A letter from Carlton to Bullock, 1871

[continuation] …then they took me off about one hundred and fifty yards from my house, made me get down on my knees and pray to God that I should be kept from telling what they, the Ku Klux, had done and were about to do to me. One of the men then held my hands down on the ground and another threw my coat up over my back and held it whilst another whipped me. They struck me about thirty five blows as hard as they could — with a stick about three quarters of an inch or an inch in thickness. It was a persimmon stick — green — and having knots or thumps on it. I found the stick afterwards and the fact that the end had been trimmed with a knife, and that one end of it was split shows how severely I was beaten. After they had finished beating me, they made me pray again that God would keep me from ever telling on them, and then they made me hold up my hands and swear that I would never tell on them. One of them then told me to let them see how fast I could run with my hands tied, and when I ran one of them shot at me — but I was not struck. I knew some of these men who were present, notwithstanding their disguises. Their names are Scott Sanders, Bob Sanders and Jeffy Sanders, three brothers all living in Cobb County and in my neighborhood. I had been working with these three [text continues].