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Soldiers charged with setting fires and looting in Brenham
On this day in 1866, federal soldiers under Bvt. Maj. George W. Smith
reportedly set fire to and looted several stores in Brenham. The
incident grew out of a controversy involving newspaper editor D. L.
McGary's frequent attacks on the local Freedmen's Bureau in the Brenham
Banner. McGary was arrested by federal authorities; after his release, on
September 7, three soldiers were shot during an altercation at a dance.
Other soldiers returned to the scene, arrested two citizens, and set a
fire that burned part of the town. Smith maintained the innocence of his
men and refused to turn them over to local officials. The episode helped
Brenham gain a reputation for the "unreconstructed" Southern mentality
of its white residents. After lengthy hearings by both federal and state
officials, the issue of the soldiers' guilt remained unresolved. Smith
was transferred to Seguin, where he was later convicted of theft of
Freedmen's Bureau funds. Though his conviction was overturned on appeal,
he resigned his commission in 1869, the same year that a convention of
Democratic editors met in Brenham and denounced, among other things, the
idea of black suffrage. Smith died in 1890.
- Links to Related Handbook of Texas Online Articles
- FREEDMEN'S BUREAU
- SMITH, GEORGE W.
- BRENHAM, TX
- RECONSTRUCTION
- WASHINGTON COUNTY
- Other Texas Day by Day Articles for This Date
- Houston Ship Channel is deepened (1914)
- Hill County cotton mill begins production (1901)
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