The officers of the Twenty-fourth received reports of impending trouble and violence at the hands of an angry white mob. Major K.S. Snow revoked all passes for the evening and ordered the guard around the camp to be increased, but later that evening stumbled upon a group of men attempting to arm themselves from one of the supply tents. He ordered the men to assemble without arms and warned them that it was "utterly foolish, foolhardy, for them to think of taking the law into their own hands." One of the men, who had smuggled his rifle into the formation, fired it and cried out that a mob was approaching the camp. At this point, order broke down completely and the soldiers mobbed the supply tents, grabbing rifles and ammunition in order to protect themselves.