The Pioche weekly record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1877-1900, 1891-08-20
WHOLESALE BUTCHERY.
A Story of the Bloody Deeds Of
- Two Brothers.
They Vowed Vengeance Upon Confederate
Deserters and Scores IF Deaths
Told of Their Dead
ly Work.

Near New Holland. Ga, there is
little swamp near the road. At its edge
stands large white oak tree. Ncarsa@o
this spot was often pointed out rs the
scene of the murder of twelve men. and
the place bore the reputation OF beng
haunted. 1t was said the rafting OF
chains and groans and prayers for
mercy could be distinctly heard by
passersby. No one ever stopped to in
yestirate, as we can testify from per-
sonal experience, says writer in the
New York Dispatch, having heard the .
groans some fourteen years AGO. ana
having also done some of the most dis
tinruished travelling in all our eventtul
career.
But to the story: Howard Thompson
was a witness to the killing, which oc-
CURED in 1868, he being ten years old
at the time. The killing was done by
Bob and Ben Jordan, of Pickens county
and the murdered men were deserters
who had been arrested in Gilmer county
While the Jordan boys were in the
confederate army q crowd OF deserters
visited the house of their father, as
saulted their sister and the wife of Bob
Jordan and carried their father who
was about seventy years Old through
the mountains a distance of sixty miles,
and subjected him to many shocking
cruelties Then the Jordan boys re-
turned home and began their record OF
killing. Every man known to be de-
serter or sllulker became victim of
their unerring rifles. Bob kept list OF
the names and dates in 4 small book.
He was pursued one day and in crossing
a river lost his book. 1t contained one
hundred and twenty-five names. After
that he kept no record. This was be-
fore the killing near Gainesville.
Bob and Ben Jordan became recruit
ing officers and arrested twenty
six men in Gilman county, and
started with them to the front. On
the way two escaped and twenty-four
were lodged in Gainesville Jail. Next
morning the Jordans picked out twelve
whom they had the best reason to be-
lieve had been implicated in the out
RACES upon their family and chained
them together and marched them to
this white oak tree on the New Holland
road. They stood them up in row
and Bob Jordan marched slowly along
the line with large army pistol and
shot them with his own hand one at a
time. Some fell on their knees and
and prayed, while others looked their
slayer square in the face and died with
an oath on their lips. Among the nun
Der was a fragile boy about fifteen who
was chained to a very large man.
The boy was shot first and the mar
supported him in standing posture un
til he himself was shot, when they fel
to the ground together,
Those twelve men were hastily burict
in trench, dug upon the spot, bu
after the war they were eXhume,
by the federal authorities and removed
to the national cemetery at Chatta
nooga.
After the war Bob Jordan was sho
to death in Florida by weak, siclll.
young man upon whom he was impor
ing, Ben was stabbed to death in
barroom in Texas
The spot where the killing occurrct
is now in cultivation, but the old tire
still remains The land is part Of TIN
tract which Tom Daniels bought abou
two years ago for eighteen hundre
dollars and sold few days ago for ST
Thousand dollars.