Private Fortune Wright of the 96th U.S.C.T. had been convicted at court-martial of the October 1865 murder of Dr. Octavius Trezevant on the street in Jefferson, Louiisana. Fortune held that he had acted in self-defense while being beaten with a cane after Trezevant and his companion had thought him to be harming a black woman. Appeals from his officers for clemency to President Johnson were turned down and he was executed by hanging. (By John Osborne)
Source Citation
"Execution of a Colored Soldier," Chicago Tribune, March 16, 1866, p. 2.