Confederate Guerilla Fighter Champ Ferguson Executed by Hanging - 2 1865 Civil War Newspapers
New York: Harper's Weekly Illustrated Newspaper, 1865. Very Good. Item #18209
Two 1865 Civil War newspapers with coverage of the trial and execution of notorious Confederate Guerilla leader, Champ Ferguson.
These two issues of Harpers Weekly Illustrated Newspaper are dated September 23 and November 11, 1865, just a few months after the end of hostilities between North and South. The September issue features a large, half-page engraving of Ferguson and his captors and boasts a front-page headline report covering the trial. The November 11 issue features and inside-page headline report of the execution above another large engraving of Ferguson, on the gallows with a hood over his head, dangling through the dropped floor after death.
Ferguson claimed to have killed more than 100 Union soldiers and civilians and was tried by the U.S. for war crimes.
"Early in the war, Ferguson organized a guerrilla company and began attacking any civilians that he believed supported the Union. Many local vendettas were prosecuted in occupied Tennessee under the guise of war, with both pro-Confederate and pro-Yankee irregulars contributing to a cycle of violence and reprisals. His men cooperated with Confederate military units led by Brig. Gen. John Hunt Morgan and Maj. Gen. Joseph Wheeler when they were in the area, and some evidence indicates that Morgan commissioned Ferguson as a captain of partisan rangers. Ferguson's men were seldom subject to military discipline and often violated the normal rules of war. Pro-Yankee enemies circulated propaganda about Ferguson's alleged sadism, including tales that he occasionally decapitated his prisoners and rolled their heads down hillsides. He was said to be willing to kill elderly and bedridden men. He was once arrested by the Confederate authorities and charged with murdering a government official and was imprisoned for two months in Wytheville, Virginia. The charges could not be proved, so he was eventually released." - wiki
These two issues are complete in 16 pages each and in Very Good condition. #1M-021.
Price: $75.00