The Turnbo Manuscripts
by Silas Claiborne Turnbo
1844-1925
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THEY HAD SHOT THE WRONG MAN
By S. C. Turnbo
This account was given me by Capt. James H. Sallee and others and relates to the killing of a man in war times through a mistake.
"In the first place a certain man had went to where Capt. Ben Bray
was camped with his company of southern men on Lick Creek below Gainsville,
Mo. and reported to that officer. It is said that Bray informed him if the
men would all join his company he would do all in his power to protect their
property and he came back and told several parties what Capt. Bray had said.
This seemed to anger some of the citizens against the man who had went to
Bray and said that he only wanted to betray them, and two men thinking that
this same man would pass along the road up Pond Fork concealed themselves
in a paw paw thicket near the road side and only a few yards above the head
of the pond that the creek took its name from and soon after the two had
taken their position a man came along and thinking that he was the one they
wanted shot him down but on going to the road where he lay quivering in
death they were horrified to find that he was the wrong man and recognized
him as Henry Tabor son of old Uncle Henry Tabor. Knowing that some person
or persons would pass over the road before many hours elapsed and that the
dead man would be identified and to prevent as far as possible the exposure
of the crime, they picked up the bleeding corpse and carried it across the
creek bottom and across the creek to the west side where they laid it down
and covered it over with chunks of wood logs, stones and leaves in which
condition it was found several weeks afterward."
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