Howard, O. H

Description

Davis Sneed, a thirty-five-year-old laborer, gives his testimony of the events of the Camilla Riot, an episode of violence that occurred on September 19, 1868, when Republicans together with freedmen came to Camilla, Georgia to hold a political rally and were met by the armed townspeople of Camilla in opposition to the Republicans meeting there. In his affidavit given to Freedman's Bureau subassistant commissioner O.H. Howard in Albany, Georgia on September 25, 1868, Sneed states that he was told to "go in peace and come in peace," by the men who informed him of the meeting, and that of approximately 300 men, women and children who joined in the procession to Camilla that day only 40 carried guns and those were loaded with birdshot. Sneed tells of how Dr. Dasher declined to let them hold the meeting at his place and the group proceeded into Camilla, where they were met by the inebriated Camilla resident James Johns, who fired the first shots into the bandwagon. According to Sneed, those shots were immediately followed by shots fired from white men standing in front of the stores and he "distinctly saw these men, after firing, step to the door of a store and seizing guns ready loaded fire again." Sneed fled to the nearby woods with the other freedmen , who, even in retreat were pursued and fired on by the whites. In closing, Sneed restates that the Republicans' and freedmen's intentions in coming to Camilla were peaceful, even though it had...

Record Contributed By

DeSoto Trail Regional Library System

Record Harvested From

Digital Library of Georgia