USA > Tennessee > Bradley County > History of the rebellion in Bradley County, East Tennessee > Part 25
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It may with propriety also be stated in this connection, that, had a similar pro- position made by Gov. Brownlow a short time after this. been accepted by the government, and the number of men furnished him that he desired, East Tennessee doubtless would have been released early in 1862.
GATEWOOD RAID THROUGH POLK COUNTY.
John P. Gatewood, the noted guerrilla, murderer and bush whacker of Northern Georgia and Tennessee. was born in Fentress county. East Tennessee; and at the commencement of the rebellion was. perhaps. twenty years of age, being the youngest but one of six brothers. The names of the other brothers were, Henry, Berry. Milton, William and Lytle. The father and sons were all rebels. and all but the youngest, Lytle. one way and another connected with the rebel army. Milton was drowned in the Tennessee River sometime during the war. Two others, perhap. Henry and Berry, were in Johnston's army when he surrendered to Sherman in Virginia. Another, probably William, was; during the last of the war, a guerrilla, and it was understood operated as such with his brother John in Tennessee and Georgia.
John P. Gatewood, if not some of his brothers, received his first schooling in rebel crimes under the tuition of Champ Furguson in Kentucky, being a member of his company perhaps one or two years. He appeared in Tennessee and Georgia in the summer of 1861, being sent by the rebel General Wheeler to recruit for the
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rebel service in the rear of Sherman's army during the Atlanta Campaign. He soon distinguished himself, and was not long in becoming generally known in that section as the leader of one of the most savage and blood-thirsty guerrilla gangs that was ever collected, or that ever operated in Tennessee of Georgia. He estabhshed his general headquarters, probably in Cherokee county, Georgia, about fifty miles south of Chattanooga; and for a period of eight or nine months, or till Johnston surrendered in Virginia on the 26th of April, 1865, he laid waste Northern Georgia and South-Eastern Tennessee, robbing, plundering and murdering the Union people, till his name became the horror of every household in the land.
His distinguished raid into East Tennessee, which was made through Polk county, was perpetrated on the 29th of November, 1864. On the night of the 28th Gatewood, with his company, camped in Maury county, Georgia, a few miles south of the Georgia and Tennessee line. Early on the morning of the 29th, his column. in two or three divisions, struck Tennessee, the two right divisions enter- ing Polk county, while the left division entered Bradley county, and passed through the third and thirteenth districts, boarding and pillaging the premises of Mr. Wm Humbert, and robbing other Union families of those districts, converg- ing in its route to a point of conjunction in Polk county with the other two divisions.
Gatewood himself headed what was supposed to be the center division; and either before or shortly after all came together in Polk county, at the head of his column, he rode up to the house of a Union man by the name of Horace Hill. Mr. Hill was sitting upon the fence in front of his door. Gatewood approached near to Mr. Hill, as though he proposed to converse with him in a friendly manner. but stealthily drew his revolver, placed it close to his head and fired. The ball passed nearly in a straight line through the head from one ear to the other, causing im- mediate death. Mr. Hill fell backward from the fence into his own vard, and ex- pired in the presence of his own family. Michael Hill, a nephew of Mr. Horace tiill. was also on the premises at the time, and was also attacked by the rebels. He, however, being armed, returned their fire, defending himself as best he could. retreating at the same time. He kept the rebels at bay till he reached the Cona- sauga River, leaped in, swam across and escaped unhurt.
While Mr. Horace Hill was yet lying by the fence, either already dead or dying, the rebels invaded the premises, captured two colored boys, whil some of their number entered the house, pulled the fire from the hearth out upon the floor. ap- parently making an effort to set the house on fire. After committing these out- rages. by which the rest of the family became nearly dead with fear. retaining the colored boys as prisoners, the fiends left the premises, directing their course towards Benton, the county seat of Polk county. One of these colored boys sub- sequently escaped and returned. He reported that Gatewood was slightly wounded in the arm by Michael Hill. He stated that he saw Gatewood wash the blood from the wound in a stream, shortly after leaving the premises of Mr. Ilill.
About four miles from where they murdered Mr. Hill, the rebels met four Union refugees from Cherokee county, Georgia. The parties were within sixty yards of each other before either saw the other. The refugees fled across a field to their left. One of them, Mr. Elihu Morse, unobserved, dropped behind a pile of rais and escaped. The other three were soon captured. In the meantime Gaten ood and his Lieut., Jasper Graddy, had passed forward about a quarter of a mile to the residence of Mr. Pettit, and were talking with the family at the gate. The three refugees were brought within a few rods of where he was standing and halted in the road. Ile watched them as they were brought up, and in a few min- utes after they were halted, he suddenly wheeled, and drawing his revolver, rode upon the prisoners, and with an unerring aim, successively shot two of them through the head. His men also at the same time commenced firing upon the helpless victims, and instantly the three, in their gore, were struggling in the ag- ones of death in the road. As soon as the men fell, Gatewood waved his revolver over his head and cried, "Hurrah for the brave Tennessecans !"
The murderers robbed the persons of their victims of the money and other val- uables which they could find upon them ; stripped off their shoes and a portion of their other garments, and left them. Shortly, however, two of the rebels re- turned, kicked and turned the bodies over, examining them for money the second time. One of the rebels in the meantime remarked, that he believed that they were not all dead, but were possoming, and that he thought it sufer to shoot them till no possibility of their recovery remamed. His companion replied that. whether any of them were yet alive or not. their wounds were mortal-that they were all shot through the head and must certainly die; and he proposed to let the Lincolnites linger and suffer as long as possible. Before the point was decided, two or three other rebels returned to the spot and joined in the conversation. as to the necessity of shooting the bodies the second time. One of those who last arrived, notwithstanding the school of blood he was in, had noc, it appears, lost all humanity. He stated that there had been too much shooting already for that morning, and he was opposed to any more savage mangling of the dead men be- fore him. This advice prevailed, and the bodies were soon left without receiving further injury.
The names of the three victims were Chriswell Morse-brother to Elisha Morse who escaped-and L. C. and J. W. Hapgood, brothers. all men of families- having
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wives and children in Cherokee county, Georgia. J. W. Hapgood was shot through the head. and probably died instantaneously. He left a wife and two children. L. C. Hapgood and Mr. Morse came to their senses before the strag. gling rebels returned to them, and though feigning death, as some of these rebels suspected, were able to hear the conversation in regard to shooting them the sec- ond time. Half-an-hour, perhaps, after the rebels left them, they ventured to rise, and dragged themselves away to places of safety. They were taken to Cleveland, received into our hospital at that place, and both finally recovered. Mr. Hapgood was struck on the left eyebrow, the bullet passing into and carrying away the eye, ranging down wards and through just above the roots of the tongue, and passing out below and a little behind the right car. Mr. Morse was struck on the left cheek, the ball passing downwards through the neck, lodging in the left shoulder, where it still remains. Although they recovered, both are crippled and badly injured for life.
The writer saw Mr. L. C. Hapgood in the fall of 1865, in Bradley county, and received these statements from his own lips.
Shortly after this scene of butchery, about eight o'clock A. M .. Gatewood's Lieutenant, Jasper Graddy, captured a Union man named Robt. F. McClary. Graddy and MeClary were schoolmates when boys. Gatewood ordered MeClary to dismount from his horse, a fine animal, and directed it to be given to one of his own men. MeClary was then put upon a dull and very bad riding mule, placed in the rear of the column under strict guard, and made to keep up with the company. He was immediately robbed of his money-twenty dollars in greenbacks-by one of the number, whose name was Johnson, a Kentuckian. MeClary appealed to Graddy, requesting him to compel Johnson to return his money. Graddy replied that Johnson was a very bad man, that he could do noth- ing with him, and that the theft could not be remedied.
The rebels were universally well mounted and well armed. Many of them wore, and almost all had with them, the blue Federal overcoat. They passed from one place of robbery and butchery to another generally on a gallop. Gate- wood rode at the head of the column the entire day, and Graddy was most of the time at his side. At one time Gatewood ordered McClary to be brought to the head of the column, where he compelled him to ride between himself and Graddy for several miles. The object appeared to be to ascertain where the best horses and mules belonging to Union people could be found. Mr. McCiary's answers were not altogether satisfactory, and cursing him as a d-d know-nothing, Gatewood ordered him to take his place again at the foot of the line.
The first halt of any note that was made by the raiders after MeClary was cap- tured, was at the Widow Armstrong's, a Union lady. A mile, perhaps. before they reached the house of this lady, they passed the house of a bitter rebel named Griffith. As McClary, being at the foot of the column, passed Griffith's, he no- ticed that Lieut. Graddy had halted, and was talking at the gate with two or three of the Griffith women. In a few moments, however, Graddy overtook them. and dashed by to reach his place at the head of the column. The informa- tion that Graddy received at Griffith's, encouraged the rebels to believe that their prey was sure; and as they came within sight of the widow's plantation. Gate- wood ordered his men to charge. The order was passed along down the line in loud and vociferous repetitions by the men, when like so many infuriated demons. almost the entire column immediately swarmed upon the premises of MIrs. Arm- strong. leaping their animals into the yard and surrounding the house with an eager fury and hellish hate, as though they proposed instantly to murder every- thing upon the plantation. Baker Armstrong, a single man about thirty years of age, and son of the widow, and A. C. Parks, particularly, were the Union vic- tims for whose blood Gatewood and his men were thirsting. Both of these Union men, with a Federal soldier named Raper, a member of the 5th Tennessee Cavalry. were at Mrs. Armstrong's house when the rebels dashed up. Mr. Armstrong fed across a field in the rear of his mother's dwelling, but was soon overtaken and surrounded. Seeing himself overpowered, he threw away his revolver, raised his left hand in token of surrender, and began to walk towards his enemies, when one of them dismounted and commenced firing on him. Thus attacked, he wheeled and made another effort to escape Rebel bullets, however, soon brought him down. After receiving three or four shots. two in the back part of the head, and in the neck, he fell, pitching forward upon his face. By this time his mother was within a few feet of him, begging of the rebels to desist. The dismounted rebel, however, sprang before her, fastened his hand in the hair of the dying man, pulled him over, with his face upwards, and placing his revolver near his lips, in spite of his mother's efforts, emptied the contents of it into her son's mouth, mangling and blowing away his face in the most shocking manner conceivable. Without nttering a word the fiend then walked away, bearing, as Mrs. Armstrong and her daughter afterwards asserted, more emphatically the countenance of a demon incarnate, than any other human being on whose features they ever gazed.
Mr. Parks fled to the chamber. and by some members of the family was covered in a pile of cotton ; and his life was saved. Raper was taken prisoner. All this occupied but a few moments; although the search for Parks was continued for sometime. Gatewood, finally abandoning the effort to find Parks, ordered his men
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into line, crying out that they must be on the move, for more work of the kind re- maine for them to perform. Raper was ordered to mount his horse, and take his place at the foot of the column in company with Mr. Mcclary. Proceeding, per- haps a quarter of a mile, with his column on the move, Gatewood approached Raper. d-ing him furiously, enquiring why he ran when he and his men ap- proached him. vociferously adding, "I will put an end to you;" and instantly blew out his brains with his navy revolver. The poor man fell from his horse with a heavy gulch to the ground. The blood gushed from his wound streaming completely from one wagon track to the other across the road. He was but a few feet in advance of McClary when he fell. After perfoming this deed Gatewood approached McClary, cursed him, and told him if he did not promptly keep his place in line, and keep up with the column, he would serve him in the same man- ner. Then looking back to some of his men yet in the rear, he instructed them to shoot the d-d Lincolnite that lay in the road till they were certain he was dead ; after which he dashed forward to his position at the head of the line. A. Raper was considered already dead. he was shot no more, but was left in the mid- dle of the road, while his horse was kept by the murderers.
Half an hour, perhaps, after the rebels had disappeared, a daughter of the Griffith family, one of the women who were seen by MeClary talking with Graddy, entered the dwelling of Mrs. Armstrong, and impudently, and in a spirit of ex- ultant satisfaction, told Mrs. Armstrong that she was the person who informed the rebels that they would find her son and Mr. Parks at her house.
The name of the wretch who murdered Armstrong, by some, was supposed to be King. It was also supposed that his murderer was known to Armstrong; and was recognized by him at the time, and that the reason that he shot him in the mouth as related, was through fear that Armstrong might yet be able to speak, and would inform his mother whom his murderer was.
Between Mrs. Armstrong's and Benton, a distance of seven miles, Lieutenant Graddy, as usual, was seen to stop at three or four rebel houses, as was under- stood, to obtain information of his Union victims, and of Union property which the rebels wished to capture. In this way he halted at a Mr. Sloan's, when he was seen talking, probably to Mrs. Sloan herself. Graddy also stopped at the house of a rebel named Patterson, where it was thought that the person who came out and apparently gave him directions, was Mr. Patterson. He also halted at the dwelling of Mr. Wm. fliggins. Here he was seen conversing with both men and women belonging to the premises. All these were rebel families living if we mistake not, between Mrs. Armstrong's and Benton.
Two miles from Mrs. Armstrong's the rebels invaded the premises of Mr. Parks, father, we believe, to A. C. Parks, who had escaped them at the house of Mrs. Armstrong. Here they captured a Union man named Gurley. They inquired of McClary in their prisoner was A. C. Parks, whom they were in search of at the house of Mrs. Armstrong. Although they were answered in the negative, they immediately murdered their victim by shooting him through the head with a car- bine or an Enfield rifle. MeClary could not distinguish the individual who com- mitted the deed. but from the report and from the movements of the murderers within his view, judged the weapon used to be a carbine or an Enfield rifle. Mr. Gurley was a man of a family, aud, we believe, from the North, at least he was a stranger in the country. McClary passed the body of Mr. Gurley, also left in the road. The back part of his head was literally blown to pieces.
Reaching Benton, the rebels took possession of the town, refreshed themselves and their animals for a short time, robbing and plundering the Union citizens to their satisfaction. While here, one of their number-Columbus Moony-mur- dered Thomas Kincer, a Union man of the place. Mr. Kincer was at work in his shoe shop. As the rebels came upon him. he fled into a house near by. and beg- ged of the woman of the house, for God's sake to shut the door. His murderers. however, were close upon him, and found him in the act of disappearing under the house, having removed a loose plank in the floor for that purpose. Being a moment too late, with his head and shoulders yet exposed as the rebels burst in. he raised his left hand surrendering himself a prisoner and begging for his life. Moony, however. instantly shot him while in that helpless condition. the bullet passing through his left hand raised in token of surrender. and striking him in the throat ranged down wards towards his breast, and he died in less than five minutes, with his body partly concealed under the floor.
This was the sixth victim whose spirit that day had been hurried into eternity, by this moving swarm of blood-stained demons incarnate.
Samuel Brown, whose history has already been given, son of the notorious Capt Brown. was one who pursued Mr. Kincer, and was standing by Moony side, when Mir. Kincer was murdered. In the history of this Brown, it Wa stated that he murdered a Union man, whose name could not then be given. We have since discovered that the name of this victim was Smith Irwin, of Polk county.
On leaving Benton, Gatewood, directed his course back towards Georgia. tak- ing the Ducktown Road. About eight miles from Benton, the rebels met a small company traveling with two or three teams. Alvin Jones, a lad perhaps fifteen, with a U. S. Plated belt buckled about his waist, was sitting upon one of the wagons. Discovering the Federal belt, Gatewood, approached Jones, cursing
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him for being a bushwhacker, at the same time discharging two revolver shots into his body. Gatewood then ordered him to get out of his wagon, which he did. He was then robbed of the rings from his fingers, and other valuables. By this time the boy began to faint from loss of blood, and was unable to stand. Gate- wood, pointed to a stone but a few few fect from Jones, and eursing him, told him to lay his head upon that rock and die. The boy obeyed, layed his head up- on the rock as directed, and breathed out his life in the presence of his murder- ers.
The rebels then turned their attention to robbing the other members of the company, plundering their goods, &c. In one of the wagons they found a cask of whiskey. This immediately absorbed the attention of the whole crew. They threw the cask upon the ground, bursted one of its heads, and transferred its con- tents to their canteens by sinking them in the liquor, as it was in the cask. A portion of it was at once transferred to their stomachs, from which receptacle it soon made its way to the brain, a transfer that was visible from the increased spirit of fiendishness that entered into many of them before they left the ground.
Four miles from this point, the rebels suddenly came upon six Union men. A part. and perhaps all of the Union men were armed. They, however. fed up the bluff of the Ocoee river. The rebels exhibited themselves to their view with their blue overcoats, calling out for them to come down-that they were Yankees also, and wished to see them. One of their number ventured down to the rebels. They treated him with the whiskey they had just pillaged, appeared very friendly. showed him their Federal uniforms to convince him that they were Yankees. They then requested him to go back to his companions and tell them to have no fears, but to come down-that they were all friends, and that they wished to have a talk with them about the rebels in the country. Thus deceived, he went back to his companions, and unsuspectingly and very unfortunately. they all came down to the rebels. They were immediately taken prisoners. stripped of their arms, after which the rebels simultaneously commeneed to shoot them down. Four of them, Samuel Lovel, Harvey Brewster. Thomas Bell and James Nelson, were killed dead upon the spot. Two, Peter Paris and JJasper Parton, made their escape. Paris fled back up the mountain and although he received four wounds. escaped, and finally recovered. Parton started from the very midst of the rebels, made his way through them, leaped into the Ocoee river, swam to the other shore, and. although he received five of six wounds. subsequently recovered.
McClary stated that he never saw a lot of hunters or a pack of hounds wilder with excitement, and more furious after a buck, than these demons were in their efforts to head off and destroy Parton while he was escaping from them. They swarmed around and after him, some on their horses, and others on foot, firing upon him a perfect blaze continually. At one time their shots brought him down, and he rolled completely over, and apparently under their horses' feet, but rose again, and made his way through then.
Throwing the four dead bodies together in one pile near the road. the rebels passed on. One mile from this scene they murdered another union man, a refugee fleeing north. whom they also left dead by the side of the road. His name, per- haps, was Johnson.
McClary, through entreaties with Graddy, at the foot of the column, perhaps unknown to Gatewood at the time, was released, we believe, just before the rebels murdered Johnson. Seeing himself free once more from sneh hands, after such a day's ride, and such a day's scene, MeClary must have felt himself a happy man.
Mr. Johnson was the twelfth victim at least, that had fallen lifeless that day up to that hour, at the hands of these men, besides those escaping wounded. At this point we find our notes confused, and in regard to Gatewood's further transactions of that day cannot speak with positiveness. Reports stated that sixteen or eighteen men in Tennessee and Georgia lost their lives as the result of that day's raiding by Gatewood. Evidently more mischief was committed by him that day after the death of Mr. Johnson, and possibly more lives were taken. He erossed the Ocoee, it appears, at Grier's Ferry, and ascending the river some distance, camped for the night upon its bank
The next morning, as Gatewood passed into Georgia, the work of murder was resumed. Early in the morning, the rebels invaded the premises of a Union man named Gasaway. Mr. Gasaway fied and escaped. Gatewood himself attacked a young man whose name was Barnes. He chased Barnes into the woods, and over- taking him, commenced to fire upon him. Barnes caught hold of a sapling and begged for his life. Gatewood, however, continued to fire, aiming at his head. Holding on to the sapling Barnes managed to evade the shots. The fourth shot.how- ever, struck him in the eye, carrying it away entirely-the bullet passing down and lodging at the roots of the jaw. Gatewood, supposing him mortally wounded, placed his foot upon his neck, pulled off his boots and left him. About two hours afterwards, he was found by his friends sitting up, though entirely senseless, wiping the blood from his face with his hand up into his hair. The print of the the heel of Gatewood's boot was found upon Barnes's neck. He subsequently recovered.
Gatewood and his company took their booty a short distance south into Georgia. where they sold their stolen horses and mules, about forty in number. to the
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highest bidders among themselves. The purchasers were given fifteen days in which to go South, dispose of the property, return and redeem their notes, that the proceeds might be equally distributed among all the robbers.
Gatewood's command on the day of the raid consisted of about fifty men. . 1 number were boys from twelve to sixteen. From the best information that could be obtained. the names of a few were as follows: Gatewood himself and one of his brothers, perhaps William; Jasper Graddy, the Lieutenant; Johnson, the Kentuckian wno robbed McClary; Columbus Moony, the one who s .ot Kincer: Samuel Brown, son of Capt. Brown, of Braulley; Frank Green, of Polk county : Stuart, from Kenucky ; Marion Gillian, Seth Gregory and James Gregory. all, we believe, from the third district, Bradley county ; Edmondson, MeCardy, Harvis- son, Hawkins, Maston, A. Young, Freenman. Graham ; one whom his companions called Hall, from Kentucky; Bowman and Rucker.
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