they do not believe that any such thing occurred, or that it could have occurred without the men being detected.

Later that night, after Mayor Combe notified Major Penrose that the men were charged with doing the shooting, the men were again verified, and every man was satisfactorily accounted for.

The following morning, as soon as it was light enough to see and to make an inspection, the guns were carefully inspected and the ammunition was verified, with the result that not a cartridge was missing and not a dirty gun was found. Every one was as bright and clean as it had been found two days before at their regular weekly inspection.

There is much testimony in the record as to whether or not in the night-time, and without artificial light, the men could have cleaned their guns if they had used them on the raid so as to have them free from any indication of use.

The overwhelming weight of this testimony is that it is a difficult matter to clean these rifles; that it requires from fifteen to thirty minutes to clean them, and that it is absolutely impossible to clean them in the dark, or with the aid of artificial light, so they would pass such an inspection as they were subjected to by the officers of these companies the following morning.

This testimony as to the cleaning of these guns and the time required therefor was given not alone by the colored soldiers of the Twenty-fifth United States Infantry, but also by a large number of white soldiers who were called as witnesses.

It has been suggested that the men probably used surplus ammunition, but the testimony is uncontradicted that they had no surplus ammunition. All the ammunition in the possession of the men when they left Fort Niobrara was taken away from them, except only twenty rounds of ball cartridges for each man, and every man in the battalion had his twenty rounds when inspected the morning after the affray, and all the surplus ammunition with which each company was charged was found to be on hand in the storerooms in charge of the quartermaster-sergeants of the respective companies without the shortage of a single cartridge.

That is not the testimony of the black soldiers, but of the white officers, men who were graduates of West Point Military Academy, and men who stand as high in point of integrity as any men who could be called as witnesses.

The testimony further shows they had no opportunity to get surplus ammunition either at Fort Niobrara or at Fort Brown.

The testimony further shows that during the stay at Fort Brown the three companies of white soldiers of the Twenty-sixth United States Infantry were engaged in target practice and that generous supplies of their ammunition in some manner found its way into the hands of citizens of Brownsville. There is testimony to the effect that whole clips of Springfield cartridges could be seen in barrooms, standing on sideboards, where they were used for decorative purposes, and that when these companies of the Twenty-sixth United States Infantry left Brownsville they carelessly left ammunition behind them in the barracks, which was gathered up immediately after their departure by Mexicans and scavengers who visited the barracks for the purpose of supplying themselves with whatever had been cast away.

I have here a clip (exhibiting). It is a facility for putting five cartridges together in a bunch. It is that little fastener or holder that is called the clip. I call attention to it now because I shall have to refer to it again presently.

In other words, the testimony shows that the citizens of Brownsville had opportunity to procure, and that they did have in their possession, an abundance of the kind of ammunition with which the soldiers had been supplied, and that the colored soldiers had no ammunition whatever and no opportunity to procure any except only that which had been distributed to them, every cartridge of which they had when inspected the morning after the shooting occurred.

The foregoing statements as to the ammunition should be modified as to C Company.

Each man of this company carried with him to Brownsville from Fort Niobrara twenty rounds of ball cartridges, but a few days after arrival at Brownsville Captain Macklin ordered that all the ball ammunition should be returned to the quartermaster-sergeant, and that the men should be supplied with guard cartridges, ten rounds to each man. According to the testimony, when the shooting commenced, on the night of August 13th, each man in this company had ten rounds of these cartridges, and not a man in this company had possession of a single ball cartridge. Every one had been taken from them only a few days before under this special order.

The testimony further shows that each of these companies had 650 rounds of guard cartridges-no more, no less.

This ammunition was issued to them at Fort Niobrara. These cartridges are, as their name indicates, intended only for guard purposes. They have only fifteen grains of powder, whereas the ball ammunition has forty-two grains of powder. They have a plain lead bullet, without any steel jacket such as the ball ammunition has.

The testimony further shows that, except only these 650 rounds for each of these three companies, there was no other ammunition of this kind issued to the battalion or procurable by the battalion at either Fort Niobrara or Fort Brown.

The testimony further shows that each of these three companies the morning after the firing not only accounted for every round of ball ammunition, but also for every round of this guard ammunition.

Each of the companies turned over to the Government at El Reno, where the soldiers were discharged without honor, exactly 650 rounds, except only D Company, which turned in only 645 rounds.

This shortage of one clip of guard ammunition was fully accounted for by Captain Lyon, the commanding officer of Company D.

No one pretends that there is any evidence that any bullets of this character were used that night. No trace of any such bullet has been found.

It follows necessarily that, so far at least as Company C is concerned, there is absolutely no evidence to show that they participated in the affray or to warrant the suspicion that they did, and yet it was this company toward which all suspicions of guilt were directed by Major Blocksom and all others down to the time when this fact with respect to its ammunition was established.

Suspicion was directed to this company because, Newton, Reid and Adair, the three men, each of whom had some kind of trouble at Brownsville, all belonged to this company, and because there was delay in the opening of the gun racks, in consequence of which at least two of them were broken open by order of Major Penrose.

Major Blocksom and others engaged in the investigation seemed to think that it was an evidence that these men were engaged in this conspiracy, which because of their care in organizing and executing it seems impossible to disclose, were, while so expert on the one hand, so absolutely stupid on the other that they would commence their operations by breaking open their gun racks and committing other acts that would betray their identity.

How anybody possessed of the slightest power to reason could find evidence of guilt in such performances surpasses ordinary comprehension. Only a man so blinded with prejudice and egotism as to be incapable of weighing conduct intelligently could be guilty of reaching conclusions so utterly absurd.

The testimony shows another important fact that is confirmatory of the innocence of the soldiers.

PISTOL SHOTS.

Ten revolvers for each company had been issued to the battalion at Fort Niobrara. There were no other revolvers or pistols of any kind, as far as the testimony discloses, in the possession of anybody connected with the battalion.

The testimony shows that none of these revolvers had ever been taken out of the chests in which they were when they were delivered to the different companies, except only one that was in the possession of one of the officers of the battalion.

All these revolvers, with this exception, were found after the firing to be in the chests where they belonged covered with cosmoline that had been put on them at the arsenal, and not one of them showing any signs of having ever been used.

The significance of this testimony arises from the fact that Major Penrose and his officers and also Mayor Combe and a number of other witnesses all testified positively that the first shots fired that night were pistol shots.

Major Penrose and his officers and Mayor Combe were experts in the handling of arms and in distinguishing between pistols and high-power rifles.

Major Penrose said:

The first two shots I heard were undoubtedly pistol shots.

Captain Lyon says:

The first two shots were undoubtedly revolver shots, black powder. Lieutenant Grier:

They were what I thought were two pistol shots.

George W. Rendall said, referring to these shots:

I think they were pistols; that was my impression at the time. Mayor Combe said he first heard "what I thought to be four or five pistol shots."

He further said that he was impressed that they were pistol shots because they did not sound like the shots he heard later, which he recognized as high-power rifle shots.

In view of this testimony, it can not well be doubted that the firing was commenced that night by somebody other than the soldiers.

LOCATION OF FIRST SHOTS.

That this firing did not commence on the rear porches of the barracks or at any other point within the reservation is clearly shown by two witnesses who were in position to know, and unquestionably did know, more about the location of the first firing than anybody else.

One of these was Private J. H. Howard, of Company D, the sentinel who was on post and who happened, when the firing commenced, to be passing over his beat immediately in rear of C and B barracks, about opposite the space between them, and practically opposite the mouth of Cowen alley.

The other witness was Matias G. Tamayo, a Mexican citizen of Brownsville, who was employed by the Government as the scavenger, and was with his night cart immediately in the rear of B barracks, near its kitchen, when the firing commenced.

Both testified in the most unqualified way that there was no firing from the barracks or from any other point within the reservation; that the first shots were fired from some place outside of the reservation, as nearly as they could locate them in the Garrison road, somewhere in the vicinity of the mouth of Cowen alley.

Both witnesses were exhaustively examined and cross-examined without shaking or affecting their testimony on this point in the slightest degree.

Both testified not only that there was no firing from any point within the reservation, but that no men or bodies of men were passing in the rear of the barracks before or at the time of this first firing, and that nobody was seen to be jumping over the wall from the reservation into the Garrison road outside, and both testified that if any such thing had happened they were in a situation to have seen it.

They describe intelligently and positively the character of this first firing and the location of it, and negative, absolutely and unqualifiedly, the claim that there was any firing from any other point except that which followed the first firing, and which occurred as the raiders passed up Cowen alley on the route they took.

The sentinel testifies that there were first two shots, and then after a few seconds a fusillade of five or six shots, and that thereupon he passed to the front line of the barracks opposite the parade ground, held his piece in the air and gave the alarm required under such circumstances by firing his piece three times and after each shot crying out, "Corporal of the guard No. 2." His gun was the only one in the battalion found dirty from firing on inspection the following morning.

Major Penrose and a number of other witnesses testified that they heard first two shots, then a fusillade o shots, then three separate and distinct shots, which were undoubtedly the shots fired by the sentinel, whom Major Penrose found at the point where the sentinel testifies he stood when he gave the alarm.

There is nothing whatever in the record of the sentinel, Howard, to his discredit. His testimony is intelligent, frank, straightforward, and undoubtedly truthful, but while it may be insisted that because he was a soldier his statements should be discredited, there is no reason whatever for discrediting the testimony of Tamayo, the scavenger. He was a citizen of Brownsville; he had lived there all his life. Owing to the fact that they had been there so short a time he had practically no acquaintance with the soldiers. He testified that he had no interest in them of any kind whatever to affect his testimony either one way or another. His testimony was also intelligent, frank and straightforward, and although he was examined and cross-examined in the most rigid and exhaustive manner, his evidence was not affected or disparaged in the slightest degree.

I come now to the

CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE.

It consists of a number of bullets that were cut out of the houses into which they were fired at the time of the affray, and a lot of exploded shells, some clips and cartridges, and a bandolier that were picked up in the alleys and streets of Brownsville the next morning after the shooting.

All these are the same as those with which the negro soldiers were supplied. They are also precisely the same, however, with which the white soldiers were supplied who were relieved from duty at Fort Brown by the colored soldiers. The bullets have upon them the mark of four lands, indicating, as the testimony shows, that they were fired from either a Springfield rifle, or a Krag rifle, or a Krag carbine, or a Mauser rifle.

It is claimed, however, that they must have been fired from a Springfield rifle.

First, because the Springfield cartridge is too long and too large to fit into a Krag rifle, or Krag carbine, or a Mauser rifle, and that if the bullets that were found belonged to Springfield rifles, and that inasmuch as no one at Brownsville, so far as the testimony discloses, had a Springfield rifle, except only the negro soldiers, they must have done the firing.

Until this circumstantial evidence was presented to Major Penrose and his officers, they would not believe that any of their men had been engaged in the shooting; but this testimony seemed so conclusive that they changed their minds and expressed themselves as convinced that their men must have done the shooting.

It was this apparently conclusive testimony that fastened the conviction of guilt upon the soldiers in the minds of all who were engaged in the investigation of the affray, and which led the investigators to disbelieve the soldiers and to desist from investigating the question of the possible guilt of others.

As soon as this evidence was presented to Major Penrose and his officers they put their men under the strictest scrutiny and subjected them to the severest discipline and examinations, with a view to ascertaining who the guilty men were. They continued this course not only at Fort Brown, but subsequently at El Reno, down to the time when