I have no idea if he was telling the truth or not but I am pretty sure he was there.
I have no idea what a turpentine bomb is either, maybe something they made up but that was the story going around. He was not btw trying to make it look like the Blacks were in the right, just saying how much killing was going on.
I’m not saying he wasn’t there, but you said he didn’t go in the city until most of the violence was finished. He might be right about certain things, but the testimony of a single person cannot be held up as the final truth about the whole event. It would be the same thing if it was a white person you had talked to. The total amount killed might have approached the 300 number, but some sides have an interest in twisting the truth for obvious reasons. Maybe some day an unbiased historian will write a conclusive chapter.