Touch the Elbow - Blogging the Civil War

Once again we turn our Blog over to our guest, Mary Blauss Edwards, who picks up where she left off yesterday by continuing her biography of her uncle Erastus W. Everson of the 18th Massachusetts Infantry.

Erastus Everson and the Laurens County, SC Riot

In 1871, Erastus Everson was summoned by a government committee which was investigating the “Ku-Klux Klan conspiracy”. Erastus had worked for the Freedman’s Bureau after the Civil War throughout South Carolina, and had accumulated a great deal of experience regarding racial relations in the South. In particular, he was summoned for an experience he had after his duty in the Freedman’s Bureau, when he was working again for the army as an assessor. Erastus was an inadvertent witness to the Laurens County, SC riot in October 1870. He was to testify his belief that the riot was planned in advance in part by the Ku Klux Klan.

Erastus had to travel to Laurens county to purchase a horse for his boss. On the way over, he encountered a great deal of armed men. In the town, he inquired to a colonel who was stationed there with his troops, and was told that an election was occurring the following day, and advised to stay in town until the election was over. While staying at a hotel that night, he overheard a plot to throw the election that was to occur the following day, by capturing the ballot boxes, and starting fights with the state constables and any colored voters. He sent word to both the army colonel and his troops stationed in the town, as well as a note of warning to Mr. Crews, a colorful politician who led the local armed colored militia. Perhaps Erastus briefly saved the election day. Crew lined up his colored militia in his front yard, and white agitators called out threats, but no physical fighting occurred. Although tensions flared, the election went seemingly went smoothly. But it was not enough.

That night Erastus heard conversations and drunken boasts that the ballot boxes had been stuffed. But that was soon to be the least of Erastus’ worries. The following day, the infamous “Laurens County riot” occurred, in which thousands of armed riders came into the area, where brawling soon became deadly as the riot turned “into a negro chase”. Erastus ran outside to determine what was happened, and avoid the brawling and gunshots now spreading all over the area. Erastus fell in the street, and rolled out of the way of the chaos. Mr. Copeland, the general store owner, and mason, took in Erastus in the midst of the riot, and promised him a safe place to stay for the evening, and then Copeland soon left. Men came in and out of the house all evening, and some of them were bragging about the death of Wade Perrin, the most powerful black politician who had been elected the previous day. Erastus found himself in a difficult position – he discovered too late that he had been saved by Klan sympathizers. He could not escape into the night with the horse that he had purchased, because the roads were filled with vast amounts of armed men looking for a fight. After Erastus went to bed, a man called for him – it turned out to be Hugh Farley, a former Confederate officer who Erastus had dealt with a few years previous. Although a former enemy, Erastus considered him a gentleman, and when Hugh Farley promised to help Erastus get out of the area, Erastus took him up on the offer. They rode off into the night from Laurens County to Newberry County, almost 40 miles. Farley rode with Erastus and would often go ahead to picket groups of men along the way, then let Erastus pass. The rioting had spread throughout the entire county, with thousands of men searching for and causing trouble. Along the way, Erastus was threatened and almost shot several times. Through discussion with Farley on their journey, however, Erastus was soon horrified to discover that Farley was a probable Ku Klux leader. Once in Newberry, Erastus encountered a large group of men, several of whom he had formerly arrested as “bushwhackers” – who were not pleased to see “that God-damned Everson!” Farley had promised Everson safe passage, and then made Erastus Everson agree that he would make a statement supporting them later. He was to tell the government that the riot was necessary, and that no one was to blame in the matter. “I had promised Farley that if he would see me safe through, I would come down here and go before the executive committee of the reform party to make a statement, but I had to do things that a man would not ordinarily do. I went back on my word, because I could not do such a thing. I think, however, that I had no other way of saving my life. I know it, and so I have never been before that committee, and I never will go, because I cannot tell them what he wanted me to tell.” Once in Newberry, he was handed off to another man, but Erastus soon escaped and ran to the train tracks, where he caught a train. Aboard, he found three state constables who were escaping as well, along with Senator Owens. Erastus and the Senator hid in the mail-car privy, and made their way to safety.

Erastus Everson, a conservative repulican who had taken seven bullet wounds during the Civil War for the Union, and then dedicated years of service to the Freedman’s Bureau, helping to protect the rights of newly freed slaves in the South, inadvertently had found that his life had been saved by Ku Klux Klan members or sympathizers. He broke his promise to them, however, and reported all that he heard during his stay and remarkable escape from the Laurens County.

Learn more about the Laurens County, SC riot here.