[Footnote 1:  Fleming, in his latest and most mature account of reconstruction, The Sequel of Appomattox, has not one word to say about the matter.  Dunning, in Reconstruction Political and Economic (306), speaks as follows:  “July 6, 1876, an armed collision between whites and blacks at Hamburg, Aiken County, resulted in the usual slaughter of the blacks.  Whether the original cause of the trouble was the insolence and threats of a Negro militia company, or the aggressiveness and violence of some young white men, was much discussed throughout the state, and, indeed, the country at large.  Chamberlain took frankly and strongly the ground that the whites were at fault.”  Such a statement we believe simply does not do justice to the facts.  The account given herewith is based upon the report of the matter in a letter published in a Washington paper and submitted in connection with the debate in the United States House of Representatives, July 15th and 18th, 1876, on the Massacre of Six Colored Citizens at Hamburg, S.C., July 4, 1876; and on “An Address to the People of the United States, adopted at a Conference of Colored Citizens, held at Columbia, S.C., July 20th and 21st, 1876” (Republican Printing Co., Columbia, S.C., 1876).  The Address, a document most important for the Negro’s side of the story, was signed by no less than sixty representative men, among them R.B.  Elliott, R.H.  Gleaves, F.L.  Cardozo, D.A.  Straker, T. McC.  Stewart, and H.N.  Bouey.]

In South Carolina an act providing for the enrollment of the male citizens of the state, who were by the terms of the said act made subject to the performance of militia duty, was passed by the General Assembly and approved by the Governor March 16, 1869.  By virtue of this act Negro citizens were regularly enrolled as a part of the National Guard of the State of South Carolina, and as the white men, with very few exceptions, failed or refused to become a part of the said force, the active militia was composed almost wholly of Negro men.  The County of Edgefield, of which Hamburg was a part, was one of the military districts of the state under the apportionment of the Adjutant-General, one regiment being allotted to the district.  One company of this regiment was in Hamburg.  In 1876 it had recently been reorganized with Doc Adams as captain, Lewis Cartledge as first lieutenant, and A.T.  Attaway as second lieutenant.  The ranks were recruited to the requisite number of men, to whom arms and equipment were duly issued.

On Tuesday, July 4, the militia company assembled for drill and while thus engaged paraded through one of the least frequented streets of the town.  This street was unusually wide, but while marching four abreast the men were interrupted by a horse and buggy driven into their ranks by Thomas Butler and Henry Getzen, white men who resided about two miles from the town.  At the time of this interference the company was occupying a space covering a width