Ferguson's Downfall
On October 18, 1864, Federal couriers delivered the letter to Robert E. Lee's headquarters by a truce boat. General Breckinridge had already informed Lee of the murders, and Lee expressed that he was deeply disturbed that his troops and officers should have behaved in such a fashion. Lee then ordered the capture and court marshal of Ferguson. Ferguson was paroled, however, due to the lateness in the war. All of the witnesses that might have testified against him were dead or were off fighting in another part of the war, and could not be present. The United States Government caught up with Ferguson after the war. He became one of only two men to be executed for war crimes after a lengthy hearing. Men of the 15th Colored troops witnessed the hanging of Champ Ferguson on October 20, 1865. This added some poetic justice to the end of Ferguson's brutal life.
The 5th USCC would return to Saltville two months later to try to gain the salt works. After two days of fighting on December 17–18, 1864, the Federals defeated Breckinridge along the Holston River and gained Saltville. General Stoneman, who commanded the second raid in conjunction with General Burbridge, ordered the destruction of the salt works, and other major commercial and militaristic facilities. Railroads, lead mines, and munitions stockpiles were destroyed all over the Abingdon-Saltville area.
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Famous quotes containing the words ferguson and/or downfall:
“Personally I think we’re over-specialized. Why it’s getting so we have experts who concentrate only on the lower section of a specimen’s left ear.”
—Martin Berkeley, and Jack Arnold. Prof. Clete Ferguson (John Agar)
“Children demand that their heroes should be fleckless, and easily believe them so: perhaps a first discovery to the contrary is less revolutionary shock to a passionate child than the threatened downfall of habitual beliefs which makes the world seem to totter for us in maturer life.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)