October 01, 2005 Second post on the 19 November 1863 Limestone Cove Massacre Chapter XXXVIII pages 329-335 The rebel murderers now went back to the house, taking James BELL who was an old bachelor, and considerably over the conscript age, away from the house about one hundred yards, where one of the rebels prepared to shoot him. When the old man perceived that the villain was going to shoot him, he ran up to the monster and placed his arm around his neck, which prevented him from shooting; but soon another rebel murderer ran up and shot him. The old man fell upon the ground, and his murderers caught hold of him and laid his head upon a rock. They then took another rock and beat his brains out with it; and not being yet content, they got rocks and threw them upon his body. Mrs. BELL, the wife of David BELL, seeing they were going to murder her brother-in-law, went out and commenced interceding for him. Two of the ruffians approached her, and began to punch her with their guns, drove her back to the house, threatening to shoot her if she offered to speak again in his behalf. William SPARKS also belonged to the company of stampeders; but being sick, he was in the house when the excitement occurred in the yard, and asked Mrs. BELL to conceal him. She immediately raised a plank from the kitchen floor, and he crept under the kitchen, where he remained until the rebels had finished their bloody work, and returned to burn the house, which they first commenced by piling up clothes in the centre of the floor, and setting them on fire just over the cellar where the sick man had been concealed. The clothes not burning well enough, they procured a straw bed, and placing it on the floor, they put a chunk of fire into it; the smoke began to ascend in clouds, when they were compelled to go out into the front yard to obtain fresh air. There were two doors to the kitchen, and the wind passing through, closed the door next to the rebels, which gave SPARKS an opportunity to make his escape from the house. He crept out from the cellar through the smoke, and w! ent through the back yard about ten steps from the house, and concealed himself under some dry weeds and vines in the garden, where he remained until the buildings were consumed, suffering intensely from the terrible heat of the fire. The rebels now went up the valley among their murdered victims for the purpose of stripping them of their clothing. Miss Elizabeth MORRISON, who lived in the neighborhood, and was at BELL'S house during the whole time of the dreadful excitement, procured a lady's dress, took it to the garden where SPARK'S was concealed, and told him to put it on. She then gave him her own bonnet, which he put on, and thereby most admirably disguised his sex. She then told him to walk along slowly across the fields and go to her father's house, and she said to him, "When you get to the house, my father will at once know my bonnet, and that will furnish them sufficient evidence that you are not a traitor." SPARKS went on as the kind young lady directed him, and was concealed and saved; but he had been so terribly frightened that he did not recover his proper faculties of mind for several days. The horrid scenes he witnessed on that dreadful day surely can never be erased from his memory until death shall have closed his earthly existence. A man by the name of MADISON had been badly wounded in the beginning of the affray, and the rebels, thinking he was dead, left him lying in the yard; and when the house was burning, some clothes were thrown on him, and saved him from any further notice. When the rebels went off to rob the dead bodies of the men whom they had slaughtered, Miss MORRISON, Mrs. BELL, and one of her little boys, and a small girl, carried the wounded man off about one hundred and fifty yards. When they saw the rebels returning they laid him down, and started back to the house, stopping on their way back at a mill-branch to wash the blood off of their hands, which had got on then while they were carrying the wounded man. The rebels came along, meeting them, and asked them where they had taken that man. Miss MORRISON told them, and started on with Colonel WITCHER toward the place where they had laid MADISON down, begging eloquently for his life all the way. WITCHER asked her if the wounded man wanted water. She told him he did. WITCHER then told his men not to kill him, as he would soon be in hell any how. The rebels now left him, and when they left the neighborhood MADISON was carried to Thomas GREEN'S house, which was close by, where he remained for four months until he recovered from his wound. He was then captured by the North Carolina Home Guards, his hat, boots, and coat were taken from him, and he was then made to walk barefooted through the snow to the town of Asheville, in North Carolina, where he was detained for four months, when he was released by the Yankees, and returned home. A man by the name of HARRIS was wounded in the thigh of one of his legs, and in the knee of his other leg. He crawled to a log, and burrowed under the leaves, pulling some brush and a large "poke-bush" over him. Here he remained until the neighbors collected in the evening to look upon the scene of the dreadful slaughter and houseburning, when he called to them. They immediately went to him, assisted him in leaving his dreary abode, and kindly took care of him. After the horrid massacre, the rebels returned to the smoking ruins of BELL'S house, and exhibited the butts of their guns to the women, which were covered with blood and the brains of their slaughtered victims up to the gunlocks. They also displayed their bloody bayonets, saying "We are the fellows to kill Lincolnites and Yankees." They boasted amazingly, and seemed to be in the finest sort of spirits at the idea of having murdered a parcel of innocent and helpless men. After they had completed their work of murder and houseburning, they held a council with the rebel citizens, who told them that they were in a strong Union country; and for fifteen miles to the Watauga River, where the rebels were then going, these citizens told them they would pass through a section of country altogether inhabited by Union people. The rebels determined to take no prisoners, but to kill all they captured, and this determination they strenuously adhered to; for when they arrived at the house of a man by the name of Commodore SLONE, who was fifty-six years of age, they shot him down in his own yard. They shot him twice, and then run their bayonets through his body. Some of these fiends then struck him on the head with the butts of their guns until they mashed his head in a horrible manner. They went on to the house of William M'KINNEY, where they found a man by the name of William BIRD. They took him out of the house into the yard, and shot him twice in the breast. When BIRD fell, they beat out his brains, and then went on in their bloody march, killing every man, old and young, that had the misfortune of falling into their hands, just because they had been represented as Lincolnites by a parcel of vile rebel citizens. Many men were badly wounded, but succeeded in making their escape by getti! ng into the woods. When WITCHER arrived at Elizabethton, like an accomplished and brutal murderer as he was, he boasted of the infamous exploit that he and his ruffian followers had killed twenty-one Union men in the course of one day and night. I would like to say that because of Daniel ELLIS several of my direct ancestors were able to flee over into Kentucky to join the Union army. One of them being Captain William McNeeley GOURLEY who became the first Captain of Co. A ., 13th Regiment Tennesse Volunteer Cavalry. Captain GOURLEY was killed on 16 Dec 1864 during Gen. STONEMAN'S RAID into Southwest Virginia to destroy the King Saltworks. at Marion, Virginia. I think it was fitting that Daniel ELLIS succeed Capt. GOURLEY as Captain. I am sure that Capt. GOURLEY would have approved. I know from his journals that he held Captain ELLIS in high regards. I honor all of our ancestors who died and suffered in that horrible war. I was going to post about the FRY"S but since someone else has I will not bore you with another post. Gloria