On May 12, 1844, Champ married Eliza Smith, daughter of Jesse Bowen Smith, who
bore him one child, a boy. Both his wife and child died about three years
after the marriage.
On July 23, 1848, he married Martha Owen, daughter of Samuel Owen, who lived
about a half mile from where Spring Creek emptied into Wolf River. To this
union, one child, a girl, Ann Elizabeth, was born.
Champ's education was extremely limited. He said, "I never had much schooling,
but I recollect of going to school about three months, during which time I
learned to read, write, and cipher right smart." He grew up on a farm, and
this was his vocation before the war. He was apparently an enterprising trader
because at the beginning of the war he owned several small tracts of land in
Clinton County, Ky.
He liked to hunt; hunting not only enabled him to get out into the mountains
that he loved, but it was also a means of putting food on the table for his
family. He made long hunting trips through the Cumberlands, in the process
gaining an intimate knowledge of the foothills and mountains, a knowledge that
was to prove invaluable during the war years in enabling him to elude the
Union Guerillas and Federal soldiers who hunted him relentlessly. He was an
expert shot, according to his own statement the only thing he ever shot at and
missed was "Tinker Dave" Beatty!
At least four different contemporaries have left us with physical descriptions
of Champ Ferguson during the War of Northern Aggression. The first was by
Major John A. Brents, who fought with the Federal Army against him. According
to Brents, he "is between thirty five and forty years old, about six feet
high, and weighs one hundred and eighty pounds without any surplus flesh. He
has a large foot, and gives his legs a loose sling in walking, with his toes
turned out -- is a little stooped, with his head down. He has long arms and
large hands, broad round shoulders, skin rather dark, black hair a little
curled, a broad face, a large mouth, and a tremendous voice, which can be
heard at a long distance when in a rage."
General Basil W. Duke first encountered Champ Ferguson when he reported at
Sparta, Tenn., in July of 1862, as a guide for Morgan's Cavalry, on its first
raid into Kentucky. In his "Reminiscences", General Duke described Ferguson;"
He was a rough-looking man but of striking and rather prepossessing
appearance, more than six feet in height and powerfully built. His complexion
was florid, and his hair jet black, crowning his head with thick curls. He had
one peculiarity of feature which I remember to have seen in only two or three
other men, and each of these was, like himself, a man of despotic will and
fearless, ferocious temper. The pupil and iris of the eye was of nearly the
same color and, except to the closest inspection, seemed perfectly blended.
His personal adventures, combats, and encounters were innumerable. Some of his
escapes, when assailed by great odds, were almost incredible and could be
explained only by his great bodily strength, activities, adroitness in the use
of his weapons, and savage energy."
Orange Sells, of the 12th Ohio Cavalry, present at the Battle of Saltville,
saw Ferguson on October 07, 1864. He testified at Ferguson's post-war trial
that Champ Ferguson," had on a dark lindsey frock coat, buttoned up in front,
and tolerably short waisted. He had on a black plug hat. His hair and beard
were both longer than now. His beard was full and made his face look full. He
also had a moustache. I cant say how long his hair was, but it was much longer
than now and was straight around the back of his neck. I dont think it came
down to his shoulders.... He was a large man, a great deal fleshier than he
is now. I know him by his mouth and by his features generally."
Also at Champ's post-war trial, and a witness to the Battle of Saltville, was
Harry Shocker, also of the 12th Ohio Cavalry, described Champ Ferguson thusly;
" the man I saw on the hill and who shot my partner, had on a butternut suit.
I had never seen him before that time. His beard was long and dark. I didnt
notice whether his moustache was trimmed. He had the appearance of not shaving
at all."
Champ Ferguson enlisted after the "Camp Meeting Fight" and just prior to the
Battle of Mill Springs (exact date unknown) in 1861. Around the time of the
Battle of Mill Springs, Ferguson was a private in the independent cavalry
command of Captain Scott Bledsoe. According to testimony by A.J. Capps, of
Capt. J.W. McHenry's command, Ferguson was raising an independent company in
April of 1862, and was commissioned by the Secretary of War as Captain (some
sources give Champ being commissioned by then East Tennessee commander,
General Kirby-Smith).
In June of 1862, Ferguson & some of his command attached themselves to
John Hunt Morgan's cavalry command as scouts, and acted in that capacity on
Morgan's Kentucky raids. Ferguson was also attached at times to the commands
of General's John C. Breckenridge & Joseph Wheeler in late 1864 &
1865. Most times, however, Champ Ferguson operated as an independent cavalry
command. Champ Ferguson surrendered under verbal promise of parole on May 23,
1865; whereby Federal cavalry captured him at home on May 26, 1865; and
Ferguson was taken to Nashville, Tennessee for trial.
Denied the opportunity to mount an adequate defense on his behalf, Champ
Ferguson was found guilty of "war crimes", and was hung on October 20, 1865
(his wife, Martha Owen Ferguson, telling her husband to "Die like a man,
Champ". By all accounts he did just that).
Martha Owen Ferguson buried Champ on the Calfkiller, near Sparta, in White
County Tennessee, as per his request. Ann Elizabeth Ferguson married George
Metcalf in Sparta, Tenn. on May 08, 1867. All three of them left around 1872
and eventually settled near Independence, Kansas. All three are buried in Oak
Hill Cemetery. Martha never remarried. Ann Elizabeth had children, and it is
reported that somewhere near Chicago, gg grandchildren exist.
John B Huddleston, born 18 Feb 1815; died Jan 1901. He married Mary Ferguson. Notes for John B Huddleston: Birth: Ov. Co. TN. Census, 1850, page 122, Dw. 841 Death: book, "Jarriott Morgan Huddleston" by Tim Huddleston Marriage: Mary Ferguson. John HUDDLESTON 1880 United States Census Household Male Other Information: Birth Year <1816> Birthplace TN Age 64 Occupation Farmer Marital Status M Race W Head of Household John HUDDLESTON Relation Self Father's Birthplace VA Mother's Birthplace NC Source Information: Census Place Albany, Clinton, Kentucky Family History Library Film 1254410 NA Film Number T9-0410 Page Number 589C Name Relation Marital Status Gender Race Age Birthplace Occupation Father's Birthplace Mother's Birthplace John HUDDLESTON Self M Male W 64 TN Farmer VA NC Mary E. HUDDLESTON Wife M Female W 33 KY Keeping House KY KY Zylpha FERGUSON MotherL W Female W 76 KY Keeping House VA VA Sarah SANDERS Other S Female W 4 KY KY KY This would be Elam Huddleston's son for the following reasons. Since this John Huddleston's mother-in-law was Zylpha Ferguson that would make this John's wife Mary E. Ferguson. The Elam Huddleston that was a noted and decided union guerilla born 1825 died 1-1-1863 was the son of Fielding whom was possibly the son of Capt. Wiley W. Huddleston (brother to Jarriott Huddleston b. 1775) and "Polly" Hood Huddleston. Elam Edward Huddleston m. Artemia Simpson Huddleston their children: Mary E. 1853- "Belle" Bethel 1857-1939 m. Flaven Mt. Fern Huddleston 1859-1908 son of James Allen 1834-186_, son of Thomas S. 1810-1863, son of Jarriott Morgan Huddleston 1775-1856. Elam's children cont'd: Pamelia 1860 Edward E. 1863- There is a whole lot more to the story of Elam's death and what led to it and one very good account of this is told in the book "Champ Ferguson" by Thurman Sensing.
John B. HUDDLESTON Self M Male W 63 VA Farming VA VA Liley A. HUDDLESTON Wife M Female W 61 TN Keep House NC NC Virginnia HUDDLESTON Dau S Female W 15 MS Census Place District 2, Itawamba, Mississippi Family History Library Film 1254650 NA Film Number T9-0650 Page Number 430C. Mississippi: Holmes (cont'd: E.D. 7, sheet 51-end), Issaquena, Itawamba, Jackson, and Jasper (part: E.D. 108, sheet 1-E.D. 112, sheet 4; E.D. 158, sheets 1-4). Mississippi, 1880 federal census : soundex and population schedules / United States. Bureau of the Census. 10th census, 1880. From the census information which later matches his son Robbert Huddleston with wife Cyrena J. Huddleston we can see the difference between the two John B. Huddlestons. This John B. Huddleston is shown with birth date as <1817> 1880 United States Census. With the name Liley A. we can be assured that this is referring to Amelia Rowland. In the census John B. is with Liley A. when Virginnia was 15 years of age. John Branch Huddleston was born in Amelia County, Virginia and died in Prentis County, Mississippi. John Branch married Amelia Rowland who was born in Virginia. They were married in Mississippi in 1837. John Branch Huddleston was born in Amelia Co. VA in 1816. John was 7 years old when his father was supposed to have died in 1823, leaving his mother with 8 children, 3 of whom, Mary, John, and William C., were still under age. Martha moved with her children to Tennessee, moving near one of her older sons near Henderson, TN. In FamilySearch we find Thomas Huddleston and Patsy Tanner were in Overton, Tennessee. From this information and Patsy moving near her older son, it might show that Patsy was getting up in years of age and the older son and his family took care of Patsy. This would also explain why Thomas did not travel as far to Mississippi as his son John Branch did. As a young man John migrated to MS, first settling in Marshall Co. In 1837 at the age of 21 he married Ursula Amanda Rowland. According to the census of 1840 he was living in the "northern district" of Marshall Co with his wife and two young sons. He listed his employment as agriculture. By the mid 1840s John B. and his young family had moved to Tippah Co. MS. In May, 1847, he purchased 160 acres of land from John and Ezekial Law for $200. This land was located in Section 19, Township 1, Range 4 East. He sold this land in 1854 and 1855 and acquired additional land from his father- in-law William T. Rowland in Section 32, Township 3, Range 3 East. John B. and his family depended upon farming for most of their livelihood. He was an Elder in the Primitive Baptist Church, and for some years he pastored the Antioch Primative Baptist Church and Pleasant Hill Primative Baptist Church. He also helped constitute Hopewell PB Church in Prentiss County, and was pastor there in 1880. He loved his country very much and believed it was his duty to defend it. 34th Mississippi Infantry C.S.A. Name: Huddleston, John B. Rank: Captain Company: G Date of Enlistment: March 17, 1862 "The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies." Published under the direction of the Hon. Elihu Root, Secretary Of War, by Brig. Gen. Fred C. Ainsworth, Chief of the Record and Pension Office, War Department, and Mr. Joseph W. Kirkley. Series IV-Volume II. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1900. Page 933 Sons of Liberty, Captain J. B. Huddleston. This article was written by Troy D. Smith and originally published in Civil War Times Illustrated Magazine in December 2001. Troy D. Smith resides in Sparta, Tennessee, onetime hometown of Champ Ferguson. He has written for Wild West Magazine and other history publications.
Esther Frogg knew well the 20-year-old man standing at her front door on November 1, 1861, asking to see her husband, William. The visitor's name was Champ Ferguson, and he was, like the Froggs, a native of Clinton County, Kentucky. Unlike the Froggs, however, Ferguson supported the Confederacy.
"How do you do," she said and offered him a seat.
"I don't have time," he replied.
"Have some apples," she said, gesturing toward the fruit she had just been peeling.
"I have been eating apples," he said.
Ferguson did not want to sit. He did not want to eat. He did not want to talk. He wanted only to see William Frogg.
Esther told Ferguson her husband was sick and could not take visitors. But Ferguson was not to be deterred. He walked inside the house, leaving the two men who had come with him outside.
Ferguson approached Frogg's bed, perhaps noticing the crib nearby where the couple's five-month-old baby lay. Frogg told his visitor he had the measles. Indeed, he was on sick leave from his regiment, the 12th Kentucky Infantry (Union), though he no doubt withheld that bit of information from Ferguson.
"I reckon you caught the measles at Camp Dick Robinson," Ferguson said. Camp Robinson was a sore point for Kentuckians who sided with the Confederacy. They believed that men recruited there into the Home Guard went on to fight for the Union.
Ferguson was through talking. He shot Frogg dead where he lay.
Frogg was not the first or last person to die at Ferguson's hands during the war. There were dozens of others. Some of the killings were legitimate acts of combat, but others were nothing more than cold-blooded murder. Many of the victims were Union supporters whom Ferguson sought out more for personal reasons than political ones. In Frogg's case, Ferguson said he had heard rumors that the pro-Union man was planning to kill him. Ferguson decided on a preemptive strike. "I told the boys that I would settle the matter by going direct to Frogg's house and killing him," he later said.
Before the Civil War, Ferguson was known throughout the upper Cumberland Mountains on both sides of the Kentucky-Tennessee border as a "gambling, rowdyish, drinking, fighting, quarrelsome man." He ranged throughout the region as a hunter and a horse trader, becoming familiar with the whole region.
When the war began, Ferguson immediately sided with the Confederacy. The oldest of 10 children, born on November 29, 1821, he was now starkly at odds with his 9 brothers and sisters and his mother, all of whom supported the Union. The tension only grew when in late 1861 or early 1862, Ferguson moved his family to Sparta, Tennessee, and joined a pro-Southern guerrilla band headed by a local man named Scott Bledsoe. Soon Ferguson was captain of his own band.
Many legends that attempt to explain Ferguson's ruthless animosity toward his enemies persevere through the efforts of his many admirers in Sparta and White County, Tennessee. In one account, Ferguson hated Yankees and their supporters because Union soldiers had shot his young son dead while the boy played innocently on the front porch, waving a Confederate flag. In reality, Ferguson's only son died several years before the war began. An even more widely accepted explanation is that 11 Union men had come to his home while Ferguson was out and dishonored his wife and young daughter. The men forced the woman and girl to disrobe and march down the street, the story continued. Even Ferguson called this tale "absurd."
Ferguson himself provided the most feasible explanation for why he entered the war, though it is less romantic than the others. Shortly before the war, he had been arrested for stabbing a constable in a brawl at a camp meeting in Fentress County, Tennessee. "When the War broke out," he later said, "I was induced to join the army on the promise that all prosecution in that case would be abandoned. This is how I came to take up arms."
Ferguson claimed that all his killings were in self-defense, while admitting that some, like the Frogg shooting, were preemptive attacks. One of them occurred about a month after Frogg's death. Ferguson and his men went to the home of Reuben Wood, who also lived in Clinton County. Wood met the guerrillas in the road in front of his house. "Don't you beg," Ferguson told the older man, "and don't you dodge." Wood's children later testified that their father reminded Ferguson of their past friendship and the fact that he had cared for Ferguson when he was a child. "You have always treated me like a gentleman," Ferguson said, "but you have been to Camp Robinson, and I intend to kill you." Reuben Wood did not die easily. Even fatally wounded he managed to knock Ferguson's gun away with a hatchet and escape. Wood died two days later.
"Reuben Wood and I were always good friends before the War," Ferguson said, "but after that he was connected with the same company in which my brother, Jim, was operating. I knew that he intended killing me if he ever got a chance. They both hunted me down, and drove me fairly to desperation.
"On the day that he was killed, we met him in the road and he commenced on me, and I believe he intended to shoot me. The touching story about his piteous appeals to me—that he had nursed me when a babe, and tossed me on his knee—are false, and were gotten up expressly to create sympathy, and set me forth as a heartless wretch. If I had not shot Reuben Wood, I would not likely have been here, for he would have shot me. I never expressed a regret for committing the act, and never will. He was in open war against me."
On December 15, Union XIV Corps commander Major General William Rosecrans issued an order allowing Major General George H. Thomas, commander of the center of the XIV Corps, to send Colonel Frank Wolford's 1st Kentucky Cavalry after Ferguson and another Tennessee guerrilla, Oliver Hamilton of Overton County. "Colonel Wolford has permission to pursue and capture Hamilton and Ferguson," Rosecrans wrote, "but let him be careful not to get caught himself." Nothing came of Wolford's ambitions to snare the guerrilla chief.
On New Year's Night 1863, Ferguson set out to rid himself of some of his most troublesome enemies in Kentucky. The first to fall was Union guerrilla Elam Huddleston. After an hour-long gunfight between Confederate guerrillas and the Huddleston brothers Elam and Moses, aided by their cousin David Huddleston, Ferguson killed his intended victim at his house. Next to die were the Zachery brothers Peter and Allen, sons of James Zachery. Ferguson killed Peter with his knife after a fierce hand-to-hand struggle.
Ferguson's private feuds were suspended for a while after the Huddleston fight, because he was too busy tangling with the regular Federal army. Over the next two years, his guerrilla band, which now numbered in the dozens and sometimes in the hundreds, would harry Union forces and sometimes augment Confederate cavalry regiments.
By the second half of the war, the Federals were clamping down on guerrilla strongholds, especially Sparta, Tennessee. Colonel Thomas J. Harrison's 8th Indiana Cavalry and Colonel William B. Stokes's 5th Tennessee Cavalry scoured the area, skirmishing with partisans and raiding Ferguson's farm twice. Ferguson was not home either time, having left to join forces with George Carter of Spencer, Tennessee, to raid Fentress County. The raid resulted in the death of Beaty's son Dallas, among others.
On February 18, 1864, Stokes took possession of Sparta. The Union soldiers and the local Confederate partisans clashed often from then on. Ferguson fought at Calfkiller in White County on February 22 and was wounded in another engagement on March 11. No details are available about his wound. Soldiers of the 5th Tennessee Cavalry killed Scott Bledsoe, Ferguson's old comrade, that March.
The Confederate guerrillas continued to destroy property and steal Federal stock. Major Thomas H. Reeves of the 4th Tennessee Infantry (Union), angry that the citizens of Sparta continued to secretly aid the Rebel guerrillas, took his command into town on July 15. He declared martial law and had every man he found arrested. The anguished denizens expected their town to be destroyed, but the 4th left the next day with only nine prisoners. According to Reeves, his men could boast of "unparalleled plunder."
Within weeks, Union guerrillas had burned Ferguson's home to the ground. Ferguson and his comrades headed south and joined themselves to Major General Joseph Wheeler's cavalry. They were then detached from Wheeler's command and ordered to report to Major General John C. Breckinridge in southwest Virginia.
It was in Emory, Virginia, that Ferguson committed his most infamous murder. Ferguson and his men were with a small Confederate force at Saltville, Virginia, on October 2, 1864, when a Federal cavalry attacked. The Confederates put up a spirited resistance, and after a sharp fight, the Federals withdrew. The next morning at Emory, Ferguson and his lieutenant Rains Philpot entered the Confederate hospital where Federal wounded and prisoners had been taken. Some of those same soldiers later testified they had seen Ferguson coldly killing prisoners on the battlefield, especially black men and white men in their vicinity.
At the hospital, Ferguson shot Lieutenant Elza C. Smith of the 13th Kentucky Cavalry while he lay a helpless prisoner. Ferguson may have suspected that Smith had killed his comrade Oliver P. Hamilton while Hamilton was trying to surrender. "I have a begrudge against Smith," Ferguson was heard saying as he searched for Smith's bed. "We'll find him." The killing of wounded men and prisoners that Ferguson and his men did that day would go down in history as the Saltville Massacre.
The four-year quasi-military career of Champ Ferguson came to an end on May 26, 1865, when he was taken into Federal custody in Sparta. Ferguson claimed he had surrendered, while Colonel Joseph Blackburn of the 5th Tennessee Mounted Infantry claimed to have captured him.
Ferguson thought he would be paroled, as were other guerrillas who surrendered. What he did not realize was that the Federal government had singled him out, specifying that any attempt by him to surrender should be refused. He was taken to prison in Nashville and soon became the focus of a sensational military trial. He was charged with being a guerrilla and a murderer.
A long line of witnesses appeared against him. One was his archnemesis, Beaty. Afterward, a reporter asked Ferguson what he thought of Beaty. "Well, there are meaner men than Tinker Dave," Ferguson responded. "He fought me bravely and gave me some heavy licks, but I always gave him as good as he sent. I have nothing against Tinker Dave…. We both tried to get each other during the War, but we always proved too cunning for each other." He noted that he was a skilled shooter who always hit his mark, except when the mark was Beaty.
When the time came for Ferguson's defense, he could muster only a handful of character witnesses. One was Joseph Wheeler, but support from even this well- respected general was not enough to sway the court. On October 10, Ferguson was found guilty and sentenced to hang.
"I was a Southern man at the start," Ferguson said in his final statement. "I am yet, and will die a Rebel. I believe I was right in all I did." He reiterated that he had killed only those who had intended to kill him and that he had treated prisoners the way his own men had been treated by the enemy. "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."
Ferguson was hanged on October 20, his wife and tearful 16-year-old daughter watching as his lifeless body dangled at the end of the rope.
Ferguson's bloody war record reveals him to be a murderer who deserved his fate. Still, many of his contemporaries were no better than he, including some men on the pro-Union side, yet they escaped similar retribution. Beaty admitted he had taken up arms for the Union government without pay, which by definition made him a guerrilla. He could have suffered the same fate as Ferguson. Clearly, a double standard was being applied. Indeed, when pro-Union newspapers in Nashville covered the Ferguson trial, they referred to the defendant as "the monstrous criminal" and Beaty as "the celebrated Union scout."
After Tennessee was readmitted to the Union, Beaty became a respected citizen of the state. He even served as a member of the county court when he returned to Jamestown.
The irony of the similarities between Beaty and Ferguson could not have escaped Ferguson's defenders. The same deeds that made a man a criminal could make him a hero if his side won.
In 1862, Ferguson began his long-running war with a man named David Beaty, who would become his greatest enemy. The Nashville Dispatch noted that Beaty "fought Champ Ferguson from the beginning to the end of his career…. They have shot at each other innumerable times, and each has received ugly wounds. They were deadly enemies, and hunted each other down with savage ferocity."
Known to his neighbors in Fentress County, Tennessee, as Tinker Dave, Beaty (also spelled Beatty) was as ruthless and vicious in his defense of the Union as Ferguson was of the Confederacy. Local legend tells of the time he shot a man and then directed his horse to step on the unfortunate victim's face.
Beaty became a guerrilla in early 1862. About February 1, Bledsoe's men warned Beaty to take sides or leave the country. At this point in the war, Bledsoe and Ferguson were, according to Beaty, "conscripting, killing, and shooting at Union men in general, including myself." Beaty responded to the threat by choosing the other side and raising his own band of guerrillas. His men lived in the woods like Ferguson's and practiced the same tactics. These enemies skirmished often.
Given the opportunity, Ferguson and Beaty would no doubt have eagerly cut each other's throat, but they did share a mutual respect. Perhaps they sensed they were kindred spirits who had more in common with each other than with polite society or the military establishment.
By the spring of 1862, relatively few major military engagements had taken place in Tennessee, but the Cumberland Mountains were filled with violence. Roaming bands of outlaws took advantage of the war to steal whatever they wanted with no regard for their victims' politics. It was not uncommon for these outlaws simply to declare a man an enemy sympathizer and then take his possessions or even kill him. Families, friends, and neighbors were so passionately divided that even idle rumors questioning a man's alignment could soon lead to his death. Many prudent people avoided their own homes.
In the middle of all this chaos stood Champ Ferguson. Many of the Union men he took prisoner—some in the army, some not—were found shot and often stabbed through the heart. Ferguson favored the Bowie knife and often finished his victims off with one. There were rumors of decapitations.
On April 1, 1862, Ferguson encountered 16-year-old Fount Zachery in Fentress County. Zachery was carrying a shotgun. He surrendered the weapon, but Ferguson shot him anyway. Almost as soon as Zachery hit the ground, Ferguson was on him with his Bowie knife, and Fount Zachery became the first of four Zachery males to fall to Ferguson. Ferguson justified his actions by claiming he had official orders to kill any armed man in the area.
Over the next few weeks, Ferguson's men killed their leader's cousin Alexander Huff in Fentress County; Union guerrilla Elijah Kogier in Clinton County, whom they shot down as his young daughter clung to him; and Fount Zachery's grandfather James. James Zachery's daughter Esther would testify that she saw Ferguson chasing her father through the family orchard, yelling to his men, "Shoot him, damn him, shoot him!"
Toward the end of April, Colonel John Hunt Morgan's Kentucky cavalry passed through Sparta, Tennessee, and Ferguson and some of his men joined the force to serve as scouts. Morgan's men crowded around Ferguson, eager to get a glimpse of the notorious outlaw whose exploits were already becoming legend in the region. Ferguson and several of his guerrillas rode with Morgan on some raids, fighting at Tomkinsville, Lebanon, and Cynthiana, Kentucky, and on June 21 at Gallatin, Tennessee.
Ferguson became well acquainted with Morgan's second in command and brother- in-law, Major Basil W. Duke. Duke warned his infamous scout that there would be no abusing of prisoners. Ferguson was indignant. He assured Duke he would never harm regularly commissioned officers captured in combat, because he had nothing personally against them "except that they are wrong, and oughtn't to come down here and fight our people." He admitted, though, that if he came across any "hounds" he had just reasons to kill, he would not hesitate to kill them.
By the fall of 1862, Ferguson had focused himself almost exclusively on personal vendettas. In October, he killed a man named Wash Tabor, whom he suspected of ambushing and killing three of his men. Ferguson did not harm others captured along with Tabor. He explained to prisoner George Thrasher, "I'm not in favor of killing you, Thrasher, you have never been bushwhacking or stealing horses. I have killed old Wash Tabor, a damned good Christian, and I don't reckon he minds dying." On a later occasion, the mother of one of Ferguson's prisoners, John Crabtree, begged for her son's life, but the guerrilla leader told her that her concern was too late in coming. The time to worry was years ago, he suggested, when she still had the chance to raise her son right.
Several of Ferguson's victims belonged to the 7th Tennessee Infantry (Union). So it is not surprising that the commander of that regiment, Colonel William Clift, was eager to attack the independent Rebel bands trolling the Tennessee- Kentucky border. "I deem it highly indispensable to break up these guerrilla companies as speedily as possible, as there can be no safety to the peace of the country while they are permitted to exist," he said.
[You can see the Clinton County, Kentucky in the story referring to Champ Ferguson and notice the census information referring to Zylpha Ferguson as the mother-in-law of John B. Huddleston of Tennessee. From the census information we find the same John B. Huddleston married to Mary E. Huddleston and since John B. Huddleston's mother-in-law was Zylpha Ferguson that makes Mary E. Huddleston's maiden name Ferguson. I am trying to find out what relation was Zylpha Ferguson to Champ Ferguson and from reading the census and story We know it must have been close. 1840 Clinton Co., Ky. W.R. Ferguson 1m 5-10, 2m 10-15, 1m 15-20, 1m 40-50, 1m 60-70 2f 0-5, 1f 10-15, 1f 30-40, 1f 60-70 William R., son of Champion and Jemima Ferguson. Wm. R. m. Zilpha Huff.
From:
Message
THE SANDUSKY/FERGUSON CONNECTION
With good responses from Marlene and Walter Ferguson and Anne Ferguson on the
Ferguson side of the family, and Sandy Sellers, who has roots in the two
families and who pulled Anne Ferguson, the Sweet Shrub of all Sweet Shrubs,
into our own version of the Garden of Good and Evil, I have enough material to
fill a number of potholes in the Sadowski/Sandusky family history. In case you
didn?t see it coming, it began when I wrote about an evil character, Champ
Ferguson, who was hanged during the War between the North and the South for
his evil deeds, some of them on Sandusky plantations in Kentucky. Until Champ
Ferguson reared his ugly head, it was all love between the two families. Not
much of this story was widely known, although a number of Fergusons were
gathering their family history for decades. For example, Walter Ferguson of
Baltimore has a letter dated March 10, 1972, and addressed to Edith(last name
unknown), from Mrs. Ray D. Mc Collum of Sun City, Arizona, and it takes the
Sandusky and Ferguson bloodlines back to the eve of the nineteenth century. As
Bernice Henry McCollum wrote, and to which Anne Ferguson agreed, Susan
Sandusky, who was born Feb. 15, 1798, was the daughter of Anthony Sandusky and
Hannah(last name unknown). Less was known of Benjamin Ferguson, the other
person in this scenario, owing partly to discrepancies in family history.
After working on her line, visiting Cumberland and Clinton counties in
Kentucky three times, and writing to Jack Ferguson in Albany, Kentucky, who
knew many ins and outs of the family, they traced their line back to Champ and
Jemima Ferguson who arrived in Cumberland County, Kentucky, accompanied by
Benjamin Ferguson, ?probably a brother,? and ?took up land ca 1800.? Champ and
Jemima, a native of South Carolina, had at least four children: William R.,
Elizabeth, Benjamin, and John Ferguson. Eventually, William R. Ferguson became
the father of the notorious war guerrilla and grandson of the Kentucky pioneer
of the same name, and his brother, Benjamin Ferguson, who was born in
Cumberland County, Kentucky, on May 7, 1802, married Susan Sandusky on Dec. 6,
1820. Thus, as Anne Ferguson pointed out, Susan was, or became, the aunt of
the noted Confederate by marriage. About the same time that Benjamin Ferguson
was born in 1802, when Susan Sandusky was three years old, her parents,
Anthony and Hannah Sandusky, bought land in Cumberland County, which was
pretty far from their previous home in Kentucky, and, after Susan, and they
had six children, two girls and four boys, between 1802 and 1815/15.
Sarah(Sally) was the first one of these children and was never married. After
her father died, she lived with her mother, Hannah, and then the two lived
with John and Aseneth(Wynn) Sandusky on the old homestead. The next child,
Jacob, who was born March 12, 1804, married Melinda Hays, and died in
Tecumseh, Nebraska, Nov. 31, 1884. Many family historians mistook this pair as
the parents of Susan Ferguson. James, the next in line, was born March 14,
1806, married Margaret Campbell, and died August 15, 1882, in Carroll County,
Missouri, where he made wagons that carried people and goods on the Sante Fe
Trail. In between James and Samuel, who was born in 1812, was, of course,
John, who evidently inherited the family farm. He was born in 1808. Samuel
married Mary (Polly) Bates, and moved to Adair County, Kentucky, where he died
in 1900. (Ruth Beall, a well-known family researcher, came from this family.)
The last of this group was Nancy. Walter Ferguson, who joined hordes of
genealogy buffs after his retirement from the U. S. Air Force, General
Electric Company, and Martin Marietta Corporation in the early1960s, picked up
the trail because his grandfather, Francis Marion Ferguson, was the son of
Benjamin and Susan (Sandusky) Ferguson. Between 1820 and 1830 his great-
grandparents had four children: Emeline, William, Willie(Wallace), and Nancy
in Kentucky. In 1830 the family moved by covered wagon, as Walter Ferguson
wrote, to Morgan County, Illinois, where five more children were born:
Annie(Jemima) Champion Anthony Hannah Francis Marion For a while Jacob and
Melina Sandusky lived in Morgan County, Illinois, then moved to Green County,
and finally, in 1868, to Nebraska. Little did Susan Ferguson know that three
of her sons and Jacob's son, James, a farmer and stock raiser in Waverly,
Illinois, would fight to save the Union in the 1860s. Not to mention Champ
Ferguson?s hanging. She died at Woodson, Illinois, January 9, 1861, four
months before the war broke out, and up to that time three of her nine
children were married. The farm near the village of Woodson, on which she
raised these children to love their country, was rented for 22 years from
Jacob Strawn and then was deeded to Benjamin Ferguson for his services during
Strawn?s lifetime. For many years he was a blacksmith. On August 20, 1868,
seven years after the death of Susan, Benjamin Ferguson, then 66 years old,
married Matilda Masters, who had come to Morgan County, Illinois, with her
family from Overton County, Tennessee, in 1834, when she was 18 years old, and
they settled down in Jacksonville, the seat of Morgan County, Illinois.
Matilda was related to Edgar Lee Masters, the poet and novelist. Benjamin
Ferguson, a devout Methodist, died Nov. 26, 1893, in Jacksonville, and was
buried in Diamond Grove Cemetery. The ?History of Morgan County, Illinois? in
1878 paid tribute to his patriotism by detailed biographical sketches of his
three sons, Anthony, Champion, and Francis Marion Ferguson, who responded to
President Lincoln?s call for troops to save the Union. On Sept. 2, 1862, they
enlisted in Company D, 101st Illinois Volunteers, and went off to the war
front in Mississippi. The oldest of the three, Champ, served three years, and
after the war, on Oct. 18, 1865, he married Virginia H. Harney who was about
two weeks older than him. They had no children. He was a farmer and stock
raiser and owned a farm of 100 acres. In 1906 he lived in Eureka Springs,
Arkansas. Anthony Ferguson, three years younger than Champ, was discharged
after two years for disability. He was at the siege of Vicksburg with his
brothers and took part in the battles of Holly Springs, Mission Ridge, Resaca
and Dallas. He and Lucinda Tunnell, to whom he was married in 1855, had eight
children in 1878 when he was a farmer for Dr. Brown near Alexander, Illinois.
At the same time he held the office of school director. The youngest of the
brothers, Francis Marion Ferguson, who was born near Murrayville, Illinois,
August 23, 1841, displayed unusual heroism in 1863 when his company was
detailed for duty on the Rattler, a Union gunboat which plied the lower
Mississippi. On Oct. 27, 1863, after the Union forces captured Holly Springs,
Mississippi, the Fergusons took part in the night attack of Wauthatchie. The
month after that they were in the battle of Chattanooga and shortly after
other battles. Francis Marion started on General Sherman?s march to the sea in
November, 1864. After the war, he and Julia Angelo of Lynnville, Illinois,
whom he married two seasons before he enlisted, had eight children. He was
active in the G. A. R. He served as a constable in Jacksonville for a number
of years and once was candidate to the nomination of coroner of Morgan County
on the Republican ticket. He died Sept. 9, 1906, and was buried in the same
cemetery as his father. His children and what Walter Ferguson disclosed in his
postings: Minnie Louise married George S. Christ and moved to Burriss, Canada.
Still living in 1949. Walter Benjamin was born August 9, 1867, and died in
Columbus, Ohio, Sept. 21, 1938. On July 4, 1897, he married Lillie Mae
Crabbe(born Dec. 25, 1877-died April 17, 1967, Lebanon, Ohio), and they had
five children. Harden Hollis married Carrie Crabbe of Jacksonville, Ill. Their
only son, Hollis Durrell Ferguson, was born Oct. 29, 1897, in Jacksonville.
Alicedied young. Hattie(Edith Matilda) died young. Mary Susan Jane(Mae)
married W. D. Hitt of Merritt, Illinois. Nell Mable of St. Louis. Grace Maud
McAlister of Birmingham, Alabama. Last but not least, all the Sanduskys and
the Fergusons in this bloodline can trace their descent to Anthony Sadowski, a
Polish refugee who died 1736 in what is now the village of Douglassville,
Pennsylvania. Susan, the wife of Benjamin Ferguson, was the daughter of
Anthony and Hannah Sandusky and the granddaugher of Samuel Sandusky, 1749-
1803, who was in turn the son of Andrew and Catherine Sadowski, the correct
spelling of the family name, and the grandson of Anthony and Mary(Bird/ Bordt)
Sadowski. Edward Pinkowski Cooper City, Florida
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Name: Champion Ferguson Surname: Ferguson Given Name: Champion Prefix: Captain
Nickname: Champ Sex: M Birth: 29 Nov 1821 in , Clinton, Kentucky Death: 20 Oct
1865 in Nashville, Davidson, Tennessee of Hanged for war crimes Burial: ABT 22
Oct 1865 France Cemetery, , White, Tennessee _UID:
0E9ADC558D741D47ADDA3463392D21D2B57C Note:
Served in CSA Tennesse Cavalry.
-- CAPTAIN CHAMP
FERGUSON'S CAVALRY COMPANY
No muster rolls were found of this organization, but it was organized in
the first half of 1862 by Champ Ferguson, who was born just across the state
line in Clinton Co, KY, but moved his family to White Co, TN for safety, and
organized his company in Fentress and neighboring counties. Federal reports in
the Official Records make numerous references to "his marauding band" as
operating in Clinton Co, KY, and in Scott, Morgan, Fentress and Clay Counties,
Tennessee, in 1862 and 1863. During this period he seems to have operated in
conjunction with Hamilton's Tennessee Cavalry Battalion. His company was
reported as part of the forces under Colonel John Hunt Morgan in an action at
Celina on July 9, 1862. On the Confederate side, Colonel George Dibrell, in
his report of the action at Calf Killer Creek, White County, on August 9,
1863, said he was re-enforced by Champ Ferguson with a part of his company. In
November 1863, Colonel William B. Stokes, 5th Tennessee Cavalry, reported
numerous skirmishes with the forces under Hughs, Hamilton, Ferguson and others
in the area around Sparta. The Hughs referred to was Colonel John M. Hughs, of
the 25th Tennessee Infantry, CSA. On July 15, 1864, forces under Ferguson,
Hughs and others made off with 500 United States Cavalry horses from the post
at Kingston, Tennessee.
On October 2, 1864, Federal reports charged Ferguson with the murder of a
Lieutenant Smith, of the 13th Kentucky Cavalry, while on his bed wounded and a
prisoner at Emory General Hospital, Virginia. On April 28, 1865, Major General
George Stoneman, United States Army, reporting on the roundup of Confederate
forces in Virginia, stated "Champ Ferguson is in command of Southwestern
Virginia." On May 16, 1865, Major General L. H. Rousseau, at Nashville, issued
an order: "Champ Ferguson and his gang of cutthroats, having refused to
surrender, are denounced as outlaws, and the military forces of the district
will deal with them and treat them accordingly." Ferguson had by this time
returned to his home in White County, and finally surrendered to Lieutenant
Colonel Joseph H. Blackburn in the last half of May. He was charged with
murder, tried, convicted and executed by the Federal authorities. Major
General Joseph Wheeler, Confederate States of America, testifying in his
defense, stated that Ferguson's company was attached to his command in August,
1864, marched with him to Georgia and South Carolina, was transferred in the
fall to Major General John C. Breckinridge's command until after the Battle of
Saltville, Virginia on October 2, 1864; was returned to his command until
February 1, 1865, when he was ordered back to Virginia; and that he considered
Ferguson to be a member of the regular armed forces of the Confederacy, and
entitled to treatment as a prisoner of war.
List of people killed by Champ Ferguson -- Joseph Beck, 1862; John
Crabtree; 1863; Daniel Delk; 1863, Martin Van Buren Killed after the war by
Champ; William W. Frogge, 1861; Elam Huddleston, 1863; George Huddleston,
1863; Alex Huff, 1862; John H. Hurt, 1865 after the war; William Johnson,
1862; Elissha M. Koger, 1862; Robert Martin, 1861; Joseph Stover, Wm. Johnson,
Louis Pierce and Henry Sells were all killed at the same time and buried in
one grave that is now under Dale Hollow Lake. William Mc Glasson, 1862; Eliza
Smith, 1864; Wash Taber, 1862; John Williams Killed and cut to pieces; Reuban
B. Wood, no date; Allen Zachary and James Zachary in 1862; Peter Zachrary,
1863. All are listed in the book Champ Ferguson by Gary Norris.
Donna J. Barlow -- Champ also had a child by his first wife that I believe
died in child birth.
1840 Clinton Co, KY census Champion Ferguson 60-70; 000000001-000000001.
This appears to be the grandfather.of Captain Champ Ferguson!
1850 Clinton Co, KY census Champ Ferguson 29 KY b. 1820-1821; District 1
Page line 1 #328/328; 20 Aug 1850.
1860 Clinton Co, KY census Champion Ferguson 38 KY b. 1821-1822; page line
33 #90/90;
THE TRIAL OF CHAMP FERGUSON.; Details of Atrocious Barbarities. Published:
August 15, 1865 The notorious desperado, CHAMP FERGUSON, is now on trial in
Nashville. Between fifty and sixty murders are charged to him personally. The
following testimony is no worse than that which has been given daily during
the last three or four weeks: John Huff, a witness for the prosecution,
testified as follows: Am a son of Mrs. Patsey Huff, of Fentress County, Tenn.;
was at her house when Wm. Delk, John Crabtree and John Williams were taken
from there; Ferguson, Hans Boles, John Gregory and Thomas Riley were all I
recognized out of the party of thirteen or fourteen who came to the house; it
was at night, I think, at one o'clock, as near as I can recollect; they
surrounded the house, and aid for some one to get up and strike a light; I
started to do so, and they asked who I was; I told them; don't know who it was
asked me that; they told me if I got up they would kill me; some one then
ordered me to get up and take a light, which I did; Hans Moles ordered me to
do this; some asked who were in there; I told them I didn't know; then they
asked if Preston Huff and Andrew Huff were present, and said they were going
to kill them it they were there. They asked me then who all were there that
night. I told them William Delk, John Crabtree, John Williams, William Huff
and Preston Huff were there, and that Andy Huff was not there. Then they
ordered those in the house to surrender; they hadn't seen them yet; here Delk
walked out to the crowd and asked what they were going to do with them; they
replied that they were going to take them to Albany, to headquarters, to have
their trial; the other boys, Williams and Crabtree, surrendered themselves,
and the party all came into the house, and went to searching it; then they
took the straps off their guns and tied the prisoners; Delk begged them not to
tie him too tight, that it hurt him; Ferguson said: "D -- n you, that is what
we ant to do -- we want to hurt you;" Delk aimed to give my sister some money
o give his mother, and Thomas Riley grabbed the money; Crabtree started to ive
his mother a knife, which they grabbed for, but she got it. Champ then ot a
negro girl, saying she belonged to Eli Hatfield, and he had orders o take her.
The girl belonged to Hatfield, who is a brother-in-law of mine. y mother had
raised the negro. They then went to taking things from the ouse -- bed
clothing and wearing apparel. Ferguson told the men to take what they pleased,
when the money was taken from Delk. Ferguson told him he Delk) would have so
further use for money. They chopped up the floor and hreatened to burn the
house. They chopped up two planks of the floor. erguson then told the
prisoners that he was going to kill them. He drew his knife nd told Crabtree
that he was going to cut his throat. Crabtree's mother aid to Ferguson, when
they started. "You ain't going to kill him, are you?" nd Ferguson said they
were. Then they started and took Crabtree, Delk, Williams, and the negro girl
with them. They got about one hundred yards from he house, and I saw the light
of two or three guns, whereupon I went into he house, and there heard about
twelve or thirteen guns. Heard some one say two or three times, "run." Between
half and three-quarters of an hour rom the time they left the house, I went to
Piles place and found Delk, Williams, and Crabtree dead in the horse-lot.
Didn't hear any firing after at he Piles place. Williams was shot about the
centre of the forehead, and a piece of his skull was blown off. Delk was shot
once through his breast, and bayonet run through his breast -- it looked like
it might have been a bayonet; Crabtree I don't think was shot at all -- he was
just cut; he was cut all over the breast, and in the forepart of his shoulder,
between the neck nd collar-bone; also in the back, under the shoulder-blade;
in that wound was a cornstalk stuck in and cut off; my sister (Mrs. Lucinda
Hatfield) and Crabtree's mother, and Miss Annie Piercy, went with me to the
Piles lace, where we found the bodies; saw there Vina Piles, Nannie Piles and
Wm. Piles; didn't see Mrs. Piles, the mother of Vina Piles; think she was dead
at he time. Ferguson gave the orders, and had control of the party while at my
mother's house. All this occurred about Oct. 1, 1863. They stayed at the house
from the time they came until about daylight. cross-examination by the Defence
--
Q. -- How old were you at the time this occurrence took place? . -- About
16 years old. . -- Were you disturbed while the party above-mentioned were at
your house? . -- When they first came up, I was. They made us all get up, and
threatened to kill me, and threatened to take me off with them. They said I
had been in the army, and John Gregory told them I hadn't, and then they let
me off. . -- You say Preston Huff and Wm. Huff were at the house; what became
of them? . -- Why, they got away. . -- Were Preston Huff and Wm. Huff armed? .
-- Yes, Sir. . -- Did you hear them shoot? Do you know what they shot at? . --
I heard them shoot; they said they shot at the men that came to the house; but
those men shot first. . -- Did Delk, Williams and Crabtree belong to an
independent company? . -- Not as I know of; they said they belonged to the
Seventh Tennessee Infantry. . -- Were they in the habit of lying out, shooting
at soldiers and others passing the road? . -- If they were I don't know it. .
-- Did these men, Delk, Williams and Crabtree, belong to Eli Hatfield's
command? . -- Not as I know of. . -- How long had they been in that part of
the country? . -- I don't know how long; Delk came there after they were
whipped at Huntsville; I had never seen Williams and Crabtree there before
that night. . -- What instrument was used for chopping the floor? . -- An axe;
they got it there at our house; I don't know who did the chopping. . -- You
saw Ferguson take away a negro girl; might you not be mistaken? Was it not
Hans Moles and Alex. Evans that took her? . -- No, Sir, it was Ferguson.
Reexamination by the Judge Advocate. -- Q. -- Did you see behind whom the
Negro girl rode, in going from your mother's house to the Piles Place? . -- I
do not know; they took her off from our house walking. Mrs. Lucinda Hatfield,
a witness for the prosecution, testified as follows: Am the daughter of the
late Alexander Huff and Mrs. Patsey Huff, and the wife of Eli Hatfield; my
father was killed the 2d day of May, 1865; was at my mother's house at the
time Delk, Williams and Crabtree were taken from there, but don't recollect
the date of the affair. As most of the testimony of this witness was merely
corroborative of the previous evidence, presenting the same facts in similar
language, we omit all, excepting such points as are new.] Champ said by God he
intended to burn the house, unless I would tell where my brother, Preston
Huff, and my cousin, William Huff, were; the men that were with him asked what
were the orders next, and he (Ferguson) told them to take just what they
wanted; they took some five or six blankets, four coverlets, some calico, and
some other things; they took some of the clothes that my father was killed in,
some pants, a hat and a shirt, and I don't recollect what else; some of them
pulled off their own clothes and put on the stolen clothes in the room. The
coat we got back. We found it where Delk, Williams and Crabtree were killed.
We could have sold the blankets for six dollars; the coverlets might have been
worth eight dollars apiece. The coat that my father was shot in was shot so
that it was not worth much of anything. They took an ax and broke up a table,
besides cutting the floor. They brought Delk, Williams and Crabtree into the
kitchen. Crabtree's mother begged for her boy, and Champ told her it was too
late now, that she ought to have made him do better long ago, and his mother
said he hadn't done anything. He said that by God he was going to kill them
with a knife he drew. He said he had never said yet that he was going to kill
a man but what he got to kill him. When he threatened to burn the house if I
didn't tell where my brother was, he said if he caught him he intended to
unjoint every joint in his body, and throw the pieces so far apart that we
would never get them to bury them. I county twenty-eight holes cut in
Crabtree's coat when we washed it after he was cut up so; I saw two cornstalks
driven in his left shoulder; I knew Ferguson well; he stayed all night at my
father's house, about four years before the war; afterwards first saw him in
Clinton County, Ky.; Ferguson was riding a horse I thought belonged to Daniel
Kogier; I saw the horse Christmas, and Kogier had it then; I spent the
Christmas holidays with Kogier, and saw the horse several days; it was after
that Christmas I saw Ferguson with the horse. . -- When and where did you see
the prisoner next after that? Who were with him, and what did they do? . -- It
was when he came to my father's and took him off; Galen Elliott, Doctor
Elliot, Henry Sublets, John (Cooney) Smith, Hamp McGinnis, Jouett McGinnis,
and Will Hildreth, were all that came to the house; this was on the 2d of May,
1862. . -- Now state what was done, and who gave orders and controlled the
party. . -- My father was sitting in the yard: he went into the house, and
Jouett McGinnis told my father to go out, and pushed John Smith out to shoot
him; mother and myself caught hold of Smith and told him not to kill father,
and Champ said he shouldn't be hurt, for me to go back in the house and go do
my work; they took my father away. . -- Where did you find your father, and
how long after they took him away? . -- We found my father at the old Conrad
Piles place. Jeff. Piles was taken way in the morning, and about afternoon two
girls came and told us they had killed him, and I went over and found my
father dead. . -- Describe the wounds that were on your father. . -- I saw two
wounds that were on his left arm, and one through his ankle, and a bullet had
entered the centre of his forehead. It had gone through the skull and lodged.
I could see the bullet. They said there were more on his back, but I didn't
see them. Adjourned to 8 o'clock this morning.
The First Man Champ Ferguson Killed-Thrilling Narrative -- We averted to
the killing of Read, the constable, before the war commenced, and asked what
induced him to take up arms. To this question he made the following statement:
Some time before the war there were two brothers named Evans who lived in
Fentress county, Tennessee. They came over to Clinton county and purchased a
large number of hogs from my brother Ben, Jim and myself, and in fact from all
in that neighborhoods who had hogs to sell. Floyd Evans gave his notes for the
payment. At the time appointed by him to meet at Albany, we went down to get
our pay. On the road, we met Alex Evans, one of the brothers, and a number of
others who appeared to be in a big flurry about something. When we rode up
they told us that floyd had run off with all the money, and they were hunting
for him. Alexander Evans had done this to mislead his brother's creditors, and
Floyd in the meantime had left on a boat. Mr. Biter and I proceeded to
Livingston, and brought suit against Floyd Evans, and got a judgment. When we
wuld catch Aleck Evans in Kentucky we invariably attached his horse, and this
is the way the horse was taken that I have been charged with stealing. After a
while Floyd Evans returned, and sent to Biter to have the suit drawn, giving
security for the payment of the debts. Some time after this my brother Jim and
Bill Jones went over to Fentress county and brought back a mare to Kentucky
and had her attached. A few days after this I went to a camp meeting in
Fentress county, at Lick Creek, with a friend, and was entirely ignorant of
the taking of the mare by Jim and Bill Jones. However, they got the idea in
their heads that I was the author of it, and after we were on the ground a
short time, a friend came to me and called my attention to a crowd who with
the Evans boys plotting some mischief. He advised me to leave the ground for
he had overheard them talking in groups and that they intended to either kill
me or give me a severe thrashinng. I told him that I did not fear them, and
would noot leave the ground until I got ready. By this time I noticed them
talking in little squads, and looking towards me. Finally I concuded that
rather than have any trouble with them I would leave. Accordingly I started
for my horse when the mom commenced picking up stones, and shouting, "Kill
him!" at the same time sending a shower of rocks at me. There were about
twenty of them, and I had nothing but a small pocket-knife about me. Hoowever,
it was bran(d) new, and sharp as a rasor. I succeeded in mounting my mare, and
"let out," with the whol pack in pursuit like so many wolves that had got
taste of blood. They took all the horses they could find on the ground, and
the race was for life with me. I had a fleet little mare, but sh was in foal.
At a gully or creek, my mare fell in making the jump, and hurt herself, so
that had to dismount and trust to my legs. They overtook me, and Floyd Evans
came up first. I tried to reason with him, and said, "Floyd what do you mean."
He made no answer, and came at me, throwing rocks. I then gathered up a few,
and sent them back at himm, and by this time Jim Read and some of the others
had me surrounded. A furious battle ensued with rocks. I struck floyd Evans
with one in the stomach, and he doubled up and got out of the fight. Read, who
was a large man and would weigh fully two hundred pounds, closed on me. I
suppose he was acting as constble. When he got within a few feet of me, I
clinched him and had my pocket-knife out and opened. We had a scuffl, and I
kept cutting him all the time, until he fell, and I stabbed him once or twice.
I then turned by attention to Huddleston, and chased him down a hill to a
fence, which he leaped and got away from me. The Evans boys came running dwon
the hill after me, followed by the gang. I stood, and Floyd Evans and I came
together. I had my knife in my hand, but it got twisted some way and split my
thumb clean open. We had a desperate struggle for the top, and finally I got
my knife in play, and commenced sticking him until I three him and he fell
with me astraddle of him. I drew him up by the collar, and had my arm raised
to plunge the knife in his bosom, when he looked piteously in my face. I
spared his life, and threw him away from me. The others closed on me, and I to
run for dear life. I jumped several fences in crossing fields, and left them
far behind me. I never knew how fast I could run until that time, but a man
can make a big race when his life is at the stake. I ran into a house, and got
up stairs. I found a heavy old-fashoned bed wrench and stood waiting for the
next attack. They soon came to the house and cried out, "Where is he?" at the
same time searching for me. I shouted to them, "I am here and I dare any of
you to come for me." A dispute then arose about who would take the lead in
ascending the stairs to take me. After a great deal of blustering and cursing,
every one of them backed out. By this time all the women from the camp ground
were in and aound the house screaming and crying, some of them fearing they
would kill me, and others afraid that I would kill some of their relatives.
Matters stood this way for some time, until the sheriff arrived, and I was
called upon to surrender. I refused, unless they would give me some assurance
that my life would be protected agains the mom. After about two hours
threatening, Jim Wright wanted me to throw down my knife, but I refused until
a sacred promise was made that I should have a fair trial. I then came down
and gave up, after which they tied me hand and foot, and carried me to jail.
Alexander Evans tried hard to shoot me while I was on the way to jail. He
fired at me in the house. As to the statements published that Reuben Wood
interposed and saved my life from the mob, it is false. Reuben Wood was not
there at all. Shortly afterwards I was let out on bail and when the war broke
out I was induced to join the army on the promise that all prosecution in that
case would be abandoned. This is how I cam to take up arms.
Change Date: 5 Dec 2011 at 08:50:15
Father: William R. Ferguson b: 5 Mar 1800 in , , Kentucky Mother: Zilpha Huff
b: 15 Apr 1802 in , , Kentucky
Marriage 1 Ann Eliza Smith b: 7 Jul 1825
Married: 1845 in , Clinton, Kentucky
Marriage 2 Martha Owen b: 1826/1827 in , , Kentucky
Married: 23 Jul 1848
Children
Has Children Ann Elizabeth Ferguson b: Jan 1850 in , Clinton, Kentucky
1850 1860
Champ Ferguson 29 KY 38 KY 1820-1821
Martha Ferguson 23 KY 34 KY 1826-1827
Ann Ferguson 3/12 KY 9 KY 1850
Marion Cowan 21 KY 1838-1839