Colfax Massacre - Colfax Courthouse Conflict

Colfax Courthouse Conflict

With support from the Federal government, Republican William Kellogg was certified and assumed control as Louisiana governor. In late March, Republicans Register and Shaw occupied their offices in the Colfax courthouse. Fearful that the Democrats might try to take over the local parish government, freedmen in Colfax started to create trenches around the courthouse and drilled to keep alert. They held the town for three weeks.

On March 28, Nash, Cazabat, Hadnot and other white Fusionists called for armed whites to retake the courthouse on April 1. Republicans Register, Shaw, Flowers and others countered by calling for their own posse of armed blacks to defend the courthouse. Black Republicans Lewis Meekins and state militia captain William Ward, a black Union veteran, raided the homes of leaders Judge William R. Rutland, Bill Cruikshank and Jim Hadnot. Gunfire erupted between whites and blacks on April 2 and again on April 5, but the shotguns were too inaccurate to do any harm. The two sides arranged for peace negotiations. Peace ended when a white supremacist shot and killed a black man named Jesse McKinney. Another armed conflict on April 6 ended with whites' fleeing from armed blacks. With all the unrest, black women and children joined the men at the courthouse for protection.

William Ward, the commanding officer of Company A, 6th Infantry Regiment, Louisiana State Militia, headquartered in Grant Parish, had also been elected state representative from the parish on the Republican ticket. He wrote to Governor Kellogg seeking U.S. troops for reinforcement and gave the letter to Calhoun for delivery. The latter took the steamboat LaBelle down the Red River but was captured by Paul Hooe, Hadnot and Cruikshank. They ordered Calhoun to tell blacks to leave the courthouse. The black defenders refused but were threatened by armed whites commanded by Nash. To recruit armed whites for his paramilitary group, Nash had contributed to lurid rumors that blacks were preparing to kill all the white men and take the white women as their own. On April 8 the anti-Republican Daily Picayune reported the following:

Nash got reinforcements from groups such as the KKK. His group got a four-pound cannon that could fire iron slugs. As the Klansman Dave Paul said, "Boys, this is a struggle for white supremacy."

Suffering from tuberculosis and rheumatism, militia captain Ward took a steamboat downriver to New Orleans on April 11. He planned to seek armed help for Colfax directly from Kellogg. He was not there for the following events.