Ellison Scott
Ellison Scott was one of several people held at the Union jail in Union, South Carolina, in February 1871. Accounts say a mounted party of masked men, reported at about five hundred, came to the jail at night and took him and others held there out. Trial testimony reported in the Charleston Daily News says the jailer refused to give up the keys, while another account says the raiders tied up the sheriff and jailor and forced the jail open. Sources differ on the date: some give February 12, others February 19 or 26, and one says his body was found tied to a small tree and shot with rifle balls. No one has been identified as a perpetrator.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched. A masked mob took Ellison Scott from the Union jail, and the sheriff's account says he was shot at the hanging ground; the Unionville Times says his body was found tied to a small tree, shot with rifle balls.
Reported by: Sheriff Dunn of Union, as reported in The Charleston Daily News (the agency that held him); Unionville Times, as reprinted in the Yorkville Enquirer (reporters); Unionville Times (reprinted in The Sumter Watchman) (reporters); Columbia Phoenix (reporters).
Sources (11)
- New Orleans Republican, February 15, 1871, page 1
- The Charleston Daily News, February 15, 1871, page 1
- Yorkville Enquirer, February 16, 1871, page 3
- Yorkville Enquirer, February 16, 1871, page 2
- The Daily State Journal, February 16, 1871, page 1
- The Charleston Daily News, February 20, 1871, page 1
- The Working Christian, February 21, 1871, page 2
- Yorkville Enquirer, February 23, 1871, page 2
- The Sumter Watchman, March 1, 1871, page 2
- Worcester Daily Spy, November 7, 1871, page 1
- The Charleston Daily News, April 23, 1872, page 1