320 Southern Historical Society Papers.
ing about it. As I wished to make an example, I gave all the pub- licity possible to the deed.
My letter to Sheridan speaks of another one of my men who was hung, shortly after the hanging at Front Royal, by a Colonel Powell. Powell says in his report, October i^th: "Having learned of the wilful and cold-blooded murder of a United States soldier by two men (Chancellor and Myers, members of Mosby's gang of cutthroats and robbers) some two miles from my camp a few days previous, I ordered the execution of one of Mosby's gang whom I had captured the day previous at Gaines Cross Roads, and placing the placard on his breast with the following inscription: 'A. C. Willis, member ol Company C, Mosby's command, hanged by the neck in retaliation for the murder of a United States soldier by Messrs. Chancellor and Myers.' I also sent a detachment, under command of Captain Howe, ist West Virginia cavalry, with orders to destroy the resi- dence, barn, and all buildings and forage on the premises of Mr. Chancellor, and to drive off all stock of every description, which orders were promptly carried out." As my men had been hung at Front Royal three weeks before and there had been no sign of re- taliation, no doubt Powell thought the work could go on with im- punity. But he never dared to hang any more.
FACTS IN THE CASE.
Now, the facts are these. A few days before this occurrence, a man dressed in citizen's dress came to the house of a farmer, Myers, in Fauquier county, and asked for work; he said he was a deserter from Sheridan's army. Myers did not belong to my command nor to any command. I never saw him. The man spent several days with Myers. Chancellor was a soldier who had come home on a short visit to his father, who was a neighbor of Myers. Chancellor was on his horse about leaving home when Myers with some citizens rode up with the professed deserter. They were sure from his ac- tions that he was a spy feigning desertion. They asked Chancellor to take him out to the Confederate lines. Chancellor agreed. It the man was a spy, it was Chancellor's right to hang him on the spot, just as General Washington hung Major Andre. If, on the contrary, he was a deserter, then Powell would have shot or hung him if he had caught him. He was not entitled to the protection of a prisoner of war; if he was a spy, he had dearly forfeited his life to one side or the other. But Chancellor was merciful, and gave the man the
