Tainted Breeze: The Great Hanging at Gainesville, Texas 1862

by Richard B. McCaslin

In the early morning hours of October 1, 1862, state militia arrested more than two hundred alleged Unionists from five northern Texas counties and brought them to Gainesville, the seat of Cooke County. In the ensuing days at least forty-four prisoners were hanged, and several other men were lynched in neighboring communities. This event proved to be the grisly climax of a tradition of violence and vigilantism in North Texas that began before the Civil War and lasted long afterward. For this first full-scale history of the Great Hanging, Richard B. McCaslin has consulted a vast array of manuscript collections and government archives, assembling a trove of information on a remote corner of the Confederacy. He offers an account that is both rich in detail and illuminating of the broader contexts of this dramatic event. The irony of the Great Hanging, McCaslin maintains, is that the vigilantes and their victims shared a concern for order and security. When perennial fears of slave insurrection and hostile Indian attacks in North Texas were exacerbated by the turmoil of the Civil War, those residents who saw a return to Federal rule as the way to restore stability were branded as sowers of discord by those who remained loyal to the Confederacy, the manifest symbol of order through legal authority. McCaslin follows the course of mounting tensions and violence that erupted into the massive, hysterical roundup of suspected Union sympathizers. He provides a virtual day-by-day report of the deliberations of the "Citizens Court, " a body that became in effect an instrument for mob violence, which spread far beyond Gainesville. In Tainted Breeze, McCaslin moves past the details of why individualparticipants acted as they did in the Great Hanging and examines the influence of such factors as economic conditions and family relationships. He explores not only the deep division the incident caused in the immediate community but also the reactions of northerners (who were gene

264 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1994

Reviews

[Shauna Davis]

my gr. gr. grandparents (henry and mary ann field)are mentioned in the book. I have a copy of the letter henry wrote to his wife the day before the hanging. shauna davis

[Elizabeth Crook · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even having grown up in Texas and read a lot of Texas stories, I somehow didn't learn about this horrific incident until I was an adult. This book is chilling. If you're looking for a thorough, detailed, and fully documented account of the Gainesville hangings, this book will grip you from beginning to end.

[Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

My fourth great grandfather, Arfax Dawson, was hanged as a Northern sympathizer in Gainseville, Texas. His story is told in this book.

[Don · Rating 4 out of 5]

I admire these men whom died for their beliefs. They were murdered because of their loyalty to the United States. RIP....Patriots