Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 3.

1 See page 96.

2 Forrest, with a large force, continued to menace Franklin, and early in June he invested it and cut off communication with Nashville. At that time, when an attack upon Franklin was hourly expected, two young men rode up to the quarters of Colonel J. P Baird, and represented themselves as Colonel Autun and Major Dunlap. They were well mounted, neatly attired in the National uniform of the rank of each, but had neither orderlies nor baggage with them. They represented themselves as officers of Rosecrans's army, detailed for special duty by the War Department, and said they had narrowly escaped capture by rebels, who seized their orderlies and baggage. They showed proper papers from the Adjutant-General (Thomas) and General Garfield, then Rosecrans's chief of staff, and asked Colonel Baird to loan them $50, to enable them to go to Nashville to refit. The money and a pass was handed them, and they started off on a full gallop. They were instantly suspected of being spies, and Colonel Watkins was sent after them. He overtook them before they passed the lines, and took them back to Baird, who telegraphed to Rosecrans, and ascertained that there were no such officers in his department. They were closely examined, and on the sword of Autun the letters “C. S. A.” were found. This confirmed the suspicions of Baird and Watkins, and when the fact was communicated to Rosecrans by telegraph, he directed them to be tried by a court-martial as spies, and, if found guilty, to be instantly hung. They made a full confession. At past midnight the court found them guilty, and between nine and ten o'clock next morning they were hanged on a gallows attached to a wild cherry-tree, on the slope of the hill on which Fort Granger stood, three-fourths of a mile from Franklin.

The spies were young men, and were relations, by marriage, of General Lee, the chief of the Confederate armies. “Autun” was Colonel Orton Williams, about twenty-three years of age, son of a gallant officer of the National army and graduate of West Point, who was killed in the war with Mexico. “Dunlap” was Lieutenant W. G. Peter. Young Williams was, at that time, on the staff of General Bragg, and Peter on that of General Wheeler. Williams resigned a lientenancy of cavalry in 1861, and joined the rebels. He is represented as an excellent young, man; but, influenced by the example of his kinsman, General Lee, he took sides with the enemies of hi country, and lost his life in trying to serve them. He had lately married a young widow, formerly Miss Hamilton, of South Carolina. Over his act we may

Castle Thunder.2

The execution of Williams and Peter made a deep impression because of their family and official connections. The Confederate authorities at Richmond were exasperated, and sought an opportunity for retaliation in kind. It was offered a few months later, when a young man from Northern New York, named Spencer Kellogg Brown, only twenty-one years of age, was brought to Richmond from the Mississippi. He had been in the naval service under Commodore Porter, as a common sailor, and had charge of a gun on the Essew when the ram Arkansas (see page 529, volume II.) was destroyed. He was sent in an armed boat to burn a Confederate ferry-boat near Port Hudson. He had accomplished the work, and was returning alone to his boat, along the shore, when he was seized by three guerrillas. He was taken to Jackson, and then to Castle Thunder, in Richmond, charged with being caught as a spy within the Confederate lines. He was subjected to a mock trial, under the direction of the notorious Winder, and on the 25th of September, 1863, was hung as a spy “in the presence of all Richmond.” The circumstances of his capture had none of the conditions of a spy; and his execution, judged by the laws and ethics of civilized warfare, was simply a savage murder. Brown was a very promising young man. He was enthusiastic as a patriot, and was a sincere. manly, religious soldier. Congress made provision (June, 1864) for his young widow, in the form of a pension.

3 this was one of the noted prisons of Richmond. It was a large brick building used as a tobacco warehouse by Mr. Grainer before the rebellion. It was on the corner of Carey and Nineteenth streets. It was used chiefly for the confinement of civilians, and was to the offenders against Confederate authority, by citizens under their rule, what Fort Lafayette or Fort Warren was to like offenders against the Government.