Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 2.

“ [37] over to the courts . . . . They really deserve the gallows, and, if consistent with the laws, ought speedily to receive their deserts.” With the spirit of this Alabama clergyman, the Loyalists were everywhere illtreated, and no measures seemed to be considered too cruel to be employed in crushing them.¹

Among the most prominent of the East Tennessee Loyalists, who suffered persecution, were Andrew Johnson and Horace Maynard, members of Congress, and Rev. W. G. Brownlow, D. D., a Methodist preacher, and editor of the Knoxville Whig.² Brownlow's fearless spirit, caustic pen, social position, and public relations through the press and the pulpit, made him intensely hated by the conspirators and their friends, and much feared. They thirsted for his life, and finally the false charge was made, that he was accessory to the burning of several railway-bridges in East Tennessee,³ to cut off communication between that region and Virginia. His life had been daily threatened by Confederate soldiers; and, at the urgent solicitations of his family, he left his home in the autumn, and went into another district of his State. While he was absent, several railway-bridges were burned. Brownlow was accused of being in complicity with their destroyers, and Colonel Wood sent out cavalry in search of him, with instructions, publicly given in the street, at Knoxville, not to take him prisoner, but to shoot him at once.⁴

Brownlow was informed of his peril, and, with other loyal men, he secreted himself in the Smoky Mountains, on the borders of North Carolina, where they were fed by Loyalists. It was finally resolved by the Confederates to rid themselves of so dangerous an enemy, by giving Brownlow a pass to go into Kentucky, under a military escort. The “Secretary of War” at Richmond (Benjamin) was asked for one. He would not give it himself. He said he greatly preferred seeing Brownlow “on the other side of the lines, as an avowed enemy;” ⁵ and instructed General Crittenden, then in command at Knoxville, to give him a pass. General Crittenden sent for Brownlow to come to Knoxville to receive it. He did so, and was on the point of departure for the Union lines, when he was arrested

December 6, 1861.

for treason, on the authority of a warrant issued by “Commissioner” Reynolds, on the affidavit of Attorney Ramsey. He was refused