Who Were Champ Ferguson's Victims?

Following the Civil War, a military commission met in Nashville on July 11, 1865 for the trial of Champ Ferguson, the most notorious of the many guerilla fighters who fought to control the Upper Cumberland Plateau region during the war.

Two charges were placed against him. The first charge was being a guerilla and organizing and associating with a band of lawless men, and being their leader, without any lawful authority or commission from any military power, and that he continuously carried on a predatory and barbarous guerilla warfare, committing many acts of cruelty and inhumanity, becoming a notorious murderer, robber and freebooter in Clinton County, Kentucky and Fentress County, Tennessee, and in the neighboring counties of these states from the year 1861 to May of 1865.

The second charge was murder. Fifty-three murdered victims were named in the indictment. Who were they and what were the dates and occasions surrounding their murders?

1. Nov. 1, 1861 - William Frogg, age 22, Clinton County, 12th Kentucky Regiment, Co. D (my third great uncle). He was home sick in bed with the measles when Ferguson confronted him about being at the Union Army's training camp, Camp Dick Robinson, near Standford. In Champ's world, many of his once long time friends and neighbors had become his enemies. He despised what the training camp stood for. Regardless of who or what they were, he was compelled to target and eliminate those who had been there. ‘I reckon you caught the measles at Camp Dick Robinson,’ Ferguson said just before he shot him dead. Findagrave 217632875

2. Dec. 4, 1861 - Reuben Wood, age 56, Clinton County. Ferguson shot him twice at his home near Albany on Dec. 1st. He died three days later. Findagrave 69578994

3-5. April 1862 - Joseph Stover, William Johnson and Lewis Pierce, near Henry Johnson's house on Wolf River in Clinton County. Ferguson shot and stabbed Pvt. Stover of 1st Ky Cavalry. He chased Johnson and shot at him, causing him to fall over a steep cliff resulting in his death. He shot Pierce.

6. April 1, 1862 - Fount Zachary, age 18, Fentress County. Fount surrendered the shotgun he was carrying, but Ferguson shot him anyway. Almost as soon as he hit the ground, Ferguson was on him with his Bowie knife, and Fount became the first of four Zachary males to fall to Ferguson. Findagrave 149433579

7. May 2, 1862 - Alexander Huff, Sr., age 51, at Pall Mall. He shot him in the head at the old Conrad Pile home. Findagrave 30015273

8. June 1, 1862 - Elisha Koger, age 32, at Oak Grove (my 3rd great-grandfather). He was shot over 30 times outside his home, not far from the Oak Grove Church Cemetery. Findagrave 59105584

9. June 1, 1862 - James Zachary, age 48, Fentress County. Fount Zachary's uncle. He was a magistrate. Findagrave 110262343

10. Aug. 27, 1862 - Joseph Beck, age 45, Poplar Mountain at Duvall Valley Findagrave 31965322

11-14. Oct. 5, 1862 - John Williams, William David Delk, John Crabtree, unknown African-American girl, near the home of Mrs Piles in Fentress County. They were taken from John Huff's mother's home in Fentress County, tied up, removed about a hundred yards away and found dead in a horse lot at Mrs. Piles' home. Williams was shot in the head. Delk was shot once through his chest, and a bayonet ran through it. Crabtree was cut up all over. The unknown negro girl was cut up into pieces in a barbarous manner.

15. Oct. 28, 1862 - Washington Tabor, age 55, Clinton County. He was taken outside his home near Snow and shot. Findagrave 43940663

16. Nov. 1862 - Dr. William McGlasson, Cumberland Co. He was told to run or be killed. He did but was killed anyway, plus robbed and stripped of his clothes. Ferguson denied this.

17-19. Jan. 1, 1863 - Peter and Allan Zachary of Pickett County and Pvt. Elam Huddleston. It happened at the home of Capt. Rufus Dowdy in Russell County. The home was under construction. The upstairs had but a few planks on the joists. Huddleston was shot from an upstairs window and was believed to be dead when he fell to the ground floor. Ferguson killed Peter Zachary and Allan Zachary was killed by the others under Ferguson's command. Elam Huddleston Findagrave 810673. Huddleston was at the Battle of Mill Springs and is buried at the national cemetery. The Zachary's were from Pickett County.

20-39. Feb. 22 1864 - Nineteen unknown soldiers, TN 5th Cavalry. Operations against guerrillas at Johnson’s Mills and Calfkiller River in White County, TN. During this time frame, Ferguson was accused of murdering (unknown) 19 men of the U.S. 5th TN Cavaly.

40-52. Oct. 4, 1864 - Twelve Federal Army soldiers, plus two colored soldiers, all unknown. The First Battle of Saltville (October 2, 1864) was fought over an important saltworks near that town in Virginia. The participants included one of the few black cavalry units. The murder of captured and wounded black soldiers after the battle has been called the Saltville Massacre.” Champ Ferguson fought in this battle. Two of the charges accused him of murdering surrendered United States Colored Troops after the battle had ended. Thomas Mays’ 1995 book, "The Saltville Massacre," recalls the testimony of Pvt. Harry Shocker, a wounded prisoner who watched Ferguson calmly walk about the battlefield killing both white and black prisoners. Champ denied killing any black troops at Saltville.

53. Oct. 7th, 1864 - Lt. Eliza Smith, a Clinton County resident, lay wounded at Emory and Henry College Hospital at Emory, Virginia, when Ferguson burst into the room, approached his bed and placed his gun a foot from the helpless Smith’s forehead. After three misfires, the gun discharged and Smith lay dead with a bullet through his head. Lt. Smith is buried at Knoxville National Cemetery. His wife, Lucy Staton Smith, is buried at Dr. Smith Cemetery in Clinton County. Findagrave 2972

Even though he was charged with killing fifty-three people, Ferguson boasted of killing over a hundred. He said those he had killed were seeking his life and that he was justified by killing in self defense.

He said, "I am yet and will die a Rebel … I killed a good many men, of course, but I never killed a man who I did not know was seeking my life. … I had always heard that the Federals would not take me prisoner, but would shoot me down wherever they found me. That is what made me kill more than I otherwise would have done. I repeat that I die a Rebel out and out, and my last request is that my body be removed to White County, Tennessee, and be buried in good Rebel soil."

The trial ended with Ferguson's conviction on Sept. 26, 1865. He was hanged on Oct. 20, 1865. Per his request, he was buried at France Cemetery, north of Sparta, TN, off Highway 84.

Ellison Leslie had the only Carpenter's Shop in Town

My 3rd great-grandfather, Ellison Leslie, died in Albany, Kentucky on this day in 1917.

Born in 1822, Ellison was a carpenter. In 1892, the Albany Banner newspaper reported that, while there were several carpenters in the county, there was but one carpenter shop in town, and it was owned by Ellison Leslie.

After the Clinton County Courthouse was burned by guerillas during the civil war, the fiscal court paid him $200 to put a roof on the new one, and for making the windows, shutters and door shutters (see artist Jack Amonett's drawing here).

Ellison and his wife, Adaline Smith Leslie, are buried at Albany Cemetery. Ellison was the brother of Kentucky Governor Preston H. Leslie. His granddaughter, Della Craig Means, was the mother of my grandmother, Dimple Speck.

lWhen he died at the age 95, "Uncle Ellison," as he was known, was celebrated as being the oldest male resident in Clinton County.

The Killing of Joseph Beck

Around 9:00 a.m. on or about August 27, 1862, Champ Ferguson and his men returned to the home of my third great-grandfather, Elisha Koger, whom they had brutally murdered almost thirteen weeks earlier, on June 1st. Ferguson called out from beyond the fence that surrounded the home. No doubt, hearing his voice terrified Elisha's widow, Nancy. After all, Ferguson and his men had shot her husband more than thirty times. His body was a bloody mess by the time the shooting stopped. He took his last breath lying in the arms of his daughter, Sarah, who was covered in his blood.

Nancy sent her sister, Jane, to the door. Ferguson wanted to know if any other armed men had passed by that way that morning. Jane replied she had seen no one. As he turned to leave, Ferguson told her he and his band had killed a man near there. "I don't know him myself, but some of the men say it is Joe Beck," he said. Ferguson told her that Beck's hat and coat were lying in a little drain beside the road and his body was lying about thirty yards from there. He also said he had taken a Colt rifle from Beck after his death. The location was about a mile from the Koger home in the Oak Grove Community of Clinton County, Ky near the top of Poplar Mountain. Nancy, Jane and a young man who was at the Koger home, Marion Purcell, walked up the road and found the body just as Ferguson had described. Nancy would soon deliver the news to his wife, Elizabeth.

During Ferguson's trial at the end of the Civil War, both Nancy and Jane recounted what they saw when they found Beck's body, but no one outside the victim, Ferguson and his men witnessed the event. Even after his conviction, in interviews with reporters where he gave details about all of his killings, reporters forgot to ask about the killing of Joseph Beck, and Ferguson did not offer any details.

In his book, "Cumberland Blood: Champ Ferguson's Civil War" (2008), Thomas D. Mays claims that Beck had been a daring Union soldier who had dogged Colonel John Hunt Morgan's command and showed no fear of Ferguson or his men, who were part of the forces under Morgan, but that his luck had run out when he was surprised on the road that day. I wonder about that because there is nothing known about his military stance or activities (at least I haven't seen anything), except that the army ruled that Joseph was killed in the line of duty, which qualified his widow, Elizabeth, for a pension. Beck, who was born in Wayne County in 1817, had enlisted at Camp Hoskins in Pulaski County on Oct. 15, 1861 and was assigned to Capt. Payne's company G, 12th regiment of the Kentucky Infantry.

Joseph Beck's brother-in-law, Jesse Rector, and his wife, Nancy, were the parents of Daniel Webster Clay Rector, whose wife, Laura, was the sister of my great grandmother, Hettie Huffaker Frost.

The Day the Civil War Came to Albany, KY, Pt. 2 (The Making of Champ Ferguson)

When the Civil War finally did come to Albany, word spread quickly throughout the area of Southern Kentucky and Northern Tennessee. Allegiances were soon declared. "Everybody of military capability was expected to go to war," wrote Cordell Hull. "It really did not make so much difference which side he fought for. He had the privilege of selecting his own side, but he could not lie around the community, shirking and dodging. He had to go out and fight."

With the military-capable soldiers gone off to war, the region was left vulnerable to guerilla warfare. Despite the presence of home guards, which were left behind to defend their counties, the area became a gloomy no-man’s land, where bands of armed men from both sides roamed freely, spreading violence and bloodshed, ravaging homes and farms, stealing horses, livestock, food, money and anything else they could get their hands on.

"The land was full of robbery and murder," wrote David Sullins in his book, "Seventy Years in Dixie." "Bands of the worst men seized the opportunity by scouring the country by night, calling quiet old farmers to their doors and shooting them down in cold blood. It was the reign of terror, war at every man’s door, neighbor against neighbor. Neither property nor life was safe by day or night."

An incident involving twin brothers, Alexander and Floyd Evans, and their younger brother, Stokley, of what would eventually become Pickett County, came to play a major role in most of the Confederate guerilla warfare that took place in this area. It just so happened their sister, Amanda, was married to a cousin of Union guerilla Tinker Dave Beaty.

The incident I am speaking of began one day in the fall 1857, when the three brothers made their way from Fentress County across the state line to Clinton County to purchase hogs from Ben, Jim, and their brother...Samuel "Champ" Ferguson. He had been born in 1821 near Elliot's Crossroads, the main road leading into Clinton County from Tennessee (intersection of highways 969 and 1076 at Maupin). Floyd left a note for payment with the Fergusons and arranged a meeting in Albany to complete the transaction. When the Fergusons went to collect the money, Alex told them that Floyd had skipped town with the money. Champ and another man filed a lawsuit against Floyd.

As time went on and Floyd still had not been seen or heard from, the Ferguson's got it in their heads that the Evans’ were pulling an elaborate hoax to get out of debt. They decided that whenever Stokley or Alex were around they would take their horse as payment and eventually caught Alex in Clinton County and stole his horse.

Champ dropped the lawsuit filed in Clinton County Court on July 5, 1858 after Floyd had returned and secured his debt. Around the same time, Alex filed charges against Champ for his horse thievery. Alex and Stokely were said to be furious with Champ for stealing their horses and trying to claim it was a repossession by a creditor, when Floyd was the one who owed the money. They began speaking about it in public, which Ferguson took as threats on his life.

As fate would have it, on August 12, 1858, Ferguson and the Evans brothers all showed up at a camp meeting on Lick Creek in Fentress County. When Ferguson got on his horse to leave, the Evans' began throwing rocks at him. As he rode off, they gave chase. Realizing his young mare could not outrun their horses, Ferguson dismounted and took off on foot. Floyd Evans came up, still throwing rocks, and Ferguson picked them up and threw them back.

About that time, Constable Jim Reed rode up and when he tried to arrest Ferguson for stealing the horse, a fight broke out that resulted in Champ stabbing the constable to death. The story goes that Fentress County Justice of Peace James Zachary charged Champ with killing Reed, but made a deal with him that he would be released if he agreed to help the Confederacy. Champ, of course, agreed. It could also have been that Champ wanted revenge on the Evans' and Taylor's, who had strong Union connections, and chose to fight for the Confederacy for that reason.

After the war, Champ Ferguson became one of only two Rebels to be tried and convicted of war crimes. He was charged with fifty-three counts of murder, although he claimed he killed over 100 soldiers and pro-Union civilians. He was hanged on October 20, 1865 in Nashville.

During the war, rumors abounded that Ferguson commited his atrocities to get revenge against the Union for the raping of his wife, Martha, and daughter, Ann, by Union soldiers, who supposedly then stripped them naked and made them run through the streets of Albany. However, during his testimony, Ferguson dismissed the story as untrue. There was also the rumor that he sought revenge on the Union for the murder of his son, but in reality Ferguson’s only son and his first wife, Eliza Smith, both died from disease in 1845. The tent meeting and subsequent encounters with the Evans brothers is what Ferguson himself testified to in court as being the real reason why he entered the war.

By the way, Stokley Evans was shot and killed by unknown Confederate troops on August 3, 1862. Since his wife had just previously died during childbirth, their orphaned children who remained were sent to live with his sister, Amanda, and her husband, Pleas. On a personal note, just after the war, she became a member of my church, Clear Fork Baptist Church, but in 1968 she and fifty other members left to organize Beech Bottom Baptist Church.

On a more personal note, Pleas Beaty (short for Pleasant) was the nephew of Union guerilla Tinker Dave Beaty's father, George, who was my fourth great grandfather.

The Guerrilla Hunters: Irregular Conflicts during the Civil War

A new book was published this past April entitled, "The Guerrilla Hunters: Irregular Conflicts during the Civil War" by Brian D. McKnight, Barton A. Myers and others. The subject of the book is explained in its title.

One chapter, entitled "Who is Tinker Dave Beaty, Hunting Guerilla Social Networks" (author Aaron Astor) gives great insight into why men joined Union Guerilla David Beaty's Independent Scouts.

The title of the chapter is a reference to a letter written on March 21, 1863 from Brigadier General George Crook to General James A. Garfield, Chief of Staff, Army of the Cumberland, Murfreesboro, where Crook asks the question, "Who is Tinker Dave Beaty?” (See the letter below) In the book, the authors present two reasons why men joined the independent scouts: kinship and revenge. This book is well worth reading. It is available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Why would men want to join the independent scouts? David Beaty of Fentress County, Tennessee organized the unit early in 1862 in Fentress County. It was apparently never mustered into the regular U.S. Service, but Major General Ambrose E. Burnside authorized it to act as scouts, and operate in the regions of Overton and Fentress Counties in combating Confederate guerrillas. Members never drew any pay, but were supplied with arms and ammunition by the Federal authorities. It was first mentioned in the Official Records in a letter from Brigadier General George Crook, at Carthage, dated March 21, 1863, admitting his inability to establish a line of couriers due to the numerous bands of Confederate cavalry and guerrillas operating in his area. He inquired “Who is Tinker Dave Beatty?”

Confederate reports spoke of skirmishes with “Beatty’s band of robbers” and Pickett County's J. D. Hale, writing from Albany, on December 5, 1864 about the presence of “rebels” in the area, stated “Beatty knows of none in Fentress County.”

'Revenge'
Beaty, the Union guerilla, and Champ Ferguson, a Confederate guerilla, waged a bitter guerrilla warfare in the mountainous regions of the Upper Cumberland country throughout the war. Many residents, members of home guards in Clinton, Fentress and Overton counties, were murdered by guerillas on both sides. Ferguson and Beaty both claimed it was kill or be killed. Naturally, those residents that remained wanted to see the guerilla activity stopped. My maternal third great-grandfather, Elijah Koger, was one of the residents who tried to stop the guerilla warfare by arranging a peace agreement between both sides. While an agreement was reached, it was quickly broken by Ferguson. Koger's involvement in trying to bring peace to the region cost him his life, as he was murdered by Ferguson and his men at his home in the Oak Grove community of Clinton County.

'Kinship'
Tinker Dave Beaty was my maternal third great-uncle. His sister, Matilda, and her husband, John Boles, were my third great-grandparents. "The Guerrilla Hunters: Irregular Conflicts during the Civil War" mentions this and also refers to other relatives of mine who were members of the independent scouts.

My great, great-grandfather, George Boles, who after the war moved from the East Fork of Fentress County to Clinton County, was an independent scout, as was his brother, John Boles, Jr., who married his first cousin, Matilda Beaty, daughter of Tinker Dave Beaty's brother, Fleming. George and John Jr.'s sister, Mary Ann, married Thomas Allred, who was also an independent scout.

Tinker Dave's son, James, married Elendor Jane Smith, George Boles' sister-in-law, whose father, David, and brother, Ahijah, were murdered by Confederate guerillas, possibly Champ Ferguson's men. David, Ahijah and another son, Asa, were also members of the independent scouts.

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At the conclusion of the war, Ferguson was arrested for the murders of 53 people. He was found guilty and was hung on October 20, 1865.

"I am yet and will die a Rebel … I killed a good many men, of course, but I never killed a man who I did not know was seeking my life. … I had always heard that the Federals would not take me prisoner, but would shoot me down wherever they found me. That is what made me kill more than I otherwise would have done." - Champ Ferguson, after being found guilty.

Tinker Dave Beaty testified at Ferguson's trial and admitted to killing 25 people himself. But, his side won the war and he was never charged.

Carthage, Tenn., March 21, 1863

Gen. James A. Garfield, Chief of Staff, Army of the Cumberland, Murfreesborough:

I cannot send daily reports, as I have only a few horses, and it takes all of them to escort the mail down one day and back the next. I cannot establish a courier line unless I have cavalry to keep the enemy from coming on this of the river. The rebels taken all the horses from this section of the country, except old brood-mares, fillies, &c. Were my men mounted on these, in any movement requiring expedition, I would have to dismount and go afoot. I was never completely beat out before, but I have to acknowledge that I can do nothing against this cavalry with my infantry. I cannot entrap them in any possible way, for they have their spies and scouts all over this country, and I can make no movement without their being apprised of it before I can get to them with my infantry, and then, if it is not to their advantage to fight me, they get out of the way. They have no baggage or trains to detain them from making rapid movements.

I have seventy days' complete rations here, 150 rounds of ammunition for small-arms, and 200 rounds for battery.

I sent boat up the river yesterday, 43 miles; returned this evening, bringing some 500 bushels of corn and 600 bushels of wheat. The boats were attacked last night or this morning by several hundred cavalry. They did no damage. There are no supplies on the south side of the river amounting to anything.

Who is "Tinker Dave" Beatty?

What amount of supplies shall I accumulate here? I can get no answers to my dispatches to you. The boats leave in the morning for Nashville.

Respectfully,
George Crook, Brig.-Gen.

Tinker Dave Beaty, left, and Brig. Gen. George Crook