Thought this might be of interest to someone. Tami Delk Longino http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F50B15F6395A1B7493C7A81783D85 F418684F9&pagewanted=2 THE TRIAL OF CHAMP FERGUSON.; Details of Atrocious Barbarities. Published: August 15, 1865 The notorious desperado, CHAMP FERGUSON, is now on trial in Nashville. Between fifty and sixty murders are charged to him personally. The following testimony is no worse than that which has been given daily during the last three or four weeks: John Huff, a witness for the prosecution, testified as follows: Am a son of Mrs. Patsey Huff, of Fentress County, Tenn.; was at her house when Wm. Delk, John Crabtree and John Williams were taken from there; Ferguson, Hans Moles, John Gregory and Thomas Riley were all I recognized out of the party of thirteen or fourteen who came to the house; it was at night, I think, at one o'clock, as near as I can recollect; they surrounded the house, and said for some one to get up and strike a light; I started to do so, and they asked who I was; I told them; don't know who it was asked me that; they told me if I got up they would kill me; some one then ordered me to get up and make a light, which I did; Hans Moles ordered me to do this; some asked who were in there; I told them I didn't know; then they asked if Preston Huff and Andrew Huff were present, and said they were going to kill them it they were there. They asked me then who all were there that night. I told them William Delk, John Crabtree, John Williams, William Huff and Preston Huff were there, and that Andy Huff was not there. Then they ordered those in the house to surrender; they hadn't seen them yet; here Delk walked out to the crowd and asked what they were going to do with them; they replied that they were going to take them to Albany, to headquarters, to have their trial; the other boys, Williams and Crabtree, surrendered themselves, and the party all came into the house, and went to searching it; then they took the straps off their guns and tied the prisoners; Delk begged them not to tie him so tight, that it hurt him; Ferguson said: "D -- n you, that is what we want to do -- we want to hurt you;" Delk aimed to give my sister some money to give his mother, and Thomas Riley grabbed the money; Crabtree started to give his mother a knife, which they grabbed for, but she got it. Champ then got a negro girl, saying she belonged to Eli Hatfield, and he had orders to take her. The girl belonged to Hatfield, who is a brother-in-law of mine. My mother had raised the negro. They then went to taking things from the house -- bed clothing and wearing apparel. Ferguson told the men to take what they pleased, when the money was taken from Delk. Ferguson told him he (Delk) would have so further use for money. They chopped up the floor and threatened to burn the house. They chopped up two planks of the floor. Ferguson then told the prisoners that he was going to kill them. He drew his knife and told Crabtree that he was going to cut his throat. Crabtree's mother said to Ferguson, when they started. "You ain't going to kill him, are you?" and Ferguson said they were. Then they started and took Crabtree, Delk, Williams, and the negro girl with them. They got about one hundred yards from the house, and I saw the light of two or three guns, whereupon I went into the house, and there heard about twelve or thirteen guns. Heard some one say two or three times, "run." Between half and three-quarters of an hour from the time they left the house, I went to Piles place and found Delk, Williams, and Crabtree dead in the horse-lot. Didn't hear any firing after at the Piles place. Williams was shot about the centre of the forehead, and a piece of his skull was blown off. Delk was shot once through his breast, and a bayonet run through his breast -- it looked like it might have been a bayonet; Crabtree I don't think was shot at all -- he was just cut; he was cut all over the breast, and in the forepart of his shoulder, between the neck and collar-bone; also in the back, under the shoulder-blade; in that wound was a cornstalk stuck in and cut off; my sister (Mrs. Lucinda Hatfield) and Crabtree's mother, and Miss Annie Piercy, went with me to the Piles place, where we found the bodies; saw there Vina Piles, Nannie Piles and Wm. Piles; didn't see Mrs. Piles, the mother of Vina Piles; think she was dead at the time. Ferguson gave the orders, and had control of the party while at my mother's house. All this occurred about Oct. 1, 1863. They stayed at the house from the time they came until about daylight. Cross-examination by the Defence -- Q. -- How old were you at the time this occurrence took place? A. -- About 16 years old. Q. -- Were you disturbed while the party above-mentioned were at your house? A. -- When they first came up, I was. They made us all get up, and threatened to kill me, and threatened to take me off with them. They said I had been in the army, and John Gregory told them I hadn't, and then they let me off. Q. -- You say Preston Huff and Wm. Huff were at the house; what became of them? A. -- Why, they got away. Q. -- Were Preston Huff and Wm. Huff armed? A. -- Yes, Sir. Q. -- Did you hear them shoot? Do you know what they shot at? A. -- I heard them shoot; they said they shot at the men that came to the house; but those men shot first. Q. -- Did Delk, Williams and Crabtree belong to an independent company? A. -- Not as I know of; they said they belonged to the Seventh Tennessee Infantry. Q. -- Were they in the habit of lying out, shooting at soldiers and others passing the road? A. -- If they were I don't know it. Q. -- Did these men, Delk, Williams and Crabtree, belong to Eli Hatfield's command? A. -- Not as I know of. Q. -- How long had they been in that part of the country? A. -- I don't know how long; Delk came there after they were whipped at Huntsville; I had never seen Williams and Crabtree there before that night. Q. -- What instrument was used for chopping the floor? A. -- An axe; they got it there at our house; I don't know who did the chopping. Q. -- You saw Ferguson take away a negro girl; might you not be mistaken? Was it not Hans Moles and Alex. Evans that took her? A. -- No, Sir, it was Ferguson. Reexamination by the Judge Advocate. -- Q. -- Did you see behind whom the negro girl rode, in going from your mother's house to the Piles Place? A. -- I do not know; they took her off from our house walking. Mrs. Lucinda Hatfield, a witness for the prosecution, testified as follows: Am the daughter of the late Alexander Huff and Mrs. Patsey Huff, and the wife of Eli Hatfield; my father was killed the 2d day of May, 1865; was at my mother's house at the time Delk, Williams and Crabtree were taken from there, but don't recollect the date of the affair. [As most of the testimony of this witness was merely corroborative of the previous evidence, presenting the same facts in similar language, we omit all, excepting such points as are new.] Champ said by G -- d he intended to burn the house, unless I would tell where my brother, Preston Huff, and my cousin, William Huff, were; the men that were with him asked what were the orders next, and he (Ferguson) told them to take just what they wanted; they took some five or six blankets, four coverlets, some calico, and some other things; they took some of the clothes that my father was killed in, some pants, a hat and a shirt, and I don't recollect what else; some of them pulled off their own clothes and put on the stolen clothes in the room. The coat we got back. We found it where Delk, Williams and Crabtree were killed. We could have sold the blankets for six dollars; the coverlets might have been worth eight dollars apiece. The coat that my father was shot in was shot so that it was not worth much of anything. They took an ax and broke up a table, besides cutting the floor. They brought Delk, Williams and Crabtree into the kitchen. Crabtree's mother begged for her boy, and Champ told her it was too late now, that she ought to have made him do better long ago, and his mother said he hadn't done anything. He said that by G -- d he was going to kill them with a knife he drew. He said he had never said yet that he was going to kill a man but what he got to kill him. When he threatened to burn the house if I didn't tell where my brother was, he said if he caught him he intended to unjoint every joint in his body, and throw the pieces so far apart that we would never get them to bury them. I county twenty-eight holes cut in Crabtree's coat when we washed it after he was cut up so; I saw two cornstalks driven in his left shoulder; I knew Ferguson well; he stayed all night at my father's house, about four years before the war; afterwards first saw him in Clinton County, Ky.; Ferguson was riding a horse I thought belonged to Daniel Kogier; I saw the horse Christmas, and Kogier had it then; I spent the Christmas holidays with Kogier, and saw the horse several days; it was after that Christmas I saw Ferguson with the horse. Q. -- When and where did you see the prisoner next after that? Who were with him, and what did they do? A. -- It was when he came to my father's and took him off; Galen Elliott, Doctor Elliot, Henry Sublets, John (Cooney) Smith, Hamp McGinnis, Jouett McGinnis, and Will Hildreth, were all that came to the house; this was on the 2d of May, 1862. Q. -- Now state what was done, and who gave orders and controlled the party. A. -- My father was sitting in the yard: he went into the house, and Jouett McGinnis told my father to go out, and pushed John Smith out to shoot him; mother and myself caught hold of Smith and told him not to kill father, and Champ said he shouldn't be hurt, for me to go back in the house and go to my work; they took my father away. Q. -- Where did you find your father, and how long after they took him away? A. -- We found my father at the old Conrad Piles place. Jeff. Piles was taken way in the morning, and about afternoon two girls came and told us they had killed him, and I went over and found my father dead. Q. -- Describe the wounds that were on your father. A. -- I saw two wounds that were on his left arm, and one through his ankle, and a bullet had entered the centre of his forehead. It had gone through the skull and lodged. I could see the bullet. They said there were more on his back, but I didn't see them. Adjourned to 8 o'clock this morning. Milly WARD Piros My Mind is like Lightning.....One Brilliant flash and pooooooooofffffffff It's gone