Portrait and Biography of Parson Brownlow, The Tennessee PatriotBrownlow, William Gannaway
History
Portrait and Biography of Parson Brownlow, The Tennessee Patriot
Brownlow, William Gannaway
Brownlow, William Gannaway, 1805-1877; Tennessee, East -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865
In Andrew Johnson's town they hung up two men to the same limb, and the
bloody Col. Ledbetter, a man born and educated in the State of Maine,
going down to Mobile and marrying a lot of negroes through another
woman--the worst man, the biggest coward, and the blackest-hearted
villain that ever made a track in East Tennessee--this man tied the
knots with his own hands, and directed that the victims should be left
hanging for four days and nights right over the iron track of the
railroad, and ordered the engineers to run their trains slowly by the
spot in order that the secessionists on board might feast their eyes
upon the ghastly spectacle. And it is a fact as true as it is revolting,
that men stood upon the platforms of every train that went by and kicked
the dead bodies as they passed, and struck them with sticks and ratans,
with such remarks as "that they looked well hanging there," and that all
"d----d Yankees and traitors should hang that way too." It is true that
Col. Ledbetter, as the weather was somewhat warm and the corpses were
becoming somewhat offensive, ordered them to be cut down at the
expiration of some thirty-six hours, but it was for the convenience of
his secession friends purely, and not from any other motive.
One day they came with two carts and took old Harmon, a Methodist class
leader, and his son. Old Mr. Harmon was seated in one cart upon his
coffin, and his son in the other, and each cart was surrounded by a
strong guard of rebel bayonets, and driven down the hill to a scaffold
in sight of the jail. The young man was hung first, and the father was
compelled to look upon his death struggles. Then he was told to mount
the scaffold, but being feeble and overpowered by his feelings, two of
the ruffians took hold of him, one of them saying, "Get up there, you
damned old traitor!" and the poor old man was launched after his son.
A few days after this they came up to the jail with another cart. We
never knew whose turn was to come next. I had "counted the cost." I
intended, if my turn had come, to meet my fate with the best grace I
could. I had prepared a speech for the occasion, and I can assure you
that I should have pronounced a handsome eulogy, if I had been called
upon, for if I have any talent in the world, it is that talent which
consists in piling up one epithet upon another. But it turned out that
the cart was not intended for me. It was intended for a young man by the
name of H. C. Haun, an excellent young man of fine morals and good
common sense. He had a wife and two small children. Haun was informed
one hour before hand that he was to be hung. He immediately asked for a
Methodist preacher who lived in the town, to come to see him, and to
pray with him. The reply was: "We don't permit any praying here for a
damned Union-shrieker."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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