Hanged for killing Marauder.
The invaders camped that night near
Brownsburg, twelve miles from
Lexington, where one of the most indefensible acts of the war was committed—the hanging of
David Creigh, of
Greenbrier, an excellent and honorable man, and one of the most prominent and devoted members of the Presbyterian church of
Lewisburg, of which
the Rev. Dr. McElhenny was so long the pastor.
Mr. Creigh had held several positions of trust and responsibility.
The story of
Hunter's crime is brief.
Mr. Creigh, being beyond the age for service in the army, was residing on his farm at the time of arrest.
A short time before, a camp-follower of the
Federal army came to his house, intent on plunder, and after forcibly entering several rooms, was about to continue his search, when he was forbidden to open the door.
Regardless of protestation, he persisted in making his way further, when
Mr. Creigh stopped him. A desperate struggle ensued.
Mr. Creigh was unarmed when they grappled, but he saved his life by taking that of the ruffian with an axe that was handed him by ‘Old Aunt Sally,’ a family servant.
The hostility between the
Southern people and the
Federal soldiery being bitter at the time, it was deemed best to hide the deed.
It is said that a white man, who had learned the fact, communicated it to a negro, who some time afterwards ran away to the
Federal army and disclosed the secret.
When the army passed through
Greenbrier the next time,
Mr. Creigh was arrested and brought along to
Rockbridge county.
He was given no opportunity for defence, but was hanged simply by
Hunter's order.
That
Creigh had slain the invader of his home and the assailant of his own life was not a sufficient plea.
Thus was this good man made the victim of unmilitary brutality by this Weyler of the
Federal army.
His body was taken to
Lewisburg and interred in the
Presbyterian burying-ground, and at the head of his grave stands a tombstone on which are inscribed these words: ‘Sacred to the memory of
David S. Creigh, who died as a martyr in defence of his rights and in the performance of his duty as husband and father.
Born May 1, 1809, and yielded to his unjust fate June 11, 1864, near
Brownsburg, Va.’ I have often
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seen the tree upon which this good man was hanged in the meadow of
the Rev. James Morrison, and an uncontrollable desire seizes me to see his judge dangling at the end of a rope from one of its limbs.
But
Hunter has gone to his reward, having died in March, 1886.
It is said as the
Federal army under
Hunter, shattered and starving, was passing through
Lewisburg on its disastrous retreat from
Lynchburg,
the Rev. Mr. Osborne, a Federal chaplain, called at the residence of
Rev. Dr. McElhenny, pastor of the Presbyterian church in that place, and related the circumstances attending the murder of
Mr. Creigh.
Dinner coming on, he was pressed by the
Doctor to join in a family meal.
The chaplain declined, declaring that since that atrocious murder he could not ‘consent to break bread under a Southern roof.’
