Hood’s intent was to burn military supplies lest they fall into General William Sherman’s hands, but most of the city was made of wood and the winds were high. It is dated from 15 November, in the aftermath of General John Bell Hood’s accidental razing of much of Atlanta, Georgia, to 21 December 1864. This campaign is more popularly known as Sherman’s March to the Sea. Colored Cavalry regiment, including white officers. His actions after the First Battle of Saltville, Virginia were specifically cited, in which he and his men invaded a Union field hospital and shot and stabbed to death over two dozen soldiers of the 5th U. He had personally knifed and shot unarmed civilians for their support of the abolitionist cause. He was arrested within 3 months of returning home to Nashville after hearing news of Lincoln’s assassination, and was tried and hanged on 20 October 1865 for 53 counts of murder. He is said to have cut the heads off 80-year-old men and rolled them down hills into towns. He is notorious for acting with marked cruelty and targeting anyone, even women and children, whom he felt crossed him or supported the North. He was spared.įerguson was a Confederate guerrilla possessed of the same raging hatred of the Union as Silas Gordon, and led various posses of armed Confederate sympathizers, and sometimes soldiers, in ambushes and murderous raids throughout middle and eastern Tennessee. Kuykendall had played dumb through all of this and his ruse worked. Chase fled with arms bound behind him, but sank to his waist in the muddy bank, where a soldier caught and bayoneted him through the throat with such force that he nearly decapitated him. They pled for a legitimate trial before a judge, but Morgan had them taken to Bee Creek Bridge, where Triplett was shot by 8 men with muskets.

In retaliation for his guerrilla tactics, Colonel James Morgan burned down platte City and apprehended three of Gordon’s men, William Kuykendall, Black Triplett, and Gabriel Chase. He was probably responsible for the Platte Bridge Tragedy, in which a rail trestle was burned through, collapsing under the weight of a passenger train, killing at least 17 men, women, and children. He appears to have been consumed by an intemperate fury against the North, and more than once killed people on mere suspicion, without any evidence of wrongdoing. Silas Gordon’s pro-slavery, anti-Union activities resulted in the Union burning down every town and farm in Platte County, Missouri twice.

Beehive hat civil war