Postmaster at New Town reporting on the burning of Black churches and attacks on Black residents and their property

Postmaster at New Town reporting on the burning of Black churches and attacks on Black residents and their property

James Murray (postmaster, New Town MD) to Maj. Gen. Wallace reporting on the burning of the Black M.E. Church in Worchester County. Another Black chuirch burned in Somerset Co. See C-4141 for another letter from Murray. File includes a massive number of enclosures, mostly dealing with apprenticeship and illegal enslavement after Maryland passed an emancipation measure in its Constitution of 1864.

11/14/1864

Somerset & Worchester counties, MD

Postmaster at New Town, Maryland, to the Commander of the Middle Department and 8th Army Corps


New Town Md November 14th /64
Dear Sir: I feel it a duty I owe to my Country, to inform you of certain facts, so far as they have come to my knowledge, in District No 1 of Worcester County Md The Methodist Episcopal Church in New Town belonging to the Colored people was burned on the fourth Inst, about three oclock in the morning, I believe, and those I have talked with are of the same opinion, that It was set on fire by Secessionists or some one hired by them. The Colored peoples private property is threatend also to be destroyed. In the same District near Sandy Hill, Major Allen (a Colored Man) was Shot in the Back (by a white man in the vicinity) for no other purpose it is beleived than for entertaining a coloured Soldier at his house Union Mens lives have been threatened in a private manner, and some of them are really affraid that both their lives and property will be destroyed, and have besought me to enterpose for them. In Somerset County within twenty miles from New Town. the Colored peoples Church was burned, It is beleived in like manner, about one month ago. I communicate to you these facts, and the State of Dread that hangs over the minds of union men in some parts of the District, hoping you will timely give us protection. I make this communication in the most private manner, not even my own family being apprized of my intention. I remain Truly yours,
James Murray


James Murray to Major Genl. Wallace, 14 Nov. 1864, filed with M-1932 1864, Letters Received, ser. 12, RG 94 [K-4]. When "Liberia" church in Annamessex, Somerset County, had been burned in October 1864, the Reverend Adam Wallace, presiding elder of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Delaware and the eastern shore of Maryland, had provided information regarding the perpetrators to the military authorities, who had launched an investigation. However, according to Adams, the investigating officer had left the area without making arrests, leaving Adams and other unionists "in the lurch, with the Devil and Annamessex rebels triumphing." Had the army "acted promptly" on that earlier occasion, argued Adams after the church in neighboring Worcester County was torched on the night of November 3, "it would have saved us the chagrin & disgrace we now feel, in the burning of the Col'd M.E. Church at Newtown." Adams believed that in Worcester County it might be possible to obtain justice before the grand jury or magistrates, but in Somerset, where "Jeff Davis & his friends reign supreme," the military authorities should require the "secesh" to rebuild the church ("or three of them"). (Adam Wallace to Rev. T. L. Poulson, 9 Nov. 1864, filed with M-1932 1864, Letters Received, ser. 12, RG 94 [K-4].)