On the twelfth of May the United States flag was raised by some Unionists to the top of a liberty pole fixed near a spot of public resort in the town, and a stirring speech in keeping with the occasion was made by Connelly F. Trigg, Esq. Among his sympathizing hearers was Charles Douglass, a citizen of violent disposition and addicted to the use of strong drink, which without detaining him at home, tended to increase his contentiousness. Being a democrat and an ardent admirer of Andrew Johnson, he followed that distinguished politician into the Union party. Between him and a Major of the Military League State troops--Wash. Morgan--a few angry words were spoken after the flag raising, and Douglass was subsequently fired upon by his adversary and a military companion, when not expecting an assault. He escaped with slight hurt, but the shots aimed at him mortally wounded a harmless countryman entering a store door. The soldiers in camp were excited upon being informed at once of the affair by Major Morgan, and some hundreds of them under his leading, intent upon Douglass’s death were intercepted on their way to town by a discreet Colonel of their army--with help from influential citizens, and persuaded to return to their tents.[19] The offending Unionist was not however to escape from his enemies. While seated before a front window of the second story of his house he was shot from a hotel upper window, a hundred yards distant. After a few days of suffering he expired. His murderer was unknown, but was thought to be either the Major or some one of that antagonist’s fellow-soldiers procured for the purpose. The circumstances of his death excited wide regret in the community, except among a few extremists whose over-heated passions had so beclouded their moral sense, that they could hear of the assassination with the same indifference they would hear of a man being slain in battle. By many of the Union men he was looked upon as a martyr in their cause.