gainst him.

The bitterness of the feeling of the two sides subsided slowly, but
there was ever present the realization that old alinements could be
quickly and bloodily revived. Champ Ferguson, sought by the Federal
authorities, appeared suddenly upon the streets of Jamestown. That day
his old rival, "Tinker," was there. It was a personal battle the two
leaders fought, while Jamestown looked on silently, fearful of the
outcome. Beaty received three wounds, but escaped on horseback.

A short time afterward Ferguson was hanged at Nashville by order of
court martial. The charge against him was that he had entered the
hospital at Emery and Henry College and shot to death a wounded Federal
lieutenant. Ferguson claimed justification as the Federal lieutenant,
under orders to escort a war-prisoner--a Confederate officer and
personal friend of Ferguson's--to headquarters, had, instead, stood his
prisoner against a tree by a roadside and ordered a firing-squad to kill
him. And the court-martial indictment of Ferguson read--"and for other
crimes."

One of "Tinker" Beaty's men was Pres Huff, who lived in the "Valley of
the Three Forks o' the Wolf." It was generally believed that he was the
leader of the band who had ridden out of the woods and killed Jeff Pile,
as he traveled unarmed along the Byrdstown road.

Huff's father had been shot. The scene of his death was where the branch
from the York Spring crosses the public road at the Pile home. The deed
was done by a band of Confederates who had taken the elder Huff
prisoner, and neither Jeff Pile, nor his brothers, were to be connected
with it, except in the quickly prejudiced mind of the victim's son.

The desperate character of Pres Huff is evidenced by the records of the
United States Circuit Court for the Middle District of Tennessee in the
suit of the McGinnis heirs for land in Fentress county. Their bill
recites:

"Armed men who were led and controlled by one Preston Huff, who was a
brigand of the most desperate character, forced complainants' father and
themselves to leave the county to secure their lives and kept them from
the county by threats of most brutal violence. The history of these men
and the times prove clearly that these threats were not idle, nor those
who opposed them survived their vengeance."

At the foreclosure on the McGinnis property, Pres Huff rode his horse
between the court officers and those attending the sale, and pistol in
hand declared the