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A History of Columbia County Florida (1996) Edward F. Keuchel 135/340

The Era of Reconstraction
hominy”—fried bacon, hot hominy, hoe cakes, corn pone bread, and
hot coffee. While the hungry troops relished their meal, the
Democrats under Baya and Bunch quietly removed the soldiers’
weapons, which had been stacked in a shedroom off of the porch.
When the soldiers left the boarding house they were surprised to
find their guns missing, and even more surprised to find the
Democrats waiting with clubs made from barrel staves and oak
limbs, as well as whips made from leather buggy traces. Bunch
yelled: “Take ’em boys, take ’em” as each group of Democrats
seized a struggling trooper and carried him off into the woods for a
beating. Democrats patrolled the streets of Lake City throughout
the night, and the next day the bruised and battered soldiers were
“as quiet as a kitten on a carpet.”16
Even though the “hog and hominy” account is interesting, it
cannot be documented. Congress investigated events which
occurred in all of the southern states during the election of 1876.
In both House Executive Document, 44th Congress, 2nd Session,
No. 30, and Senate Report, 44th Congress, 2nd Session, No. 611,
abundant testimony was given relating to events in Columbia
County and other trouble areas in Florida. Accounts of ballot box
stuffing, coercion and intimidation and the sending of federal
troops are reported, but no mention is made of any attacks upon
soldiers in Columbia County. Since Columbia County returned a
majority to the Democrats, and local Republicans were trying to
invalidate the results, it is unreasonable to think that a beating of
federal soldiers would not have made its way into the testimony.
Moreover, Bunch’s account of the incident, as related in 1951, also
mentions that during the election of 1876, Madison County Demo­
crats threw army weapons into the Suwannee as the train carrying
them crossed the bridge. This in inaccurate and undoubtedly
relates to the earlier event of 1868 previously mentioned.
From the Democratic standpoint many of the improprieties of *
'“Ibid.

133

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