"John Pemberton Gatewood of Fentress County, Tennessee, evolved into one of the deadliest guerrilla leaders of the Confederacy. Exploits attributed to Gatewood have painted him both as a vicious, unprincipled killer and a soldier fiercely loyal to his family and to those who shared his commitment to the Confederacy. His descent into what many considered barbaric behavior began after family tragedy drove him to join Champ Ferguson as a bushwhacker.
Personally murdering more than sixty people, he and his men cut a swath of destruction through east Tennessee, northwest Georgia, and northeast Alabama. ... The man who would become revered and reviled as the "Red-Headed Beast" was still a long-haired adolescent at the outbreak of hostilities in 1861. Stephens builds a narrative ... capturing Gatewood's life from his early days as a prosperous farmer's son in the Wolf River Valley to his enlistment in the Confederate cavalry and eventual career as a blood-thirsty bushwhacker. The story ends with Gatewood's mysterious post-war life as a Texas outlaw."
I'd never heard of Gatewood. I did a quick Google search and found some interesting pieces. What he was forced into sounds much like the divided loyalties and bushwhacking that was prevalent here in northwest Alabama during the war. I'll have to check out that book. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteGoogle search "Tories of the Hills".
First I heard also.
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Google search "Tories of the Hills".
Good!