George Smith now resides five miles from Ellaville, in Schley County,
Georgia. He says:
"Before the election of Grant, large bodies of men were riding
about the country in the night for more than a month. They and
their horses were covered with large white sheets, so that you
could not tell them or their horses. They gave out word that they
would whip every Radical in the country that intended to vote for
Grant, and did whip all they could get hold of. They sent word to
me that I was one of the leaders of the Grant club, and they would
whip me. I saw them pass my house one night, and I should think
there were thirty or forty of them. They looked in the night like
Jersey wagons. I supposed they were after me, and I took my blanket
and gun and ran to the woods and lay out all night, and a good many
other nights. Nearly all the Radicals in the neighborhood lay in
the woods every night for two weeks before election. The Kuklux
would go to the houses of all that belonged to the Grant club, call
them to the door, throw a blanket over them and carry them off and
whip them, and try and make them promise to vote for Seymour and
Blair. The night I saw them they went to the house of Mr. Henry
Davis and ordered him out. He refused to come out and they tore
down both of his doors. He fired at them and escaped. I heard a
good many shots fired at him. He lay out about a week in the woods,
and then slipped back in the night and got his family and moved
off. He had bought a place and paid $250 on it but he could not get
a deed, and he has gone off and left it. They then went to the
house of Tom Pitman and Jonas Swanson, called them to the door,
threw blankets over their heads, carried them off and whipped them
tremendously. They told them that they were damned Radicals and
leaders of the Grant club, and that they would whip every one that
voted for Grant, and would not give any work to any but Democrats.
"Bob Wiggins, a preacher, was whipped all most to death because they
said he was preaching Radical doctrines to the colored people. It
was supposed for a good many days that he would die, but he finally
recovered.
"I attended the election at Ellaville. None of the Radicals that had
been Ku-Kluxed tried to vote; but a good many Radicals did try to
vote, but the judges made them all show their tickets, and if they
were for Grant they would not let them vote. I saw how they treated
others and did not try to put my vote in. I went early in the
morning, and the white and colored Democrats voted until about
noon, when I went home."
ANDERSONVILLE, _February 7, 1869_.