The Daily Gate City

The terrible mob which the rebels of Memphis represented through the telegraph as a negro insurrection, and which Copperhead editors, in sympathy with rebels, still insist was a negro mob, resulted in the death of some seventy negroes and the burning of all the negro buildings in Memphis. And yet with all this loss of life on the part of the colored population, Copperhead journals would have us believe that it was a negro plot of armed soldiers which the whites simply sought to defend themselves against, and that only two whites lost their lives, one of whom fell by the hands of an Irishman, under the following circumstances as detailed by the Memphis Commercial:

"Killing of Ben. Dennis.—Yesterday afternoon, Ben. Dennis, a brother-in-law of Dr. Dickinson, and an old resident of this city, was shot and killed in what is known as Frank's Saloon, on Bank Alley, between Madison and Monroe streets. The circumstances, as near as we could learn, were these: Mr. Dennis was standing at the bar, and in the course of his remarks, said: 'There's a boy (pointing to a negro named Reuben, a barber on Jefferson street), that has shaved me many a time. I have as much confidence in him as I have in any one, and were I compelled to ask a favor to-morrow, he is the first I should go to.' During the delivery of these remarks, Michael Keenan was in the back room, partaking of his dinner, and when he heard Mr. Dennis make use of them, he came forward and said: 'What did you say?' at the same time striking Dennis with his pistol on the right temple, immediately following the blow by shooting him—the ball entering just below the heart and ranging upwards, causing almost instantaneous death." Keenan was arrested, but in some way managed to effect his escape.