It appeared that several members of one of the German companies, on being pressed by the crowd and receiving some blows from them, turned and discharged their pieces. Fortunately no one was injured, and the soldiers who had done the act were at once placed under arrest. Hardly, however, had tranquility been restored when volley after volley of rifle reports were suddenly heard from the extreme rear ranks, and men women, and children were beheld running wildly and frantically away from the scene. Many, while running, were suddenly struck to the sod, and the wounded and dying made the late beautiful field look like a battle ground.
We went over the grove immediately after the occurrence, and a more fearful and ghastly sight is seldom seen. Men lay gasping in the agony of death, and staining the green grass with their blood, as it flowed from their wounds. Children of eight and ten years were pale and motionless as if asleep under the trees, and women cried in pain as they lay upon the ground. One, a girl of fourteen, presented a mournful picture, as she reclined against a stump, her face cold and white from the sudden touch of death. We counted fifteen dead persons and half as many wounded lying around. ...
... It was reported that the arsenal troops were attacked with stones, and a couple of shots discharged at them by the crowd before they fired. Whether this be true or not, a more reckless act has never been committed than an armed body of troops discharging those terrible instruments of war -- minie rifles -- among a crowd of defenseless spectators.
The most of the people exposed to the fire of the soldiers, were citizens with their wives and children, who were merely spectators, and took no part in any demonstration whatever. The firing was said to have been done by Boernstein's company, and at the command of an officer.
Men lay gasping in the agony of death, and staining the green grass with their blood, as it flowed from their wounds. Children of eight and ten years were pale and motionless as if asleep under the trees, and women cried in pain as they lay upon the ground. One, a girl of fourteen, presented a mournful picture, as she reclined against a stump, her face cold and white from the sudden touch of death.
Undoubtedly, another credit to the administration.