Captain Champ Fergson
Many students of American Civil War history are aware that the United States executed Captain Henry Wirz for various war crimes he was convicted of while serving as commander of the Confederate prisoner of war camp at Andersonville. Only one other man shared that fate of Confederate officer executed for war crimes after the Civil War and that was Champ Ferguson. Ferguson was a Confederate partisan leader from Tennessee that exemplified the bloody guerilla activities by both sides in certain Southern states. He was convicted of killing 53 men and was believed to have killed over a hundred. Many of his kills were neighbors and even friends before the war. Ferguson claimed that it was kill or be killed and that everyone he killed would have killed him if they had the chance. He also claimed he was entitled to amnesty as a Confederate officer.
The stories about Ferguson are as legendary now as they were then. The episode that probably got him the most attention was the claim against him after the battle of Saltville on October 2, 1864. Salt was essential to the Confederate Army and civilians in the area. Destruction of the salt mines there might have condemned the local populace to starvation, but the Union forces that attacked the mines probably were looking to deprive the Confederates of the opportunity to preserve vital meat supplies. Ferguson and his guerillas participated in the battle. Ferguson was alleged to have ordered his men to killed African American prisoners from the 5th Cavalry. He is said to have personally looked for an enemy in a Confederate hospital there and killed a captured and wounded Union officer, Lt. Elza Smith of the 13th Kentucky Cavalry.
Shortly after the main Confederate armies surrendered, Ferguson surrendered believing he was protected. Union forces felt differently and after a military trial he was hung in Nashville, Tennessee on October 20, 1865. Whether he was a homicidal maniac, Confederate soldier simply doing what Union partisans were doing or something in between is debated in books and articles to the present.
Captain Champ Fergson
Many students of American Civil War history are aware that the United States executed Captain Henry Wirz for various war crimes he was convicted of while serving as commander of the Confederate prisoner of war camp at Andersonville. Only one other man shared that fate of Confederate officer executed for war crimes after the Civil War and that was Champ Ferguson. Ferguson was a Confederate partisan leader from Tennessee that exemplified the bloody guerilla activities by both sides in certain Southern states. He was convicted of killing 53 men and was believed to have killed over a hundred. Many of his kills were neighbors and even friends before the war. Ferguson claimed that it was kill or be killed and that everyone he killed would have killed him if they had the chance. He also claimed he was entitled to amnesty as a Confederate officer.
The stories about Ferguson are as legendary now as they were then. The episode that probably got him the most attention was the claim against him after the battle of Saltville on October 2, 1864. Salt was essential to the Confederate Army and civilians in the area. Destruction of the salt mines there might have condemned the local populace to starvation, but the Union forces that attacked the mines probably were looking to deprive the Confederates of the opportunity to preserve vital meat supplies. Ferguson and his guerillas participated in the battle. Ferguson was alleged to have ordered his men to killed African American prisoners from the 5th Cavalry. He is said to have personally looked for an enemy in a Confederate hospital there and killed a captured and wounded Union officer, Lt. Elza Smith of the 13th Kentucky Cavalry.
Shortly after the main Confederate armies surrendered, Ferguson surrendered believing he was protected. Union forces felt differently and after a military trial he was hung in Nashville, Tennessee on October 20, 1865. Whether he was a homicidal maniac, Confederate soldier simply doing what Union partisans were doing or something in between is debated in books and articles to the present.