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.

The Day the Civil War came to Albany, KY, pt. 3 (The Death of Champ Ferguson)

By the spring of 1862 relatively few major military engagements had taken place in Kentucky and Tennessee, yet the Cumberland Mountains, especially along the border, was filled with violence. Roaming bands of outlaws took advantage of the war to steal whatever they wanted with no regard for their victims’ politics. Most of Ferguson family had sided with the Union at the beginning of the war, but Champ, who was known for his rowdyish, fighting ways, as mentioned in part two of this series, went with the Confederacy. Because of that, he moved his family from pro-Union Clinton County to pro-Confederate White County at the onset of the war. Within a few months he had formed his own guerilla band.

Folks were so divided over which side of the war to take that even idle rumors questioning a man’s alignment could lead to his death. Champ had also heard rumors that soldiers and homeguardsmen who had trained at Camp Dick Robinson, the Union army's training center near Stanford, were out to kill him and he swore to get them first. He routinely came back home to kill those who favored the Union. In most instances he would discuss their assocation with the North before killing him.

Some of the killings were legitimate acts of combat, while others were nothing more than cold-blooded murder. His first victim was his neighbor, and my great, great, great-uncle, William Frogge, whom he had heard was planning to kill him. William had enlisted in Company D of the 12th Kentucky Regiment at Camp Dick Robinson, but had been sent home with the measles. His wife, Ester, was peeling apples at the door when Champ rode up on the morning of Nov. 1, 1861. Because she had known him since childhood, she suspected no ill will and allowed him to enter the house. Champ accused William of contracting his illness at the camp. Frogge tried to deny the claim, but Ferguson shot him in the mouth and then through the brain. The last shot, he said, was to "make him die easy.” William, age 26, and his wife, Esther, age 20, had only been married a year and a half. Their son, James, was six months old.

The murder of Frogge and others, including my 3rd great-grandfather Elisha Koger (Frogge's brother-in-law), would lead the entire population of Clinton County to turn against him, so Champ had no choice but to take his family and flee Kentucky.

On February 18, 1864, Union forces took control of Sparta, Tennessee, where Champ had relocated to. But by August his home had been burned, so Ferguson and his comrades headed south, where they joint forces with Major General John Breckinridge in southwest Virginia. It was in Emory, Virginia, that Ferguson committed his most infamous murder. On October 2nd, Confederate forces he was among were attacked by a Federal cavalry at Saltville, Virginia. The Confederates put up a spirited resistance, and after a sharp fight, the Federals withdrew. The next morning, Ferguson and his lieutenant, Raine Philpot, entered a hospital near Emory and Henry College, where Federal wounded and prisoners had been taken. Ferguson shot Lieutenant Elza Smith of the 13th Kentucky Cavalry, along with as many as seven wounded prisoners with the 5th U.S. Colored Cavalry.

Up Highway 84 and left on Plum Creek Road in White County, Tennessee, stands the old Bradley home, where in 1865 Champ Ferguson surrendered to Union troops at the conclusion of the Civil War. The Bradley's were on the side of the Confederacy and sympathized with Champ Ferguson, as did many in White County. J.P. Bradley was killed inside the home while trying to defend his daughter, Dee, from being captured by Union troops during the war. She was a Confederate spy who often rode with Champ. It is said that J.P.'s wife, Nancy, fenced stolen goods for Champ at the home, and that J.P. and Nancy's son, J.P., Jr. also rode with Champ and committed many atrocities with him.

Champ surrendered under a verbal promise of being pardoned for his actions. He was arrested on May 24th and sent to prison in Nashville, but instead of receiving a pardon he was convicted of murdering 53 people, although he claimed at his trial that he had personally killed over one hundred men, all in self-defense.

Champ's high profile trial gained national attention. Esther Frogge and Nancy Koger were two of those who testified against him and then watched as he was hanged on October 20, 1865. Ferguson's last request was that his body be removed to White County to be "buried in good Rebel soil." He is buried at France Cemetery on Highway 84, not far from where his home was.