Additional Testimony for the Commissioners of Claims at Washington

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

Deposition of Thomas Rains

Aged 48 years and reside at Graysville, Georgia. I am now Railroading but have for years engaged in sawmilling. I am not related to the claimant and have no interest in his claim. At the beginning of the war I resided in Murray county Georgia and was a neighbor to Leonard Carrouth. But I was raised about Cleveland Tennessee and have been acquainted with claimant for 22 years.

I was a Union man and I began taking or piloting Union men through the rebel lines to the Union army in the spring of 1863. And I continued piloting men to the federal army as a recruiting officer till I went into the 5th Tennessee Mounted Infantry in September 1864 and continued in that Regiment till the close of the war. I was (Capt./Corp.?)

Question by the claimant – State what you know about the Union element or men in Murray (next line missing).

Answer – Murray county Georgia voted strong for the Union but after the state seceded some of the Union men went with the state, but the district in which myself and Leonard Carrouth lived all went for the Union except four; and I scouted through that district till the close of the war and so far as I know the Union men of that district all remained faithful to the Union cause.

Question – State what you know about Leonard Carrouth leaving Murray county; when he left and where did his family live? And what you heard about his reporting some Union men.

Answer – My recollection is that Leonard Carrouth left Murray county Georgia in 1864. I was in his neighborhood just at Christmas 1863 and he was there at house in Murray. His wife and family came up to Bradley in the early part of 1864. I know that Carrouth did no do any fighting for the Union cause. And I heard the report or rumor that was out among the Union men of Murray county that Carrouth reported Union men to the rebels.

Question – State what you know about the claimant’s loyalty.

Answer – I knew the claimant well and I always understood him to be a Union man and I talked with him repeatedly during the war and I never heard anything else but that he was a Union man. I never heard his loyalty questioned.

Question – State what was the conditon of many of the conscripts that came from Murray and other northern counties of Georgia.

Answer – Many of them were in a most destitute condition. Many of them were without shoes and sometimes nearly naked. I took many of them through to the Union lines.

signed,
Thomas Rains
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.