formed in ranks, returned the salute, and cheered. The officers rushed up, cursing, and drove the men back to their tents.
The horsemen laughed, fired a volley in the air, cheered, and galloped back to the court-house. The court was glad to get rid of them. There was no question raised over technicalities in making out bail-bonds. The clerk wrote the names of imaginary bondsmen as fast as his pen could fly, while the perspiration stood in beads on his red forehead.
Another telegram from old Stoneman to the White House, and the Writ of Habeas Corpus was suspended and Martial Law proclaimed.
Enraged beyond measure at the salute from the troops, he had two companies of negro regulars sent from Columbia, and they camped in the Court-House Square.
He determined to make a desperate effort to crush the fierce spirit before which his forces were being driven like chaff. He induced Bizzel to return from Cleveland with his negro wife and children. He was escorted to the City Hall and reinstalled as Mayor by the full force of seven hundred troops, and a negro guard placed around his house. Stoneman had Lynch run an excursion from the Black Belt, and brought a thousand negroes to attend a final rally at Piedmont. He placarded the town with posters on which were printed the Civil Rights Bill and the proclamation of the President declaring Martial Law.
Ben watched this day dawn with nervous dread. He had passed a sleepless night, riding in person to every
