May 16, 1863, Natchez Daily Courier
The Macon Telegraph of the 2d, contains the following:
A factory at Seven Islands, in Butts county, had loaded a wagon with seven bales of manufactured goods, and dispatched it by their customary driver, a trusty old negro, to Forsyth, for transportation upon the Macon and Western Railroad.The wagon arrived at Forsyth in due time with only three bales, and the driver’s story, (which there is no reason to doubt, as he identified many of the parties, and is also confirmed by circumstantial evidence,) is as follows:When the wagon had progressed bout seven miles on its journey, it was stopped by a line of twenty-eight women, drawn up across the road–the most of them armed with knifes and pistols, and in the thicket close to the scene of action sat a man upon a stump, also armed with a double-barrelled gun.The women called upon the negro to halt upon peril of his life, and then immediately commenced discharging the load of the wagon–cutting open the bales, as soon as they had taken as many pieces of cloth as they could carry away, made off, leaving Jim to proceed on his journey with the three bales left.