Additional Testimony for the Commissioners of Claims at Washington

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

Deposition of James S. Robertson

Age 45 years, residence Cleveland Tennessee and have been examined once before in this case. I have been acquainted with the claimant William Cate ever since he came to this county.

Question by the claimant – What do you know if anything about Joseph H. Davis’s office being a place of the meeting of Union men?

Answer – It was a place for the meeting of Union men and continued to be so till the rebel commander threatened to fire into it if it did not cease. After that it was more clandestine. I often met the claimant at that place.

Question – State what you know about deserters from the rebel army lying in the ridges near Candy’s Creek and not far from my house during the war.

Answer – I know of a number of squads of conscripts lying out in the ridges between the claimants and Candy’s Creek and supported by the neighbors and by contributions from Union men about Cleveland.

These conscript deserters were often reported to be in distressed condition. I contributed two or three times to the claimant or Mr. Norman to aid these distressed deserters. I recollect at one time the claimant and Norman were together when I contributed. These men often had to remain several days before they could get a pilot to lead them through to Kentucky. No Union man about Cleveland ever doubted the convictions of these statements for we all knew the men that brought the reports were true Union men.

I knew a number of home Union men who went to those ridges and layed out for some time before they could get across the river and get pilots to carry them across the mountains. I sent several of them to the ridges myself. But these home Union men did not often need help and for certain reasons, those of the Union men that aided others did not want to know their names. We could not be implicated so easily by the rebels when we knew no names.

Question – Do you know anything about the intimacy between me and Capt. A.E. Blount after his return to Cleveland about the close of the war.

Answer – I know that you were for years after his return very intimate and associated much together while the Captain would hardly speak to a man that he considered a rebel. I noticed that this intimacy ceased about the time that Blount became Post Master.

Question – State what you know about introducing me to the 1st Federal Commissary at Cleveland when the federal army first got possession of Cleveland and how it was stated I had saved my wheat from the rebels.

Answer – I introduced the claimant to the Head Commissary whose name I have now forgotten. The claimant had a large quantity of wheat to sell. This was about Jan. or February 1864 and was the wheat crop of 1863.

The Commissary seemed surprised that a man should have saved so much wheat. I don’t recollect the quantity, but there was several hundred bushels of it.

And the claimant told him in my presence how he had saved it from the rebels.

Question – What do you know about the rebels running the Cleveland mills and pressing the wheat of the neighbors and what do you know about the grinding of sick wheat at the mills and whether the Federal ever ran the mill.

Answer – I was engaged as one of the hands in the mill when the rebels pressed the mill and brought in wheat from all around this section of the country. But whether the rebels pressed the wheat or not, I do not know. But there was some sick wheat in the neighborhood. Some of this sick wheat was in the mill and when the rebel officers ordered us to grind it we told them it was sick wheat. But we were ordered to grind it and we did grind it and it made all who ate the flour sick. After this we were arrested by the rebel commander and forced to prove that we ground it by their orders after notifying the officers that it was sick wheat. We were then released.

This experience made both us millers and the rebels very fearful of sick wheat.

The Federal forces after they got possession of Cleveland never pressed the Cleveland mills nor did any grinding at them; nor to my knowledge do any grinding at any mill in the neighborhood of Cleveland.

I never knew of the federal troops getting any sick wheat or flour in this part of the country and my opportunities was good for knowing these matters. I was at Cleveland all the time of the federals got possession.

I recollect that the Commissary told claimant that he could not use the wheat but would take the flour if claimant could get the wheat ground into flour.

Question – Do you know anything about a subscription for the purpose of a Union barbecue in the fall of 1865 and about the amounts subscribed by different persons.

Answer – I recollect the barbecue in the fall of 1865 and that the claimant was appointed an agent to raise money to get provisions for this district. The barbecue was for the returned Union soldiers.

When looking at the subscription paper, I see that my subscription is right, and my best recollection is that this paper is the list of subscription that was in the claimants hands.

I recollect that when I paid my subscription that something was said about Capt. Blount’s subscription of fifty cents. I also recollect claimants subscription and John C. Gauts, P.M. Craigmiles and J.H. Gaut’s was the largest.

Question – Do you know anything about Capt. William L. Brown being the Confederate Tax Collector for Bradley County, Tennessee for the year 1862? If so, look at the tax receipt attached to my deposition and state if you can identify Capt. W.L. Brown’s handwriting.

Answer – I know that Capt. W.L. Brown was Confederate Tax Collector for 1862.

And to the best of my recollection, the attached receipt is in the handwriting of Capt. Brown, with which I was well acquainted.

Question – State what you know about a petition got up by the Union men of Cleveland to try to get certain Union men prisoners at Tuscaloosa Alabama out of prison and what part I took in it.

Answer – I know there was such a petition but if I ever knew the particulars, I have forgotten them.

Signed,
J.S. Robertson
before, John W. Ramsey – Spec. Comm. 

 

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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

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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.