By the 1870s, the town of Hamburg, South Carolina, across the Savannah River from Augusta, Georgia, and, pre-Civil War, a major hub in the slave trade, is a thriving market town of mostly freedmen. Many black people hold office, and the local militia is made up almost entirely of black servicemen. Whites in surrounding communities feel threatened by Hamburg’s success.

On this day in 1876, about 100 members of the white supremacist group, the "Red Shirts," launches an assault on Hamburg by attacking black National Guardsmen and destroying property. In total, one white man and six black men are killed — four by ritual execution. Many more black people are wounded. Although 94 white men are indicted for murder by a coroner's jury, none are prosecuted.

Hamburg is a ghost town today.