The black defenders of Colfax were more numerous, but they were short of ammunition. On Easter Sunday the attackers overwhelmed them, set the courthouse on fire, and forced them to surrender. People on each side knew each other; what followed was personal as well as political. Whites lined up their prisoners and then called black men out of line by name, sometimes one, sometimes more. They shot some, slit the throats of others, and hanged a few. The total number killed in the fighting and executed afterwards was somewhere between 70 and 165.
