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.

1480 CONDITION OF AFFAIRS IN THE SOUTHERN STATES.
tee, there was a Federal soldier who was killed on the day of the first election, immediately after the proclamation of President Johnson organizing the provisional government. We had election for members of the convention in 1865-on the 31st of
August, 1865, I think. There was a Federal soldier killed in a personal rencontre by a
young man; they had been drinking together, and one of them had offered some insult
to the other; a quarrel arose.
Question. I did not inquire about individual cases or difficulties, but where bodies of
men have been concerned.
Answer. I cannot recollect any other now. There was one case immediately on the
boundary of Hale and Perry Counties; it was within a few miles of the line.
Question. What case was that?
Answer. That was the case of the killing of a man; I cannot recollect his name-Harvey something; he was a negro man; it was in Perry County. That I understood to
have been done by disguised men; but I have also understood that he stated before his
death-he was murdered under circumstances of very great barbarity-that it was the
result of a personal feud between him and others of his own race.
Question. What was his name?
Answzer. Harvey McCann.
Question. How many were concerned in his murder?
Answer. I understood that when they first took him, there were some twenty-five or
thirty, I think.
Question. In what year was that?
Anlswer. I cannot recollect the year; it not being in our county, I did not charge my
memory with it. In fact, I would not be positive as to any of these dates, only that
they have been within three or four years. I might verify them by taking time to
think.
Question. Let me refresh your memory by referring to certain cases which have been
brought to the notice of the committee. I mentioned first the case of Peytoin McDonald, who was put in a calaboose, and a body of disguised men came to release him, to
take him from jail, and the citizens resisted. This was about the 1st of May, this year.
Answer. Yes, sir; I recollect that. Peyton McDonald was, I think, indicted at the
last spring term of the circuit court of Hale County for malicious mischief, for striking
a negro man, and for firing into the house of a negro man. A number of students of
the Southern University were implicated in the same transaction. They were arrested
and gave bonds, and last fall they were tried and acquitted-the students were.
Peyton McDonald fled for a time, but was finally arrested. He returned to the county,
and was finally arrested, and, failing to give bond, was lodged in jail. I have been told
by those who saw them, that a number of disguised men, perhaps twenty or thirty,
made their appearance in the town and sought for the jailer. The mayor of the town
and the sheriff aroused some of the citizens, and informed them that if their purpose
was to take him from the hands of the law, they would be resisted. They left the town,
and made no attempt to rescue him from the officers or take him out of the jail.
Question. Did you understand that they came to the town on horseback?
Answer. My impression is, from what I heard, that they came on horseback.
Question. Is it supposed their purpose was to lynch him or release him?
Answer. Merely to release him; that was the understanding of the citizens. I know
we guarded the jail for two or three nights afterward; a voluntary police of the town
guarded the jail against any attempt that might be made. I will add that Peyton McDonald was tried and convicted on two of these offenses at the late term of our circuit
court, and that an indictment for the assault with intent to commint murder is still
pending in the circuit court.
Quzestion. Of what offense was he convicted?
Answer. He was convicted of malicious mischief in pulling off the palings of Mr. D.
F. McGrary, one of our wealthiest citizens, and of assault and battery in striking with
a stick a negro man whose name I do not remember.
Question. I will ask you to state to the committee what you recollect of a large party
of disguised men passing through Greensborough, either before or subsequent to the
1st of May, 1871, toward Marion, and of their attempt to release a prisoner from the
Marion jail-a negro man.
Answewr. I have heard that a number of persons came from the west, or from a western direction, perhaps twenty or twenty-five. I do not know that I have heard that
they were disguised. My ilmpression is that my informant stated that he thought they
were disguised. They passed through the town at a pretty brisk trot, at night, about
9 o'clock, in the direction of Marion, and I heard afterward that they repassed at some
time later in the night.
Question. Did you hear that they visited the Marion jail?
Answcer. 1 heard that they went to Marion.
Question. Did you understand what their purpose was?
Answer. I have no distinct recollection of their purpose. I understood that they