks off a foot from the ground, and it cut the corn stalks off a foot from the ground, and I pulled the trigger and held it for a brief time and stopped and then pulled it again. And in the second volley, someone hollered, and then the Captain ordered to cease firing. Captain Fowler then ordered the guns inside the jail, and Corporal Sorrell took my gun, and Sergeant Price ordered me into the kitchen on the rear platform on the rear of the jail, and then with four or five others got blankets. We went back in the kitchen, and each one of us was given so much time to sleep and rest and watch out, and after we got in the kitchen, there were three or five shots fired at the jail from the side where the machine gun was first stationed; everything was quiet after that and then we left.

EVIDENCE OF PRIVATE JOHN THOMPSON.

I went to Graham on Saturday afternoon before the men were called out. I was there all Sunday and went down home to the country about twelve miles, where my sister lives, and I heard that a Machine Gun Company was called out from Durham, and I went out to the jail house to spend the night with the boys. I was between Burlington and Graham, backwards and forwards.

The first night I heard a lot of talking about the Durham boys didn't have any orders from the Governor, and all had blank cartridges, and a lot of the men asked me if they would shoot, and I told them they would if they had orders, and I heard a lot of them say they were going to attack the jail at 9:30 Monday night. I told Captain Fowler I heard he was going to be attacked.

So about 9 o'clock I was at the hotel having supper when I heard the shooting going on, so I got up and went on the street, and a lot of fellows run out of the poolroom and talked about shooting off blanks. I was in civilian clothes. So, I was eating supper and I heard a lot of hollering and I got up and I couldn't get by the Court house, and I went back to Burlington about eleven o'clock. A fellow stopped us there in front of the Court house and told us we couldn't go by that they had two or three machine guns, and they were going to have some trouble after a while and we were warned to go back. I saw lots of men around there, and they all had on raincoats, and they were talking about going on to see the boys after a while, and Mr. Garrett was there, and they all talked, so they started off 25 or 30 at a time, and I thought I would go down and see them. After all the shooting was going on I went and spent the night at Burlington and came to Graham the next morning, and a lot of them were talking about the machine gunners shooting up the town, and I didn't stay there very much longer and I left.

COLONEL BOYDEN: What time were you in Garrett's Cafe?

PRIVATE THOMPSON: About half past nine.

COLONEL BOYDEN: How large a crowd was there?

PRIVATE THOMSPONL About 75 or 80, all of them had pistols. I saw the pistols myself.

COLONEL BOYDEN: Did you hear them say anything about going to the jail?

PRIVATE THOMPSON: They all said they were going down there.

COLONEL BOYDEN: Did you hear any plans about how to get in the jail?

PRIVATE THOMPSON: They said they had three or four places they could get in. They would go in through the back first.

COLONEL BOYDEN: Did any of them know you were a member of the Machine Gun Company?

PRIVATE THOMPSON: No, I didn't let them know that.

COLONEL BOYDEN: What time did they leave there?

PRIVATE THOMPSON: About twenty minutes after nine.

COLONEL BOYDEN: Did they all go together?

PRIVATE THOMPSON: Just in squads.

COLONEL BOYDEN: How long after they left was it you heard the first shot?

PRIVATE THOMPSON: About 15 or 20 minutes. The cafe is about 75 to 100 yards from the jail.

COLONEL BOYDEN: Was Jim Ray a member of that crowd?

PRIVATE THOMPSON: He was there in the crowd, yes, sir.

COLONEL BOYDEN: Was Phillips, the man who was wounded, a member of that crowd?

PRIVATE THOMPSON: Yes, sir.

COLONEL BOYDEN: Did he the threats to go to the jail?

PRIVATE THOMPSON: Yes, sir, they were all in the bunch.

V. S. BRYANT, JR.: At this point we would like to introduce into the record, the sworn affidavit of Private Thompson, which we would like him to sign before you gentlemen. The statement is as follows:

"I am a Private in The Durham Machine Gun Co. At present I live in Durham, but have lived in Burlington. I now have two sisters living in Burlington. On Saturday, July 17th, I went to Burlington to visit one of my sisters and was there in civilian clothes Sunday when I first learned of the attack on the woman. When I heard that the Durham Machine Gun Co had been ordered to the jail in Graham I went there and reported to Capt. Fowler. I slept in the jail Sunday night.

"Monday morning I went back to my sister's in Burlington and spent the day Monday in Graham and Burlington. I heard from several sources Monday morning that a crowd of men were going to attack the jail Monday night. Some of them stated that the attack would be about 8:30. The general impression was that the Machine Gunners were a volunteer group from Durham who would not shoot and who had blank cartridges even in case they attempted to shoot. Several men asked me if I did not think that the boys would let a crowd in the jail if they attempted to lynch the negroes. They also asked me if the boys were not shooting blanks. I told them that if they tried to enter the jail they would soon see whether the boys were shooting blanks or not. One man replied, "Well we are going to try it tonight." I was in civilian clothes all of this time and was not publishing the fact that I was a member of the Machine Gun Co. I heard many threats all day Monday and as a result of what I heard I confidentially expected an attack to be made on the jail. I told Capt. Fowler Monday that I thought he would be attacked that night.

"I was in Graham Monday night at 9 o'clock at Garrett's Pool Room and Cafe. There was a crowd of about 75 men standing on the street in front of the Pool Room and in the Cafe. I saw that practically all of these men had pistols. I could see the butt of the pistol sticking out of most every man's pocket. There was a great deal of talking about lynching the negroes and I heard a good many members of the crowd in front of the Pool Room say that they were going to make an attack on the jail about 9:30 that night. I would have called Capt. Fowler but feared that if I tried to telephone him some of the crowd would catch me.

"I heard several members of the crowd say, "We have got every gun we could find in Burlington and are going down there in a few minutes." I heard others say, "We have all the rounds of amunition and guns that we need and we are going in that jail about 9:30." There was some discussion as to the best manner of approaching the jail. The general opinion as expressed by members of the crowd seemed to be that it would be better to attempt to break into the jail from the rear. One man said that they had plenty of ways to get into the jail.

"Phillips, the man who was wounded, and Jim Ray, the man who was killed, were in this crowd and heard the talking though I cannot say that either of them had a pistol or that either of them were planning to break into the jail that night.

"About 5 or 10 minutes after 9 o'clock Monday night the crowd began thinning. The men left in groups of about 15 or 20, going in the direction which it would be necessary for a man to take in order to get to the jail. All of these squads or groups did not leave at the same time, but at short intervals. In 5 or 10 minutes after they left I heard the first shot. At that time I was preparing to eat supper. In my opinion the jail is not more than 75 yards from Garrett's Pool Room at the most. Most of the members of the crowd were from Burlington and parts of Alamance County other than Graham. The men who left in squads of 15 or 20 carried pistols with them.

"After the shooting there was much talk about mobbing the jail and killing all of the Machine Gunners and then getting the 3 negroes. One man told me that the crowd on the outside of the jail had two or three machine guns and that they were going "to kill every damn one of the soldiers." I started towards the jail in an automobile but was warned to go back by a man who said that there was going to be more trouble. I do not think that any members of the crowd in front of Garrett's Pool Room that night knew that I was a member of the Machine Gun Company. I was in civilian clothes and had been told by Capt. Fowler that he did not think it necessary for me to go to Durham Monday and get my uniform."

(Signed) John Thompson
Subscribed and sworn to before me 
this August 2nd, 1920.

(Signed) A. H. Boyden
Chairman Investigating Committee."

EVIDENCE OF CORPORAL O. S. ROSS.

I was Corporal of the Guard, After we got there Sunday up till Monday night 6 o'clock, and my men had gone on guard two hours and be off four. About 6 o'clock, the Captain told me that Victor Bryant would relieve me, and I would take No. 1 gun on the front porch of the jail. I stayed on the front porch of the jail. A few minutes before the attack came off, the lights went off, and I got behind my gun, and then the lights went up, and I stayed there behind my gun. Then I heard someone holler "Here they come" from behind the jail, and I saw Corporal Sorrell start out toward the street light, and I heard three or four shots fired while he was out there. When he started out I saw Sergeant Tandy talking to a man on the sidewalk, and then several shots were fired from the cornfield in front of the jail towards Sergeant Tandy.

I didn't shoot the gun on the porch. Several shots were fired from across the street, and my gun was not firing on the porch.

COLONEL BOYDEN: How many shots were fired before you fired?

CORPORAL ROSS: From across the street where I saw it was at least half a dozen. I couldn't tell how many from behind the building. I saw Sorrell start across toward the light, and I heard the shots, my gun didn't fire at all.

COLONEL BOYDEN: Was he the man who fired at the light?

CORPORAL ROSS: Yes, sir.

COLONEL BOYDEN: Were the shots fired before he fired?

CORPORAL ROSS: Yes, sir, while he was on the way up there.

COLONEL BOYDEN: Are you a soldier?

CORPORAL ROSS: I was on the boat ready to go across.

EVIDENCE OF PRIVATE MATTHEW SHIPP.

I went on guard Monday night at 9 o'clock, and I was walking in front of the jail, northward and southward. At 9:15, Lieutenant came and told me to be on guard as masked men were seen, and it might be a bluff, and in case of trouble not to shoot until we got behind the machine guns. About the time he left, four or five men came down the sidewalk, and they did stop directly in front of the jail looking at the gun at the door, and they walked by me slow. I didn't know what they were up to, they walked down 50 yards and then came back. And about ten or fifteen minutes after that I heard someone to the rear holler "Here they come", or something like that, and I fell in behind the machine gun on the porch, and about that time I heard six or seven shots coming from the rear of the jail, and I saw several shots in the cornfield in front of the jail.

COLONEL BOYDEN: Were the shots fired at the jail?

PRIVATE SHIPP: Yes, sir.

COLONEL BOYDEN: Were you a soldier across the water?

PRIVATE SHIPP: No, sir.

EVIDENCE OF PRIVATE W. H. RYDER.

I was walking post Monday evening from 7 to 9, and about 7:30 I was walking from the front of the jail up to the corner. There were a bunch of men, and I had trouble with them keeping them back off the dead-line, and I had been to them two or three times, and a Ford truck drove up with two or three fellows in it. One man was driving, and about the time I walked up and asked him to get back, he remarked to the men "All well, come on get in. We will be back here at 9:30 and we'll get the whole G-- D--- bunch."

I was relieved at 9 o'clock, and didn't pull off any of my clothes, and just lay on the bed, and I guess about 9:30 I heard them start to holler out "Here they come" and "Hal." A couple of shots were fired, and I hit the floor and ran out the back door of the jail, and just then someone at the corner fired, and I heard the whizz of the bullet and saw the flash. That was on the rear corner. I also saw men in the cornfield.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: Is the cornfield you saw on the same side of the street the jail is on?

PRIVATE RYDER: Yes, sir.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: Was it the cornfield nearest you?

PRIVATE RYDER: Yes, sir.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: How many shots you say were fired before you men fired?

PRIVATE RYDER: Seven or eight shots were fired.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: Before any fire by the machine gun?

PRIVATE RYDER: Yes, sir.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: Were you a soldier?

PRIVATE RYDER: No, sir.

GENERAL ROYSTER: Did you report the conversation with the truck driver to the Commanding Officer?

PRIVATE RYDER: Yes, sir.

EVIDENCE OF L. P McLENDON.

I have known Second Lieut. Barbour since the Spring of 1917. I was in the Army with him in France, and served in the same organization with him. He is a man of excellent character, and one of the coolest men under fire I have ever seen. He was wounded in action, and recommended for Decoration, which I believe he has already received.

I know Captain Fowler's reputation as an officer. I did not serve with him, but his reputation is good.

I know Sergeant Tandy, and his reputation is good.

I know Corporal V. S. Bryant, Jr., and his reputation is good.

I know Private O. C. Wilson; was also in the same organization that I was in. He was an excellent soldier and a man of good character.

EVIDENCE OF PRIVATE M. J. EPPS.

I was on the porch at the time just before the first firing began on the north side of the jail. I was called in, and went to the front porch, and I saw the fire of one fired gun from the corner of the cornfield near the arc-light, and I saw the flash.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: From where was the person firing?

PRIVATE EPPS: From the cornfield in front of the jail, near the corner. I saw the flash of the gun, and I saw several men after that run out from there and go into the fire-house.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: That is the cornfield that is on the east side of the street?

PRIVATE EPPS: It is on the side of the street in front of the jail on the opposite side of the street, and they ran from that little cornfield over the fire-house.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: There is a side-street between this little corn field and the jail?

PRIVATE EPPS: Yes, sir.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: And they ran across there?

PRIVATE EPPS: Yes, sir.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: How many shots did you hear before the soldiers commenced firing?

PRIVATE EPPS: I heard several shots, I don't know how many, and I saw the flash of one.

LIEUT. BARBOUR RE-CALLED.

The first time I went into the cornfield was after the firing was over that night. I went in there twice myself to examine it.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: Which cornfield?

LIEUT. BARBOUR: The one in the rear. it was the cornfield in the rear of the jail. I went through that cornfield twice that night to see if I could see anything down there, and I went once with Private Chandler. The papers said there was only one set of tracks in the cornfield, but I went down there two times myself through it. I went down by the stable, and up back of the cornfield, and there is a clear space that is open clear out to the road to be planted, and they had burnt some trash and the rain had washed the dirt all around, and around this old stump there were the tracks of 15 or 20 men, the ground was packed hard, and there was a good many tracks around the edge of the cornfield, and I went back through the door on the opposite side/ and that was the first thing I did the next morning.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: Is that the cornfield immediately adjacent to the jail?

LIEUT. BARBOUR: Just below the jail to the rear.

GENERAL ROYSTER: Any of the troops there that night under the influence of liquor?

LIEUT. BARBOUR: No, sir.

COLONEL BOYDEN: Any bad language, or any thing of that kind by the boys?

LIEUT. BARBOUR: No, sir.

EVIDENCE OF SERGEANT J. B. COLE.

I relieved Sergeant Price at 6 o'clock on Monday night. He told me he didn't care to go to sleep that night, and I told him to bring his blankets in the front room downstairs. He said he would. I think about 8:30, Lieut. Barbour and Sergeant Tandy brought blankets down there to lay in the front room. I told him in case of trouble he was to take the machine gun on the right, that was Sergeant Price, and he said he would. I was on the right hand side of the jail by the machine gun, when Lieut. Barbour came around and said there were some men he thought were masked men walking around, and I saw four men pass the jail. And they stopped and looked at the gun, and then some distance on, 40 or 50 yards, and then came back. They stood there just a few minutes longer, and a couple of men came up, and they were masked, I am positive.

I talked to Lieut. Barbour before I left and he thought it was looking a little bit serious, and we decided to call the Captain, and I started to call him, and I met Corporal Sorrell coming down. And I told Sorrell to go down and inspect the gun in case of trouble. I went on upstairs, and the Captain was in the bed, and I told him we were expecting trouble downstairs, that he had better get up. And I turned and came down. I came back to this machine gun on the right, and went to the front, and just as I got to the front I heard a single shot from the rear. And I heard someone shout "They coming", and I saw the iron door in the jail in the door was unlocked. So I went to the jailor's wife for they key in case of trouble. In the meanwhile the Captain came down and I saw one flash of the gun, and I went back and saw two men inside the hallway, and I told one of them to take charge of the door. I went back to the front porch and stayed there.

I went back in after the firing was over, and the Captain told us to cease firing, and then told us to bring the machine guns inside, and then I sat with him at the front window, and we had all the lights out. It was after midnight when someone opened an automatic pistol and fired at the jail.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: How many shots were fired before any firing was started by the soldiers that you heard?

SERGEANT COLE: I know positively of three shots. I couldn't tell whether I heard any others. But I know three shots from the rear were fired before we fired.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: That is in the direction of the cornfield?

SERGEANT COLE: Yes, sir, inn the rear.

COLONEL BOYDEN: Were you across the water in the service?

SERGEANT COLE: Yes, sir.

COLONEL BOYDEN: Have you been under orders?

SERGEANT COLE: Yes, sir.

COLONEL BOYDEN: What were your orders?

SERGEANT COLE: I understood we were to protect those prisoners and the jail at all hazards, and we were not to fire unless we were rushed.

COLONEL BOYDEN: And you felt you had sufficient cause to fire and were fired upon?

SERGEANT COLE: Yes, sir.

COLONEL BOYDEN: And how many times were you fired upon?

SERGEANT COLE: I am positive of the three times.

EVIDENCE OF V. S. BRYANT, JR.

I was a Corporal in the Machine Gun Company, and was Corporal from Monday night, seven till nine o'clock. I had orders that the dead line would be the outside of the sidewalk of the concrete, which ran on two sides of the jail; if anybody wanted to walk past the jail it would be alright to walk past, but to congregate and stop, then they were to stand outside of the deadline. I explained that to some of the crowd, and some got back alright, but there were a few who cursed and said the sidewalk belonged to them, and we didn't have a damn thing to do with it because we were just a volunteer bunch from Durham. He said "You have nothing but blanks, and I don't think you would shoot white men trying to get niggers in there."

There was little trouble from seven till nine o'clock. Private Ryder reported there was a truck drove up two or three times, and that he heard the driver say to some men, "I am going to Burlington to get a load, and will come back at 9:30." I reported that to Captain Fowler. There were several men who refused to move on after that, and they wouldn't do it at first, and it took some urging to get them to move on.

I was relieved at nine o'clock, and went upstairs to see if I could get some sleep, and I had been in bed, I suppose, about five or ten minutes, when I heard Sergeant Cole come up to tell Captain Fowler "We are having trouble here, and Lieut. Barbour thinks you better come down". And Captain Fowler came down as soon as he could, and I heard a shot fired when I was puttin on my leggings, but I couldn't say where it was coming from, but it sounded like it was coming from the rear of the jail. I got dressed and went to the upstairs window, and I heard Sergeant Woods and Private Mangum shout to a crowd to halt. They both yelled. I didn't see the crowd, because I was on the floor upstairs. I heard them when they opened fire. When I got to the window, I didn't see anybody, because the crowd had retreated and the firing was over.

I did not leave Durham with the Company Sunday, because I was out of town. As I got on the train here Monday morning to go to Graham, having heard that the men were ordered there, I met some people from Graham and I asked them if they had removed the negroes Graham. He said, "I was up there last night, and I saw that crowd and if you don't get them out of there to-day, you are going to have trouble to-night. I heard they are planning trouble for them." I heard that several times after I reached Graham that day. The general impression seemed to be we were firing blanks and that we would give up if the jail was attacked.

GENERAL ROYSTER: You spoke of hearing two shouts of command to halt?

CORPORAL BRYANT: Yes, sir, I think it was Sergeant Woods and Mangum. The windows were in the northeast corner of the jail facing the arc light ont he street. One was on the side of the light, the same side with the cornfield was on, right next to the jail, and one of them faced the cornfield across the street from the jail.

GENERAL ROYSTER: How long before the firing?

CORPORAL BRYANT: I can't say. It was after the first shot had been fired. There had been several scattered shots.

GENERAL ROYSTER: But it was before the first fire by the machine guns?

CORPORAL BRYANT: Yes, sir.

COLONEL BOYDEN: The soldiers did not fire until they had been fired upon?

CORPORAL BRYANT: Yes, sir, I am satisfied of that. I might also stte this, that I had a chance to observe practically every member of the Company from supper until after the time of the firing, and I didn't see a single man who had had a touch of whiskey or even smelled of it.

COLONEL BOYDEN: Anything boisterous or vulgar language?

CORPORAL BRYANT: Absolutely none, sir.

EVIDENCE OF PRIVATE A. H. GARNER.

It was about 9:30, and I was upstairs, and orders came up there that there was a crowd of masked men going backward and forward by the jail, and I told them if that is the case there isn't need laying up here; so I got downstairs on the front porch. When I got there five or six men were across at the fire station, and two of them were across this dwelling house porch and cut across and went in the direction of the fire house, and just about that time one man tried to stop in front of the jail, and one shot was fired right from the corner of the cornfield, and these folks whoever they were, rushed back to the fire house, and then something got the matter with my gun, and I was watching out, and I heard the shots fired and saw one flash from the cornfield. Then the machine guns fired, and we were ordered to go inside.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: How many shots were fired before the soldiers fired?

PRIVATE GARNER: I saw one, but I heard others.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: How many others?

PRIVATE GARNER: Something like four, and then there was a volley. There was a fellow with the Golden Belt Manufacturing Company here in Durham, who has a nephew in Grahan, and he told my father that his nephew had been badly shot Monday night in the mob.

COLONEL BOYDEN: What is his name?

PRIVATE GARNER: Allen Parrish, and he talked like my father had kept it secret. He told my father that the Doctor had been to see him twice a day every since the shooting occurred. There was no report at all made that that man was hurt in the newspapers.

GENERAL ROYSTER: You say he is related to you?

PRIVATE GARNER: No, sir, it was his uncle; he runs a spinning mill here, his name is Mr. Buck Parrish, and he told my father about his nephew, Allen Parrish.

EVIDENCE OF SERGEANT R. M. PRICE.

When we got to Graham there was a large crowd around the jail. I can't say how many was in that crowd. I was in the first truck that came in, and as soon as he halted, we unloaded our guns and mounted one at each entrance of the jail, and established a dead-line on the sidewalk, put the other guns on the two sides, and as quickly as possible we cleared the people back. I was then notified that I would be Sergeant of the Guard that night, and immediately went to work to get the release fixed up and let the men go to supper. The crowd was threatening that evening and all along that night. Several times there was a shower of rain, and as soon as the rain stopped they would come back. There was quite a number of people; I should judge at least 1,000 people there. The streets were full and the sidewalk was full; and they would take to cover when it rained, and when the rain was over they would come back.

About nine or ten o'clock that night everything was going smoothly. We didn't have any particular trouble that night. Only the lights went out once, and then they came back right on. The next morning the crowds had dispersed about midnight, and didn't come back, except just a few street loafers off and on during the day. They would walk down during the day and look around and turn around and go back. They would talk to the men and ask questions of the men if they had blanks and if they would shoot. Then that evening about dark, I was notified I would be relieved and I was notified I should have charge of the gun on the north side of the jail in case we were attacked, and about 8 o'clock that night, I saw that everything was alright outside the jail, and was ready in case we should be attacked, and went upstairs to lie down and take a rest. I had very little rest the whole time till then. I was lying on the bed in the jury-room, and decided I would fill up the empty magazine.

Just as I was filling one, I heard someone say there was being an attack, and I got my belt and cartridges on and I got outside. When I stepped off the steps I saw that the Corporal had adjusted the machine gun, and was himself standing there, and I noticed the street light on the corner was still on, and it was shining directly on our backs, and it would place us between the light and the men attacking us and make a good target of us, and I suggested to him to shoot out the light, and he was going there to shoot. As I was talking to him a bullet passed by me. I lay down in a position so that I could cover the Corporal as he went up to shoot out the light, if anyone should come from the cornfield; that placed me with my left side toward the cornfield.

While I was lying there I heard a bullet pass over my head, and I was looking in the direction of the Corporal, not paying any attention to the cornfield, so I could tell if he was attacked. When I heard the bullet I looked around to see, and then down back of the corn patch we saw some forms moving in there and two or three very distinctly and other vague, and then two or three more bullets passed over my head. Then from the corner of the jail I saw a flash of the gun, and I saw the dirt as it spluttered and when it did, I told the gunner to open fire, and he fired.

Up until this time not a single man of ours had fired a shot anywhere, and when the machine guns opened, the men on the porch with the automatics commecned shooting also. We fired first 25 shots, and then stopped, and just a few seconds. Corporal Sorrell then came back from the direction of the light and was lying down, and that was at the time and he said "More men were coming form the cornfield", and we fired again 30 shots. And the Captain was standing on the porch, and he commanded to cease firing, and we had all stopped firing on that side, and the firing stopped all over. After we lay there 20 minutes or half an hour, we received orders to take the gun inside and mount them at the entrance of the jail, and turn out the lights, so if anyone attacked us we could protect ourselves. We got reports that people from Burlington and Graham were coming to storm the jail.

While we were inside, I stationed on the other side of the jail in the kitchen with a machine gun there, and there was nothing unusual occurred the rest of the night, except about 11:30 or 12, on the north side of the jail, someone fired, and I heard the shots myself, two or three came. The next morning about 5 o'clock, we were awakened and told to get ready to leave in about 45 minutes. We prepared to leave Graham about a quarter of six in trucks for the train.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: How many shots were fired in the direction of the jail before the soldiers fired?

SERGEANT PRICE: I couldn't say except on my side. There were 4 or 5 shots fired, 3 or 4 of which passed over my head.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: They came in your judgment from the cornfield?

SERGEANT PRICE: Yes, sir, just back of it.

GENERAL ROYSTER: You say you saw some forms in the cornfield. About how many did you distinguish?

SERGEANT PRICE: Distinctly 3 or 4; vaguely 8 or 10. I should say they were men.

COLONEL BOYDEN: Was that the place where Mr. Ray was killed?

SERGEANT PRICE: He could not have been killed by my machine gun and he could not have been killed by the pistols of the men in my command. There was absolutely no chance for him whatever to be killed by that machine gun.

COLONEL BOYDEN: You have been a soldier?

SERGEANT PRICEL I was a soldier in the Regular Army, but not across the water.

COLONEL BOYDEN: Benn under the command of high officers?

SERGEANT PRICE: Yes, sir. Our command meant to obey orders. We had been ordered to fire if fired upon.

COLONEL BOYDEN: You feel that your firing was absolutely justified in defending the prisoners, and the Governor had given you positive orders?

SERGEANT PRICE: Yes, sir.

COLONEL BOYDEN: Do you know whether any of the men walked through that cornfield that night or in the afternoon before the firing?

SERGEANT PRICE: I couldn't see directly through the cornfield. But we posted guards there, and we trampled down a corner of the cornfield, and the weeds, and immediately after the firing, a sentinel was sent back through the middle of the cornfield and he went through the center of the cornfield, and then he came back and took another man with him back through there. So four or five persons went through there after the firing. At this point, I would like to put into the record my sworn statement dated July 21st, 1920, as follows:

"Ini view of the fact that statements have been made to the effect that the firing on the night of July 19th by the machine gunners who were guarding the Alamance County jail was without provocation, I wish to make the following statement which to the best of my knowledge and belief is absolutely correct:

"When the alarm was given I went down stairs to the machine gun of which I was to have charge in case of an attack. Upon arrival I found that the corporal and two men manned the gun pointing toward the cornfield in rear of the jail and that the corporal was on the point of leaving to shoot out a street light which placed us at a disadvantage if attacked. I placed myself in position to protect him in the event that he was fired upon from the flank of the cornfield nearest the street.

"While he was going, I heard something pass over my head and turned to see what was the trouble. I saw forms moving in the cornfield and heard more bullets pass over my head. One struck near the steps and almost hit the sentry who had given the alarm. Then I distinctly saw the flash of a gun fired from near the rear corner of the jail and saw the dirt spattered by the bullet when it struck scarcely two feet in front of one of the men at the gun. I immediately ordered the machine gunner to open fire which he did with good effect. As soon as the machine gun commenced firing the corporal returned, and he and the other man at the gun together with four of five men on the small porch of the jail on that side began shooting into the cornfield. About 25 shots were fired from the gun when the command to cease was given. Then the corporal saw more men advancing through the corn and the fire was renewed about 25 shots being fired again from the machine gun.

"If anyone was shot by this machine gun or the pistols of the men on that side of the jail he was in a crowd advancing thru that cornfield and firing on the machine gunners. From every report that I can hear of the place where Mr. James Ray fell it was about 150 yards almost directly in the rear of the machine gun and immediately in the line of fire coming from the direction of the cornfield. I am absolutely positive that Mr. Ray could not have been killed by a bullet from my machine gun nor from the pistols of any of the men under my immediate command, for at no time were they trained in the direction where Mr. Ray fell.

"As to the statement that no one attacked the jail, that is absolutely false. A sentry on duty to the reas of the cornfield states that about 15 men advanced toward him. When ordered to halt, they charged on the run. The sentry retreated to the jail to give give the alarm and was barely missed by a bullet after he reached the steps of the porch. The corporal who went to shoot out the street light states that several shots passed over his head from the direction of the town as well as from the cornfield.

"I wish to state positively that no man on my side of the jail fired until I order the machine gun to open fire, and I did not give such order until I saw the flash of the gun referred to above the dirt spattered up in front of one of my men.

"There was also some shooting by snipers on other sides of the jail, but I personally know nothing of activities on any except my own side.

(Signed) ROBERT M. PRICE
Sgt. M. G. Co., 1st N. C. Inf.

Subscribed and sworn to before me
this the 21st day of July, 1920.

S. O. RILEY,
Notary Public.

My commission expires Dec. 5, 1920."

EVIDENCE OF SERGEANT W. H. WOODS

On Sunday night when we arrived in Graham - I am Supply Sergeant of the Company - I didn't have to do active guard duty. I took charge of the ammunition, and I kept charge of that till about 10 o'clock, when I was relieved for supper, and then someone else took charge. I didn't have practically any duty until 11 o'clock, when I was called upon to relieve the Corporal of the Guard from then till one. I took that relief as Corporal and served till one. But during that time we heard numerous threats all around from the crowds, and jeers, and they called us "Boy Scouts", and everything; that was on Sunday night when the biggest crowd was there.

COLONEL BOYDEN: That was the largest crowd you saw there, about now large?

SERGEANT WOODS: About 1,500 I think, when we arrived there. During the time I was on guard I made my rounds, and I passed several men on the sidewalk who would step over our dead-line on the side walk, and I went down and asked them to keep off and we had orders to keep them back. Several jeered at men, and one middle-aged gentleman, he told the others "It is alright; he has got orders and you have to go according to his orders", but the others wouldn't move; and the other said "You wouldn't shoot anybody if we tried to get those niggers." So I said "We would have to obey our orders." and he said: "You are shooting blanks", and I pulled a magazine and showed him what we had, and that is practically all that I know that occurred until Monday at dinner.

I went to the hotel somewhere around one or 1:30, and I got my dinner, and I came out through the Cafe of the hotel to get a toothpick, and the waiter there, a light bushy-headed man called me to the side, and I went over, as we had orders to hear everything we could and not tell too much and get all the information we could as to what was going on; and I went over to him, and he told me, he whispered to me that they were going to attack us that night, and I asked him if he heard it, and he said, Yes, they were going to attack us. I said "Have you any definite information as to how", and he said "They are talking of a plan of using some women to run in and to let them run in on our men, thinking that would protect them from being shot by our men, they could shoot and our men wouldn't shoot at the women. I discountenanced that because it looked like they wouldn't use that. I reported to Captain Fowler.

On Monday night I went to supper about 7:30 or 8 o'clock, and we ate at the cafe across the square form the hotel. Captain Fowler was there also. And we came back from supper, and I did not have any active duty and I was very much in need of rest, and I went upstairs and thought I would get some sleep, and I lay down across the bed and pulled off my shoes and leggings and shirt, and I never had gotten to sleep, I was just dozing and I heard several of the boys come up and say that masked men were out there, and also that I truck kept going up and down there, and I heard the truck myself and I looked through the window and saw it myself. But I didn't see who it was in there, and I couldn't tell whether they were masked or not. In a few minutes Captain Foweler lay asleep, and then Sergeant Cole came and told him that Lieut. Barbour said masked men were there and to come on down. He got up and he went on down there and I went across to the bed where he had been lying at the northeast corner upstairs, and stayed there to put on my shoes and lace them, and in the meantime the shooting started.

I heard first one shot from the rear of the jail, and then several shots scattered all around, probably a dozen shots. From my position, I couldn't tell from what direction they were all coming. Private Mangum came over and lay down on the bed facing the window, and I lay on the left, and our orders previous to that was not to open fire unless fired upon. When our men opened fire downstairs, we could distinctly tell the difference in the shots whether it was a mob or our shots, because you could tell the difference between them.

When our men opened fire downstairs, I got up off the bed and looked out of the corner window facing the front of the northeast corner, and I saw probably half a dozen or more men rush down from toward the Courthouse behind the No. 2 cornfield, and when those men got to the cornfield, I told them to halt twice, and I think Mangum hollered there to halt three times, but they didn't halt, and they just rushed like a mob, and before they got to the corner after we ordered them to halt we fired upon those men. I fired 6 shots, and they came all around the corner of the little garden patch, and then they broke and ran. About that time I heard Captain Fowler command to cease firing, and I ordered every man upstairs at that time to cease firing.

I know I fired 6 shots, and then I took my magazine out and reloaded. I had had seven in there to start with, and there was one bullet left in the chamber. I don't know how many Mangum fired. After that around 11 o'clock, we stayed on guard upstairs on the beds and kept the widows covered. I think it was about 11 o'clock when I was ordered to take charge in the front hall facing north. Before that though I heard several scattered shots strike the side of the jail on the north side, and after I was ordered to take charge, I did so about 11 o'clock; and between then and 12:30, when Captain Fowler relieved me, I heard probably 15 to 20 shots sounding like they had been fired from a high powered revolved or an automatic pistol, probably a block away, by the sound of it, and I couldn't tell whether they shot the jail or not.

COLONEL BOYDEN: Are you a soldier?

SERGEANT WOODS: I served two years in the Home Guards here.

COLONEL BOYDEN: Didn't go abroad?

SERGEANT WOODS: No, sir.

COLONEL BOYDEN: Been under command of officers, and you know command means?

SERGEANT WOODS: Yes, sir; it meant we were to protect them regardless of everything. Our orders was to protect the prisoners and we were to protect ourselves in so doing.

COLONEL BOYDEN: Do you feel you were absolutely justified in the action you took?

SERGEANT WOODS: Yes, sir.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: How many shots were fired in the direction of the jail before any firing by the soldiers?

SERGEANT WOODS: I should think probably a dozen; I couldn't count them.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: Through the machine gun?

SERGEANT WOODS: I mean a dozen shots fired before our men opened fire with anything.

GENERAL ROYSTER: You and Mangum fired in the direction of Mr. Ray?

SERGEANT WOODS: I don't know where Mr. Ray was killed. We fired in the direction of the garden, the southeast corner was where they were coming around.

GENERAL ROYSTER: You don't know where he was killed?

SERGEANT WOODS: I don't know, sir.

H. C. SATTERFIELD: I know John Thompson, and his character is good. I have known him for two years. He worked for our Company two years and his character is good. I have never heard of his using liquor.

T. J. LAMB: I know John Thompson and his character is good. I have never known him to use liquor or ever to be under the influence of liquor.

R. L. FLOWERS: I know Sergeant Robert M. Price. He has been a student at Trinity for five years, and he is now an instructor. His character is good.

CAPTAIN FOWLER RE-CALLED.

In my testimony this morning, I forgot to mention one thing that seems to me to be important. It may have some bearing to bring out more light in the investigation as to who had something to do with this mob.

I was called in on a conference with the Sheriff and County Attorney at all times except one, and this was Sunday afternoon about 7:30. A man in an auto just in front of the jail by the name of Jim Carrigan, who the jailor pointed out as the leader of the mob, he had been there all day. He was called in the house at a conference with the Sheriff and the County Attorney and Mr. Long. I was not invited to this conference and don't know what it was about; but I know that after the conference was over, Mr. Long made a speech to the mob assembled there and told them that the prisoners would not be removed formt eh jail until the right one was ascertained. The words he used was "The prisoners will be with you."

Since rumors have come to me to-day that there was some liquor among the soldiers, I would like to testify of my own knowledge concerning that liquor. There was absolutely no liquor on any soldier because I examined them myself both on the night I got there and on Monday night. The Jailor told me in the presence of some of the soldiers that he had twenty gallons of whiskey in that jail, and I ordered the Jailor - I had no right to do that but I ordered him not to let any of the soldiers have any liquor, and the soldiers could not get into it unless they broke into it. To my certain knowledge, no man had a drop till when I went to sleep fifteen minutes before the firing.

It is also rumored that some of my men around town when they were off duty - I allowed some of them to take a ride in an automobile with John Thompson - and it has been rumored to me since this morning here in the Court room, and some of those men had whiskey that whiskey that afternoon, and I wish Mr. Thompson back on the stand to testify as to that. I know he had none when he got there because I was talking with him.

PRIVATE JOHN THOMPSON RE-CALLED.

I was riding around in an automobile in civilian clothes, and there wasn't any whiskey in teh car. I was in the machine from Monday morning about 9 o'clock, till Tuesday. There was no liquor in the machine, and no soldier had any whiskey. Every time they came off guard duty we would take them for a little ride only a little pleasure trip. It was a free ride. There was no liquor or whiskey in the crowd at all.

V. S. BRYANT, JR.: I might state that on last Friday I heard these rumors, and I asked the Jailor particularly if all that liquor was still in the jail, and he said it hadn't been touched, and that every bit of it was right under lock and key where it had belen all the time.

EVIDENCE OF O. J. HOBBY

I was on a train on my way to Varina, and I got in a conversation with a man from Graham and the talk came up about this trouble, and I asked him if he was there, and he said Yes; and I asked him How about a lot of boys going up there and shooting up everything; and he said that wasn't so. And I said how do you know that - where were you. And he said I was down there in teh edge of the cornfield; and I said, Were you the only one down there, and I asked him how many there was down there in the edge of the cornfield, and were you the only one down there, and he said he didn't know how many there were. And I asked him how long he stayed and he said he didn't know, but he soon left sooon after the business started. I asked him if there was some shooting in the jail, and he said he didn't know. I didn't ask his name because I see him get off the train. I never saw him before or since.

CORPORAL SORRELL RE-CALLED.

With regard to the tracks in the cornfield, the next morning after the shooting I went out to the place where they had the gun, about 10 or 15 feet of the first row of the corn, and I didn't pay any attention to the tracks. If there hadn't been any other tracks there after we ceased firing, the guard had been through the cornfield all that night and the day before. I went through there half a dozen times myself. It was full of tracks.

EVIDENCE OF PRIVATE O. W. BUNN.

I was on guard from 9 till 11, on the left of the jail walking through the yard on the street, down to the back of the jail The first I knew of the thing, I was called in off the guard by Lieut. Barbour. I didn't see anything very much after the firing was opened. I heard some shots from the front of the jail and from the cornfield, and when I come in off the guard, I immediately took a place at the gun. After the first fire was over, I saw some men cross from down to the left of the jail, from out towards the woods, running toward the back of the jail. That is when this gun was fired, I heard some 7 or 8 shots.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: How many shots had been fired before the soldiers began firing?

PRIVATE BUNN: I heard several across the cornfield, and 3 or 4 shots from the rear of the jail.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: All those shots fired before the soldiers fired?

PRIVATE BUNN: Yes, sir. In the direction of the cornfield and in front of the jail, some 2 or 3 shots fired from there.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: How long was it before the machine gun soldiers began to fire?

PRIVATE BUNN: Not over half a minute, I don't suppose

EVIDENCE OF PRIVATE HUBERT T. GREEN.

I was upstairs and got off from duty and lying across the bed and had gone to sleep. What woke me up was a bullet hit the window out, and I didn't go down until after the shooting had stopped, because Captain Fowler told me to stay there at the jail door. That evening I had gone up town, and I was coming on back and 3 or 4 men were standing at the garage at the side of the fire house, and one of the crowd said "All right, you G-- D--- Boy Scouts; you are going to catch hell to-night." That was what I heard.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: How many shots did you hear fired before the machine gun fired?

PRIVATE GREEN: I heard one this side of the jail form the direction of the fire house.

EVIDENCE OF PRIVATE SAMUEL MANGUM.

I was upstairs in the room just coming off from duty, and I lay down and had off my shoes, and I heard somebody hollering to start the shooting, and I got up and looked out of the window, and I saw a crowd out there, and bullets passed by there, and I saw some fellows starting towards the jail; couldn't tell whether they had masks on; and I couldn't tell whether they started the shooting or not. Sergeant Woods and I hollered "Halt", and they refused, and we started to shoot. That is all I know. I haollered at them to halt three times.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: How many shots were fired before you all fired?

PRIVATE MANGUM: I don't know exactly, I think 3 or 4 were fired before I started firing. My father he stays in Hillsobor, and he had a conversation with a man about the shooting, and he heard all about it. 

EVIDENCE OF J. W. MANGUM.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: It has been stated here that you had a conversation with somebody who was a member of the party of the mob on the jail in Graham. Tell us what you know about it.

MR. MANGUM: I haven't had a conversation with a member of the party. I talked with a gentleman that was at Graham the night of the shooting.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: Who was he?

MR. MANGUM: I hardly care to call his name.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: Well, since you have started, you might as well give his name.

MR. MANGUM: It was my son, A. B. Mangum, who lives at Burlington. He told me he was at Graham the night of the shooting the night Ray was killed. He was alking around, and he said before this machine gun went off, that he heard 3 pistol shots fired before the machine gun opened fire. He didn't know it was Ray there, and he heard later than Ray was wounded and then died. He was with Ray after he was shot.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: Did he have any conversation with him at all?

MR. MANGUM: He said he was dying, and shot through the finger.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: Where is your son?

MR. MANGUM: In Burlington. I think he will be down tomorrow evening. He said the idea was that there was a crowd forming around the jail, and they were given the idea to get up guns and get these machine gun people away from there if they had to take them off one by one in order to get the prisoners.

EVIDENCE OF BUCK PARRISH

JUDGE WHEDBEE: Were you in Graham the night of this difficulty?

MR. PARRISH: No, sir, I don't know anything about it.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: Was your brother there?

MR. PARRISH: No, sir, my nephew, Allen Parrish. He was shot on Saturday night before this trouble.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: Did you make a statement to Mr. Garner or anyone else that he was shot Monday night?

MR. PARRISH: I just told him that I had a letter from him informing me that he was shot, but at that time I didn't know whether he got shot on Saturday, Sunday or Monday night; but I went up there yesterday, and it happened on Saturday night.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: You don't remember telling Mr. Garner anything about Allen Parrish being shot Monday night?

MR. PARRISH: No. I did tell him Allen got shot. He claims he shot himself. He said a pistol feellout of his pocket and shot his knee. Right through the knee.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: You didn't see him at all after?

MR. PARRISH: Yesterday was the first time.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: And he told you he was shot by dropping a pistol from his pocket?

MR. PARRISH: Yes, sir. A 45 calibre magazine pistol.

W. P. BUDD: I know Samuel Mangum for many years, and so far as I know his character is good.

COLONEL BOYDEN: Gentlemen, the Committee is very grateful to you for the testimony you have given us, and for giving it without feeling or prejudice; and we thank you all.

Whereupon the Commission adjourned at 4:40 P.M.

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Graham, N.C., August 3, 1920.

The Commission resumed its sittings in the Court room of the Alamance County Court House, at 10:00 o'clock A.M., all of the members of the Commission, to-wit, Colonel A. H. Boyden, General B. S. Royster, and Judge W. H. Whedbee, being present, Colonel Boyden acting as Chairman. Prior to the resumption of the hearing, the Commission made a personal trip to the jail grounds, and made an examination of the grounds.

COLONEL BOYDEN: Citizens of Alamance County. This Committee is ready now for business. I want to say to you people of Alamance County, that this Committee comes here to perform what is believes to be a patriotic duty. We come here, gentlemen, in response to a request by the Governor of North Carolina. We come here, gentlemen, not as prosecutors and neither as defendants, but simply as investigators of this unfortunate affair. In order that this Committee may proceed promptly and intelligently, and without any feeling or prejudice of any kind from either the Committee or the public, we ask for your full cooperation in this investigation. We ask you to be as promptly as possible with the witnesses, and we ask the witnesses to be as prompt and short as possible in their testimony, in order that we may possibly be through here to-day. We are all busy people; but still we are going to be as patient and to give you as full and patient a hearing today as is possible. We are now ready to proceed.

MAJOR J. J. HENDERSON: Gentlemen of the Committee. I desire to say that we have here a list of the witnesses that we thought would bring you the truth of this matter to your attention. If there is to your knowledge any witness in this County that you desire to hear we will make every effort to bring that witness here. Every witness that we have considered material is here and is ready and willing to testify, but if there are any others that have come to your knowledge we will be glad to render any aid we can in securing them.

McBRIDE HOLT: I am connected with the cotton mill business here in Graham. I have made a plat of this jail and the streets and all surrounding it. I was called on one night, Wednesday night, I think, with Mr. Gattis, who was going before the Governor the next day, and he wanted a few citizens to accompany him, and I was asked to go, and I told him I would; and it was then about 8 at night; and I just thought that for my own information I would make a little sketch of the surrounding, and did in my own room, and made a sketch of the surrounding territory, and the next morning I put some of the measurements to it.

MAJOR HENDERSON: Now just point out the points on the map.

Mr. HOLT: We will start from the jail. It is on the corner between West Elm Street and South Maple Street. (Pointing on the map to the Commission). There is a concrete sidewalk on the north side and on the east side. Then W. Hardin Street is about 90 feet wide. There is a concrete walk across the street from the jail each way, and also one here on the north side going toward the Court-house. This is the north front of the jail, and this is the east front or the main front of the jail.

Now I say I made this sketch just from my own mind, and the next morning put the measurements on it, but it isn't drawn to scale. The distance from the north front of the jail to the side of the concrete walk next to the street is 71 feet. The distance from the east front is 21 feet. The sidewalk is about 4 feet. From there counting the concrete blocks up to the square, is 231 plus 63 plus 54 and 21, making it over 100 yards.

Here is a telegraph pole standing in the corner of this square met by the two streets, and another one here on which hangs the electric light over the center of the square. Here is the town hall right across the street, in front of this cottage about 70 feet from the corner which will be important. The town hall here referred to is also the fire house. The measurements given here are given correct, except for possible a few inches. The corn patch that you mention is 40 feet on this west street and extends back even with the jail. Then comes the grass plot to the jail barn. Then comes a stretch of land 16 feet wide which has been cultivated and harrowed carefully for turnips salad. It was cultivated last year for turnips. Next comes a few rows of corn and a ditch which takes the water from the church, and then some more gardens.

E. S. PARKER, JR.: I want to say that anything I did in regard to this matter was not as County Attorney. In fact, the firm of which I am a member has been employed by the County Commissioners to advise them. They had been to me Sunday morning and asked me to do what I could in regard to this investigation. Sunday it was impossible to make the investigation; we talked with the negroes to some extent, and the people were waiting. Sunday afternoon, I don't recall the hour, some people were talking, from rumors that came to me, that Mr. Long had said that he and his people didn't care if the negroes were lynched. Hearing that rumor, I decided to talk and call in Mr. Long at once.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: At that time were there many people in the town?

MR. PARKER: There were, in my opinion, 300 or 400 people in and about the jail and down that street. 

JUDGE WHEDBEE: That was Sunday?

MR. PARKER: Yes, in the afternoon. The time I called in Mr. Long was just previous to the arrival of the military. The Company came and went down to the jail, and I was at the jail just as they came up, and they placed their machine guns and other sentinels there, and I went on inside the jail. Mr. Long came, and the Sheriff, Colonel Don E. Scott, Mr. Long and I and other were in a room to the left as you enter the jail; and there was something in the nature of a conference as to whether it would be wise for Mr. Long to say anything to the people. It was finally decided that he should in view of the rumors.

Mr. Long went out, and the substance of what he said was, that there had not been a sufficient investigation to fasten any built upon either one or all of the three persons. That he more nearly than any other was speaking for the assaulted woman, and that he urged the people to keep quiet, to go home, that an investigation would be made, and the law would be carried out. I don't recall whether Mr. Carrigan had been in the jail or not. After that a good many of the people left. My estimate is that when the soldiers came there were 300 to 400 people. After Mr. Long's talk, a good many of those there left. I left and was busy during the evening trying to verify certain statements and doing the best I could to find out who had committed the crime.

Finally I went to bed, and my recollection is that between 3 and 4 o'clock, Captain Fowler, Mr. Storey, and a young man named Moser, came to my residence, and I was awakened, and we went into the sitting room, and they said that the town was comparatively quiet, and asked something about taking the negroes away. I don't know exactly what occurred of that conversation; that everything was quient, and that I thought all danger had passed. That the next day the people would be at work, and that the people had heard Mr. Long and they understood there were 3 negroes down there; that no person knew certainly which one of them was guilty, if either one of the three; and after a talk that lasted I think, an hour, talking over the evidence, the left, and as I understood they left the matter of the removal of the negroes open for consideration the next day. I know I suggested that I didn't think there would be the slightest trouble. Captain Fowler and Mr. Storey left, and the next morning I got up and came immediately to the jail, and went into a further examination of the negroes. I left the jail and was out in Burlington examining various witnesses when it looked necessary, and I don't think I returned to the jail until possible 5 o'clock in the afternoon.

During that entire day I heard nothing that indicated any desire to attack in any way. I heard not one thing. At about 5 o'clock in the afternoon I came back to the jail with these statements I had taken from these witnesses, and went again into an examination of the negroes. I don't recall who was in the room at that time. I do recall that the Postmaster was in there. I do recall that Colonel Scott, and I think Captain Foweler was in and about; and we went into quite an exhaustive examination, and at the conclusion we had found what we thought was some evidence at least, a very suspicious circumstance, pointing to one of the negroes named Troxler; and we found what we thought was sufficient evidence almost to release the other two negroes, except that they were material witnesses as to what was there.

Just as I got ready to leave the jail with the Sheriff, I think the arrangement was I should call the soldiers and ask them to come the next morning and we would arrange for the negro Troxler to be taken to the penitentiary, and the other two being held as material witnesses. I left the jail I think after 7 o'clock, and I was very much exhausted, and I had been tired and worn out. I wasn on the phone talking to a newspaper man in Durham, telling him things were quiet, until I heard the fire bell. I came as rapidly as I could. I think it was about 9:15 and 9:30.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: What time did you leave the jail?

MR. PARKER: About 7 o'clock. When I left the jail, I found no evidence of disturbance of any kind, and hearing nothing. When I came down, I started running, got into an automobile, and stopped just outside the square here. I don't know, but I do not think there were as many as 6 people there. I asked someone what occurred, and they said someone had fired. I crossed over this way, and I saw a little group at the corner of the garage, and Mr. Henderson himself called men, and I stopped and went back to where Mr. Ray was lying in a dying condition. That is all the knowledge I have of the occasion.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: As I understand from you, in your judgment, on Sunday there was danger of violence being done before Mr. Long made the talk to the people?

MR. PARKER: Yes, I feared Sunday morning very much. I wanted to say that the crowd seemed to me Sunday morning to have been larger in the afternoon a good many young boys.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: In other words, the men in your judgment would probably have been men to take the law in their own hands, they had left Sunday afternoon after the talk by Mr. Long, and you did not see them around Monday in groups?

MR. PARKER: Not at all.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: At whose instance were these troops brought, do you know?

MR. PARKER: I do not know, except, I handn't called them. I saw in the newspapers that the Chairman of the Board of County Commissioners had called for them.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: Your information is that they were brouhgt here at the instance of those officials?

MR. PARKER: Yes. I felt more comfortable that Sunday night after they were here. It was Sunday the people were not at work. Quite a crowd gathered. They were laboring under the shock of this awful crime. I didn't think after Sunday night passed, there was any danger, and particularly after Mr. Long had spoken. 

JUDGE WHEDBEE: Of course, you kow nothing about the shots at the jail?

MR. PARKER: No, nothing at all. I was half a mile out in the country where I live.

COLONEL BOYDEN: How many conferences did you have with Captain Fowler, do you remember? Only one conference?

MR. PARKER: I don't recall. In fact, I had nothing at any time in the way of a private conference. The front of the jail is the living part. There are rooms on both sides of the hall. I was in one of those rooms holding the conference with them, and there were people in and out all the time.

COLONEL BOYDEN: Did you have any talk with Captain Fowler except that conference when he came to your home Monday evening?

MR. PARKER: I have the conference with him Monday morning at 3 o'clock. I think that I spoke to Captain Fowler about have the soldiers come and the negro, Troxler, should go to the Penitentiary. That was in a room there.

COLONEL BOYDEN: Was Captain Fowler pretty insistent about taking the prisoners away from here?

MR. PARKER: I didn't gather that he was. He said at my residence that things were quiet. I said if they did take them all away that I thought they would have to be turned loose. I felt very much relieved when the soldiers came up here.

COLONEL BOYDEN: Do you know of your own knowledge that any one of these soldiers were rowdy, had any liquor or anything of that kind?

MR. PARKER: No, sir, I didn't hear anything from any member of the Company at that time. I have heard rumors.

COLONEL BOYDEN: You know nothing of your own personal knowledge against any man of the soldiers?

MR. PARKER: No, sir.

THOMAS HADLEY: I don't know anything about it except Monday I was down there once, and went by the jail Monday. And Sunday afternoon I was down there something like 15 minutes, I guess.

COLONEL BOYDEN: How many people were down there then?

MR. HADLEY: I never noticed of it, but I would think about 1,200 to 1,500 people, from here down to the jail. Then on Monday I was at work all day and I didn't notice. When I went to dinner I noticed that there wasn't anyone around the jail, except the guard. I came up the street Monday night about 7:30, and Mr. Edgar Long, and Jim Ray, and Charlie Thompson and Dr. Will Long, were sitting in the north side of the Court house door, sitting there talking and someone made the remark, he looked out and didn't see anyone down the street except the police in the street.

COLONEL BOYDEN: What time did you say that was?

MR. HADLEY: This was about 9 o'clock, Monday night. We were sitting there something like 20 minutes, so I started to go on home. I was standing there, and someone made the remark, I couldn't recall who it was, that there wouldn't be any trouble that night that there wasn't anybody around; that it was raining and we would all sleep good that night. I had a letter to mail at the Post-office, and I went from there to the drug store over on this corner, and then I went down the street and turned down West Harden Street, and I was up there at the corner at North Maple Street, and for curiosity I thought I would go down to the jail and see what was going on, if anybody was around there.

I came on down that street and before I got to the corner of the street, something like 30 or 40 feet from the corner, out from the north corner of this street to the jail, the lights were out, all except the one in the back of the jail down in the lower porch. I was going along when a pistol was fire and there was someone come to the window of the dwelling department of the jail and this report of the pistol seemed to have been right up there in the window; and I just kept on to the corner of the street opposite from the jail, and I was standing there, and by that time the soldiers came running out of the north door of the jail and just then I still stood there, and there was a pistol fire somewhere out of the southeast direction from the jail across the road. That is the way it looked to me.

COLONEL BOYDEN: You mean not from the jail or from the back?

MR. HADLEY: No, sir, kind of southeast of the jail, and there was some 5 or 6 shots of a pistol, and the machine gun was shooting and started just about the time the pistols got shooting, and I commenced walking up toward the fire-house something about 30 feet across the street, and I walked up there, when they were shooting across the street below the jail house, and I saw Mr. Ed. SHoe came out on his porch at that time, when I was walking across the road towards hi house, and when I got there right at the edge of his porch, there was still firing with pistols, and there was a pistol ball hit the porch right over my head, and I had just started to say something to Mr. Shoe, and I can't recollect what it was.

That was the first time I notice Mr. Ray, Phillips and Bradsher, I couldn't tell who they were, but that was the first time I notices those men. They were about even with me across the street when the bullet hit the porch over my head, and Mr. Ray hollered and said "I am shot.", and I glanced over there and he was going back over that street, and then I ran between the fire-house and this man's house; and just as I turned the corner a bullet hit taht cement wall on the fire house. I don't think it missed very far from where I had been, and some cement hit me in the face, and I went on round the corner of the fire house and back in teh fire house, when I heard a window glass break out in the upper story of the fire house.

I heard them still hollering over on this street, and I came around to this corner of the fire house where I started from, with the intention to go across to Mr. Ray across the street, and by the time I started there aws another volley of the machine gun while I was running around the fire house.

By the time I got to this side of teh fire house starting to go to Mr. Ray, I had started across when the third vollegy of the machine gun came, and I backed out and came across the field back here and came out through this alley, and by that time something like 50 men come running in around the Court house square.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: You say that the first pistol shot which you heard in your judgement, came from the jail upstairs?

MR. HADLEY: Yes, sir.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: And the next pistol shot came fromt he southwest?

MR. HADLEY: From the southeast of the jail.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: You mean from the jail or from somebody out of the jail?

MR. HADLEY: The report was like it was on the jail lot. The jail was kind of shadowed and I couldn't see the men, but the report of the pistols they were coming form the lot.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: You know where that little corn patch is to the west of the jail?

MR. HADLEY: Yes, sir.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: Is that where the second shot came from?

MR. HADLEY: No, it was on the south side.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: The same side the barn is on?

MR. HADLEY: No, it was east of the jail, on the same side of the jail.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: Then after that you heard several shots of pistols?

MR. HADLEY: Yes, sir.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: Where did they come from?

MR. HADLEY: I couldn't tell; by that time the soldiers came out of the jail and was running round over the jail house lot, and I was looking under the corn and tall the way down the street to see if I could see who it was, and I was expecting the jail house to blow up.

COLONEL BOYDEN: What do you mean by that?

MR. HADLEY: After I hear the firing, I thought someone would be blown up.

COLONEL BOYDEN: You expected the jail to be attacked?

MR. HADLEY: Yes, sir.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: Did you hear any talk about blowing up the jail with dynamite?

MR. HADLEY: No, sir; in fact, I hadn't been around.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: Why should you imagine then that there was going to be dynamite?

MR. HADLEY: My intentions were that after I heard that report from the first gun that they would never shoot unless there was some cause, because I thought the cause was that.

COLONEL BOYDEN: You thought the cause was dynamite?

MR. HADLEY: Yes, sir, and I was looking to see.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: After you got down there and most of the shots had been fired, you saw Mr. Ray and who else?

MR. HADLEY: Mr. Phillips, Mr. Bradsher and some others.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: How were they going?

MR. HADLEY: Walking down the street.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: And Mr. Ray was shot how far from the corner in your judgment?

MR. HADLEY: Well, something about 30 feet from teh corner of the outside of the street of the jail.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: Between that corner and that house on the same side that Ray was on, there are also a few rows of corn?

MR. HADLEY: Yes, sir.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: Then there is a cornfield down back to the west of the jail also. Now Ray was about along opposite that corn?

MR. HADLEY: No, sir between the corn and the last house.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: The corn was between him and the jail?

MR. HADLEY: Yes, sir.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: Now after he was shot what became of those other men?

MR. HADLEY: I don't know. When this bullet hit the roof over my head, I was looking at that time across at these other men, and just as the bullet hit the roof, Mr. Ray hollered and said "I am shot", and I recognized his voice.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: How long did you say after you were talking to him at the cafe?

MR. HADLEY:: About ten minutes. No, it was longer than that; it was between 15 and 20 minutes. It was at the Court house I left.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: You left him sitting at teh Court house?

MR. HADLEY: Yes, sir. No one left with him.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: You say on Sunday there was about 1,200 peple in and around the jail?

ME. HADLEY: That would be my estimate. That was practically all and twoards night they began to go away.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: No, Monday was there any crowd in town?

MR. HADLEY: No, sir; I didn't see any.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: Did you hear anythreats made at any time by anybody to take these men from the jail?

MR. HADLEY: No, sir.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: Did you hear anybody say anything about lynching?

MR. HADLEY: Sunday when I came by the hail from Sunday school, I heard some of them say of the niggers that if they were guilty they should be lynched.

GENERAL ROYSTER: Did you have occasion to observe the military on the next day as to how they conducted themselves?  

MR. HADLEY: No, sir, I just passed by some time.

GENERAL ROYSTER: Did you have any talk with them at all?

MR. HADLEY: No, sir.

GENERAL ROYSTER: Did you hear anybody else have a talk with them?

MR. HADLEY: No, sir.

GENERAL ROYSTER: I understood you to say a while ago that after you heard the first shots that you were looking to discover any parties over there who might be doing the damage?

MR. HADLEY: Yes, sir.

GENERAL ROYSTER: It wasn't a moon shine night?

MR. HADLEY: No, sir, it was raining, sometimes raining hard.

GENERAL ROYSTER: How far were you from the corn patch in the rear of the jail?

MR. HADLEY: I was across the street right opposite the jail, and I guess it was something like 100 feet from the corn patch.

GENERAL ROYSTER: Were you in front of the house next to the fire-house?

MR. HADLEY: Yes, sir.

GENERAL ROYSTER: And from that distance over to the cornfield?

MR. HADLEY: No, sir, I was right here on this corner (pointing on the map).

GENERAL ROYSTER: Did you see the sentinels here (pointing)?

MR. HADLEY: Yes, sir.

GENERAL ROYSTER: Did you see the ones to the rear of the jail?

MR. HADLEY: No, sir. I didn't see any soldiers there.

GENERAL ROYSTER: Did you notice any crowd round about Garrett's restaurant?

MR. HADLEY: No, sir, I didn't go there. There might baeen 3 or 4 there, but it was raining and there wasn't enough for me to notice them.

COLONEL BOYDEN: I understand you to say that Sunday there were between 1,200 and 1,500 people on the street?

MR. HADLEY: That would be my estimate.

COLONEL BOYDEN: Ordinarily, what would be the crowd on the street on Sunday?

MR. HADLEY: I couldn't tell. Mighty few taking on an average.

COLONEL BOYDEN: Yet on that day, between 1,200 and 1,500 people?

MR. HADLEY: Yes, sir.

COLONEL BOYDEN: You heard any threats?

MR. HADLEY: No, sir.

COLONEL BOYDEN: Didn't see anybody harmed?

MR. HADLEY: No, sir.

COLONEL BOYDEN: What did the crowds do?

MR. HADLEY: Just walking around.

COLONEL BOYDEN: No demonstration?

MR. HADLEY: No, sir. I didn't stay there very long. I tried not to get close to the jail. I stayed away from the jail.

C. A. Scott: I know Thomas Hadley, and his character is good. I have known him for quite a number of years as a young man around town, and I have had occasion to observe his character, and his general conduct, and so far as I know it is absolutely good. I might state with regard to the character of the young man, that during the influenza epidemic he was our nurse. Our people were in distree and he nursed them voluntarily.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: Where were you this night?

MR. SCOTT: I was at the residence of Mr. Williamson.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: Do you know anything of your own knowledge about this? No, sir.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: On the Sunday before, in your judgment, how many people were in town?

MR. SCOTT: I was down the street several times in teh afternoon immediately after church for about an house, and I would say about 1,000 people.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: In your judgment, they were here either as idle spectators or by reason of the charge?

MR. SCOTT: Yes, sir. I took occasion to go among the crowd to see if I could find if there was any apparent organization or any attempted to attack on the jail, and I could hear none. I heard quite a number of people say that if these men were guilty that they ought to be lynched; but after a statement made by Mr. Parker from the jail steps when he stated they did not have sufficient evidence to convict either one of the men, I heard some of the men say "We do not want to do anything until we had the right man."

JUDGE WHEDBEE: In other words if this crowd was satisfied they had the right man they would have lynched him that night?

MR. SCOTT: No, that crowd was not organized.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: There was some danger of doing violence while they were in jail?

MR. SCOTT: So much so that I was very glad when the military came.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: In your judgment the sending of the military was a precautionary measure that you approved of by reason of conditions?

MR. SCOTT: Yes, sir; I was about half a block away.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: You can give us no information as to the shots, from your own personal knowledge?

MR. SCOTT: No, sir.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: Did you hear quite a number of shots before the machine guns began firing?

MR. SCOTT: I heard first one shot, and then I don't know how long a time elapsed until I heard two shots, and then in a moment or two, there were quite a number of shots, to my mind, pistol shots, and then the machine gun opened fire.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: And this was about 9 or 9:30?

MR. SCOTT: Between 9:15 and 9:30.

COLONEL BOYDEN: Have you heard anything at all derogatory to the conduct of any soldiers while here?

MR. SCOTT: Nothing at all, sir.

MAYOR R. L. HOLMES: I know Thomas Hadley, and his character is good. I have known him ever since he was about eleven years old, and I have been associated with him almost every day. I don't know of anybody that I consider has any better character than him for truth and in every other way, good habits and good morals.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: Did you join in the recommendation for the military to be sent here?

MAYOR HOLMES: No, sir, I was in the hospital. I came here after the military were here.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: Where were you Monday night?

MAYOR HOLMES: In Greensboro.

E. S. PARKER, JR.: I know Hadley; have known him for some years. He is a young man of high character, good habits, and I knew him better at the time of the influenza, when he worked so conscientiously and faithfully nursing the sick.

McBRIDGE HOLT: Tom Hadley has been for several years in the office of our Company, and I have known him for quite a bit. My opinion is that he is a boy who deserves more than he is getting. He is willing to do the menial work and works whenever he is not at school. So far as his uprightness is concerned, I have never seen anything to suspect him. I consider him a worthy young man.

ED. SHOE: I live in this house next to the fire house. I had just down and I didn't know anything about it when the first shot was fired. I got up and ran to the door and there some 2 or 3 minutes till the second shot was fired. When the second shot was fired, southeast of the jail shooting across the street into Mr. Williamson's corn patch. There were 4 or 5 shots fired then, an and I can't tell just exactly where, but they seemed like they were in the jail yard just below the jail, back towards the barn. About that time the machine gun commenced shooting. About that time I saw a soldier down there just in front of the jail, and I heard him holler "Halt", three ties, and I was standing in the door, and I stepped out on the porch, and I saw Tom Hadley who had come on down there, and they hollered "Halt" at him, and he come on across the street and ran by my house, and they made a shot at him, and there was a shot fired just as he was in my house a little about 15 feet, and a shot in the end of my house.

Just about that time there was another one fired and struck right by over my head, I was standing in the door, and he went between the fire house and my house. Then they stopped shooting on this side and went shooting on the hother side where Mr. Ray got shot. They broke and went back up the street, and Mr. Ray fell there. That wound up the shooting up then. And that is all I seen of it.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: You say when this young man, Haldey, was coming down there they hollered three times to him to halt. Do you know they were hollering to him or to other peple coming down the street?

MR. SHOE: I couldn't tell who. I thought it was him the way he was coming up from the jail. I had just stepped out on the porch.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: Had you been aslepp?

MR. SHOE: No, I had just laid down.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: And you heard one shot?

MR. SHOE: Yes, then I heard 1 or 2 shots more, and then the shooting on the other side of the jail began with pistols in the direction in which Ray was going; that is, where they came from. I couldn't tell where the pistols were; they were kind of close to the bar; it seemed to me that way.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: How many pistol shots did you hear before the machine gun began?

MR. SHOE: I suppose about 4 or 5. And two of them hit the fire house near me, and one hit over my head and one in the back end of the house.

COLONEL BOYDEN: Had Mr. Ray been killed at that time?

MR. SHOE: No, sir.

COLONEL BOYDEN: How long after?

MR. SHOE: Just a short time after. Just as soon as they stopped on that side, they went to shooting on the other side. It wasn't over a minute or two. I don't think he was shot by the machine gun bullets; I don't think they come that way. I think he was killed by a pistol bullet.

COLONEL BOYDEN: Do you have any idea who fired that pistol?

MR. SHOE: No, sir; I can't say who fired it.

GENERAL ROYSTER: At the time you heard these orders to halt could you see any parties going toward the jail on the opposite side of the street from you?

MR. SHOE: No, sir; I couldn't see any; nothing more than the soldiers.

GENERAL ROYSTER: You didn't see Mr. Hadley even?

MR. SHOE: No, sir. He stopped up there a little, and I couldn't see him. After I stepped out I did see him.

GENERAL ROYSTER: Your house is nearly opposite the place where Mr. Ray was shot?

MR. SHOE: Yes, sir.

GENERAL ROYSTER: Did you ever see Mr. Ray and the others with him before he was shot?

MR. SHOE: Not till he come down there; just before he was shot he come walking down the street, in the direction of the jail.

GENERAL ROYSTER: When you first saw Hadley was he walking toward the jail or from it, where was he going?

MR. SHOE: He was going towards the jail, but when I seen him he was coming across towards my house.

GENERAL ROYSTER: Was he on the same side of the street with your house?

MR. SHOE: No, he was on the other side going down.

GENERAL ROYSTER: He was not on the street that was being guarded by the military?

MR. SHOE: No, sir.

GENERAL ROYSTER: And when he turned to go to your house he turned away from the jail?

MR. SHOE: Yes, sir.

GENERAL ROYSTER: How soon after you saw Mr. Ray and those who were with him do you think it was that the firing started?

MR. SHOE: Well, it wasn't but a little bit after the first fire I saw them down there. Just about the time I saw the second shot they came down there. I didn't see Mr. Ray and those who were with him before the soldiers ordered to halt.

COLONEL BOYDEN: How far is your house from the jail?

MR. SHOE: I suppose it is about 70 or 75 yards.

COLONEL BOYDEN: Did you hear noises in the jail? Did you hear the men talk or any orders?

MR. SHOE: No, you could hear them a little, but I couldn't tell what it was. 

COLONEL BOYDEN: Did you hear or see any evidence at any time from any soldier that you would call misconduct while he was here?

MR. SHOE: I don't know as I do.

MISS VERE CLAPP:

I live in the house just below the jail, the house is marked on this map here (pointing). I was sitting on the porch with two of the soldiers, and they hadn't been there ten minutes, when some one came down and told them they had orders to go back. They kind of joked about it, and they didn't much believe it at first, and this fellow said, "Well that is your orders". So they got up and went on, and after they left we went in the house. And we hadn't any more time that to get to the door when we heard the shot fired, and we all went out on the porch again, and my brother started up the street to see what the trouble was, and he had a raincoat over his head, and he went up and they halted him and wanted to know what he was doing there. So, he started back and I could see the machine gun firing, and I don't know who they were firing at. After we got back to the house we went back in.

We were right on our porch only about ten minutes when the shooting begin. We are opposite the cornfield of Captain Williamson, and I didn't hear any noise or see anything after the shooting commenced from any others. The shooting sounded like it was coming from the jail lot. I could see the fire from the machine gun or pistol, I don't know which; that was between our house and the jail.

MISS HADASSIE FOSTER:

I was sittign on that porch talking to the soldiers. I saw the same thing that she saw. We were sitting there and the boys came out there and said they had orders to go back to the jail, and they were looking for trouble; and they got up and they thought it was funny at first, and then we went into the house.

MAJOR HENDERSON: How many shots were fired? I don't know.

You couldn't say where they were from? No, sir. They went on the jail and then all the shooting went on, and it seemed like all of them was shooting. We were told to get into the house, and we went in, and after the shooting was over we came out again, and then we left.

MAJOR HENDERSON: Did you see any crowds or any persons walking around the jail? No, sir.

MAJOR HENDERSON: Did you see any of the firing of the pistols?

Miss FOSTER: Yes, sir, it looked like shooting from the jail. I didn't see any shooting from the cornfield, and the lights were out in teh jail except one.

MISS BESSIE CLAPP:

I didn't see the shooting. I was in the house, and I don't know where the shooting started from.

FLOYD CLAPP:

That night my sister was out on teh porch, and after I heard a shot fired I started up the street, and I got up there on the south in front of the jail, and they halted me and somebody threw a pistol in my face, and someone asked me what I was up to, and they told me to go back, and I started back, and I heard them shoot. I had a straw hat on so I threw a raincoat over my head. After they halted me, I went on back home in the direction of my sister's home. I didn't see any firing from the cornfield over at Captain Williamsons. There wasn't any civilians on that street as I could see; if there had been any men on that street I would have seen them.

JIM CLAPP:

I don't know much about this. I was in bed asleep. They commenced shooting and I woke up. I live right behind the little cornfield. I was awakened by the shotes. When the first shot come off, I jumped up and ran on the front porch, and I stayed out there and looked and couldn't see anybody. Then the second machine gun commenced and I run back in the house. Then it didn't last but a little bit. I could see between me and the jail and up the road plainly, and there was lights in the jail, and street lights one above and one below my house. I didn't see anybody run out from the corn field. I went out the next morning to see if there was any tracks in teh cornfield, and I couldn't see any tracks there; this was about ten minutes after the soldiers left the next morning. I was up there on the corner when they left.

GENERAL ROYSTER: How many shots were fired before you got out on your porch?

MR. CLAPP: The first I couldn't tell. It shounded something like half a dozen.

GENERAL ROYSTER: How long after you got on your front porch was it before you heard the firing of the machine gun?

MR. CLAPP: About before I got out there. The door was already open and I just jumped out of bed. It was some 5 or  shots before the machine gun started. I couldn't tell from what direction; it sounded like towards the jail.

GENERAL ROYSTER: Was your residence marked with bullets from the machine gun?

MR. CLAPP: No, sir.

GENERAL ROYSTER: They were shooting in the direction of your house?

MR. CLAPP: The first one, but then they were shooting in the ground.

GENERAL ROYSTER: Do you know on which side of the jail the first shots came from?

MR. CLAPP: Next to the street.

GENERAL ROYSTER: And how many times did you hear the machine gun fire?

MR. CLAPP: Three different times. After I went in the house was the last time I heard it. That come from the lower one.

JAMES P. SMITH:

The first thing I heard was somebody holler "Halt". I live opposite the jail on the north side of the street. He hollered once pretty loud. I was asleep in the west end of my house upstairs and I could see all out there with my head to the west; then I changed my head to the foot of the bed at the window, and I heard this first "Halt", and then some words passed, and about that time I heard a pistol fired, it wasn't as strong as the others; and then in a few minutes I heard some more pistols fired and it sounded like from the jail, and I saw the guard walking and I took it to be him, and he walked on more and then I lost sight of him.

There was some 5 or 6 of them fired and then the machine gun let loose on the north side of the jail, and then on the south side it seemed to me it snapped but it didn't fire, and then on this side it started again. I didn't see anybody around there; everything was quiet.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: Did you see the man to whom the command was addressed to halt?

MR. SMITH: No, sir.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: you didn't see Ray and the others?

MR. SMITH: No, sir, I didn't see him; they were above me.

COLONEL BOYDEN: The first shot fired you say was a dim shot?

MR. SMITH: Yes, sir. It didn't sound like an army gun; it sounded like a cheap pistol. I could see that cornfield to the west of the jail, nobody was in there as I could see. If there was acrowd in there I would have seen them.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: What kind of a night was this?

MR. SMITH: A rainy night.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: Did you observe the conduct of the soldiers while they were here?

MR. SMITH: I did.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: Did you see anything amiss - were they rowdy?

MR. SMITH: No, sir. My family were sitting on the porch all the time, and my wife and daughter remarked that they never saw a better crowd of men in their lives. They said they never used a bad word. I didn't see any disorder of any kind. No cursing or swearing, and no evidence of any liquor. 

E. L. HENDERSON:

About 7:30 that night I put on some high shoes and a raincoat and walked up town and went by the meat market where Jim Ray worked and then went to the Post Office, and passed the Pool Room, and got my mail and went back to the hardware store and stopped there and talked for a while, and I went on down to the Court house, and about 8:30 I went down to the jail together with another young man by the name of Hardy, and when we got there we stopped to look around, and 3 or 4 men were standing around the corner, and a Ford truck, I didn't see whose truck it was. And the soldiers looked to me like 12 or 15 on the steops on the jail on the east side. They were singing and hollering and dancing and tapping with their feet, and I observed them for about 10 minutes, and I just looked at them and wondered what they meant by cutting up that way. I said to myself, it looks like a bunch of fellows drunk.

The reason I went down was to see if my sister was quiet. That was about 8:30 o'clock, and I came back up the street and went on back by the meat marked where Jim Ray was still working and the man who Mr. Ray worked for had his machine out there and he carried me home about 300 or 400 yards because it was raining. I went home and retired, and I had just gotten into bed when the machine gun and pistols broke loose, and I jumped up and ran to the phone and called my sister up to know if there was any danger and she said she was scared to death, and I said I will come up. After that when I come to find out my two boys had gone off with my machine, and I had to stop across the street to get my neighbor's machine to get my sister. But before then her husband got there and got the family out and brought them to my house.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: Who is your sister?

MR. HENDERSON: My sister is the Chief of Police's wife. They don't live at the jail. He is Chief of Police at Mebane; they live in the next house to the jail just east of the jail.

GENERAL ROYSTER: You say when you went down there about 8:30, the boys were singing and dancing. 

MR. HENDERSON: Yes, they would sign a hymn and stop and sing and then cheer and pat.

GENERAL ROYSTER: Were they singing loud and boisterous?

MR. HENDERSON: Yes, you could heard them at the corner.

GENERAL ROYSTER: Any objectionable songs?

MR. HENDERSON: No, I didn't pay any attention to the words, but I don't think they were objectionable. And they were dancing and tapping their feet. During the time I was there one of the machines with 4 or 5 soldiers drove up, and they came up from south.

GENERAL ROYSTER: How far were you from them?

MR. HENDERSON: Withing 30 feet of the sentinel and the guards were not doing duty or walking posts at all. Just standing around

GENERAL ROYSTER: That is the only instance of any loud talk or singing on the part of the soldiers while they were there?

MR. HENDERSON: That was the only instance that I saw because I wasn't in town until that afternoon. I was in Burlington myself most of the time.

GENERAL ROYSTER: Were you there when the soldiers came Sunday?

MR. HENDERSON: I had just left home and got my supper.

GENERAL ROYSTER: What was the attitude of the crowd assembled toward the soldiers Sunday night?

MR. HENDERSON: There were a great many people on the street there and a great many talking and walking around and of course you could hear talk about lynching the niggers if they were guilty. I never heard anybody make a remark about the soldiers; but I walked down the street where there was a good crowd, then I went to where the guard was walking and through curiosity I said to him "How did you find the roads between here and Durham?" And he said "Not very bad", in a whisper. And he walked on to his next post and stopped, and he was working on his leggings, and he said "If I knew just which one of the damn niggers it was, I have got seven bullets here that I would give him."

GENERAL ROYSTER: Did you ask the guard at any time whether they had loaded cartridges or blanks?

MR. HENDERSON: No, sir, and I never saw a gun on anybody while I was down there. I passed by this pool room where they said there was a mob assembling on Monday night. I passed by there that night, and never saw anybody there at all.

MAJOR HENDERSON: You saw the auto drive up about 8:30 to the jail?

MR. HENDERSON: Yes, sir. That auto drove off; they passed a few words with one another and some soldiers walked out and drove off up Maple Street. I think some soldiers were in the auto and I think, one private citizen, and I don't know whether it was a soldier or private citizen driving. It was a 7-passenger car. I might also say that after this firing I had gone up and gone to bed, and then I came up the street stayed there till one o'clock that night, and I was right here on this street, there were perhaps 75 to 100 people on the street, and during that time I heard two pistols fired in the east part of the town. In the afternoon while I went down to see if it was quiet, I never saw it more peaceful and quiet and absolutely no kind of any mob.

A. B. MANGUM:

About 9 o'clock Monday night I went down to the jail to see my brother. I talked with him about 20 minutes, and then I walked up to the poolroom. I was on the street car at the time the shot took place. After that I got out and walked toward where this fellow Ray was lying down there.

GENERAL ROYSTER: Your father testified something about a conversation you had with him, and what they were going to do?

MR. MANGUM: That was all after the shooting took place, and it was just talk about the crowd. I didn't hear anything before. They talked about getting the soldiers and then the niggers. I don't know how many was saying that. I heard them through the crowd.

GENERAL ROYSTER: After the shooting you heard a dozen say they would get the soldiers and then to get the negroes. Was that the conversation you told your father about?

MR. MANGUM: Yes, sir. I went down before the jail and didn't see any mob. I saw some men standing there before the shooting. I don't know who they were. I don't know who they were after the shooting who said they would go down to get the soldiers. I live in Burlington.

COLONEL BOYDEN: Were you in the pool room?

MR. MANGUM: Yes, sir; there was 3 or 4 men in there then. It was then a little after 9 o'clock. The shooting took place while I was in the street car.

GENERAL ROYSTER: You say you were sitting in street car when the shooting took place? Did you hear any shots?

MR. MANGUM: It sounded to me like 2 or 3, and then a lot at one time, and then the machine gun, but where they came from I don't know. It was about a block from the jail.

WILLIE PHILLIPS:

The night this shooting occurred I was at the Cafe with Mr. Ray. We were in the rear of the cafe. About 9 o'clock possibly a little after, while we were in there we heard a pistol shot, but neither of us paid any attention to it, because we have heard them here before. But in about 2 seconds one of Mr. Moser's boys came running in the door of the cafe and said to me "The lights are out in the jail and somebody is shooting." So we took it for granted some of the boys accidentally let the gun off and accidentally shot somebody of Mr. Moser's family.

So I said to Mr. Ray, "Let's walk down and see what the excitement is?" So we left the back door of the cafe and walked down and stopped in front of Mr. Boswell's house; and on account of Mrs. Boswell being inside we thought we better move up a little. So we moved up a little bit about 60 feet from the dead line. After being there about 2 minutes we saw a soldier come out from about the middle of the jail on the north side of the jail, and he walked across the street to the telephone post, and as he walked opposite the post he drew a revolver and opened in the north direction; and after he shot one time we looked in the direction he shot and we didn't see any person anywhere; and the second shot we heard the noise on Mr. Shoe's porch and we thought he hit the house, and we saw a man standing on the porch next to the fire-house, and then he shot twice more, and a man ran between the two house; and I judge it to be 2 seconds then and a whole volley of shots - I believe as many as 30 - came right towards me and Ray, and then the machine gun started; and I said to Mr. Ray "I believe we are gone," and we made an attempt to turn around and as I wasfacing this way a bullet struck me through the thigh an inche above the knee cap, and I went to the house.

And by that time the first machine gun ceased firing and I stayed there for a second, and then they turned on the second firing, and I made up my mind I would go into my house when it ceased, and I did. And as I started into the door of my house I saw Mr. Ray lying on the ground. And my wife was on the porch, and I tried to tell her there wasn't anything out of the ordinary taking place, and then she saw Mr. Ray lying at the house. So I took her into the house and she looked out and saw blood from my leg, and she said "You are shot," and I said "I am not bad; if you will keep quiet I will go and see if I could do anything for Mr. Ray".

I left her and came to Mr. Ray in where he was lying three seconds walk from my door, and I said to him "Are you shot?"/ and he said "Yes, I am killed"; so I turned and left Mr. Ray and went back to my wife, and I tried to quiet her again until somebody came to my aid. I went back to Mr. Ray again, and I asked him "Is there anything I can do for you?" He said "Yes, give me a drink of water"; and nobody had come out on the street at that time. I went into the house and carried him some water; and about that time Mr. Rich and Allie Moore came where Mr. Ray was lying, and I turned and went back to the house and stayed till the Doctor came and treated my wife; and I didn't see anybody on the streets with the exception of the men who went between the tenement house and the fire house.

And the soldier who we seen never asked us to halt or any warning whatever. In fact, we didn't feel any uneasiness because we were in the light.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: As I understand you, the soldier came out and shot three times?

MR. PHILLIPS: Yes, sir.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: There was some testimony at Durham that one of them went out to shoot out the street light?

MR. PHILLIPS: No, sir, I wouldn't judge he was shooting that high.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: Was he in a position to shoot at it if he wanted to?

MR. PHILLIPS: Yes, sir; I am sure he shot three times.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: He isn't the man who shot you and Mr. Ray?

MR. PHILLIPS: I wouldn't testify to that, becuase Mr. Ray and I were on a turn to leave there. We weren't facing him.

COLONEL BOYDEN: Did you hear or see of your own knowledge any disorderly conduct?

MR. PHILLIPS: I heard of some of it.

GENERAL ROYSTER: Would you give us the name of the party who told you there was misconduct?

MR. PHILLIPS: My wife told me that the lady who lived next door to her, a Miss Aydelett.

CLEM BRADSHAW:

I don't know much about it. I was in the cafe talking to one or two people, and taking supper, then I went from the cafe and started home - I live below the jail. I caught up with this Moser boy, and they were walking in front of Mr. Ray and Phillips, and I asked him what the excitement was, and he said "The lights were out down there, and a shot had been fired." I got down towards these fellows, and I was just 3 or 4 feet behind them and stopped about Mrs. Boswell's house, and I saw a fellow standing under the electric light, and saw him draw his pistol up. He shot at this fellow Hadley across the street. He shot twice or three times.

By that time I was behind these fellows, so they turned and started back toward me, and I didn't feel like anybody should be further in front that I so I started out too. In the meantime this fellow that shot he turned and drew his revolver. I heard some shooting, but I couldn't say where it was, whether he shot them or not; and I heard one of the fellows say "He shot me" and I heard the other say the same; and by that time I was behind the house; and then this fellow fell on the street and I got a chance to run in the cafe and report to Phillips's brother, and I reported to him he was shot. I wasn't shot, a bullet just glazed me from the pavement.

HOWARD MOSER:

I was home that night between 8 and 9 o'clock, and started to go to bed, and the phone rang and I stopped and one of them soldiers answered it, and said it was a call from Durham for the Sheriff, and to see if we could find him, or if not him, father. We couldn't find them, and we were talking about the soldiers and I turned round to go back, and I went up the street and got to Mrs. Boswell's, and I heard a pistol fired, and turned around to start down and my foot slipped and I fell down and I got up and ran on into the cafe, and Jim Ray was in there and said "Let us see what the excitement was."

And I heard one of the soldiers holler" Turn off the light" and I heard one of them shoot, and I told them that. And then they said "Let's go down there." And he said "They won't shoot us on the street", and we just started and we got down there about Mr. Phillips' and then they shot again, and I turned around to see if Bill Moore was there, and he was gone. And then Mr. Ray was shot, and I ran on, and I heard one of the soldiers say "Halt" and I just jumped up on the porch.

GENERAL ROYSTER: You heard some people talking about the soldiers?

H. MOSER: Yes, sir.

GENERAL ROYSTER: What were they saying?

H. MOSER: They said something about "tin soldiers". I don't know what time it was; it was about 9 o'clock. All I heard was just talking about them tin soldiers, and one man said "I reckon they are Italians and Jews", and he said you better watch out or you will get shot.

GENERAL ROYSTER:  How many people were there when you heard the talking about the soldiers?

H. MOSER: It was just full. They were talking about tin soldiers.

GENERAL ROYSTER: Say anything about they wouldn't shoot?

H. MOSER: I didn't hear. They might have said something about blank cartridges. I heard that conversation when the place was full.

MAJOR HENDERSON: Were they men or boys?

H. MOSER: They were boys; they called them Boy Scouts. I saw a crowd of men come down by the jail and they had their caps kind of pulled down; there was about 6 in that crowd. This was before the shooting. I had come round to get my cap and I seen them as I came out of the door, they were going back by the house. And one of the soldiers said "Look out, we are going to have some trouble."

DOLPH MOSER: 

I am Chief of Police and Jailor. I was in a moving picture show when I heard the shooting and I came out after that. About 10 minutes to 7 I left the jail to attend a trial that was set for 7:30. I came on down and stayed around. It was raining. Then I made some inquiry about the trial of that man and I couldn't find out anything about it. I went on up the street, and I saw Jim Ray and I told him I came up to attend a trial. And he said "You have $200 of his money; you don't care for the trial." He said "He hasn't showed up, let's go to the pictures." So I went on down the street and on to the drug store, and stayed there some minutes and walked across to the picture show.

I had not been in there more than 5 or 10 minutes when I was notified of the shooting, and I was told Mr. Ray was shot down and Mr. Phillips was wounded. And I got the Doctor and when we got down there the shooting was all over. I stopped to see Mr. Ray, and there were 3 other fellows went down to the jail. I don't know anything at all about the shooting; I wasn't there. After that, later in the night there were shots all around over town. I should say near 12 o'clock, there were 3 shots fired at the jail. They weren't replied to, and immediately after that there was another shot fired from the street in an auto; and by that time another automobile drove up to the curb and there were something like 12 or 15 shots fired.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: You stayed in the jail the balance of the night?

MR. MOSER: Yes, sir. They moved the machine guns back into the jail.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: Did they tell you they had been fired upon when you got back?

MR. MOSER: Yes, sir. Some one was in the room with Captain Fowler, and when I got in there the first thing I did was to gather my little family together and send them away to my mother's for the night, and then after that I got in the room where the soldiers were and someone came in and reported to Captain Fowler what had occurred out there, that they had been fired on, and about that time the telephone rang.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: There was evidence in Durham from the soldiers to the shots. Did they tell you they had been fired upon before they fired?

MR. MOSER: Yes, they said they were fired upon from nearby before they shot and that it seemed to be from the cornfield that night.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: Did you and Captain Fowler talk about carrying the negroes away?

MR. MOSER: Yes, sir. We both came to that conclusion. I felt that way all the time because I had my family in there. Sunday night, as well as I recollect, about 2 o'clock, that was early Monday morning, I said to Captain Fowler that things seemed to be quiet and didn't he think it would be a good thing to move these prisoners away from here while the soldier were here. That feeling was pretty high against the soldiers also; some remakrs have been made against them. He said "I think so." About that time the Sheriff was in the house and we got him p and Captain Fowler talked to me and to him, and they got up andwent to Mr. Parker's house somewhere near 2 o'clock. I didn't see any more until an hour and a half later when they came back, and they told me they had to keep them here for investigation the next day.

GENERALROYSTER: These soldiers were in your premises while they were here?

MR. MOSER: They were quartered there. They had sleeping quarters just upstairs. I had occasion to observe them while they were here. Their conduct was as nice a set of boys as I ever seen. I never heard a cuss word or an oath from any one of them, or any misconduct whatever. They were not under the influence of any liquor at any time, and I didn't see or even smell a smell of whiskey at any time.

GENERAL ROYSTER: You say you had discovered some feeling against the soldiers; when was that?

MR. MOSER: Sunday evening. Some were pretty ugly remarks made to them and about them after they got here. I didn't hear any of the soldiers reply to those remarks.

GENERAL ROYSTER: Were those remakrs loud enough for the soldiers to hear them?

MR. MOSER: Oh, yes, anybody could hear them. And on Monday big groups passed in autos and called them tin soldiers and Boy Scouts and everything, and some shouted "We will get them tonight". And one woman has a son in jail, and about 3 o'clock Monday evening she came to see about her son, and said she was scared for the safety of her boy. She said that she learned they were going to dynamite the jail that night.

GENERAL ROYSTER: How many times during that Monday or other days and from what sources did you hear that they were going to get them to-night?

MR. MOSER: I can't say; I heard it several times through the day. They would say that to the soldiers on the beat also to the sentinels. I don't know any of those men.

COLONEL BOYDEN: I understand there was whiskey in your possession?

MR. MOSER: Yes, sir, while the soldiers were there. And absolutely all the whiskey is there yet; there wasn't a bit of it touched.

MAJOR HENDERSON: Did you make any inspection of the jail for bullets on the outside?

MR. MOSER: Not until 3 r 4 days afterwards. I didn't see any marks. After I got back to tha jail that night, Captain Fowler did not let any of the men leave, he put some out on duty, and then called them all in. I can't tell whether any of the men left before they were taken from the jail in the autos. I was in the living part of the jail, and they were in the front door and upstairs and in the back entrance.

MAJOR HENDERSON: Did you find any bullet shots on the inside?

MR. MOSER: I found a bullet hole in the floor. In my opinion, that came from somewhere inside the jail; it might have been fired before I came in, I don't know. I think I would have heard it when it was fired. My recollection is that only 3 shots were fired after that from across the street on the outside.

MAJOR HENDERSON: What position in the jail is that bullet mark?

MR. MOSER: It came from the top of the floor down through; and it went through the floor and three rafters and into the brick wall. I don't know when that bullet was fired, whether before or after I got there.

MAJOR HENDERSON: Did Captain Fowler or any of the soldiers make any explanation to you about that hole in the floor?

MR. MOSER: I never found it till the next morning; there was mud some 2 inches deep in my house all over the place where the soldiers had been coming in and out; and after they got away the next morning I immediately took a hose to clean it up and then I discovered the bullet hole through the floor.

COLONEL BOYDEN: How many conference were you in with Captain Fowler:

MR. MOSER: About the advisability of sending the prisoners away some 3 or 4 times while he was here. Sunday evening after he got everything in order we got to talking and he asked me if I didn't think it was a good idea to move these people. I told him I did; and I told him I thought that was what they came here for. Then we talked about the matter again and we took the matter up with Sheriff Storey, and he said he would go with Captain Fowler and see Mr. Parker; and it was near daylight when they came back.

COLONEL BOYDEN: It was Mr. Parker's suggestion to postpone the taking the prisoners away?

MR. MOSER: I asked Captain Fowler when he came back what he was going to do, and he said that the authorities that had the cases said as the matters were didn't have any more evidence and something might develop through the day and thought it best to hold them through the day; they thought they would find something further evidence.

COLONEL BOYDEN: Captain Fowler was still of the opinion they should be taken away FROM THERE?

MR. MOSER: Yes, sir.

McBRIDE HOLT:

I want to say that I did not mingle with the crowd on the street on Sunday. I attended church and Sunday school, and I went home at dinner, and I left at the terminus of this street and on the other side and I had occasion to observe the automobile and the crowds. At that time they looked pretty thick.I should think there was between 4 or 5 automobiles and possibly 200 or 250 people on the street then; and in the afternoon about 6 o'clock we went to carry flowers to my son's grave, and if I had thought about that crowd I wouldn't have gone up that street; so we went through the crowd and that is the time I had the best chance to observe them.

The crowd seemed pretty much the same as it was at 12 o'clock then on Monday night I had just stretched myself on my bed when the shooting commenced. The first shots didn't attract me, and after the first volley of the machine gun, I jumped up and ran to the front porch facing north. My house sets back further. Just as I got to the front porch I put on the light to see if I could see anything, just as I landed on the front porch, shots went over my head and we got back in and my son had the same experience too.

I am sort of a scout myself, and I put on my rubber boots to see about the reports that a bom had been in the corn patch, and I found that my son had been called on to drive one of two trucks to the depot, and was just getting back taking them to the train, so then I came on and I went towards the jail from the north. I understood the mob was in the corn patch. We had had a very heavy rain, possibly 2-1/2  inches of rainfall between 4 and 5, and the ground was covered, and I was satisfied I could satisfy myself whether there had been any one in the corn that night. 

I went to where the machine gun was and the corn still showed where it was cut, and I examined it thoroughly, and it was perfectly straight and found only one down to show that it had been mashed down. I said there couldn't have been a crowd there. By that time several were with me and we couldn't find any tracks, and I took 3 steps in there and I think you could almost find my tracks there now. Around that gun I saw some tracks there.

Someone said - well the crowd was in the corn patch south of Jim Clapp; so I said anybody can satisfy himself about it; and I went to examine it again and so no sign at all of anybody there. I also examined the jail for bullet marks and couldn't find any.

COLONEL BOYDEN: I want to ask you if you heard or see any disorderly conduct on the part of the soldiers sent here?

MR. HOLT: No, sir. I want to say this On Monday morning I came to get the mail and I walked back on the north side of this street and just as I passed the fire-house and this Coca-cola bottling works, 2 or 3 soldiers were coming up single file, and I heard some of the boys make some ungentlemanly remakrs about the soldiers, and I thought they should not so treat them; and I felt glad the soldiers came, not that I feared any violence, but just for the sake of peace.

ARMSTRONG HOLT:

I live on the south end of this street below the jail. I am a son of McBride. I was there Sunday and saw the mob around the jail and passed there in the car once or twice Sunday afternoon and a large number of cars were around, and some 500 or 600 people. This was practically all day. Crowds coming and going; I didn't mingle with the crowd. Monday afternoon I went over to look at the machine gun and Monday I came by the jail several times. Very few people were around, the soldiers were walking up and down the sidewalk; and then Monday evening about 7:30 I came up town and stayed here till about after 8:00, and I didn't notice another man down the street; and I suppose 10 or 15 minuts we were walking past a bunch of the soldiers on the north side of the jail were talking and playing the piano and some of them dancing and singing, just like a bunch of young men do, nothing that was out of the ordinary.

I went on home and just got to bed when I heard a single shot. I listened and in a few minutes heard a few mor shots, more than two and less than four, and I got up and went out on the porch, and about that time the machine gun started. Then it stopped, and I could hear the bullets  of the second volley and I went on back in the house and stayed there till about 12:30, and about 4 o'clock I was called by Mayor Holmes to get someone to drive a truck to take the soldiers to the station, and I went to the jail about 10 minutes to 6. I came up town to the jail and no one seemed particularly anxious to drive them; so I took one and Bradshaw the other.

Going out to the station they were talking as to what happened. One of them said that from the corner of the jail near the cornfield a shot was fired and hit just about his head and niched the brick in his face, and also said he went to the machine gun at least 50 feet from the cornfield and then they opened fire in the cornfield and he knew there was 10 or 12 in there dead or wounded.

They left and I put the truck up and came by across the cornfield to see what could be found. I could find no tracks and I went with one or two others around the jail looking for tracks and no corn had been broken down except where the machine gun had cut them off by bullets. You could see where the machine gun splattered mud on the corn; and we went down the stretch of plowed ground and the only thing we saw was one track where one made had plowed the ground before it rained. The trcks was very deep.

COLONEL BOYDEN: When you first heard the first shot, were you well enough acquainted wih the shots of a pistole to distinguish between an automatic 45 and an ordinary pistol?

MR. HOLT: No, sir; but the first shot sounded different from the other; it sounded smothered. I examined the bottom of the jail floor and found a bullet hole about middle way of the hall; it seemed to be fired through the floor and through the two rafters, and there was a mark on the brick. The floor was cement.

COLONEL BOYDEN: Was the conduct of the soldiers absolutely in the line of duty and was there any boisterous conduct?

MR. HOLT: No, sir; I passed several times day; and I heard nothing. I also examined the outside of the jail for bullet marks but found none.

BOYD TROLLINGER:

I am the Night Officer. On this particular night as far back as I can rmember, I left MR. Ray and others sitiing down here talking. I made a round around town and came back and they were still there, and I started away again, and Mr. Allen Pate said "Things are getting normal again." He and I walked down the street to the fire house, and we stopped there and then came up in a shower. Then he left and I came up the streets and went round the streets.

Then I went to the picture show, and I hadn't been in there but about 20 minutes when the firing started, and I rushed out and overtook the Chief of Police, and we rushed out to the jail and when we went in there they said "Halt" and said "Make yourself known and make it quick." Moser made himself known and they said "Come in" and come in quick." I asked what is the trouble, and some of them said "They're going around and wearing masks." I went the other way, and I heard a woman scream and saw Mr. Phillips and asked him if he was hurt; and then I went up a little further and there was Mr. Ray, and I asked him "Are you seriously hurt", and he said "I am shot to pieces", and I proceeded to get a car and get him in and then rushed him to the hospital.

I examined the corn patch the next morning with several people, and if there was a mob there there should be tracks also as the fresh turnip patch had been broke up, and there was only one track and it was shallow. During the night while I stayed down the street I warned the people not to go down that way. I hear shooting ordinarly practically every night. Sunday night from 10 to 1 o'clock, some one fired a shot, and crowds coming through here joy-riding take a crack or two.

COLONEL BOYDEN: You were on duty that night?

MR. TROLLINGER: Yes, sir.

COLONEL BOYDEN: Were you in a position to know of your own knowledge of any bad conduct of any kind of the part of any of the soldiers?

MR. TROLLINGER: During the time the soldiers were here, I didn't see any one under the influence of whiskey. I never talked with any of them. I did not see any misconduct of any kind. I saw them coming to and from the cafe and saw them on the porches talking to the young girls.

H. J. STOCKARD:

I am Deputy Sheriff. I left the jail at 8 o'clock; I had been on Sunday and Saturday and was tired out. Everything was quiet and peaceful at 8 o'clock. I came up town to get a cup of coffee, and the doctor insisted that I should go home. I came up and then Mr. Gattis asked me to go with him and make an examination of the cornfield which we did, and I examined the cornfield east of the jail and went all over it and I didn't find any tracks at all. We also made an examination of the jail for bullets and couldn't find them.

COLONEL BOYDEN: Who did you leave in charge when you left?

MR. STOCKARD: The soldiers were in charge. I think the jailor was at home. I was in the room practically all the time of the conference with Captain Fower. It was in the jail when they had the conference; I didn't go to Mr. Parker's house. They agreed to have a hearing on Tuesday morning. My understanding was I was not to move the prisoners until Tuesday morning and Mr. Gattis was to be there. I didn't have a personal talk with Captain Fowler at any time. I was in and out; we discussed moving the prisoners for some time. I think I broached the subject to him; and Sheriff Storey decided to see Mr. Parker about it. We had a discussion about it ourselves, and they decided then to see Mr. Parker.

A.R. HENDERSON:

I don't know anything about what took place Monday night. I went there early Tuesday morning about 6 o'clock. Chief Moser told me they were attacked from the cornfield. So I wanted to see where the soldiers came through the field, and I went out through themiddle and I only found one track. That was the only one in the field; and I came back to my sister's, Mrs. Boswell. I then went to the jail. Then I went inside my sister's house to see what kind of a bullet, and I found this in the bed room. I went through an inside door of the house; it came from the direction of the jail.

SHERIFF C. D. STOREY:

On Saturday night I went down and arrested the 3 men, and we carried them before Mrs. Riddle to see if she could identify them and we carried them twice apiece and she couldn't identify them, but the evidence we had we though we had enough to hold them. Then I turned them over to Mr. Stockard and Mr. Moser, and they carried them down to the jail and locked them up. I had been up all night Saturday, and I went home to get some breakfast and after breakfast I lay down, and about 10 o'clock I was informed that there was a crowd gathering around the jail and I had better go down to Graham. So I came down and there was a pretty good crowd around there, I reckon 500 or 600 people, and some of them boys; they would come up against the door and try to get in; and Mr. Parker and myself and Coloenl Scott we were all in there and got the niggers out of the cell, one by one, and investigated to see if we had any evidence enough against any one of them, and Parker about 11 or 12 o'clock, I believe, he got upa nd we asked all the crowd to be quiet until we could have an investigation so that we could find the right man.

After Mr. Parker made his talk the crowd quieted down until about 5 o'clock in the evening there was a crowd again that came to the door and knocked on the door, and I went out and we got them quieted again. Every time a rain would come up they would leave. About that time the machine gun company came up from Durha, and after they came they made a dead-line around the sidewalk and everything got quiet, but some still hung around the jail. They hung around the hail until something like midnight, when about all the boys and men left.

The next morning something about 2 o'clock, Sergeant Tandy was the man talking to me about moving the negroes; and he said "How about moving these negroes?" "Well", I told him "If he thought it best we could make arrangements to move them", and we decided to move them to the Durham jail or to the penitentiary. I saw Mr. Moser, the jailor, and he said we could have his car; and I remarked it wasn't a large car and we would need a seven passenger car, and that we would go to Burlington to get some jitney drivers there; and some one said it wouldn't be a good idea to go to Burlington because the crime was committed up there and they would get round to the boys and they would interfere with removing the negroes.

We got everything about ready and I told them I didn't know what to do, and I thought I better see Mr. Parker; that he was investigating the crime; and Captain Fowler and myself and young Mr. Moser drove the car and we went to see Mr. Parker. Mr. Parker came to the door and we went in the house and we talked it over something like an hour till about 3 or 4 o'clock. It rained hard then Monday morning; and Mr. Parker suggested he wanted to continue the investigation, that it looked like if we carried them away we would have to turn them loose; we didn't have any evidence, and he made the remark, probably we might hold them over till the next evening. So Captain Fowler and I came on back.

Then everything was quiet all day Monday and Monday night and I had been two nights all night and two days up, and along about 7:30 I told them I felt like I had to go to sleep, everything was quiet, no trouble at all. Mr. Moser was there and the Captain was there; and I hadn't heard any threats at all. So that evening Mr. Parker told me he would call for Mr. Gattis and he was going to have the investigation on Tuesday morning; that was why the negroes were held over till Tuesday. That is all I know.

As quick as I was notified about the shooting I called Captain Fowler and he said everything was quieted down, and I stayed down there until General Metts came up about 3 o'clock, and General Metts and Mr. Parker made arrangements to move the negroes the next morning, and we went on the special train to Raleigh

GENERAL ROYSTER: What time did you ask for the troops on Sunday?

MR. STOREY: I never did ask for them.

GENERAL ROYSTER: Who was it?

MR. STOREY: Some one come to me on Sunday about 2 o'clock and wanted to know if I had asked for troops, and I told them No. Some one made the remark they thought we would need some troops; but I never did call for any troops, but some one told that the County Commissioners had called for them. I was at the jail when the troops reached here. Captain Fowler came to the jail and reported to me. He didn't ask me for any instructions. He just come down there and put his men on the beat and placed his gun. Of course, I talked with him some about it.

GENERAL ROYSTER: Were you in communication with the Governor at all during Sunday, Sunday night or Monday?

MR. STOREY: No, sir; the Governor's Private Secretary called me some time early Monday and asked if we had made arrangements to carry the prisoners to the Penitentiary. This was before noon. He only said arrangements had been made if we wanted to carry them.

GENERAL ROYSTER: Did you have occasion to observe the conduct of the troops while here and on duty?

MR. STOREY: Sunday night I was there and all day Monday until Monday evening about 7 or 7:30. The troops were alright while in the jail. I didn't see any misconduct; they were singing some. They sang some Monday morning and probably Sunday night. There was no sign of liquor; if the boys had been drinking I didn't see it. The citizens were taking them around for rides. We have a little liquor in the jail; always have a little. These boys did not get a drop of it. You couldn't get in there where the whiskey was; and it was all there when the boys left. I told the Coroners jury how much there was in there, and I told them there is so much whiskey in there. Now if any of it is gone that was before I went in and the soldiers came since it was put in; and one man of the jury went in and counted, and it was all there. These boys didn't get any.

GENERAL ROYSTER: Have you reason to believe they carried any whiskey in that jail from the outside?

MR. STORYE: No, sir.

GENERAL ROYSTER: Did anyone bring it to them?

MR. STOREY: If they did I didn't know it. The boys had a car of their own with them, and they went over to Burlington and all over town. if they wanted some they could have gotten it; there was plenty of it in Alamance to be gotten.

COLONEL BOYDEN: Did you see the effects of any liquor?

MR. STOREY: No, sir, I did not.

MAJOR HENDERSON: You have the bullet that killed Jim Ray?

MR. STOREY: Yes, sir; here it is. The Coroner gave it to me.

EDGAR LONG:

Back to 11 o'clock Sunday, I went to the jail ground for the purpose of observation and I saw different crowds of men, and I don't think at any time there was any danger of a mob lynching the prisoners.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: How many people were there at that time?

MR. LONG: There were quite a good many; about 500, I should say; and lots of automobiles: we are on the National Highway, and they were touring around by the jail. Some would get out and some would pass by. I was here at the Court house square and stayed there till 7 and then after supper till midnight. I was there all day Monday and practically till the time the shooting occurred.

Previous to the shooting I was in the front north door of the Court house about an hour and a half, and it rained most of the time. There was no mob or any appearance of any mob anywhere in sight on the Court house. I was talking to Ray before he was killed and to other five minutes before the firing began, and we looked down towards the jail and saw nothing there. If tere was any mob around it I would have had some inkling of it because I was with them most of the time.

MAJOR HENDERSON: You could have seen any mob in front of the pool room?

MR. LONG: Yes, sir; there were very few people in the streets. I never saw any men with pistols except what the soldiers had on so far as I know. I was not in the Pool room Monday night, but I was around there Sunday night.

DR. W. S. LONG:

I went to Sheriff Storey and was told of the crime. I went down to the jail to see if anyone was there, and I suppose there was 150 or 200 people scattered through the place. I went on to church, and in the afternoon I went with another party in an auto by the jail grounds and listened at the people talking. I didn't speak a dozen words, but I listened and I went back and told my friends and said "There is no mob forming on these grounds" Later in the afternoon I went again and found it the same way, and after the machine gun company came I never went back but once except to the fire house and looked over in that direction and could see they had the men walking on the beat and several walking around the jail on the concrete sidewalk. I had no business there and didn't go there.

Monday was a very quiet day and everybody went to work; nothing going on here unusual. Monday night it was raining and had a hard rain in the afternoon, and I came down town as usual; and I have charge of the fire Department here and I walked around the business section every night. It was very quiet all around, exceedingly quiet; it was raining. I came in the court house door and talked to some of the boys, and after awhile along 9 o'clock, Jim Ray who was a very large man, always full of fun, came across towards us, and I asked him why he wasn't going home, and he talked to us, and said he would wait, it was raining. He stayed about 10 or 15 minutes after 9, and got up in the direction between the Courthouse and the jail, and I notice he had a crate of canteloupes.

And then I talked to Tom Hadley, and I was going north and Tom was going west, and I heard one pistol shot. Then I heard, 3, 4 or 5 after the first one came; and then it was a minute, and I said "Let's go back in the direction of the jail". We stopped and then some more, 4 or 5; and we whirled back by the jail, and then I heard several shots; I don't know about the machine gun, I can't say whether it was pistol or machine gun shots. There was several rapid firing. People were coming out and screaming, and some man said Jim Ray was killed or dying, and in my hury trying to get over there, some one carried Ray away.

I know that Ray was not at the pool room or about there, for he had no time to get the crate of canteloupes. There was no mob on any of the streets here. I had said to Tommy, there isn't going to be any disturbance to-night, because nobody come there at all, and I thought there would be nothing doing toward the jail. It was raining, and the streets were shining. I couldn't see south of the jail.

MAJOR HENDERSON: Could you have seen any crowd at Garrett's pool room?

CHARLES C. THOMPSON:

I was uptown Monday night when Mr. Ray was killed. I had been working on in one of the offices of the Courthouse, just in front of the Sheriff's office. I was in the office and went into the corridor, and there were a few men there, possibly half a dozen, and I talked with them awhile, and Mr. Ray came up to me. I think he came from the meat market where he works. We sat there and talked a while, and he left before I did. A few minutes after I left I saw him going where the street car stops here over toward the cafe with a crate of canteloupe on his shoulder. Shortly after that, our crowd scattered and I went on home up the street.

Just before I got home I heard a pistol shot and just in a little, other pistol shots; I didn't count how many, possibly half a dozen, maybe more; then again in stopped a little and I heard what I think was the machine gun, I never heard it before. It got quiet again and I went on and I got on into the yard of my home and I heard the machine gun again; and I stayed there until it got quiet and I came back uptown, and they had taken Mr. Ray to the hospital when I got there/

I was in a position to observe the crowd at Garrett's pool room and cafe. The cafe is over this way at the corner of the courthouse square. I went out the north door, and two of these other gentlemen walked with me, and we were talking about the situation and condition of things in town, and looking around. I didn't stop to notice that cafe. I think if there had been a crowd there we would all have noticed it, because we were talking of the crowd that had been there Sunday. I didn't see a crowd around the cafe.

CHARLES PHILLIPS:

I don't know very much about this. I was at home, and the first thing I heard was 2 pistol shots, and we stopped talking, and someone said "I believe it was down at the jail", and just then in a second or two, they began shooting again, and we came out on the porch, and then the machine gun opened up, and I heard the bullets going through the trees in my yard, and some hit the top of the house. By that time somebody going up the street said four men were shot to pieces.

My wife wouldn't let me leave home right away, and a man ran down towards the jail and he came back in a hurry, and I called him and asked him what is the trouble, and Mr. Shoe's people said they were just practicing. I then came up the street. When I got there there was a good many around the courthouse. Next morning my boyd picked up a bullet from my front porch.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: How far do you live?

MR. PHILLIPS: Just one block; on Maple and Harden Streets.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: How many shots did you hear from pistols before you heard the machine gun?

MR. PHILLIPS: I couldn't tell. First there was one shot that seemed very dead; and then there was 2 quick shots, and by the time I got on the porch sveral shots, and then the machine gun.

WILLIE PHILLIPS RE-CALLED:

I was at the poo-room and cafe some time before the shooting occurred. My reason for being over there at about 9 o'clock was that I had ordered a case of canteloupes from Burlington to feed the soldiers for breakfast, and then thing didn't come on the truck, so I called up the whole-sale house and told them to send it on the street car. Just about 9 o'clock, I started out to get the canteloupes, and Mr. Ray had intended spending the night with me; and I made up my mind that he was a pretty good fellow to tote things, and I asked him to tote the canteloupes for me.

I asked for him at Garrett's restaurant and found Mr. Ray, and there may have been some other people in there, but I didn' notice anybody else. I asked Mr. Ray if he was ready to go back and he said he was. We went on to the side of the car track and Ray took the canteloupes up and carried them to the restaurant, and he cut two open, when this Moser boy came and tells what was going on in the jail. There wasn't any mob, and I am satisfied there wasn't anything out of the ordinary that night, and there wasn't anybody at Garrett's.

MAJOR HENDERSON: Was anybody out in front of the cafe or in the pool room?

MR. PHILLIPS: I never noticed. I am satisfied nobody was there after the train.

W. W. GARRETT:

I don't know anything about the shooting, except I heard it. So far as the mob is concerned, there wasn't any in there. I had several guests there that night, and in fact some of them didn't know anything about it, and 4 were in the pool-room playing pool, and maybe two other boys. There wasn't any harmed men at all.

MAJOR HENDERSON: Any crowd out in front of the cafe?

MR. GARRETT: No, sir. I was there all evening. I think there was one or two men in there probably, but they left and there was nobody in the cafe except myself.

MAJOR HENDERSON: Do you know Private Thompson?

MR. GARRET: Yes, sir; but he wasn't in there. Nobody but msyelf, There was a young fellow took several meals in there, but I don't know who it was.

GENERAL ROYSTER: Did the soldiers take their meals at your place?

MR. GARRETT: Yes, sir, three meals. They behaved very nicely. There was no evidence of their being under the influence of whiskey. Neither did I hear any obscene or profance language. They were very nice boys. Hesse Martin is the man that runs the pool room, and he was there that night.

L. C. FOGLEMAN: 

I live in the hotel; I was round there the night of the shooting. I had left my room and went downstairs. I went out through the lobby and went on upstairs, and then back down through the cafe door to the pool room door and looked in and there was nothing much in there, and I had been reading ever since supper and I walked into the cafe. I don't remember but one person in there that was sitting at the counter that ordered something; and I was standing there I notice a paper lying there and wasreading it when the shooting took place, and I counted, I think, about 4 shots; one shot fired and then three more, before this rapid firing took place. That is all I know about it. I was in the cafe at this time. I couldn't see the shots or tell where they come from.

JESSE MARTIN:

I was running the pool room that night, and I was in there and all I know about it, I just heard the shots fired, and the first that I heard sounded to me like a pistol, and then the machine guns; and then the machine gun ceased for 2 or 3 minutes and then it started again.

MAJOR HENDERSON: At the time the shooting took place or previously had there been a crowd in there of armed men?

MR. MARTIN: I never seen it. There was only 6 men in the pool room when the shooting took place. There never was more than 10 men in the pool room that evening. I didn't see any of them have pistols on anybody. And I was too far away to know what happened in the jail.

G. C. DAVIS:

I was down at the jail Sunday morning, and didn't know anything till 11 o'clock. I heard when I came up and then stayed there till supper, and then went back again. I never saw anything of a mob trying to get the jail. The only talk I heard was from little boys running around and saying "Let's go in" once in a while. I went home Sunday night and went to bed, and I was up here Monday night till about 9 o'clock, and went over to Garrett's and stayed at the Pool room. I think there was 5 or 6 in there, and it was raining when I went home; and then I tried to get some canteloupes for breakfast, and stopped in there a few minutes, and there was no one on the streets, and the gaurds were walking on the posts.

It looked like every man was on his job; and it was not over 8 minutes coming back before I got in front of the house, when I heard a shot fired. I turned back and looked back and heard two more fired, and walked on to the house and said "Well, the officers got those negroes away, I reckon." At that time the machine gun went off like a sewing machine running, and then the machine gun went off again. I waited till the shooting ceased; and I said I believe I will go down there and see.

I come on to Mr. Phillips, and I says "Well, let's see if they got the prisoners away", and I walked on down nearly to this side-walk and somebody hollered "Halt", and I never stopped just walked on into the street, and they hollered "Halt" again, and I kept my gait on going. I couldn't see a soul there, and I still went on. It was on my mind they got the prisoners away. Then they hollered a third time to halt; and I said "Are they talking to me"; and he said "Yes - what are you doing down there?" And I told them who I was. And I turned around and walked back on to the sidwalk, and I still didn't see anybody else there. And then I found out 2 or 3 men had been shot. It got on my nerve; but I didn't feel a bit uneasy.

W. E. THOMPSON:

I removed the bullet from Jim Ray. It looked like the bullet the Sheriff had. I gave it to the Coroner.

DR. W. R. GOLEY:

I was Allen Parrish's physician. I was called to see him on Saturday night between 12 or 1 o'clock, and he said he had just been shot.

JUDGE WHEDBEE: The Committee will be glad to hear now any citizen who has any personal knowledge that will throw light on this subject. I want this to go into the Record. All of the sixty or more gentlemen who signed the affidavit asking for this investigation, except those who have been examined before this Committee, have no personal knowledge of what transpired at the jail on Monday night, and the Committee, therefore, did not deem their evidence as material to the inquiry.

COLONEL BOYDEN: This Committee, gentlemen, is a committee to get the facts, and we are going to wait patiently for any other evidence; and if any other facts are ready to be brought out, we will be very glad to hear you.

CAPTAIN FOWLER:

Gentlemen, there is just one thing I wish to explain that has been brought out here, and that is about the bullet in the floor of the jail.

During the first firing of the machine gun, one of the machine guns broke, and it was brought into the house and we tried to mend it; and it was brought right in by men who were to anxious to get it fixed as soon as possible. It was brought right in the jail opposite where the prisoners were; and then when the corporal was trying to fix the gun, when that gun accidentally went off with the cartridge left in it. This was at least an hour or more after the firing. It must have been around 11 o'clock that night. That bullet went through the floor there after all the firing was over, and came from the machine; it was a machine gun bullet.

W. M. BAKER:

I just came up in as your invitation was being delivered; and I really intended to say nothing, but after looking into the newspaper this morning, I saw where it said that Mr. Jim CArrigan was credited with being the leader of a mob for storming the jail and to lynch these negroes. Now I saw it the Greensboro News, and I want to deny that every word of it, because I was with him, and know there was no such idea in his head. If anything, I might say that he was responsible for taking the people away from the jail, and leading them from there, not leading the mob there at all.

EDGAR LONG: 

Just after the shooting and Ray had been carried away, 20 or 30 minutes, I guess, an automobile came around on the street, and Jim Carrigan and Mr. Baker was in the auto, and they asked what was the trouble; and Mr. Carrigan said "there is something one thing you men can do, and that is to stay away from there. It is sudden death for a man to go down there. They had a machine gun down there; and my advice is for every man to go home and let the thing alone."

JUDGE WHEDBEE: Now, gentlemen, if there is anything else anybody has to say, now is the time to say it.

TOM HADLEY: 

I forgot one thing when I was on the stand this morning; that is, they hollered "Halt", when I was down there, they hollered about 3 times; but I knew they weren't hollering at me because I was going away from the jail, so I kept on going and didn't pay any attention to their hollering.

COLONEL BOYDEN: Is there anything else to be heard? If not, the Committee is ready to adjour. (No further answers). That being the case, gentlemen, the Committee is adjourned.