485 Sheet – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Reading Time: 4 minutes [606 words]

Here is the translated text as follows:

WILLIAM WEMMS AND SEVEN OTHERS

Andrew: I am Oliver Wendell's negro. On the evening of the fifth of March, I was at home when I heard the bells ring. I went to the gate and saw one of my acquaintances. I asked him what was the matter, and he said the soldiers were fighting, had got cutlasses, and were killing everybody. He told me that one of them had struck him on the arm and almost cut it off. He advised me not to go down, but I said a good club was better than a cutlass, and he had better go down and see if he could not cut some, too.

I went to the Town House and saw the sentinels placed at the main guard, standing by Mr. Bowe's corner. Numbers of boys on the other side of the way were throwing snowballs at them. The sentinels were enraged and swearing at the boys, who called them "lobsters," "bloody backs," and hallooed, "Who buys lobsters?" I heard three cheers given in King Street, and I went down to the whipping-post and stood by Waldo's shop. I saw a number of people around the sentinel at the Custom House. There were also a number of people who stood where I did, picking up pieces of sea coal that had been thrown about there, and snowballs, and throwing them over at the sentinel.

Two or three boys ran out from among the people and cried, "We have got his gun away, and now we will have him." I heard three cheers given by the people at the Custom House. I saw a file of men, with an officer with a laced hat on before them. The officer said something to them, and they filed off down the street to the Custom House. As soon as they got there, the people gave three cheers. I heard somebody buzz and say, "Here is old Murray with the riot act," and they began to pelt with snowballs. He turned about and said, "You damned lobster, bloody back, are you going to stab me?" The soldier said, "By God, I will." Somebody took hold of me by the shoulder and told me to go home, or I should be hurt. At the same time, there were a number of people towards the Town House who said, "Come away and let the guard alone, you have nothing at all to do with them."

I saw the officer standing before the men, and one or two persons engaged in talk with him. A number were jumping on the backs of those that were talking with the officer, to get as near as they could. A man who was talking with the officer turned about quickly to the people and said, "Damn him, he is going to fire." Upon that, they gave a shout and cried out, "Fire and be damned, who cares for you, you dare not fire," and began to throw snowballs and other things which then flew very thick. I saw two or three of them hit, one struck a grenadier on the hat. As the soldiers were pushing with their guns back and forth, they struck their guns, and one hit a grenadier on the fingers. The people up at the Town House called again, "Come away, come away."

A stout man near me, and right before the grenadiers, as they pushed with their bayonets with the length of their arms, kept striking on their guns. The people seemed to be leaving the soldiers and turning from them when there came down a number from Jackson's corner, buzzing.

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