The 1868 St. Bernard Parish Massacre

by C. Dier

  On September 27, Republicans and Democrats both held a meeting in close vicinity. The Democrats hosted a meeting at Antonio Marrero’s plantation and advertised “free whiskey and free meat.” Governor Warmoth and other notable politicians spoke at the Republican meeting. After the Republican meeting, their procession passed the Millaudon Plantation, which had been abandoned since the Civil War and its ex–slave quarters rented to freedpeople. At the plantation, armed white men from the Democratic meeting sent a freedman and freedwoman under their authority, most likely without their consent, to the roadside to taunt the procession as it passed. It was the hope of the Democrats that the Republicans would be provoked by the two insulting them, thus providing justification for the Democrats to attack the procession. The plot was foiled, as the Republicans suspected the motivation behind the jeers. A local planter remarked that incident as the “first disturbance.”99

  After the procession, Governor Warmoth went to dinner at a sugar plantation owned by Thomas Ong, the white Republican chairman of the board of registrars in St. Bernard Parish. Ong moved to the area in 1862 to become a profitable planter and was considered a carpetbagger by local whites. He was an influential Republican leader who held various political positions. He was elected as a delegate in the parish and participated in the constitutional convention of 1864. Although he was a Radical Republican, a Democratic-leaning newspaper claimed he was an “esteemed” member of the community because of his business dealings. In 1868, he employed forty-five freedpeople at his plantation. During his later testimony to Congress, Ong disclosed that he noticed numerous carts full of large quantities of hay pass by his residence as the Democrats met on October 11, 1868. He learned afterward “that the hay concealed their arms,” many of which were double-barreled shotguns. Ong and other Republican leaders wanted to host more meetings and processions but decided against it as the climate grew more precarious.100

  Rumors escalated that white Democrats would resort to violence to ensure a political victory in November. Republican and Union veteran H.N. Whittemore, the parish’s Freedmen’s Bureau agent at the time, received information that Sheriff Antoine Chalaire was going to disarm freedpeople and possibly murder any freedmen found armed. Whittemore told the freedpeople to give him their arms to avoid bloodshed, and he would return the weapons to them once the excitement from the election subsided. Although his intentions were pure and perhaps this maneuver helped temporarily prevent violence, it left many freedpeople unarmed and defenseless at a time when violence was imminent.101

  Kenilworth Plantation, home to Thomas Ong during the massacre. Courtesy of Rhett Pritchard.

  On Saturday, October 24, Democrats concocted plans to assassinate Ong and another prominent Republican leader, General Albert Lindley Lee, both of whom purchased property after the Civil War and often protected and employed freedpeople. General A.L. Lee, originally from New York, was serving as a justice on the Kansas Supreme Court until the start of the Civil War. He joined the Union army in 1861 and was quickly promoted to brigadier general in 1862. He was instrumental throughout many Union victories in the South. After the Civil War, General Lee purchased property in lower St. Bernard Parish, involved himself with local politics and became an editor for Republican newspapers in New Orleans. His profile made him a prime target. The would-be assassins also extended their list to Judge Thornton and a renowned member of the Metropolitan Police, Mike Curtis. Curtis was a Union veteran tasked with maintaining peace in the parish. Susan Clarke, a freedwoman, overheard these plans and notified the potential victims. Another freedman also overheard similar conversations and personally awoke Ong from his sleep to notify him of the impending doom. Curtis’s home was surrounded that night by ten to fifteen potential attackers, but Curtis was armed and expecting them. No assassination attempts were made.102

  Albert Lindley Lee, circa 1860s. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

  The next day, Sunday, October 25, racial tensions escalated and violence imploded. The Democratic clubs of St. Bernard Parish, the Constitutionalists and the Bumble-Bees, assembled at Millaudon Plantation. They were accompanied by the Seymour Innocents, a group of mostly Sicilian toughs from New Orleans, and the Seymour Infantus, bodyguards of Seymour Innocents. According to Ten Tennell in Crucible of Reconstruction: War, Radicalism, and Race in Louisiana, 1861–1877, the Seymour Infantus and the Innocents were “secret paramilitary political clubs and societies” organized to thwart Republican governments, especially through violence. Both societies were present in large numbers in St. Bernard Parish during election time. They arrived by steamboat from New Orleans and joined the other clubs in procession down the road to the courthouse and then toward the St. Bernard Catholic Church to have their flags consecrated by an officiating priest. The procession was led by Vallvey Veillon, Mr. Barrose, Francis Estopinal and other hard-lined Democrats. Veillon seemed to be the ringleader throughout much of the start of the violence.103

  St. Bernard Catholic Church. Author’s collection.

  St. Bernard Highway in lower St. Bernard Parish, the road leading to the events of the massacre. Courtesy of Rhett Pritchard.

  After stopping at the church, the procession was returning to the courthouse when they saw Eugene Lock, a freedman, on the road. Members of the procession yelled for Lock to pull off his “hat and hurrah for Seymour and Blair.” Lock refused and stood firm as they threatened him. One man grabbed ahold of Lock to intimidate him into cheering for Seymour. Lock remained steadfast. His refusal to cheer stimulated the indignation of the procession. Suddenly, one man lunged at Lock with a knife and another shot at him. In retaliation, Lock drew his revolver and fired at his assailants, hitting one man in the shoulder. Shots were fired, and Lock desperately tried to escape by climbing a picket fence. Veillon, who was on horseback and armed with a shotgun, easily closed in on Lock and delivered a fatal shot to the head. Another member of the procession pierced a lifeless Lock with a knife three times to ascertain his death.104

  One freedman, known only as Cyrus in his testimonies, gave his testimony of the events to Lieutenant J.M. Lee:

  They came into Mr. Turner’s yard where I was living at the time, came up to Eugene, who lived there, Eugene was running from the men getting on the picket fence. Vallvey Veillon shot him with a pistol killing him dead. The other man had a dirk and ran after the colored man—Eugene—struck at him three times at the fence.

  Cyrus saw Veillon the day he gave his testimony. Another freedman, Henry Sterling, was wounded at the same time Lock was killed. After the murder, Veillon went to Millaudon Plantation to wash the blood off his hands and reload his shotgun. He remarked that he was ready to “kill twenty more damned niggers.” The first blood was spilled.105

  Chapter 4

  CULMINATION

  They are coming to kill you, we know it,

  and we are going to protect you and your family.

  —an unknown freedman

  Vallvey Veillon tasted blood early that Sunday morning and wanted more. After his posse washed themselves of the blood from their first victim at the Millaudon Plantation, they came across Spencer Jones, an unsuspecting elderly freedman going about his daily work. Veillon did not like Jones watching them wash off their blood. Veillon said, “I’ll kill you. What are you looking at?” Jones replied, “I am doing nothing but standing here.” The answer did not suffice for Veillon. Veillon rammed him with his horse and slit his throat in one swift stroke with a large bowie knife. Although Veillon was armed with a gun, he perhaps chose a knife to make the slaughter more personal. Jones, badly wounded, barely escaped Veillon’s grip and fled.106

  The actions of Veillon and his crew gained traction among other white residents. On the same plantation, Antonio Gonzales, a young white man, approached Jane Ackus, a freedwoman. Gonzales knocked her down and started kicking her. Ackus pleaded for mercy. Another man approached and said, “If she moves or opens her mouth again, knock her.” Ackus stayed still and silent to survive. She would not be as for
tunate two days later.107

  A seemingly quiet Sunday turned into mayhem. Word spread quickly throughout the parish that the horrors envisioned were coming to fruition. Freedwomen in nearby plantations dropped their bundles and fled in sheer panic. It was believed that the threats of assassination of Republican leaders and the murder of “all radical niggers who would not vote the Democratic ticket” would become a reality.108

  The armed procession passed Eugene Joseph, a freedman returning from New Orleans alone. Joseph knew nothing of the troubles of the parish. The procession told Joseph to yell “Hurrah for Seymour and Blair!” Joseph, realizing he was alone and sensing danger, took off his hat and “whirled it around a little.” They responded, “Bully for you!” and continued on their path. Joseph, like Ackus, would also not be so fortunate during his next interaction.109

  Dr. A.G. Thornton, the recently elected Republican judge, sent a summons to the parish sheriff upon hearing of these calamities but received no response. Later that Sunday evening, around thirty men approached Dr. Thornton’s residence and yelled obscenities and death threats. Thornton’s residence was boarded up, and he had no desire to meet the incensed men. Reports of the violence “up the road” quickly reached Thomas Ong’s plantation. Ong sent Michael Curtis, the Metropolitan policeman, with a letter to Sheriff Chalaire requesting a restoration of order before the violence escalated. Ong was unaware Thornton had already attempted to reach Sheriff Chalaire for assistance.110

  Curtis remarked on the difficulty of passing angry armed processions to reach his destination. Considering the geographical landscape of lower St. Bernard Parish, there were not many roads leading in and out of the area. Nonetheless, Curtis mounted one of Ong’s many horses to meet with the sheriff. As Curtis passed an armed posse, someone yelled, “Death to the police!” Curtis initially lied and claimed he was not a Metropolitan policeman.111

  According to one account, Curtis unwittingly yelled he was actually a police officer after he rode past the procession. Whether it was that admission, the desire to stop Curtis from reaching his destination to request assistance or something else entirely, it warranted the attention of the angry procession. The men drew their weapons and pursued Curtis. After multiple shots in his direction, Curtis yelled for the assailants to hold their fire. He jumped from his horse and tried to escape through the yard of Thornton and into his boarded residence. As he was in the process of hopping Thornton’s wooden fence, a man by the name of Syes John Buiel shot him in the back of the head. His body immediately went limp, and he collapsed to the ground. Other men approached the lifeless body and shot him several times to ascertain his death.112

  A few freedpeople who witnessed the murder of Mike Curtis decided to give him a proper burial. Dr. Tross, one of the freedpeople who attempted to bury Curtis, testified that as he was “pushing the dirt on him” he “heard the guns a cracking.” He attempted to get the other freedpeople assisting in the burial to leave, but they did not believe they would be attacked burying a fallen man. Tross told them they are going to “kill everything in the quarters.” Tross ran to the swamps and on to New Orleans for safety as the others did not heed his warning. He later returned to find out he was right. Pierre Colet was shot dead, and the other three had severe bullet wounds. Sophia Marshall, one of the freedwomen, barely survived a gunshot wound to her chest.113

  The news of the murder of a Metropolitan police officer spread rapidly throughout the parish. The unfathomable act terrified the freedpeople. If angry Democrats could do that to an armed white police officer and experienced war veteran, then they could imagine their fate. According to a later testimony given by Ong, “The killing of that man greatly exasperated the blacks, as they knew that he was one of the men that had fought for their freedom.” Curtis was a Union veteran who fought in “all the heavy-fought battles of Virginia” and often boasted about “having aided in having conquered the rebellion.”114

  Ong hoped the rumors were fallacious, but his hopes were laid to rest by an eyewitness. In another desperate attempt to halt the violence, Ong sent an elderly and unsuspicious freedman, John King, as a courier. He gave precise directions to take a circuitous route on foot to notify Thornton, get a horse and ride to Jackson Barracks, a military barracks in New Orleans not far from the St. Bernard Parish line, to request federal troops immediately to respond to the violence.115

  A cartoon titled “One Less Vote” depicts a dead black man killed by racial violence to undermine a Republican victory. Harper’s Weekly, 1868.

  King followed the instructions from Ong and left at eight o’clock that Sunday night. As he neared Thornton’s residence, he ran into a group of about twenty armed white men. He heard them cock their guns and aim them in his direction. King froze in panic. They debated killing him until a cold voice remarked that he was “nobody but an old fool nigger, need not kill him.” King found the horse Curtis rode earlier before his death and rode to the barracks as fast as the horse could muster. He gave them Ong’s letter describing the parish as on the brink of “slaughter.”116

  The local government was too powerless, too fearful or too apathetic to stop the ensuing violence. The few Metropolitan Police officers servicing the parish were inadequate. For example, John B. Jacques was commissioned as a Metropolitan Police officer on October 19 and reported for duty in St. Bernard Parish the next day. He was warned by “several colored women” to stay away from the courthouse because Metropolitan Police officers were in danger of being killed. Jacques was detained by a posse a few days later for allegedly conspiring to kill Antonio Marrero. With little assistance from the federal government and no help from the local government, Thornton locked himself in his domicile in anticipation of an attack. Sheriff Chalaire was either too immobilized to act due to lack of support, as he would later claim, or complacent with the violence, as Republicans would later suggest. The newly elected justice of the peace fled to the cane fields for safety.117

  By nightfall that Sunday, the freedpeople had started to mobilize, as they felt unprotected and abandoned by the government. Those who had not given their arms to Whittemore picked them up and prepared for battle. Others grabbed knives or even tools as weapons. By nine o’clock, over 150 freedmen had gathered around Ong’s house. They yelled excitedly in Creole French. The atmosphere was tense. Ong, nervous about the potential outcome, went outside to address the angered gathering and analyze their motives. One freedman immediately said, “Mr. Ong, you must go back to the house, we don’t want you out here with us. We want no white men here at all, we won’t let any white man pass here.” Another shouted, “They are coming to kill you, we know it, and we are going to protect you and your family.”118

  Ong told the crowd that this was not how they should protect him and that their presence would only give more justification for the violence against them. He told them to disperse, as fighting back would be ineffective. Ong overheard plans that those gathered intended to go to the Millaudon Plantation to “make a stand.” According to Ong, “It was generally believed… that they would be attacked that night, and that the fight was to commence then.” The group headed up the road toward the Millaudon Plantation to “await the attack.” Ong locked his doors and retreated into his domicile in hopes that King had reached Jackson Barracks. Ong heard dozens of shots not even twenty minutes later, followed by a blaze in the distance. A group of freedmen brought two wounded victims to his home shortly after the shots rang out.119

  The cause of the shots, the fire and the wounded men was a scuffle between the freedpeople who left Ong’s residence and Pablo San Feliu, a known racist with staunch anti-Republican political views. Feliu was a baker and also sold whiskey on the side. People of color frequented his residence to purchase his alcohol. A week before his death, Mike Curtis reported that Feliu threatened to “kill every Metropolitan policeman that passed there.” Metropolitan policemen and employees of the Freedmen’s Bureau all stayed clear of his residence. On Sunday, October 25, Feliu held a Democratic m
eeting and reportedly stated that the “white people present go that night to the houses of the colored people and shoot them down as they presented themselves at the door.” His neighbors described him as a “very disagreeable” and “very quarrelsome” man who habitually let his oxen roam on the crops of other properties.120

  The next course of events varies widely depending on the source. The majority of information obtained is from the aforementioned report by Lieutenant Jesse M. Lee, a lieutenant from the Freedmen’s Bureau tasked with investigating the massacre. The testimonies of the survivors are essential in attempting to comprehend the complex series of events. Lee provides two different accounts but clearly favors one over the other.121

  According to the first account, usually the narrative of white Democrats, over one hundred freedmen left Ong’s plantation armed and organized. They attacked Feliu’s residence without provocation and killed him because he would not provide them with whiskey. After, they set fire to his home. Some even suggested Ong sent the group to carry out the murder.122