Additional Testimony for the Commissioners of Claims at Washington

Claim of William Cate of Bradley county, Tennessee no. 15.774 and 20702

Deposition of C. L. Hardwick

Age 48 years. Residence Cleveland Tennessee. I am a merchant and not related to the claimant and have no interest in his claim.

I have known the claimant for 23 years having lived all that about two miles from him all that time and have been intimate with him all that time. I have been in the grain trade all that time and have as a general rule purchased his surplus produce every year. And I believe that I have bought as much produce from the claimant as from any other one man in Bradley county and he ranks among the largest farms in this county.

I have examined his account before the claims commissions and I am satisfied that nine years out of ten the claimant raised more surplus produce than is charged in his account.

I was the Confederate States Tax Assessor in the year 1862 for Bradley county and my business led me to investigate the produce different farmers raised in the county. I have no means of showing accurately what it was for the books I kept were carried away. I recollect that the confederate authorities got a vast quantity of hay from him that year but I can’t now say how much.

Question by claimant – Are you a bank officer; (?) would you honor a note made by Captain A.E. Blount and endorsed by Maj. Steril (?)mbright and Leonard Carrouth for seventy five dollars.

Answer – I am a bank officer and I would not honor the note for I do not consider any of them good.

Question – Do you know anything about the grinding of sick wheat at any mills near Cleveland and what authorities had the grinding done?

Answer – The Confederate Commander General G.G. Dibrill pressed a quantity of wheat in the Cleveland mills and ordered J.H. Craigmiles to have the wheat ground. Craigmiles was the owner of the mills and told as I understood the commander that the wheat was sick wheat.

Craigmiles had the wheat ground and it made the soldiers sick. That was the last sick wheat year that I know anything about.

Question – Do you know anything about my loyalty or my reputation for loyalty?

Answer – I was in a position to know the standing of the citizens of Bradley county for loyalty and think I did know the standing of almost every leading man in the county and William Cate’s loyalty to the Federal Government never was doubted by either party.

Question – What do you know about Capt. A.E. Blount’s associating with the claimant after the war was over, and about whose associations ceasing. If so state whom they ceased and the cause if you know it.

Answer – I know that after Capt. A.E. Blount came back at the close of the war that he associated on very intimate terms with the claimant and his family till about the time Capt. Blount was appointed Postmaster at Cleveland about the spring of 1869.

The claimant’s daughters had been the Capt’s assistant in the Masonic Female Institute in which he was the teacher.

About the spring of 1869 their associations ceased and I understood at the time and have alway understood since that it was because claimant would not go upon the Captain’s bond as Post Master.

Myself and Capt. Blount were on very intimate terms till the war came on, but after he came back, because I had fallen on the confederate side he would not for years recognize me as a gentleman nor speak to me though there had never been a hard word between us and I had been one of his best supporters while teaching at this place.

signed,
C.L. Hardwick
before, John W. Ramsey – Spec. Comm.

Links to each section of the transcribed file:

• Introduction & Part VIII — Conclusion
• Part I — William Cate’s Claimed Losses
• Part II — Notes from the Office of the Commissioners of Claims
• Part III — Depositions Taken in 1875 Regarding Claimant’s (Cate) Loyalty
• Part IV — Opinion Submitted by John B. Brownlow, U. S. Special Commission
• Part V — Additional Testimony for the Commissioners of Claims at Washington
  • Depositions:
    William Cate ~ Joseph H. Davis ~ Leonard Carrouth ~ Capt. A. E. Blount ~ John A. Steed ~ J. F. Larrison ~ Mrs. Sidney Henderson ~ Col. D. M. Nelson ~ Samuel Grigsby ~ Andrew J. Maples ~ John A. Hague ~ Herman Foster ~ Thomas L. Cate ~ James McGhee ~ Thomas Rains ~ D. B. Oneal ~ Thomas A. Cowan ~ C. L. Hardwick ~ Joseph Calloway ~ J. C. Steed ~ Joseph R. Taylor ~ William W. Wood(s) ~ James H. Brown ~ James S. Robertson ~ John H. Craigmiles ~ John H. Parker ~ John McReynolds ~ John W. Witcher
• Part VI — Summary of All Evidence for and Against Cate’s Loyalty
• Part VII — Opinion of Witnesses by John W. Ramsey
• Part VIII — William Cate’s Letter to Judge A. O. Alder

The information in these articles was formerly linked from Bradley County TNGenWeb to a site owned by Danny Roy Williams at Geocities.  The site was last available in 2009.  It is available through the Internet Archive here.  No copyright infringement is intended.