I9270: Mary Ann ALVIS (1842

Notes

"I was a Southern Man at the start. I am yet, and will die a Rebel. I believe I was right in all I did. I dont think I have done anything wrong at anytime. I committed my deeds in a cool and deliberate manner. I have killed a good many men, of course; I dont deny that, but I never killed a man whom I did not know was seeking my life. It is false that I never took prisoners. I took a great many and after keeping them awhile paroled them.... I had always heard that the Federals would not take me prisoner, but would shoot me down, wherever found. That is what made me kill more than I would otherwise have done. They never got a man that belonged to my company or Bledsoe's company but that they killed him, and of course they might expect that I would not miss doing the same thing with their men. 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...."

Champ Ferguson
His last statement to the press
on the morning of his execution
October 20, 1865
http://www.geocities.com/Pentagon/Fort/2754/index1.html
History of Ferguson's Independent Cavalry
Roster of Ferguson's Independent Kentucky and Tennessee Cavalry, CSA
Union Guerrillas of the Upper Cumberland
Maps of the Upper Cumberland Region

"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."
http://www.tngennet.org/civilwar/csacav/csachamp.html.

From Anne Ferguson; I would like to add a few things to your article about Confederate Guerilla, Champ Ferguson. Something this article doesn't mention is that the Sandusky's and the Ferguson's were related by marriage. Mr. Pinkowski mentions the comments of descendants of Anthony Sadowski (Sandusky). They said that Champ was the most desperate and fiendish guerilla chief in the Confederate Army. What they failed to mention is that they are related to Champ by the marriage of Anthony Sandusky's first daughter, Susan, to Champ's uncle Benjamin. He also failed to mention that it is well believed among those who hold Champ in esteem that he was defending the honor of his wife and daughter.

Champ lived among Union sympathizers who, while he was away from home scouting for the Confederates, caused his wife and daughter to march down the road naked and cook a meal for them in that state of undress. When Champ found out about this, he swore to get his revenge on these 10 or 12 men. In those days in Kentucky, if someone offended your family, you sought revenge on that man's whole family. That was the law of the mountains. Hatfield's and McCoy's come to mind. So Champ killed the men who abused his family and some of their family members as well. I cannot defend him, as I don't believe murder is right, of course, but he did have reason to want those men's hides.

Capt. Champ Ferguson is now considered a hero by some militia groups because he was a large, fierce frightening man who was an expert at scouting, deceiving the Union army and an excellent weaponsman. Even the soldiers of Morgan's raiders waited in anticipation to meet the
infamous Champ Ferguson. He knew the land of the Kentucky/Tennessee border like no one else. He could recapture rebel prisoners who had been taken by the Union army before the yankees knew what hit them. He was an excellent marksman and was fearless when faced with hand-to-hand combat with the enemy.

In the book "Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come", by John Fox, Jr., Champ is called by the name Rebel Jerry Dillon. While the book is a work of fiction, Mr. Fox researched the work very well. He describes the horror of the Civil War and the way in which both armies went about recruiting soldiers. The Union army conscripted any man who owned a slave. According to some of my families papers and Civil War letters, the Confederates simply came to people's homes and "stole" the men of the household. It was nothing for a woman to stand in her kitchen and watch her family members gunned down before her eyes. The atrocities were on both sides, not just the Confederate side. It was the order of the day to steal anything the army could use from anyone who had food, horses, cows, guns. Mr. Fox also shows the tender side of Champ Ferguson when he tells how Champ took to one of the young Rebel soldiers, protecting him like he was his own son. He recaptured the young boy when the boy was taken prisoner by the Union army.

Champ's own son had died as a child of one of the plagues of the time. His wife also was taken by the disease. He remarried after that and had a daughter. Champ's home was burned because of his involvement with the rebels. He had much to be angry about. So you see, to me Mr. Pinkowski didn't tell the whole story about Capt. Champ and one must know the whole story to stand in judgment of him. By the way, I am not a descendant of Champ Ferguson's family but I believe (but so far have not proven) that I am Champ's 1st cousin 6 times removed. I believe that my ggg-grandfather, William Ferguson was Champ's grandfather's brother. My family and Champ's lived in the same area of Clinton Co. KY and both my grandfather's and gg-grandfather's names were Champion Ferguson. Guerilla Champ's daughter's name was Anne Ferguson. And so is mine.
Keep on Rootin" Anne Ferguson (aka SweetShrub)

AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY

By Edward Pinkowski

The legend of Champ Ferguson will not die.
The notorious, unscrupulous leader of a small band of Confederate guerillas was nearly 44 years old when he was found guilty for a bloody reign of terror in Kentucky and Tennessee and hung October 24, 1865, at Nashville, Tennessee.

In a military trial, he was charged with fifty counts of murder and other war crimes. The wounded, the sick, the aged, and even helpless children, were not spared from his brutal murders, said Harper's Weekly .

Now, 134 years after his family drove away from the gallows and buried his body where even the devil wouldn't find it, there is a campaign in Tennessee to revive this cold-blooded murderer and robber, for whom the governor of Tennessee gave a reward of $500 for his capture and delivery to the authorities for trial and punishment, and to worship him as a Confederate martyr.

If Major John A. Brents, an officer of the First Kentucky Cavalry of the Union Army which chased the wild butcher of the Cumberlands, were alive today, he would be the first to condemn the worship of Champ Ferguson. He is a thief, robber, counterfeiter, and murderer, he wrote. His record does not stop with two or three offences, but is one continual wave of blood and plunder.

LOG HOUSE
To the descendants of Anthony Sadowski in Kentucky, or Sandusky as most of them called themselves in the third generation and further on, Ferguson was the most desperate and fiendish guerilla chief in the Confederate Army.

When the North and the South went to war, Emanuel Sandusky, named after his Pennsylvania-born father, had the most children, grandchildren and slaves in Wayne County, Kentucky, a salt works, a water mill, and a plantation that covered half of Mount Pisgah. At 76, he was too old to join the army, but he had more sons, sons-in-law, and grandsons than any other person in the country who fought in the Civil War. Some of them shouldered guns on the Confederate side and others in the Union Army and still others moved to states where they didn't have to take sides.

Looking back on the past, the two-story log house, which Emanuel Sandusky built about 1808 and where he raised 21 children, was the most patriotic house in America. This isn't generally known. The children who came out of that house were the fifth generation in America that took up arms to defend their land. In one case, Rosannah, who was born in that log house in 1813, had five sons in the first battle of the Civil War on Kentucky soil. The general who commanded them and won the battle was Polish-born Albin Schoepf.

Rosannah, married to James S. Bruton in 1830, was a Gold Star mother as were her mother and grandmother. I could find no other family in the United States to match this record of patriotism.

ATROCITIES
Just before the Southern campaign in Kentucky fell apart, and while the male flowers of the Sandusky kin were away, Captain Ferguson led his guerillas into Clinton and Wayne counties, stealing horses, mules, cattle, hogs, and all kinds of property, and then crossing the Cumberland mountains into Tennessee, which was the depot for his stolen goods. Ferguson and his gang ransacked Sandusky's plantation several times. Each time they had horses shot from under them. Ferguson paid a heavy price for his atrocities. Six guerillas were killed in Wayne County on Jan. 21, 1863, and one on Feb. 12, 1863.

The stories of atrocities in the most gigantic rebellion known in modern times would fill a book. Certainly none had a more bitter memory of Champ Ferguson than the other children and grandchildren of Emanuel Sandusky who in turn told the stories of pillage and blood to the generations that followed.

It was worse than the 1780s when Indians stole cattle and horses from the family plantation in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains, where Emanuel Sandusky was born, and returned to North Carolina.

Jo Ann Reynolds of Illinois still tells stories to her grandchildren and her contacts on the Internet of the time that Ferguson kipnapped two of her kin in Wayne County. One of them was killed and the other escaped.

In another story, Gabriel Sandusky, accustomed to plenty of food in the historic log house in Kentucky, was a prisoner of war who starved to death at Andersonville and his grandfather didn't know about it for two years. It was the last straw. The old man died when he heard the story from one of Gabriel's prison buddies. Thus the story of Champ

you can view Ed's work at Anthony Sadowski - Polish Pioneer by Edward Pinkowski (Copyright 1966) EMail: [email protected]
http://www.poles.org/Sadowski.html
http://members.aol.com/anderson73/sandusky.html

Champ Ferguson, a legendary Confederate partisan ranger and guerilla fighter, was easily the most notorious among the many such men who fought to control the Upper Cumberland Plateau region along the Tennessee and Kentucky borders. Nominally holding the rank of Captain in the Confederate Army, Ferguson led his own company of independent cavalry. When not making the most of every opportunity to harass and intimidate Unionists in the area, Ferguson acted as a scout for Genl. John Hunt Morgan, and was for a time attached to the command of Genl. Joseph Wheeler. His company was under Wheeler's command when they took part in the Battle of Saltville (Virginia).

At war's end, Ferguson and his men returned to their homes and, on 23 May, 1865, they were induced by promise of the same parole given to the officers and men of Lee's and Johnston's Confederate Armies to surrender themselves to federal military authorities. All except Ferguson were indeed released on Oath. Champ Ferguson himself was summarily arrested, and charged with over 50 counts of murder. Some of his purported victims remained nameless, and many of the other charges were wholly unsupported by either witnesses or documentation. In a trial at Nashville, lasting from 11 July through 26 September, 1865, a military tribunal called witness after unreliable witness against Ferguson, all the while denying his counsel every opportunity to present a competent case in his defense. On 10 October, General Orders affirming his conviction and sentencing him to death by hanging were issued. On Friday, 20 October, 1865, the Order of Execution was carried out while Ferguson's wife Martha and sixteen year old daughter Ann watched. Thus it came to be that Champ Ferguson joined Henry Wirz, Commandant of the Confederate prison at Camp Sumter (Andersonville) as the only two former Confederate's of any rank or position to be executed for supposed "war crimes."

The following text is from an "Afterword" to the Ferguson biography mentioned below, and was writen by the son of the author:

"I thought I'd found Champ back in 1941 when my father and I went looking for him in that old graveyard on the Calfkiller River. Maybe I was wrong. According to a story I read in the Cookeville Herald-Citizen, there was a conspiracy between Champ and the military. The theory is that the military felt that Champ should not be hanged because many others as guilty as he had been paroled. The story is that the military enclosed the undersection of the scaffold and that a ring of soldiers completely encircled it. When the hangman cut the rope and Champ dropped through the trap door, they quickly untied the loose knot and placed Champ in the casket alive. The casket was then placed on a waiting wagon which Champ's wife and daughter drove out of town. When they were out of Nashville, Champ climbed out of the casket and the three rode all the way to Indian Territory in Oklahoma, where they took new names and took up farming and ranching for a living."

"It's an interesting story. But if it's true, who is buried in the grave I found marked "Capt. C. Furguson"? Are we to assume that his wife Martha didn't know how to spell his name? Or that someone else in on the conspiracy misspelled it and put up a stab of limestone at a fake grave so that everybody would think Champ had really been hanged? What did Colonel Shafter whisper to Champ in a low undertone that made Champ's face light up noticeably? Did he tell him about the conspiracy and that he would be saved by the military?"

We'll never know, and the legend lives on...

The photographs reproduced above, both believed to be previously unpublished, were taken at the same sitting by Nashville photographer C. C. Hughes, whose studios were on Church Street. It is unknown whether these images were taken there, or whether Hughes came to the prison where Ferguson was held. At least four images from this session have survived in the form of Cartes de Vistes (CDVs). One of the three was reproduced in the book Champ Ferguson, Confederate Guerilla by Thurman Sensing, originally published in 1942 and currently in print from Vanderbilt University Press, to which reference is here made for a complete biography of Ferguson and accounts of war time activities and subsequent trial. Of the remaining three, two appear on this page and the third (scanned from a 67 year old newspaper article) appears on the Muster Roll of Capt. Champ Ferguson's Independent Cavalry Company page.

The Yankee Propaganda Machine

Even though the war had been essentially over for five months, the Yankee press still felt the need to propagandize, and to slander the defeated Confederacy and the men who fought for her. This was especially true when it came to Confederate partisan fighters. The following quotes, full of distortions, half truths, and outright lies about Champ Ferguson, are taken from Harper's Weekly.

September 23, 1865: "Among the guerillas who infested Kentucky during the war Champ Ferguson and his men were the most notorious. Their outrages were chiefly confined to Wayne and Clinton Counties. Champ Ferguson himself is quite a character, though the bloodiest of rascals and murderers. His religious notions are, to say the least, rather queer. Whether he takes a hint from Theodore Parker, who used to call God "Our Father and Mother" is uncertain, but Champ is in the habit of speaking of the Father of All as "the Old Man." He, in a recent interview with the editor of a Western paper, expressed his opinion that "the Old Man" had been on his side thus far in life, and he believed he would stay with him and bring him out of his present trouble all right. He thought the Campbellites were about as good as any of the religious denominations, and a little better."

"Champ Ferguson is now being tried at Nashville by a court-martial on the charge of committing murders and other acts in violation of the laws of war. The verdict has not yet been given, but there is no doubt that he will be punished with death for his many atrocities. Before the war he was arrested for the murder of Read, the constable, and confined in jail. At the outbreak of the rebellion he was released on his pledge to join the rebels. He claims that he had been previously a Union man. He then commenced his career of murder and robbery which made his name a terror in Kentucky. He acted under the orders of John Morgan in most of his raids in Kentucky and Tennessee. He surrendered at the close of the war, supposing that he would be let off with the oath of allegiance. Champ owns a considerable amount of land in Clinton County, Kentucky, estimated by the hundreds of acres. He has good reason for the wish, which he now expresses, "that there had never been any war."

As a companion to above quoted text, this issue of Harper's also reproduced and engraving taken after the Hughes photograph of Ferguson and his guards (which appears at the top of this page). This illustration is every bit as distorted as the text it accompanies, and between the two the hapless reader of Harper's was certainly convinced that Champ Ferguson was evil incarnate.

November 11, 1865: Champ Ferguson, the notorious guerilla, suffered the death penalty on the 20th of October. The emotions excited by the career and final fate of this man are those of mingled pity and horror -- pity for the brutal wretch himself, and horror on account of the revelation which his life affords as to the possibilites of human cruelty. The wounded, the sick, the aged, and even helpless childhood, were not spared from his brutal murders.

Up to within a short period before his execution he was as profane and reckless as ever before. "He appeared," says a Western paper, "as braced against every feeling of humanity, as when, with his own hand, he murdered the venerable old man who had cradled him on his knee, and to whom he was indebted for a thousand favors."

Efforts were made, and with some success, to extract from Ferguson the details of his career. He claims to have been a Union man up to the battle of Bull Run. His brother James then joined the Federals, and he the Confederates. The former was killed in battle. He thought, he says, that he was engaged in legitimate warfare. "We were having a sort of miscellaneous war up there, through Fentress County, Tennessee, and Clinton County, Kentucky, and all through that region. Every man was in danger of his life; if I hadn't killed my neighbor he would have killed me. Each of us had from twnety to fifty proscribed enemies, and it was regarded as legitimate to kill them at any time, at any place, under any circumstances, even if they were wounded or on a sick-bed."

Ferguson admitted the truth of nearly all the specific charges made against him. In most cases he claimed that those murdered would have killed him at sight if he had not disposed of them. He looked upon his approaching and violent end with great coolness. He was nearly fourty-four years old. His wife and daughter were with him the day before his execution. They were very much affected at parting with him, but he preserved his usual coolness up to the last moment.

Champ was very anxious that his body should not be given to the doctors to be cut up; in fact, this was the burden of his speech on the scaffold."

The Hanging of Champ Ferguson, as sketched for Harper's Weekly
http://www.tennessee-scv.org/champ.html

Muster Roll of Capt. Champ Ferguson's Independent Cavalry Company
Capt. Champ Ferguson, C.S.A Contributed by John German

A muster roll of Champ Ferguson's company was "captured" near Ferguson's White County home in August of 1864 by a Union force commanded by Captain Rufus Dowdy. After the war, at Ferguson's trial, Dowdy testified, "I got hold of some blanks in form of a muster roll and payroll with some names written on it. I got it out there in the woods near Ferguson's house... It was in a box packed up in the hollow of a chestnut tree. The box was held up by some poles punched up the hollow of the tree, and when the boys pulled the poles out the box fell down... I found three sheets or I and some others did." Dowdy did not know who got the other two sheets, but now having made his own peace with Ferguson, Dowdy gave his sheet to Ferguson's lawyers.

This muster roll, labeled "Document 'P' ", is attached to the trial case file at the National Archives. According to the roll, all members of the company were enlisted on Nov. 19th '62 in Overton Co. for a period of 3 years. Ferguson was enlisted by John H. Morgan and all others by Ferguson. The handwritting, which is not Ferguson's, is difficult to decipher, and some of the names have been obliterated by folding and deterioration.

Champ Fergerson, Capt.
H. W. Sublet, 1st Lt.
A. H. Foster, 2d Lt.
W. R. Latham, 3d Lt.
G. W. Twiford, Ordly. Sgt.
R. H. Philpott, 2d Sgt.
- F--t--- , 3d Sgt.
F. Burchet, 4th Sgt.
E. Crabtree, 1st Cpl.
W. W. Parker, 2d Cpl.
J. Holsopple, 3d Cpl.
A. Heldreth, 4th Cpl.
Ard, R. S.
Aberson, John
Braswell, H. D.
Burchett, R. A.
Barnes, W.
Barnes, J. M.
Barnes, Francis
Barton, B. P.
Berry, B. W.
Boston, G. W.
Barnes, James M.
Brooks, John
Bellen[w?], A.
Burk, John
Bradley, S. I.
Cogher, W. H.
Cowain, J. T.
Denton, John
Elder, John
Franklin, Jeff
Frost, F.
Franklin, I. M.
Franklin, Sheby
Gregry, John
Grayham, Durham
Grisham, O. H.
Guinn, S. T.
Horsup, John
Hickey, B[enson?]
Haynes, John
Holsopple, W.
Johnson, H.
Jones, John
Jones, T. S.
Kelly, Thomas
McGinas, J. H.
Moles, Hansel
Marchbanks, C.
McGee, J. M.
Orness[?], Silvers
Owens, J. B.
Pruet, Henry
Pagett, S. M.
Potter, M. A.
Petage, W. W.
Ritchinson, R. H.
Rumen[?], I.
Rigney, G. W.
Russel, Fount
Shelton, T. A
Smith, J. T.
Singleton, J. S.
Sharp, D. E.
Talent, I.
Taylor, John
Taylor, C. N.
Taylor, A. J.
Turpin[?], E-------
Troxdale, Granvill
Vaughn, G. B.
Vann, T. C.
Wheeler, Silas
Wade, John

At the trial, Captain Dowdy offered these additional comments about this roster: "Here is Sublett, one who was represented as First Lieutenant.

Abner Hildreth, 4th Corporal, was one of my neighbors; I understand him to be one of Ferguson's men.

Richard Burchett is represented on the roll as being killed in June, 1863, in Wayne County, Kentucky, when in fact he was killed in October, 1862, in Clinton County, Kentucky. I was along when he was killed. Burchett was killed before Ferguson appears in the roll as having been mustered, and such is my recollection.

I knew J. T. Smith who is represented on this roll as having been killed about July 12, 1863; I understood him to be one of Ferguson's men.

I know A. H. Foster; he was regarded as Second Lieutenant in Ferguson's company.

I also know W. R. Latham who is put down as Third Lieutenant; he was regarded as a Lieutenant in Ferguson's company.

G. W. Twifford told me he was Orderly Sergeant.

I knew Philpot; he belonged to Ferguson's company.
Some few of the men I didn't know. Most of them I do know and they were reported belonging to Ferguson's company."
http://www.tennessee-scv.org/champroll.htm

http://www.geocities.com/Pentagon/Fort/2754/

"Champ Ferguson was born November 29, 1821 on a branch of Spring Creek about one and a half miles from Elliott's Cross Roads. He was named after his grandfather, Champion Ferguson, the pioneer Spring Creek settler. His father, William R. Ferguson, married Zilphia Huff and raised a family of ten children, of which Champ was the oldest.

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, Tennessee, 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 KY 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, TN 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 TN, as per his request. Ann Elizabeth Ferguson married George Metcalf in Sparta, TN 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."

~ Special thanks to Jack Ferguson of Albany, KY for providing much of the information above about his great-uncle, Champ Ferguson.
Also, special mention to Allen Sullivant of TN, who sent information provided by Anne Ferguson, a cousin of Champ's 4x removed...
http://www.geocities.com/Pentagon/Fort/2754/Ferguson.html.

CHAMP FERGUSON's SCOUTS The book lists his men and gives brief biographies. Pictures of some of the men or their tombstones are included. Champ's victims are pictured as well as his foes. Lots of photos include the site of Champ's hanging as well as his land in Clinton County. Cost $30.00 + $5.00 SH
SKETCH OF CHAMP FERGUSON by Ricky Wright 11" x 14" and on acid-free paper Cost $5.00 + $3.00 SH
https://sites.rootsweb.com/~tnoverto/books.htm

[389378]
one and a half miles from Elliott's Cross Roads

[389379]
10 miles out of Sparta toward Monterey.

My Southern Family

Mary Ann ALVIS

1842 - ____

ID Number: I9270

Sources

JOAN de BIRMINGHAM

ABT 1335 - ____

ID Number: I64543

Sources

Caroll Fielding CARNEY Jr.

Dec 1862 - ____

ID Number: I55260

Sources

Bernice CORLEY

Capt. Champ FERGUSON C.S.A.

29 Nov 1821 - 24 Oct 1865

ID Number: I77147

Notes

Sources

Louisa L. HIGGINBOTHAM

Rufus King NORWOOD

3 Feb 1828 - 15 Sep 1883

ID Number: I29168

Sources

Samuel S. SLOAN

1899 - 1925

ID Number: I45089

Sources

Samuel H. THOMPSON

ABT 1840 - ____

ID Number: I16564

Sources

Lettice "Lettie" WHITE

27 Jan 1736 - 26 Feb 1785

ID Number: I80464

Notes

Sources

Richard Henry YANCEY III

30 Dec 1835 - ____

ID Number: I93068

Sources