Oh boy. This one is quite a tale. Last week, I did a Ghosts of Ouachita Parish talk and the creepy legend of the above picture was included. The very condensed version of the story you can probably find in a link below (I did a post about in Dec. 24, 2018) was that it depicts a man named Dr. Augustus Bryant Sholars being arrested at gunpoint by a Major Sealey during reconstruction at “Vienna, in Trenton”. Supposedly, this painting was hanging on a wall in the Sholars home in 1876 when they were awakened by the crash of the painting hitting a shelf and falling face first to the floor where the glass shattered. The story goes, three days later they found out that all the soldiers in the above painting died at the Battle of the Little Bighorn with Custer. Most of that information came from information found in the LSU library, who also has a copy of the above painting with oral history. I read the transcript of that history the day after my lecture and decided to dig. I have found things got VERY garbled through the years. Very common in history and genealogy!
Most of the information I am going to tell you was found in a Times-Picayune article of November 5, 1874, Page 6.
151 years ago, Federal troops were still occupying the area. Deputy Marshall Edgar Selye, the “Major Sealey” above, asked officials with Company B. of the 7th Cavalry, in charge of Lieut. Benjamin H. Hodgson, to go with him to Claiborne parish to arrest some local officials on charges of interfering with the upcoming election. It was a thinly veiled attempt to intimidate the high ranking Democrats to stay home. They even arrested the mayor of Homer! They marched the men to Vienna to be locked up. I’ll let the Picayune tell the tale.
Selye, United States Deputy Marshal, and his cavalry squad, on Thursday [that would be Oct. 29th] arrested Dr. L.G. Sholars, near Vernon, and on the same day he arrested Mr. Ballew near Vienna. The squad camped near this place Thursday night, and on Friday morning, with pistols drawn and carbines at a ready, they charged into town in gay style, crying halt! halt! halt! as they charged, when really no man was moving.
The men and several others arrested in the area, were taken to Monroe where they soon made bail. What I found interesting, is that on their way, they cut a 20 foot line out of the telegraph wires to keep Vienna from warning Monroe of what had happened. Locals were INCENSED! Lieut. Hodgson and Deputy Selye were later arrested, because they had pretty much thumbed their noses at a local judge who had called them in to testify as to what they had done. It looks like the most Lieut. Hodgson and Deputy Selye got was a slap on the wrist.
So, this didn’t happen in Trenton, Ouachita Parish. It happened near Vernon, Jackson Parish. Some of the men in the above painting can be properly identified. The old man with a beard is not Augustus Bryant Sholars, but his uncle, Dr. Lewis Graves Sholars. The man pointing the gun at him is Deputy Edgar Selye. I think the other man with his hands handcuffed is the Mr. Ballew. I am guessing the man on the horse in the front is Lieut. Benjamin H. Hodgson. Less than two years later, he would die on the field at Little Bighorn with Custer. I wonder if John Day is also lurking in this painting? Another little tidbit about Company B: Only three men from that company died at the Little Bighorn. 2nd Lieut. Hodgson, who was Marcus Reno’s Adjutant. The other two were Privates Richard B. Dorn and George B. Mask.
I haven’t been able to find out what happened to Selye. The LSU transcript states he was lynched, but the description of the circumstances match his capture to be hauled in front of the local judge. In May, 1875 he was shot in the behind in New Orleans after an argument! The last newspaper article I find shows he was in New York by May 1876 and after that, he seems to vanish into thin air!
What a fun thing to research!
If you want to learn more about Hodgson and Selye’s exploits in north Louisiana, read these two articles:
There is a great video about Lieut. Hodgson you can watch here: https://youtu.be/ucLivy8O_l8?si=CcJQk6BaxCFiFpi2
Ouachita Parish History Tidbits 