Fisher, Hiram T., 1839-1932

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ISpurgeon at Nov 02, 2024 07:49 PMRevision changes

Fisher, Hiram T., 1839-1932

Hiram T. Fisher was a Union officer and Republican political figure in Mississippi during Reconstruction. Born on August 29, 1839, in Ohio, Fisher volunteered for Union military service when the Civil War broke out in 1861 and initially served with the Sixteenth Ohio Infantry Regiment. In 1863, he accepted a promotion in the Third Mississippi Regiment (African Descent), a unit comprised of free African Americans and former slaves, commanded by white officers. The regiment was redesignated the Fifty-third United States Colored Infantry in 1864, and served in campaigns and garrison duty in Mississippi and Arkansas. Fisher remained with the unit during occupation duty in Mississippi after the war. After he mustered out of military service in 1866, he stayed in Mississippi and became active in Republican politics. He became the editor of a pro-Republican newspaper in Jackson, the <i>Pilot</i>, and in 1870 was appointed a colonel and assistant adjutant general in the Mississippi militia. In September 1875, Fisher was asked to speak at a political rally in Clinton, Mississippi. It was hosted by the Republican party, but Democrats had been offered a time for a speaker of their choice to address the crowd. Around two thousand people attended, almost all of whom were local African American residents. However, approximately seventy-five white men also attended, more than a dozen of whom were conservative Democrats from the town of Raymond. The Democratic speaker, Amos R. Johnston, gave an hour-long address without incident. When Fisher rose to speak, some of the white men in the crowd began shouting. Despite efforts by the Republican organizers to reduce tensions, several of the Democrats pulled out weapons and pointed them at the crowd. Moments later, gunfire erupted, and over the next few minutes at least eight people were killed. The incident sparked additional violence, as conservative whites descended upon Clinton over the next few days and attacked several more Black residents. Fisher moved back to Ohio after Reconstruction ended in Mississippi. He worked as a newspaper editor, then as a patent attorney and writer. Fisher lived well into the twentieth century, and moved to Florida in the early 1900s. He died in 1932 at the age of 92 in Florida. His remains were transferred to Ohio and he is buried in Wooster Cemetery in Wooster, Ohio. (1850 U.S. Census for Wooster, Ohio, Roll 740, Page 260a; <i>Tampa Bay Times</i>, Tampa, FL, June 29, 1832; <i>The Weekly Mississippi Pilot</i>, Jackson, MS, September 10, 1870; Melissa Janczewski Jones, “Clinton Riot (Massacre) of 1875,” Mississippi Encyclopedia; 1880 U.S. Census for Lancaster, Ohio, Roll 1015, Page 323a; FindaGrave)

Fisher, H. T.