Howard, O. H

Description

This is the affidavit Daniel Howard gives to Freedman's Bureau subassistant commissioner O.H. Howard in Albany, Georgia on September 25, 1868. Daniel Howard, a twenty-year-old laborer employed by Colonel S. Montgomery in Dougherty County, Georgia, gives his account of the Camilla Riot, an incident that occurred in Camilla, Georgia on September 19, 1868 when Republicans together with freedmen came to Camilla to hold a political rally and were met with violent opposition from the townspeople. On the day of the riot Daniel Howard joined a procession of freedmen into Camilla about five miles outside of town, and soon they met up with 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. Then the entire group encountered Camilla resident James Johns, who, according to Daniel Howard, upon approaching them on horseback with a double-barrelled shotgun, proclaimed, "by God I am courier on this road and you can't go into Camilla with that music," and added, "but you can go in, just as you damn please you'll get hurt anyhow." They were next met by Sheriff Mumford S. Poore who told Murphy "I don't think you've a right to come down to Camilla with an army of men, to take the place." Yet the group proceeded into town and were met again by James Johns who ordered the music to stop and when his order went unheeded began firing his shotgun into the bandwagon....

Record Contributed By

DeSoto Trail Regional Library System

Record Harvested From

Digital Library of Georgia