USA > Tennessee > Bradley County > History of the rebellion in Bradley County, East Tennessee > Part 21
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CHAPTER XXIII.
MURDER OF THE TWO CARTERS.
THE subjects of this chapter were not related to Mr. F. A. Carter, whose history has just been given. These were Levi and Robert Carter, father and son, having lived in the north part of the county for many years.
Mr. Levi Carter, the father, was a blacksmith, was be- tween fifty and sixty years of age-an exhorter, or local preacher in the Methodist Church, and had always borne a good moral and Christian character. Robert, the son, was a young man, having a wife and two children, and was a quiet and respectable citizen. Both were strong Union men, but not of that extravagant zeal nor abusive deportment justly to render them offensive to the rebels ; nor had they ever been guerrillas or bushwhackers, as accused by the rebels. Possibly and even probably, they had acted as pilots to Union refugees escaping from the county. Even in this, however, they had never been ex- tensively engaged.
These statements reveal the full extent to which these men had offended against the Confederacy, and the only real causes of complaint which their immediate rebel neighbors could raise against them.
On the 27th of September, 1863, Mr. Carter and his son were met in the road in the ninth district by five mounted rebel bushwhackers. Four of these bushwhackers were well known to the Carters, having been raised, perhaps, in the county. Their names were James and George Roberts, brothers, Felix Purviance, and Polk Runnions. The other-the fifth-was supposed by many to be a man by the name of Tenor. He called himself the "Texan Ranger." James Roberts, the leader of the company, was known to be one of the most lawless and bloodthirsty men in the country.
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When the two parties met, the Carters, recognizing the Roberts boys, and perhaps the others, and knowing that they would at least be arrested, attempted to flee. James Roberts drew his revolver and fired, wounding old Mr. Carter severely in the arm, bringing him down, or at least checking his speed so that he was soon taken. Young Roberts was also soon taken, when both were conducted to the house of Esq. Stanfield near by.
Old Mr. Carter was severely wounded, and having bled considerable was becoming faint, and requested to lie down. This was refused, he and his son being told that they had to go before Gen. Wheeler at Georgetown.
After James Roberts had finished reloading his revol- ver, the five rebels mounting their animals, the prisoners were ordered to take the road before them, and headed in the direction of Georgetown, they were driven away. All passed the house of the next neighbor, but a short distance from Esq. Stanfield's, in the same order, traveling in the direction of Georgetown, old Mr. Carter bleeding, apparently faint, and getting forward with considerable difficulty. This was the last time that all the parties were seen together by Union persons. A half-mile, per- haps, beyond where they were last seen by this Union family, the road on which they were traveling struck into the main Georgetown road, where the five bushwhackers found that Gen. Wheeler had left Georgetown, and was then with his troops passing along this main road in the direction of Knoxville. They also ascertained that Gen. Wheeler was at that moment stopping for dinner at the house of a Union widow lady by the name of Grissom, upon this main road about a quarter of a mile to their right. Receiving this information the rebels wheeled their prisoners to the right, conducted them within about two hundred yards of Mrs. Grissom's house, where they halted them, dispatching one of their own number to Mrs. Grissom's to report to Gen. Wheeler, and receive instruc- tions in regard to the disposition of the prisoners. This messenger found Gen. Wheeler surrounded by his staff sitting upon the porch of Mrs. Grissom's house. ,
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IN BRADLEY COUNTY, EAST TENNESSEE.
When the Carters were captured they were carrying on their arms a quantity of Osnaburg grain sacks, which they picked up in some vacated Federal camps near the Hiwassee River. It was noticed, when the company left Esq. Stanfield's, that the rebels kept possession of these Federal sacks, taking sacks as well as prisoners along with them from Stanfield's.
The following affidavits of Mrs. Grissom and her two married daughters, will be a sufficient history of the ter- rible fate that immediately resulted to the two Carters :
"STATE OF TENNESSEE. 3
BRADLEY COUNTY.
" On this, the 13th day of April, 1864, personally appeared before me. John Stanfield, an acting Justice of the Peace of said county. Emily Grissom. Matilda McUen, and Mary MeUen, and made oath in due form of law to the following facts :
"Mrs. Emily Grissom .- I had been personally acquainted with Levi Carter and his son Robert for several years before they were murdered.
" On the 27th day of September, 1863. two or three hundred rebel soldiers came to my house from towards Georgetown. They arrived about 1212 o'clock P. M., and remained about one hour. There was an officer in command whom his men called Gen. Wheeler. They were cavalrymen. About fifteen of these soldiers stepped up to my table and eat their dinners. Gen. Wheeler did not eat.
** Between a quarter and a half hour after they arrived, a cavalry- man came dashing up from towards Georgetown, and enquired for Gen. Wheeler. The man whom they called Gen. Wheeler was then sitting on the porch of the house; being pointed out to the cavalry- man, he said to Gen. Wheeler, 'We've captured two bushwhackers, and have them just above here in the road.' Gen. Wheeler asked the man where they caught them. He replied, 'Just above here, ou an- other road.' . Well," said Gen. Wheeler, 'we generally hang bush- whackers.' Gen. Wheeler then looked around and up to some trees near the door, and said, 'I do not see any convenient limb here to hang them on; I think we better shoot them. Yes, I reckon we bet- ter shoot them, that is the way to do with bushwhackers.' General Wheeler then inquired if the prisoners had any arms? The cavalry- man replied, 'No, only a pocket knife,' at the same time raising his hands and showing the knife to be about the length of his forefinger and hand to the thumb. Gen. Wheeler replied that, . It does not look like they were bushwhackers if they had no arms.' The cavalryman then held up an Osnaburg grain sack to Gen. Wheeler's view, saying. ' Yes, they are bushwhackers, for they had with them over a hun- dred of these Yankee sacks.' This was the substance of the conver- sation, and the man wheeled and dashed back the way he came. Gen. Wheeler and his men then made sport of the cavalryman, laughing at his foolishness in calling these men bushwhackers when they had nothing but a jack knife, and because they had grain sacks, saying that he ought to be made Colonel for catching such bushwhackers, &c.
" In a few minutes after the man left, we heard the report of a gun in the direction he went; and apparently in the same place a loud, shrill scream, as though the person who uttered it was in great dis-
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tress. We heard no more cries of distress ; but immediately the firing commenced again and continued till four or five shots had been fired. There was then a cessation in the firing of about twenty minutes, after which it commenced the third time, apparently further in the woods away from the road, and lasted till four or five shots more had been fired. About a quarter of an hour after this last firing, the same cavalryman came back and told-two others coming with him -that they had killed the two bushwhackers. Wheeler and his men were talking and laughing, and did not seem to care for what they had done. They also seemed to enjoy the firing which we heard, or at least were not at all disturbed by it. Gen. Wheeler and his men lef tsoon after this cavalryman returned.
"About an hour after the man reported that they had killed the bushwhackers, as soon as we dare, all three of us went up the road nearly two hundred yards, and by following the tracks made by the horses of the rebels, found the dead body of old Mr. Carter about thirty yards from the main road. The body was very bloody, it hav- ing been shot through about five times. One bullet went through his suspender on the left breast.
"We found his son, Robert, perhaps two hundred yards from the body of his father, further in the woods. Before Robert was found, his own wife came, and was the first to discover his body. It was some time after his wife came before the body of Robert was found. His wife would call him in a peculiar manner, saying 'if he is not dead but hiding away, he will hear and will answer me. He has had to lay in the woods all summer, and if I call him as I have done be- fore when hunting him, in a low tone, he will know my voice and will not be afraid to answer me.' In calling him in this manner, she at one time imagined that she heard him answer, and going in the direction she imagined his answer to be, she saw him lying upon his face, ran to him, turned him over, but found him dead. The body was pierced with five or six bullets, mostly in the region of the heart. There were no gunshot wounds in the head, but both eyes were cut out, eyelids and all, apparently with a sharp knife. The eyelids, flesh and all, to the bone, were cut away, leaving the sockets very large places or large hollows, presenting a very ghastly appear- ance. I, and one daughter-the other being gone for water-with the help of Robert's wife, carried his body and laid it by the body of his father, where we watched them till dark.
"When we saw that the eyes of Robert had been dug out, we looked all around upon the ground, thinking that the murderers had thrown them down near the body, but they could not be found The hands of old Mr. Carter were tied behind him with the strands of a hempen rope.
"Sworn to and subscribed before me, this 15th day of April, 1864. JOHN STANFIELD,
"Justice of the Peace for Bradley County, Tennessee, by Emily Grissom, Matilda McUen and Mary McUen, of Bradley County."
The murder of these innocent men, under the license and in the presence of a rebel General, by their own neighbors,-those who knew them to be guilty of nothing but loyalty to the old Government,-caused a thrill of horror throughout the country; and the Union people began to feel that none of them, however prudent or
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IN BRADLEY COUNTY, EAST TENNESSEE.
sagacious, had a lease of their lives for a single hour ! Many who had hoped to weather the storm, and live at or near their homes till deliverance should come, now fled from the county or buried themselves in dens or artificial caves in the mountains.
Not only that night but the next morning, a diligent search was made for the eyes of young Carter, the entire ground of the bloody scene being thoroughly canvassed by Robert's own wife and others, yet they could not be found. It was currently reported and universally believed among Union people in the county, that James Roberts, the leader in this terrible work, took the eyes home in his pocket and showed them to his mother ! As he en- tered his home, he informed his mother that he and others had killed the two Carters. She expressed her fears that they had not entirely finished them! He swore that these "Lincolnites" were both dead; and to convince her that the work was complete, at least in regard to Robert, he pulled the eyes out of his pocket, threw them into her lap, exclaiming, "Well, by G-d ! there are Rob- ert's eyes, any how !" So far from being shocked at the sight, she replied that she hoped he would bring to her the eyes of more of the "Lincolnites!"
The writer spent considerable time to reach the origin of this report. The Union parties supposed to have a knowledge of the facts were absent, and their testimony could not be gotten. Facts were elicited, however, abund- antly sufficient to justify the statement that, in sub- stance, the report was correct. There can be no question but that James Roberts took the eyes of Robert Carter home and showed them to his mother; when she approved of the whole proceedings, and encouraged him not to slack his hand in the same kind of work for the future.
Wicked men, and especially wicked cowards, love to boast of their wicked and cowardly exploits. The state- ments in regard to this murder, by no means all origi- nated with Union people, nor alone in the neighborhood where it was committed. In less than three days after the deed was done, it was, by means of Wheeler's men
17
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and the five bushwhackers themselves, with all its attend- ant circumstances, known throughout the adjoining coun- ties.
In regard to the final disposition of these eyes, it was reported that they were preserved in spirits, and kept by the rebels as a memorial of their valor and their victory.
We find an allusion to this barbarism, by Mr. G. W. Hickey, Union candidate for office in Cherokee county, North Carolina, in an address which he delivered to Union people of that county.
We extract from his address as follows :
'In East Tennessee. near Georgetown, a band of these men ran upon an old man and his son, by the name of Carter-the old man was a preacher of the Gospel-the young man had a wife and chil- dren. They shot the old man, killing him, then threw down the young man and cut out his eyes with knives, put them Into their pockets, and afterwards into a bottle of brandy to preserve then. They then let him up and told him that he might go if he could make his escape. They still pursued him and overtook him. about two hundred yards from the former place and shot him down dead."
It was with the utmost difficulty that the bodies of these murdered men could be buried. Not a Union male per- son dare come nigh the spot, nor have anything to do with committing the remains to the earth. With the assistance of a negro who was prevailed on to come with his cart, the two Mrs. Carters, aided by Mrs. Grissom and her daughters, and perhaps by one or two other Union women, were compelled to bury their own husbands.
From developments made by the perpetrators them- selves, it was ascertained that the eyes of young Carter were cut out of his head while he was yet alive, and before he had, to any extent, been otherwise injured. He was thrown upon the ground, held down by a posse of these demons, while another of their number dug out his eyes, perhaps with his own knife, taken from him when he was captured. After this he was allowed to rise, and told to make his escape if he could. Then with a hellish fiendishness that language cannot describe, these incar- nate devils mounted their animals, and at the word given by Jim Roberts and others, they would simultaneously, as a game of diabolical sport, charge upon him with their
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IN BRADLEY COUNTY, EAST TENNESSEE.
horses, driving him against the trees, or causing him to stumble over the logs, or trampling him under their horses feet! This was enacted time after time! The ground
MURDER OF THE TWO CARTERS.
between where the bodies lay, in some places was tramped and torn, and the bushes twisted and broken from the heavy and compact dashing of their animals.
After driving him in this manner, a hundred and fifty yards or more, his eyeless and ghastly face covered with blood, and his lips pleading for mercy, and when he could rise no more, they extinguished what life remained by piercing his heart with bullets from their carbines and revolvers.
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Mrs. Grissom stated that it it was evident that some of Wheeler's men joined these five bushwhackers in murder- ing the Carters. Gen. Wheeler was then making his way up the Tennessee to a point convenient for crossing, pre- paratory to his big raid down the Sequatchee valley, and through Tennessee in the rear of Gen. Rosecrans' army at Chattanooga.
In the dusk of the evening of the day, and near where the Carters were killed, a stranger, a rebel cavalryman, accosted two young ladies, and enquired if they knew Robert Carter. Being told that they did, he next enquired if they had heard from him that afternoon. They replied that they had not. "Well," said he "I suppose that I have seen Robert Carter since you have; I helped to kill him this afternoon, and there," holding up his navy, "is the revolver that performed the deed !"
James Roberts, the leading criminal in this horrid trans- action, was a young man, perhaps between twenty and twenty-three. Previous to this, his career as a rebel, guerrilla, bushwhacker, murderer, thief, robber, and actor in all other kinds of villainy, had carried him well nigh through the entire catalogue of human crime.
Previous to the death of the Carters, a Union soldier named Duncan, fell into the hands of Roberts. Duncan seeing himself overpowered, in an honorable manner, threw up his left hand in token of surrender, which was no sooner seen by Roberts than he took deliberate aim at Duncan and fired! Duncan fell, the bullet striking him near the eye, but instead of penetrating the skull passed between it and the scalp, round to the back part of the head! The blood flowed freely, and to all appear- ance, when Roberts came to him, he was in the agonies of death. Supposing that the ball passed into his brain, and that further injury was unnecessary in order to his death, Roberts robbed him of his watch, his money, and all other valuables that he could easily find upon him, then, as a last trophy, pulled off his boots and left him.
Some hours after, it occurred to Roberts that a more thorough examination of Duncan's body might put him
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IN BRADLEY COUNTY, EAST TENNESSEE.
in possession of more money. He went to the spot where he fell, but to his surprise and mortification his victim was not there.
Duncan, shortly after Roberts left, came to his senses, and was not long in so far recovering, that he dragged himself away, and got out of danger. In a few days he reached the Federal lines, and finally recovered. As soon as he was fit for duty he took his place again in the ranks in defence of his country ; but the poor fellow, in about a year after he was shot by Roberts-was killed in Ken- tucky, loosing his life by the same class of abominable outlaws to which Roberts belonged, the guerrillas and bushwhackers. He was a brave Tennesseean, and now sleeps among the honored dead of that State, who poured out their blood in contending against the most damnable set of tyrants that God ever suffered to oppress mankind.
After the murder of the Carters, this Roberts continued his life of crime, scouring Bradley and Hamilton counties, until within a short time of the battle of Missionary Ridge, when his fortunes changed, and his career of blood was brought to an end.
He and another rebel guerrilla named, we believe, Green, were traveling together, either in Bradley or Hamil- ton, when they saw a man cross the road before them and enter the house of a Union man named McNeil. Roberts knew that a son of this family was in the Federal army. Supposing the person that crossed the road to be this son, home on a visit, Roberts at once determined to kill him. The two entered McNeils house and demanded of the old gentleman his " Lincolnite " son. McNeil replied that his son was not at home. Roberts told him that he was a liar, for he had just seen him enter his house ; and as he finished this remark, drew a chair to knock Mr. McNeil down. The old gentleman sprang for the door, and opened it just in time for the door to receive the blow instead of himself. Both followed, chasing Mr. McNeil around the house, Roberts calling out to his companion,
d-n him, kill him!" At this mo- ment the man whom they saw enter the house, sprang
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with a gun from a place of concealment, took the oppo- site way round the house, met the parties and shot Roberts to the ground. Roberts' companion fled and escaped. The contents of the gun entered the breast of Roberts, and it was thought that he must immediately die. The man, however, commenced to reload his gun with a view then and there to complete his destruction. When the loading of the gun was completed, Roberts was still alive, and the man was preparing to send his spirit into eternity. Mrs. McNeil, not wishing to see him murdered lying helpless at her door, interfered in his behalf, argu- ing that as his wound was mortal, and he already beyond doing them or any one else more harm, as bad a man as he was, it was not magnanimous nor Christian to deny the poor wretch the few remaining moments that were left him. Through these entreaties the man was prevailed on not to shoot him the second time.
The mother of Roberts was sent for, who came and con- veyed him to her own home. When his mother saw him apparently dying, she turned to the family in an angry and upbraiding manner, and enquired why they did not leave their house and flee when her son entered, why they remained to contend with and murder her boy ?
Soon after the battle of Missionary Ridge, the country from Chattanooga to Knoxville fell into our hands, and Roberts was found by the Federal soldiers, some of them Tennesseeans who were acquainted with his history, at home in the condition just described. The Tennessee sol- diers visited Roberts daily, determined, if they saw the least prospect of his recovery, to take his life.
His mother, his sister, and his physician, doctor Atch- ley, told these soldiers that Roberts was sinking and could not possibly live but a short time. Roberts him- self when these soldiers were present, would feign great exhaustion to help on the deception. Instead of sinking, however, Roberts was actually recovering, and as soon as his physician considered his strength sufficient, he was in the night, pitched into a wagon, and by his sister and this doctor, with a negro to drive the ox team, stealthily
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IN BRADLEY COUNTY, EAST TENNESSEE
conveyed through our lines to Dalton, a distance of some twenty or twenty-five miles. Dalton being yet in the hands of the rebels, Roberts considered himself now safe from the vengeance of those whose friends he had murdered.
At Dalton, Roberts was cared for by his sister at the house of a rebel named Thomas Renfrow. After being here some time, Renfrow and his father fell into a quarrel in the room where Roberts lay ; and struggling together over a loaded gun, to see which should have it, the gun accidently discharged, and in such a position that the con- tents lodged in the bosom of Roberts, entering not more than two inches from his former wound, and causing in- stant death.
This account of Roberts' fate at Dalton, was given to the writer by Mr. John Gilbert, who lived in the spring of 1864, at Blue Springs, Bradley county. Mr. Gilbert was living at or near Dalton at the time this accident to Roberts was said to occur, and related the circumstance as a fact. Mr. Gilbert is a Baptist minister, and on this subject could have had no possible object in stating an untruth. Many Union people of Bradley regarded the report as a fabrication coming from Roberts' friends, and circulated in order to put an end to further efforts on the part of Union men and Federal soldiers to take Roberts' life. It is barely possible that Mr. Gilbert and others were deceived by Renfrow, and that Roberts is still alive. Roberts was taken to Dalton, perhaps, in December, 1863, and had not been heard from since by the Union people of Bradley, late in the fall of 1865, and the strong proba- bility is, that this youthful scourge of his fellow beings, was at Georgia, removed from among men.
George Roberts, younger than James, who, as stated, was also concerned in killing the Carters, was no mean accomplice with his older brother in crime. He fled to Dixie before our army in the winter of 1863-4, and is, i justice has not overtaken him, probably, somewhere in Georgia.
The father of these boys died about five years before
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the war, and was said to be as fine a man as lived in the country. Sometime in the winter of 1864-5, Mrs. Roberts followed her husband and her deceased rebel boy to the other world.
Purvines and Runnions, two of the other accomplices in this crime, were citizens of Bradley. Purvines, in the fall of 1865, was yet at large. Runnions was arrested and incarcerated in Bradley county jail for his participation in this murder, but subsequently broke jail, and is now, so far as is known, also at large.
Mrs. Carter, made a widow and bereft of her son by this talismanic butchery, died about a year after, measur- ably from the grief and mental bewilderment of being the victim of such a tragedy.
Young Mrs. Carter, Roberts wife, when she discovered her husband, and turned him over, seeing that he was not only dead, but struck with the ghastliness of his mangled and bloody face, pitched over him, falling upon her own face on the ground, and wild and beside herself in a paroxism of grief, clawed with her hands around his body, smiting her head and face against the earth, besmearing and covering herself in his blood, until restrained, and meas- urably brought to her senses by the efforts of Mrs. Grissom and her two daughters.
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