Brownlow's Knoxville Whig, and rebel ventilator. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1863-1866, 1864-04-16
A. Colby.
PORTLAND, June I'd, 1862.

PORTLAND, June 3D. 1862,
Rer. 4. Colby: ] received your esteemed
favoron Friday last, at the bar ofthe "PrcbIc
House. the fine and well conducted hotel at
which am staying during my briet sojourn
here | hasten to acknowledge is receipt
before leaving for Boston, and to thank you
for posting me in regard to that chief Of
scoundrels DdnuUe Leddbetter
Since ! received your letter have fallen
in with several gentlemen who knew Lead
better and who confirm the truth of what
you say. They tell ire that he halls from
the ost-township of Concord, Somerset
county, on the waters Of the Pcnobscot
river, forming IN part he w stern boundary
between Maine and Canada And although
it is a village Of only some six hundred in
habitants, situated fifty miles North by
West from Augusta, it may boast Of having
produced one OF the most unmitigated scoun-
drsls turned up by this rebellion, and one of
the most cowardiy murdercrs whose traitor
feet ever pressed the soil of Tennessee He
is the tool of Secession alliance, formed by
an ingorous pack Of Southern traitors, and
most suitable man to serve such an organi-
cation, because he is made up Of perjury
fornicatiop, dishonest, cowardce and false
hood. Indeed have edited your citizens
by holding him up to meritcd scorn and
contempt for two nights in succession, and
if they do not say that / did him ample jus
tee, am willing to remain day longer,
and take another turn at the infamous cul
prt and traitor.
Lcadbcttcr is the vile murderer of Messrs.
Fry and llENsIE, whom he hanged upon the
same limb in Grtcnev.llc, some seventy five
miles east Of my own town. and | was in
formed by gentlemen from that county, who
We're confined in the same Jail 4 was, that
Leadbettcr tied the rope around both of
! these Union sufferers nccks, and boosted OF
! the exploit lie ordered their bodies TO
hang under the same limb, in full view of
thctown and depot, tor four days and nights,
Us future warning to all Union mon. And
when they were taken down and buried,
before the four days expired, it was because
ofthe earnest solicitations Of his rebel friends
Leadbettcr's wife is said to have died in No
bile on the same day Of this hanging. Thus,
whilst he was choaking out the existence OF
two innocent Union men in East Tennessee,
the Almighty, claimed to be on the side Of
tho rebellion, was extinguishing the life of
the woman through whom he became the
owner of some sevcnty-fiv negroes, the
ownership of whom has made the God for
.sakcn scoundrcl so intensely Southern. But
he will consider the death of his wife a pc
cuniary blessing, as he will hold her prop
erty, and stand chance to marry another
gang of negroes 1t is not the first wife he
has lost for u former wife he aided in free
ing from the troubles, sorrows and suffer.
ings Of life!
But our East Tennessee programme in
regard to Lcadbctter is, TO seize him AS a
prisoner, when we rc.take that much abused
and patriotic country, then take him to the
same limb on which he caused these two
Union men to hang, and there hang him =
not four days and nights, but forty days and
nights, as long as God was sending rain
upon the rebels who lived in the days OF
Noah's food. And as Fry's widow is left
behind, poor, with several small children to
provide for, we shall deem it proper and
right that she tie one end of rope around
the Internal neck of this graceless villain,
and the other end around the limb
Since the brutal murder of Fry and HEN.
SIC by Ueadletser, the rebel rarsrs suncurcc