close to their bodies. And to cause the poor fellows to travel faster, they pitched their bowie-knives into them.

After arriving at Piles's, the villains tortured them by piercing them with their bayonets, and cutting off pieces of flesh until life was nearly extinct. When they tired of this, Champ Furguson despatched William Delk by actually hacking him to pieces with his bowie-knife; and his comrades killed the others with their guns and pistols. They had stripped them after having arrived at Piles's house, and all these tortures were inflicted upon them in a state of nudity, in the presence of Piles's family. The posts and fence around the yard were smeared with blood, which was seen for weeks after, showing that they compelled their unfortunate victims to run around the yard while they prosecuted their murderous work.

Thence Furguson went to Elam Huddleston's, a wellknown Union man, who, seeing him coming, fled into his house and fastened the door; but, after exchanging some twenty shots with Furguson and his bandits, was at last wounded and captured.

Furguson immediately, with fiendish malignity, ripped Huddleston open, and then the savage brute cut his heart out, alleging as an excuse for his brutality that Huddleston was acting the 'possum.

From this he went to the dwelling of a man named Rodgers, whom he found sick in bed. He told Rodgers that he had come to kill him. His little son hearing this, dropped on his knees, and begged in the most piteous manner that he would not kill his father.

His petition, which, one would think, might have moved the heart of any man, made no impression on such a brute as Furguson, and he levelled his gun and shot the sick man in his bed.

The boy then began to cry aloud, when Furguson turned toward him with a pistol and shot him through the head, in the presence of the family. This child was but ten years of age.

He then robbed them of an amount of money, took some horses, and left them to weep over their dead husband and father, son, and brother.*

ASSAULT ON TWO AGED UNION MEN IN EAST TENNESSEE.

WASHINGTON, May 23d, 1864. Dear Sir: **** In the early part of March of this year, as our corps (the Ninth) was resting at Moose Creek, in East Tennessee, I stopped over night at a farm-house. In the evening the old man, speaking of the rebels and their cruelties, said to me, that they had burned one of his barns, driven off his cattle, burned his fences, and told him that if he made any fuss about it they would shoot him. One of the officers told his daughter, a young woman of eighteen, when she tried to save the barn, that if she did not keep quiet he would turn her over to his men.

The old man told me that when our army retreated from Moose Creek, a few weeks before, the rebels tried to kill an aged neighbor of his, residing a short distance from his place. The next day I called on the neighbor, and found him in bed with his head bound up. With great difficulty could he speak. In the course of our conversation, he told me that when our army retreated from Moose Creek, a few weeks previous, the rebels

* General J. B. Rodgers.

came down from Morristown to his house, and dismounting, called him out of his house, and asked him several questions about the way our army had retreated; the number of men in our command; and if we had any artillery, &c. The old man endeavored to evade the questions. The officer seeing this, became excited, and insisted upon an answer. The old man becoming irritated, plainly told them that he would not give them any information. Hearing this, the officer drew his revolver and deliberately shot him in the mouth, evidently with the intention to kill him. The old man stated that for some days he was not expected to live. I have heard of a great many cases of rebel cruelties from my regimental commanders, but not having been able, through sickness, to join my regiment until the latter part of December, 1863, and not seeing them myself, I will not mention them. Your friend, &c.

ALFRED O. BROOKS,

Late Captain Twenty-ninth Massachusetts Volunteers, Ninth Army Corps, U. S. A.

ASSAULT UPON MR. JOHNSON, OF CLINTON
COUNTY, TENNESSEE.

MR. JOHNSON, living in Clinton county, Tennessee, was brutally assailed by that blood-hound, Champ Furguson, on the day of the murder of Mr. Lewis Pierce. After Pierce had been killed, Champ and gang entered. Mr. Johnson's house, cursing and yelling. Surrounding

Mr. Johnson, they drew their pistols and knives to kill him, but his wife and daughter clung around him and pushed the villains off: when they made an attempt to

kill him, they kept them off until one of the gang, or some friend of Mr. Johnson, cried out that Captain Beckett's forces (United States) were coming. The cowardly miscreants hearing this, ran to their horses, and mounting them, galloped away as fast as their horses could carry them. The life of Mr. Johnson was saved. In a short time, however, the cowards sent word to Mr. Johnson, that they intended to visit him again, and kill him and his family, for no d-d Yankee should live in the country. The cause of the would-be murder was, that Mr. Johnson was born in Connecticut. He was a quiet and good man, and was respected as such by all who knew him. He had lived in Clinton county many years. We mention this case, because it is the only one in the long catalogue that has escaped speedy death, when once caught by Furguson. We believe Mr. Johnson has since moved his family North, and thus saved his life.*

MURDER OF JESSE BRIGHT AND OTHERS.

carried off to

IN the month of April, 1862, an old man named Jesse Bright, aged sixty years, with two sons and two nephews, living in Johnson county, Tennessee, were arrested by a company of Colonel Foulke's Cavalry, composed of Tennesseeans and North Carolinians, and be tried for disloyalty to the Confederacy. The old man had been arrested once before, taken to Knoxville, Tennessee, and tried, but no evidence being produced against him, they were compelled to release him. When the

Dr. J. D. Hall, of Tennessee.

cavalry men arrived in Ash county with their prisoners, a groggery-keeper, no doubt a brother murderer, proposed to treat them to eight gallons of brandy if they would hang the old man, his sons and nephews, without a chance of a trial. They eagerly accepted the offer, and the five unfortunate men were hung to the first tree without further ceremony. *

SUFFERINGS OF UNION MEN IN EAST
TENNESSEE.

DURING the early part of the year 1862, the rebel authorities of Knoxville, Tennessee, issued an order prohibiting all the Unionists from leaving that section of the State under penalty of death, shooting, bayoneting, and sabring all those who attempted to do so; but promised a pardon to all those who had escaped, if they would

return.

Yet they sent to Mrs. Maynard, wife of the Hon. Horace Maynard, ex-member of Congress, a notice to leave her property and home in Knoxville within thirtysix hours, and not to return under severe penalty. The wife of the Hon. Andrew Johnson, then Military Governor of that State, very ill with consumption, received a similar notice. Mrs. Johnson had not seen her • husband for nearly two years, and it was thought that she could not survive the execution of the order.

* Colonel R. T. Crawford.