Doing the incident, police officers arrested and assaulted black soldiers, their comrades mutinied and marched to Houston. Gunfire erupted, eleven civilians were killed including a minor and five policemen. Five soldiers also died (four from the gun fire and one by suicide).
In accordance with the military laws of the time, 118 soldiers were tried in three courts-martial. This was the largest murder trial in US history. A total of 110 were convicted, of whom 19 were executed and 63 were sentenced to life imprisonment.
The condemned soldiers included, one sergeant, four corporals and eight privates. They were transferred to the barracks on December 10. Scaffolds were assembled and around 5:00 am the 13 condemned soldiers were awakened and taken to the gallows and simultaneously they were hanged at 7:17 am.
The soldiers were buried in unmarked graves by the Salado Creek, their surnames were written on paper placed in empty soda bottles that were buried with each man. The convictions of the other soldiers, led to 15 men of the lower division were tried and 5 were convicted and sentenced to death.
On March 26, 1918, 23 of the remaining soldiers were sentenced to death and 12 were sentenced to life in prison. On November 13, 2023 the army set aside the conviction of the 110 soldiers and decided that the soldiers were wrongly treated because of their race and was not given a fair trial.
