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[RECONSTRUCTION]. WELLS, James Monroe (1837–1918). The Chisholm Massacre: A Picture of “Home Rule” Mississippi [with:] autograph letter signed by sole survivor. Washington: Chisholm Monument Association, 1878. 8vo. Frontispiece, wood–engraved illustrations. Original publisher’s brown cloth lettered in black, gilt–lettered spine (rubbing at top and base of spine, bumping to corners). Third edition. INSCRIBED BY SOLE SURVIVOR EMILY CHISHOLM ON FRONT FREE ENDPAPER: “To Mrs. Blake, With thanks for her womanly sympathy with a broken sister woman. Washington, D.C., November 12, 1899.” INCLUDES TIPPED-IN AUTOGRAPHED LETTER SIGNED BY EMILY CHISHOLM, reads in full: “My dear son’s last words were, ‘Mother, if I leave Father they will kill him.’ My daughter’s last speech, ‘Mama, I can’t breathe.’ My husband’s last whisper was, ‘Jesus, Father, Wife - Precious wife.’ Emily Chisholm.” The Chisholm Massacre took place on April 29, 1877, in Kemper County, Mississippi. Three days before, Sheriff John William Gully was murdered near the home of William Wallace Chisholm, Gully’s predecessor as sheriff. During the Civil War Chisholm had been a staunch Unionist, and during Reconstruction had been an ardent defender of the rights of former slaves, who were credited with keeping him in office. Chisholm’s wife Emily, three sons, and his daughter accompanied their father to the jailhouse after a warrant was issued for his arrest, with a friend named Angus McLellan standing guard. Within hours McLellan was dismissed by order of the new sheriff, and upon leaving the jail was confronted by a mob of over 300 members of the Ku Klux Klan, who shot McLellan on the spot and then stormed the jail. William, his thirteen year-old son John, and his seventeen year-old daughter Cornelia were killed, along with one of their attackers. Though the mob’s leaders were indicted none were formally punished, and local papers justified their actions by claiming that Chisholm had been party to Gully’s murder. Seven months later a former slave named Walter Riley confessed to Gully’s murder, claiming that it was carried out in retaliation for Gully’s policies towards African Americans. After being sentenced to death for the crime Riley escaped and was recaptured shortly afterwards while hiding in the gin house on the Chisholm plantation, armed with pistols that had belonged to William Wallace Chisholm and guarded by Chisholm’s two surviving sons. Emily Chisholm passed away on October 4, 1904, and was interred beside her husband, son and daughter.