Letters Received by the Office of the Adjutant General (Main Series), 1871 – 1880

National Archives Microfilm Publication M666 Roll 1

“Statements, depositions, and other records submitted by Gov. William W. Holden relating to crimes of the Ku Klux Klan against citizens of North Carolina, 1869 – 1871”

Alabama, State of
Names of some of the persons who have been put to death in that state within the last 2 years by persons wearing the disguise of the Ku Klux Klan

1.Alexander Boyd, Esq. – white. Solicitor for Greene County, living at Eutaw, the county seat. He was taken from his room in the night of May 31, 1870 by a large band of K. K. and put to death in the passage leading to it from the upper piazza of the Hotel where he was boarding. The Klan left his body where he fell, mounted their horses and rode off.

2. Guilford Coleman – colored. A leading man of his race – living in Greene Co., — had just returned from the Republican State Convention. His body was found in an old well shockingly mangled.

3. Thomas Johnson – colored man living in Greene County.

4. Levi Smiley – a colored man living in Greene County.

5. David Jones – a colored man living in Greene County.

6. Samuel or Thomas Snoddy – a colored man living in Greene County.

7. Burke a colored man who lived in Sumter County at the time he was put to death. He was a prominent man among his race & was very much beloved & respected by them – was a member of the legislature.

8. Frank Diggs – a colored man who was U. S. Mail agent on the Selma & Meridian R. R. He was shot dead in his mail car while the train was taking on wood near the line of Alabama & Mississippi, about half an hour before sun down, by a man armed with a double barreled shot gun & in full Ku Klux disguise, not long before the elections in November last. Frank Diggs was liked by every body that knew him.

9. William C. Luke – a white man – teacher of a Sunday School or day school for colored children at ?Patonee in Calhoun Co., Ala. – a thoroughly educated Christian gentleman from the north who spoke several languages. He was put to death by a band of Ku Klux near the village of Cross Plains in that county a little after midnight of Monday, July 21, 1870.

10. Toney Cliff – a colored man – was put to death at the same time & place with Mr. Luke – hung on the same tree.

11. Berry Harris – a colored man – was put to death at the same time & place – hung on another tree about thirty yards distant.

12. Caesar Fredrick – a colored man – was put to death at the same time & place with Mr. Luke – shot & his body left under a tree about thirty yards nearer the village of Cross Plains than the tree on which Mr. Luke & Toney Cliff were hung.

13. William Hall – a colored man – was put to death at the same time & place with Mr. Luke – shot & his body left under the same tree with that of Caesar Fredrick.

14. Essex Hendrick – a colored man – was put to death the same night with Mr. Luke & his body found hanging to a tree about five hundred yards from the Selma Rome & Dalton R. R. at a station called ?Amberson about four or five miles from Cross Plains. When his body was taken down the next morning it was found he had been shot in the head & breast seven times.

15. Jacob Moore – a colored man was shot at ?Patona on Monday the 11 of July 1870 & wounded so that it was supposed he would die during that night – when the Ku Klux took Mr. Luke & the others they left him where he lay.

16. In addition to these outrages it is proper to state that eighteen colored men living near Millerville in Clay Co., Ala. were cruelly beaten by a band of disguised [men] for voting the Republican ticket at the election in November last. Most of them were whipped with hickory switches – but two were beaten unmercifully with boards into which small nails had been driven!