I found information at Making of America at http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?page=simple&c=moa Search Wilkinson County Georgia Report of the Joint select committee appointed to inquire into the condition of affairs in the late insurrectionary states, so far as regards the execution of laws, and the safety of the lives and property of the citizens of the United States and Testimony taken. United States. Congress. Joint Select Committee on the Condition of Affairs in the Late Insurrectionary States. 13 v. 24 cm. Washington, Govt. print. off., 1872. I must say it's very interesting and makes me so sad that these things went on. Eileen Coordinator for Baldwin County American History and Genealogy Project http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ga/county/baldwin/home.html Coordinator for Wilkinson County American History and Genealogy Project http://wilkinsoncountyga.tripod.com/Wilco.htm

Thanks, Eileen, for sharing the resource on that investigating committee. I was curious if it would cite other incidents that I had run across in Wilkinson Co. around that time. Those Reconstruction era times in Wilkinson and other counties were brutal and lawless years. The Republicans were in control, and the many previously prominent whites who had supported the Confederate cause were excluded from governmental functions. A powerful group of underground leaders emerged in many counties who were often connected to various Klan organizations. There were insurrections of all sorts in the Southern states then, including race riots in some states. Murders and hate/ vigilante groups were common. Beyond the incidents in this report were others in Wilkinson County. On one of the Vanlandingham web pages a few years ago was the account of a legal proceeding in 1872 in which a young Jethro Vanlandingham and an older William Dickson (in or close to his sixties and a prominent citizen of the county) were charged with Klu Klux Klan terrorism and murder. They were held in prison for 10 weeks during which Reconstruction era prosecutors out of Atlanta investigated and tried their case in Wilkinson County. Eventually the case was dismissed against them, despite the accounts of local blacks who testified to recognizing at least these two men among a mob attacking homes at night. The newspaper accounts of the case reflected the strong sentiments against carpetbaggers and blacks and in support of local citizens. Well over 100 years later, and in a few ways, we're still confronting aspects of the legacy of those desperate and cruel times (arguments over flags, apologies, reparations, etc.).