Diamond's Account of those Tried and Executed

THE FOLLOWING LIST IS FROM DIAMOND’S ACCOUNT OF THOSE TRIED AND EXECUTED DURING THE GREAT HANGING AT GAINESVILLE, TEXAS, OCTOBER 1862.

Diamond's Account of the Great Hanging

"George Washington Diamond's Account of the Great Hanging at Gainesville, 1862," edited by Sam Acheson and Julie Ann Hudson O'Connell, can be accessed here on the The Portal to Texas History website.  This account was published by the Texas State Historical Association in The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 66, July 1962 - April, 1963.

To learn more about Diamond's Account, click here.

This list is the order of each man’s trial as presented in Diamond’s Account of the Citizens Court, with the date of hanging listed after each name.  (Most hanging dates came from McCaslin's book, Tainted Breeze.)  

Dr. Henry Childs – Oct 2
Ephraim Childs – Oct 2
A.D. Scott - Oct 19
M.D. Harper – Oct 4
Henry Fields – Oct 4
I.W.P. Lock – Oct 7
W.W. Morris – Oct 8
Richard Anderson - Oct 19
Dr. Eli Thomas – Oct 19

TRIED TOGETHER:
Edward Hampton - Oct 10
John A. Morris – Oct 19

John M. Crisp – Oct 19
Samuel Carmichael – Oct 13

TRIED TOGETHER - Oct 13
C.A. Jones, James Powers, Eli M. Scott, Thomas Baker, Geo W. Anderson, Abraham McNeese, Henry Cockrum, C.F. Anderson, Wm Wernell, B.F. Barnes, Wm Rodes, & N.M. Clark

Ramey Dye – Oct 13

D.M. Leffel – Oct 19

TRIED TOGETHER – Oct 19
James A. Ward & W.B. Taylor

H.J. Esman – Oct 19

W.W. Johnson – Oct 19

Richard N. Martin – Oct 19

Barnabas Birch – Oct 19

TRIED TOGETHER – Oct 19
Curd Goss, Wm Anderson, John Miller, Ar (Phax) Dawson, & M.W. Morris
======

SHOT WHILE TRYING TO ESCAPE:
Dr. James Foster – Oct 10

TRIED BY COURT-MARTIAL AND EXECUTED BY MILITARY:
A.N. Johnson & John Cottrell (together, with Wm McCool)

SHOT WHILE TRYING TO ESCAPE:
Mr. Floyd
 
Note:  Three of the men (not sure which ones) with an execution date of Oct 13 were hanged on Oct 12.  Nineteen men were executed on Oct 19, and this list only shows 17 trials for men who supposedly were hanged on the 19th.  McCaslin lists John W. Morris and Gilbert Smith with the men who were hanged on Oct 19, but Diamond does not list a trial for them.  As always, corrections are welcomed.

Related Posts:

Diamond's Account of the Great Hanging
List of Men who Died in Hangings 
1880 Newspaper List of Hanging Victims
James L Clark's List of Victims
Occupations of Hanging Victims

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

Galveston Daily News 1880

EXECUTION AT GAINESVILLE

Galveston Daily News

Publication date: 1 May 1880

The Galveston News ran an article on 1 May 1880 about an Execution by Hanging of a man named Noftsinger.  The Noftsinger hanging took place in Gainesville on 30 Apr 1880 and the scaffold was "within view of the celebrated 'hangsman tree' of Cooke County.  A portion of the article then goes on to discuss the earlier hangings that took place on the 'hangsman tree' in Gainesville during October 1862.

This 1880 news article is interesting because it includes a partial list of names for the victims of the Great Hanging and it was supposedly the first time these names had appeared in print.  The article called the Citizens Court the "court of inquisition"  and the weeks in which the Citizens Court was holding it's trials, the "fifteen days of terrorism in 1862."

Transcription of above news article.

Galveston Daily News (newspaper), 1 May 1880

OVER THE STATE. 
Special Telegrams to the Galveston News --- The Execution at Gainesville, April 30
[The first part of the article is about a legal hanging in Gainesville that took place on April 30, 1880. Then the article reflected upon the Great Hangings of 1862.]

"THE SCAFFOLD,
erected in the northeastern suburbs of the town [Gainesville], is within view of the celebrated “hangsmen tree” of Cook County. Upon the low, outstretching limbs of this monarch of the woodland, forty men were gibbeted during the fifteen days of terrorism in 1862. The circumstance has often been alluded to in political harangues and commented upon by the press, but thus far the names of the parties executed, and those of the members of the court of inquisition, have never appeared in print. The object of the secret organization, whose members were gibbeted, is more a subject of surmise than of fact. The secessionists at the time, held that the organization was a league to butcher the confederate command at Wichita, kill all pronounced secessionists, burn and destroy their property, and order out of the country all known southern sympathizers. The anti-secessionists, on the other hand, contended that it was a peace party favorable to an alliance with the disaffected reservation Indians, with the object of cooperating with the union army, in the event of federal success in Arkansas, in restoring order in that portion of the state, then the frontier of Texas.
MURDER RAMPANT
Be that as it may, the knife and the rifle of the assassin were rampant. On the first of October, 1862, several hundred persons assembled at Gainesville, in response to a circulated notice, alleging that a treasonable plot had been discovered. A meeting was held in the Methodist Church, and the following members of the court of inquisition appointed to investigate the matter, which court held its sessions in the Masonic lodge-room: Samuel Doss, Thomas Barrett, Wiley Jones, Benjamin Scandland, Thos. Wright, Daniel Montague, J. P. Long, J. E. Hughes, Reason Jones, W. S. Simpson, John N. Hamil, and James Jones. Some one hundred alleged traitors were arrested and brought before the tribunal for trial, during its sixteen days sessions, forty of whom were adjudged guilty and hanged upon the tree in question.
THE VICTIMS
The names of the parties gibbeted were: Dr. Childs; William, John, Wesley and Work Morris, John Crisp, Dr. Eli Thomas, Frosty, George and William Anderson, E. C. Scott, B. Dossen, Thomas Floyd, Ramsey Dye, James Powers, and the following, whose given names are not remembered Chiles, Fields, Locke, Hampton, Wiley, McNice, Worrel, Birch, Goss, Jones, Esmon, and thirteen others, whose names are not recollected. On the 2nd of the month two were hanged, on the 4th two, on the 7th one, on the 8th one, on the 10th one, on the 12th three and on the 13th eleven. On the 12th the inquisition adjourned, subject to call between that date and the 15th. Col. Young, one of the most popular men in north Texas, was assassinated, together with several other confederate officers. The inquisition reassembled and passed sentence on nineteen members of the league, all of whom were hanged on the 17th. There were three degrees in the league. Those who had only taken the first degree were invariably acquitted, and those who had subscribed to the second and third oath, taken by those degree members, invariably executed. The NEWS reporter has been unable to learn the character of the several oaths."

The above newspaper article can be found on THE PORTAL TO TEXAS HISTORY website:
The Galveston Daily News(Galveston, TX), Vol. 39, No. 34, Ed. 1 Saturday, May 1, 1880, page 1:   http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth462743/m1/1/?q=Saturday  

Related Posts:
List of Men who Died in Hangings 
James L Clark's List of Victims
Diamond's List of Men Tried and Convicted
Occupations of Hanging Victims

Not Just A Name On A List

In October 1862, 40 men died, breathing their last breath with a rope around their neck. Several others died from gunshot wounds.

Every man who died during the Gainesville Hangings is important and not just because their name is on a list.  

Behind every name written on the list was a real person.  These were men with hopes and dreams -- men with families and loved ones. Most came to Texas hoping for a better future for themselves and their families. Instead, they met a premature death at the end of a rope and their family was left alone on the Texas frontier.

They had wives, children, parents, brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, uncles and friends who grieved when they died. Many of the men were connected to each other by blood or marriage. Several large extended family groups lost several loved ones during the hanging. Their sorrow was inconsolable. 

We have made lists of the men who died during the hanging and of their wives -- these lists were made to help facilitate our research. Please remember that each and every man and woman on these lists was a unique human being and not just a name on a list.

That being said, lists are a great way to help organize and understand information about people and events.

Below are links to some links to lists I have made to help understand the 'Great Hanging' and the men who died in the hanging:

List of men who died in the 'Great Hanging' 

Wives of men who were hanged

Diamond's List of Men Tried and Convicted

James L Clark's List of Victims  

Occupations of Hanging Victims

List of Men who died during the Great Hanging at Gainesville, Texas 1862

The Great Hanging at Gainesville

Arresting the men

The following is a list of those who died during the Great Hanging at Gainesville.  We are trying to find information concerning the immediate families of these men.  To find a list of the victims and their spouses, go to the "Weeping Wives" post.

Any corrections or additions to this list are welcome!

At least 42 men were tried and convicted by a Confederate Citizens Court.
At least 40 men were hanged, several more were shot while trying to escape.

Others were shot and killed during this time.
========
1. C. F. Anderson > E. F. Anderson > Edward Frost Anderson
2. George W. Anderson
3. Richard J. Anderson
4. William B. Anderson
5. Thomas O. Baker
6. Bennet C. Barnes
7. Barnibus Burch
8. Samuel Carmichael
9. Ephraim Chiles
10. Henry Chiles
11. Nathaniel M. Clark
12. Henry Cockrum
13. John Mansil Crisp
14. Arphaxton R. Dawson
15. Rama Dye
16. Hudson John Esman
17. Henry S. Field
18. Thomas B. Floyd (shot)
19. James T. Foster (shot)
20. Curd Goss
21. Edward D. Hampton
22. M. D. Harper > Manadier D. Harper
23. William W. Johnson
24. C. A. Jones
25. David Miller Leffel
26. J. W. P. Lock
27. Abraham McNeese
28. Richard N. Martin
29. John M. Miller
30. John A. Morris
31. John W. Morris > This may be Wash Morris, brother of Wesley Morris
32. M. W. Morris > Michael Wesley Morris
33. William W. Morris
34. James A. Powers
35. William R. Rhodes
36. Alexander D. Scott
37. Eli M. Scott
38 Gilbert Smith (?)
39. William B. Taylor
40. Eli Sigler Thomas
41. James A. Ward
42. William Wilson Wornell

==

Other victims that were killed or sentenced during that time:

43. William Boyles (not arrested but  shot and later died from wounds)
44. Hiram Kilborn (shot) not claimed as one of the Citizen Court victims
====
James Young hanged the following:
   William A. McCool

   John M. Cottrell

   A.N. Johnson

E. Junius Foster, editor of the Sherman Patriot, was shot as he was closing up his newspaper office.

Joel Francis DeLamirande was tried and sentenced to life in prison for helping the wives of the victims.
John Wiley is on Clark's list as one of the men who was hanged.  He is also mentioned in the 1880 newspaper article as one of the men hanged.  His descendants claim he was hanged, but McCaslin does not include him in his list of men hanged and his list is basically the same as Diamond's account.

The Great Hanging at Gainesville, Texas 1862 has been called the largest mass lynching in American history by some historians.

Related Posts:
List of Men on 2014 Memorial
1880 Newspaper List of Hanging Victims
Diamond's List of Men Tried and Convicted
James L Clark's List of Victims
Occupations of Hanging Victims
Left Without a Father 
Weeping Wives List 
Lynching or Hanging

Note:
The illustration above is from the Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, 20 Feb 1864. Several smaller illustrations comprised a double-page centerfold, about 22X16 in size and entitled "Rebel Barbarities in Texas."  The illustration can be found at Fold3.