The morning news., 1891-09-30
A VERY BLOODY EPOCH.
A Story OF THE CONFEDERATE
CONSC RIFTION ACT.

bIe Consequences or Th7t Homicide.
nBil1" Parker's Rsvenge-His Ten
Victim ) and His Owa Fearful Death.
From. the Netc York TJmes.
OF all the bloody episodes in the history of
+be southern confederacy none is more re-
plete with tragedies than the story OF "Bill"
Parker, the Tennessee outlaw. The story
has its beginning in the conscription acts
of the confederate government.
Capt. Waugh was an officer in the sen
rolling bureau of the confederacy. In the
discharge of his official duties it frequently
became necessary for him to cause the arrest
and Imprisonment. or the sending 20 the
front for soldier duty, of men who were his
old personal friends and neighbors, bitterly
opposed to the war and more bitterly op-
posed to the confede9acy. Among other
arrests made by men acting uuder his au-
shortly in 1862 or 1868 was that of an old
friend and comrads, Lafayette Jones,
Young gentleman of many excellent parts.
He was a newspaper man of talent, genial,
clever and engaging in manner. he and
Waugh were intimate friends and were
members of the same secret society.
When Jones was arrested, or captured
within the confederate lines in Tennessee,
he had on his person some greenhack cur
rency. an army pistol and number of let
tors and other papers showing that he WIS
not only q sympathizer with toe federal
government, if not in its secret service. but
that he was carrying into the confederacy
contraband matter. In short he was found
TO be engaged in acts considered by the
confederate authorities Unreasonable
Homes asserted that he was feder Il officer
or in the federal service openly, and that
he snonld be treated as prisoner of war at
worst, He was therefore sent to Rich
mond, Va. and placed in confinement in
Castle Thunder.
When Jones was being dispossessed of the
contraband articles he begged that he might
retain 'his greenbacks." which he said he
had earned honestly; and he told Capt
Waugh that if he persisted in taking the
money he would hold him personally re-
sponsible for what he considered an indi-
yidual robbery, and said that If he ever
secured his liberty again he wonld travel
thousand miles TO take the officers life In
revenge.
Capt. Waugh explained to the prisoner
that the dispossessing him was not bis per-
sonal act, but that it was in obedience to
the confederate law. Jones claimed spe-
cial exemption at the hands Of his old
friend. Failing to secure the favor, which
it was not in the elawful power of that friend
TO grant, Jones parting threat was that he
1uLouueu W tcCtAkb lAOul COnuuCluouti tsuu
that he would never rest until he had re-
turned to Tennessee and killed Waugh.
Capt. Waugh was fearless man. and he
paid little or no attention to any threats
made against him. 1t was quite an every
day matter for some one TO threaten his
life, and human life seemed very cheap and
trivial to many men.
One night, some weeks after Lafayette
Jones had been sent TO Richmond, Capt
Waugh was at home in the act of retiring
when a noise was heard outside. Mrs
Waugh remarked that shs believed ''the
robbers were coming. for the whole coun-
try was infested with raving bands of out.
laws, who made business of plundering
friend and foe alike. Suddenly The sound |
OF a gun, fired through an opening in the
bed chamber, stunned the inmates of tie
room. Capt. Waugh Instantly fell for
ward. AZ am killed. he said. He was
dead in an instant. with a bullet in his
heart.
The next moment the door was burst
open and Lafayette Jones, at the head of
twenty or thirty men, some of them in blue
army clothing entered the room, utteriEg
shouts and curses. Jones rushed to the bed
side, saw that his victim was already dead,
and as he stood over him, endeavoring TO
drown the cries Of anguish from the stricken
wife, he yelled triumphantly:
tl"I told him would kill him, and have
done i'll"
In Jones' party were some blood kindred
of Mrs. Waugh. In fiendish glee they pro-
caeded TO ransack and rob the house and
adjacent store of everything of value that
could be carried away. Then they stole
away, leaving the dead body of the slain
man with the egonized widow and
daughter. The next that was heard from
the leaders they were within the federal
lines, beyond the reach of Waugh's friends.
The murder of the enrolling officer and
the robbery of his family by men wearing
the federal uniform aroused the most intense
feeling among the southern sympathiZers IN
the country. Even union people deplored
the event, for they know that it would
doubtless lead to retaliation u3on some of
them. Capt. Waugh was well and widely
known. He was Pennsylvanian, mem
Der of an old and wealthy family of that
State. His wife was from a prominent fam
lynTenuessee. The dead man was carried
Tor burial into North Carolina, followed by
an immense concourse of people, more than
iVO armed troops accompanying. 1t was
believed that further trouble with the Jones
party would attend the removal of the body.
lhe death Of Capt. Waugh was the
beginning of long history of assassIna-
tiols IN that county. There had been sew
eral murders Of citizens in that section, cit
iz9ns OF all ages. and representing both
union and confederate sentiment, but no
USath mad been attended with circumstances
oi such cold-blooded atrocity. 1t was fol-
lowed by most terrible train OF tragedies.
!, Living with Capt. Waugh at the time of
Ine murder was young man named
1arKer de was an employe in some busi
hess capacity, and he was man most de-
Votedly attached to Waugh's family. The
young man swore that he would never rest
unsh he had killed ten of the leading union
men Oh the section in retaliation for the
murder OF his friend and benefactor. He be-
caine crazed, infuriated with thirst for the
Diood OF his late employers political foes.
ne made no secret of his purpose to kill, and
Zoe threat spread far and wide A few
days after the tragedy several of the best
citizens of union sympathies in the county
were found dead, shot down in the high
way, in the field, in the workshop-wherever
Bill Parker could find them. Murder after
murder followed, Parker leaving informa-
uon In the various neighborhoods through
Whlch he swiftly went that it was now
FarRer's time for killing. No one knew
%nen OF where be was going, and he had
als secret hiding places where he could not
te trapped or caught.
One OF the victims was a blood cousin of
Sapt Waugh's widow, an innocent man,
snot down as he fled from the assassin In his
aelos. But he was a strong union man, and
sast was enough for Parker to know. he
.unted for union men. He had given no.
sce when he could do so with impunitv,
sst ssat ne was going to have his ten men, but
s at he would pick them as it
sVi'eo his purDosa and that he