Reapers of the Whirlwind by L D Clark

This YouTube video clip is of 91 year old L D Clark presenting an introduction to his screenplay called "Reapers of the Whirlwind."   This screenplay is based on Clark's historical novel, "A Bright Tragic Thing."  The novel was about the Great Hanging which took place in Gainesville, Texas during the Civil War.  L D Clarke is the great-grandson of Nathaniel Miles Clark, one of the men hanged in the Great Hanging.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNSX9X3Qzcw

James L. Clark's list of Victims of the Gainesville Hangings

James L. Clark’s list of men “murdered” at Gainesville, 1862

Lemuel D. Clark, ed., The Civil War Recollections of James Lemuel Clark, Including Previously Unpublished Material On The Great Hanging at Gainesville, Texas In October, 1862 (College Station, Texas: Texas A&M University Press, 1984) page 109-112. 

"After some concideration I will rite a brief statement an give the fact in regard to the 44 good men that was murderd by a mob in Gainesville, Cooke County, Texas in October 1862, as I no more a bout the men then eney body else now in this country. Will say tha were murderd for there Union princeables."

“I will conclude by giving the names of all the men that I pursnoly knew an others that was murdered...In the beginning [I] will give the names of the first settlers that lived in this county when my father came:

One of our near neighbors was William Rhodes. He [came] from North Carolina here, an got 320 acres of land as a homestead from the state. He had a nice famley an his oaldest boy belong to the same company that I belonged to. Now Rhodes sold land to a man by the name of Eli Scott about the time the war started. An Scott moved to the land an was murdered while he lived on the land. He Scott [came] from California here, an had a big famley, an was nice foalks. Him [Scott] an Rhodes were hung the same day. Tha are boath buried on the Rhodes survey, now owned by Sam McClerran.
The next neighbor I will name was Hiram Kilborn. He had a homestead of 320 acres of land patened to him by the state. Tho tha did not hang him. He was shot an killed by some of the Bourland men in trying to git a way. His foalks never got his body an did not no what tha dun with it. He Kilborn was a Babtist preacher, and not one of the kind that preached for the money that was in it. He was the oanly Babtist preacher in this country when we came here. I am informed by Frank Foreman that [he] helped to bury Kilborn.

I will give the names [of others who were hanged] as follows:
Wernell – 160 acres
Richard Martin – landowner
Oald Grandpaw Burch – would talk, say what he thought – landowner
H. J. Esmond – 320 acres
Ward
Evans – Or Quinn
Clem Woods – landholder
Wolsey – landholder
Manon – lived on Preston Road
Oald man Leffel
A. B. McNiece – landholder
Wash Morris – landholder
Wesley Morris – landholder – tha were brothers
Thomas Floyd – shot while under gard – landholder
John Crisp – landholder
James Powers
Rama Dye – oald man – landholder
J. Dawson
Oald Man Wiley – landholder
J. Morris
Barnes
Milburn
W. Anderson
Gross
Ward
Dr. Johnson – nation [probably from the “Indian Nation”]
Childs, Senior
Childs, Junior
Hampton
Locke
Foster
Fields
D. Anderson
D. Taylor
R. Manton
Jones
Carmichael
Henry Cochran
Those names are as tha was give to me by McPherson.
Will McCool and two others were murderd at Bill Young Spring on the river after Welch killed Young in Bourland Hollow."

[Footnote on bottom of page 111]
"JLC often mentions a total of forty-four [hanged].  This list is not complete and many contain some errors in names.  Even the number of men murdered is not known exactly.  The best authorities here seem to be Barrett, Hanging, 21, and Wheeler's diary entry for 19 October 1862.  Both accounts give forty as the number hanged and add that two were shot while trying to escape.  If two were hanged by the military, the numbers then agree.  According to Diamond, three men were hanged by the military.  Diamond, "Account," 402."

BlogNote:  Men mentioned on above list by JL Clark who are NOT on Diamond's list: Evans, Clem Woods, Manon, Wiley, Milburn, Manton.

Related Posts:
List of Men who Died in Hangings
1880 Newspaper List of Hanging Victims
Diamond's List of Men Tried and Convicted
Occupations of Hanging Victims

Nathaniel Miles Clark

Nathaniel Miles Clark

Probably more is known about Nathaniel Miles Clark (and his family) than any other man who was hanged.  There are several reasons for this; first, Clark’s son, James Lemuel Clark, kept letters, interviewed others and wrote down his memories and recollections of “the greatest tragedy of his lifetime,” and, secondly, the Clark family stayed in Cooke County, Texas keeping the memory of their ancestor alive with frequent reunions over the years.  L. D. Clark, grandson of James Lemuel Clark, took the memoirs and papers of his grandfather, edited them and added an introduction for a book called “Civil War Recollections of James Lemuel Clark and the Great Hanging at Gainesville, Texas in October 1862.”  Anyone serious about learning more about the Great Hanging needs to read Clark's book.

Description from back cover of book:

  "Not all Texas agreed with the decision to secede from the Union in 1860, and while most did abide by the decision, many remained outspoken against the laws of the Confederacy.  Civil War Recollections of James Lemuel Clark is the story of one Texas family who suffered more at the hands of their neighbors than any warring enemy.

The memoirs of James Lemuel Clark describe his involvement in a series of events leading up to the hanging of forty men in Gainesville, Texas.  Eighteen at the outbreak of the Civil War, Clark was the son of one of the men hanged for their Union sympathies in October 1862.  Clark's memoirs also tell of his experiences with the Texas militia in Indian campaigns and with the Condederate Army.  Civil War Recollections gives an overview of the events that shaped the lives of war survivors and influenced the reconstruction of Texas."





Nathaniel Miles Clark was born 26 Jun 1818 in Christian, Kentucky, the son of Lemuel Marion Clark and Anna Henderson.  He married Mahuldah Lutisha Hicklin 7 Jul 1841 in Missouri. In 1850, Nathanial and his family are found living in Cedar County, Missouri.  By that time, the couple had four young children: James, Cordelia, Martha, and William. Just after 1850, the Clark family moved from Missouri to Cooke County, Texas. They are found in the 1860 Census for Cooke County.  Four more children had been added to their  family by 1860: John Boone, Mary, Joseph, and N. M. Douglas. 

Many of Clark’s neighbors in 1860, also lost their lives during the time of the Great Hanging: Thomas Floyd, Wesley Morris, Washington Morris, Eli Scott, Hiram Kilborn.

1860 Census Cooke County, Texas

Nathaniel lost his life along with so many others in the Great Hanging at Gainesville in October, 1862.  His family buried him in the Clark Family Cemetery outside of Gainesville, Cooke County, Texas.  His headstone inscription reads: "Nathaniel Miles Clark June 26, 1816 (should be 1818) Murdered by a Mob October 13, 1862 His last words to his companion Prepare yourself to live and die. I hope to meet in a better world God bless you all"

After Texas seceded from the Union in 1862, Nathaniel's oldest child and son, James Lemuel, was drafted into the Confederate Army.  Ironically, James Lemuel was serving in the Confederate Army at the time his father was lynched. After hearing of the death of his father, James deserted the Confederate Army and returned to Texas for several months to take care of his widowed mother and younger siblings. Upon getting them settled somewhat, he later ventured north to Missouri to join the Union Army, therefore serving on both sides during the Civil War.