| From the Memphis Daily Appeal |
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| August 2, 1861 |
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| Grand Junction Insurrection |
| The riot at Grand Junction on
Friday [August 2] was a serious affair, and might have been still more
disastrous but for the firmness and bravery of the commander of the
brigade, Col. Soulakowski, who, we are informed, shot down some of the
men who refused to submit to his authority. We learn that when at Holly
Springs [Mississippi] {Mississippi Central RR},
the men, by some means got access to a barrel of whisky. They knocked
out the head and drank immoderately. The worst consequences followed.
The men, who were traveling in box cars, indulged in the worst
extravagances -- even it is stated going so far as to throw their
bayonets at each other. One man was thrown from the platform and killed
by the train passing over him, cutting off an arm and a leg. On leaving
the cars at Grand Junction, open mutiny broke out, and the men turned
against each other with perfect ferocity, entirely disregarding the
authority of their officers, until the determined conduct of Col.
Soulakowski compelled a return to military rule. ***** |
| One citizen of Grand Junction
wrote the following eye-witness account: "About 12 o'clock yesterday
[August 2d] there arrived here from Camp Pulaski a regiment of Louisiana
volunteers commanded by C. L. Soulakowski, on their way to Virginia.
About six o'clock in the evening, after imbibing pretty freely of
"bust head," a row was commenced between the Frank Guards and some
of the other companies which resulted in a general fight of about one
hour's duration, during which Maj. York and the Colonel, aided by some
of the other officers, used every peaceable means to quell the riot but
all to no avail. It seemed to be growing general when some of the men
took shelter in the Percey Hotel, the doors of which were immediately
assailed with the butts of muskets, axes, and whatever else could be
found to answer the purpose of a battering ram. They soon succeeded in
smashing in all the doors, blinds and sash, when they rushed in like a
mob of infuriated devils, and commenced an indiscriminate destruction of
the hotel furniture and everything they could lay their hands on.
Drawers were torn open, the contents were destroyed, the furniture was
broken and pitched out, the dining table was thrown over, and all the
table furniture broken, the chairs smashed to pieces, and such a general
wreck you have never witnessed in a civilized community. |
| About this time the efforts of
the officers of the day and the guard proving unavailing to quell the
mob, the officers, led by the colonel, commenced firing on them, which
resulted in the death of two on the spot and the mortally wounding of
some five or six others and some six more dangerously wounded. Besides a
number of other that left on the trains last night, that were slightly
wounded. The majority of the wounded were from pistol shots, some were
bayonet wounds and broken heads from the clubbed muskets -- the men not
having any ammunition. |
| The hotel looks *** like a
hospital after a hard fought battle. The dead and wounded are strewn all
over the second floor and the groans of the suffering are terrible. |
| After destroying the furniture
and breaking all that they could about the house, two unsuccessful
attempts were made to fire it. |
| Great credit is due Col.
Soulakowski and Maj. York, and the officers and men of the Armstrong
Guards, for quelling the riot and saving the town from destruction ***** |
| I have just been informed by
the surgeon, Dr. Henly, that there are three or four that will die
during the day." |
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