That the proceedings should appear legal, the foreclosures were by due
process of law. But if quietly circulated warnings against a general
bidding for property when offered at court sale were not effective, some
well-known desperate character would appear at the sale and threaten
anyone who dared bid against him.
The bitterness of the feeling of the two sides subsided slowly, but
there was ever present the realization that old alinements could be
quickly and bloodily revived. Champ Ferguson, sought by the Federal
authorities, appeared suddenly upon the streets of Jamestown. That day
his old rival, "Tinker," was there. It was a personal battle the two
leaders fought, while Jamestown looked on silently, fearful of the
outcome. Beaty received three wounds, but escaped on horseback.
A short time afterward Ferguson was hanged at Nashville by order of
court martial. The charge against him was that he had entered the
hospital at Emery and Henry College and shot to death a wounded Federal
lieutenant. Ferguson claimed justification as the Federal lieutenant,
under orders to escort a war-prisoner--a Confederate officer and
personal friend of Ferguson's--to headquarters, had, instead, stood his
prisoner against a tree by a roadside and ordered a firing-squad to kill
him. And the court-martial indictment of Ferguson read--"and for other
crimes.
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