Age 48 years. Residence Cleveland Tennessee. I am a merchant and not related to the claimant and have no interest in his claim.

I have known the claimant for 23 years having lived all that about two miles from him all that time and have been intimate with him all that time. I have been in the grain trade all that time and have as a general rule purchased his surplus produce every year. And I believe that I have bought as much produce from the claimant as from any other one man in Bradley county and he ranks among the largest farms in this county.

I have examined his account before the claims commissions and I am satisfied that nine years out of ten the claimant raised more surplus produce than is charged in his account.

I was the Confederate States Tax Assessor in the year 1862 for Bradley county and my business led me to investigate the produce different farmers raised in the county. I have no means of showing accurately what it was for the books I kept were carried away. I recollect that the confederate authorities got a vast quantity of hay from him that year but I can’t now say how much.

Question by claimant - Are you a bank officer; (?) would you honor a note made by Captain A.E. Blount and endorsed by Maj. Steril (?)mbright and Leonard Carrouth for seventy five dollars.

Answer - I am a bank officer and I would not honor the note for I do not consider any of them good.

Question - Do you know anything about the grinding of sick wheat at any mills near Cleveland and what authorities had the grinding done?

Answer - The Confederate Commander General G.G. Dibrill pressed a quantity of wheat in the Cleveland mills and ordered J.H. Craigmiles to have the wheat ground. Craigmiles was the owner of the mills and told as I understood the commander that the wheat was sick wheat.

Craigmiles had the wheat ground and it made the soldiers sick. That was the last sick wheat year that I know anything about.

Question - Do you know anything about my loyalty or my reputation for loyalty?

Answer - I was in a position to know the standing of the citizens of Bradley county for loyalty and think I did know the standing of almost every leading man in the county and William Cate’s loyalty to the Federal Government never was doubted by either party.

Question - What do you know about Capt. A.E. Blount’s associating with the claimant after the war was over, and about whose associations ceasing. If so state whom they ceased and the cause if you know it.

Answer - I know that after Capt. A.E. Blount came back at the close of the war that he associated on very intimate terms with the claimant and his family till about the time Capt. Blount was appointed Postmaster at Cleveland about the spring of 1869.

The claimant’s daughters had been the Capt’s assistant in the Masonic Female Institute in which he was the teacher.

About the spring of 1869 their associations ceased and I understood at the time and have alway understood since that it was because claimant would not go upon the Captain’s bond as Post Master.

Myself and Capt. Blount were on very intimate terms till the war came on, but after he came back, because I had fallen on the confederate side he would not for years recognize me as a gentleman nor speak to me though there had never been a hard word between us and I had been one of his best supporters while teaching at this place.

signed,
C.L. Hardwick
before, John W. Ramsey - Spec. Comm.

Deposition of Joseph Calloway

Son of Thomas H. Calloway of Cleveland, my age is 27 years, I reside in Cleveland. I am a farmer and am not related to claimant and have no interest in his claim,

Question by claimant - Where did you live during a part of the war and what was the character of the neighborhood in which you lived for loyalty?

Answer - I lived most of the time in Murray county, Georgia but I lived a small part of the time in the border of Polk county, Tennessee. Just before the close of the war my father and his family including myself came back to Cleveland, Tennessee.

Murray county was considered a Union county and voted largely Union and the district I lived in which adjoins the Tennessee line was very strongly Union. There was but few rebels in it.

Question - How near did you live to Leonard Carrouth when you lived in Murray and Polk counties?

Answer - When I lived in Murray where I lived most of the time, I lived in three miles of Carrouth and when in Polk about four miles or four miles and a half miles from him.

Question - Were you well acquainted with Leonard Carrouth, and did you know his public reputation for loyalty to the United States in his neighborhood? in Murray county, Ga.?

Answer - I was well acquainted with Leonard Carrouth, and know that he did not have the confidence of the true Union men of his neighborhood in Murray county Ga., while he lived there during the war.

Question - State what transaction you had with Carrouth during the war.

Answer - At one time some rebel soldiers stole and took off six of my hounds, and myself and all of father’s family were afraid to go after the hounds, and father got me to go and see Carrouth and engage him to go and get the hounds back from the rebels. Carrouth was on good terms with the rebels and could safely go among them. I hired Carrouth and he went down near Spring Place and got the dogs and brought them back to us.

Question - State as near as you can when Carrouth left that part of Murray county, Ga., where he went to and the cause of his leaving Murray, and when he came into the neighborhood of Cleveland.

Answer - My recollection is that Carrouth left Murray county Ga. about the middle of 1863, he left his family there and went into East Tennessee.

His family left there and came into this county in 1864. My recollection is that the Union men of his neighborhood had become embittered against Carrouth because they understood that he had reported several of the Union men to the Enrolling Officer and they were against him. I know this was the talk among the Union men.

Question - How long have you known me and how intimate and how near to me did you live?

Answer - I have known Mr. Cate at least 20 years, having lived nearly all my life at Cleveland except the short time I lived during the war in Murray and Polk. Although my father lived part of the time in Murray and Polk, yet he was much of his time about Cleveland and I know that father always regarded the claimant as a Union man and at one time when I started to go to the federal lines from the part of Polk county, Tennessee near the Georgia lines, father directed me to go to the claimant’s house and the claimant would send me over to John McPherson’s who would send me forward on my way, but I was captured before I got to Cleveland.

signed,
Joe. Callaway
before, John W. Ramsey - Spec. Comm.

Deposition of J.C. Steed

Age 53, Residence near Cleveland. I am a farmer not related to the claimant and have no interest in his claim.

Question by the claimant - Are you acquainted with my farm and were you acquainted with it during the war?

Answer - I am and was well acquainted with it during the war.

Question - Do you know anything of the amount I had in clover and grass in 1862-3 that I mowed?

Answer - I suppose that there must have been seventy five to eighty acres.

Question - Was it good clover and grass?

Answer - As far as I recollect it was a good field of clover. It was mixed with timothy and clover.

Question - When did you leave home in 1863 for the federal lines and who went with you?

Answer - I left on the 18th day of September 1863, and Gus Cate, James Campbell and I think James Baker went with me to the federal lines. I went on to Knoxville and was gone about a month.

Question - Was there a fight at Cleveland the morning before you left and did you hear anything about two or three federal soldiers getting to my house pursued by rebels.

Answer - There was a fight at Cleveland and the federals were scattered and I understood from the claimant that two or three federals had got to his house and I have no doubt but that was true for one of them came on to my house. I was living on the far side of the claimants house from Cleveland. And I believe that I heard the claimant say that some rebel soldiers came in pursuit of them.

Question - Do you know anything about General Dibbrel’s command pressing the Cleveland Mills and grinding up some sick wheat? And do you recollect anything about how I deceived the rebels about my wheat and saved it?

Answer - I recollect that General Dibbrell pressed the Cleveland mills, and ground up some sick wheat that made their soldiers sick and I recollect the claimants telling me how he saved his wheat from the rebels by pretending it was sick wheat.

Question - Do you recollect anything about the federal soldiers taking my sheep?

Answer - I heard the claimant say that the federal soldiers taking his sheep about the time it was down and as they took a cow from me.

Question - Did you know anything about my business during the war?

Answer - But little about his business as I stayed close at home and attended to my own business.

Question - Did you tell Col. John B. Brownlow that I had never fed nor concealed Union soldiers?

Answer - If I told him anything on that subject I told him that I did not believe he did. But I don’t recollect that he ever asked me such a question.

Question - Do you recollect anything about a conversation about filing our claims before the Board and asking me if I was going to file my claim?

Answer - I may have asked him such a question, but I don’t recollect it. I have an indistinct recollection of talking on that subject but don’t recollect what it was.

Question - Did you tell James B. Brownlow that my rebel neighbors all considered me a rebel?

Answer - If he ever asked me such a question, I told him they did.

Question - Will you state the names of some of these rebel neighbors?

Answer - I don’t recollect the names of any of these rebel neighbors and would not tell if I did.

Question - Do you know anything about J.F. Larrison and myself being at outs or ill terms for the last several years?

Answer - You and he have been on ill terms for several years.

Question - Have there been any neighborship between you and I since 1865?

Answer - There has not been, but I lived further from him than before the war.

Question - Were you a loyalty witness for J.F. Larrison before the Tennseess Court of Claims and what did you prove for Him?

Answer - I was called before them and would not prove for him after he became a conservative.

( At this point Mr. J.C. Steed, who had all the time showed a disposition not to testify any further than he could avoid it, refused to testify any further but got up and left my office. I requested him to sign his name to what I had written and read over to him sentence by sentence as I wrote it, but he refused to do it saying that he would not have come to testify for the claimant at all if he had known what sort of question he was going to ask him. A word about the dogging the claimant’s hogs had dropped out. Which at once fi(?)d the witness and showed that since that difficulty there had been no friendship between them.)

before and written by John W. Ramsey - Spec. Comm.

Deposition of Joseph R. Taylor

Age 42 years, residence Cleveland, Tennessee. I am a farmer and brick mason. I am not related to the claimant and have no interest in his claim.

I have known the claimant at least 20 years, and for several years lived on an adjoining farm to the claimant, knew him and his farm intimately for the last 20 years. His farm is one of the best farms in Bradley county specially adapted to wheat, corn, clover, and grass. I have worked much on his farm.

Question by claimant - How much wheat and hay or clover will those fields raise that I was running in wheat and clover and timothy during the war. What per acre would these fields average?

Answer - The fields he was running in wheat would average fifteen bushels per acres. I am satisfied that the most of the land in clover would have averaged about two tons per acre.

Question - Please state what you know of me as a farmer and what amount of supplies farm products I raise each year?

Answer - He is considered one of the best farmers in our county and I am satisfied that he ought to raise two thousand dollars worth of supplies/farm products a year and I know that he does raise large quantities of farm products and I recollect that the crop years of 1862-3 and 4 were all good crop years.

Question - Please state who was the Confederate Tax Collector for 1862 and perhaps for 1863 in Bradley county.

Answer - William L. Brown.

Question - State what you know about the intimacy between me and Capt. A.E. Blount at the close of the war?

Answer - For several years I thought they were on excellent terms. And I only know the rumor that when Blount got the appointment of Postmaster in the spring of 1869 that the claimant refused to go on his bond and that from that refusal some hardship grew up.

I also know that one of my near neighbors William W. Wood, a rebel, went on a note for Capt. A.E. Blount’s benefit in bank for as he thought for two hundred dollars but it turned out to be for two thousand dollars and that Wood had to pay if off by mortgaging his property and a nephew of the claimant, T.L. Cate took an active part in making Blount secure said Wood and ultimately paying him. I also heard of the said T.L. Cate losing a registered letter that created hard feelings through the office under Capt. Blount. I never heard of his discharging any of his clerks on account of the loss of the money. This was about the time of the protest of said banknote.

I also heard of another registered letter going to G.D. (Oniall?), now dead, being lost about the same time.

Question - Please state what Mr. James H. Norman’s land or estate was worth at anytime? and about my intimacy with him.

Answer - I know that claimant and Norman were intimate neighbors. I don’t think the said Norman’s property at anytime was worth more that $2,500 and part of this consisted of a negro woman and some then small children. I never knew Norman to be a lender of money but I knew him as a borrower. He was always considered an honest upright man though considered comparatively a poor man. Mr. Norman was the guardian of myself and brothers and sisters and when I called on him he could not meet it and it was paid me by his son after his death.

Question - State what you know about my being enthralled at anytime.

Answer - I never at anytime knew of the claimant being enthralled.

Question - State what you know about my loyalty.

Answer - I know that he was a strong Union man, and that he reputed to be a strong Union man. I was a rebel and knew who was rebel and who was not all around Cleveland and I never heard the claimant’s loyalty to the United States questioned till the last few weeks.

Question - Do you know how John N. Cowan stood as to loyalty and how he considered claimant?

Answer - Mr. John N. Cowan was a rebel and considered the claimant a Union man. I have heard him speak of him as a Lincolnite. I have heard him call the claimant a Lincolnite to his face, but jocularly.

signed,
J.R. Taylor
before, John W. Ramsey - Spec. Comm.

Deposition of William W. Woods

Aged 44 years, reside in Cleveland, Tennessee. I am in the tin and stove and dry good business. I am not related to claimant and have no interest in his claim. I have known the claimant 23 years and lived about half the time in a mile and a half of him and a half of the time 2 1/2 miles from the claimant. I always regarded him as a true Union man. I never heard anybody doubt his loyalty.

Question by claimant - Did you ever notice the intimacy between me and Capt. Blount for the first few years after the war?

Answer - I often saw them together and acting together as good friends for years after the war.

Question - Were you not an indorser on a note in bank for Capt. A.E. Blount’s benefit? If so state the circumstances under which you were on it and what became of it and when it was.

Answer - I did go on a note for his benefit for two thousand dollars thinking it was a note for two hundred dollars. He suffered it to go to protest in the First National Bank at Cleveland, and I had to mortgage my town property to raise the money to pay said debt. It was, if I recollect it was about twelve months before I got the money out of him.

This Bank note went to protest about 1870 or 1871. I paid the debt under judgement and execution.

Question - Do you know anything about T.L. Cate, a nephew of mine, having a registered letter lost in the post office at Cleveland under Capt. Blount?

Answer - I heard the rumor and that he or his clerk was getting up the money to pay it. The clerk was not turned off.

signed,
W.W. Wood
before, John W. Ramsey - Spec. Comm.

Deposition of James H. Brown

Aged 66 years old and reside in Meigs county, Tennessee about a mile from Kincommons Ferry. I was examined in this case by Mr. Hybarger, Special Commissioner on property, having cropped on the claimant’s farm during the years 1862 and 1862 and did not leave his farm till sometime in 1864.

I am not related to the claimant and have no interest in his claim.

Question by the claimant - State what you know about the rebels bringing their cattle out and feeding them on my hay or forage, how many they brought, what they fed to them, and your means of knowing what you speak about.

Answer - In December 1862 the rebel soldiers brought sixty cattle out to the claimant’s farm and soon afterwards they brought out forty head more and after that they brought four more poor old cows. While the soldiers were there attending to their cattle and slaughtering them, they stayed at a small house about eight or ten feet from my house and I was on intimate terms with them while they stayed, which was forty or fifty days. The whole of their feeding and slaughtering was in my view. I know that the rebels fed out a very large rick, about three hundred yards from my house and about two hundred yards from Mr. J.C. Steed’s house and in full and fair view of both our houses.

Our houses were also in plain view of each other.

I often saw them feeding the stock and also saw Steed looking at them feeding on the hay. I also recollect that Steed bought a lot of the hides from those who slaughtered the cattle and often the soldiers took (?) and portions of beef to Mr. J.C. Steeds. The soldiers several times borrowed a basket from me to carry the beef to Mr. Steed. These soldiers spent considerable of their time at Mr. Steeds. These soldiers also fed away two other small stacks of hay belonging to the claimant.

My recollection is that there was by estimation in the two large ricks about twenty tons each, and I suppose there was half as much more in the other two stocks. So that in my opinion there was about sixty tons of the claimant’s hay used by them. My recollection that the claimant said to me at the time that he only got four hundred dollars in confederate money for all of his hay that they took. This was early in 1863 and it took about that time about eight or ten dollars in confederate money to pay for one in Tennessee Bank money.

But I understood that they went off without paying anything for the small stacks.

Question - State what you know about the rebels forcing their cattle upon me at that time?

Answer - I recollect that some of them came out twice to see you about putting their cattle on your place, and that claimant refused to let them come and told them that he did not have any hay to spare and at last the soldiers came out with the cattle and put them into his field against his will.

Question - Do you know whether J.C. Steed knew that these cattle were forced upon the claimant?

Answer - I heard the claimant and J.C. Steed talking about this matter and I know that claimant told Steed that the rebels forced the cattle on him.

Question - Do you know how many of these hides J.C. Steed bought from the soldiers and what he gave for them and whether the confederate officers were satisfied with these sales?

Answer - I do not recollect how many of these hides Steed got but I know that he got the most of the best hides and I heard Steed say he got them at a dollar a piece in confederate money. I know that the officers before they started raised a fuss about the loss of these hides. They came to claimant’s house searching for them but found none at his house for he did not have any of them and the claimant asked me to slip over to Mr. Steed’s and tell him what was up and that the officers were hunting for the hides, that Steed might get them out of the way and when I told Steed he said if they did not come before night, they would not find any of the hides; and the officers gave up the search and came back to Cleveland.

Question - State what you know about the claimant and J.C. Steed being on friendly terms till after the war was over and about whether Steed was not often at claimants house or not during the time you stayed there.

Answer - The claimant and J.C. Steed were on intimate terms till I left and went into the federal army about the first of March 1864. While I lived by them, Mr. Steed was often at claimant’s house to get the claimant to attend to matters at Cleveland for Mr. Steed. Mr. Steed said to me at one time that he did not know what the Union men of that neighborhood would do if Mr. Cate got into such a fix that he could not go to town; for Steed and some of the other Union men had got afraid to got to town.

Question - State what was the state of feeling and affairs between me and Mr. Steed when you got back from the war and how you know it.

Answer - When I got back from the federal army, I first met one of Mr. Steed’s sons and in conversation asked him about Mr. William Cate and he said they had fallen out and had no correspondence.

I afterwards met Mr. Steed and asked him and he told me that he and claimant had fallen out and had no correspondence or dealings.

As I was well acquainted with both Steed and claimant I asked Mr. Steed what was the falling out and he told me it was about dogging some of his hogs. That some of the claimants hogs had died and he reckoned that they would never be friendly unless he paid the claimant for his hogs and that he did not intend to do.

Question - State what you know about my loyalty and how Mr. J.C. Steed regards me.

Answer - I was a strong Union man and I knew that claimant was a strong Union man. Mr. Steed was a Union man and so considered the claimant and was often at his house during the war, and often came through to learn the news from Cleveland for we were in the habit; a number of Union men of us, of meeting at claimant’s to hear the news, for he went to town almost every day and many of us were fearful to go to town.

Question - State what you know about Captain Norman coming to your house one night hunting me and what took place on that occasion?

Answer - I recollect that about the 1st of June 1863, I had a very sick child and sent for the claimant to come to my house and while he was at my house after dark Norman came to my house in search of the claimant and I got a torch light and Norman sorted out a package or two of letters or papers of some kind that he said had come through the federal lines and he gave them to Mr. Cate for distribution. I recollect that Norman told him to give part of these letters to Dr. G.B. Thompson.

I also saw Norman give the claimant a package of money to get changed, and as my wife was present, Norman then took Cate aside and they had some private conversation that I did not hear.

I recollect that Captain Norman came back to the claimant’s next day before the claimant got back from Cleveland and as I was expecting some medicine by the claimant I sat and talked with Captain Norman till Cate got back. When Cate got back he brought a sack of goods and he and Norman had a talk about the sick conscripts and the necessary medicine for them. I recollect Cate telling Norman that when Norman sent back the nag he let him have to carry the sack of goods home on, that he would send him a joint of meat for those conscripts.

As Mr. Cate could not get the (?) medicines needed he sent me to Candy’s Creek and I got an armful of white walnut bark for him to boil and make medicine out of which he did for the use of our families and the sick conscripts.

Question - State what you know about Captain Norman’s often coming to the claimant’s house to get news when Norman was at home and to get claimant to transact business for other Union men.

Answer - I knew that Captain Norman had been through the federal lines and I also know that Norman often came privately to the claimant’s house to get the news from Cleveland and to get the claimant to attend to matters for him at Cleveland, and that he had the utmost confidence in the loyalty of the claimant. Norman told me at one time when he had been away, that he did not let anybody but myself, claimant and one or two others know what he was about.

Question - State what you know about my taking my stock and hands and going over and threshing out Capt. Joseph Cobb’s wheat for his family while Cobb was gone to the federal armies.

Answer - Claimant took his hands and stock and hired me and went over to the said Joseph Cobb’s house and threshed out a considerable crop of wheat for his wife and small children. He stacked the straw and put the wheat in Cobb’s garner. While I was at Cobb’s working for claimant the rebels took my (mare?) from my house. I never heard of her anymore.

Question - State what you know about the ill feelings between me and Mr. J.F. Larrison during the war?

Answer - I know that they were on ill terms, not even on speakng terms. I asked Larrison as well as claimant about it and learned what it was about.

Question - Do you know how Larrison regarded me as to loyalty during the War?

Answer - I was intimate with Larrison and know that though he did not like the claimant, yet he regarded him as loyal to the Union cause.

Question - Do you know of my assisting other Union men besides those named above?

Answer - I knew the claimant aiding many other Union conscripts, many of whose names I did not know or want to know.

signed,
James H. Brown
before, John w. Ramsey - Spec. Comm.

Continued Testimony-page 4