Howard, O. H

Description

Freedman's Bureau subassistant commissioner O.H. Howard writes this report at 7P.M. on September 19, 1868, a day notable in Georgia history as the date of the event that came to be known as the Camilla Massacre, or the Camilla Riot, an incident that occurred in Camilla, Georgia when Republicans and freedemen came to the town to hold a political rally and met violent opposition from the townspeople. Howard's report gives details of the day as they became known to him that evening when witnesses, among them Ishmael Lonon, a freedman who was to be elected to the Georgia Legislature in 1880, began gathering at his office in Albany, Georgia. Howard reports that Lonon gave his account of the group's several encounters on the outskirts Camilla prior to the initial violence in town, between both a mounted white man who advised Lonon not to go into town and Mitchell County Sheriff Mumford S. Poore. Lonon rode ahead of the group of Republicans and freedmen, which included Republican party candidate for elector John Murphy, Republican congressional candidate William P. Pierce, Republican plantation owner Francis Flagg Putney, and ousted Republican Georgia state legislator Philip Joiner. They were accompanied by a bandwagon carrying bandleader Peter Hines and other musicians. As the group entered Camilla they encountered a "mounted man", who began firing into the wagon. Most of the freedmen, "Being unarmed" fled. Howard's report also includes details of the escape of Joiner and Murphy as given to him by Lonon, as well as a...

Record Contributed By

DeSoto Trail Regional Library System

Record Harvested From

Digital Library of Georgia