Confederate Soldiers and Sailors of Maury Co,Tn.Jill Garrett editor,1970.Hiram Hendley and Allen Powell say,"that on the attack on the federals at Jackson,La. the 9th Battalion fought mostly negro troops.These new negro troops got badly scared and retreated to Centenary College,a large brick building.Many kept running up to the third story,where they were so frightened that when they shot from the windows their aim was to high and did but little damage.Most of the negroes were killed in the college building.About 25 of them and three of their white officers were taken prisoners.

When the Confederate forces left Jackson,La.,after this fight these negro prisoners and their three white officers were turned over to Col.John Griffith of the 13th Ark.These negroes had been enlisted in Ark.from the same county that the 13th.came from.The negro soldiers and their white officers had rendered themselves particularly obnoxious to the Ark.people by their unrestrained conduct,accounts of which had reached the 13th.regiment.

Tis said that Col.Griffith's men made Christmas Trees in La. by decorating the evergreens with Black Ornaments,shooting these negroes after hanging them.Tis further said that as a special mark of distinction they not only hung and shot the three white officers,but cut down their bodies and put them on a log heap to which they set fire."

Hendley and Powell were both in Co.A,9th. Battalion Tennessee Cavalry.Obviously we must consider that the account was recorded after the war and appears to be from what the soldiers had been told from others.It would be interesting to determine if negro soldiers were recruited or at one time posted in the counties where Col.Griffith's regiment was raised.

I have another interesting account from a 9 Batt soldier will post shortly.

MWT