In the fall of 1865, the United States Army executed Confederate
guerrilla Champ Ferguson for his role in murdering fifty-three loyal
citizens of Kentucky and Tennessee during the Civil War. Long remembered
as the most unforgiving and inglorious warrior of the Confederacy,
Ferguson has often been dismissed by historians as a cold-blooded
killer. In Confederate Outlaw: Champ Ferguson and the Civil War in
Appalachia, biographer Brian D. McKnight demonstrates how such a simple
judgment ignores the complexity of this legendary character.
In his analysis, McKnight maintains that Ferguson fought the war on
personal terms and with an Old Testament mentality regarding the
righteousness of his cause. He believed that friends were friends and
enemies were enemies--no middle ground existed. As a result, he killed
prewar comrades as well as longtime adversaries without regret, all the
while knowing that he might one day face his own brother, who served as
a Union scout.
Ferguson's continued popularity demonstrates that his bloody legend did
not die on the gallows. Widespread rumors endured of his last-minute
escape from justice, and over time, the borderland terrorist emerged as
a folk hero for many southerners. Numerous authors resurrected and
romanticized his story for popular audiences, and even Hollywood used
Ferguson's life to create the composite role played by Clint Eastwood in
The Outlaw Josey Wales. McKnight's study deftly separates the myths
from reality and weaves a thoughtful, captivating, and accurate portrait
of the Confederacy's most celebrated guerrilla.
An impeccably researched biography, Confederate Outlaw offers an
abundance of insight into Ferguson's wartime motivations, actions, and
tactics, and also describes borderland loyalties, guerrilla operations,
and military retribution. McKnight concludes that Ferguson, and other
irregular warriors operating during the Civil War, saw the conflict as
far more of a personal battle than a political one.
