RANSOM MONEY

March 10, 2009 by angela
Filed under: Uncategorized

RANSOM MONEY

From

Dr. William L. McDonald

Captain Samuel P. Emerson was often referred to as “The Colonel” by those who feared him. These were mostly poor folk among the hills and hollows of Lauderdale County who chose to remain loyal to the Union during the Civil War. Their numbers grew as the ravages of war decimated both hope and livelihood. Many of their sons and husbands had joined the Union Army at the outset. Others had either been drafted or had been recruited into the Confederate Army. As times became harder, desertion, followed by recruitment to the Union Army, became real problems for the Confederacy. Locally, this became known as a “Turn Over.”

A network of espionage and intrigue soon evolved in Lauderdale County as a result of its close vicinity to the Tennessee line and especially to the Union strongholds in Wayne and Hardin Counties. Confederate soldiers were offered money, referred to as “ransom,” as an incentive to turn over. A structured channel was organized whereby the soldier could make contact with a member of this local network, usually a lady. This person would direct the potential deserter to a place located almost on the Wayne and Hardin County line a few miles north of Waterloo known as “Ransom Town,” and sometimes as “Turn Over.” Here the soldier would be paid his ransom money, then quickly sworn in and swished away as anew recruit in the United States Army.

Company B, 6^th Kentucky Regiment, was sent to the Muscle Shoals to break up this flourishing ring of enemy activity. This outfit was commanded by Captain Samuel P. Emerson. Not much is known about him, although it is believed he may have had relatives living in the Waterloo area. One source indicates that Emerson had previously participated in one or more of the famous raids made by John Hunt Morgan which earned for Morgan the name “Thunderbolt of the Confederacy.”

Emerson, to counter the Union network, established a similar system throughout Florence and Lauderdale County. This, too, was made up mostly of women who served as his “informants.” When they learned of a turnover. that was about to be made, these people quickly passed the word to Emerson. The Captain then would waylay the deserter on his way to Ransom Town. According to stories that have been handed down, these captives were sometimes shot by a firing squad when apprehended. Others, when time permitted, were taken to their home communities –places like Rogersville, Cloverdale, Lexington and Florence –where they were hanged from a nearby tree as a solemn warning to their neighbors.

According to the October 17, 1900, edition of the Dallas Times- Herald, Captain Samuel P. Emerson, was laid to a peaceful rest in that Texas town following his recent death in Denver, Colorado. Yet, some fifty years later, an elderly citizen of Waterloo was reluctant to talk about this man, advising the interviewer to “go home and forget you ever heard of the name of Sam Emerson.”

The Civil War Tales of the Tennessee Valley

Bluewater Publications – Heart of Dixie Publishing

http://www.heartofdixiepublishing.com/williamlindseymcdonald.htm

The Civil War stories found in Dr. McDonald’s Civil War Tales of the Tennessee Valley, can be found at Amazon.com or http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0971994676/ref=dp_olp_0/103-3940205-0330202?ie=UTF8&qid=1187314598&sr=8-1&condition=all

To join Bluewater Publications yahoo group go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HistorianChannel/

Or e-mail HistorianChannel-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Tags: