Report of the Joint select committee appointed to inquire into the condition of affairs in the late insurrectionary states, so far as regards the execution of laws, and the safety of the lives and property of the citizens of the United States and Testimony taken.

ALABAMA-SUB-COMMITTEE. 1897
Question. Did the men come from a distance?
Answer. I suppose some came from a distance. Some may live in the county; but I
am satisfied that there is no regularly organized band in that county, that belongs exclusively to the county, for the purpose of depredating on the radical people.
Question. Would not the men who murdered Abe Lyon for the cause you stated probably be men who lived in your own neighborhood?
Alswer. Some of them may have belonged there and given information elsewhere.
Question. Your impression is that this confederacy exists outside of the county?
Answer. I have heard, now, that Abe Lyon had committed some depredation in Marengo County that caused him to leave there suddenly and come down into Choctaw
County; and I have heard that they had found out his whereabouts and pursued him
there.
Question. The presumption, then, was that the men came from Marengo County?
Answer. I don't know. I have heard it presumed that some were from Marengo, and
some from elsewhere.
Question. Where was it supposed that the negroes in that band came from?
Answer. I have never heard any supposition about that, sir.
LIVINGSTON, ALABAMA, Neovember 3, 1871.
HUGH N. DAVIS sworn and examined.
The CHAIRMAN. This witness having been called by the minority, I will ask General
Blair to examine him.
By Mr. BLAIR:
Question. State your residence and occupation.
Answrer. I live in this county; I was born and raised here. I am a farmer.
Question. Do you know a man by the name of John Childers?
Answer. Yes, sir; a negro man named John Childers.
Question. Do you recollect a circumstance that occurred when a young man by the
name of Burton, in company with yourself, overtook Childers down here on the road?
Answer. Yes, sir. I remember it very well.
Question. State what occurred at that time.
Answer. I and Mr. Burton and Mr. William May, who is now dead-he died last
spring-we three were together, and as we got within about a hundred yards of this
end of the lower bridge we heard somebody fighting on the other end of the bridge;
and I said to Mr. Burton and May that somebody were fighting on the other end of the
bridge, and let us go and see what was the matter. About that time I heard somebody say, " He has got my pocket-book;"7 and we all struck a lope, and I was foremost;
and when I got up to where John Childers was standing-he was on my right-and he
says, "The damned rascal has my pocket-book;" and I jumped off of my mare and
grabbed another negro that jumped off of the bridge. About that time, as well as I
recollect, Mr. Burton ran up behind me, and John Childers was standing on my right
on the upper side of the bridge, and lie struck at him with his gun and hit him
on the top of his head, and says, " Damn you, who are you? " and by that time
he said it was John Childers, and I wheeled around and caught his gun, and
told him to stop and not strike him,any more. He said if it was John Childers he would not strike him; he thought it was the negro that was fighting, or the
negro that had the pocket-book; I will not be positive which he said. I think that he
said that he thought John Childers was the negro that had the pocket-book. They
were all in a fight then. I told him not to hit him any more, and I and John Childers
and Burton all got down on the bridge there. I had taken the gun away from Burton.
Burton was very drunk. and he and John Childers made friends right there on the spot.
After they made friends, they commenced talking, and I told John Childers to get out
of the way and go off, and he went. After that we rode around; it is about three hun(ired yards, I think, around the road, until we got opposite the bridge again, just about
a hundred yards oft. John Childers went up the hill:and I went around the road. A
dispute arose between me and Burton about where John Childers was. I told Burton
if I was to call John, John would answer. He said he would bgt me three hundred dollars he wouldn't. I told him I didn't have 3300, but I would bet him a gun or a horse. He
said, " Call him;" and I called him, and I saw him standing in the corner of the fence,
and John answered me and walked up. We had a bottle of whisky, and I and Mr. Burton and Mr. May and John Childers all took a drink of whisky together, and all made
friends, and went on together two or three hundred yards, and we left him then a-foot,
and that's the last of that scrape that I know of.
Question. Did Burton hurt Childers seriously when he struck him?
Answcr. No, sir; he only tapped him with the end of the gun. He broke the hat on