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Records of the Assistant Commissioner for the State of Tennessee

Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865-1869

National Archives Microfilm Publication M999, roll 34

"Reports of Outrages, Riots and Murders, Jan. 15, 1866 - Aug. 12, 1868"

The Memphis riot began on May 1, 1866, when the horse-drawn carriages of a black man and a white

man collided. Fighting broke out as a group of black soldiers from nearby Fort Pickering tried to

intervene to stop the arrest of the black man by the mainly Irish-American police. Passions escalated

into three days of racially motivated violence between the police and black residents of Memphis. When

peace was restored, forty-six blacks and two whites had been killed, five black women raped, and

hundreds of black homes, schools and churches had been vandalized or destroyed. The following is the

report of an investigation into the riot prepared for General Oliver Otis Howard, Commissioner of the

Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands.

Memphis, Tenn. May 22 '66

Maj. Genl. O. O. Howard

Commissioner B. R. F. & A. L.

Washington, D. C.

General,

In accordance with the instructions contained in S. O. No. 64, Ex. II, War Dept., B. R. F. & A. L. dated

Washington, D. C. May 7, 1866 and your letter of "confidential instructions" of the same date, I have the

honor herewith to submit a report of an investigation of the late riots in Memphis.

I reached Memphis May 11th and I found General Fisk, the Asst. Commissioner for Ky. And Tenn.

here. He had already directed his Inspector General Col. C. T. Johnson to institute an investigation and I

found the Colonel had commenced his work and was well advanced.

At the suggestion of General Fisk I immediately conferred with Colonel Johnson and we determined to

make a joint investigation and report. We have taken some affidavits and as many more could have been

procured if we could have taken the time.

I have the honor to be

Very Respectfully

Your Obdt. Servant

(sd) T. W. Gilbreth

Aid-de-Camp

Report of an investigation of the cause, origin, and results of the late riots in the city of Memphis

made by Col. Charles F. Johnson, Inspector General States of Ky. And Tennessee and Major T.

W. Gilbreth, A. D. C. To Maj. Genl. Howard, Commissioner Bureau R. F. & A. Lands.

The remote cause of the riot as it appears to us is a bitterness of feeling which has always existed

between the low whites & blacks, both of whom have long advanced rival claims for superiority, both

being as degraded as human beings can possibly be.

In addition to this general feeling of hostility there was an especial hatred among the city police for the

Colored Soldiers, who were stationed here for a long time and had recently been discharged from the

service of the U. S., which was most cordially reciprocated by the soldiers.

This has frequently resulted in minor affrays not considered worthy of notice by the authorities. These

causes combined produced a state of feeling between whites and blacks, which would require only the

slightest provocation to bring about an open rupture.

The Immediate Cause

On the evening of the 30th April 1866 several policemen (4) came down Causey Street, and meeting a

number of Negroes forced them off the sidewalk. In doing so a Negro fell and a policeman stumbled

over him. The police then drew their revolvers and attacked the Negroes, beating them with their pistols.

Both parties then separated, deferring the settlement by mutual consent to some future time (see affidavit

marked "A"). On the following day, May 1st, during the afternoon, between the hours of 3 and 5, a

crowd of colored men, principally discharged soldiers, many of whom were more or less intoxicated,

were assembled on South Street in South Memphis.

Three or four of these were very noisy and boisterous. Six policemen appeared on South Street, two of

them arrested two of the Negroes and conducted them from the ground. The others remained behind to

keep back the crowd, when the attempt was made by several Negroes to rescue their comrades. The

police fell back when a promiscuous fight was indulged in by both parties.

During this affray one police officer was wounded in the finger, another (Stephens) was shot by the

accidental discharge of his pistol in his own hand, and afterward died.

About this time the police fired upon unoffending Negroes remote from the riotous quarter. Colored

soldiers with whom the police first had trouble had returned in the meantime to Fort Pickering. The

police was soon reinforced and commenced firing on the colored people, men, women and children, in

that locality, killing and wounding several.

Shortly after, the City Recorder (John C. Creighton) arrived upon the ground (corner of Causey and

Vance Streets) and in a speech which received three hearty cheers from the crowd there assembled,

councilled and urged the whites to arm and kill every Negro and drive the last one from the city. Then

during this night the Negroes were hunted down by police, firemen and other white citizens, shot,

assaulted, robbed, and in many instances their houses searched under the pretense of hunting for

concealed arms, plundered, and then set on fire, during which no resistance so far as we can learn was

offered by the Negroes.

A white man by the name of Dunn, a fireman, was shot and killed by another white man through

mistake (reference is here made to accompanying affidavit mkd "B").

During the morning of the 2nd inst. (Wednesday) everything was perfectly quiet in the district of the

disturbances of the previous day. A very few Negroes were in the streets, and none of them appeared

with arms, or in any way excited except through fear. About 11 o'clock A. M. a posse of police and

citizens again appeared in South Memphis and commenced an indiscriminate attack upon the Negroes,

they were shot down without mercy, women suffered alike with the men, and in several instances little

children were killed by these miscreants. During this day and night, with various intervals of quiet, the

nuisance continued.

The city seemed to be under the control of a lawless mob during this and the two succeeding days (3rd

& 4th). All crimes imaginable were committed from simple larceny to rape and murder. Several women

and children were shot in bed. One woman (Rachel Johnson) was shot and then thrown into the flames

of a burning house and consumed. Another was forced twice through the flames and finally escaped. In

some instances houses were fired and armed men guarded them to prevent the escape of those inside. A

number of men whose loyalty is undoubted, long residents of Memphis, who deprecated the riot during

its progress, were denominated Yankees and Abolitionists, and were informed in language more

emphatic than gentlemanly, that their presence here was unnecessary. To particularize further as to

individual acts of inhumanity would extend the report to too great a length. But attention is respectfully

called for further instances to affidavits accompanying marked C, E, F & G.

The riot lasted until and including the 4th of May but during all this time the disturbances were not

continual as there were different times of greater or less length in each day, in which the city was

perfectly quiet, attacks occurring generally after sunset each day.

The rioters ceased their violence either of their own accord or from want of material to work on, the

Negroes having hid themselves, many fleeing into the country.

Conduct of the Civil Authorities

The Hon. John Park, Mayor of Memphis, seemed to have lost entire control of his subordinates and

either through lack of inclination and sympathy with the mob, or on utter want of capacity, completely

failed to suppress the riot and preserve the peace of the city. His friends offer in extenuation of his

conduct, that he was in a state of intoxication during a part or most of the time and was therefore unable

to perform the high and responsible functions of his office. Since the riot no official notice has been

taken of the occurrence either by the Mayor or the Board of Aldermen, neither have the City Courts

taken cognizance of the numerous crimes committed.

Although many of the perpetrators are known, no arrests have been made, nor is there now any

indication on the part of the Civil Authorities that any are meditated by them.

It appears the Sheriff of this County (P. M. Minters) endeavored to oppose the mob on the evening of

the 1st of May, but his good intentions were thwarted by a violent speech delivered by John C.

Creighton, City Recorder, who urged and directed the arming of the whites and the wholesale slaughter

of blacks.

This speech was delivered on the evening of the 1st of May to a large crowd of police and citizens on

the corner of Vance and Causey streets, and to it can be attributed in a great measure the continuance of

the disturbances. The following is the speech as extracted from the affidavits herewith forwarded

marked "B" . . . "That everyone of the citizens should get arms, organize and go through the Negro

districts," and that he "was in favor of killing every God damned nigger" . . . "We are not prepared now,

but let us prepare and clean out every damned son of a bitch of a nigger out of town . . . "Boys, I want

you to go ahead and kill every damned one of the nigger race and burn up the cradle."

The effect of such language delivered by a municipal office so high in authority, to a promiscuous and

excited assemblage can be easily perceived. From that time they seemed to act as though vested with full

authority to kill, burn and plunder at will. The conduct of a great number of the city police, who are

generally composed of the lowest class of whites selected without reference to their qualifications for

the position, was brutal in the extreme. Instead of protecting the rights of persons and property as is their

duty, they were chiefly concerned as murderers, incendiaries and robbers. At times they even protected

the rest of the mob in their acts of violence.

No public meeting has been held by the citizens, although three weeks have now elapsed since the riot,

thus by their silence appearing to approve of the conduct of the mob. The only regrets that are expressed

by the mass of the people are purely financial. There are, however, very many honorable exceptions,

chiefly among men who have fought against the Government in the late rebellion, who deprecate in

strong terms, both the Civil Authorities and the rioters.

Action of Bvt. Brig. Genl. Ben P. Runkle, Chief Supt., Bureau R. F. and A. L., Sub-District of

Memphis

General Runkle was waited upon every hour in the day during the riot, by colored men who begged of

him protection for themselves and families, and he, an officer of the Army detailed as Agent of the

Freedmen's Bureau was suffered the humiliation of acknowledging his utter inability to protect them in

any respect. His personal appearance at the scenes of the riot had no affect on the mob, and he had no

troops at his disposal.

He was obliged to put his Headquarters in a defensive state, and we believe it was only owing to the

preparations made, that they were not burned down. Threats had been openly made that the Bureau

office would be burned, and the General driven from the town. He, with his officers and a small squad of

soldiers and some loyal citizens who volunteered were obliged to remain there during Thursday and

Friday nights.

The origin and results of the riot may be summed up briefly as follows:

The remote cause was the feeling of bitterness which as always existed between the two classes. The

minor affrays which occurred daily, especially between the police and colored persons.

The general tone of certain city papers which in articles that have appeared almost daily, have councilled

the low whites to open hostilities with the blacks.

The immediate cause was the collision heretofore spoken of between a few policemen and Negroes on

the evening of the 30th of April in which both parties may be equally culpable, followed on the evening

of the 1st May by another collision of a more serious nature and subsequently by an indiscriminate

attack upon inoffensive colored men and women.

Three Negro churches were burned, also eight (8) school houses, five (5) of which belonged to the

United States Government, and about fifty (50) private dwellings, owned, occupied or inhabited by

freedmen as homes, and in which they had all their personal property, scanty though it be, yet valuable

to them and in many instances containing the hard earnings of months of labor.

Large sums of money were taken by police and others, the amounts varying five (5) to five hundred

(500) dollars, the latter being quite frequent owing to the fact that many of the colored men had just been

paid off and discharged from the Army.

No dwellings occupied by white men exclusively were destroyed and we have no evidence of any white

men having been robbed.

From the present disturbed condition of the freedmen in the districts where the riot occurred it is

impossible to determine the exact number of Negroes killed and wounded. The number already

ascertained as killed is about (30) thirty; and the number wounded about fifty (50). Two white men were

killed, viz., Stephens, a policemen and Dunn of the Fire Department.

The Surgeon who attended Stephens gives it as his professional opinion that the wound which resulted

in his death was caused by the accidental discharge of a pistol in his hands (see affidavit marked "B").

Dunn was killed May 1st by a white man through mistake (see affidavit marked "B"). Two others (both

Policemen) were wounded, one slightly in the finger, the other (Slattersly) seriously.

The losses sustained by the Government and Negroes as per affidavits received up to date amount to the

sum of ninety eight thousand, three hundred and nineteen dollars and fifty five cents ($98,319.55).

Subsequent investigations will in all probability increase the amount to one hundred and twenty

thousand dollars ($120,00.00).

(signed) Chas. F. Jackson

Col. And Insptr. Genl. Ky. & Tenn.

T. W. Gilbreth

Aide-de-Camp.