Riot at Winchester Depot

RIOTOUS PROCEEDINGS.– On Saturday night last, a number of negroes waylaid an Irish citizen near the Cemetery, and beat him in an outrageous manner. Upon this fact being ascertained on the Sabbath, there was some excitement upon the part of our Irish citizens. Later in the day, a train arrived from Harper’s Ferry, bringing some 150 Irish laborers, to work on the Winchester and Strasburg railroad. They had been at the depot but a little while, receiving welcomes from their acquaintances, when a squad of negroes, to the number of about one hundred, gathered about the depot, and indulged in taunts and jeers towards the Irish. Finally blows were passed, which resulted in a general melee and the “cleaning out” of the negroes. A number of pistol shots were fired from both sides, one of which took effect in the fleshy portion of a negro’s leg, inflicting very little damage however. There were also many bloody noses, damaged carniums, &c. The negroes were undoubtedly in the wrong, instigated doubtless by that cowardly class of white men who are now endeavoring to persuade them that the Conservatives design enslaving them again.– Winchester Times.