11 . ing as close may be a few feet, (everything was engaged in it that day,) there was Judge Cabinis, who was a particular friend of my husband ; a particular friend to him. He was standing in the center with a gun with a blue strap, in the centre of the jam; and as I went to go in they cursed me and threatened to hurt me, and “make it damned hot for me,” and the judge among the balance ; but he said he didn’t know me afterward. And they all stood ; nobody would let me go in ; they all stood there with their guns I knew there was two dead men there, but I did not think it was my husband at the time. I stood right there, and as I stood they said to me, “If you don’t go away they would make it very damned hot for me ;” and I did not say anything, and walked off, and walked right over the dead man. He was right in my path where I found the body. He was lying broadside on the street. I did not know who he was. I then stooped and tried to see who he was, and they were cursing at me to get out of the town—to get out. Then I went up, and there was Mrs. । Bates across the street, my next-door । neighbor. I saw her little girl come up by us and she said, “Aunt Ann, did you see my uncle here ?” I said, “ I did not. I saw a dead body on the street; I did not see who he was.” She said, “What in the world is going on down town?” Says I, “I don’t know, only killing people there.” Says she, “Aaron Bates’s hand is shot all to pieces, and Dr. Bangs is killed.” He was not killed, but was shot in the leg ; nobody killed but my husband and brother. I went on over to the house, and went up stairs and back to my room and laid down a widow. After I had been home I reckon three- quarters of an hour, nearly an hour, Parson Nelson came up—Preacher Nelson— and he called me. I was away upstairs. i He called several times, and I heard him call each time. He called three or four times, and says, “Answer; don’t be afraid; nobody will hurt you.” He says, “Don’t be afraid; answer me ;” and after I had made up my mind, I answered him what he wanted ; and he said, “ I have come to tell you the news, and it is sad news to you. Nobody told me to come, but I come up to tell you.” I didn’t say anything. “Your husband is dead,” he said; “he is killed, and your brother, too, Sam.” I never said anything for a good while. He told me nobody would hurt me then ; and when I did speak, says I, “ Mr. Nelson, why did they kill him ?” He says, “I don’t know anything about it.” He said just those words : “I don’t know anything about it.” He says, after that, “Have you any men folks about the place?” I Clinton. They commenced talking this way: I think David asked, “ How many did he kill on the day of the Moses Hill riot; who did he shoot?” David said that he did not know as he shot anybody ; said he didn’t know that he shot anybody. They told him, they said, “he came there to kill the white people, and if he did, to do his work in the day, and not to be seeking their lives at night. ” David came immediately back to my house. His uncle was at the fox-chase. I said, “Don’t go out any more. Probably they are trying to get up a fuss here.” His uncle sent him down for something He staid in the house until he came. That was about four o’clock in the evening, and some one had told about the fuss picked with his nephew, and he walked down town to see about it, I suppose. He was down town a half hour, and came back and eat his dinner, and just between dark and sundown he goes back down town again. He went down town knocking about down there. I do not know what he was doing down there, until just nearly dusk, and a man, Madison Bell, a colored man, came and says, “ Mrs. Caldwell, you had better go down and see about i Mr. Caldwell, I think the white folks will । kill him ; they are getting their guns and pistols, and you had better go and get your husband away from town.” I did not go myself; I did not want to go myself, but went to Professor Bell and said would he go and get him. Mr. Bell went, and he never came back at all until he came back under arrest. I was at my room until just nearly dark. The moon was quite young, and the chapel bell rang. We live right by it. I knew the minute the bell tolled what it all meant. And the young men that lived right across the street, when the bell tolled thdj* rushed right out; they went through the door and some slid down the window and over they sprang; some went over the fence. They all ran to the chapel and got i their guns. There was one hundred and fifty guns there to my own knowing ; had been there since the riot, at the Baptist chapel. They all got their guns. I went down town, and then all got ahead everywhere I went; and some of them wanted to know who I was. but I hid my face as well as I could. I just said “woman,” and did not tell who I was. As I got to town I went to go into Mr. Chilton’s store and every store was closed just that quick, for it was early, about six o’clock. All the other stores were closed. Chilton’s was lit up by a big chandelier, and as I went over the lumber-yard I saw a dead man. I stumbled over him, and I looked at him, but I did not know who it , was, and I weat into Chilton’s, and as I j)ut my foot up o» the store steps, stand-
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