Garrard County, Kentucky - Chapter 8, 1854

Chapter 8

Samuel and Thomas Evans go to Lancaster - Hills attack Tom, and knock him senseless - Sam runs to his succor - Hills cut Tom to pieces with bowieknives, and one of them places a pistol against his head - Sam fires upon them and tumbles one into the cellar - Fred Hill runs up with a bowie-knife, and Sam shoots him down - Hills rush at Sam and compel him to retreat - Sam shoots Rus Hill and makes the party retreat - Sam shoots Henry Sagracy, and defeats the whole crowd - Sam gets into a sick man s room, and sends him on an errand to his lawyer - Old John Hill's monkey pranks - Sam's trial and acquittal - Grand Jury indict the Hills - Tom's wounds - Public sentiment changed - Sam greeted with applause.

Had it been expedient to record events as they transpired, with respect to time, this scene would have come in during the Doctor's absence. But for the sake of unity , I thought it better to serve the Doctor first. The kind reader will, therefore, permit me to retrace a short period of time.

This tragical scene was acted during the Doctor's absence, in May, 1850. Sam and Tom Evans, who were respectively 18 and 16 years of age, went to town to procure some necessaries for the family, and among other things, a saddle for themselves. As they were bound under such heavy pecuniary penalties to keep the peace, they believed that the Hills were honor bound not to molest them. But notwithstanding this, they carried some of their small arms. Several of the Hill party wrere in the shop when the boys bargained for the saddle. In the evening, when they were ready to return home, Sam told Torn to lead the horses across the square, to the shop, while he w'ent up stairs to get the saddle. As he approached the shop he saw a crowd of Hills standing on either side of the door, but went up without saying a word to them. Tom, leading the horses, soon followed. When he arrived at the door and saw that Sam had not come down, he thought he -would hitch the horses and go up into the shop too. As he was in the act of throwing the bridles around the tree, which stood on the edge of the sidewalk, the Hills rushed at him. lie iuscantly snatched his pistol to shoot, but at that moment two or three of them fired at him, and one struck him in the forehead with a rock, which knocked him senseless. As he fell, he hollooed - " Oh Sam ! Oh Sam ! ! " When Sam heard this and the report of the pistols, he was a few feet from the head of the stairs with the saddle on his arm - he dropped the saddle, drew a small revolver and ran down to the foot of the stairs. lie saw Tom, about six feet distant to the right, with a crowd of Hills around, cutting him to pieces - some would hold while the others cut. Another group was standing on the pavement in front of the stair- way door. Just as Sam arrived at the bottom of the stairs, he saw one of the party run up to Tom and put a pistol against his head. At that instant Sam fired, struck the fellow in the right shoulder, and tumbled him, together with his pistol, into a cellar. The next moment Fred Hill run up with a bowie-knife, and was about to plunge it into Tom's breast, when Sam drove a ball into his back, and stretched him on the ground. Isaiah Hill attempted to pull Tom a little from the wall that he might have fairer hacking. Sam fired at his breast and struck the handle of a pistol in the right side of his coat, which sq frightened him that he ran away.

The crowd before the door was placed there to shoot Sam as he came down, while the others were to do the work for Tern. At the last shot, Sam's pistol ceased to revolve, being impeded by the fragment of an exploded cap. As soon as those before the door saw this, they rushed at him, and ran up the stairs with up-raised bowie-knives, ready for a butchery. He retreated up the stairs, and by this time succeeded in getting his pistol to revolve, llus Hill was in front, and when Sam pointed the pistol at him, he turned, tucked down his head and ran back, receiving the ball in his right shoulder. That made them scamper and clear the stair-way in double-quick time. Sam dropped the revolver on the floor, drew two single barrels, and with one in each hand, ran down to his former stand. 'When he got down, he saw Henry Sagracy leveling a pistol at him. At that instant Sam threw up his - Sagracy wheeled and received the ball in his ri<rht shoulder. The pistol which he held iu the other hand went off and lodged its ball in the door steps. He kept pointing the empty pistol at Elijah Huggins, but found it would not fire - Duggins wheeled and ran off. He kept pointing the empty pistol at them till they all ran away. It is an extraordinary fact that they were all shot in the right shoulder. It can be accounted for only by accident, for Sam certainly did not have so much consideration and mercy as to shoot them in the right shoulder when a ball in the left side would have proven fatal. He might have aimed at the heart, but perhaps the pistol was defective, and did not throw the ball where he intended.

Sam shot two balls which he cannot account for, but John Hill confessed that one grazed his face and the other cut his hand. There were several men in the shop when the fight began, but the fear of finding a bloody grave there, forced them out of a back window and made them jump to the ground from the roof of a lofty shed-room, which seriously injured some of them. When Sam had scared all of the Hill party away, he got out at the same window, walked on the shed a little distance, raised another window and went into a room. He found there a sick young man who appeared to be very much frightened, and started to run down,

" Stop sir ! " said Sam, " you must not go down yet - help me to load mv pistols. Then you must go down and tell Joshua Burdett, my lawyer, to come here ; but you must not let any one else know where I am."

The young man helped to load the pistols, and being very much agitated filled the barrels about half full of powder ; then went down through the little trap-door and did as directed. Sam had never been in the room before, nor did he know where he was ; but it happened to be a very safe place, llus Hill was carried into the room beneath him. Sam looked at him through the cracks of the floor and could have shot him, but the groans and wailings of the wounded man touched his heart with pity. Tom was yet lying on the pavement, weltering la his inspissated gore. The Hills, after they ran away from Sam s empty pistol, went over to Yantis's drug store and got their rifles, where they had previously deposited them. They then returned and searched for Sam. and would have put an end to Tom's suffering had they not been prevented. The citizens then interposed and carried away the wounded to the different taverns.

Tije Mill And Evans Feud

"While they were making such sad havoc with Tom, old John Hill stood near by and looked on ; but as soon as he saw Sam begin to shoot them down, he cried out :

- The squad placed in front of the door to shoot Sam, fired about thirty balls at him, but not a single one touched even his clothes - they lodged in the door facings, and in the ceiling of the shop. This is an extraordinary fact, for it can scarcely be conceived how every one of such a shower of balls could miss him. Some people believe that the balls did hit him, but that he had on a shield or breast-plate, which ' preserved him unwounded. To this I cannot answer ; but the fact of his clothes not being touched, is evidence enough that the balls would not have harmed him notwithstanding the shield. Sam thought, and said, that they were only snapping at him ; but one of the party replied to this report, "Whoever said that, told a d - n lie, for 1 shot at him six times myself."

. Burdett brought him some victuals - he eat composedly, then went down, delivered himself to the sheriff, and had his trial that same evening.

When the citizens interfered, the Hills swore out a writ against Sam and Robert Collier - swearing that they did the shooting. But when they found that Collier could prove that he was in a store on the opposite side of the square during the fight, they dismissed him and prosecuted Sam's trial. The two justices of the peace before whom he was tried, found no fault with his conduct, only that he did not do quite enough shooting, but, considering that he was a mere boy, thought it would do pretty well.

Toe Lancaster Fight

Nothing was done with the Hills ; they roamed about the country unmolested, till the next court. The grand jury then indicted eleven of the party for malicious shooting and intent to kill. A portion of them came up and gave bail for their appearance at court, and were- afterward tried and acquitted. The others were at perfect liberty, and cared nothing for either indictment or trial. One of the party could not give bail, but the officers did not trouble themselves about taking him. If he was thus freed from punishment by the delinquent officers of the just laws of his country, Providence had prepared a punishment for him. Soon after the fight, he was blowing rock out of a well : a blast caught before, he was ready and blew him high into the air ; put out his eyes, and blew hi3 hands nearly all to pieces, rendering him perfectly helpless.

The first physician called to see Tom, said there no use in dressing hi3 wounds, for he would be a corpse in a few minutes, and went about dressing the wounds of the more hopeful cases. Tom was most shockingly mutilated. He had four heavy cuts on the top of his head that cut through the covering of the brain, and several lighter ones on his forehead. He had received a very severe cut on the side of the head, cutting through his ear and taking off a piece of his cheek bone. One cut made a gash, immediately beneath his nose, larger than the aperture of his mouth ; another severed the bone of his lower jaw. Besides several lighter cuts, he received, one on his neck, which came near entirely severing the windpipe. He was indeed in a critical situation. Death seemed eager to wrap him in his cold shroud. Fate struggled against fate. The balance of human life rose and fell as if unable to decide between the weight of life and death. He was perfectly paralyzed and speechless for ten days. His spirit lingeringly hung around him, as if debating whether still to dwell in the mutilated body, or to seek an abode in brighter realms above. Four long weeks counted their weary minutes before he could be conveyed to his home. The Hills, who fell on the battle field, were confined only three or four weeks. Tom is the only one of the Evans family who received a wound during the whole war. He alone seemed to be destined to atone for ail their sins. This is extraordinary, and not to be accounted for by reason ; for others of the Evans family

Go The Hill And Evans Feud

This battle completely changed public sentiment with respect to the two parties,. Before it was, in favor of the Hills, on account of Jesse Hill's death ; but now, as the boys were attacked while under bail to keep the peace, the tide of public feeling reversed its course. And then the attack was so ably and bravely resisted by Sam, that he could not fail to receive the applause of a people so chivalrous as Kentuckians. He was greeted with acclamation and praise wherever met ; and as testimony of the high appreciation of such rare valor, public dinners were given to him in different parts of the State. The admiration of the fair daughters of old Garrard was told in more silent but expressive strains. Every one was in a fervor of excitement to see the youthful hero - he who had vanquished a tenfold foe, and gained the field with unparalleled triumph. This battle and his valorous actions were the sweetest theme of their conversation ; and to enjoy his presence was a pleasure the richest and most highly prized.

Reader, you may well imagine the feelings of a bashful and retiring boy, while these praises and commendations were float* ing on every breeze. It doubtless afforded him a heart-felt pleasure to see his deeds thus meet the approbation of his fellowmen; but he shrank with the timidity of a gutleless maiden from euch enthusiastic applause.