Summerville, Mo.
* * * * *
All Union families were forced to leave Texas county. The illustration
contains the pictures of S. B. Giddens and wife, who were driven out;
also Mrs. Mary Dewett, now over seventy years of age, who was forced to
leave all she had and flee for her life; Mrs. Stillen Stellman, whose
father went to Rolla and got the Federal soldiers to guard him while he
removed his family.
Union Men Killed in Izard County, Ark.
Moody, Mo., September 26, 1906.
Prior to and when the war of the rebellion broke out the writer of
this article was a citizen of Izard county, Arkansas; the few loyal
people that lived in North Arkansas, had a hope that war would be
averted and when Ft. Sumter was fired upon they realized the awful
condition and consequences of war at their very doors; those who
favored a dissolution of the states had given notice in no uncertain
way. And when the news was flashed over the country that there had
been a clash of arms, the persecution of the loyal people began in
the South and Central states by those that favored secession. They
organized themselves into companies and went from house to house
notifying all those that seemed not to take sides either way, that the
time had come when the sheep and goats had to be separated. The Union
element was arrested and many were sent to the penitentiary at Little
Rock, Arkansas, from the counties of Izard, Fulton and Independence.
Those people were robbed and plundered as long as there was anything
worth taking and some of them, after they had got all the Union people
had, commenced arresting and hanging the Union men. They arrested a
young man and placed a halter around his neck to hang him; he broke
loose from them and he was run one mile before he was caught; then he
was taken to a stooping ash tree and hung. The writer was creditably
informed that a man who was a prominent member of the Baptist church,
scratched the dirt from under his toes in order that he might hang
clear of the ground. I have seen the tree he was hanged on many times.
Another brutal murder was perpetrated upon the person of Rube Hudson,
a Union man who had been run from home and returned home in the winter
of 1865; from an exposure, he took sick with pneumonia; his wife had
secreted him under the floor near the chimney and fire place; the news
got out that he was at home, the rebels raided his house; every thing
in the way of beds and what little they had left was turned upside
down and they gave up the hunt and started away; a spell of coughing
came on him, for he was very ill and he was heard coughing by them and
they came back and tore up the floor and found him; they dragged him
out and took him about one hundred yards from the house; there he was
beaten and hung to make him tell of others who might have come with
him; finally he was hung and shot to death, where the family could hear
him pleading for his life; he made a special appeal to one of his near
neighbors calling his name and asking him to intercede for him and save
him. The only consolation he got was "you are a goner, Rube; you are a
goner, Rube," he was left hanging for the family to cut down and bury.
He met his death for no other cause than that of being a staunch Union
man.
Another bloodcurdling murder was perpetrated upon the person of Minor
White, for no other cause than that of being loyal to his country.
He was honest and upright in his dealings with his fellowmen, but he
was arrested, taken to the county seat of Izard county, tried and was
released. Before he started home a friend told him not to go the road
for they would follow him and kill him, he said: "I have always been
free to speak my sentiments; I have done nothing that I have to slip
back home through the woods. I am going to take the public highway, if
I am killed." He was overtaken about a mile out by the mob that took
him there; he was shot and otherwise mutilated and left hanging to a
tree.
I could mention many things that were done to the Union men and women
in Northern Arkansas that make me shudder to think of, and if I were to
undertake to relate all that came under my own observation, and many
incidents that took place in the counties mentioned that were related
to me by others who are entitled to credit for honor and truth. There
was not a Union family left at home in the counties above referred to.
I am opposed to war on general principles: first, it never settles the
issue; second, it is always a poor man's fight and a rich man's fuss;
third, if the poor soldier is fortunate enough to get back alive, the
debt is his to pay.