That battle was really a massacre. Stokes was stationed at Sparta. It is said he had raised the black flag.
No quarter was to be given to such men as Champe Ferguson, George Carter, John M. Hughes, W. S.
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Bledsoe, Gatewood, and other guerrillas. In February, 1864, he sent out a company
to hunt down the guerrillas. Hughes heard of it and mustered a force to attack the Federals, who were commanded
by Capt. E. W. Bass. The guerrillas, about forty, hid in ambush in Dry Valley, on the headwaters of the Calf Killer,
and fired into Bass's unsuspecting company, killing forty or fifty. The remainder fled to Sparta, probably without
firing a shot. One White County gentleman who saw the dead Federals after they were brought in says that thirty-eight
were shot through the head and three had been killed with stones. Among the names of the slain, besides Kit Turney,
were Ben Fuston, Jim Fuston, Henry Hendrixon, Jerry Hendrixon, David Grandstaff, J. B. Moore, David A. Farmer,
Joseph Hail, Jonathan Jones, T. J. Pistole, and Alex Stanley, all of DeKalb County. So, unaware, these men had
ridden into the jaws of death, into the mouth of hell. The roadside blazed, there was a deafening volley, and men
in blue began tumbling from their horses. The scene in that wild region must have been strikingly weird. The sharp,
cruel cracks of pistols and their infinitely multiplied reverberations from mountain to valley (the cries of the
dying blended with the metallic clanging of the hoofs of scampering and riderless horses) could never have passed
out of the memory of the survivors. James H. Overall stated to the writer that one Federal, Russel Gan, fell on
the field, and, playing dead, afterwards hid in a hollow log and escaped after nightfall.
In the autumn of 1864 Gen. Joseph Wheeler, re-
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turning southward from his raid into East Tennessee, passed through Liberty and Alexandria
and on toward Nashville. He had started from Georgia with four thousand cavalry and four cannons. While in East
Tennessee he sent Gen. " Cerro Gordo" Williams, with two thousand men and two cannons, to capture the
Federal garrison at Strawberry Plains. With General Williams was Allison's squadron of DeKalb Countians. Williams
found the garrison too strong to attack and attempted to overtake Wheeler, but failed. Wheeler came to Sparta,
having General Dibrell's regiment with him. Dibrell was left at Sparta two days, while Wheeler took McMinnville
and, reaching Liberty, captured the stockade, which had been deserted on his approach. Reaching Nashville, he kept
the Federals uneasy for some days, then marched south. In his report he said he did not have a man or any material
captured. It is alleged that Wiley Odum, of Cherry Valley, was the first of Wheeler's men to enter Liberty on that
raid.
Two or three days after General Wheeler passed Gen. "Cerro Gordo" Williams, Dibrell's cavalry,
and Champe Ferguson's guerrillas came through, Ferguson bringing up the rear. The inhabitants along the turnpike
dreaded Ferguson, especially the Liberty people. This town was the home of Stokes, Blackburn, Hathaway, and Garrison.
He burned James Lamberson's barn and thresher at Liberty for some cause. On the pike west of the village he met
W. G. Evans, C.W.L. Hale, William Vick, and William Ford, who had been to bury a neighbor, Mrs. John Bratten. The
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guerrillas asked where they had been. The reply would have been satisfactory if Mr.
Evans had not added: "We also buried an unknown Confederate soldier in Lamberson's field, where he had been
shot by two DeKalb County Federals." The guerrillas then asked if there was a Union man in the crowd; if so,
he should be killed in retaliation. Mr. Ford, a man of the highest character and most harmless disposition, was
the only one; but his neighbors pleaded so earnestly for him that he was spared.
James H. Fite, formerly a trustee of DeKalb County, but now residing in Anthony, Kans., was a sixteen-year-old
private in Capt. Jack Garrison's company of Federals. His home was on the pike a mile and a half west of Liberty.
Of some of his experiences, he writes:
Our regiment, the First Tennessee Mounted Infantry, was mustered in at Carthage early in 1864. About
May the different companies were sent to various portions of the State for garrison duty and scouting after Champe
Ferguson and other guerrillas. A good part of my company (G) was from Liberty and vicinity, the officers having
been a part of Stokes's regiment. We were first sent to Granville, above Carthage, on the river, to build a stockade,
and then to Liberty to build another, our force numbering seventy-five or one hundred men. The latter was well
started when about the first of September, late in the afternoon, Wheeler's cavalry took us by surprise, and like
a covey of birds we were scattered.
A week or so prior to this Gen. H. P. Van Cleve, at Murfreesboro, sent word to our officers that Wheeler
was reported coming through Sequatchie Valley and suggested to them to scout in that direction and see if the news
was correct. Instead of doing that they selected about twenty of us and went
______________
Facing page 236, drawing captioned:
FEDERAL STOCKADE, OR FORT, LIBERTY
DRAWN FROM MEMORY BY WILL T. HALE
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through Lebanon and by Cedar Glade and Cainsville. We returned to Liberty about
two hours before Wheeler came upon us from the direction of Smithville. It was a complete surprise, and the result
was a route. There was considerable firing; and, while nobody was killed, they captured something like a dozen
of our boys.
My horse had given out on the expedition into Wilson County, and I was riding one belonging to a member
of Stokes's regiment. In returning to Liberty I stopped at my mother's, just west of that village, to get supper.
She prepared a sort of feast, setting the table on the front porch. I recall the big peach cobbler. I had finished
supper when T. G. Bratten stopped at the gate and told me that they were fighting in town and suggested that we
ride down and take part. As I had no horse, he went alone. He returned in a gallop shortly, calling to me that
the Confederates were coming. I watched for the advance guard, soon seeing four about three hundred yards away,
and retreated in fairly good order to a plum thicket back of the house. The Johnnies rode into the yard. Having
brother to hold their horses, they ate supper. Mother said one of them, finishing first, walked to the back door,
and she expected every moment that I would shoot him, though I would never have killed one from the bushes. I am
glad to this day I did not, for that Confederate too had a mother somewhere waiting for his return.
About sunset quite a bunch came by and stopped. Their officer proved to be a relative of ours. He asked
for a pillow for a wounded man, mother taking it to the gate. They had already taken a buggy from a neighbor. When
asked who was in command, the officer said, " Wheeler," adding that the force was ten thousand strong
and would be a week in passing. In the night I went to the house; and, learning that the Confederates were under
Wheeler, I was relieved. The impression was that they were Ferguson's guerillas, and I knew I would be murdered
if caught by them.
The next day I found a hiding place, a thicket back of the
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field, and had a narrow escape. Some Confederates came down to the creek very
close to me, and a number went swimming. Others were as thick as blackbirds in Eli Vick's cornfield, just across
the creek. While some were at the house eating, a soldier went up and said that they had killed a Yankee back of
the field. It was supposed that some one in the neighborhood told him to say that before mother, believing that
she in her emotion would give me away. My little brother, Robert, whispered to her to be quiet, and he would go
and see if anybody was killed. When within thirty yards of me a Confederate asked where he was going. His reply
was that he was hunting where the hogs had been getting into the field. My brother soon found me and reassured
mother. Truly the mothers, daughters, sisters, and sweethearts deserve as much honor as any of the soldiers.
After Wheeler passed through, our men got together again and finished the stockade. I think we could
have kept off quite a force now, unless the attacking party had had cannon. We were at the stockade when the battle
of Nashville took place between Hood and Thomas. We expected an attack from Forrest, but I'm thankful he never
came. Only sixteen, I did not have sense enough at that age to be scared. I have seen older men have ague when
they expected an attack.
Stragglers from Wheeler's command depredated on the farms near the turnpike. In this way Thomas Givan, on
Clear Fork, lost five fine mares. All the horses on Eli Vick's farm were carried off. Many other citizens suffered
losses.
General Williams, as remarked, never overtook Wheeler. On the way he camped at Alexandria, where the troops
of Allison's Squadron had an opportunity to meet their families and friends. Reaching a point in Rutherford County,
he went eastward on the Woodbury Pike, where he had a considerable fight
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with the Federals. Later on he reached Saltville, Va., where the guerrilla, Capt.
George Carter, a leading spirit of the battle of the Calf Killer some months previous, was killed October 2, 1864.
Carter's slayer was recognized and his body riddled with balls.
The war had demoralized both Federals and Confederates. Many young men of excellent families throughout
the South and Tennessee became enamored of the spirit of adventure, as shown in the daring and reckless exploits
of cavalry raiders. This is how, perhaps, Pomp Kersey's small company came into existence.
Kersey had been a private in Capt. L. N. Savage's DeKalb County company of the Sixteenth Confederate Regiment.
Returning home, he for some reason did not go back to his command, but remained on Short Mountain, where he collected
a band of ten or fifteen fellow adventurers. Some of them had not reached their majority. A leading business man
of Nashville writes: "Those men were run from home by Stokes's troops, some of them being no more than sixteen
years of age. I knew several of Kersey's men. One of them was between fifteen or sixteen. He afterwards got into
the regular Confederate army and died about 1910, a prominent and respected citizen of White County."
The writer was very young when the band made raids into Liberty, and he regarded its members with prejudice
from the fact that they took valuables from William Vick and James Fuston. But another business man of Nashville,
who was reared in Smithville, writes: If they robbed anybody, it was because they
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thought he was a Union sympathizer, and pillaging the enemy was not regarded as robbery.
Regular Federals and Confederates did that."
This same gentleman relates an incident that took place in Smithville during the war. "One day,"
he says, "there gathered in the northern part of the town a squad of men belonging to Company F, Blackburn's
Regiment, to secure Federal recruits- Ras Foster, ' Black Bill' Foster, Jim Eastham, Pal Rigsby, John Colwell,
and others. Suddenly Kersey's men dashed into town, stampeding the recruiters. Eastham killed a horse trying to
get away, while eight of the Federals were killed, among them Rigsby and Colwell." Another DeKalb Countian
says: "The Rebel citizens of Smithville were pleased over this raid, for they had much to bear. I recall how
a Federal was pursuing a citizen through mischief, shooting and pretending to want to kill him, when the man's
little son at the window suggested a new sort of military tactics, for he cried out: 'Run crooked, pap, run crooked,
an' maybe the bullets will miss you!' "
As indicated, the Short Mountain men often entered Liberty at night. On one of their raids they surrounded
the home of Squire Ben Blades, a pioneer and good citizen of Union sympathies, about midnight. He tried to escape
out a back door, but a shot fired through the door killed him almost instantly. After this the citizens armed themselves,
resolved on defense; but the raiders did not appear while they were on watch.
On the evening of July 23, 1864, there was a dance
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on Canal Creek at the home of Mr. Dennis. A number of Federals were attending-Captain
Hathaway, Lieut. Thomas G. Bratten, Henry Blackburn, and a man named Parrish. Dr. Shields, of Smithville, was also
there. Later in the night Louis Lyles and James Clarke made their appearance. Clarke, a mere youth, had on a Federal
uniform, but was not a soldier.
None seemed to apprehend danger. The fiddlers played and "called the figures," and the house rocked
to the rough dances of the time.
Kersey's men got word of the ball and the Federals' presence and, about fifteen in all, came from Short
Mountain to exterminate the men in blue. It appears that when Lyles and Clarke arrived with shouting and shooting
from down the creek the band, who were near, withdrew, thereby putting off the attack.
Tired out at last, Hathaway had gone to sleep in a room adjoining that of the merry-makers. Bratten was
sitting with a young lady on the stairway. It was far in the night, but the buzz of conversation went on. Two or
three soldiers were preparing to mount their horses when suddenly the hills resounded to the reports of guns and
the wild shouts of Kersey's men. Bratten and Lyles reached their horses, but the former had forgotten his gun.
As he rushed back for it he discovered the enemy in the yard, shooting. As they passed the door he fired, somewhat
checking them. The girls were trying to awaken Hathaway; and, calling out that the bushwhackers were on them, Bratten
got on his horse and dashed away.
The scene was now one of confusion. Hathaway
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had mounted his horse, Blackhawk, a fine animal that could pace a mile in 2:30, but
not before the assailants had started in pursuit of his comrades. Nevertheless, he resolved to overtake and pass
the pursuers. Clarke had been overtaken. Seeing that he could not escape, he dismounted and from a sheltering tree
trunk emptied his pistols at the enemy. He was soon killed. While this was going on Hathaway swept by. "I've
just come through hell!" he said.
The Federals were pursued no farther after the killing of Clarke. Hastening to Liberty, they later in the
day, with twelve men, set out to overtake Kersey and his band. Stealthily approaching a thicket half a mile south
of Half Acre, they found Kersey's horses haltered and a part of his men asleep. A volley was poured into the slumberers.
One of them, untouched, ran down the mountain and escaped. Pomp Kersey was also unhurt and mounted his horse, but
could not untie the halter. Bratten put his gun against him, but it only snapped; whereupon Kersey dismounted,
but in trying to get away he was killed by Bratten and Hathaway. Another man, perhaps twenty years of age, tried
to escape, but was slain by Hathaway and Dan Gan. Five had been killed at the first volley.
Among the slain were Pom p Kersey, Jack Neely, two Arnold brothers from Murfreesboro, a man named Seats,
Benton, Kelly, and one other. It seems that two who slept some distance from the others escaped- Ike Gleason, later
of White County, and a man of the name of Hawkins, who was some years later a citizen of Oklahoma.
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The seven bodies were hauled to Liberty on an ox wagon, reaching the village about
sunset on July 24. Thrown into a vacant storeroom, they were the next day buried on the Daniel Smith farm, about
one hundred yards from the town bridge. Their remains were exhumed after the war by friends and relatives and carried
to their respective neighborhoods and buried. The Arnold brothers, who were regular soldiers, but cut off from
their command, were reinterred in the Confederate Cemetery at Murfreesboro.
By and by fighting ceased throughout the county, though the Federal blue was still in evidence. That period
in the writer's memory is blurred and hazy. But one scene stands out clearly-that of his father, C.W.L. Hale, who
was an excellent reader, standing in the midst of a group of villagers, Union and Southern in their sympathies,
with a Nashville newspaper in his hand. It must have been April 16 or 17, 1865. The late afternoon was cool and
damp, but no gloomier than the upturned faces. The Southern sympathizers were filled with dread; the others with
sorrow. They were listening to the earliest news they could get of the assassination of Lincoln.
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