12 says, “No.” He says, “You shan’t be hurt; don’t be afraid of us ; you shan’t be hurt.” I never said anything whatever. He went off. Sam’s wife was there at the same time with three little children. Of course it raised great excitement. After a length of time Professor Hillman, of the institute, the young ladies’ school or college, he brought the bodies to the house; brought up my husband, him and Frank Martin. Professor Hillman and Mr. Nelson had charge of the dead bodies, and they brought them to the house; and when they brought them they carried them in my bed-room, both of them, and put them there; they saw to having them laid out, and fixed up and all that. Mr. Nelson said in my presence, I listened at him, he said. “A braver life never had died than Charlie Caldwell. He never saw a man die with a manlier spirit in his , life. He told me he had brought him out of the cellar. You see when they had shot Sam, his brother, it was him who was lying there on the strest. They shot him right through his head, off of his horse, when he was coming in from the country, and he fell on the street. He was the man I stumbled over twice. I did not know who he was. When they shot him they said that they shot him for fear he would go out of town and bring in other people and raise a fuss. He found out, I suppose, that they had his brother in the cellar, so he just lay there dead; be that was never known to shoot a gun or pistol in his life—never knew how. Mr. Nelson said that Buck Cabell carried him into the cellar; persuaded him to go out and drink; insisted upon his taking a drink with him; and him and Buck Cabell never knew anything against each othei’ in his life; never had no hard words. My husband told him no, he didn’t want । any Christmas. He said, “You must take 1 a drink with me,” and entreated him. and 1 said, “You must take a drink.” He then took him by the arm and told him to drink for a Christmas treat; that he must drink; and carried him into Chilton’s cellar, and they jingled the glasses, and at the tap of the glasses, and while each one held the glass, while they were taking the glasses, somebody shot right through the back from the outside of the gate window and he fell to the ground. As they struck their glasses, that was the signal to shoot. They had him in the cellar and shot him right there, and he fell on the ground. When he was first shot he called for Judge Cabinis and called for Mr. Chilton; I don’t know who else. They were all around, and nobody went to his relief; all them men standing around with their guns. Nobody went to the cellar, and he called for Preacher Nelson, called for him, and Preacher Nelson said that when he went to the cellar door he was afraid to go in, and called to him two or three times, “Don’tshoot me;” and Charles said, “Come in,” he wouldn’t hurt him, and “take him out of the cellar;” that he wanted to die in the open air, and did not want to die like a dog closed up. When they took him out he was in a manner dead, just from that one shot; and they brought him out then, and he only- asked one question, so Parson Nelson told me, to take him home and let him see his wife before he died; that he could not live long. It was only a few steps to my house, and they would not do it, and some said this. Nelson carried him to the middle of the street, and the men all hallooed, “We will save him while we’ve got him; dead men tell no tales.” Preacher Nelson told me so. That is what they all cried, “We’ll save him while we got him; dead men tell no tales.” Whether he stood right there in the street while they riddled him with thirty or forty of their loads, of course I do not know, but they shot him all that many times when he was in a manner dead. All those balls went in him. I understood that a young gentleman told that they shot him as he lay on the ground until they turned him over. He said so. I did not hear him. Mr. Nelson said that when he asked them to let him see me they-told him no, and he then said, taking both sides of his coat and bringing them up this way, so, he said, •‘Remember, when you kill me you kill a gentleman and a brave man. Never say you killed a coward. I want you to remember it when I am gone.” Nelson told me that, and he said he never begged them, and that he never told them, but to see how a brave man could die. They can find no cause; but some said they killed him because he carried the militia to Edwards’s, and they meant to kill him for that. The time the guns were sent there he was captain under Governor Ames, and they say they killed him for that; for obeying Governor Ames. After the bodies were brought to my house, Professor Hillman and Martin all staid until one o’clock, and then at one o’clock the train came from Vicksburgh with the “Modocs.” They all marched up to my house and went into where the two dead bodies laid, and they cursed them, those dead bodies, there, and they danced and threw open them * .deon, and"sung all their songs, and challenged the dead body to get up and meet them, and they carried on there like a parcel of wild Indians
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