James Andrews, leader of the Andrews Raiders
Samuel Williams, who always seemed to be at the center of the action, was, of course, the one who captured the leader of the famed Andrews Raiders during the Civil War. He also had many harrowing experiences afterward as he sought to elude Union soldiers who wanted nothing more than to capture him in return.
Williams was a Whig and he was opposed to secession. But he "cast his lot with the Lost Cause" as he saw his sons ride away to fight for the Confederacy, Williams was now in his mid-50s, and he determined to remain at the home place as the conflict raged elsewhere.
Chattanooga was at first in Confederate hands. A group of Raiders led by James Andrews, sought to carry out a plan to steal a locomotive engine at Kennesaw and destroy railroad bridges along the route to Chattanooga. They captured The General and were on their way north, but conductor William Fuller commandeered another engine and began the chase after them.
The exciting pursuit ended near Ringgold, with the Andrews Raiders then scattering. Several, including Andrews, were captured and placed in the dreaded Swaim's Jail on Lookout Street between Fourth and Fifth streets. While here, Andrews was delivered a letter that gave the verdict of a court martial - he was to be hanged.
The Raiders then put in effect a plan to escape from Swaim's Jail. It involved cutting through a plank floor separating other of the Raiders from Andrews and lifting him up on a rope made of their clothes being tied together. They made a longer rope for the descent from the two-story brick building.
Andrews was out first, but he happened to knock off a loose brick with his foot. Guards began firing at hime, but he was able to escape, though he had to leave his boots behind. Andrews went just south of town and climbed a tree with dense foliage within sight of the railroad station. He watched throughout the day as search parties went to and fro looking for him. When night arrived, he came down from the tree and swam the river.
The next morning while on Moccasin Bend he came upon a boy in a canoe and he directed him to take him to a nearby island. After letting Andrews out on Williams Island, the boy went directly to the home of Samuel Williams and informed him about the strange man. Samuel Williams immediately thought it might be one of the escaped prisoners. That day at noon he went by a spring house on the island and saw a man with cut and bleeding feet.
Samuel Williams asked the man if he was one of the men who "broke jail yesterday." Williams then said, "Well, you are in a poor garb to get away. You stay here until I go to the house to get you some clothes." Williams then went to his house to secure some food and clothes, which he took over to James Andrews. The escaped prisoner then told Williams he had been accused of burning some railroad bridges. He was continuing his tale when two men who were staying at the Williams house walked up. Armed with rifles, they demanded that Andrews go into their custody. The two men were William Standifer, who had lived in the north part of Hamilton County for many years, and a Dr. Craig from Kentucky, who had come to the Williams place to buy mules. Standifer was a Confederate sympathizer. The three men took James Andrews to the Williams home.
Andrews must have been impressed by this Southern mansion by the river. The woodwork had been hauled from Baltimore. It was a two-story house with a portico in front and a one-story section extending straight back in the rear. The high, old-fashioned mantels above the fireplaces were all hand-wrought. One of them was painted with a picture of the bluff and orchard that was in front of the house. There was a spiral staircase as well as a hallway running the entire length of the house. Hickory nuts, sugar lumps and candies were in the heavy sideboard in the dining room, and cured meat and hams were in the smokehouse. The kitchen was away from the main portion of the house, but it was connected by a raised runway made of big logs.
The celebrated prisoner had dinner, then he took a seat on the porch facing the calm Tennessee River and described his escape. He also told the Williams family he did not make the attempt to sabotage the Confederate railroad through patriotism, but he was engaged to a girl back home and he wanted to win the money that was promised for the dangerous mission. Some members of the Williams family felt sorry for Andrews. But Samuel Williams and William Standifer took him to the Confederate authorities in Chattanooga on Wednesday, June 4, 1862. The following day soldiers in Chattanooga began building a scaffold for use in hanging the leader of the Andrews Raiders.
Then reports came that the Federal Army was heading rapidly for Chattanooga. On the day before the planned execution date, Andrews was ordered moved to Atlanta. On June 7, the leader of the Andrews Raiders was taken to a gallows a block from Peachtree Street in Atlanta and hanged.
In July 1863, the Federals suddenly appeared just across from Chattanooga. The home of Samuel Williams on the north side of the river was already in the hands of the Federals. Fearing for his life, Williams had left his home to hide out prior to the approach of the army. A group of Union soldiers had arrived on a raiding expedition and searched the Williams house thoroughly. They even went to the extent of looking up the chimneys. The soldiers took all of the freshly-ironed shirts that were hanging in the kitchen. However, they did not find the valuable family matches because one of the Williams daughters had hidden them upon her person.
Keturah Williams was so frightened by the soldiers that she ran upstairs and cried out, "You can have anything in the house if you will spare my family." One of the soldiers called back, "We are not going to hurt you. We are looking for firearms." The Federals then took charge of the Williams home, forcing them to move into one room, which had only a single window. After the Federal soldiers would eat their meals, the Williams family would go down to the kitchen in the yard to get something to eat.
One night Keturah was in her room when she unexpectedly heard a tapping on a window pane at the foot of the bed. Samuel Williams had made his way back to the farm, piled some rocks against the house so he could climb up, and reached the window. His wife instinctively let out a scream, drawing a Federal officer to her room immediately to find out what was the matter. Mrs. Williams, meanwhile, had decided it might be her husband outside the window, so she told the officer "there was some excitement in the Negro quarters." Then she directed her daughter, Allie, to play the piano as hard as she could to divert attention while Samuel Williams slipped away from the house to the river. Williams approached one of the slaves, who was drawing water. He directed the slave not to tell anyone but Mrs. Williams that he was nearby. Samuel Williams began staying under a rock on a hillside and seeing his wife occasionally at night.
The wife of Samuel Williams and Mary Divine were among the few who passed over the awful Chickamauga Battlefield in the days just after the battle. Samuel Williams was now living at McLemore's Cove near LaFayette, and they were on their way to visit him. The two women managed to find an Army ambulance in which they were allowed as passengers. At the battlefield they saw "the chaos of great shattered trees, the earth torn and scarred from the cannonading, and many bodies of soldiers yet unburied."
During a time of starvation later during the war period, Keturah Williams was successful in importuning one of the Federal officers for food. The Federal soldiers had taken 41 cured hams belonging to the Williams family, leaving them only with hardtack, honey and one cow. Mrs. Williams walked five miles to the headquarters of General John Wilder and asked for the rations on the basis that the soldiers had taken most of the family's food. General Wilder ordered a conveyance, gave Mrs. Williams back some of her meat, and prepared to send her home. First, however, he urged her to send for her husband. She told the Federal officer, "You would protect him, but what would happen when you went away."
General George Thomas especially wanted Samuel Williams captured because he knew the country so well. It was well known that Williams had guided the Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest in the vicinity of Walden's Ridge and Raccoon Mountain. Besides that, General Thomas and others in the Union Army had not forgotten that Samuel Williams was the one who had turned James Andrews over to the Confederate authorities. General Thomas vowed that Williams would hang if he were captured.
When the war was finally over, Samuel Williams at first was unable to return to what was left of his riverbottom farm. He was still in disfavor with the Federals for his role in capturing James Andrews. Members of the family had known Andrew Johnson when he was a tailor at Greeneville, Tn. This prompted Keturah Williams to go to Washington and plead with the Reconstruction president concerning the safety of her husband and the protection of their land. The Williams holdings had already shrunk from several thousand acres to a small area around the home place and Williams Island. President Johnson granted an interview to the wife of Samuel Williams immediately upon her arrival in Washington. He wrote a letter for her that stated that anyone who tried to take the Williams land would have to answer to him personally. A pardon was granted to Samuel Williams.
After the successful Washington trip, Samuel Williams was finally able to return home. The former prosperous slave owner was now almost naked. His son-in-law, John L. Divine, took him to Joseph Ruohs' store and bought him a suit of clothes. Samuel Williams continued to receive threatening letters for some time after he resettled by the Tennessee River.
One of his sons, Jim Williams, had fallen at the Battle of Perryville. He was first wounded by a shot that killed the horse he was riding. Young Williams had then leaped upon another horse that had lost its rider, and he continued in the charge. A moment later he was killed by a cannonball.
Another son, Alonzo Williams, died on a March in the Kentucky campaign.