This was taken from History of The 13th Regiment Tennessee Volunteer Calvaly, by Samuel Scott and Samuel Angel There is another part to the story in the book that I will post next. Page 357 TWO MEN SHOT AND TWO OTHERS HANGED. "Next to the massacre in Limestone Cove, Carter county, in shocking cruelty, comes the shooting of James Taylor, a Federal recruiting officer who had ben captured and escaped from prison, and was trying to make his way to the Federal lines, and Samuel Tatem, and the hanging of two other Union men at the same time and place Alfred C. Kite and Alexander Dugger. The circumstances were about as follows : "These men had made preparations to go through the lines and collected together in the hills on the Watauga river, near Fish Spring, but across the river from that place, on the Johnson county side, the river being the line between Johnson and Carter counties at that point. They had been detained there for several days on ac- 358 count of the river being swollen. A company of rebel soldiers passing along the road on the opposite side of the river saw them, and crossing the river, surounded the hill where they were, and closing in, commenced firing on them. Taylor was killed first, and Tatem soon afterwards, the other three ran some distance before they were captured. Two of them were hanged with ropes the soldiers had with them to get forage for their horses, the third, was released after the rope had been placed around his neck. It was said some worthless arms were found on some of them but it is not known that they made any attempt to use them. "This occurred in January, 1863, and the men engaged in it were Colonel Folk's men, assisted by the Johnson county 'home guards.' Many stories were related in regard to this affair immediately after its occurrence, some of them undoubtedly true, while others were at least exaggerated. The facts are bad enough and we do not wish to give them any false coloring. We have heard, on what seemed to be good authority, that Samuel Tatem, when shot, fell and remained perfectly still, feigning death, and that he was left for dead but finally recovered from his wound and was known as the 'dead Yankee.' "One incident related to us by Mrs. Allan C. Carriger, who with her husband, now resides near the scene of the tragedy, shows a degree of moral turpitude that would be almost incredible were it not vouched for by this lady who is of unquestioned integrity. Alexander Dugger, one of the men who was hanged, was related to and had been raised by Mrs. Margaret Dugger, a widow, who owned the farm on which the killing and hanging were done. She was a highly respected old lady, was a land holder and had been a slave-owner. She belonged to a prominent family and was noted for her kind and charitable disposition and was loved and respected by all who knew her. The writer was the recipient of her motherly care when but a small boy, and knows whereof he speaks. At the time of the tragedy she was far ad- 359 vanced in years, and was known as 'Aunt Peggy' Bugger. She was greatly attached to her foster son, Alex. When these soldiers got everything in readiness to hang him one of them rode down to her house only a short distance away and invited her 'to come and see her Lincolnite son hanged!' We forbear comment. 'One other incident: We were told that Daniel Shuffield, (afterwards a member of Co. G, Thirteenth Tennessee Cavalry) was captured with the others, and that the rope was placed around his neck when he was recognized by a young rebel home-guard, Martin Moore, of Johnson county, who had known him at some time, and Moore demanded his release. "One cannot help but think that if the crimes for which these men gave up their lives was only such as might be set aside by a casual friend, or acquaintance, was it not a pity that the other four men had no rebel friend there! Samuel McQueen, another prominent Johnson county rebel citizen, was killed by a squad of men in command of Captain Dan. Ellis, near the close of the war. Since writing the foregoing notice of the death of Samuel McQueen the following particulars of that tragedy have been made known to us, and coming from a trustworthy source will be of interest to our readers : "McQueen had been one of the most active of the Johnson county 'home guards' and his name was associated with the killing of a number of Union men and when these two counties were finally occupied by the Federal forces in April, 1865, he left his home and crossed over into Ashe county, North Carolina. It chanced that a Johnson county man who knew McQueen, and who was then a Federal soldier, was passing through the country and saw the latter and arrested him and brought him back to Johnson county and turned him over to a Federal officer who was in command of colored troops. That officer told him if what he had learned of his cruelty to the Union people was true he deserved hanging, but as the war was now about ended he would only send him to the jail 361 the preservation of the American Union, which we believe is, and is to be, the hope and beacon light of mankind struggling to be free, and to enjoy the blessings of religious liberty, "from earth's remotest bounds." A Union man by the name of Gentry, a native of Carter County, and another, a stranger, were both killed on the same day on Stony Creek. William Blevins was shot down near his home also on Stony Creek by Confederate soldiers. William Waugh, a prominent secessionist of Johnson County, was shot down at his home by Lafayette Jones. Green Moore was a prominent rebel citizen who lived in the 2cl Civil District of Johnson County. He was killed by a man named Alvin Taylor, who, we are told, was at first a rebel, but later joined the unprincipled gang of robbers and murderers who infested the mountains toward the close of the war. Timothy Roark was a Union man who was killed by the rebels in the 3d Civil District of Johnson County. We are not advised as to the cause or manner of his death. Isaac Younce was an old man killed near the Walnut Mountain by Captain Bozen's men in January, 1864. It is alleged he was first hanged to make him tell where the scouter's camps were, but either not knowing, or refusing to tell, he was finally killed and stripped of his clothing. Four other men were killed in the Limestone Cove by this same company in March, 1864. Their names were: John Campbell, Robert Dowdel and John and Eli Fry. It was said they were most cruelly and inhumanly treated one of them, being run through with a bayonet and pinned to a tree and then shot. Andrew Taylor, a well known citizen of Carter Coun'y, a true Union man, was called out of a house where he was visiting and foully assassinated. One word more by way of apology for the disconnected manner in which these: stories have been told, and this for the benefit of the fastidious reader who may be partial to order and sequence in all things, and this chapter will be closed. 362 Our time for gathering up and verifying these tragedies was limited, and while we might have given more time to arranging them in consecutive order and less to their verification we have preferred to sacrifice the former to the latter, and present our readers with a chapter of facts that we have every reason to believe are such, than take the chances of substituting fiction even in a more polished and readable form. It was our design to give in this chapter a "brief outline" of the tragedies that were enacted in Carter an' Johnson counties during the civil war. We have only mentioned a sufficient number of them to show the state of feeling that existed at that time. We might continue the recital of similar horrors until they would form a good sized book in themselves, but we assume that our readers, like ourselves, are satiated with these scenes of blood and will be more than pleased to consign the remainder to silence and oblivion, but we may remember that these are only a part of the terrible scenes that were enacted in two small counties of East Tennessee, and that similar tragedies were taking place at the same period all over the beautiful, historic but blood-stained mountains and valleys of the remaining twenty-nine counties of that devoted land. Jackie and Dawn Peters http://www.tngennet.org/carter/ - Carter County Tennessee Genealogy http://www.rootsweb.com/~tnwag/index.htm - Watauga Association of Genealogists