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John H. Day came to his end at the hands of a Louisiana lynch mob 18 years after the battle.

He'd made the unfortunate decision to reside in Monroe, La., part of Ouachita Parish, one of the most notorious havens for vigilantes in the post-Civil War South. Black residents accused of any crime, no matter how minor, received justice at the end of a rope. Poor, friendless whites were lynched regularly, too, apparently with the tacit approval of judges, attorneys and law enforcement.

Monroe had suffered a series of mysterious fires, and one Wednesday in June 1894 three were set in different locations. Newspaper accounts say a bundle of kindling fastened by a wire was found at each of the fires.

A bloodhound brought to the scene led investigators to Day's door. Similar kindling bundles were found inside.

That night, a mob obtained the jail keys from a policeman and dragged Day to a tree not far from one of the houses he supposedly burned.

Not everyone in Louisiana condoned the hanging. The Banner-Democrat in Lake Providence noted that evidence against Day was all circumstantial and that the case should have been left to a jury to decide. The newspaper referred to the lynching as murder and fruitlessly demanded that the mob be brought to justice.

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