Last Minute Reprieve at Murfreesboro

At the end of chapter 3 of Hell by the Acre, I tell the story of the military executions that took place at Murfreesboro on December 26, 1862. Three soldiers and one civilian were slated for execution that day, most famously, that of Private Asa Lewis of the 6th Kentucky whose execution became a cause celebre within the Orphan Brigade. The story of the second soldier, Edward P. Norman of the 28th Alabama, was also described in the book “while the final deserter from the 24th Tennessee received a reprieve from Bragg just as he was about to be executed.”

It was not until recently that I learned the story of how this Tennessean was saved at the last possible moment by the intrepid efforts of a Confederate enrolling officer.

A total of three executions took place in Murfreesboro on December 26, 1862. The first was a civilian spy named Gray who was hung near the railroad depot. The military executions took place in an open field south of town where just a few weeks before President Jefferson Davis had reviewed the Army of Tennessee. Asa Lewis of the 6th Kentucky was executed first, then Edward P. Norman of the 28th Alabama. The last soldier, a member of Co. B, 24th Tennessee whose name is lost to history, received a reprieve at the last possible moment. 

Judge Frank H. Smith, writing in the Columbia Herald and Mail in 1904, told the story of the Duck River Riflemen which became Co. B of the 24th Tennessee Infantry. In that article, he writes the following:

“While encamped at Murfreesboro, one of the Duck River Riflemen was arraigned on a charge of desertion after the Shiloh battle. It seems that he had been given a leave of absence for several days and that time had been extended by Colonel Allison who was then in command of the regiment. Nothing was though or done about this for some months but at Murfreesboro the matter was called up and a court martial ordered to try his case,” Smith states.

“On this hasty military trial the proof could not be produced of the extension of his leave of absence and Colonel Allison was in a different command then. Greatly to the surprise of all, he was found guilty and under Bragg’s idea of strict discipline, he was sentenced to be shot the second day afterwards. As is customary in military executions, the firing detail is made from the company and regiment of the condemned man and W.M. Shires, Chris Shires, George Rummage, and Sam Daimwood of the Duck River Riflemen were of this detail to shoot their companion,” the judge continued.

Lt. Gen. Leonidas Polk

“The execution was to take place at 4 o’clock in the afternoon; the grave had been dug, the troops of the brigade and division were all in position on the conventional three sides of a hollow square. The wagon had been driven up with the man seated on his coffin; the firing squad had taken position 10 paces in front of the doomed victim who had been blindfolded and placed at the grave. Then an officer dashed up, his horse in a foam of sweat, with a reprieve from General [Leonidas] Polk,” Smith related.

“Mat Reynolds had heard of this strange trial and sentence at his home in Maury County the night before. He had been the enrolling officer with the regiment in Mississippi at the time the leave of absence had been extended and knowing this man’s innocence of the charge of desertion, he had ridden all night and well into the day, nearly killing his horse in the effort to reach Murfreesboro. He had barely time to make his statement to General Polk and for the general to send a staff officer with the reprieve. The sentence of the court martial was reversed and an honorable discharge granted, and today he is living near Kedron in Maury County, a highly respected man in the community. He says he knows exactly how a dead man feels for he considered himself a dead man.”

          And other than knowing the name of the soldier in question, we know the “rest of the story.”


To learn more about the Battle of Stones River, be sure to purchase a copy of my campaign study Hell by the Acre, recently awarded the Richard B. Harwell Award from the Atlanta Civil War Roundtable as best Civil War book of 2024. Available now through Savas Beatie. 


Sources:

Masters, Daniel A. Hell by the Acre: A Narrative History of the Stones River Campaign, November 1862-January 1863. El Dorado Hills: Savas Beatie, 2024, pg. 94

“The Duck River Riflemen,” Judge Frank H. Smith, Columbia Herald & Mail (Tennessee), April 15, 1904, pg. 1

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