MURDER OF WILLIAM JOHNSON.

WILLIAM JOHNSON, an inoffensive Union man living in Fentress county, Tennessee, was brutally murdered by that fiend, Champ Furguson, and a band of rebel villains made up from his own and a part of Bledsoe's company of murderers. Mr. Johnson was at work in a field short distance from his residence, when he heard the click of some guns. He raised his head, and saw these marauders standing with their guns pointing at him. Knowing his chance for escape was small, he stood still, when the fiends fired at him, without any order or offer of surrender. After the first volley, he started to run, and was pursued, the fiends firing at him and wounding him severely. He ran toward the river, thinking that if he gained it he might escape; but before he reached the river the murderers had wounded him so severely that he could not keep his balance, and fell over the cliff just as the gang came up. In a short time the neighbors came out and looked for the body, and found it mangled in a most shocking manner. It was taken up and buried secretly, his friends being convinced that if Champ should be informed that they had buried the body of this inoffensive man, they would share the same fate.*

ASSASSINATION OF MR. HOUGH.

MR. ALEXANDER HOUGH, of Fentress county, Tennessee, a poor, inoffensive, but strong Union man, had by his frequent remarks against secession become a very

* Dr. J. D. Hale, of Tennessee.

dangerous man in the estimation of the rebels, and they determined to put him out of the way. Some of the men belonging to one Bledsoe's company, called on that ever-ready assassinator, Champ Furguson, and requested him to lead an expedition against the life of Mr. Alexander Hough. Champ and his murderous associates immediately started for the victim's house.

Arriving there, they instantly surrounded it, so that escape was impossible. The bandit and a few of his. picked men then entered the house, and found Mr. Hough mending his shoes. They arrested him. His family were terror-stricken, knowing what his fate was likely to be. They plead for his life. The villains assured them that they intended him no harm-they would keep him a prisoner a few days and then send him home.

After securing him, they started off, and had proceeded but a short distance, when the cry of "Shoot him!" "Shoot him!" was raised, and several made an attempt to do so, but their gallant leader stopped them, saying that they were still in sight of Hough's family. After travelling some distance further, they halted at old Piles's place, on Wolf Run, for water. Mr. Hough was left standing alone in the yard, when one of the fiends, seizing the opportunity, shot him in the arm, tearing it nearly off. The old man then sunk down and begged for water. They told him he could not have it. Rallying himself, he then got up and started for the spring. The whole band fired at him, two shots taking effect in his body. He fell, but struggling, gained his knees, and plead with them to send for his family, that he might see them before he died. This was refused the dying man. He besought them to give him a few moments for prayer. Champ cried out, "No, d-n you, this is no time to

pray!" and turning to his men, he commanded them to kill him.

Two of Mrs. Piles's daughters ran up to the dying man and raised his head, regardless of the balls that were flying about them. Champ, seeing that they were rescuing him, rushed forward, and pointing his pistol at the head of the dying man, fired, saying-"Now you can have him !”*

SHOOTING PRISONERS.

ON Saturday, April 2d, 1863, as three Union soldiers were stopping on the farm of a loyal citizen in Louisiana, within three miles of the Union lines, they were attacked by a party of guerrillas, and forced to surrender. They were then tied together, and marched a few miles off, when the guerrillas held a consultation, and decided to murder them by shooting.

The soldiers, upon being informed of their doom, attempted to escape, when they were fired upon by the guerrillas, and one of them was instantly killed, three balls having penetrated his body. The other two succeeded in making their escape. The murdered man's name was Cyrus McKey. A squad of cavalry were sent out to rescue the body of the murdered man, and when they found it it had been horribly mutilated after death. Brigadier-General Ransom, hearing of this abominable outrage, issued the following order:

HEADQUARTERS, Department THIRTEENTH ARMY CORPS,

Natchitoches, Louisiana, April 2d, 1864.

GENERAL ORDERS, No. 11.-Charles Diggs, and Lane, citizens residing near the camp, having to-day

* Dr. J. D. Hale, of Tennessee.

murdered, in cold blood, Private Cyrus McKey, Company I Twenty-fourth Iowa Infantry Volunteers, and escaped by flight, it is therefore ordered that the dwellings of said Diggs and Lane be burned, and that all property on their respective plantations, which may be of use to the army, be seized and turned over to the Quartermaster or Subsistence Department, for the use of this army.

Captain Bacon, commanding detachment Eighteenth New York Cavalry, will detail a company to report to Captain J. W. Martin, Company I Twenty-fourth Iowa Infantry, to-morrow morning at 8 o'clock, who will execute this order.

The commanding officer of the Forty-eighth Ohio Infantry Volunteers will cause the men of his regiment, who were with private McKey, to be punished severely for violation of orders in leaving camp without authority. By order of

C. E. DICKEY,

Brigadier General T. E. G. RANSOM.

Captain, and A. A. G.

MURDER OF MR. WILLIAM FROGG.

A SHORT time after the rebel forces were driven from Kentucky, in 1863, Mr. William Frogg, who had been from his family some time waiting upon his sick brother, at Summersett, started for his home. Upon his arrival some of his friends told him that it was dangerous for him to stay at home, and advised him to leave, as that notorious cut-throat, Champ Furguson, was out on a hunt for Union men, and had threatened to kill him if

he was caught. One of Furguson's men, Harry Sublity, hearing that Frogg had been advised to leave home, called and told him to stay at home, and he would see that he was not injured. Frogg answered him that he should have to stay at home, as he was sick, and could not lie out in the wet and cold. After the traitor was satisfied that Mr. Frogg would remain at home, he left the house, and hunting Champ up, informed him how he had succeeded in decoying Mr. Frogg into the trap he had set for him. The next day Champ, with Vest Gwinn and Sublity, visited the house, Champ entering and the other two standing outside. Champ asked Mrs. Frogg, in a friendly manner, where her husband was. She, not thinking he had come to murder him, pointed to the bed upon which Mr. Frogg and his little child were lying, saying that he was there; at the same time asking Champ to take a seat, and eat some fruit. "No," answered the bandit, turning toward the bed,. "I have come to kill Frogg," at the same time ordering him to get up. "I can't," said Frogg; "don't kill me!" His wife, hearing the conversation, commenced begging and imploring the fiend not to kill her husband. Champ, hearing this appeal, turned and went to the door, when Gwinn motioned to him to return. He went back and deliberately shot Mr. Frogg, who sprang up in the bed. The bloodthirsty scoundrel then fired at him again, when Frogg fell back on the bed. This done, the fiend went out of the house, and joining his associates left the premises. Immediately after their departure, Mrs. Frogg started for assistance, and proceeded a short distance when she fell, fainting. The neighbors, hearing the shooting, soon gathered and found Mr. Frogg quite dead, and the little infant lying by his side covered with its father's blood.*

* Dr. J. D. Hale, of Tennessee.