I am a Private in The Durham Machine Gun Co. At present I live in Durham, but have lived in Burlington. I now have two sisters living in Burlington. On Saturday, July 17th, I went to Burlington to visit one of my sisters and was there in civilian clothes Sunday when I first learned of the attack on the woman. When I heard that the Durham Machine Gun Co had been ordered to the jail in Graham I went there and reported to Capt. Fowler. I slept in the jail Sunday night.

Monday morning I went back to my sister's in Burlington and spent the day Monday in Graham and Burlington. I heard from several sources Monday morning that a crowd of men were going to attack the jail Monday night. Some of them stated that the attack would be about 8:30. The general impression was that the Machine Gunners were a volunteer group from Durham who would not shoot and who had blank cartridges even in case they attempted to shoot. Several men asked me if I did not think that the boys would let a crowd in the jail if they attempted to lynch the negroes. They also asked me if the boys were not shooting blanks. I told them that if they tried to enter the jail they would soon see whether the boys were shooting blanks or not. One man replied, "Well we are going to try it tonight." I was in civilian clothes all of this time and was not publishing the fact that I was a member of the Machine Gun Co. I heard many threats all day Monday and as a result of what I heard I confidentially expected an attack to be made on the jail. I told Capt. Fowler Monday that I thought he would be attacked that night.

I was in Graham Monday night at 9 o'clock at Garrett's Pool Room and Cafe. There was a crowd of about 75 men standing on the street in front of the Pool Room and in the Cafe. I saw that practically all of these men had pistols. I could see the butt of the pistol sticking out of most every man's pocket. There was a great deal of talking about lynching the negroes and I heard a good many members of the crowd in front of the Pool Room say that they were going to make an attack on the jail about 9:30 that night. I would have called Capt. Fowler but feared that if I tried to telephone him some of the crowd would catch me.

I heard several members of the crowd say, "We have got every gun we could find in Burlington and are going down there in a few minutes." I heard others say, "We have all the rounds of amunition and guns that we need and we are going in that jail about 9:30." There was some discussion as to the best manner of approaching the jail. The general opinion as expressed by members of the crowd seemed to be that it would be better to attempt to break into the jail from the rear. One man said that they had plenty of ways to get into the jail.

Phillips, the man who was wounded, and Jim Ray, the man who was killed, were in this crowd and heard the talking though I cannot say that either of them had a pistol or that either of them were planning to break into the jail that night.

About 5 or 10 minutes after 9 o'clock Monday night the crowd began thinning. The men left in groups of about 15 or 20, going in the direction which it would be necessary for a man to take in order to get to the jail. All of these squads or groups did not leave at the same time, but at short intervals. In 5 or 10 minutes after they left I heard the first shot. At that time I was preparing to eat supper. In my opinion the jail is not more than 75 yards from Garrett's Pool Room at the most. Most of the members of the crowd were from Burlington and parts of Alamance County other than Graham. The men who left in squads of 15 or 20 carried pistols with them.

After the shooting there was much talk about mobbing the jail and killing all of the Machine Gunners and then getting the 3 negroes. One man told me that the crowd on the outside of the jail had two or three machine guns and that they were going "to kill every damn one of the soldiers." I started towards the jail in an automobile but was warned to go back by a man who said that there was going to be more trouble. I do not think that any members of the crowd in front of Garrett's Pool Room that night knew that I was a member of the Machine Gun Company. I was in civilian clothes and had been told by Capt. Fowler that he did not think it necessary for me to go to Durham Monday and get my uniform.