Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Winter 2008 - (Page 72)

African Americans in Grant Parish fled into swamps for fear of being murdered by white militias, as illustrated in Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, 1873. What happened next remains a mystery. Though he somehow survived, Calhoun could not remember what happened after he was stripped. According to the legend among local whites, the scalawag saved himself by giving the Masonic distress signal, asking, “Who will help the widow’s son?” The large number of his brethren in the mob could not refuse the summons. Dressed and mounted once again, he rode with the group to Grant Parish, slept under armed guard, and returned to a dwelling house at Mirabeau, where he would remain a prisoner, with a small contingent of armed whites, for the remainder of the week. Amid the excitement, Ward became seriously ill. Weakened by tuberculosis, he also suffered from severe rheumatism. Sometime before Good Friday, April 11, Ward told his fellows he would “scout out” the next steamboat. Fellow militia fighter Eli Flowers had to lift his friend into the saddle and carry him in his arms up the gang-plank of the B.L. Hodge. They departed for New Orleans, where Ward hoped to schedule a definitive interview with Governor Kellogg. His enemies suspected cowardice, and later claimed to hear that Flowers had admitted, on board the steamboat, that “it had become too hot for him in Colfax.” Neither Ward nor Flowers would be on the scene as tensions escalated toward the climax. As Easter Sunday approached, the military character of 72 LOUISIANA ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES\Winter 2008-09 the confrontation became increasingly pronounced. Blacks in Colfax drilled in formation and worked to stockpile ammunition, including homemade “blue whistlers” for bullets. With the assistance of Union veterans in the crowd, the men prepared three makeshift cannons using stovepipe and gunpowder and constructed shallow breastworks on two sides of the courthouse. Ward and other allies of the Republican redoubt publicized the cause in New Orleans, making liberal use of bravado. “There is one thing apparent,” observed an article published in the New Orleans Republican only 24 hours before the fighting began, “the local majority of Grant Parish is prepared to clean out the local minority of Grant in 24 hours or less if not prevented. In Grant Parish it seems there is a majority of colored men not only accustomed to the trade of war, but they keep arms of the most perfect character.” “The colored population seemed to have reached a high height of exasperation, “ the article continued, “and resolved to obtain a redress of the wrongs they had suffered, or believed they had suffered, and not to disband until they had obtained guarantees for the future. According to statements most worthy of belief, they are well armed, well disciplined, and confident of success The negroes, not even the field hands, are no longer the weak and simple creatures they were before the war. The years of freedom which they have enjoyed have had their effect on them, as well as the military education which

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Winter 2008

Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Winter 2008 Contents Friends Editor's Column Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities Prospect.1 New Orleans The Historic New Orleans Collection The Enduring Performance of Michael P. Smith Jazz Notes Louisiana Foodways Birds of a Feather: Windfowl Carvings in Southeast Louisiana Louisiana Association of Museums Louisiana Architecture O. Winston Link in Louisiana The Ogden Museum of Southern Art The Colfax Massacre Louisiana State Museum Unlocking the History of Greek Key Architecture Bookstand Sound Advice Forum

Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Winter 2008

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