The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1892-12-08

presaged nothing but danger for the Uniol
| men who had
| BEEN DRIVEN INTO THE MOUNTAINS.
A great deal of rain had fallen which had
raised the waters very high rendering it now
useless to start with company to Kentucky y
as we'll knew that we could not cross the in.
| termediate rivers.
Day after day was spent by the anxious
scouters patiently waiting for the waters ia
| subside. The month of March, with its cold
| bleak winds, had now arrived, and we had not
been able to get of, and some of the men whom
/ had agreed to conduct through to Kentucky V
had the misfortune of being captured and
| cruelty murdered by the rebels. The infamous
men who perpetrated these murders belonged
to Folks regiment, accompanied by some of the
Home Guard of Johnson County, who had
been ranging all over the country for con-
scripts, taking these Home Guards along with
| them for guides.
The names of the poor fellows who were
killed at the time referred to were James Tay-
| loT, Samuel Tatum, Alfred Kite, Alexander
Dugger, and David Shufield. They were all
together when the rebels discovered them. they
being on one side of the Watauga River and
the rebels on the other. When they first OBJ
served these men they at once dashed across
the river on their horses, and surrounded them
on small ridge Some of these men had arms,
which, however, were nothing more than a
pistol or a knife, which so enraged the rebel
demons that they rushed forward like blood
thirsty tigers and butchered these men in cold
blood, without pity and without mercy.
When the rebels first fired poor Taylor sur.
rendered but they continued to shoot at him,
while he begged them to treat him as pris-
oner; but instead of this, of these incar-
nate devils ran up and sienced him by
shooting the top of his head off with a musket.
Two of them then caught him by the feet and
pitched him violently over a large rock down
steep declivity, which bruised his body and
broke his limbs in a most shocking manner;
and not yet content with this display of bar
barity, they then threw great stones upon him.
They then took from his mangled person very
fne watch and
CoNsIDERA BILE SUN OF MONEY.
Tatum was killed nearly at the same time
that Taylor was he being first wounded in the
shoulder and then dispatched with great cru
city. The other three men ran some distance
while the rebels were shooting at them as fast
as they could. At length they surrendered
and commenced imploring for mercy, but they
might as well have asked for mercy from a
gang of bloodthirsty tigers as to ask it at the
hands of these devils in human shape. for they
were entirely needless of their piteous cries
and lamentations In vain these poor suppl.
eating prisoners told their reckless and infu-
riate captors that they had done nothing de-
serving DEATH and were only trying to keep
out of the Southern army. All their asser-
tions could not save them from the dreadful
doom to which their infexible tormentors at
once proceeded to assign them. Their hands
were tied behind them, and they were taken
TO bending sapling and hung. Some of the
rebel soldiers took the ropes which they car.
ried with them for the purpose of carrying for
age on their horses, and tied them around the
necks of their victims while others would hold
han nnfi sha fiaJf 70 lirv,h
then let them go. In this way all three of
these poor men were hung up to torture and
suffer thousand pangs of death, for they were
hung so not to break their necks, but rather
to be choked to death by degrees, which was
the refined and cruel mode of punishment
which was resorted to by these inhuman mur-
derers.
Two of the poor men begged hard for short
time 70 pray, but even this privilege was not
allowed them. The other one had been Sc.
verely wounded in the beginning of the
bloody affray, and was not able 10 talk. While
they were suspended by their necks, and be-
fore life was extinct, they were treated with
the greatest brutality by their reckless mur-
derers beating them with their guns. Capt.
Roby Brown, a citizen of johnson County,
Tenn, and one of the Home Guards in that
County enjoyed himself very much at
THIS MISERABLE FEAST OF BLOOD.
He had complete frolic around them while
they were struggling in all the agonies of ter
rible death. He knocked them with his gun
and would then turn them around violently,
telling them to face their partner" He would
say to them that he did not like to dance with
any person who would not face him, while they,
with tongues as black as ink protruding out of
their mouths and their eyes bursting from their
sockets exhibited a spectacle of horror which
was enough to strike terror to the very soul of
any person who was not perfectly hardened in
villaDy and crime and callous to the most
wretched displays of human suffering and
stepped in the deepest depths of infamy. But
cannot presume to say that this most desper-
ate and incorrigible scoundre, Roby Brown
was in the possession of human heart
The rebel soldiers remained where they hung
these men until they thought that they were
quite dead then left the place. Some kind cti- |
zens who had been watching the conduct OF the |
rebels not far of, Immediately hurried to the |
place where they were hanging and cut them !
down. hoping TO find that the spark of life had |
not fed from all of them; but they were all
perfectly dead and presented sight too shock
ing to behold. Some of their ribs were broken, |
and their bodies were badly bruised where the |
rebels had struck them with their guns. They |
were taken short distance from where they |
were hung and buried quite secretly and in |
very rough manner, as the Union citizens were |
afraid to make any noise or display while they
were committing them to their last resting
place
TAYLOR WAS GENTLEMAN.
he had been q recruiting officer in the Federal
army, and was captured by the rebels and put
in prison. He had escaped from the prison
where he had been confined and had come into
Carter County on his way back TO his COM
mand, and was waiting when he was captured
for the waters to fall SO that he might get
through the lines. On many dark night the
poor fellow came to me TO inquire how long
it would be until the rivers would get low
enough TO wade. The other men who were
killed were nice young men belonging to our
own mountains and would have made good
soldiers in the Federal army.
The massacre which have detailed in the
foregoing pages occurred ON the 23d day of
January, 1863
CHAPTER XIII.
On the night of the 231 of March, 1863 /
started to Kentucky with large company
We had been waiting for the waters TO fall
until We found that it was quite hazardous for
us to wait any longer, as the rebels were in hot
pursuit of US every day. and we began to think
that il would be we'll for us to run the risk
of being drowned on our way to the Federal
lines as to stay here any longer and run the
risk of being captured and hung. The night
was clear and the sky was decorated all over
with bright and lustrous stars The weather
was not very cold and my company was en-.
tiTely composed of young men from the sur.
rounding Counties. who. under the despotic
military laws of the so-called Southern Con-