By late summer, gunmen identified by strips of white cloth tied around their upper arms patrolled the city’s neighborhoods. Just as in a military operation, sentries were posted, and gunmen patrolled on set schedules. Captains kept lists of white women and children in their wards. Many whites believed newspaper reports and local gossip that blacks were plotting to rape white women and burn white homes and shops. Safe houses were established in churches or storefronts.
