Murder and Retribution in Kentucky, July 1864
Graysons in Kentucky
Following the Revolutionary War, veterans from Virginia (or their heirs) were awarded Bounty Land in what would in 1792 become the Commonwealth of Kentucky. A number of Old Dominion Grayson relatives settled in and spread to various Kentucky hamlets and towns, primarily on or within fifty miles of the Ohio River.
Henderson and Owensboro
One of those towns is Henderson, located on a horseshoe bend of the Ohio in the northwest corner of the state. Henderson was laid out in 1797 and incorporated in 1810. Among the early settlers were young merchant and naturalist John J. Audubon and our relation Robert H. Grayson, lawyer and son of the late Revolutionary War Colonel and Virginia Senator William Grayson. The town of Owensboro, formally established in 1817, lies roughly fifty meandering miles upriver from Henderson, perhaps half that distance as the crow flies.
Guerrilla Warfare
During the U.S. Civil War, the citizens of both towns were for the most part unionists, although unlike Indiana just across the river, slavery was tenuously legal in Kentucky. Law and order prevailed in the towns when a federal garrison was present, but alternating raids by Confederate and Union cavalry and, more frighteningly, by bands of lawless men with no allegiance at all, were a continual worry to residents of the region. The distinction between these groups was occasionally nebulous.
Summer of 1864
The 1887 history of Henderson which brought a tragic retributive action to my attention detailed a number of guerrilla incidents in and around that town in June and early July of 1864.1 A newspaper article details three of these events:
“Col. Jim Poole of the Kentucky Militia was shot and killed at the bar of the Union House hotel by Confederates when about 25 of them raided Henderson June 18 and helped themselves to supplies. He was resisting being taken prisoner. It was the first bloodshed in this area in more than a year, and marked the beginning of renewed Confederate activity in this area.… A guerrilla raid occurred July 6 in which provisions, money and jewelry were stolen. A [Union] gunboat arrived in the midst of the raid and fired several cannon shots, which drove them off…. On July 11 guerrillas returned again and terrorized the town, shooting merchant James E. Rankin in the neck.” 2
Military Order #59
Gen. Stephen Burbridge, federal military commander of Kentucky and a Commonwealth native, issued Order #59 on July 16: “Whenever an unarmed Union citizen is murdered, four guerrillas will be selected from the prison and publicly shot to death at the most convenient place near the scene of the outrages.” 3 The blurred line between captured “guerrillas” and ordinary Confederate soldiers led to the general’s reputation as “The Butcher of Kentucky.”
Repercussions
A Henderson online history relates what happened next: “Lt. Headington of the 134th Indiana Infantry landed in Henderson on Wednesday, July 20, 1864. These troops brought with them… (Charles) William Thompson (age 18) and John (Pierman) Powell (age 23) [who] had been captured on July 12 [near Owensboro]. They were cut off from their unit and belonged to the command of [Confederate] Captain Dick Yates. They were brought to the Henderson County jail.” 4 The 1887 history relates that that Lt. Headington immediately received orders to publicly execute Thompson and Powell in retaliation for the attempted murder of James Rankin and for “other outrages perpetrated of late in Henderson and vicinity.”
Pleas for Mercy
“I have just heard that two guerrillas are to be shot here today in retaliation for outrages committed by guerrilla bands in this place. It pained me greatly to hear this fact, and I would earnestly plead with you to spare the lives of these men. If what the guerrillas have done to me has had any influence in causing this order to be made, I pray you to abandon your intention and permit them to live.”
Letter of mortally wounded James Rankin to Lt. Headington, July 22, 1864 (Starling, pg. 552)1
The online history continues, “Gov. Archibald Dixon and Mayor D. Banks, prominent Union citizens, telegraphed General Ewing in Louisville and asked that execution be stayed. Even Rankin, who died later from his wound, wrote a plea for the young soldiers. Ewing granted a stay until he heard from General Burbridge. The doomed young men had made every preparation to meet their bitter fate. They had called in an artist and had their portraits taken and Young E. Allison dictated letters to their families.“
The Thompson and Powell Incident
The 1887 history relates that Thompson and Powell, both Catholics, requested to be able to meet with Miss Mary Henderson, a local Catholic friend. John Pernet, another Catholic resident, rushed across the river to Evansville, Indiana for a priest to administer final sacraments. “One of them (John P. Powell, aged 23) bore up like a man of nerve but the younger (Wm. Thompson, aged 19) shed many tears over the near approach of death, both consistently contending that they were no robbers or marauders but regularly sworn Confederate soldiers.”
The bound and blindfolded men were marched to the riverbank. “Two platoons of detailed men stood apart in the street, with fixed bayonets and loaded muskets. facing a fence which skirted the pavement, not over fifteen paces distant. Two chairs about a yard apart stood against the fence. Powell still was firm and undismayed, but Thompson bewailed his hard fate…. It was a horrible spectacle to those who stood near, and Lt. Headington averred that it was the most unpleasant duty he ever had to perform. Our citizens universally strenuously opposed this execution in our midst of men who had not participated in any outrage in our city.”
Family Connection
My wife Jean’s Catholic family lives in Evansville, Indiana. Jean’s dad Joe Thompson was born and raised in Owensboro. When I discovered the 19-year old victim of retribution with the same surname was also a native of Owensboro, it gave me immediate pause. Joe’s second great-father Leo Thompson and younger brother Cyril were farmers in Curdsville on the Green River outside Owensboro. Cyril had three sons. William (b. 1851) died as an infant. John (b. 1850) was fatally struck by lightning in 1881. Cyril’s oldest son Charles W. Thompson, 19 year-old Confederate soldier and first cousin three generations removed of Joe Thompson of Evansville, was executed in Henderson, Kentucky on July 22, 1864.
The bodies of Charles and Pierman were brought to a crossroads hamlet west of Owensboro to St. Alphonsus Church for a funeral Mass and burial. A monument to their memory still stands in the historic parish cemetery.
Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.
1 Starling, Edmund L., History of Henderson County, Kentucky (1887)
2 Boyett, Frank “Taking Sides in the Civil War,” Evansville (IN) Courier & Press, April 9, 2011
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